Dancing with the Daffodils chapter 14/18

[marialayne.livejournal.com]

Title: Dancing with the Daffodils 14/18
Author: Maria Layne
Pairing: Viggo/Orlando (and others)
Rating: NC-17 ( for m/m sex)
Please see the warnings in chapter 1
Disclaimer: This is a fictional story with certain actors cast in the main roles. I am not claiming anything about their real life sexuality or making any money from this. I wish.

Let me know what you think, please.

Thank you to my most incredible beta bluespirit_star, the best of betas and the best of friends.

Past chapters are here:

chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, chapter 8, chapter 9, chapter 10, chapter 11, chapter 12, chapter 13

and the new chapter is here:




Chapter 14

I can’t say I slept well. In the early hours of the morning I imagined myself thrown in jail for child abuse, and my heart was thumping. But even as it was happening, I realised that the early hours were always the worst, and things would look better in the morning. And, of course, they did. When morning came, all I could concentrate on was the memory of the warmth and softness of his lips on mine. I had to push it out of my mind as I dressed in a suit, ready to meet whatever fate could dish out at the hearing. As I looked in the mirror, I wondered how long a boy Orlando’s age could love me. I looked all right now - and I was healthy and fit - but he was so young. How long could I keep his attention, his love, if that was what it was? Wouldn’t it be fairer to call it infatuation?

The self-doubts that plagued me had nothing to do with the morning’s ordeal, just my own insecurities where Orlando was concerned. I tried to drag my thoughts back to the trial at hand, as it were. I wondered if Kent would be there, too, and was just about to call him when the phone rang. In one of those really strange coincidences, it was Kent on the other end. He sounded agitated, and wanted me to come into the school straight away. I wondered what he wanted to see me for, before the hearing, but he wouldn’t give me any information. His voice was strained and tense, and I was really worried as I drove to school. Possible scenarios plagued me as I drove. What had happened now? Was there more evidence? Had the hearing been postponed? I was a mess by the time I arrived at school.


I sat waiting nervously outside his office, wishing there was some way to keep calm or at least to hide my nerves as I fielded numerous friendly comments about the way I was dressed, ‘Job interview today, Mortensen?’, ‘Who died, Sir?’ and so on. Finally, the door of the office opened and I half-rose to go in. I was totally taken aback when an angry Anna stormed out of the office, virtually dragging Danielle, who looked as if she had spent the night crying. I called to Anna as she passed, but she threw me a look of such hate and venom that it felt like a physical blow. What on earth had happened since last night? Was it something to do with Orlando? Had Orlando said something to Anna about us? And had Anna told Kent about it? How would that affect his support at the hearing if it were true? And if that were the case, why was Danielle there? No, nothing seemed to fit. But I didn’t understand Anna’s expression at all. I would have to sort that out as soon as this thing was over.


I was still watching them disappear as Kent asked me to come in. I nodded my head in their direction.
"What was that all about?" Kent shook his head, and ushered me into the office.
"Sit down, Viggo."
"Why am I here? Don’t we have to go into Regional Office?"
"Actually, Viggo, it’s good news." He half-smiled, as if he was surprised. "The allegations against you have been dropped." He smiled and nodded, almost inanely, and for a second he reminded me of the mechanical bulldog that my parents used to have in the back of their car, that nodded as you drove along. The resemblance made me grin, and then the import of what he said registered.
"So what does that mean?"
"It means you can resume teaching as soon as you like. The allegations have been dropped. You can come back on Monday - today if you like! Except, of course, today is the play, after all."


I realised at the time that I should have been feeling good, but I wasn’t. This was all the explanation I was going to get, and it made me furious. All that worry, that build-up, and now this! He was still smiling, nodding, and he had risen to show me out. I couldn’t just let it go.
"Wait a minute! Is that all I get after all this time? No explanation? No apology? No consideration for all I’ve gone through? Don’t you realise what this has done to my life, my friendships, my career, my self-esteem? Don’t you care? Do you even know?" He looked stunned by my outburst, unable to respond, so I continued, my voice raised now, not caring who heard, "Well you can fuck your job, fuck your school and fuck yourself!" That told him.
"Viggo!" The word came out halfway between shock and a plea for quiet. I felt sorry for him all of a sudden. He hadn’t done anything to deserve this really. This was just my anger and frustration. But I couldn’t leave it alone entirely.
"I don’t need this job, and I’m not coming back."
"Viggo..." It was all plea this time.
"Not now. I’ve got to go." I walked out of the office, but a thought struck me and I walked back in again. He already had the phone in his hand. "Did Anna and Danielle have anything to do with this?" He didn’t get past,
"I’m sorry..." before I was out of there again. I didn’t want to hear again how he couldn’t tell me anything. Anyway, I intended to find out for myself.


