Special thank-you to Dee for beta’ing once again and to Myst
for the loan of her character, Eric.
From the moment Chandi walked into the house, Eric instinctively knew they were in for a tumultuous weekend. Not the most promising start to their long awaited vacation. But with all that had been going on lately, it wasn’t unexpected. His man had been putting in a lot of overtime and had even gone without his usual days off.
He silently watched Chandi remove his holster and badge, empty his gun and lock all ammunition in a drawer. And then as he pulled out two of the bricks at one side of the fireplace mantle that took up almost the whole wall at one end of the living room. It was here that Chandi kept his holster, gun and badge safety tucked away in this secret spot. When all was secure, he carefully returned the bricks to their proper place.
From his body language, it wasn’t hard to tell that Chandi had reached the limit of his endurance and Eric smiled when his lover turned and walked into arms held in readiness to embrace him.
“It’s been a hellish two weeks, Eric. I can’t remember the last time I felt this wrung out.” Chandi leaned heavily against the slightly bigger man, confident in his partner’s ability to hold him up.
“I know, sweetheart,” Eric sympathetically murmured. “Let’s head upstairs so you can have a hot bath and get ready for bed.”
“This is pathetic; it’s not even seven o’clock, but I just don’t have the energy to argue. Besides, right now bed sounds so good.” Chandi partially closed his eyes and blindly moved in whatever direction Eric steered him. These times of complete exhaustion happen few and far between but when they did, a certain police chief unresistingly put himself into the care and keeping of his loving Top.
Eric got clean sleepwear out of the dresser and carried the clothing into their en suite where he started filling the tub. Coming back into the master bedroom, he patiently waited while Chandi tiredly removed his uniform and let it fall to the floor as if shedding a burdensome mantle of responsibility.
Chandi loved his career and excelled at it. However, there were occasions when events took place at such a pace as to leave him feeling somewhat besieged until things returned to normal. The vacation time he had booked off couldn’t have come at a better time.
He sighed contentedly as he sunk into the warm water and relaxed against the sloping back of the big tub. He deeply breathed in the aroma of the muscle soothing eucalyptus bath salts Eric had added. Chandi glanced over at Eric who was sitting on the closed toilet seat, and sent him a lazy grin.
“You always seem to know exactly what I need when I need it most, love. Thank you.”
“Well, you’ve put in a couple of difficult weeks. You know, just because we’re going on holiday doesn’t mean you have to kill yourself before hand,” Eric teased, returning the grin.
“Yeah right,” Chandi scoffed, “like I had a choice. Between the record high temperatures and a greater number of tourists this summer, we hardly had time for pee breaks. Coffee and donuts were completely out of the question.” Chandi’s chuckle came out sounding more like a strangled cough before he turned serious again.
“First there was that abandoned child to worry about. Then the elderly couple who went missing, only to be found dead after an extensive week-long search involving police from several communities and the RCMP.” Chandi sadly dropped his chin on his chest as he relived having to report the distressing news to the family. “My whole staff worked tirelessly until they were located. It was all so disheartening but they never once complained. I am very proud of them.”
Chandi leaned forward at Eric’s gently prodding to give the man access to his back. He moaned his satisfaction when large strong hands began kneading the kinks out of his neck and shoulders.
“That was definitely a sad case, sweetheart. Fortunately, those types of cases don’t happen too often. And the situation involving the little boy ended rather well, with the exception of his parents going to jail that is.”
“Yeah, it did,” Chandi concurred. “But just when we got to thinking everything was back on track, we get called out to the Arsenault home. Bernard was drunk again and beating on his wife. By the hell, he isn’t getting away with it this time because she won’t have the chance to deny what has been happening. I sped to the scene as soon as the call came in and deliberately left the siren off. I arrived in time to catch him in the act, so I was the one to press charges and will stand as a witness against him in six weeks time at his trial. I’ve subpoenaed hospital records and x-rays to support my belief that for years now, he’s waged a reign of abuse on his family.”
Picking up a wet facecloth, Chandi began roughly rubbing soap onto it. “He told me he was drunk and couldn’t stop himself. I told him that wasn’t true; he deliberately drank to excuse his actions. Anyway, he’s in jail now as we speak and the bail has been set too high for him to make it. No one will lend him the money or guarantee him repaying it to the bondsman. So the miserable bugger is shit out of luck and it serves him right.”
The more Chandi thought about it, the more upset he became. “God, Eric, it was sickening to see what he had done to Muriel. And to think that she’s always denied him doing it in the past. Did she really believe no one would notice or that the neighbours would just accept her excuse of being accident prone each time she ventured outside with bruises on her face?” It was a rhetorical question and Eric didn’t respond except to take the soapy cloth from his partner.
