Chapter 63 is up!

Thank you so much for continuing to follow the boys' story.  I'm afraid this chapter, while long, will be a great deal less exciting than the last. What can I say?  Edward is a wordy character, but as long as he keeps talking I'll keep writing. I've learned the hard way that trying to summarize only makes him shut up, and the only thing worse than a wordy Edward is a silent Edward. I only wish I had more time to write so I could bring you these chapters faster, but my employers have not been cooperative lately. I'm crossing my fingers that the big project I'm working on will wrap up in October so that things can get back to normal.

As always, I owe huge thanks to John. He's the best, and you all already know why. Equally huge thanks to Maureen and Natalie, both of whom pre-read the chapter and helped clear up a lot of continuity flaws in addition to catching a ton of those pesky errors that always seem to elude me. Their contributions made this chapter much better than it was!  Thank you so much, girls! Huge hugs to you both!

And now, without further ado, here's Chapter 63.  

This side of the Rainbow - an Errors outtake

I originally wrote this for a fandom effort to raise funds to combat domestic violence. It's not an outtake vital to understanding Errors, but it gives a little more color on the work that Edward does with Rainbow Beginnings.  Enjoy!

Click here to read the general story Disclaimer and Warning.

Warning:  This outtake deals seriously with the issue of domestic violence. Also, this outtake is based on my imagination and not any personal knowledge or expertise.  As such, it may not be accurate.  Please treat this as a work of fiction and not as a reference of any sort, and excuse any inaccuracies.    

The outtake takes place after Seth & Garrett’s wedding, but before Edward’s trip to Chicago. You can find references to some of the events that take place in this outtake in Chapter 60 of Errors & Omissions as well as in Chapter 6 of Culture Aftershock.

This Side of the Rainbow

an Errors & Omissions outtake

It was a Thursday morning, which meant that for once I had a chance to sleep in a little, and was therefore supremely annoyed to hear my cell phone chirping at the crack of dawn.  It wasn't one of the rings I'd assigned to Maggie or any of my good friends, so I didn't think it was an emergency, but since I was already awake I reached to answer it anyway.

"Cullen," I cut right to the chase.

"Edward?  It's Roberto.  I got your number from Seth."

I sat up in bed, instantly alert.  A glance at my bedside alarm told me it was only 6:30. I couldn't imagine why Leah's violent crimes unit cop boyfriend would be calling Seth at this hour to track down my number, but I figured it couldn't be good.

"What's going on?" I asked anxiously.

"I'm in the hospital with a battered victim.  He's pretty banged up, but is refusing to press charges and wants to sign himself out of the hospital against doctor's orders.  I have a feeling the first place he'll go is to bail out the boyfriend.  I can slow things down here a little and stall, but not long enough for Rainbow Beginnings to open. I thought maybe there’s someone you could call to come over and talk to him, like right now.  He may not listen, but I hate to let him walk out of here without someone at least trying."

"Um," I ran my hands through my hair as I searched my brain for options.  "Yeah, there are a couple of guys I could call."

"Thanks, Edward.  And by the way, his safety is first and foremost, of course, but if there's a way whoever comes down could talk to this kid and maybe try to convince him to press charges, or at least to give us an honest statement about what happened…"

"An honest statement?" I interrupted.

"The neighbors called in a domestic disturbance this morning, not for the first time either.  When our guys arrived it was clear that the kid had been beat up, but he insists he fell.  You know the drill, he's always been clumsy, it was all his fault, etc. etc. etc.  His boyfriend was drunk and gave enough trouble to the guys on the scene to justify taking him in, but we won't be able to hold him for long if the kid doesn't tell us the truth."

"Roberto, what aren't you telling me?  I mean, these circumstances are bad, but hardly unusual, and you've never called me before."

"I know, Edward, and I'm sorry. But this is an urgent situation.  The perp is Caius Volturi.  You know what happened when we weren't able to get him the last time.  I'm gonna do my damn best to make sure that doesn't happen again."        

