Title:  "From The Top"
Author/pseudonym: Clotho & Cathy
Email address: clothomoerae@hotmail.com and huntersglenn@yahoo.com
Rating: NC-17
Status: 1/33
Pairing:  John Carter/Dave Malucci
Date:  December 2, 2001 (date posted at ERROS)
Archive:  The Golden Kingdom of ER, yes.  Everyone else, not without
permission.  The story and its prequels, "Bottoms Up" and "Topping and
Tailing", can be found at Clotho's fanfic site
http://home.talkcity.com/antennaav/fatespinner/ and at the Carterfics site
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Boutique/7087/
Category: "E.R."
Disclaimer: "ER" and all its characters belong to Warner Bros.  No
infringement of their copyright is intended.  This story was written for
the enjoyment of "ER" fans everywhere, and may be downloaded for your own
pleasure. We owe a huge "Thank you" to Alice and Melissa, our wonderful
editors who were ever gracious with their suggestions.  We'd also like to
give a big thanks to our fans who kept asking when this story would be
posted.  We hope the story doesn't disappoint.
The story so far:  New Year's Eve 2000 Dave and Carter both went
independently to "The Back Yard" a gay night-club in Chicago.  After having
bumping and grinding on the dance floor they headed back to the Carter
mansion for more bumping and grinding.  The next morning things
deteriorated -- Dave had never allowed himself to be penetrated before, and
Carter realised he was in love with Dave -- and neither wanted to be
vulnerable so they parted with hurt feelings.  When this series begins,
it's about a week later.

Contains spoilers for Season 7.

**********************************************

Dave cycled through the snowy streets into work.  Having to work on a
Saturday -- it stunk, it simply stunk. But the Chief had insisted --
someone was needed to take over Chen's shift.  It seemed very unfair that
he had to work today because 9 months ago Chen had been careless about
condoms, but that was how it was.

As the cold air hit his cheeks Dave could feel himself reddening slightly.
He'd been careless about condoms too, last weekend.  He didn't understand
what had come over him, or why he'd wanted everything that he had so
badly.  He'd practically begged -- Hell, he had begged -- for Carter's cock
to go up his ass.

Dave shook his head, and zoomed through an orange light.  He hadn't seen
Carter since he'd been dropped off back at his apartment that day.  Somehow
Carter had swapped out of every shift they had together.  Dave couldn't
blame him. He didn't really want to see Carter either.  Not after all the
stuff that had happened.

He didn't know why he'd done it, and he didn't know why he still got hard
when he thought about what they'd done.  He did know that his injuries from
that night and morning had healed -- his ass didn't ache any more, the
hickies Carter had given him were barely perceptible orange marks on his
chest, the bruise Adam had left on his stomach was orange and fading too,
and he could barely remember what it had been like to be so cold.  All of
which didn't explain why he still swallowed hard sometimes when he thought
about Carter.

Dave turned into the ambulance bay, and tried to remember who the attending
on duty today was.  If it wasn't the Chief he stood a better than 50/50
chance of getting to keep his bike in the lounge during the shift.  The
official schedule -- the one on his fridge at home -- had said that Greene
was the attending on duty -- but Greene was getting nuked regularly so it
wouldn't be him.  For the last few days all the schedules had been upside
down and inside out.

Dave poked his head through the automatic doors.  He couldn't see the
Chief.  It was worth a chance.  He casually walked through the doors, and
sauntered toward the lounge, as if it was the most natural thing in the
world to be leading a bike there.

John stood staring into his locker.  He felt like a chicken with the way he
had been avoiding Dave since New Year's.  But he really wasn't sure if he
was up to facing the man yet.  The feelings of love that John had felt were
still there, and the hurt feelings  -- the ones that came when he
discovered that Dave didn't return that love -- well, they were still
there, too.  So, avoiding Dave had seemed to be the best course of action.
Especially since John wasn't sure that he could even look at Dave without
getting hard.  Even now, as he was simply thinking about the other man,
John could feel a stirring in his groin.

He draped the stethoscope around his neck just as the door of the lounge
opened.  John shut his locker and turned; ready to say a cheery 'good
morning' to whomever it was that had just entered the room.  The words
caught in his throat though as he watched Dave Malucci trying to get his
bicycle into the room.

Dave looked up from trying to get the unwieldy bike through the doors when
he heard a locker shut.  "H..." It was Carter.  Dave stared at him,
open-mouthed for a second.  "You're on today?"

