~Untitled~

Untitled
by: Dazfan137

"Thank you and good night." Darren said. " You are beautiful." That's how he
had ended their show every night, but for some reason he didn't really mean
it this time. This was the last show for the next two months and Darren
couldn't wait to get out of there. It's not that he didn't like touring, as a
matter of fact,he loved it. He felt at ease on the stage with everyone
watching him. He loved to have all of the fan's adoration for those two short hours every night. But for some reason he was ready for a break. After they had taken their bows and were heading off stage Daniel walked over and whispered in his ear "I need to talk to you before the meet and greet." This was not unlike him, he never wanted to go to those things so he always sent Darren out by himself. Which never really bothered Darren, he understood how Daniel felt and it was no big deal. He walked off
the stage with Daniel and they went straight to their dressing rooms. Daniel
walked through the door first and went over to the sofa which was along the
far wall and sat down. Darren stopped to look at his hair in the large mirror
by the door. When he looked at Daniel he knew something was up. "Come over
here and sit down." Daniel said a bit too seriously. Darren did as he was
instructed. He sat down to Daniel's left and turned to look at him, as soon
as he did this he knew something was really wrong.
Daniel had this distant look on his face. It was one that Darren never
had seen before. He didn't know what to say. "What's wrong Jonsey.? he asked.
"Well I don't really know how to say this, Daniel began, but I don't think
that I can stay here with you. I have been thinking about it and I just can't
stand to be away for Michelle and my Mum and Dad. I thought that I could but
I guess I was wrong. After all of this touring I have to go home. I got a
plane ticket and my flight leaves at ten tomorrow morning." Darren was
stunned he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He felt like he has been
punched in the stomach. Daniel was supposed to stay with him, in his house on
the west coast and they were going to write and work on songs. Just like in
the old days before they made it big. "I don't know what to say." Darren was
finally able to mutter. "Please understand Daz, I just can't stay " Daniel
told him. Darren could hear the urgency in his voice. He knew that leaving
was really what Daniel wanted to do, and who was he to stand in his way? Only
his best friend, of course. " I understand", Darren said. He couldn't think
of anything else to say. He wanted to tell him no, that he wasn't allowed to
leave, that he needed him , but he knew that this was not the time or the
place for that. Just then there was a knock at the door and Ben stuck his
head in. " Um, Darren", he said before seeing them sitting there, " Oh, gosh
guys, I'm sorry I shouldn't have walked in." He apologized. "No, it's o.k we
were just talking about some stuff." Daniel said. " What do you need?".
"Well, I just wanted to tell Darren that the press is getting a little upset
out there. He should hurry up if he wants to talk to them." Ben said. "I
don't think he is going to be talking to them tonight." Daniel said. He could
tell that Darren was upset from the news he had just given him and wanted to
give him a way out, but Darren interrupted "No that's o.k. Tell them that
I'll be right out."
"O.k whatever you say Darren", Ben said and closed the
door. "You don't have to do that Daz." Daniel told him putting his hand on
his friends shoulder. "Yes, I do have to do this, Darren snapped, I keep my
end of the bargain, unlike some people." He got up and stormed out leaving
Daniel sitting on the couch.
"Oh great, Darren though to himself, now I get to go out here and
be happy, perky, pop star Darren Hayes". Darren felt terrible he didn't know
what to do about it. He felt like a part of him had been ripped out. "The
only other time he felt like this, he though, was when Colby said those
terrible words,.... no, no no, stop don't think about that now, come on you
can do this, just one more time." He entered the room
and a dozen flashbulbs popped around his head. "Hi, everyone. I am so very
sorry ofthe wait" he said as he sat down for the onslaught of questions. They
were all the same. He had answered them all a hundred times before. After
that was all over he got in his limo and headed off to his hotel.
He got there and opened the door. The room was dark and felt empty. He
flipped the switch and
the light came on. The first thing that he noticed was that all of Daniel's
things were gone. He walked over to the mini-bar and began to look for something to drink. The was juice, water, soda. None of these
sounded good. Then in the back he saw one can of beer. It was the kind that
Daniel drank. He must have left it. Darren grabbed it and walked over and sat on the sofa. He never drank but for some reason he
opened to can and took a sip. It was the worst thing he had ever tasted. "How
does Daniel drink this stuff?" he thought. He took another drink, all he could think of was Daniel and that he was leaving.
Darren sat there in silence. The beer was now empty and he walked back over
to the fridge and dug around there were three more in there. Those lasted about an hour. The next thing that he could remember was waking up at 11 o'clock the
next morning with the worst headache ever. He laid in bed trying to remember the previous night. So much of it was a blur,
except for Daniel and their talk. He go up and stumbled to the bathroom. He
turned on the light, which was extremely bright to his eyes. There was a envelope taped to the mirror with Darren written on it on
Daniel's flowing script. He grabbed it and threw it on the counter. He
couldn't read it now. It would have been too much. He took a shower and got dressed. He had to check out by 2 p.m. and his flight for home
left at 4. He was getting ready to leave when he realized that Daniel had
his ticket in his bag. "Damn it! I can't believe this!" he yelled. Which hurt his head terribly. That's when he remembered the envelope. He
grabbed it off the counter and opened it. There was his ticket along with a
note from Daniel. He took out the ticket and stuffed the note in his bag.
He left for the airport.