I swallowed past the sudden lump forming in my throat.  Despite the exotic name, Caius Volturi was nothing but a common thug and bully.  Unfortunately, he was also gay.  And even more unfortunately, he preyed on young, vulnerable boys.  We'd spoken with a couple of them at Rainbow Beginnings.  Thankfully, one let us help him, though he never agreed to press charges or testify against Volturi.  Last I heard he was still in Seattle and doing fine, keeping a low profile and staying out of Volturi's way.  The other wasn't so lucky.  He went back to Volturi, again and again, until one day, his trip to the ER ended in the morgue.   

Every bit of circumstantial evidence pointed to murder, but Volturi pleaded self-defense based on some superficial cuts and a knife found in his boyfriend's hands at the scene.  In the end, the DA said there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute, especially when the victim wasn't a sympathetic figure and there was no family pushing for a trial.  It was an election year and domestic violence in the gay community just wasn't high enough on the list of priorities.

And now, not surprisingly, Caius found himself another victim.  How long before this one, too, ended up in the city morgue?  I could hear in Roberto's voice how much he wanted to get Volturi off the street before he could hurt another human being, and I felt exactly the same way.  If there was anything I could do to help, I sure as hell would.

"I'll call Rusty, Roberto. He has remote access to our databases. We'll figure out who to send and see if we can track down the one guy we managed to get away from Volturi.  I know he was scared to testify before, but maybe if he sees it's happening again to someone else, we'll be able to talk him into it.  At the very least he may be willing to talk to this kid. Give me a few minutes and I'll call you right back."

I was dialing Rusty's familiar number as soon as I terminated Roberto's call.  Rusty Green was the director of Rainbow Beginnings, the perfect man for the job.  His dedication to doing everything possible to eradicate domestic violence in the LGBT community was unsurpassed, and he had a memory like an elephant, backed up by a tremendous database which I was all too happy to fund.  He immediately recalled that the kid we rescued from Volturi was Jesse Santos, and within minutes had his address and phone number, as well as pictures of what Jesse looked like on the day of his trip to the ER.  He also gave me the number for Neil, the counselor scheduled to work at Rainbow Beginnings that day, and said he'd line up a safe house for the current victim, on the assumption that Neil would be able to convince him to go. Finally, he promised to fax over Jesse's pictures to Roberto at the hospital, knowing that sometimes visual evidence was more persuasive than words.  

I called Roberto to relay the information and assure him that someone would be at the hospital soon.  Then I hit the first roadblock of the day when Neil didn't answer his phone. I couldn't exactly be angry. He wasn't due for his shift at Rainbow Beginnings until 10:00 that morning, and he was not expected to be on call 24-7.  Still, knowing that we were running out of time, I didn't want to waste any more precious minutes calling Rusty for another name, possibly interrupting the important work he was doing. I didn't have to work and my training at New Beginnings qualified me to provide direct victim services, so I jumped out of bed, got dressed, did a quick gargle with Listerine and hauled ass to the hospital without even bothering to shower. After all, this kid had much bigger problems than talking to a counselor with less than ideal personal hygiene practices.  In any event, if Rusty could find Jesse and convince him to come into the ER, he'd be the one doing the talking, since one victim was much more likely to believe another.

I broke countless traffic laws on the way to the hospital, but I got there in record time even in the midst of Seattle's morning traffic.  I figured Roberto would help me settle any tickets, and even if he couldn't, saving a life was worth the price. The hospital had a valet and I quickly chose that option to avoid wasting time in the parking lot.  Only when I ran into the ER waiting area did I figure out that I did not have a name of the patient I was trying to see.  Undeterred, I walked up to the receptionist and asked for Roberto, who appeared moments later.

"I'm sorry, Roberto.  I couldn't reach our regular counselor, Neil, but I've been trained at New Beginnings and I've talked to survivors before. I figured maybe I could talk to him while we wait for Jesse and in the meantime you can call Rusty and ask him to try to locate Neil or one of the other counselors."

"It's fine, Edward.  I got the fax from Rusty.  He's still trying to get in touch with Jesse.   Let's not distract him from that.  I'm sure you can handle this.  The only thing we need to do is make sure that he doesn't leave the hospital to bail out Volturi," Roberto said as we walked to the patient's room.  

"I'll do the best I can, Roberto.  What's his name?"

"Confidentiality rules prohibit me from giving you anything but his first name, which is Eric. He's shook up and freaked out, and he really wants to get out of here.  His injuries aren't so bad that the doctors can keep him here involuntarily. He already had a psych consult and checked out okay."

