Title: Passage
Author: phobosgirl (phobosgirl@hotmail.com)
Date: 12/26/04
Rating: G
Authors notes: This is NOT a part of “Stages Of Gale”! J This is, as usual, un-beta’d cos I wouldn’t know a beta if one walked in my front door. Feedback is more than welcome and can be sent to phobosgirl@hotmail.com

Disclaimer: This is only for fun. None of this is real nor should any implication be made based on this manuscript that I have any insider info on either of these two actors.
Warnings: Gale/Randy (Queer as Folk) RPS

Complete: yes

Passage

Toronto was home to me now. It always would be and that wasn’t such a bad thing. I loved it here. The city had an unexpected vibrancy and color that drew me to prowl her streets night after night, day after day.

I wander often to the places I love the most- dusty old record stores Randy and I had frequented; tiny bistros tucked away on side streets that only the locals know; and of course, Randy’s old brownstone apartment. I was particularly drawn to that again and again. I could still see him bouncing out the front door as I waited for him in the street, a smile on his face, the beat up old knapsack he dragged everywhere slung over his shoulder.

We had been really happy here, so I remained well after most others would have moved on. Of course, my friends had left long ago- scattered to the winds in search of their own careers. Robert, Peter and Michelle were in LA, of course. Everyone else was either living and working in New York City or winging between both coasts for various projects.

Naturally, Randy is the one I miss the most desperately. It had been a year since he’d visited but I knew he’d return today, so I was waiting for him at our usual spot. I felt warm again when I saw him striding towards me and all I wanted was to reach out and gather him into my arms.

He was carrying a giant bouquet of daffodils and that made me grin. It was just like him- he’d been raised never to visit an old friend empty-handed.

He stood for a moment, just looking, and then he knelt down, placing the flowers at his feet.

“Hey,” he said, in a choked, quiet voice.

‘Hey,’ I answered.

“It’s been a year, today.”

‘Yes, a year exactly,’ I told him.

“I miss you, baby.”

‘I know. I miss you, too, Randy.’

He reached his hand out and brushed a leaf and some grass clippings off the simple stone. The gardeners had been by earlier, and I was glad because now the grass looked neat and pretty for his visit.

He was silent for a long time, just gazing, and finally he said in a clenched voice, “Dammit, Gale, I told you those fucking little helmets wouldn’t protect you from anything. You and your stupid motorcycles. Why the hell are you always so stubborn?”

‘Just to annoy you,’ I answered, as I often had, with a smile.

“You just wanted to prove to me that I was wrong and you were right.”

‘Yeah- not so swift on the uptake for that one, was I?’ 

“You really piss me off, asshole,”

‘I know. I’m sorry’

I glanced around us. Others had stopped their wanderings to watch my lover on his knees. To watch me, watching him. I shared this place with them and they were pretty good neighbors, all in all.

There was a blanket of quiet in the afternoon air. I was glad the sun had shone today- spring is always iffy in Toronto. It lit his hair and made him look angelic. I longed for him.

“Gale, I’m trying to go on with my life, but most days I just don’t know how. But I’m still trying. You’d kick my ass if I did anything else, though, wouldn’t you?”

‘Of course I would.’

“God, I miss you so much,” his voice had dropped to a whisper.

‘Me, too.’

He knelt for a long time before finally kissing the tips of his fingers and pressing them to my headstone.

“I love you, baby, I’ll always love you,” he declared, not for the first time. If I’d had tears to shed, I would have cried them now.

‘I love you too- for eternity.’

He stood and stared down at my place of rest for a few more moments.

“I’ll see you someday, Gale, I promise. We’ll be together again.”

‘Yes, Randy, together always. I’m waiting for you.’

He turned and walked away, leaving me to wander another year and await his return next spring.

The End

Author’s notes: I’m sorry for this one, truly. I don’t know where it came from, my muse is being cruel to me tonight, but it sprang fully-fledged into my head and I knew I had to get it down before it fled.