The two young men dressed as they always did in this little room, in total darkness. They put on their “straight” jackets, kissed each other one last time, unlocked the door, and went their separate ways. Mike was finishing his shift in the emergency room, and Jackson was needed in surgery.

Jackson entered the operating room scrubbed and gloved, and with his usual charm. “All set?”

“Yes, doctor,” the scrub nurse answered.

Jackson’s expertise in the operating room could not be matched, and he only hoped that his secret life outside of the operating room would never be revealed.

Mike whistled as he left the emergency room that day. After working ten days in a row, he finally had a day off. Feeling overwhelmed and overworked was nothing new to Mike, and it was often the result of his own doing. He often assumed extra shifts if asked, not so much from a sense of duty, but more as a way of proving that he was just as worthy of the white jacket as his fellow colleagues. He freed his car from its parking garage prison, and hurried home to the sanctuary of his studio apartment.

********

Mike walked into the emergency room and was immediately hustled into one of the trauma bays. “What happened?” It was rare to see the chief of emergency services in the actual emergency room and he was one of the most hated of the staff physicians.

“Good to see you, Mike. Looks like a couple of gays got what they had coming to them.”
Mike stared at the cold hearted Dr. Scranton. What an asshole! Mike turned to the man who lay on the sterile examination bed, naked, his legs spread. He was facing the wall, and Mike felt bad for him. “What happened to him, Dr. Scranton?”

The doctor laughed and shoved the chart at Mike. “Guess he was taken down in an alley.

********

Mike hurried to the assigned trauma bay where Doug was beginning to assess the patient. “The patient has been heavily sedated, standard procedure for the flight, but he is stable. Let’s see. The chart indicates that his name is….”

“Jackson!” Mike shouted and rushed to his side.

“Yes, his name is Jackson Page. I take it you know him?”

“Jackson, it’s Mike. Jackson, wake up.”

Doug gently pulled him back. “He’s asleep, Mike. Step back, please.”

********

Jackson slowly began to walk behind Doug’s desk to get a look at the picture on the wall. “Is this your family?”

Not turning around, Doug answered with a soft, “yes.”

Jackson jerked the picture off the wall, bringing the nail with it. He slammed it down on the desk, forcing Doug to look at it. Standing behind him, Jackson placed his hands firmly on both arms of Doug’s chair and harshly spoke. “What the fuck are you trying to pull, Doctor? I’m not like the others, the young guys like Rusty and Mike and the poor misled and trusting souls like Todd. I’m a little bit older and a hell of a lot wiser – street smart, been around the block a few times, around the barn a few times, etcetera, etcetera. So if you are trying to pull something here, if you are on some sadistic mission to rid the world of the evils of homosexuality, you are messing with the wrong man.”