Chandi angrily smack his hand down on the water causing it to splash into their faces as he continued to rant. “And to think that if folks knew about our lifestyle, many of them would accuse you of being an abuser.”
“We both know you’d never put up with that. You’d send me packing in a heartbeat if I ever mistreated you. Remember, you did it once before with someone else, right?”
“Yes, you and I know but others don’t understand or don’t want to….who knows which. It just kind of pisses me off when people try to come off holier than thou. Take Arsenault for instance; as soon as he sobered up a bit, he started mouthing-off. He had the nerve to complain that he wasn’t the only one to rule his home with an iron fist and the prisons would be full of righteous men like him if they were all arrested. Of all the mitigated gall…….”
His tirade was brought to an end when Eric clamped a hand over his Brat’s mouth. “Calm down, Chandi. Leave it at the station. I will not allow you to work yourself into a frenzy over something neither of us can do anything about.” He removed his hand and gently started washing his partner’s back. “Now take in a few deep breaths….that’s it…..think of our plans for the next week or so while I get you washed.”
Chandi worked at following Eric’s directives and although it easier said than done, he soon found the stress leaving his body as he took pleasure from his lover’s nurturing care.
Eric reached over to pull out the plug and let the water drain as he rinsed the soap from Chandi’s body. He loved bathing his man like this; loved running his hands over the beautiful brown skin and feeling the well-toned muscles underneath. Quickly realizing they were both being turned on by his actions and not wanting to go there at this particular time, Eric pushed himself to his feet and grabbed a towel off the warming rack. “Okay, gorgeous, up you get so I can rub you down.”
In minutes, Chandi was dry and pulling a clean t-shirt over his still-damp hair; then slipping on a pair of boxers. Next, he tolerantly put up with Eric pushing him out of the en suite and over to their bed.
“Just rest here while I go fix us up a quick supper, honey. I won’t be long, so don’t get ideas of doing anything other than what I tell you. Rest! Got it?”
“Got it,” Chandi complied, fluffing up his pillow and leaning back against the headboard. Suddenly, he wasn’t tired anymore. Fetching his cell phone off the dresser where he’d left it, he texted a friend. As luck would have it, Kelly was on her break and free to call him right back.
Several minutes later, Eric entered the room in time to overhear Chandi saying, “Sure, we’ll still be up. Drop in on your way home from work. I’ll put on a pot of coffee. Bye.”
“Who was that?” Eric demanded to know as he put the tray he was carrying down on the ottoman at the foot of their bed.
“Kelly. Her shift ends at nine and she’ll be coming over.”
Eric’s eyes narrowed dangerously. He steadily advanced on his unsuspecting Brat, flipped him unto his stomach, yanked down the boxers and landed half a dozen powerful swats to Chandi’s unprotected bottom.
“Wha-what was that for?” Chandi stammered as he was lifted into a sitting position at the head of the bed with his underwear back in place and a noticeable stinging on his rear-end.
“For not resting like you were told to,” Eric sternly answered.
“But I haven’t had time for Kelly in almost a month,” Chandi explained.
“Chandi, you haven’t had much time for ‘us’ either.” Eric relented somewhat when he saw a guilty flush spread over his partner’s face. “But as of now, we can start making up for that. I brought up our favourite comfort food. We better eat before it cools off.” He smiled and retrieved the tray containing grilled cheese sandwiches and two bowls of tomato soup along with glasses of milk and some homemade oatmeal-raisin cookies.
“I feel a lot better now, Eric,” Chandi commented half an hour later as he watched his partner lowering the blind on the window. “I think I can stay up a while longer. It’s still light out and I can hear kids playing outside.”
“Nice try,” Eric chuckled. “But it isn’t up for discussion. Come on, I’ll lie down with you until you fall asleep.”
“Then you better plan on being here for awhile,” Chandi muttered and threw himself back on his pillow.
Less than five minutes passed and Eric smiled at the steady low sounds of deep even breathing emanating from the man in his arms. He gently kissed Chandi and crawled off the bed without disturbing him.
After cleaning up the supper dishes, Eric sat down with his laptop to review the month’s business reports. Although not exactly rolling in dough, his bottom line was still a healthy black even with the substantial purchase he had paid cash for today. He emailed statements out to a few clients, took care of a couple of suppliers, and updated his website.
