Who: May Paik, Dan Hoffman What: Finding her son and calling a truce When: Monday, March 30 Where: Pennington Condominium Rating: PG Status: Complete
It was the last place May wanted to be but she had no other recourse. She had to hear his voice, even if it was to yell, see his face, even in anger. She needed to know he was okay. The silence had gone on long enough.
She stepped out of the elevator and knocked on the door, clutching the straps to her handbag as she waited for someone to answer.
Dan wheeled his chair to the front door, mild fear clutching at his airways. He wasn't expecting anyone, but he couldn't play dead. There were possibilities. The HOS, the government. Even Gil. Alibis were important.
He opened the locks with steady hands, heaving a sigh when he saw the woman on the other side. "May. Thank... what brings you here?"
"Jason." May spoke, pushing back her anger towards the man the took him away from her to address her concern. "He hasn't called or come to see his sister in the hospital, he hasn't attended any of his classes at the university. I know he is upset with me and I with him and this situation but he is my son...I'm worried."
Dan spent a fraction of a second, telling himself he was an idiot for being so forgetful. "I'm sorry. Come in." They needed to talk and he had to find the words, but in the immediate, he needed to get her out of the hallway. "I know, he hasn't been here either. I thought you knew..."
"Thought I knew...what is going on?" she asked, stepping into the foyer, hugging her purse to her chest. Holding on to something. "Where is my son?"
"He was taken by the SAC because of his pairing," Dan replied, making sure the door was locked before turning to her. "I'm sorry I didn't contact you, I thought you knew." I forgot. "His intended tried to run and they assumed he was involved. He's been interned since."
"No..." May felt her knees buckle beneath her weight, and she clutched at the nearest thing to keep standing. "Not again, I can't, not my son."
Dan reached for her, even as he imagined he was the last person she wanted to have touching her. "Come sit down. It's not as bad as it sounds, I've been trying to find a loophole and I'm pretty sure--I'm certain I can get him out of there soon. Please, come sit."
"Not as bad as it sounds?" she moaned, uncaring who the person holding her up was. She allowed herself to be led to a place to sit. "My mother was taken to one of those places for going against the government and they only let her out in a pine box. How can you be certain they will let you get him out of there?"
He sighed, moving the chair so he could sit in front of her. "I'm not certain, but I have to believe it or I'm going to put a bullet in my head." It wasn't what he'd meant to say but it was what came out, as painfully unreassuring as it was. "I have contacts who are going to work out an annulment for myself and your daughter. Then I can claim Jason and I were in the process of becoming married. Extenuating circumstances should make them reconsider."
May laughed dryly, his words far from reassuring. "They will let you marry? Two men?"
Dan didn't have the energy to bristle at her comment. "A registered domestic partnership takes us both out of the lottery. They'd have no choice."
"Jae-mi will be put back into the registry." May pointed out, exhaustion and worry taking the fight away from her. Would she be willing to risk her daughter to another unknown marriage for the sake of her son's freedom.
"Potentially, yes," Dan agreed, with no strength to defend this reasoning. "Her name could be taken out, in the long wrong, but right now Jason is my only concern." And he should be yours, too, he thought but didn't say it
"They will let him go?" she asked, running her hands through her hair and pulled. His words resonated deep, somewhere. "If this had not happened...would you have 'married' Seung-jae?"
Dan looked at his hands because he couldn't look at her. She was a mother and he was part of the world that had hurt her child. "Probably not," he admitted stiffly. "But that's beside the point."
"The point is to get him out." The dryness returned to her voice. "I hope you take better care of this marriage. If your plan works."
He had wronged Jae-mi, true, and he didn't make excuses for that. But he cared about Jason. It wasn't the same. A flicker of doubt born of her comment sprung to life. "It has to work. I'm not prepared to deal with the reverse."
May acknowledged the answer with a nod, but said nothing about it. It would do, for now. "Why did they keep him? The last I heard from him, he was going to marry her like they asked."