"Let's see what I can do. It’s probably better if you stay out here."

Roberto pointed me in the right direction and stayed back. I walked into the room and knocked on the already opened door. Eric was sitting on a paper covered examination table.  His face was severely bruised and his arm was in a sling.  I would have bet big money there were numerous bruises beneath his hospital gown to match the ones I could see on his legs.

"Eric?"  I asked when he didn't acknowledge my knock. He looked in my direction but didn't say anything.

"Eric, my name is Edward Cullen. I work with an organization called Rainbow Beginnings.  Have you heard of it?"  I said, walking towards him but stopping when I saw him tense up.  Out of a corner of my eye I saw a rolling stool.  I reached for it and sat down, so that I was now seated slightly below him, which I knew would be less threatening. He relaxed a little and I slid over closer. 

"Do you know what Rainbow Beginnings is?" I asked again, keeping my tone soft.

"The cop mentioned something.  I wasn't really listening," he finally replied.

"Rainbow Beginnings is an organization whose goal is to prevent domestic violence in the Seattle gay community," I explained.

"You're lying," he challenged.  "There's no such thing."

"There very much is," I assured him.  "There didn't used to be until a few years ago, but we're here now and in addition to educational resources we provide help to survivors of domestic abuse."

Eric looked away from me again, saying nothing.

"We have short-term safe houses for survivors, as well as longer-term housing vouchers to help survivors get back on their feet after they leave their abusers.  We have funds to help with medical bills and job training assistance. We also have counseling, both group and one on one, and peer mentors. The peer mentors are survivors themselves. They know what it's like to feel helpless and alone, but they also know that it’s possible to break out of the cycle and what it takes. We can help," I assured him.

"Why are you telling me this?  I'm not abused. I'm just uncoordinated. I trip and fall a lot.  My boyfriend and I fight sometimes, but who doesn’t? We're both men. It’s just boys being boys. No one's abused."

"Is that what your boyfriend tells you, Eric? Because it's bullshit. It doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman, straight or gay. If someone hits you without your consent with the intention of hurting you, that's abuse, regardless of your gender or sexual orientation." 

"He's not abusing me," Eric protested.  "He loves me. Sometimes we argue, or I make him angry, but he loves me."

"Let me guess, disciplining you is how he shows you he cares about you? If he didn't care it wouldn't matter if you messed up, but because he loves you he has to teach you a lesson?"

Eric looked over at me, startled. I saw he recognized the arguments, but I knew he'd never admit it.

"It's a lie, Eric. There are men out there in true loving relationships. When they have problems, when one of them messes up, they talk about it. They don't beat each other.  And I bet he hits you even when you don't mess up. Am I right? Are his rules always changing, so it's impossible to keep up?"

Eric shook his head. "I don't have to listen to this. I want to go. You can't make me stay here anymore. Where are my clothes?"

I sighed.  "No one will force you to stay here against your will.  But I just want to talk.  What will it hurt to hear me out?"

"You're trying to trick me. You're telling me lies and trying to convince me that they're the truth. Kai told me there would be people who would do that.  Because you don't understand how it is when two men love each other. You think we're perverts and dirty and that we have to live by some straight standard and you try to twist everything we do out of love into something wrong. Well, you're not better than we are. We're just different. You'll never understand."

"Eric, I'm not some straight guy trying to lie to you. I'm gay, just like you. I've loved other men. I've lived with another man. We never hit each other. I have many gay friends who love each other and never hit each other. He's lying to you when he tells you these things."

"You're the liar!" Eric shouted, his eyes swimming with tears.  "I don't know you and you don't know me at all. Why should I believe you? Caius loves me!"

"Eric, aren't you curious how I know all these things about him? Do you want me to tell you?  I know because you're not the first man he's done this too. Did you know that one of his former boyfriends is dead now? Did he tell you about him? His name was Gerry. I met him once, after he came to the ER much like you did today. I had the same conversation with him, and he didn't listen to me. And now he's gone, forever," I did my best to sound not just convincing, but also sincere.

   

"He went crazy," Eric whispered. "He went crazy and tried to stab Kai. It was self-defense.  Kai had no choice."

