Movin’ On

Part V

September 20, 1987

San Francisco, California

“Are you sure you don’t mind going there tonight?” Luke asked as he and Bo sat at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and planning what they wanted to do that day.

“Positive, I want you to see where I work.”

“You think you could get me a job there too?”

“Sure, but are you sure you want to work there, or do you only want to do it to protect me?”

“No, I want to do it, you know that as a team we’re pretty much unstoppable.”

“Yeah, that much I know, love, okay, so we’ll stop by this afternoon and talk to Mitch, then we can go tonight and you can get a feel for the place.”

“Sound’s good to me.” Luke agreed, catching Bo around the waste as he leaned over to pour Luke another cup of coffee.

“What are you doing?” Bo asked with a laugh.

“Just catching a morning ray of sunshine.”

“I thought I was the romantic,” Bo said with a laugh.

“You’re not the only one who knows how to be romantic.”

“So I see,” Bo said, dropping a light kiss on Luke’s lips. It had taken them the better part of two days to get back to the point where they felt comfortable kissing again, though they had slept in each others arms, kissing seemed like too big of a step to be taken all at once.

Luke groaned slightly from Bo’s kiss, “I didn’t know how much I would miss that, until it was gone,” he said softly. It had taken them the better part of two days to get back to the point where they felt comfortable kissing again, though they had slept in each other’s arms, kissing seemed like too big of a step to be taken all at once.

“I missed it too, love, I’m just glad we can do that again.”

“So am I.”

“Come on, love, let me up, I want to get a good start on today.”

“What’s the rush? You haven’t always been such a morning person.”

“I’m not usually, I’m just excited to see the city, I haven’t had much interest in sight seeing. Now I do,” Bo said, as he headed toward the bathroom.

Luke watched Bo walk away with a heavy heart ‘Will I ever be able to forgive myself for what I put him through?’

Luke was himself surprised when he saw the Striped Lion for the first time. It seemed like the kind of place that ‘nice’ folks, would hang out. Now, 5 hours later, it still seemed like the type of place that ‘nice’ folks hung out at, only a lot more crowded and a lot busier, he turned and said as much to his date.

“Yeah, and trust me, this is slow,” Bo said with a knowing grin.

“This is slow?” Luke asked, looking around at the bar that was so crowded there was barely room for dancing.

“Yeah, you should see it on a night when there’s a band, we’re turning people away at the door.”

“I gotta be honest, babe, I didn’t think there could possibly be this many gay people in the city.”

“This is only about one fiftieth the population of gays and lesbian’s in San Francisco,” Bo said.

Luke looked at his love with a smile and squeezed his hand across the table they were sharing. “You really have gotten into this thing, haven’t you?”

“No, not really…I’m still not attracted to any guys except you, but I figured if society was going to put a label on me, I was going to find out as much about that label as I could. So I’ve spent a lot of time researching this city and it’s gay pride movement. As well as the ‘alternative’ culture in general.”

“I do love you, Beauregard.”

“I love you too, Luke.” Bo said as a slow song started playing.

“Prove it,” Luke challenged, “Dance with me?”

“Thought you’d never ask,” Bo said, accepting the hand that Luke held out to him.

Luke led Bo onto the packed dance floor and held him tight, their bodies meshing together as the strains of the love song wafted around them.

They were lost in their own little world, until Luke was tapped on the shoulder. “May I?” a cold voice cut in.

“Jack…” it was said by both Bo and Luke at the same time, with barely concealed anger.

“Well, nice to see you both remember me.”

“Leave us alone,” Luke said coldly.

“What’s the matter, Luke? Afraid?”

“Afraid of the likes of you, no.”

“Not even afraid for your lover boy over here?”

“Bo can take care of himself,” Luke said trying to show confidence in his lover.

“Yeah, right,” Jack scoffed.

“Luke, Jack, what say we take this outside?” Bo suggested firmly, his responsibility to the club kicking in.

“That won’t be necessary, will it Luke?” Jack said snidely.

“You tell me, Jack,” Luke practically hissed.

“Outside now, both of you,” Bo ordered, signaling to two of the other bouncers for some help.

“Okay, okay, no need to get so touchy,” Jack said with a sneer.

“Bo’s right, there’s no reason to disrupt the evening for these fine folks,” Luke said, having just noticed that they were being watched by the entire crowd from the main bar, and the stairs were littered with people from the leather bar.

“Fine, you want to do this outside, we can do this outside, he’s in just as much trouble.” Jack snarled, nodding at Bo as he spoke.

Bo and the other two bouncers ushered Jack and Luke outside, where Luke looked Jack straight in the eye and challenged him, “What do you want? Money? Power? Fame?”

“How about revenge?” Jack hissed. “Do you know what they put my wife through before you got her out? They beat her, they sterilized her, they raped her and then to top it all off they nearly killed her, she was wishing they would kill her.”

“Jack, you know that we went in as soon as we were able, we did get her out.”

“You were too late, there was major damage done to her by then, and you still couldn’t do anything about the charges against me.” Jack’s sanity was on edge as he pulled a switchblade from his belt.

“I tried.”

“You didn’t try hard enough, damn it!” Jack shouted, grabbing Bo by the arm before either of them knew what was happening. “How does it feel, Luke? How does it feel knowing that I have power over someone you love?” Jack goaded, holding the knife to Bo’s throat. “But you see, killing him would be too easy, just a little too easy, he needs to suffer, just the way my wife has suffered. To this day I can barely make love to her without her begging me not to hurt her. That’s going to be you in just a little while, Luke. How does that feel?”

“Jack, please, don’t do this,” Luke pleaded, his eyes never leaving the knife that hovered around his love’s throat.

“Oh, I’m going to do this and a whole lot more, and if you try to stop me, not only will blondie end up dead, but you’ll be next, Lukas.” Jack hissed, dragging Bo backward, toward the parking lot.

The bouncers and Luke looked on helplessly as Bo was pulled away from them, Bo’s dark blue eyes pleading for help. Just as all had given up hope, Jack got to his car and let up his grip with the knife hand for a half a second to open the door. Bo took that opportunity to slam his elbow into Jack’s stomach, wheel away from his attacker, and bring his fists down over Jack’s head, all before Jack even knew what had hit him.

Luke rushed up to Bo “You okay?” he asked in concern as he watched the two bouncers pick Jack up off the street to march him into the office of the bar to await the police.

“I’m fine, love, just fine, though I gotta admit, for a moment there I was terrified,” Bo said, his voice raspy from the near choking as well as the exertion of his own defense.

“So was I, I never want to go through something like that again.”

“Neither do I, but the alternative is much, much worse.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Luke said, helping Bo up and leading him over to the Firebird.

“You sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?” Luke asked in concern for the fifth time since he and Bo had gotten back to the apartment.

“I’m sure, Luke, I’ll be fine, I just need a little while to catch my breath and relax,” Bo said, taking the pain pills Luke was offering to him.

“I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Luke, nothing will happen to me.”

“You sure you feel okay?” Luke asked again two minutes later, coming in with a hot cup of tea that he thought would help Bo’s throat.

“I feel fine, I’d be even better if you’d stop your fussin’ and come over here and hold me.”

“That’s one thing I can do,” Luke said, sitting down next to Bo on the couch and pulling the younger man into his arms.

“Love you, Luke,” Bo whispered, the stress of the evening finally taking it’s toll from the sounds of Bo’s voice.

“Love you, too, Beauregard,” Luke whispered, brushing a kiss against Bo’s head as he held his one and only close, allowing Bo to drift off to sleep in the safety of his arms.

“Positive, Luke, he didn’t hurt me, not really.”