John nodded.  "Yeah."  He didn't trust himself to say more than that.

Dave tried to shove the bike through the door that was closing onto it.
"You're..." Carter looked wonderful, tall and dark haired, clean.  Well, he
should be clean, he showered enough.  "You're not on the schedule."

"I can't remember the last time I saw a real schedule.  Weaver told me to
be here at this time, so here I am.  It will be better when we have
everyone back to work at the same time."  John said.  He knew he needed to
get to the admit area and start seeing patients, but it was too nice to
just stand there and watch Dave move.  He remembered how damned good Dave
looked moving around while naked.

The bike went though the door with a final shove.  Dave crossed the room to
lean the bike against the far wall -- hopefully out of the way.  "Chief on
today?"  Oh God, as Dave got closer to Carter he could feel himself getting
hard.  This couldn't be happening.

John shrugged.  "I'm not sure.  I think so.  It's her or Kovac.   Well, I've
got to get out there."  John walked past Dave, then stopped as he put his
hand on the door.  "You're looking real good, Dave."  And then he opened
the door and walked out of the lounge.  Smooth, John, he berated himself.
Really smooth.  You're half-hard for the guy, he's hard for you and all you
can say is that he looks good.  Yeah, that will win his love, won't it?

Dave flopped down on the sofa after Carter had left.  That was it?  What
the hell did *looking real good* mean?  Had Carter noticed the bulge in his
pants?  Joking about that?  This was just miserable.  Dave looked down at
the tent in the fabric of his scrubs.  "Down boy."  There was an entire
shift to get through here.

John grabbed the first chart he saw, not caring what the complaint was.
All that mattered was getting lost in his work so he wouldn't end up
thinking about Dave.  Or running into him.  Staying out of Dave's way
should be easy enough, John thought.  Unless we get a trauma or two.  And
even then, we'll be too busy to really notice each other.

At least that's what John hoped would happen.  It wasn't what he wanted to
have happen.  What he wanted was to be standing there at the admit desk,
have Dave leave the lounge, walk over to him, put his arms around him and
kiss him passionately in front of everyone.  Claim him in public.  Claim
him for real.

John sighed as he pushed open the door to Exam One.  That kind of claiming
by Dave would -- could -- never happen.  Not now and not in a million
years.

*Boy* didn't go down until Dave got the bright idea of imagining Haleh
naked, then Dave stood up and put his things into his locker.  He wondered
if he'd get hard again as soon as he saw Carter -- that would never do.
All the same, he imagined Carter standing out by the admit desk, hard too,
and waiting for him.

Dave had to think of Haleh again before he left the room.

Carter wasn't by the admit desk, Carter had gone.  Dave grabbed a chart and
set to work.


As he watched Benton leave with the victim of a drive-by shooting, John
mentally congratulated himself on not letting Dave's nearness get to him
during the trauma.  They had worked side by side and nothing untoward had
happened.  John pulled off the plastic gown and shoved it into the
hazardous waste bin, then peeled off his gloves and tossed them inside as
well.  "I think he'll live."  John said to the room at large as he turned
around.  Only the room at large consisted of only him and Dave at the
moment.  John had no idea where Yosh had gone.

And the second he saw Dave standing there, John's body responded.  Walking
awkwardly, John retrieved his lab coat, hoping to cover up his erection
until he could get out of the room.

Dave looked up at Carter.  "Yeah."  The whole morning and part of the
afternoon had gone by with nothing except occasional glimpses of Carter --
far away, in the distance, doing who knew what.  Now they were here, in a
room, alone together, and all Dave could think to say was *yeah*.

Carter was moving to leave the room, leave like he always left.  There was
nothing to say but Dave didn't want him to go.

"Hey, after work.  How 'bout gettin' a beer?" Dave didn't know where that
had come from.  He anxiously shut his mouth.  It didn't matter if Carter
said *no*, it didn't matter at all.

"A beer?"  John looked over at Dave.  "Just a beer?"

"Yeah, a beer.  Nothin' wrong with a beer.  Buds have beers all the time."
Had he and Carter ever had a beer after work before?  Dave couldn't
remember.  This was a nightmare.

So, just a beer and nothing else.  John was tempted to say 'no', but the
idea of sitting next to Dave at a bar was just too good to pass up.
"Sure.  A beer would be good.  I've got the Jeep, so we can put your bike
in the back when we leave."  John checked his watch.  "I'm off in about
three hours.  How about you?"

