Binding Robbie

Chapter 1Sunday Evening, Early March Danny and Gary stepped out of DeLorenzo’s Tomato Pies into two feet of dirty snow that had been pushed to the edge of the sidewalk. Danny’s breath looked like smoke coming from his nose, as his mouth and lungs protested the inhalation of the sub-zero air. The sidewalk was icy, and Gary grabbed at Danny so he wouldn’t slip. Danny glanced across the street and saw a small figure huddled near a pile of snow against the aged brick façade of the old Roebling building. A cardboard box with a plaid blanket hanging out the end sat next to the snowdrift, elevated from the sidewalk by discarded wooden pallets. Danny shivered in sympathy. He remembered his two months on the street after his parents threw him out for being gay. He’d been lucky that it was springtime and although chilly at night it had been relatively easy to keep warm. He had a part-time job at McDonald’s and a membership at the Y that had kept him clean and fed while he finished high school. It was two months before his brother Caden had come home from Afghanistan for his graduation, found him on the streets, and got him an apartment and a good job. Just the memory of being homeless and scared gave Danny shivers that didn’t come from the cold. “Sir, would you mind if I go across the street and give that man money for a room tonight?” “You can’t save the world, baby, but if it makes you feel better, go ahead.” Gary removed his leather gloves and pulled his wallet from the inside pocket of his tailored topcoat. He took out five twenty dollar bills and passed them to Danny. “I’m going across the street with you. I don’t want you in danger.” “Thank you, Sir.” Danny crossed the street quickly, with Gary on his heels. Danny leaned over the huddled figure and immediately noticed the shock of dark red hair sticking out of the battered knit cap on his head. Danny’s mouth opened in surprise and joy. He leaned over and shook the sleeping figure. “Robbie, wake up, it’s Danny.” “You know this boy?” Gary asked. The boy was lethargic; he barely stirred when Danny said his name. “Please Sir, we have to help Robbie. I wouldn’t have survived the two months I spent on the street if Robbie hadn’t taken me under his wing.” “Let me look. Robbie…” Gary knelt and placed his hand on the head of the boy lying on the cardboard box. Danny stood behind him. The boy turned his head to Gary as if in slow motion. “Danny?” Gary stood, making a quick decision. “The Navigator is up the street. He may have hypothermia. Let him hold onto you. I’ll bring the car up and we’ll get him into it and take him to Greg at St. Mary’s. Cisco said he was pulling a shift tonight.” Gary ran up the dark street to get the SUV. * * * * Danny helped Robbie get to his feet. “Danny, is that really you?” Danny saw the hope flare brightly in Robbie’s eyes for a moment, then extinguish. Robbie let his eyes drop closed, avoiding Danny’s face. “Don’t…don’t let me mess you up. You found someone. Leave me here.” He stopped talking as a long spate of coughing rendered him unable to speak. He rasped, “Don’t screw up by getting involved with me.” He tried to control his constant shivers, the tears running in rivulets from his eyes, freezing on his cheeks. The Navigator pulled up. “Don’t worry, come with me,” Danny said, “everything is going to be fine. It’s my turn to take care of you.” Robbie attempted to resist but obviously didn’t have the strength. Gary got out of the huge blue SUV and with his help, Danny half carried and half dragged Robbie into the SUV, pushing him up and onto the beige leather backseat. Gary jumped back into the driver’s seat and turned on the heat to the highest setting. Danny got into the car beside his friend with an old stadium blanket he retrieved from the rear of the Navigator. He pulled the blanket over both of them to try to warm Robbie by sharing his body heat. “I can’t afford a hospital,” Robbie said in a barely audible voice. Danny shushed his friend and pulled Robbie closer as he buckled him in the seatbelt. Gary turned and asked, “Ready?” Danny nodded his head. Gary took off into the night. On the way to St Mary’s he called Cisco. Danny was whispering reassurances. Gary sped through the Trenton streets. The ten minute ride to the hospital took less than five minutes. * * * * Cisco met them at the door of the Emergency Room. He was always there when Greg pulled a shift. After one of Greg’s patients tried to kill him a few years ago, Cisco never left Greg alone at the hospital. He had scheduled a meeting with Caden, Danny’s brother and his sub, Johnny, looking at the resumes of prominent immunologists and rheumatologists. They were trying to recruit doctors and research staff for the new autoimmune research lab that Caden and Johnny wanted to fund. When Caden heard that his brother was coming in, he and Johnny insisted on going with Cisco to the ER to see Danny and Gary. They all met in the waiting room outside of triage as Danny and Gary came in the door. Robbie was taken in right away. Danny was so distracted he didn’t notice his brother until Gary nodded his head at Caden and Johnny. Danny and Gary trailed Robbie back into the treatment area. Johnny and Caden went to sit and wait; Cisco used his prerogative as chief of staff to follow the others inside. “Put a warming blanket over him.” Greg ordered briskly. Greg took his stethoscope and listened to Robbie’s chest then turned to Gary. “He’s malnourished, but we have to treat the hypothermia first. He has pneumonia. I won’t know how serious it is until I see an x-ray.” Greg turned