The flight home went quickly. He slept through most of it. When they
landed Darren claimed his
bag and hailed a taxi. When he finally got home it was dark. He drug himself
to the door and unlocked it.
The house was dark and empty, just like the hotel room. Darren drug his bags
through the door and through his keys on the table. It was only 9 p.m. "Well here I am, he thought, home sweet home, yeah right. No wife, no friends, no dog. What am I going to do?". That's when he got an idea. He went and put
on his tightest pair of leather pants and one of his silk shirts. He spiked
his hair and put gel in it. He did look pretty good even if he did say so himself. He eyes looked even more blue than they were next to the
blue of his shirt. He went downstairs and put on one of his favourite pairs
of black boots and went out. He ended up at some sleazy night club with some girl. He didn't even remember her name the next morning
when he woke up, still in his clothes. The only thing that he did remember
was that for a few hours he was able to forget. Forget Daniel, forget Savage Garden, forget what had happened, forget that he was
alone. Alone. Darren hated feeling alone. Darren continued to spend his
nights "out" during the next few months. He never once heard from Daniel.

Darren was awaken by the ringing of his phone. He rubbed the sleep from
his eyes and looked at the clock. I was 10 a.m. Darren never got up before 3 p.m. and every body knew that. So who was calling
him? He reached for the phone and said a sleepy hello. The rest of his
grogginess was quickly erased by
the voice on the other end of the line. "Hello, Mr. Hayes?" the voice asked.
"Yeah, that's me." he replied.
"This is Doctor White at County General Hospital, We have a patient here
named Daniel Jones. He was brought in about an hour ago and your name and number was in his wallet. There has been an accident and Mr. Jones was injured very badly."

Darren couldn’t really remember the rest of that conversation. He was
stunned by the news. His world was snapped in to a sharp focus. He couldn’t believe what he had just been told. He got up and
called his travel agent. “I need to be on the next plane to Brisbane” he
said. The voice on the other end said that the next direct flight was scheduled to leave on Thursday. “Thursday! he yelled, It’s Saturday, I
can’t wait that long I have to go now it’s an emergency.” “Well, Mr. Hayes,
we have a plane heading to Honolulu, Hawaii. Then you could get a connecting flight to Auckland, New Zealand and from there to Brisbane. Will that work?” the agent asked.
“Yes, anything. When does it leave?” he asked.
“This evening at 10. You can pick up your ticket at the gate.”
”Thank you so much” he said, still in a daze.
The rest of the day crawled by. It was raining and the weather mirrored Darren’s mood. He couldn’t stop thinking about Daniel and how he had been treating him. He was still hurt by his decision to go home but he never meant to let their friendship fall apart. He was sitting in his living room when he remembered the note that
Daniel had left in the hotel. He ran into his room and with some digging and
a little luck he produced a crumpled piece of paper from the bottom of his touring bag. He sat down on the bed and unfolded the paper. There in Dainel’s hand writing it said:
       Daz,
       I know that you probably don’t understand my reasons for leaving
       but please believe that I think I am making the right decision. I have
       though about this for a very long time and it is more important for
       me to be at home with my family. Don’t think that I don’t consider
       you to be a part of my family, you are my best mate and I wouldn't
       change that for anything. We are at different places right now in our
       lives and I feel that I can’t be happy away from home. Please
       understand and respect my choice. I don’t want to ruin our friendship over this.

       I understand that you are upset with me right now so I will give you
       your space. I know that you probably want to be alone and I respect
       that. I don’t want you to feel like I have abandoned you but I will
       give you all of the space you need. I will understand if you don’t want
       to talk to me for awhile, but please don't push me out of your life
       totall I need you to be my friend. You are my best mate and one of the most
       important people in my life. We have been through too much together
       to let something like this come between us. I won’t expect to hear
       from you soon because I know that it will take you a while to sort out
       your feelings . Don’t be afraid to call anytime you want . I will always
       be here to listen. Please accept my apology, but I know that I am making
       the right choice.
                       Dan

