Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2002 18:47:23 +0100 (BST)
From: Jezebel <eh_oh_po@yahoo.com>
Subject: Set Adrift Chapter 5

Title: Set Adrift
Author: Jezebel the Temptress
Feedback: eh_oh_po@yahoo.com

Disclaimers: This story is fiction and it is not intended to imply anything
about the true sexuality of the celebrities mentioned (BSB, Nsync etc...)
or any personal knowledge about their private lives.  If you are underage
for your area or if it is illegal for you to look at this why not go
somewhere else, if you don't like the thought of two men together in a
loving, sexual way this isn't for you either.

---------------------

Part 5

Sully walked the streets, he wasn't really aware of the time or where he
was but that was the beauty of a city like New York, you had anonymity
there and he could just wander to his hearts content and no one would
bother him.  Sometimes he missed Orlando, with the streets of tourists that
invaded so much that the locals always rallied around for each other.  They
were so fed up of putting on fake smiles for the tourists that it helped to
have a real one for his friends.  In New York you were treated as a
stranger, at least that was the way things were for him, although when he
was with his close friends they were people that cared.

It was a while since he had heard about Alex, the diner had emptied that
day after brunch and he had stayed sipping his tepid coffee, refusing a
refill and just taking in what had happened.  Tony had smiled at him
soothingly and had offered him something to settle his stomach, obviously
having heard him lose the little he had eaten but he had refused and
instead returned to his apartment, wishing for a moment that he were not
alone there and wanting more than anything else to have a strong set of
arms to just hold him.

Now he was walking, because when he was walking he didn't have to worry
about the fact that he was alone, he didn't have to answer endless
questions about how he was doing or if he needed anything and he didn't
have to worry about people bothering him.

As he turned the next corner, leading into a side street that he did not
really remember having gone down before he looked down, not really seeing
where he was going and walked head on into someone.

"Oh, I'm sorry." The guy said, Sully looked up and saw the shining face of
a man a few years younger than him with a warm smile.  "I really ought to
look where I'm going."

"No, it's my fault." Sully said.  "I'm such a klutz.  I should have been
watching my two left feet, they like to think that they have a mind of
their own..." He trailed off, realising that this was probably one of those
strangers and that he should not keep them any longer than possible, that
was what this anonymity thing was about after all and he was sure that he
was not the only one that had come to the city to hide from people.

"Actually, I usually find watching the path not my feet helps." The guy
said, but his smile belied the insult.  "I'm Steve."  He said, holding out
his hand.

"Alexander." He said, then paused, it hurt too much to shorten it either to
'Alex' or 'Xander'' both had connotations that he did not want to think
about.  "But my friends call me Sully.  Short for Sullivan."

"Well, Sully, how about we take our four left feet off and get a cup of
coffee." Steve said.  Sully looked at him for a moment and Steve looked
slightly abashed.  "I don't normally do this sort of thing you just look
like you could use a friend and I am a good listener; plus I want a coffee
and you look like you could afford one."

Sully laughed and nodded in the direction of a small diner that he had
passed a few moments before.

"I think that I could stretch to a small coffee." He said with a slight
smile.  "But I'm not sure how good company I will be."

"Fine.  You get to buy the coffee and I'll bend your ear." Steve said with
a smile.  "Either way I get a free drink and you get something better to do
with your time than run into poor defenseless guys on the street."  The
smile on Steve's face belied his comments and took off the otherwise
critical edge.

Sully laughed again, it felt good to just relax and make small talk.  Maybe
he had been wrong about the city, or maybe Steve was one of the few kind
ones, either way he had something to do and for a brief period of time he
didn't have to worry about being alone.

-------------------

Nick stared at the papers in front of him, puzzled and slightly confused as
to where exactly Sully was hiding.  The private eye that he had hired, a
good guy judging by his references, could find very little record of
Alexander Sullivan since 1996.  The guy had drawn some money out while he
was staying with them on tour but he had not touched the thousand dollars
in his checking account since.  Neither had he renewed his now expired
passport; it had been out of date a few weeks after the June 15th visit
that had been the last real sighting of him.  So the only thing they knew
for sure was that he was most likey still in the States.  As far as his PI
knew no one had flown on that passport number for a while and no flights
were booked under his name and as far as a paper trail there was nothing to
signify that he had even existed for the last five years.