Dave grinned suddenly.  "Seven till seven.  Me too."  Something was going
right.  He'd be having a beer with Carter.  "Okay.  Seven in the lounge?"

John nodded.  "Or as close as we can get to seven."  Yosh came back into
the room then to start the clean-up, so John took the opportunity to
leave.  There was a spring in his step as he found himself already looking
forward to going out somewhere with Dave.

Dave found himself grinning as Carter left the room.  A beer with Carter
sounded good.  Very good.

Shortly afterwards Dave took his midafternoon break, and found himself
going to the money machine, to make sure he had enough cash for the beers.
Tonight should be good!

The rest of the day passed slowly for John, even though he kept himself
busy with patient after patient.  And it nearly came to a stop when Weaver
asked him to do chart review.  John found a desk in an out of the way spot,
but keeping his mind on the charts and away from Dave was impossible.  It
was almost seven when John deposited the charts on the counter.  "All
done," he said to Kerry.  "And I'm almost out of here."

Kerry smiled up at him.  "It sounds as if you have a date."

John smiled back.  "Not a date, but I do have something planned.  What
about you?"

Kerry's smile grew broader.  "I've got something planned."

"Well, I hope you have fun," John said as he grinned, then headed into the
lounge to get out of his lab coat.  Could it be possible that Kerry Weaver
had a hot date?  No one would ever believe that, or if they did, they'd be
too surprised to ever say anything.  Not that Weaver's love life was
anyone's business, just as his own love life didn't concern his
co-workers.  With the exception of one Dave Malucci, John thought.  His
love life should concern Dave very much, but Dave didn't love him and only
wanted to be friends.  So John's love life was being reduced to
friendship.  After nearly a whole week away from Dave, John was thinking
that he could handle friendship with Dave -- if that was all that Dave
could offer him.  John's feelings of love for Dave could dwindle until they
were normal feelings of concern and caring for a good friend and nothing
more.

Much to John's disappointment, the lounge was empty when he walked in.
Dave's bike was still there, so he hadn't sneaked away without saying
anything.  Whistling a happy tune, John headed for his locker.

At 7:03 pm Dave sauntered into the lounge.  He'd put it off for as long as
possible.  He didn't want to have to hang around in there waiting.  It was
much easier to just gossip with Malik and then look at the clock and see it
was after the appointed time.  Much easier.

When he opened the door, he saw Carter in there.  Dave's smile got wider.
"Ready to go?"

John closed his locker door.  "Ready.  Got any particular bar in mind?"
John asked.  If it was a gay bar, then there was still a chance of sharing
more than just a beer with Dave, although John wasn't so sure that having
sex with a 'friend' was the best thing to do when you were trying to fall
out of love.

Dave shrugged.  "Not really."  He hadn't thought that far ahead at all.
Sorting out that they'd get the beers had seemed enough.  "Sometimes go to
Sportz Shortz."  He more than sometimes went to Sportz Shortz - it was his
favourite bar.  A bar he went to with his friends.  And so it was right
that a drink between pals would happen there...Dave tried to encourage the
idea.  "Got this huge full wall TV - shows hockey games."

"Sportz Shortz?" John asked.  "I don't think I've been there."   It didn't
sound like a gay bar.  And the idea of watching hockey games on a full wall
TV didn't hold much appeal to him.  But sitting there with Dave sure did.
"We can try there.  Why don't you get your bike and I'll bring the Jeep
around to the door."

"Yokay."  Dave went to get his bike from against the wall.  "See ya soon."

Two minutes later Dave was waiting impatiently on the street outside the
ambulance entrance.  He looked up thankfully when the red Jeep came past.

John stopped the Jeep then he got out and undid the back window so Dave
could put the bike inside.  After the window was closed, John said, "Since
you know where this place is, I thought you could drive there."  And before
Dave could argue John got in on the passenger side.

Dave didn't usually drive.  He hadn't driven for months.  But you never
forget -- right?  Dave slid into the driver's seat, buckled himself in, and
started the car.  The Jeep went through three surging bunny-hops before
stalling half way down the block.  Dave turned away from Carter.  "It's
cold."

John laughed.  "Are you talking about my transmission or your driving
skills?"

Dave felt his face get red.  "It'll be fine."  He graunched the gears
angrily as he restarted the engine.

John settled back in the seat, curious as to how long it would take until
Dave gave up on trying to drive the Jeep.  He didn't think Dave would be
able to strip the gears, but if it looked as if the vehicle would come to
serious harm, John was prepared to stop him.