Darren was surprised by the letter. “So that’s why Daniel never called,
he thought, He was waiting for me to make the first move, to take the first step and call him.”
Darren never knew that Daniel felt like that. He knew that they were close but nothing like this. The note made him feel horrible. He couldn’t believe that he had let their friendship go like he did. He couldn’t think about anything else other
that Daniel and the way that he had treated him for the last 4 months. He
packed his bag and got to the airport just in time to catch his flight for Hawaii. He thought about the last time that he had been on a
plane, the trip home at the end of the tour. He felt ashamed of how he had
treated Daniel. He then began
to wonder what Daniel had been doing for the last four months. He was jolted
out of his thoughts by the captain’s voice on the speaker. They were beginning the descent for their landing.
“Great, Darren thought only two more flights to go.” He spent the rest of the time worrying about his friend and what had
happened to him. He didn’t know much other than the fact that the accident
had been bad. His mind began to run wild with all of the possibilities. Why was Darren’s number in his wallet? Why hadn’t they
called Michelle? Where were Daniel’s parents? What had happened to him? He
would soon find out..
Darren went straight to the hospital from the airport. He had been a nervous
wreck between Auckland and Brisbane. When he got there he had no idea where to go. He found an information desk and found out that
Daniel had been moved to the intensive care unit for observation. He sprinted
from the desk to Daniel’s room but stopped when he got to the door way. Was he ready for this? Was he ready to see his friend like this? Was Daniel ready to see him? He wasn’t sure if he could handle this.
Darren grabbed the door knob and opened the door very slowly. He was not ready for what he saw. There was Daniel. Lying in a bed with bandages all over his body and an i.v stuck in his arm. Darren was rushed with emotion, surprise,
fear, pain. He stood there for about five minuets just looking at his friend.
His left arm was bandaged from the elbow down. There was a cast on his left leg and worst of all there was white gauze wrapped around his head. Darren could see bruises on his face and neck.
“What happened to him?” he thought. After what seemed like forever he was finally able to walk over to the bed. Daniel looked so helpless laying there in
the bed. He had always been the calm one. Never over reacted, always took
everything in stride. He was always the one who delt with the tough situations. Now at was Darren’s turn.
As he was standing there a nurse walked in. Darren turned and looked at
her, “What happened to him?” he asked hoarsely. “Well, she began, someone found his car upside down off of the freeway. He was barley alive. He’s pretty lucky to have made it. The car was totaled.”
Darren just stood there looking at his friend. This all felt like it was a dream, actually more like a nightmare. The nurse left and they were alone again. Darren didn’t know what to do. Should he talk to him? Could he hear him? He had to say
something. “Hi, Dan... It’s me. Ummmm, I’m here. I’m so sorry I wish there
was something that I could do. I feel terrible. It’s all my fault.” As he was talking he began to see some movement in Daniel. He was
trying to open his eyes. He succeeded in opening the left one just enough to
see Darren standing there next to him. Darren noticed this. He looked straight into Daniel’s beautiful emerald eye and watched as a single tear ran down his face.
“Don’t cry Dan.” Darren said, desperately trying to be strong. “Everything
will be o.k. I’m here and I won’t leave you I promise.” With that Daniel’s
eye closed.

Darren spent the rest of that night by Daniel's side. He didn't want to
leave his friend. He had already been gone to long. The next morning Darren awoke with a start. He didn't remember where he was and then all of the sudden all of the events of the previous day came flooding back into his mind. He
looked over a Daniel and felt a feeling of responsibility building in his
stomach. He looked at the clock on the wall. It was 8:25. He decided that he would try to call Daniel's parents. Why hadn't they come to see their son? Where were they? Darren walked out of Daniel's room and down the hall. he found a pay phone
at the end of the hall. He dialed Daniel's home number, he had done that a
million times before but this time it was different. Dan's mother answered the phone. "Hi, Mrs. Jones, it's Darren. Do you know what happened to Dan?".
There was silence on the other end. "Mrs. Jones?" Darren repeated. "Are you there?" "Yes, we were notified." was the answer from the cold voice on the other end.
Darren didn't understand what was going on. "And?" he asked.
"And what?" was her answer.
"Don't you care?" he shouted. "You son is seriously injured and you don't seem to care!"
"How long has it been since you spoke with Daniel?" she asked coolly.
"A few months, what does that have to do with this?"
"Well I guess you should go talk to him then," with that she hung up. What is going on here? Darren was confused. He decided to go back to Daniel's room and wait for him to wake up. He walked back and curled up in one of the chairs in the
room. What was going on?. He wanted desperately to talk with Daniel but knew
that he would have to wait.

