Please see Part 1 for disclaimers and archiving information.

"From The Top", Part 4/33
By Clotho (clothomoerae@hotmail.com) and Cathy (huntersglenn@yahoo.com)

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Dave looked at Carter's grandmother in horror, and turned a bright red.  He
didn't want to answer these questions -- he couldn't.  Dave kicked harder,
and did his best to pretend he hadn't heard above the splashing of the
water.  He remembered the way Carter's body had felt under his fingers last
weekend, and the hugeness and hardness of the redwood.  And oh, God.  He
had to stop thinking about this before he got hard again.

So, now Millicent had her answer. Dr. Malucci wasn't *just* a friend of
John's.  But she still needed to know if this was something casual or if
Dr. Malucci genuinely cared about John's wellbeing. She walked over to the
edge of the pool. "Dr. Malucci?  Would you please stop swimming for a
second?"

Dave looked at her.  She was so close he couldn't pretend not to hear.  He
stopped, and immediately began to sink.

"I think that for your own safety it would be best if you came out of the
pool."  Millicent walked over to the towels and brought one over to the
edge of the pool as she waited for Dr. Malucci to exit.

Dave kicked a bit. "No, I'm fine."  There was no way he was getting any
closer to her.  He began to tread water a little.  "What?"

"Suite yourself.  Just please try to refrain from drowning."   Millicent
took a deep breath.  "Do you care about John?  I know that the two of you
are...well, I have a fairly good idea about what went on here last
weekend.  I certainly have no idea about the details and have no wish to
know them, but I do know and have known for years that John is not
exclusively attracted to women.  So, given the fact that the two of you
were here last weekend and that John brought you here last night, I need to
know how you feel about him."

Dave turned away from the look in Millicent's eyes.  He couldn't answer her
questions, or her insinuations.  "We're buds.  Went out for a beer last
night."  It wasn't like Carter had wanted anything else, Dave turned back
to Millicent Carter.  "It was just a beer."

"I see."  Millicent frowned.  This wasn't what she had been hoping for as a
response.  She wasn't really sure just *what* she had been looking for
though, but 'we're buds' wasn't it.  "Then I guess I needn't bother you
with any concerns I have about his emotional health.  I'll leave you alone
so you can swim in peace."  Millicent started to walk toward the door, even
more worried about John than she had been before.

She was going, that was good.  But her parting comment left Dave uneasy, he
called after her.  "Hey, none of his..." Shit.  "No-one who..." Double
shit.  "Don't want to see him using again or anything."

Millicent stopped and turned around.  "No one wants to see that happen, Dr.
Malucci, but sometimes circumstances can work against what we all want,
don't they?  John's been in a strange mood all week.  Too quiet and
contemplative.  He's been out in the driveway between his shifts working
out with that punching bag.  I've noticed that when John works out extra
hard that it's an indication that something is bothering him.  He tells me
that things are fine but I still worry about him.  That place...County
General...it nearly killed him once and I don't want to see it succeed.  I
hate it that he continues to work there, but I can't convince him to
leave.  Going back there after he was stabbed certainly contributed to his
addiction and I will never understand or forgive those of us who never saw
what was happening to him.  And I do include myself in that category, Dr.
Malucci.  John lived here and we never saw what was going on.  We were just
too happy that he was smiling and no longer in any physical pain."

Dave started to shrug but found it wasn't very easy to do while staying
afloat.  He didn't know what to say to her.  She talked as much as Carter
did.  After another abortive shrug he said, "It's a good place to work."

"I suppose so...when you don't have patients stabbing young medical
students to death and attacking other doctors.  Or people walking in off
the street and shooting out the brains of your patients.  A very nice
place."  Millicent realized she was getting angry and she gave herself a
mental shake.  She really hated County General with a passion, but she had
vowed to not let John see that again.  Or how scared she was for him as
long as he worked there.  "Since you don't think his behavior has been odd
this week then I guess I must be imagining things.  I'll leave you to your
swim."  She turned once more and headed for the door.