to the ER nurse. “Insert an IV line and give him electrolytes. Have radiology bring up the portable x-ray, I want film of his chest. He has a lot of congestion. Do CBC, HIV and STDs tests then we’ll take it from there.” * * * * Gary watched while Danny waited anxiously moving from one foot to another as the ER team worked on his friend. Leaving Danny to wait outside the room peering through the glass, Gary went to the front desk to guarantee p*****t of the hospital bill and to talk to Caden and Johnny. “What are you doing here?” Gary asked as he pulled Caden and then Johnny into a hug. “We just finished a planning meeting with Cisco on the new Immunology and Rheumatology labs. Greg called up to tell Cisco you were coming in so we waited,” Caden answered. “I assume Danny’s okay or you wouldn’t be out here. What gives?” “The guy inside helped Danny while he was on the streets. If we’d left him where we found him he would have frozen to death. I came out here to fill out the paperwork and guarantee the bill.” “You’re talking about Robbie. Danny and I spent weeks trying to find him. He watched out for my little brother.” Caden glanced at Johnny and received a silent nod. “Johnny and I will take care of the bill—when this kid helped Danny out, he didn’t even know you. It’s our responsibility.” Caden gave Johnny’s arm a squeeze. “This boy is exactly the kind of case we want to help with our shelters,” Johnny said. “Our first shelter for gay teens should be finished in Hamilton in late spring. This is why I wanted to do this. Caden told me about Danny. The shelters and the Immunology and Rheumatology lab here at Saint Mary’s are our two major charities.” Johnny looked at Gary, eyes asking that he be allowed to do this thing for his Dom’s brother. Gary looked back, then inclined his head and let Caden make the arrangements. * * * * As Caden finished talking to the receptionist, Bear and Brian hurtled through the Emergency Room doors. Brian grabbed at Gary. “Where’s Danny? Is he okay? What happened?” “Calm down Brian, Danny’s fine. We found a friend who helped him out while he was on the streets lying outside the old Robeling factory in a cardboard box. I think he has hypothermia and God knows what else, so Danny asked me to help him. We loaded him into the car and brought him straight over here.” “How did you know we were here?” Gary asked Bear standing next to Brian, who had tears in his eyes. Bear shrugged. “Brian panicked. He called Danny to talk about where they were having Monday’s tea and Danny said he was at the hospital and would call him back. You can expect the rest of the subs in the next twenty minutes. Brian called everyone. I attempted to point out that we didn’t have any information and that Danny said he’d call him back but since Danny hung up without telling Brian why he was here, Brian got so upset he threatened to drive to the hospital himself, so here we are. Junior is parking the limousine. I told him to come in for coffee.” Jim and Reed soon came through the door followed by Bull and Jamie. “Where’s Danny? Is he okay?” Jim asked, ready to mother the world. Gary answered. “Danny’s fine. He found an old friend lying on the street over by DeLorenzo’s. This kid helped him out when he was homeless. We brought him over here. He probably got the stink eye from Cisco about using his cell phone, so he hung up without telling Brian why he was here. I’m sure Danny didn’t expect all of you to show up at the hospital.” Bear gave Brian an assessing look that promised a good spanking for rallying the troops unnecessarily. Brian’s face turned bright red. “Well,” Jim said, looking pointedly at Bear while seating himself on one of the comfortable chairs Cisco had installed in the waiting area, “you know how it is, all for one and one for all.” Brian agreed and he, Jamie and Johnny gathered around Jim. “Now that we’re here, what can we do to help?” Jamie asked. Danny burst out of the treatment area followed by Greg. Danny’s eyes widened when he saw the entire sub club but he recovered enough to tell everyone else what was going on. Greg looked over the assembled faces and smiled. “I guess Danny spoke to Brian.” “Robbie has bacterial pneumonia and hypothermia,” Danny said in one breath. “Fortunately he didn’t contract tuberculosis,” Greg told them. “Quite a number of the street people do. A few more hours and he would have died out there.” “How could I have forgotten about Robbie?” Danny started to cry and Gary took him in his arms. Gary lifted up Danny’s chin. “You couldn’t have known he was sick, baby.” Caden went to comfort his brother. “It’s not your fault, Squirt. When I came back we looked for him for weeks and couldn’t find him.” Danny’s head came up from Gary’s shoulder. Caden came over to give Danny a hug followed by Johnny who stood behind his Dom. The other subs reinforced what Caden told him. Greg continued, “I’ve put him on ciprofloxacin, a strong antibiotic, and electrolytes because he is malnourished. Since he was on the streets, they’re going to do a STDs and HIV test besides a CBC. The x-ray showed pneumonia. He’s very congested and on oxygen. I intend to keep him about a week unless he takes a turn for the worse. But I can’t fatten him up much here. He’ll need to eat six small meals a day to accustom his stomach to food again and he has to have fuel to fight the pneumonia. He needs somewhere to stay off the streets, out of the cold, when he’s released, until his chest clears and he’s up to a respectable weight.” Greg turned and went back to his patient. Jim clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention. “Okay