The Way Home: Chapter Ten (conclusion)

Title: The Way Home
A Shelter Fanfic
Author: Jessica (sam_cdn )
Rating: NC-17 
Summary: This story opens a little over two months after Shaun, Zach, and Cody have moved to Valencia. This will be a multi-chaptered story, telling the tale of what happens next. There will be plenty of happiness, sappiness, and general domestic bliss. There will be some hotness and some smuttiness. There will also be some angst, some anger, some sadness, and some pain. There will be some attempts at humor, but I'm not promising you'll laugh. Hold on tight, I've got a lot of story to tell!
Disclaimer: I do not own and did not create the film Shelter. I am making no profit off of this.

Zach woke up slowly on Christmas morning to a warm, wet mouth around his dick. As he realized what was going on, he let out a faint moan, and the giver of his pleasure looked up at him lazily, gently releasing him, only to say, “Merry Christmas,” and then returned to his task.

Zach closed his eyes again, and made a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a groan. “Very merry,” he mumbled, his brain fuzzily processing the fact that it was, indeed, December 25^th, and that a very excited little boy would probably be bounding into the room shortly. He turned his head to look at the clock, and saw that it was just past five a.m., so he figured they were safe for a little while longer. He relaxed, and surrendered.

*          *            *

They were interrupted an hour later by both Cody and Gabe bursting into the room and announcing that it was Christmas, Santa had come, and they had presents to open. Fortunately, Zach and Shaun had changed into pyjamas by that point, and were simply dozing, waiting for the invasion. Zach wasn’t sure who was more excited: Cody or Gabe.

The presents were all opened within an hour. Cody was spoiled with a mountain of toys from Zach, Shaun, and Gabe. The three men all had gifts to exchange amongst one another, and Shaun and Gabe had received checks from their parents with Hallmark cards expressing their regret that they couldn’t all spend Christmas together. “Yeah,” Gabe said as he tossed his card aside, “it’s a real shame that you had to spend the holidays in your lodge in Switzerland.”

When it was all finished, Gabe left to call some girl he had been hitting on back in S.B. to wish her a Merry Christmas. Zach settled back on the couch and watched as Shaun attempted to get the remote control airplane Cody had received from them working. He was having trouble getting the plane to actually lift off the ground, and Cody was starting to get impatient, reaching to try to get the control out of Shaun’s hands. Zach was smiling, though, looking at his nephew (his son) and this man (his boyfriend, his lover, his partner). This was his family. This was all he needed. And then he remembered.

The gift wasn’t under the tree with the others—Zach had put it aside in his and Shaun’s room: the gift that Jeanne had given Cody. Zach didn’t even know what it was, but he knew that it was Cody’s to open, so he silently left the room to fetch the present.

“Cody,” he said as he reentered the living room, “you’ve got to open the gift from your mom.”

Shaun had finally managed to get the model airplane airborne, and Cody was in control, but as soon as he saw Zach with a new gift, the plane was forgotten and dropped to the floor along with the controller.

“Cody!” Shaun said. He picked up the plane and inspected it for damage. “Try to be a little more careful.”

“Sorry,” Cody said, but his eyes were on the present in his hands.

Zach looked at Shaun, who met his eyes and put the plane down on the coffee table. They watched as Cody tore into the wrapping paper. It was a plain white box, which Cody opened to find a picture frame, nestled in tissue paper. Looking over the top of the box, Zach could see the picture frame contained a photograph he recognized: it was about a year ago, and it was one of those rare occasions that Jeanne had accompanied Zach and Cody to the beach. Zach didn’t know what had gotten into her that day, but Jeanne was in an uncharacteristically playful mood, and spent most of the time digging around with Cody in the sand. At one point, Zach caught them both laughing and they looked so happy, and so much like a mother and son should, he needed to capture the moment. He pulled his latest disposable camera out of his bag, glad that he always kept one on him, and snapped a couple of shots of his sister and nephew laughing and playing together. The frame Cody now held in his hands contained one of these photographs, Jeanne holding Cody close, both of them looking at the camera and laughing openly. Zach was surprised to see it: he gave the photo to Jeanne after he had gotten it developed, but she hadn’t expressed much enthusiasm over it, so he just assumed she had thrown the picture away.