Dave cautiously took the vehicle to the lights at the end of the block.
Okay, he hadn't got out of first, but he hadn't stalled again either.  He
smiled at his success as he smoothly applied the brake that slowed them
from five miles per hour to a total stop.

Green. Ease off the brake.  Going forward now.  Clutch and gear stick and
second and release the clutch, and yes -- second.

Second!  Dave sat up a bit proudly.  He was doing okay.  Accelerate, and
clutch and stick shift and third.  That was enough, they got to the next
set of lights just as it changed from orange to red.  An angry horn honked
behind them.  Dave turned around to give it the finger.

John felt relieved as the Jeep came to a stop at the light.  At the rate
they were going, he wasn't sure if they would make it to the bar before it
closed.  "Been a while since you drove a stick shift, huh?"

Dave half glanced at Carter as he prepared for the light to turn green.
Clutch and shift, and first, and cover the brake.  "I'm doin' okay."

"You're getting the hang of it, John nodded.  Then he grinned.   "Though I
can see why you prefer to bike it to work."

Dave half-grimaced.  He really didn't need Carter making fun of him.  Okay,
maybe 'okay' was overstating it. But he hadn't stalled again, and that had
to count for something.  The light changed and Dave accelerated forward,
not smoothly, but not too bad either.  He smiled in relief, and glanced at
Carter in triumph, as they got through the next set of lights still on the
green.  "Okay."

John laughed as he considered Dave's definition of 'okay'.  "Yeah, you're
doing okay.  How far away is this place?"

"Not far."  Dave settled down to the task of driving through the city.   It
took all his concentration after being carless for so long, but he knew the
route, that had to help.  There was a shortcut soon here, that took off
about 5 blocks of a one-way circuit.  Dave carefully remembered to signal
and made the turn into the alley.

It was a narrow alley.  Plenty wide for a bike, but more problematic for a
Jeep.  Dave slowed considerably.  The light was poor here too, and he had a
bit of trouble seeing just where the walls edging the alley were.

John thought he had two choices - he could scream at Dave to stop and take
over the driving, or he could close his eyes and pray that Dave didn't hit
anything, or scrape the paint off the vehicle.  After a quick glance in
Dave's direction John decided to trust him and he closed his eyes.

Dave bit his lip.  This was much easier on a bike.  There was a graunching
sound as he ran against a drainpipe; but luckily he didn't seem to have
banged into the wall itself.

John's shoulders tensed as he heard the Jeep grate against something
solid.  'Please don't let it be bad, please?' he silently prayed.  It had
been bad enough to lose his last Jeep to looters and fire, and he had
really become attached to this one.  He didn't want to have to get it
repainted.  He really didn't.  Although a new paint job definitely beat
having it set on fire.  So John kept his mouth shut, half-afraid that any
comments from him might startle Dave and result in more damage to the
vehicle.

Dave drove still slower, then was rewarded by seeing the dark grey
rectangle that was the street the alley let out onto growing appreciably
larger.  He stopped before turning, -- with any luck Carter wouldn't have
heard that drainpipe -- it had been on the drivers side of the Jeep after
all.

Dave suddenly realized that the street the alley lead out onto was one-way
the wrong way.  It didn't matter on a bike, but maybe it would in a bigger
vehicle.

Dave glanced at Carter - who wasn't saying a word - and decided it might be
better not to push his luck any further.  He turned onto the street, facing
the correct direction, and parked.  "It's a couple of blocks that way."   He
gestured behind them.

John felt much better now that Dave had parked the Jeep.  "I can handle a
couple of blocks," John said as he got out.  He looked at the vehicle and
noted that the red paint remained unscathed.  That meant the scrape, if
there was one, would be on the driver's side.  John wasn't sure if he
should ask Dave if the damage was bad.  He quickly decided it didn't
matter.  If it was, well, there wasn't anything that could be done about it
right then.

Dave jumped out of the Jeep, and locked the door.  He took a quick peek at
the scratch on the door before he joined Carter behind the Jeep.  It was
scarcely noticeable -- especially in this light.  And the Jeep probably had
half a hundred other minor injuries.  This one should go unnoticed.

Dave started walking -- after all that he *needed* a beer.  Still, he
didn't think that he'd done too badly for his first driving in a long
time.  He whistled softly and tossed the keys into his pocket.  "This way."

