Andre watched as the man across the room, paced a new hole into the tiles under his pristine dress shoes and mumbled what seemed like nonsense under his breath, none of which he could really hear. To him, it looked as though his newfound 'father' was fighting an internal battle of sorts.
He would stop mumbling for a moment, then turn, cock his head as if contemplating something, then he would go back to his incessant pacing and shake his head as if dismissing whatever thoughts he was having.
He said not a word to the man since he'd woken that morning to find him already there, awaiting his attention. Because, really, what would he say anyway? He'd already made quite clear, he wanted nothing to do with him but did the guy give up? Ugh!
This was simply torture.
"Did your mother never do anything on your behalf?" came the sudden question as Nathaniel turned to face him. "To...to spare you all of that? Or, did she just stand there while you were defenseless against him and his tirades? Did she do nothing and let you suffer alone for something that couldn't be helped?!"
Angered anew and not awaiting a reply, Brookoff whirled on his heels and drove his clenched fist into the nearest wall without thinking, a string of ungodly curses falling from his gasping lips when he realized he'd just punched solid brick.
What the fuck.
"God, that hurt!" he wailed loudly as he nursed his abused hand and turned in a circle, damming the hard ass wall to the furthest reaches of hell. "That looks so much sexier in the movies dammit! What is wrong with those people?"
Throwing himself into the nearest chair, he leaned forward and stared a hole into the floor as he fought for some semblance of calm while willing the excruciating pain in his hand, away. No easy feat, because now, it seemed to hurt more as it started bleeding.
"She died when I was thirteen." Andre said in a dead tone. "So I at least had thirteen good years before it all went to shit." He sighed and rested his head against the wall behind him. "I'm over it though so let it go."
Nathaniel wiped his knuckle on his pants, relishing the small sting. "To think that all this time, I could have had you under my wing, nurturing you and raising you as my heir and I have to hear from you that you were never really happy. She never told me, son. I could have been there for you and she...Never. Told. Me!"
Well, boo hoo.
"Why should you care about how I've lived my life up until now?" Andre huffed, crossing his arms over his chest, his gaze direct, spearing the older man as he stared right back. "You had your precious son to raise. You had a grandson as well. I should say that you nurtured and raised enough already. What am I, but excess?"
He would not cry. He would not cry. He wouldn't!
"I was only sixteen years old when Clarissa gave birth to Daniel. I was a kid. What the hell did I know about fatherhood?" Nathaniel asked, not really expecting a reply. "I mean, I wasn't even really that involved with Daniel until after I earned my bachelor's degree. By then the boy was already like ten or so. I didn't know how to bond with him but I tried my best."
There was nothing Andre wanted more in that moment than for Rafe to walk back into the room and dismiss Brookoff. Why he left him all alone in the room with this stranger, saying it was best, was beyond him and the last thing he thought was best.
"My best wasn't good enough, of course." Nathaniel said sadly. "I barely saw him due to being so busy at the start of my career. Its just... you know, it was very demanding and I was trying so hard not to disappoint my own father. I chose my career over my own son and then I found out he'd gotten some poor girl knocked up."
The older man's eyes rose to seek Andre's but he was still staring up at the ceiling. "He was only fifteen. A year younger than I was when I had been just as stupid."
"Your family is fucked up, dude." Andre said straightening and giving him a pointed stare. "You're not pleading your case as good as you think you are."
"Yes, you're quite correct." Nathaniel said lowly, averting his eyes in shame. "But I'm being truthful if that helps at all."
The man was really starting to get under his skin. Not in a bad way but more in a way that made him feel confused, vulnerable. He was making him feel like he needed to apologize to the man for some reason and he hadn't even done anything to him.
Hardening his mind as well as his heart and gaze, he glared the man down. "As I said before," he lowered his voice to a quiet growl. "It's not important to me whether or not you're in my life. I can certainly do without you. I am no longer a child who needs his daddy. Your position as such is null and void. Get over yourself."
Brookoff nearly gasped at the cold indifference emanating from the young man on the bed. He was so abrupt and was clearly dismissing him in more ways than one but he knew that if he gave up now, it would cement the fact that he didn't really care into Andre's mind, ruining his chances of creating even a smidgeon of trust.
But he did care and that's what he intended to bring across no matter how much his son fought it. Stubborn little shit.
"You don't even really know me and you're already pushing me away?" he asked incredulously, his hands thrown up as if in defeat. "I am trying here, Andre. Why can't you just give me a chance? I know you are way past the stage of needing a father figure in your life. I know that. I get that. But you're not past the stage where you could use at least one more person in your life besides Rafe who gives a damn about you."
