Page 53 of Caged
"I did. I can make it whenever you want. I love baking and cooking. I think I might look into doing that when I look for a job. How was your work?"
"It was okay. I got a lot done. I'm going to have late nights tomorrow and Thursday, but other than that, I'm free." He really needed to be there more, digging for information on Larry, but he wanted to be here with Danny just as badly. "You didn't mind me kissing you in front of Jess, did you?"
Danny smiled. "No, I liked it. I was going to tell her earlier, but I wasn't sure how. I didn't know what you'd want me to say."
"You say whatever you want to." Marshall liked staking his claim in a round-about way. He was sure that Jessica had already told the rest of the guys, and that was okay. It was better she did than for him to have to stumble over words trying to tell them. "Jessica's a great person. I've always liked working with her."
"She is, but she's also pushy." Danny rolled his eyes.
"In a bad way?" Marshall worried as he licked the frosting from his fork.
"Not really. She just wants me to talk about the kidnapping with someone."
"You aren't talking about it with your counselor?" He had hoped they'd been getting into the issues. Maybe he wasn't that great of a counselor after all.
"A bit. He lets me talk about what I want. Some of it's too hard to tell yet, but Jessica says talking helped her get through her rape and it will help me even if I don't think it will."
Marshall sat up. "Jessica was raped?" He figured everyone in the group had been touched by abuse one way or another, but he didn't have details about everyone.
"You didn't know?" Danny looked at him shocked.
"No. I had no idea. Recently?" A protective wave rushed through him and he wondered if he should have paid closer attention to her over the last year.
"When she was a kid. She said it almost killed her. Her brother found her in a shed and saved her." Danny frowned. "Maybe I wasn't supposed to tell you."
"She would have warned you not to if it mattered. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." Marshall refocused on Danny. "She's right. I've been worried about you not dealing with everything that happened. I thought you'd have a tougher time, but you seem to have shoved everything to the back of your mind, which isn't good."
"You want me to have a tough time?" Danny grinned.
"No, you know that isn't what I'm saying. I'm just concerned. You haven't grieved your mom. You haven't really faced your kidnapping. I hoped you were doing that in counseling, but if you're not, we need to find you someone new to talk with."
"I like Gary. He's easy to talk to. We do talk about things a bit, but he lets me bring them up. Once I do, he's good at getting me to open up about them, but he doesn't push. If he did, I think I'd close off. He's warned me I need to get it out in the open, and I try, but sometimes it's hard. I'm so ashamed of it all, and a part of me doesn't want to make anyone else suffer by hearing what I've been through."
The urge to admit what he did for a living was strong. If Danny knew that he'd seen far worse, then maybe he wouldn't feel that way, but Marshall couldn't tell him. "You know that Gary sees a lot of patients who have been abused or raped, right? I don't think you'll shock him."
"That's what Jessica said too." Danny set his plate down on the coffee table. "I'll try harder."
"What was it Jess asked you to maybe try talking to me about?" Marshall asked.
Danny looked away.
"Not ready to talk about it yet?" Marshall really wanted to know, but he wouldn't push. He reached over and took Danny's hand. "It's okay. You don't have to. It can wait."
"You're not mad?"
"Never. Jess was probably out of line saying anything in front of me anyway." He leaned over and kissed Danny softly. "I have a present for you."
"For me? I don't deserve anything."
"I think you do. I picked these up on my way home." Marshall reached into his back pocket and pulled out the tickets to the baseball game on Saturday. He handed them to Danny. "We'll go to the game, then go out to dinner after if you want. Make it an official date."
Danny stared at the tickets, then looked at Marshall, tears glistening in his eyes. "You really did this just for me?"
"For us." He drew Danny closer so he was almost on his lap. "We'll have fun."
Danny glanced away for a moment. "What if people recognize me?"
"So what if they do? You stand proud and go on living your life. If the media or anyone bother us, we'll deal with it, but the average person can just stare. You have nothing to hide from."