John fell into step beside Dave, suddenly aware of how close they were on
the narrow sidewalk.  It would be so easy to reach over, grab Dave and pin
him to the wall.  Then he could kiss him and kiss him and kiss him.  But,
they were on their way for a beer.  Just a beer.  Nothing else.  In a
normal bar.  Like they were real friends.

Two blocks later, as they reached the door of "Sportz Shortz", John felt
quite proud of himself for managing to keep his hands off of Dave's body.
Hell, he had felt proud of himself for keeping his hands off Dave during
work.  Keeping his hands off Dave on a public street was a piece of cake
compared to that.

Dave pushed the door open, looking at Carter.  "In here."  The main feature
in the bar was the much touted TV screen which dominated one wall, and
which was currently showing a brawl on an ice-hockey rink.  Dave looked
around the area appreciatively.  It was warm after the cold and snow
outside, and there was a comfortable smell that was a mixture of beer and
locker-room.

Dave walked up to the bar.  "Hey there, Matt.  Coupla beers."  He pulled
out his wallet as the bar keep grabbed two pint glasses and started drawing
the beers down.

John followed Dave to the bar, then turned around to look at the place.  It
looked...manly.  It wasn't a full house, but there was a decent sized crowd
in there.  And the only woman in the place was the waitress who was over at
a table near the giant TV screen.  She was dressed in shorts so tight that
it was obvious she didn't have on any underwear and a tight T-shirt that
didn't meet the top of the shorts.  If it weren't for the presence of the
man behind him, John would have been very interested in the sassy looking
blonde.  As John heard the bartender talk to Dave, he realized that Dave
now had the beers in his hands and he turned back around so he could take
his from Dave before they found a table.

Dave took an appreciative slurp of his beer.  It was just what he needed
after a long shift and a longer week.  He looked around and saw an
untenanted booth with a good view of the TV screen.  "Over here, Carter."

Dave slid into the seat, and took another long and appreciative slurp.
"Good beer, ay?"

John took a small sip, then nodded as he sat the beer on the table.  "Yeah,
it's pretty good."  And it was.  But John knew it would be the only one he
would have, if they stayed then he would switch to pop.  Getting drunk
wasn't all that much different than getting high and he wanted to avoid
anything and everything of that nature.

All of a sudden, John realized that with them not at work and with their
clothes on, he didn't know what to say to Dave.  Except for a few small
details, John knew next to nothing about Dave's life away from County
General.  And he doubted if Dave knew much about him.

"You must hang out here a lot if the bartender knows you," John said in an
effort to make small talk.  Maybe finding out about what Dave did when he
wasn't at work would lead to Dave opening up about other aspects of his
life -- where he grew up, what his family was like, what university he
attended before going to medical school in Grenada -- things like that.

"A bit."  Dave kept his eyes firmly on the TV screen -- the hockey brawl
had gotten much larger -- and the camera was panning around to show groups
of supporters fighting too.  "Look at that."

Dave settled back, and took another drink of his beer.  When he glanced at
Carter he saw the man looking pretty nervy -- maybe he didn't usually come
to joints like this.  And there was the sex thing.  The sex thing that had
happened last weekend.  But Dave didn't want to think about that, he wanted
things to be normal.  And somehow now, normal should include Carter sitting
behind him when he got a beer.  Behind?  Where the fuck had that thought
come from?  Beside.  Beside him.   Dave's glass was only half-empty, but he
gestured to the waitress.  "Roxanne.  Yoo hoo.  Over here.  More beer."
Beer was normal.  Roxanne was normal.  And there was no reason that Carter
sitting astr -- across from -- him couldn't be normal too.

John waited until the waitress had left.  Figured that she'd be another
Roxanne, he thought, although she didn't look as if she had much in common
with his ex-girlfriend.  This one had more hip and a lot more bust.  He
glanced up at the game.  He had never played hockey.  Didn't much care for
it as a sport.  But he remembered Dave asking for someone to volunteer to
be on his team.  "So, how's your hockey team doing?  The one you had Mark
playing on that one time?"

Dave grinned.  "Our punch ups aren't as good as that one.  You play?"

John laughed.  "Sorry.  No.  I do basketball and a little softball, but
back when I was in school I wrestled and ran track.  Did dressage," John
explained.  "Did you play on a hockey team back when you were in high
school or did you wait until you were in college to play?" Even as John
asked about ice hockey, he found himself thinking about how wonderful it
would be to wrestle with Dave.  A naked Dave.  Covered in oil.  He looked
down at the table and took another sip of the beer in an effort to get his
mind away from sex.