He couldn't be too sure, but as the Patriarch looked on and spoke with conviction, he could swear to see the decidedly pronounced slump of his son's shoulders and the glistening of his eyes before he looked away and his eyes fell to his lap where he had folded his hands together.
Was he getting through to him, making progress?
"Give me a chance to be your father, son." he whispered, rising to his feet to approach the bed and place his uninjured hand over Andre's folded ones. "I won't ever let you down like I let Daniel and Bradley down and I would never treat you as though you weren't important to me because you are. I missed so much and I think that is unfair. For both of us. I want to know all about you and I want you to know all about me. Please...just..."
He was breaking. He could feel something chipping away inside of him, violating and breaking down his carefully erected, protective wall. This he could not take. Everything was happening much too fast for his liking. He needed some space. He couldn't think with him being so close, speaking with such a look of sorrow in his eyes.
He'd had no choice but to look away. It was just too much.
Panic was swelling within him the more he felt the heat of the man's hand over his own. Abruptly, he slid his hands out from under the soft hold and tucked them under his thighs. "I-I need some time to think." he stuttered out the whisper. "A...a little time to myself and I..."
Just then the door flew open on its hinges and a sobbing Wanda came running through, making her way to the bed, startling Andre and giving him no warning before she threw herself over the bed and nearly flattened him right into the mattress as she proceeded to suffocate him in a near death grip with her giant badungas pressed to his face.
What the fuck!
"My poor baby!" she wailed into his shoulder. "I heard all about what done happened to you, you poor boy. That dag on pervert done defiled my baby's fragile body. Oh lord jesus, stay my hand so that I may resist the temptation of wringing that bitch's neck like a mop and chopping off his filthy cock. Stay my hand my mighty Jesus!"
Did she just-?
The hold around his neck suddenly eased as a strangled gasp fell from Wanda's lips and she released him so fast, he nearly toppled sideways off the bed before straightening and staring incredulously at her, wondering if he was slowly going deaf. "W-Wanda...did you just...swear?"
Her eyes were blown wide open as they looked from him to Brookoff and back again as though crazed. "N-no. I...I didn't say that. I would never...! I-It wasn't me. Stop looking at me like that! It was the devil. He made me do it!" she squeaked, pressing a hand to her mouth to stay another damning word as she backed away toward the door, shaking her head in denial.
This is the first time Andre had ever heard her swear, much less with such vehemence behind it. And the way she was pressing her hand to her mouth and shaking her head, she was just as surprised as he and Nathaniel were.
The older man's jaw was nearly swinging at shoulder level as he stared at her agog, his hands fisted at his sides on his waist in what looked like outraged indignation.
"Why Wanda!" he exclaimed, his eyes wide, a decided twinkle lurking just beyond the brown gaze. "My goodness, woman. Twice in one week? This must be an all time record for you, eh? For shame, Wanda! Jesus is crying his poor mighty ass off right now over you."
Even through her panic, she managed a glare in his direction before making the sign of the cross three times and muttering a quick prayer. All the while, Andre stared at her warily wondering just what had gotten into the already crazy woman and why it seemed, if only for a moment, that Brookoff was inconspicuously flirting with his nurse.
"I'm alright, Wanda." he said reassuringly when she finished chanting and glaring at Nathaniel. "There is some pain but nothing I can't get over and-."
At the mention of pain, the busty woman started up another round of god awful wailing fit to explode a healthy pair of ear drums and launched herself right back on top of him, nearly cutting off his air supply when she, once again, pressed her ample bosom to his face.
Good god!
"Uh...Wanda?" Brookoff said quietly with a light tap to her shaking shoulder. "I...uh...I think you're suffocating him there, princess."
Eh?
Dying of breast inhalation or not, Andre did not miss that endearment at all and with a hard shove, he pushed the woman back and off him, dragging in much needed lungfuls of air before gaping at the older man in utter disbelief.
Princess? What the hell...? So he was flirting before!
Holy cow. His father had the hots for Wanda? This is just...weird. He thought. And he wasn't the only one gaping at the man. Wanda was practically solipsistic as she too gaped, her mouth opening and closing on words even she couldn't formulate as her hands rose slowly to cup her fire engine red, cheeks.
"W-what...what did you...?" she sputtered, confusion marring her face as she backed away from him when he made to move towards her, his lips pulling up in a slight smirk she didn't much like. "Why would you c-call me...?"
Ignoring the skittish way she kept evading him and moving backwards, Nathaniel followed her every step, his eyes pinning hers till she was trapped between him and the wall at her back and had no where to run.