“That’s a great picture of you and your mom, Cody,” Shaun said.

“Yeah,” said Cody. He stared at the picture a moment longer, then tossed it aside and stood up. “Could you help me get the plane flying again?”

Shaun chuckled. “Sure, bud.”

Zach sat down on the couch and picked up the picture. It really was a great shot. They would put it up on the wall in Cody’s room. He continued to stare at the photograph waiting for the guilt to come over being a better parent than his sister, or the sadness that Cody would never really have a mother, but none of it came. He felt only joy that Cody would have a stable home and loving parents. As much as anything could be, that was now a certainty. He accepted that Jeanne would only play a small role in Cody’s life and he thought that probably, giving Cody this picture meant that Jeanne had accepted that too. This was probably the most harmonious their family had ever been. It was sad that it took falling apart for that too happen, but Zach couldn’t bring himself to feel too badly about it because he had a new family now. He also knew that Jeanne wasn’t alone either: it seemed as though she had found love and although he found Allan pretty repulsive as a human being, he supposed that if he made his sister happy, Zach could accept their relationship, even encourage it.

As he sat there, thinking about how it had all worked out for the moment, he knew that there was one more reconciliation he needed to make sure happened this trip. He stood up and went over to Shaun. “Hey,” he said, “I’m going to go out for a bit.”

Shaun looked away from the airplane Cody was flying around the room and frowned. “What? Where?”

“I’ll tell you after,” he said, already leaving the room. “I’ll try not to be too long.”

As he drove the familiar route from Laguna to San Pedro, he was again consumed by the feeling that he was going back in time. This was different from how it felt when they had first arrived back in town. The fear he felt before was gone, and he felt more certain, more purposeful.

Tori’s parents’ house was only a few blocks away from where Zach had been living with Jeanne and Cody only a few months ago. It was strange to see that the neighborhood hadn’t changed when it seemed like so much had happened since the last time he was here. Of course, he realized, he had only been gone a few months. It just felt like longer.

He parked on the street and rang the doorbell. He was glad to see only Tori’s parents’ car in the driveway. No relatives were there yet, which would hopefully make things slightly less awkward. Tori’s father answered. “Zach!”

Zach put on the most comfortable smile he could summon. “Hey, Bruce. Merry Christmas.”

“Well, Merry Christmas, Zach,” he said, shaking Zach’s hand. “Come on in.”

Zach entered the familiar house. He had spent almost as much time there as at Gabe’s house throughout his teenage years, so it was no wonder it felt so comfortable.

“I have to say,” Bruce said, “I’m a little surprised to see you here.”

“I know. I don’t want to intrude or anything. I was just hoping that Tori might be available to talk?”

Bruce eyed Zach for a moment, and Zach thought he had good reason to be suspicious. Though the reasons he and Tori had broken up were good ones, Zach knew that he had hurt this man’s daughter. It was only natural that he be guarded. “I’ll find out if she’s available,” he finally said. Zach noticed that he had not been invited in beyond the front entrance.

Tori appeared in the hallway a moment later. Zach was relieved to see her smile when she came up to him. “Hey,” he said.

“Hey.”

“Merry Christmas.”

“You too.”

They stood awkwardly in the entrance for a moment. Zach realized he didn’t know exactly what he wanted to say. “Look,” he said, “do you want to sit out front or something? I just thought we should talk.”

“All right,” Tori said, and they went outside and sat on the front steps of the house.

Zach let out a slow breath. He thought of Shaun’s usual way of saying just the right thing to show that he understood what Zach was feeling. “I think maybe I haven’t been fair to you.”

Tori looked at him frowning. “Zach, you’ve never done anything to hurt me.”