"No," I shook my head sadly. "Look deep inside your heart, Eric. You know that's not true. Gerry was half Caius's size. He may have had a knife, but I’m sure he was just trying to defend himself from Caius. He didn't succeed, and now he's gone. I don't want you to be next. Please, Eric. Let us help you."

He was looking at the floor, not at me. I could almost hear the battle raging within him.  

"If I left, he'd find me. He loves me. He'd never let me go. He told me so. He told me I could never leave him," he finally said in a sad, defeated voice. "I tried to go once. I went home. My father told me out of his house and his sight. I told him and my mother that Kai...," he paused for a long moment, crying silent tears before he collected himself enough to start speaking again. "My father said if I was a man, I should deal with my problems like a man. He said if I wanted a guy to fuck me, like I was some kind of a girl, then I deserved whatever I got. My mother couldn’t even look at me. I had nowhere else to go. I tried to stay with some people I knew, but it only took Kai a couple of days to find me, and then…," He paused again but he didn’t need to continue for me to figure out what happened when Caius found him.  His voice was that of a broken boy, and after hearing that story I couldn't blame him. It had been painful when my father rejected me, but at least my mother loved and supported me, not to mention my sister and all my other friends. To have both parents not only reject you, but tell you that you deserved to be abused, must have been devastating.   

I clenched my fist in anger, making sure it was out of his sight.  I knew no matter what rage I felt at Caius or Eric's parents, I could never show it in front of him.  It would only make things worse. I needed to remain calm.

"I’m sorry that your parents weren’t there for you, but believe me, we can help you.  We can keep you safe, in a place where he won’t be able to find you. And you can help us even more by pressing charges against Caius.  Help the police put him away so that he doesn't have a chance to do this to someone else.  Please."

"No," Eric shook his head. "I could never do that.  No one would believe me and then he'd find me and..."

"I thought so too," we heard a voice from the doorway.  "He told me the same thing.  He said it would be my word against him and that he'd have all his friends there to show that he was a good guy and I would just be a skinny little faggot that no one would see, much less pay attention to.  And he promised if I ever tried to say anything against him he would kill me.  He said he loved me, but that if I betrayed him I would be dead to him and he would make sure I was really dead to everyone else too."

Eric and I looked towards the door to see a thin short man in his mid-twenties with dark wavy hair, darker skin and brown eyes. 

"I'm Jesse and I was with Caius once. When I was with him I often looked exactly the way you look now.  I thought that's just how things were, because that's what he told me.  I thought I deserved to get hit and I thought no one would help me and I had nowhere to go. I was wrong. And if you think that, you're wrong too. The people at Rainbow Beginnings helped me. They can help you too. I can help you."

Eric looked at Jesse mistrustfully. "Why should I believe you?" he challenged. "You're just one of them. You're lying. You'll say anything to get me to turn against Caius. You’re probably a cop."

Jesse sighed and walked into the room.  He held papers in his hands which he handed to Eric. A quick glance told me they were the pictures that Rusty had faxed over to Roberto.  

"This is what I looked like right after the last time I saw Caius, before the guys from Rainbow Beginnings helped me get away.  Caius has a birthmark on his hip in the shape of a half moon.  When he slept he liked to keep his arm over my chest, to make sure I didn't get out of bed.  And he has a distinct snore, where he sort of snorts twice?  Would I know any of that if I was lying?"

Eric looked at Jesse, wide eyed.  I stood up.

"I'll leave the two of you to talk," I said. "Have a seat Jesse."

"Thanks," Jesse said and sat down on the stool. 

"I'll be right outside," I told both of them, but I was speaking more to Jesse than Eric.  I very much hoped his voice of experience with the monster in question would be enough to make a difference.

Roberto was still standing outside in the corridor.  

"Any luck?" he asked.

I shook my head in denial. "He heard some of what I had to say, but if it had been just me it wouldn't have been enough.  Hopefully Jesse will be more convincing."

We sat down in a couple of chairs that seemed to be in the hallway just for us.  Roberto explained that the nurses brought them over earlier for the cops who were here earlier.  They had to leave to finish their shifts.

"What about you? Don't you need to go?  And where is your partner?"  I asked him.

