"Have you got his toys?" Geordie asks Henri as they pack everything up that they'll need for today.
"They're in the bag."
"Where are my keys?!"
"Please, please hurry up the appointment's in twenty minutes!" Henri cries, looking at his watch in agitation.
"I know when the appointment is! Oh here they are!"
"Oh merde! That's all we need! You have to get rid of them!" Henri says, looking through the front window, just before the doorbell rings multiple times. He doesn't need to tell Geordie who it is.
"I will. Move, move!" Geordie juggles Gus to get to the front door between all the bags they have.
"I swear I had no idea where he was bringing me..." Maddie rapidly apologises on the doorstep as Michael walks in, heading towards the living room with no invitation.
"We have to leave!"
"He said you had an accident!" Maddie says, looking Geordie up and down in concern.
"An accident?!"
"It was the only way I could get you here!" Michael says, watching them all crowding in the hallway to look at him.
"May we save this for another time? We're late!" Henri calls, still holding onto the bags.
"Are you going somewhere?" Michael asks.
Both Henri and Geordie nod, "To get our marriage licence..."
"Well this will just take a minute," Michael says, thanking the universe that he got Maddie here just in time.
"Non! Non! We really must..."
"Sit down and shut up!" Michael tells Henri firmly.
"Alright..." Geordie concedes, knowing that whatever Michael has to say, he has to say.
"Excuse me?!" Henri squeaks.
"Okay, I don't want to hear any more shit about 'this is my fault', 'no this is my fault', 'no I'm to blame', 'no I'm to blame', 'I'm sorry', No, I'm sorry'..." Michael warns the two women sitting in front of him.
"But it really is my fault!" Maddie tells Geordie, putting her hands up as Michael rolls his eyes and sighs. He's really had enough of this crap for a lifetime.
"No Mads, all along it was my fault!"
Michael looks at them both disbelievingly, what did he just tell them NOT to do?! "I SAID SHUT UP!" he bellows at both of them. "This is the only thing that matters..." he tells them quietly, throwing down a rolled up document on the coffee table in front of Maddie.
"What's that?"
Michael bites his lip, "It's my parental rights. I've signed them over to you."
Geordie looks up at Michael, her mouth dropping open, as Maddie unrolls the document to read it. "Oh my god Michael..." she says, her eyes flickering back and forth over the wording.
"Are you sure?" Geordie asks.
"Would I be doing this if I wasn't?"
"But why?"
"Well, my son deserves two parents who'll be there for him and love him," Michael admits. "And who love each other," he says, pointedly looking at each of them in turn.
Geordie smiles, burying her face in Gus's shoulder and breathing in his baby smell.
"So, the only way this deal works is if the two of you get back together..."
Maddie puts the paper down, looking up at Michael dis-trustingly, "What is this? Some kind of a bribe?"
"You could look at it that way...or you could think of it as a very generous gift," Michael swallows hard, he never thought it would be this hard to give away his rights to Gus. "But...if you don't want it..."
Maddie hangs her head, a thousand thoughts going through it. "Do you still love me?" Geordie asks her quietly.
"I never stopped," Maddie tells her, looking her in the eye, seeing Geordie almost in tears. "What do you think?" She asks, smiling almost shyly.
"Yeah..." Geordie breathes, smiling at Maddie with shining eyes.
"Okay lightening round's over, do I hear an answer?" Michael asks.
"Yes!" Maddie giggles in between kissing Geordie.
"Oh my god you dykes need to toughen up!" Michael tells them smiling, as he plucks Gus out of the middle of them before they squash him.
"And what about me?"
Geordie breaks off from kissing Maddie with a gasp, putting her hand to her mouth, "Oh Henri! I'm sorry!"
Without another word and with no backwards glance at Geordie, Henri puts the bags down and walks past Michael and Gus silently, his jaw tight.
"Say au revoir Gus!" Michael calls, holding his baby son's chubby arm in his hand and waving his hand at Henri's retreating back.
YOU ARE READING
Queer as Muke
Fanfic"The thing you need to know is, it's all about sex. It's true. In fact they say men think about sex every twenty-eight seconds. Of course that's straight men. With gay men it's every nine." Twenty nine year old advertising executive Michael Cliffor...
