Hi everyone, sorry about taking such an indecent amount of time for this chapter to be finished. I plan to put the next (and final) chapter up within a month from now. Please let me know what you think at thehaydster@yahoo.com.au
ON WITH THE STORY
At the sight of the men, we both froze for a split second, then I spun round and hit the emergency call point. It didn't react, even though we had been assured that it would. The men laughed. "We didn't get those other fags, but we'll get you. No mistakes this time" one of the men said in a voice as cold as ice.
"Freeze! Nobody move!" A man came out of the shadows holding a gun. "You are under arrest for..." He fell to the ground as a shot rang out from one of the men. It hit him in the shoulder, sending him to the ground. "Drop!" he yelled to us.
After a moment, Tim and I hit the ground as the men charged at us. The men were nearly on top of us when several shots rang out. All the men fell to the ground with various gunshot wounds. Within a minute there were armed police on the ground covering them, along with one officer tending to the policeman who had been shot.
Both Tim and I were helped to our feet by Detective-Sergeant Conrad (Jim). Once we were on our feet we heard a scream come from the direction of campus security. About half a minute later the radio crackled with "Ambo unit to security. 5 in custody, 1 subdued with capsicum"
"Ambo unit 2 to security" came the reply. At the same time 2 police cars came screaming up the nearby road, with their lights and sirens on, followed by an ambulance, also with lights and sirens.
The medics in the ambulance tended to the officer that was shot as well as the men who had attacked us. Two of them had limbs broken by the shots, but the others just had flesh wounds. Jim mentioned that it was lucky for them they hadn't got any closer; otherwise they would have been shot dead. I felt a chill go down my spine, as it sank in that this was actually a matter of life and death, literally. We were checked over to make sure that we were fine and told by Jim that we could tell our friends about the op now, as it was closed.
Two of the armed officers escorted us back to college, after being warned by Jim to guard us until he got there. The instant we arrived at college Bob came rushing towards us, then came to a screeching halt as the officers aimed their rifles at him. I managed to raise a chuckle at this, as the expression on his face was priceless.
"It's ok, he's our friend" Tim explained to the officers. They then lowered their rifles, then Bob continued towards us, slowly. "Guys, I heard shots, are you all right? What happened?" I quickly explained that the shots were fired by the police and that we were fine. We told Bob that we were part of a police operation, and that we would explain it all once we were back at my room. The officers saw us to our room and stood guard, one outside each door.
Tim told the whole story, not leaving out anything, and Bob was flabbergasted. He asked if there was anything he could do to help us get over the shock, but really I was pretty OK with what had happened, surprisingly enough. Tim said that he was too. We really wanted to get some sleep though, but we had to wait for Jim, as he wanted our statements that evening.
Jim turned up pretty promptly with another policeman and took Tim into his room to get his statement. It took about 15 minutes, and then I had to give my statement, while Tim waited in his room. Jim recorded everything on a Dictaphone. I had to go over everything in detail, from when we were asked to participate all through until we came back to college. Jim said that he would have our statements typed up and we could sign them tomorrow.
After that I went into Tim's room and we slept together that night. We slept surprisingly well, I didn't expect to sleep well at all, but I guess being with Tim made it all much better.
I woke up early the next morning and got out of bed. I remembered yesterday and thanked my lucky stars that the police had been there. Looking at Tim while he was sleeping reminded me how lucky I was to have found him. As I was contemplating all this, he stirred and slowly opened his eyes. "Morning babe" he smiled at me, "Have you been up long?" "Nope, just got up. How did you sleep?" "Surprisingly well, considering. How did you sleep, Dan?" "Unusually well too."
We sleepily showered and got dressed. We walked in to breakfast and were immediately greeted by the rowers (they were the only other guys up, with their early practice). They had been told about what had happened, it turned out the entire college seemed to know, and were amazed. They pressed us to retell the story to them. I had no desire to, so I got Tim and myself some breakfast while Tim told them the story.
After breakfast, at about 8am, the phone in my room rang and it was Mr. Johns wanting to see Tim and myself in his office ASAP. Within 10 minutes we were ushered into his office and given a seat and refreshments.
Mr. Johns didn't waste words. He leaned forward over his desk and opened with "I have received calls from the media, and they all want a statement from both of you, as well as the police. Detective-Sergeant Conrad has suggested that we hold a press conference as soon as possible, to get it over and done with. This will also ensure that the media get their facts as accurate as possible. I have set one up tentatively at ten o'clock in the conference room. Is that OK with both of you?"
Tim and I looked at each other, I could tell that it hadn't occurred to him that the media would take an interest in this, and the thought had not crossed my mind at all. Looking back, it should have occurred to me, as shots aren't fired from rifles by police at security officers every day. "It's fine with me" I replied and Tim said that he agreed to it as well. We then took our leave, as we still had some uni work to do, and we had to dig out something better than a T-shirt and shorts. On the way back it occurred to me, we had yet to tell our parents, and Ryan and Alex (Alex was still not leaving Ryan's bedside, and Ryan was still hospitalized).
"Tim, we have to tell our parents, and Ryan and Alex. They should know before hearing about it on the news"
"You're right babe. Do you want to tell your parents first, or mine?"
"How about yours? It will take ages to calm my Mum down" With that settled we dialed Tim's parents. As they picked up we both realized that we hadn't told them that we were together (we didn't tell them at the same time as my parents), they didn't even know that Tim was gay! We exchanged panicked looks, then Tim regained his composure.
"Hi, Mum and Dad" he said, in a bit of a shaky tone.
"Hi Tim" his parents chorused back. "Are you OK?" His mum added.
"Mum and Dad, I have two very important things to tell you, and I hope you can accept me after this"
"Son, you know we will always accept you. Even if you decided to marry Osama Bin Laden, we will always love and accept you" Tim's dad replied, which got a chuckle from both of us.
"Mum, Dad, I'd like you to meet Dan"
"Hi, Mr and Mrs Carter" I said, scared witless.
"Hello" "Pleased to meet you"
Tim took a deep breath and continued "Dan is my boyfriend". His remark was met with dead silence at the other end of the line "Please say something!"
Tim's mum replied with "Oh. Well we weren't expecting that, but we're fine with it. Although your dad is still standing here with his mouth open, hang on a sec" The sound of a slap came across the line and then the shocked voice of Tim's dad "Margaret, what the hell was that for?" "Bill, snap out of it and talk to our son" his mum shot back crisply.
"Son, that is something I wasn't expecting, but you still have our love and support. By the way, welcome to the family Dan" Hearing that, Tim wrapped his arms around me.
Mr. Carter continued with "I understand you have something else to tell us?"
"Err, yes Dad. Mum and Dad, please promise not to freak out."
"Timmy, what could make us freak out after that?" Tim's mum stated.
"Well, you heard about the attack on two guys on campus?"
"Yes"
"Well, they were attacked because they were gay. They're friends of ours and the police wanted our help to catch them. The plan involved us coming out"
"Tim! How could you do something so dangerous! Are you all right?" Tim's mum burst out.
"Margaret, you should be proud of the courage our son has shown, not berating him. Tim, I'm proud of you and Dan for what you've done." Tim's dad said.
"Thanks Dad"
"You're father's right. I agree that you have been brave, but please don't do anything like that again"
"Mum and Dad, I hate to go, but we have to tell Dan's parents about this."
"We understand. We'll talk to you some time soon."
With that we hung up and picked up the phone to call my Mum and Dad.
Write if you want to hear more. Actually, please email me anyway. thehaydster@yahoo.com.au