“Not on purpose, but … I don’t know. When Shaun and I were planning on coming back here for Christmas, I just had so much on my mind. And with everything with Jeanne and Cody and all, I guess I didn’t think too much about how coming back here would make you feel.”

Tori rolled her eyes as if Zach had just said something silly and inconsequential. “Zach, I hope I wouldn’t have affected your decision to come here. We both know that it was important that you did.”

“Well, yeah, but … that day on the beach—”

“Oh, God, just forget about that. Really. I was in a bad mood that night, that’s all.”

Zach thought about how easy it would be to smile and say “OK” and forget about the whole thing. He knew Tori well, though, and knew that she wasn’t telling the entire truth. “You also didn’t come to Gabe’s party.”

Tori shrugged. “I was tired.”

Zach met her eyes. “Tori, come on, after all this time, you could at least be honest with me.”

Tori looked like she was about to say something, but stopped herself. After a moment, she said, “It isn’t that I still have feelings for you, you know.” Zach nodded. “I mean, of course I care about you—I always will. I think I just … well, it was more of a shock than I expected to see you with Shaun.”

Zach looked down at the pavement steps. “I’m sorry.”

“Hey,” Tori said, suddenly grabbing Zach’s arm, “don’t apologize, OK? You didn’t do anything wrong. You know, I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past few days and … well, I guess I’m not as OK with everything as I thought I was. Things just aren’t working between me and Greg, and you and I were together for so long. I think I need to work some things out on my own for now.”

Zach nodded. “What can I do?”

Tori laughed. “Nothing, monkey. Just carry on with your wonderful new life and don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

“I’ll always be there for you, Tor. You know that, right?”

Tori smiled. “I know. I appreciate that.”

They were quiet for a moment. They watched a car drive by, and felt a gentle breeze cool their skin. “Hey,” Tori said suddenly, as if she had just remembered something, “what did happen with Jeanne? Is everything OK?”

“Oh, yeah,” Zach said. He grinned. “She’s going to give me full parental rights.”

Tori raised her eyebrows. “And … you’re happy about this, right?”

“Are you kidding? Of course I am. I mean, a year ago, maybe I wouldn’t have been, but Shaun and I have been wanting this so badly.” He stopped speaking, realizing what he had just said. He looked at Tori and she was smiling at him.

“I’m happy for you guys. I really am.”

Zach looked back at her and touched her hand. “Thanks, monkey.”

Zach got back to the Laguna mansion just in time for brunch: blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, and oranges. “Smells good in here,” Zach said as he walked into the kitchen.

“Hey!” Shaun said, turning from the stove where he was frying bacon. “Where the heck have you been?”

Zach walked up behind Shaun and wrapped his arms around his waist. He kissed Shaun’s neck. “I was wishing Tori a merry Christmas.”

Shaun’s face was turned slightly toward Zach and he could see his eyebrows rise. “Yeah? And you had to drop everything and do it at that very moment?”

Zach gave Shaun a squeeze. “Yeah.”

Shaun turned around to face Zach and gave him a peck on the lips. “Well, all right then. I’m just glad you’re back for brunch, because we have a hell of a lot of food to eat.”

Zach grinned. “I think I can help you out there.”

Together, they carried dishes of food into the dining room, where Cody was busy pouring over the Wii games he had gotten for Christmas. The games were moved off the table to make room for food, and the three of them dug into their feast, ravenous after a busy morning of opening presents.

After a few moments of silent chowing down, Cody looked up from the mountain of food on his plate. “Zach?” he said.

“Yep?”

“Can we do this again next Christmas?”

Zach wasn’t sure exactly what Cody meant by that. He could have been referring to spending Christmas at the mansion, or it might have been getting a whole bunch of gifts, or it could have simply been having a decadent brunch after unwrapping presents. The one possibility that stood out the most to Zach, though, was that he was referring to the three of them spending Christmas together, as a family. So Zach grinned and said, “Yeah, buddy, we can. We will.”

THE END