"Al went home. We’re actually not on duty right now. The 911 call came in at the end of our shift so the other guys booked Volturi while I came here with Eric. I wanted to get Volturi before, but now that I've gotten to know Seth and you and the rest of the guys, I want to get him off the streets more than ever."

"Thanks, Roberto," I told him sincerely. "I wish there were more cops like you."

"Unfortunately there’s only so much I can do. Our hands are tied if the victims refuse to press charges or when they keep going back. That's where you come in. Your work is every bit as important." 

I nodded, because I knew he was right and that he wasn't talking about me specifically, but about everyone at Rainbow Beginnings and New Beginnings.  Not for the first time, I was pleased that this good man found his way into Leah's life.  

Jesse and Eric spoke for over an hour. In the end, Jesse came out to tell us that Eric agreed to stay at a safe house and would not be posting Volturi's bail. I could see Jesse had been crying and I could only imagine how much courage it took for him to come to the hospital and revisit those painful memories for the sake of saving another boy.  I admired him so much. 

"And will he press charges and give us a statement?" Roberto asked hopefully.

"He's not ready to do that, yet," Jesse said, "but we are talking about it. I think I can convince him to do it if I agree to testify as well, so it won’t have to be just his word against Caius. That will help the DA too, right?"

Roberto nodded.  "It will help a lot," he confirmed.

"I'll keep trying," Jesse said. "I’m sorry I was too much of a coward to do it before. It was different when it was just me. It was easier to walk away then. But when I heard about Gerry’s death, I wondered if it could have been prevented if I pressed charges and testified. And now that it's happening again..."

"First things first, Jesse," I reminded him. "Let's get him out of that situation and away from Caius and keep the both of you safe. Once that's done, we'll work on locking Volturi up to help save everyone else."

Jesse nodded. I flipped my cell and called Rusty to get the safe house arrangements. This was how we helped people. One man and one step at a time.

Chapter 62 is posted!

The hiatus is over! I am back in a writing groove and am so pleased to bring you Chapter 62 a little ahead of my own anticipated schedule.  Please keep in mind that this chapter is a bit out of my normal writing comfort zone and that I have no first-hand knowledge of how some (well, pretty much all) of these things are done, so I'm exercising some poetic license with a liberal dose of imagination.  Having said that, if I got anything horribly wrong, do let me know and I will correct it.

A huge thanks goes out to my big brother, John, who spent a lot of his limited free time to help me research and plot this part of the story and, as always, provided daily clean-up of my many errors.  Enormous thanks also to Maura, who did a "sanity-check" pre-reading to make sure Edward still sounded like himself after all this time and wasn't doing anything too crazy. I did my best to self-edit this chapter, but my computer crashed in the middle so some corrections were probably lost. I'm too impatient to go over the chapter again, so it is what it is.  Please forgive the mistakes. 


Your feedback and comments (good or bad) are always appreciated, but especially with this, the first chapter posted exclusively to the blog. Also, if you know anyone who used to read the story, I'd appreciate if you could let them know that the new chapter is up, just in case they haven't heard what happened and don't know about the blog. Thanks!


And now, without further ado, Chapter 62.


(If you need a refresher, here's the link to chapter 61.)

Happy Independence Day

Hi Readers!  Happy Independence Day.  I thought I would celebrate my independence from the censorship of the ff.net Terms of service by uploading all the remaining chapters of the story to the blog.  You can now read all the available chapters here and can access any chapter you want through the hyperlinked table of contents in the sidebar.  You will also find in the sidebar links to my Author Blog as well as links to all the other E&O 'verse stories, both mine and John's (john is still uploading his chapters to AO3, so it may be a little while before his stories are complete on there, but for now they are also still available on ff.net. Also, I will post notices on my author's blog and tweet about any new chapters of John's stories, just in case you have not been able to get an AO3 account to register for updates over there). My twitter name is @ojmjff if you'd like to follow me there :).

Thanks again for your support through the transition and I hope you enjoy the continuation of all our E&O stories.  Now that all of the existing chapters have been uploaded, I will head off to write the next Errors chapter and will hopefully be able to post it here for you soon :)

xoxo

Liz

Links from Fanfiction

Fanfiction has removed all links from authors' profiles. For those of you interested, here is the link for the Banner Anniegirl27 made for Errors & Omissions. And this is Simon from Errors & Omissions.