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phoned a guy who had come through for them in the past.
    When James got the call he headed straight to the Station. The job done, he was leaving as Eric arrived. Eric had been in a great state of agitation on leaving the party. He hadn't calmed down any and, despite having already been humiliated, he immediately and instinctively went for James. It would have ended with Eric just receiving another couple of bruises, had his friends not intervened. Surrounded, James had drawn a gun.
    Is it possible that being encircled by these fit, screaming, young men had reawakened memories in James? Perhaps of being beaten back in the army? Were they the same age as the former friends who had perhaps kicked and thumped him into a hospital bed? Had more happened back then than he let on?
    Either way, yes or no, for a second time that evening a look of pure rage overcame James's face. He didn't fire the gun in the air as a warning shot. What little self control he had was directed at not shooting Eric in the head. Instead he shot him in the leg and made good his escape in the ensuing confusion and panic.
    About twenty minutes later he was chased down by the police. He still had the gun, but luckily for him he had parted with the last of his drugs back at the Station.
     
     
     
     
    23. Sitting having coffee with Dom the events of the party were the first things to discuss. Conversation first dealt with Eric. His injury and recovery. He was still on crutches, but would probably be off them in a couple of weeks.
     
                  "It must be hard for him. As well as that, to lose your girlfriend and all," Dom observed. I laughed, because Dom wanted me to. The added blow of Fiona leaving Eric was a great justice in Dom's mind. "She's with your friend now, Brandon?" he asked.
     
                  "Yeah. With. Seeing. Going out with. I don't know how they'd describe it themselves. But they are certainly seeing a lot of each other." An awful lot of each other. I'd barely seen Brandon since the party.
     
                  "And the guy who shot him?"
     
                  "James? He's in a prison upstate. I'm sure that will do a lot to chill him out."
     
                  "Sure." Dom laughed. "And Jake?"
     
                  "He's fine." Whatever about describing Fiona and Brandon's relationship, I certainly wasn't going to put words to my own situation. I didn't even know if I could. "He says I won't like what you have to say about Buchanan," I changed the subject.
     
                  "Well that depends on what you know about him."
     
                  "I know my grandmother is very proud of him. She's in her eighties. So as a girl she knew her own grandmother, who was his cousin."
     
                  "So that makes you blue blood."
     
                  "My family lived through the Famine in Ireland while he was President. So, I don't think tha t’ s accurate. I know he was President at the start of the civil war. He didn't seem to do much to stop it. History judged him harshly, so only gay guys have any interest in him now, and then only slightly."
     
                  "Yeah, they say he went out with William King. They lived together. King later became a Vice-President. So they were quite the power couple."
     
                  "So you've had a gay Vice-President too?"
     
                  "He's the only accepted one, anyway. Though he died just after being sworn in. So not much of a legacy."
     
                  "Unlike Buchanan?"
     
                  "Buchanan's legacy was civil war. He tried to appease the South at every turn, just trying to avoid warfare. Until finally they got rid of him and put Lincoln there instead."
     
                  "Is avoiding war such a bad thing?"
     
                  "Yes, sometimes." Dom said. "Come on, you're European,