Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 19:39:00 -0800
From: Matt Paine <admiralmmp@hotmail.com>
Subject: brian-and-dan/chapter 5/5

	Pick UP
	More or less, threw out the weekend was a rocky one. From the time
that Dan's mom and dad had decided to toss him out of the house, and out of
their lives, it was a depression. Dan wouldn't eat, and rarely would get a
good night sleep. He would always wake up screaming.  Brian did all he
could to calm him down. Holding him in his arms was the best thing he could
do. But that was about all he could do.
	They had school again on Monday. Their break was over and they
would have to go to school. It still had to be arranged with the school for
Barbara to become the guardian of Dan. And that still constituted his
parents coming in to sign the forms. And they still had to get the stuff
from his house from his parents. They weren't sure how they were going to
do it. But they had to do it.
	Barbara had attempted to try to call his parents several times to
get the things of Dan's from them, but they always hung up on her. She felt
that they blamed her for what had happened. Of course it wasn't her fault
at all. She had just accepted something that they couldn't accept. She
would have liked to talk to Dan about what his parents had talked to him
about, but she felt that it wasn't time for him to talk yet. Or more or
less her son wouldn't allow it.
	She couldn't understand why in the world a parent wouldn't allow
their son/daughter to be the way they wanted to be? Even if it wasn't
something that was thought to be right. But still it was there life, and
not theirs. She had talked to her husband about it, and he felt that they
Dan, Brian, and him would go to his house and pick up their stuff. That was
the only way to do it.


	Sunday came quicker then Dan would have wanted it to come. He
wasn't ready to face something he wished would never have happened. But it
did. The drive to his old home, were all his memories were at, was slow and
seemed to feel like a knife being slowly pushed into his chest. A tear
dripped from his eye. He hoped that no one saw, but Brian did.
	"Come here you big lug!" he reached over as he said this and pulled
him to him. "It will be ok. Don't worry. My dad will handle everything. And
you won't have to see them. At all. We just want to make sure you get
everything, before we leave is the only reason you had to come with us."
	"I know. But I am soo scared. What if they say I can't get my
stuff?"
	"Then I will serve them with a court order that says they have to!"
Brian's dad Rob broke in. He was a lawyer, so he knew the law well.
	"I don't want to cause trouble Mr..." Dan started to say.
	"Call me Rob. Every one else does." He smiled to break the sad
mood.
	"Ok. Rob. But I don't want to cause any problems. I will figure out
a way to replace everything that I had from school."
	"No. We get them from your house. If not, then your parents will
pay for them. Not you. They have them. Not you." Brian just held him closer
to him. Felt the heart beat from Brian against his own chest. It was
running fast. "And don't go pass out on us again!" He said jokingly.
	"I won't. I promise." He smiled for the first time since Friday
night.

	The pulled to a halt on the curb of the house that Dan used to live
in. Were he had grown up, and were he hoped he would grow old in. He was
destined to own the house. But now, it wouldn't be his.
	"Ok you two. Wait here. I will be back with your stuff." He got out
and walked to the door. The door had a motion sensor light on it. So it
came on before he came to the door. As he approached the door opened. A man
stepped out.  "Can I help you sir.... What do you want?" His face went dull
when he saw who it was.
	"Yes. I have come to pick up Dan's schoolbooks, and his clothes. If
you want to keep his clothes...understood, and I will get him new ones. But
I need his school clothes."
	"Very well. Stay here. I get his books and clothes. We figured that
is why you kept calling us. We have it all packed for the little fag."
	"He isn't a fag. He is a human boy."
	"Yea what ever. Hold on." He disappeared and came back out. "Here
is his stuff!" followed by a slam in his face.
	"Must have everything in here," he thought testing the bags weight,
"feels just like Brian's." He started to laugh at himself on that one. He
never realized how much weights his son carried everyday. He walked back to
the car with the bag on his back, and the box of clothed in his
hands. Brian jumped out to open the trunk for his father. He was glad to
see his father come back without getting into a fight. He knew his dad
wouldn't have started one, but wasn't sure about Dan's.
	"Go well?" Brian asked his dad as he opened the trunk.
	"Yes well actually. No words of violentness came from his mouth."
He knew this was a lie, but he couldn't stand to tell him what Dan's father
had said about Dan. "Went just fine."