Dave couldn't say that -- he hadn't seen Carter all week, not until
yesterday.  And it wasn't like he'd ever had anything to do with the other
guys he'd met at clubs before.  He didn't know what normal was.  But County
wasn't bad either -- it wasn't like it was worse than the streets outside,
and often it was better.  Dave restarted his swim, deciding that maybe
Carter's grandmother didn't know what the real world was like.

Millicent stopped in the kitchen on her way to shower and change.  Corrine
was there, ready to prepare breakfast.  "You're up early, Corrine."

Corrine smiled. "I thought that Dr. John and Dr. Malucci might be hungry
this morning.  I was thinking of making French toast.  Would you like me to
prepare some for you and Mr. Carter?"

"None for me, Corrine.  I'll just have some toast and tea when I'm through
with my shower.  However I know that Mr. Carter would appreciate the French
toast."

The door to the outside opened and John entered the kitchen.  He smiled at
his Gamma and Corrine, giving his Gamma a hug and a kiss and Corrine a
hug.  "Good morning."

"Good morning.  I hope you're hungry this morning since Corrine has planned
to prepare a large breakfast.  Dr. Malucci is in the pool, swimming laps.
Perhaps you could let him know that breakfast will be ready in about thirty
minutes," Millicent said.

"Sure. Okay," John said.  He wasn't sure he could handle being alone with
Dave in the poolroom.  Despite his physical exertion with the punching bag,
he was still feeling a desire for the man.  "What are we having?"

"French toast," Corrine replied.  "With cinnamon, just the way you like
it."

"Oh," John commented.  He wasn't sure he was up to eating French toast ever
again.  Especially with cinnamon.  "I'll tell him."

John walked into the poolroom.  Dave was still in the pool, but he was
swimming away from the door so he hadn't seen him come in.  John used that
to his advantage as he stood there and watched Dave swim.  In his mind
though, Dave wasn't wearing those hideous swimming trunks.

Dave reached the end of the pool and turned.  In the second he breathed
before he launched back down the pool he saw Carter standing there.  Dave
abruptly let go, and began to sink before kicking his way to the surface
and spouting water out of his mouth.

John looked at Dave with concern.  "You okay or is that just your fountain
impersonation?"

"The Buckingham's got nothing on me."  Carter had a fresh morning air about
him -- this wasn't a sleepy guy who'd just crawled out of bed.  Dave
remembered to keep kicking as he looked at Carter.

John slowly grinned.  "You're right about that.  How do you feel?  Any sign
of a hangover?  You were pretty drunk last night."

Shit how was he supposed to answer that?  If he was drunk as a skunk on a
few beers that wouldn't say much about his tolerance, but if he wasn't then
when he'd said that to Carter about him doing him.... Dave looked at Carter
in mute horror, and let himself sink again.

John watched with amusement as Dave sank down into the water.  Did that
mean Dave wanted to play in the pool?  "If you can hear me, do you want me
to join you for a swim or something?" John asked.

Dave pushed himself up to the surface.  "Sure, if you like."  Yeah that
sounded cool, Dave applauded himself.

"Okay.  Let me just grab a pair of trunks."  John walked over to the bin,
but the selection wasn't all that great.  Despite the fact that he found
Dave's trunks to be ugly, he didn't find anything better -- Dave had
obviously picked out the better of the lot.  John finally decided to ignore
what the trunks looked like and he just grabbed a pair, then went into the
bathroom to quickly change.

When he came back out, John walked over to the shower on the wall to
quickly rinse off the sweat from his workout.  Then he dove into the deep
end of the pool.  Images of him and Dave in the pool before went through
his mind and he found himself getting hard.  This wasn't supposed to be
happening, he thought.  He wanted to *not* want Dave like that.  Wanted to
not love him.

John shook the water out of his eyes as his head broke the surface, then he
began to tread water as he looked at Dave.  "Corrine is fixing a large
breakfast.  I'm not really hungry but I know you have a big appetite for
breakfast food, so you might be interested in eating."