He was getting ready to call it a night when there was a knock and Kelly stuck her head around the doorway to the back porch.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Kelly. I meant to call you earlier and tell you not to bother dropping by. Chandi is sleeping,” Eric sincerely apologized.
“I’m glad to hear that. As vehemently as he tried to deny it, I could sense he was really tired. With us having been friends since high school, it’s almost impossible for him to keep things from me. I just wanted to check in on him.”
“Well, he’s coming down from an extremely stressful couple of weeks, but he should be much better after a good night’s sleep,” Eric replied. Both knew how easy it was for Chandi to empathize with people going through a difficult time and that the effort involved in keeping an emotional distance and maintaining his professionalism was off-times exhausting in itself.
“And a week’s camping will work wonders for him. By the way, does he know anything about tomorrow?”
“Not yet and I hope to keep it that way.”
“Just how are you going to manage that with him being home all day?”
“By getting out of his way so he can do what he prefers to do most on his first day off after a stretch like this last one: clean house. It will keep him focused. I’m not exactly sure how or why it works, but the routine he has for cleaning always has a calming effect on him.”
“Wish that worked for my husband. I’d love to have someone take over some of my chores at home,” Kelly mused half-jokingly. “Meanwhile, I better be heading there before Matt comes looking for me. Bye,” she called out as she took her leave.
Eric shook his head. It always amazed him that his publicly unobtrusive partner could be best friends with someone as vivacious as Kelly. ‘Time to call it a day,’ he thought and set about locking up for the night and heading upstairs. He stripped off his clothing in the dark and was soon spooned around his soundly sleeping lover.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Eric arrived home to a meticulously dirt-free home and a slightly more relaxed partner after having spent the better part of the day running errands in Kelowna. He enlisted Chandi’s help with getting all the shopping and dry cleaning inside.
“I was hoping you’d do me a favour, sweetheart. I didn’t have time to stop at the post office or the pharmacy. Would you mind walking downtown and finishing up for me?”
“You’ve been gone hours, Eric.” Chandi looked around at all the packages that were now cluttering up what had been a spotless kitchen only minutes ago. “But I can see where you probably didn’t have enough room left in the car for as much as a letter,” he teased. “I’ll go, but only because I can use the fresh air and of course, to give you time to get all this stuff put away.”
“Thanks, honey. I’m also going to be preparing a special dinner for your birthday.” Eric laughed at the pleased expression on Chandi’s face. “I bet you thought I forgot.”
“You lose; I knew you’d remember. See you in a bit.” Chandi ran out the door, letting it slam behind him.
An hour later, Chandi was merrily strolling home. It seemed that everyone he met wanted to chat for a bit and wish him many happy returns. He never realized so many people knew when his birthday was and wondered who had given out that information.
He turned down their street and noticed an unusual number of cars parked along it. “Someone must be having a party or something. Hope it’s not an all-nighter. Eric and I plan to get up early and hit the road. It won’t make for a very enjoyable drive if we’re overtired and cranky,” he commented to himself as he walked towards his home.
It wasn’t until he walked through the back door that he realized the party was at his and Eric’s house and it was to celebrate his special day. The reason it all came as such a surprise was that he and Eric never made a big deal over each other’s birthdays. A nice dinner and a small token gift were the most they did to acknowledge these yearly events.
Chandi just stood there, unsure of what he was to do and blushing profusely as everyone hollered, “Surprise!” Eric barely had time to hug him, before Kelly flew out of the crowd and launched herself at him.
“I didn’t think Eric would pull it off, but he did. He actually managed to keep this party a secret,” she excitedly exclaimed.
“All right, everyone; let’s move out to the patio. There is more room out there and the bar-b-que is ready to go.”
When the guests had orderly followed Eric’s directive and things had quieted somewhat, Eric pulled Chandi aside. “I couldn’t help myself, sweetheart. I just had to do something special for your thirtieth birthday. I hope you’ll enjoy it all.”
“I’m sure I will, Eric. But I don’t recall us doing anything like this for your thirtieth.”
“That was probably because we met a couple of months after it. If you wish, you can always make it up to me for my fortieth, okay?”
“Count on it,” Chandi responded with a bark of laughter. “We’ll consider it my getting even,” he joked, wrapping his arms around Eric’s neck and deeply kissing him. “Thank you, love,” he murmured and pushed himself out of the other man’s embrace. “Guess we better go join our guests, huh?”
It was sometime later and the party had drawn to a close when Eric finally had a chance to give Chandi his gift. They were alone in the living room and Eric was encouraging his partner to get the heavy rectangle parcel opened as quickly as possible.