On the way over to Anna’s my thoughts swung from scenario to scenario. Why the hate in Anna’s eyes? Were the two incidents connected? I couldn’t work it out. I would just have to ask. I knew that I was not really in a calm frame of mind, that just asking was beyond me at the moment, but I was full of righteous indignation and I needed to know.


I rang the doorbell. Anna opened the door, saw me, and tried to close it again.
"Wrong time, Viggo." I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I pushed open the door and forced my way in, stuck my foot in so it stopped the door from closing.
"What’s going on, here? I need to know what’s going on."
"This is my house, and you’ve no right to be here." The acidity of her reply stunned me. I heard Danielle in the background and I tried to look for her but Anna blocked my path. "Let me deal with this," she said. Of all the explanations, one surfaced.
"Just tell me and I’ll go. Is this her doing? Why did she do this to me?"
"It’s history, Viggo. Can’t you just let it go?" She sounded exhausted, totally drained. And yet I could see from her eyes that it was far from over. I wanted to push it.
"Over? You call it over? I’ve left my fucking job and you call it over?" Anna’s voice lost the weary tone and became icy. Hate crystallised in her eyes.
"What you have done is entirely up to you. Don’t start me, Viggo. She might have done the wrong thing, but she wasn’t wrong about you was she?"
"What the hell do you mean?"
Danielle came up behind her mother, and Anna turned on her with the same vehemence she had used on me.
"Get out of here, Dani. I’ll deal with this." I grabbed her arm and pulled her attention back to me.
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"Do you want me to go into all the sordid details?"
"Yeah! I’d like to see what sordid details you could come up with!"
"Screw you, Viggo fucking Mortensen! I’m talking about Orlando. What you did to him."
"Orlando? What’s happened to Orlando?"
"Don’t come the uncooked crustacean with me. You know all too well what I mean."
So what did she mean? Did she mean that Orlando had told her about us? Then another thought struck me. Maybe he was hurt again. Maybe something awful had happened to him.
"Where is he? What’s happened?"
"What’s happened is what you were doing to him last night in the car." Christ! She saw that? The kiss that had changed my world. One kiss, and she had seen it.
“I could hardly believe my eyes, and then you were off like a whore’s drawers before I could stop you! God knows what you did to him after that.”
"But..."
"There are no excuses. You are a pervert and a liar, Viggo. Whatever your twisted mind wants to think, he is a child and you have no right. How long has this been going on? Weeks? Months? It sticks in my craw to think I trusted you, that I thought you were my mate." ‘That I slept with you’ is what she wanted to say.
"What you saw was all there was, Anna. One kiss." But she wasn’t listening. She didn’t want to hear. And my life was falling apart. I had to fight for something. "And what right have you to judge me? Your daughter tries to destroy my life and you protect her, support her, and then come up with all this crap?"
"Piss off!" She was furious and I was being stubborn.
"No!"
So she screamed, loud enough for all the neighbourhood to hear.
"Get. Out. Of. My. Fucking. House."
I left, slamming the door behind me. She opened it again, to yell at me once more. "And tell Orlando to phone his parents!"
I must have looked genuinely surprised, and concerned, because she actually listened to my reply.
"Orlando? He isn’t with me."
"Don’t try to tell me you weren’t fucking him last night!"
"For your information, I’ve never fucked him! I dropped him off here. I thought he was here." The rising panic must have been easy to hear in my voice. What had happened to him? I had to go. I had to find him. "I’ll find him." I assured her.
Something in my tone must have convinced her I wasn’t lying. She seemed to believe and her face reflected her shared concern. Her reply was a little – just a little – softer.
"Look, maybe he shacked up with one of his friends last night. He’ll be at the play, you’ll see."



Christ! The play! I had forgotten about that. I looked at my watch. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t even ten o’clock. So much had changed in so short a time. First the kiss, the kiss that still ghosted against my lips, that still warmed me as I thought about it. I tried to get my head around how that would change everything. And what was “everything” now? The charges had been dropped, and it turns out it had been Danielle who had made them – the malicious little bitch. I was in the clear then, not a child molester any more in the eyes of the world – except that now Anna had proof that I was, and it looked like I had lost her friendship. Oh God. And I deserved to lose it too – betraying her trust, lying to her, hiding the truth about Orlando. And where was he? Had something happened to him? The waves of panic rose, threatened to drown me, to stop me from breathing. I couldn’t let them pull me under. ‘Calm down, Viggo,’ I thought, ‘What good are you to anyone like this?’ I rested my head on the car in defeat. I just wanted it all to go away. But I couldn’t run away this time. I had to go to the play! And more importantly, I had to find Orlando.