Dave didn't know what to say to that, and it annoyed him that he didn't.
He seemed to have spent a large amount of this morning speechless -- which
was an unusual and not very nice condition to be in.  "Breakfast sounds
good."

"It might not sound so good when you hear what it is."  John swam toward
the middle of the pool to get a little closer to Dave.

Dave watched Carter come nearer a little uneasily, but didn't move away.
"What is it?  Rock hard porridge?" He kicked to maintain his place in the
water.

"No.  French toast.  With cinnamon even.  Just the way I like it."  John
dove under the water and came up a few feet away from Dave.  "I'm sorry.  I
can make up some excuse for you to get out of breakfast.  Maybe tell them
that you're allergic to eggs or something like that."

French toast?  Not what he had been expecting.  Dave turned away from
Carter, "As long as she doesn't throw the pan at me."  He started swimming
again.

John had been about to throw caution to the wind and move closer to Dave so
he could kiss him when Dave said that about the pan.  "I'm sorry," John
repeated. The pan incident was going to haunt him for a long time, he just
knew it.  If not for that, then maybe last weekend would have turned out
better.  John swam to the side of the pool and lifted himself to the edge.
He sat there to watch Dave swim, not quite trusting himself to get
physically close to him again.

When Dave had completed that length, he saw that Carter was sitting on the
side of the pool.  "You swimming or not?"

"I wasn't sure if it was safe to be in the pool with you.  One of these
days you're going to get your revenge for that pan."  John figured if he
joked about it, then maybe Dave would stop thinking about it so much.  At
least that's what John hoped.  He didn't want Dave's greatest memory from
the previous weekend to be his acting like a brat and throwing a frying
pan.  John wanted Dave to remember how pleasurable the sex had been, even
if they hadn't made love after all. And he even more so wanted Dave to want
to do all of that again.  But he most especially wanted Dave to want to
make love to him.

Dave looked at Carter in disgust.  "You think I'll throw something at you
coz you threw that at me?"  Dave turned away before he got his answer and
swam another length.

So humor didn't work with Dave -- at least not this morning.  "No. I was
trying to make a joke, Dave.  Forget it.  I've already told you that I was
sorry for throwing a tantrum, but if you want to hold onto that one
incident out of everything that happened last weekend, then so be it.  I
prefer to remember all the other stuff we did.  The stuff that felt good
and right."  John got to his feet and headed for the towel stand.

Nothing was right about what they'd done last weekend -- Dave knew that
much.  Just because it had felt good didn't make it right.  Dave pushed
himself on, swimming as fast as he could go.  Worst of all was the stuff
he'd done in the morning, when he wasn't drunk anymore.  Dave swam on as
hard and fast as he could go, and three lengths later hung onto the end
gasping for breath.

John could hear Dave panting and it reminded him all too much of the hard
breathing Dave had done while coming.  With a sigh, John wrapped the towel
around his waist and decided on a neutral topic.  "Do you need a ride
home?"

Dave looked up from where he was clinging.  Carter was just inside his line
of sight.  There were droplets of water rolling down the man's chest.  A
chest that was bare of any hair -- like a woman's.  Dave could remember
touching it, and forced himself to look away.  He wasn't drunk so there was
no excuse to look.  "I'm on at seven.  Your grandmother said something
'bout a cab."

"Cabs cost money.  I can easily drive you home if you'd like.  I *do* know
the way."  John suddenly grinned.  "At least, I know it from here."

Dave shrugged.  "If you like."  There was no point actually wasting money,
and he was sure he could keep his hands off Carter for the duration of a
drive into town.

John nodded. "Okay."  John wanted so much to jump back into the pool and
wrap his arms and legs around Dave and kiss him for all he was worth.  He
wanted it too much.  "I'm going to go shower and get dressed now.  Can you
find your way back to the bedroom?"

Dave shrugged.  "Don't need to."  Or he didn't if he could find a towel --
and there was sure to be one about here somewhere.