Wherever he was he was very well hidden.

Two weeks after the initial search had begun Nick got a call, it was a
small lead but it was all they had.  Desperation and blind hope coupled
with the guilt he felt over the entire affair made Nick want to follow it
up, and as he sat on the plane waiting for confirmation of take off he
thought back over the conversation with his private investigator to
remember all the details that he had been given.

"Mr. Carter.  It's John Jennings, the investigator.  I think that I may
have found our man."

Nick had perked up at that information, he sat back in his chair and had
asked for the information, asked for all the details he could find.

"Well, Alexander Sullivan was in the New York area in 1997, apparently he
was working for a small diner there as a bus boy.  He cashed two or three
paychecks using his own social security number before he disappeared from
sight once again."

"So, that was four years ago.  What do you have that tells you he's still
there?" Nick had asked, he knew enough from the television and from other
searches that the record company had done on their potential dates not to
take everything at face value.  There was also the fact that he could have
moved away in four years, especially if he was on the run as Nick
suspected.

"Well, I went out there to follow up the lead and they got really uptight
about me snooping around.  The guy in the diner said that he doesn't even
know an Alexander Sullivan, let alone remember having one work for him even
though he also told me that he had worked there for ten years.  So I check
at the local library, reports in the papers, obituaries, that sort of
thing..."  He said, continuing the story.  Nick was alert and had gasped at
the last reference.

"Obituaries?!?  You think that he might be dead?" Nick was shocked, that
was the last thing that AJ needed to hear while he was in recovery and Nick
would never forgive himself if he thought that he had driven Sully to his
death.

"No." The investigator chided, he had patience learned during his army days
though and waited until Nick had calmed down to continue.  "It was just the
kind of routine checks that I would normally carry out when looking for
someone.  Sometime you get lucky.  Anyway I was reading the obits and there
is a death notice for some guy name Andrew Fitzpatrick.  Anyway, the
interesting thing is that he ran a club on the other side of town and one
of the people quoted in the article was talking about how sadly he and his
partner Sully would be missed within the community.  It was a long shot but
I wasn't sure how popular the name was, so I checked it out and there is a
memorium from a Xander Sullivan, lover and friend."

"You think it's him?" Nick asked.  This was the crunch point, Sullivan
wasn't that popular a name but it was likely that there was more than one
Alexander Sullivan in the entire country.

"There was a picture of him and his lover, it was a little grainy but it
looks the same." The man had said.  "Anyway, this guy died less than six
months ago, so if nothing else he was here till then.  My guess is that he
might even still be here or that he will have left a forwarding address
with one of the people he would have known.  By the sounds of things at
this end there are still a lot of people that would be interested in where
he was going to be."

"Have you asked around?" Nick asked tiredly, wondering how much of this he
had to deal with himself.  This investigator had come highly recommended
but he was beginning to wonder if the man knew about his job, sure he had
come up with the goods but he wasn't using them.

"That's where it gets fishy, again, no one has heard of him.  When I showed
them the picture they said that he seemed familiar but that he could be
anyone.  Not exactly what you would expect from a 'well- liked couple.'" He
said, obviously quoting the obituary.  "It's almost as if they are covering
for him or something." The man postulated.

"Should I come out there?" Nick asked, really he was planning to go anyway
and ask for himself about this man Xander Sullivan and his lover Andrew
Fitzpatrick.  He knew that he ought to at least make an attempt off his own
back to find Sully since it was his fault the man had left in the first
place.

"I think that would be best.  There is little more that I can do here and
it might be better if you confront him directly." The man said, not that he
knew why Nick was looking for him.  He had said all he needed to know was
that the bill would be paid and that suited Nick fine.

So here he was, in mid-July on a plane to New York, it wasn't the best time
to travel, especially not when he could only get coach but he had to make
up for his mistake and this was the only way to do it.  How else was he
going to get the two back together?

-----------------------
To Be Continued

Just a short update this time, I'm not even sure if anyone is still reading
this but let me know if you are.

Hopefully there will be more soon...

Jez