people, he’ll be here for about a week so we need a plan. Is he gay? Was he using drugs?” “Yes, gay, never did any drugs that I was aware of, wasn’t the type. He was two years younger than I was and yet he took care of me.” Danny sniffled. “His aunt and uncle, who were his guardians, threw him out when he was fifteen. He was living on the streets for a year already before we met.” “So,” Jim said, practical as always, “He’ll need a place to stay until he recovers, then a job and a permanent home.” “Of course he’ll stay with Danny and me until he gets better but if he’s as independent as Danny says he is, he’ll probably go right back out on the streets unless he has a home and a job that enables him to afford to live in it.” Gary sat Danny down near Jim and the others moved in closer. Bull sat, putting Jamie on his lap. “If he’s twenty-one, we can find him work at the club.” “I have positions for a few busboys and a dishwasher. I also have an open position as a waiter. How old is he?” Reed asked. “Baby, if he was two years younger than you, he would be twenty now because you’re twenty-two,” Gary pointed out. “It’s March, he had a birthday in November. He is probably twenty-one. My birthday was in January. He’s been on his own for a long time. When I spoke to Greg before he came out here, Greg speculated that he might have PTSD from living on the streets for so long and Greg said there might be some depression.” “Did he ever work?” Jamie asked. “I tried to get him a job at McDonald’s with me but he was younger and didn’t have any ID. I used to sneak him into the Y to get cleaned up because using the showers at the homeless shelter was an invitation to rape.” “Before that, he tried to get clean in the McDonald’s bathroom, that’s how I met him. I was mopping up. I got a job there after my parents threw me out and I had a membership at the Y all through high school so I was able to help him too. We shared food and watched each other’s back. He once got two black eyes defending me. We used the McDonald’s money to eat and he begged for the coins to go to the Laundromat to wash our clothes. He told me how important it was to keep clean. Robbie said you could pick up day labor if you were clean and be allowed in the library to read the books and to use their computers. The library was great when it rained, and it rained often the first month I was on the streets. He found us safe places to sleep and we took turns guarding each other’s stuff.” “You told me you couch surfed,” Caden said grimly. “I did for the first week, after that my friends’ parents either wanted me out or started to ask uncomfortable questions.” Caden gave Danny a look that said, I’ll deal with you later. Jim looked up. “It doesn’t matter what happened then. Danny’s fine, it’s Robbie who has a problem now. Is the house on Bear’s property still empty? It has three bedrooms.” “Didn’t two of the subs say they were looking for another roommate so they could afford to rent a house?” Jamie asked. Gary watched Brian move over to Bear and put himself under the crook of Bear’s arm. “Could we rent the house to the subs for the same amount we charged Gary, Papa, and give Robbie a place to stay?” “You don’t have to make puppy dog eyes at me, baby. As soon as I found out he took care of Danny, I wanted to help. Danny’s one of our own and if he owes a debt to this boy, then we all do.” He whispered. Danny choked up, feeling very fortunate to have such good friends. Bear stepped up to the circle. “Yeah, the place is empty. Gary’s lease ran out and after Caden moved, I haven’t had time to try to find a tenant. That’s a good idea. This gives all of them a place to stay and the house won’t be empty and a target for vandals. I don’t need the extra grand a month and the subs would have a safe place to stay.” After everyone settled down Jim asked, “While he’s here we’ll make a schedule so that one of us is always with him so he won’t bolt.” Before Gary could answer, Caden and Johnny after whispering a few moments said, “If it’s too much for you and Danny, Johnny and I have plenty of room in our house. Even taking liberties with the old plans and making some of the bedrooms larger with attached baths, the place has eight bedrooms and we have Mrs. Mills in the daytime.” Danny decided the issue. “I want him with us so he stays put until he gets better. He doesn’t know you, Caden.” “Danny’s right, he should be with someone he knows. We’ll feel him out about the jobs and a place to stay.” Gary pulled Danny in for a kiss. “We now have a housekeeper because Danny’s in school and I can’t cook. Mrs. Abernathy comes in five days a week. I’ll have her fix his meals along with ours. She can feed him healthy snacks and she makes rich steamed savory and sweet puddings, so he’ll eat several small high calorie meals that are easy to digest along with snacks. Danny can feed him on the weekends when he makes our meals.” Cisco came back into the waiting room. “As Greg told you, Danny, he has a severe case of pneumonia, but no TB, thank God. He is under a warming blanket for his hypothermia and we need to get some good food inside him. Give them fifteen minutes and you can go on back.” “Why didn’t he have a job?” Jamie asked. “No birth certificate and no social security number. His aunt and uncle kicked him out without any papers that proved his identity. He couldn’t get work at McDonalds or anywhere else for that matter without them and the birth certificate costs money to get.” Danny hiccupped. “He’s been on the street so long he doesn’t even have a GED.”.