"You don't want to shower and shave before going to work?  Suit yourself
then."  John said as he headed for the door.  "I'll be back down as soon as
possible."

Dave hadn't thought about shaving -- it had been the furthest thing from
his mind when he woke this morning, but now he had a hand over his stubbly
chin.  He probably should, if he had the chance.  Dave swam toward the
shallow end of the pool, and got out.  It was time to get dry.

About five minutes later, a fully dressed Dave trundled up the stairs, and
poked his head around the door of Carter's room.  "Razor?"

John had just stepped out of the shower when he heard Dave's voice in his
bedroom.  And his cock went to full attention at the sound.  John mentally
cursed himself for leaving the bathroom door open.  He never closed it
since he usually had the door to the bedroom closed -- just as he had this
time.  At least, he *thought* he had shut the door.  "Hold on," John called
out as he wrapped the towel around his waist, knowing full well it wouldn't
conceal his raging hard on.  He walked over to the open door.  "There
should be a can of shaving cream and a disposable razor under the sink in
the bathroom of your room."  Even though Dave was now dressed, John's cock
didn't care.  It still wanted Dave.  Needed Dave.

"Okay. Guess I shoulda looked there first."  Dave didn't really want to
know why he hadn't looked there first.  He looked down and saw the redwood
poking at the towel around Carter's waist.  It looked big enough to hold up
a circus tent.

John noticed Dave looking at his groin.  Any other time that would have
been a clue for him to walk over to Dave and kiss him.  But not this
morning.  "Give me about ten more minutes and I'll be ready to go."   John
found his eyes drifting to Dave's crotch, looking for any sign that Dave
wanted him, too.

Dave pulled his eyes away from the redwood.  "Yeah. Sure."  He couldn't
quite bring himself to leave though.  He repeated, "Ten minutes."

"Right," John said, but he didn't step away from the door.  He just kept
looking at Dave's crotch, looking for some sign that he meant something to
Dave, even if it was just physical.  He finally broke his eyes away from
that area and looked at Dave's face.

"You know, about last night.  I really had a good time at the bar.  It's
been a long time since I had a friend to hang out with and it felt good.  I
was wondering if maybe we could do something tonight once we're off from
work?  Maybe a movie since I don't have any neighborhood bars around
here."  Please don't let Dave think that I'm asking him out on a date, John
prayed.  Even if I am.

"Uh." It had been fun.  It would be fun to do it again.  And there was no
need to *do* anything.  They hadn't last night after all.  Dave looked up
at Carter and smiled.  "Yes. I'm off at 7.  How' bout you?"  He could feel
his cock stirring to life again as he spoke, but he did his best to ignore
it.  Last night had been two buds drinking beer, that was all.

"Midnight.  But I know there are a few theaters that show movies after that
time.  Discount prices, too.  Won't be a first run movie, but I'm sure we
can find something interesting."  John said with a grin.  Dave was going to
go out with him!  Yes!!!

Dave grinned.  "Midnight?  Rocky Horror's sure to be on then."

John laughed.  "Sweet transvestites from Transylvania?  You can bet good
money that that movie will be playing somewhere tonight."

Dave wasn't quite sure what that meant -- he'd never dressed up in women's
clothing.  Never.  Ever.  But he let it slide, and smiled.   "Midnight."

John nodded.  "Midnight.  I guess I'll have to come by to pick you up.
That late at night you shouldn't be out on your bike."  John took one step
back into the bathroom.  "I had better get dried off the rest of the way so
you won't be late for work."

"Yeah sure.  Gotta shave too."

"Yeah.  I'll be ready in a few minutes."  John stepped all the way into his
bathroom and shut the door.  Leaning against it, he closed his eyes.  Dave
was going to go to the movies with him.  That was something, right?  A
start of something maybe.  But he was still hard for him.  John looked down
at the bulge in the towel, tempted to do something about it.  But if John
was ever with Dave again he wanted it to be the real thing and not a
fantasy.  Shaking his head, John headed for the sink so he could shave and
get ready to take Dave home.

To be continued