His smile growing wider, he stayed her in place by planting his hands on the wall on either side of her, earning himself a glare for blocking her only escape route. Ah, if only looks could kill, honey. he thought to himself with a mental laugh.
"Wanda." he began in a low soft voice, looking deep into her eyes. "I think you are just about the most annoying, most loud, most expressive, most ghetto and most dramatically religious woman I have ever had the pleasure to meet in my entire life."
What?
How in tarnation was it a pleasure if he was naming all of the things he considered her dag on faults? Why that little...low down dirty piece of...of. Oh hell no! He bout to get slapped with the hand of my jesus. She inwardly fumed, getting ready to raise her hand and let it go like that ice queen from that confusing movie where no one knew the real star was actually the little sister.
Wait. She was getting sidetracked again. He was confusing her somehow and...and...Gah! When did he get so close?
Brookoff was suddenly closer as he bent his arms to eliminate the space between them and his breath fanned her face, nearly causing her to faint right where she stood. She was so flustered, she didn't even know what to do or how to react to how he was acting.
He was making her heart do about a million somersaults for goodness sake and as she saw it, she didn't think that was healthy at all for a thirty nine year old woman! Something about conniptions, strokes, hot flashes and all that other dag on hoopla old people be tallkin' bout.
She was so brain dead with the panic attack she felt creeping up on her that Wanda hauled off and did the only thing she could think of to do in her current situation. She reared her arm back as far as she could and brought it and her hand forth with such force that when her five fingers connected with Nathaniel's face, his head actually whipped to the side before he toppled sideways and fell.
"Holy shit!" she screamed, jumping over his prone form and grabbing the door handle for dear life. "If anyone asks, you tell them the devil is real." She pointed down at the felled man then up at Andre in warning, her eyes wide as hell. "Real!" she screamed again. "You hear me?"
She looked like a true psycho in that moment. So much so that all Andre could do was shake and nod his head like a defective bobble head and wave his hands in front of his body as if to ward off her impending attack.
The woman was crazy!
And like a true gangsta, right before his bulging eyes, Wanda crouched down next to his father and swiped her hand back and forth in front of her face like that wrestler from tv and shouted in his face. "You can't see me!" before opening the door and rushing out.
Did...did she just...?
"What the fuck was that?!" Andre exclaimed, staring through the opened door at Wanda's retreating figure, wondering if the devil was, in fact, very, very real. Because if he was, he had just taken control of the poor woman's body and mind for sure.
"God, she's just so fucking hot!" came the shout from the floor as Brookoff nursed his flaming cheek and rolled agilely to his side before gaining his feet in one fell swoop. "Whooo...What a rush! Did you see the way those green eyes spit poison at me? She sooo likes me." his face broke into a shit eating grin as he winked at his son, his overly white teeth, twinkling.
"Dude, she just knocked you the fuck out." Andre deadpanned. "Where I'm from, that means 'back the hell off or your balls come next'."
"Nonsense." came the reply as Nathaniel slumped into the chair, still clutching his hot cheek. "I've got her right where I want her. She'll be eating out of my hand in no time." he winked at him again. "I mean, how can she resist?"
Pfft! Cocky much?
"If by that, you mean how can she resist smacking the crap out of you again, I second that." With a sigh, Andre got off the bed and stretched his muscles, so tired of being confined to his bed.
"Well, isn't that a sexy sight for sore eyes." came the husky murmur from the open doorway before Rafe came forth and enfolded Andre into his warm embrace with a chaste kiss. "A man could sure get used to this."
Blushing like mad, the smaller man batted his hands away when he tried to fondle his ass in front of his father. "Rafe!" he hissed lowly more from embarrassment than from the slight pain the squeeze brought on. "You can't just do that in front of...of people."
Rafe swerved on his heels and finally noticed Nathaniel slouched forward in the chair behind him, looking for all the world, very uncomfortable and very red in the face. "Uh... Brookoff? What, uh, what happened to your cheek there, old man? You okay? You look like you got slapped with a wide paddle."
"More like a wide hand." Andre snickered, burying his face in Rafe's chest to quell his giggles.
Brookoff glared indignantly at him before rising to his feet in a huff. "That slap was a slap of passion and you know it." he said angrily, stomping out the door and through the hall. "She can't resist me forever!" he yelled to all and sundry, startling a passing nurse before pushing the staff bathroom door open at the end of the hall and storming in.
Rafe raised a questioning brow at Andre as he closed the door, to which the younger man just shrugged. "Don't look at me." he said innocently. "I don't know that man. People botch DNA tests all the time and he looks old enough to already have old people dementia."
Rafe couldnt help but guffaw loudly because Andre looked like he really believed what he was saying. God, he was just so damn adorable...
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