"Boarding school?  You went to a boarding school?"  Dave shook his head,
and took another drink of his beer.  "Played hockey, some way, since I
could skate.  No sense doin' nothing being on ice."

"I like ice skating, but I don't get to do it much.  I went to regular
school until I was about twelve and then I went to boarding school.  Some
stupid family tradition that was supposed to help me become an independent
person.  It's only about an hour's drive away from here, although at the
rate my parents visited me, you'd think it was a hundred hours."  John took
another drink of the beer and shrugged.  "It wasn't so bad.  I could keep
my horse there and I still got to come home every weekend."

"Your HORSE?"  Okay, so Dave knew that Carter was rich.  He'd been at that
mansion last weekend hadn't he?  He'd swum in that pool.  And been fucked
beside that Jacuzzi, and in that huge shower, and...there was the four
poster bed, and the huge kitchen, and the driveway so long that he hadn't
managed to get out of it.  Dave looked up at Carter -- the memories of last
weekend flickering in front of his eyes.  He suddenly didn't know what he
was doing here with Carter.  This place was real, it wasn't some
millionaire's mansion - real people came here, and did things here.  It
wasn't some play, make-believe place.

John smiled and nodded as he thought about Marigold.  "Yeah.  Marigold.   He
was a Thoroughbred.  We won 18 ribbons one year.  Most people don't know
what I'm talking about when I say 'dressage', but when they see it, they
recognize it.  It's not easy to describe, but it does look good."  John
said.  "When I was in...Atlanta, we had a trip out to a stable that had
riding trails.  It felt good to be on a horse again.  I hadn't realized
until then just how much I missed riding.  And Marigold."

Dave downed the rest of his beer, and looked around for Roxanne to bring
him his second.  This was weird, Carter was making it sound like horses
were real -- as real as ice-hockey.  He shrugged,  "Skating's cool.   Ever
been out on a lake, not just a rink?"  On the TV screen, the brawl had
finished and instead it seemed to be showing classic tackles of football,
Dave was assailed by a vision of Carter pulling him down like that, rolling
on top of him.  He shouldn't be thinking like that -- this was a normal
bar, with normal people.

"There's a small lake at my grandparents place.  It freezes over enough for
skating.  When we were kids, my brother, sister and cousins and I would
stay out there for hours on end.  Gamma would finally send someone out to
make us come into the house where she would have cocoa ready for us by the
fire.  We'd be huddled around the hearth, shivering as we tried to get
warm."  John's happy childhood memory quickly morphed into a memory of him
in bed beside a shivering Dave, trying his best to get Dave warm.  He
pushed that image aside.  "What about you?  Where did you skate?"

"There's a little lake-pond thing in Central Park.  And on a rink for
school."  Dave flashed a grin at Carter.  "Nothing like a *private* lake
though."  Luckily Roxanne came with Dave's beer just then, and he was able
to grab it before he started to stare into those eyes.  It was stupid of
him to still be looking at Carter like this.  He'd fucked him last
weekend.  Everything should be back to normal now, he should be looking at
women again -- not still at Carter.

Dave was aware that he was beginning to get hard again.  This drink wasn't
supposed to work out like this.  He wasn't entirely sure how it was that it
was supposed to turn out.  But he was sure it wasn't supposed to be like
this.

Dave picked up his beer from the table, and slopped a quantity of it onto
the table in his agitation.

John grabbed a napkin from the dispenser and tossed it in Dave's
direction.  "If you're like this after only *one* beer, then maybe I
shouldn't let you have two," he said.  He grinned at Dave, then slid out of
the booth.  "I'll be right back.  Which way's the men's room?"

"Round that way."  Dave gestured behind the curve of the bar.

John nodded, then headed in that direction.  While Carter was gone Dave
watched Roxanne's ass.  It didn't seem as pinchable as it usually did.  He
hadn't even tried when she brought him his beer.  Why hadn't he?  Dave
wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to that question.  He just wanted
to watch the sports and be normal.  Classic tackles football *should* be
safe, there weren't many things more manly than football.  And there was
nothing wrong with hugging your teammates after a goal.  God -- if the guys
on his hockey team knew what he'd let Carter do to him last weekend they'd
never let him play with them again.

When Roxanne came close enough, Dave pinched her ass just to prove he
could.


To be continued....