"They thought he helped her escape. They don't need proof, May. There's nothing legal about detaining someone like this. Without contacting his family. It's abusvie and it's wrong."
"When we get him back...will you do something about that, legally?"
"Something about what?" Dan asked, frowning. He was going to marry her son, keep him safe - and perhaps keep Jae-mi safe too, if he could.
"A lawsuit." May stated plainly, what her deceased husband would ask if he were present to all of this. "Will you sue?"
"If Jason wants it, yes. I'm not going to force him through something that could end with both of us behind bars. Or dead." May didn't look like she'd crack under the pressure, now that the initial shock was over and Dan felt thankful. He needed every ally.
"If you approach the courts the right way, they can't touch." May spoke from experience. "If his father was alive, he could have represented you."
"We can find someone else, if that's what Jason wants." He felt the need to emphasize that point, because what he was doing with this marriage was essentially robbing Jason of his choice yet again. It gnawed at him like a fanged monster. "I wouldn't have thought you'd want that."
"Why? Because I've been vocal about going along with the pairing lottery?" May asked, laughing softly at him, the humor removed from the situation. "It is one thing to accept small sacrifices asked by the government for the benefit of all and then there is being completely wronged by them."
"Some of us would argue there never was a distinction," Dan replied, "but I don't want to argue with you. If all goes according to plan, Jason should be out on Wednesday. Would you like to come with me to the Adjustment Center?" He could use her presence - if he had to leave the house, he'd be on drugs and that always involved some risk.
"I would like to, yes." she answered, after a bit of hesitation. They might have wanted the time alone and at present, she knew she was probably one of the last people Jason would want to see.
"I'll call you in the morning. We can meet there. Strength in numbers... if nothing else." He held no illusions about her approval and was prepared to proceed without it, but he didn't know how Jason was. What marks the captivity would leave on his psyche. He could be right as rain or he could be Marco Medina. Dan pressed fingers over his eyes. "How is... how's Jae-mi?"
"She will be released soon, they were able to catch it earlier than others." May sighed, the relief that at least one of her children was relatively safe. "Jae-mi's uncomfortable, but better than she was. The fever's broke."
"Good. I'd planned to go see her, but Jason disappeared and my priorities changed accordingly." He was glad that she hadn't been alone, that she'd had her mother with her. Better someone who genuinely cared about her than someone forced to.
"I will let her know you were concerned. It is funny, she has always been difficult and headstrong at times, but at her worst she doesn't seem to mind having her mother nearby." May smiled, her shoulder still sore from sleeping on the small hospital bed with her daughter, as asked. "She mentioned something about her orchestra going on tour not long after she is released, perhaps it is good that her marriage is being annulled."
"It's definitely good," Dan corrected. "I'll do what I can for her, but it's good that she'll be out of Seattle for a while. She deserves it." He didn't know what May knew about their marriage, but he imagined she wouldn't have wanted her daughter to go through something against her will. They were giving that freedom, even if it to get to this point it had cost Jason his own.
"Well, I should leave you to what you were doing..." May said after a pause, gathering her belongings as she stood. "Tell me the minute you know anything, no matter how late at night."
"I will, I promise," Dan replied and he didn't doubt for a moment that he would. He didn't want to shut May out of their lives - that was Jason's choice to make. "Try not to worry too much. The best thing any of us can do is wait and not attract attention."
May nodded, a knot still firmly lodged in the back of her throat as she made her way to the front door. She could only pray that whomever his connections were, that they were good on fulfilling their promises. "I will try...thank you, for what you are doing."
Dan smiled half-heartedly. What he was doing... was asking for someone else to stick his neck out on his behalf. Helplessness had never ached more in the ten years he'd been stuck in the chair. He walked May to the front door, wishing for a brief, foolish moment, that Jason could just walk back into their lives, unscathed. Knowing it was impossible.