Getting rid of the last of the paper, Chandi stared tongue-tied at the beautiful portrait in his hands.
“I borrowed a photograph of you and your parents out of that old album, sweetheart, and commissioned Rene Pierce to paint this. I thought it would be perfect for that vacant spot over the mantle.” Eric softly smiled as he rubbed a soothing hand over Chandi’s back. He could feel a slight trembling as Chandi fought to get his emotions under control. He was fully aware of the history behind the photo. It had been taken only a month before the accident that had taken Chandi’s father and left his mother an invalid. Chandi had been eighteen at the time.
‘This is more than worth every extravagant penny I paid for it,’ Eric thought when he saw Chandi’s eyes fill up as he reverently ran his fingertips lightly over his parents’ faces. The expression of overwhelming joy on his lover’s handsome face spoke volumes.
It took several minutes for Chandi to get his vocal chords functioning. “It’s magnificent, Eric,” he whispered. Two tears escaped and slowly slid down his cheeks but he didn’t appear to notice them. “Over the mantle will be perfect. I-I don’t know what else to say; thank you seems so inadequate. But I really am extremely appreciative of this wonderful gift and the thought that went behind it.”
He turned and pulled Eric into a bear-hug before passionately kissing him. “Will you help me hang it up?” he asked once he’d ended the kiss.
Eric reached up, put a hand on each side of Chandi’s head and gently wiped away the remaining wetness on the younger man’s cheeks with his thumbs. “I already have the place of honour measured and screws in place. A nail would never be able to hold the weight of the painting as the frame is heavy enough on its’ own.”
After checking out the position of the newly hung work of art and satisfied with a job well done, Eric suggested they get ready for bed.
“What about the cleanup, Eric? We can’t leave it.”
“There isn’t much, honey, thanks to our guests all pitching in and getting most of it out of the way. The little remaining can be taken care of first thing tomorrow. We’ll just be leaving a little later than originally planned. But that’s all right; we’re on vacation and aren’t stuck to a schedule for the next ten days. We can take our time, relax and enjoy ourselves.”
“Yeah, guess you’re right. Vacations are supposed to be de-stressors. Besides we never did get the car packed up as intended this evening. Someone or something kind of interfered with it,” Chandi teased as he turned out the lights and began locking up for the night.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“We made great time, Eric, and all without the stress of rushing around like chickens with their heads cut off.” Chandi sat back and sipped from the glass of wine in his hand, mesmerized by the flames dancing in front of them.
“Even the setting up of the tent went smoothly. It’s been a while since we last camped out and I figured we may have forgotten the easiest way to set up.” Eric leaned as far back as possible without falling over and studied the stars twinkling overhead.
“Never! We’re practically pros,” Chandi laughed. “Well okay, maybe we’re a little out of practice at starting a campfire, but we’ll do a better job tomorrow night and even better the next night. In the meantime, how about serenading me?”
Eric sat up straighter, put down his wine glass and picked up his guitar. “I hope you realize I have no intention of competing with that party going on three sites over.”
“It just sounds like a bunch of young folk enjoying themselves. But I’m quite contented with not having to share a musical treat meant just for me.”
“Hey, I expect you to accompany me, sweetheart.”
“Let me refill our glasses and I’ll be more than happy to,” Chandi willingly acquiesced.
The revelry from the other site was still going strong when Eric towed his lover into their tent shortly before midnight.
“The night security personnel will be making their rounds anytime now and they’ll soon put a stop to that rebel-rousing,” Eric commented while helping Chandi out of his clothing.
“I hope it won’t be too soon,” Chandi giggled. He’d imbibed a little too much wine. “The noise will cover up any sounds we’ll be making in here.”
“So you think we’re going to be doing something besides sleeping, is that it?” Eric teased, well aware of what Chandi was hinting at.
“Oh yeah, ya wanna believe it,” Chandi laughed while grabbing his partner and pulling him down on the blown up mattress. “While we’re at it, we’ll see if this mattress was worth the money we paid for it.”
Sometime later with the help of the moonlight filtering through the trees and then the small openings of the tent, Eric was able to closely study his partner. Holding his head in the palm of a raised hand, he smiled down at the well-sated man who was lying beside him looking more relaxed than Eric had seen him in a long while. “We have got to do this more often,” he declared.
“Make love or camp out?”
“Both, independently or simultaneously; it doesn’t matter which as they both work great, especially at bringing you down after an overly stressful time. And there’s not much we enjoy doing more.”
“You certainly won’t get any arguments from me. After all, you’re in charge and know what I need best.”
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