Chapter 6 - A Few Family Separations
One day in mid-May, about three months after Tyler returned to Shawn, Dean called on Shawn's day off and asked if he could meet for lunch. "Damn, man, you won't be alone with me. There will be tons of people at the restaurant." Dean blew out a breath. "You're a fucking pussy."
"Fine, where." He wouldn't meet Dean without calling Tyler to confirm it was okay. He abided by the one rule that Tyler set up and would never let him down again.
Shawn called Tyler's cell phone first. After not getting an answer, he called the office phone, finding out that he was out. So he decided to run down to the University. He wouldn't go without talking to Tyler first.
Shawn didn't have long before he was supposed to meet Dean. When he arrived at the University, he walked straight to Tyler's office. He ran into both Dawn and Tyler in the hallway. "Hi Babe, what are you doing here?" Tyler could see he looked a little stressed.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Tyler nodded, and Dawn said she would talk to the both of them later, especially looking at Shawn. "Dean wants to meet for lunch." Tyler looked at him. "Public place, you know I promised you, but I wanted your permission before I went. I told him, yes, to get him off the phone, but if you told me no. I won't go."
Tyler knew Shawn had been great these last few months, and he knew he would have to trust Shawn, or this would never work. "I trust you," Tyler said.
Shawn hadn't finished his speech, "I'll even stay here in your office if you wanted. Wait. What?"
"Shawn, I trust you. I love you. I trust you." Shawn closed the gap between them and held Tyler. He still hasn't gained the weight back. He has been so worried about losing Tyler that he's been so on edge that he couldn't relax.
"Tyler, move in with me. You practically do. I need you to stay. Please." Tyler didn't know how it got from permission to trust to please move in. That was weird because he wanted to talk to him about that topic this evening.
"Well, I was going to talk about that tonight with you, but since you are bringing it up now." Shawn looked confused but intrigued. "My roommate graduated last term, and our lease is up and...."
Shawn's eyes widened, "You want to move in?"
"Yes, but I won't freeload off you. I want to pay you rent." Tyler looked at his watch. "But we can talk about this tonight. Go meet with Dean. I have an idea what he wants to talk to you about."
"Can you give me a hint?"
"Wow, look at the time. I have to get back to my office," Tyler responded and tried to walk away, and Shawn grabbed him.
"What's going on?" Shawn looked at Tyler's guilty expression.
"You will find out. When is your lunch?"
"I'm supposed to be meeting him in fifteen minutes. So I better get going. I'll talk to you tonight." Shawn looked at Tyler and turned to leave when he turned back to ask what he knew. He had run off, and Shawn shook his head.
Shawn made it to the restaurant just as Dean got out of his car. "You look like shit, man."
"And for once, you don't." Dean went to hug Shawn, and he backed away. "Shit, man, you're a pussy. You can't even hug me in public?"
"Yeah, I can." He hugged Dean. He was amazed Dean didn't try anything. "Let's go in."
They went into the restaurant, Dean immediately ordered two fingers of whiskey on the rocks, and Shawn just ordered a Coke. "Pussy."
"You're not going to bully me into drinking with you." The waitress returned with their drinks, and they decided to order lunch so they could be left alone for a while. "So what did you need to talk to me about that couldn't wait until you were home."
"You won't be able to come to see me anymore at my home." Dean looked sad.
"What do you mean?" Shawn looked at him, clueless.
"Dawn really didn't tell you." Shawn looked at him. Then it dawned on Shawn as Dean finished his sentence. "Dawn asked me to move out." Dean was amazed that she kept her word that he could tell him what had happened.
"Oh shit. No, I didn't know. When?" He was completely surprised by this, and now he knows why Tyler ran away so fast, which made him smile.
"Why are you smiling?" Dean asked.
"Not for that. Tyler knew and ran away from me when I asked what he knew," Shawn explained.
"Well, she asked me to move the other day, but I have refused. I wasn't going to have Mike and Laura into our business right now. So she went to pack Rose and herself up this morning. I told her I would do anything she wanted."
"And what was that?" Shawn asked because he couldn't think what she would ask of him.
"She wants me to go to counseling." Dean responded, "Can you believe that, counseling." He was pissed.
"You do realize you will have to work on your problems?" Shawn pointed out the obvious.
"No shit." Dean just looked at Shawn and took a large drink. "I can do it. I don't want to lose your sister or my kid."
"Okay, what can I do?" Shawn asked. He had no clue.
"Talk to your sister and ask her not to throw me out. Please, Shawn, please, I can't lose her. You know I wouldn't be begging you here in the middle of a fucking restaurant if I could just speak to you alone."
"I can talk to her, but you know her. Dawn can be a bitch when she wants to be. You just think you have had the upper hand all these years." Shawn tried to analyze the situation.
"Oh, I paid for some of the times I fucked you, believe me. I would rub it in her face, but she found ways to get back at me." Dean thinks that when she refused to do anything for him for a month, she wouldn't cook, clean, or have sex with him. He believed it truly sucked not getting food from her. She would make sure that she only cooked enough for her and Rose and no one else. Doing his laundry was a pain, but he could do that.
Shawn knew his sister, she may have put up with Dean fucking him all these years, but he also knew that Dawn wasn't a victim in all of this, she came into this willingly, and neither was Shawn. He allowed it. Shawn loved or used to love it, but he loves Tyler now and wants to make it right with him. "Somehow, I can believe that."
"Shawn, you have to talk to her." Dean pleaded again.
"I will. Where will you go if she follows through with kicking you out?"
"I haven't thought that far." Dean drank the last of his whiskey and waved to the waitress for another.
Dean returned several times to the subject he wanted to meet Shawn about. They talk about things that have been going on lately. By the end of the lunch, Dean was drunk. He had glass after glass of whiskey. There was no way that Shawn would let Dean drive home or go back to work.