He sat there and drifted in and out of sleep. His mind was racing. What
had happened since he left? Darren was startled when an alarm on one of the machines in Daniel's room began to off. Nurses began to rush into the room. They were all talking to each other, Darren couldn't understand what they
were talking about. Too much medical jargon. "What is going on?" he yelled,
as the room spun in front of him."Will he be ok?" One of the nurses stopped and looked at him. "We need you to leave sir." she said.
"No, no please let me stay, he's my best friend." Darren pleaded. "I'm sorry
sir. You must go." was her cold reply. She led Darren out the door where he stood helplessly and watched the doctors run around in
the room. They continued like this until one of them reached over and shut
off the alarm. All of the movement in the room stopped and the doctor began to remove his gloves. He turned and walked out the
door toward Darren. Darren watched as he opened the door, and slowly walked
over to him. "I'm sorry." the doctor said, " We did everything in our power but it was hopeless."
Darren couldn't believe what he was hearing. No, no this can't be happening...
Darren woke with a start for the second time that morning. He was breathing
heavily and could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He quickly looked over at the bed and saw his friend resting there peacefully.
Darren was trying to shake the remnants of the nightmare form his mind when
he noticed that the man in the bed was looking at him. Darren slowly stood and walked over to stand next to him. "Good morning"
he said. "How are you feeling?" Darren could see the pain in Daniel's eyes.
Daniel nodded slowly. He felt around and grabbed Darren's hand. "I know you are scared. I told you that I would stay with you and I meant it." Darren said. Daniel's grip lightened a bit when he heard this. He could see the beginnings of a
smile on Daniel's face. "I talked to your parents this morning." Darren said.
This was obviously a touchy subject with Daniel because the smile vanished . He looked away and seemed to be trying to hide his tears.
"What happened between you and them?" he continued. With that Daniel released
Darren's hand completely and completely turned away from him. Darren could tell that this was hurting Daniel and he could tell from his slow movements that his body was in pain.
" I'm sorry Dan, we don't have to talk about that right now." he said, trying to calm his friend. Daniel had been through enough and Darren didn't want to cause him any more problems then he already had. "Why don't you try to get some more sleep." he
suggested. Daniel must have accepted this idea because soon after his eyes
were closed again. Darren sat there for awhile and tried to straighten out his thoughts.
Darren wracked his brain trying to figure out what could have happened
between Daniel and his parents.
They had always had a strong relationship. What could have caused this to
happen? Their relationship had been such a loving one. How did it discentergrate in the 4 short months since Darren had left? The next time Darren looked at the clock it was 1 p.m. and he was hungry. He decided to take a walk and look
for some food. There had to be a cafeteria somewhere. He found one on the
first floor by the emergency department. He got muffin that looked like it had seen better days and a bottle of water. He took a seat at a table near the window and watched people come and go for a while. He kept thinking of Daniel being
brought to the hospital like that. All alone, scared, no one with him. Darren
remembered what it felt like to be alone.

Darren finished his bottle of water and threw away the rest of the muffin. He walked back to Daniel's room to find out that his mate had woken up while he was gone and
had been asking for him.
When he entered the room he saw Daniel sitting in a chair staring out of the
window. "Hey Jonesy!"
Darren said in his most upbeat voice, trying to appear happy for his friend.
Daniel sort of half turned his head to look at him then continued staring out of the window. Darren walked over to his friend, who was trying to avoid his gaze. "What's wrong Dan?" he asked. Daniel tried to ignore him. He could feel hot
tears building in his eyes. "Come on. It's OK. You can tell me." Darren
reassured his friend. He put his hand on Daniel's shoulder. He could feel how tense he was. Darren reached over and carefully raised Daniel's face up toward his own. "You can trust me. I promise." Darren could see that Daniel was trying
to hold back his emotions. That broke Darren's heart, he couldn't stand to
see his friend like this. Not Daniel Jones, his best mate. He didn't deserve this.
He wanted to comfort Daniel. To make all of his problems go away. He had
thought about drawing the blonde man into his arms and just holding him, but was unsure of what Daniel's reaction would be. Would he submit to Darren's touch or would he pull away? Darren couldn't stand it anymore.
He knelt down in front of Daniel. He placed his hands on Daniel's shoulders
reassuringly, " I'm here for you Daniel Jones." Darren said, practically in a whisper. With that Darren leaned forward and embraced his friend. Daniel sat stiffly for a second and then relaxed into the arms of his mate. Darren's grasp felt
wonderful to Daniel. His arms were so strong and comforting, it was just want
Daniel needed at that moment. He could not hold back any longer He began sobbing uncontrollably on the shoulder of his friend. The two remained like this for awhile. Darren stroked Daniel's back and whispered soothingly in his ear trying to calm his friend.
Daniel was finally able to compose himself he leaned back in the chair
pulling out of Darren's arms. Darren looked up at his friend and studied his face. He could tell that Daniel was feeling better but he still wanted answers. What had caused all of these problems? He couldn't help but feel somewhat responsible. Daniel sat there looking out the window for awhile with Darren at his feet. He was thinking of how he was going to tell Darren what had been going on. Daniel had never been good with emotions.
He couldn't believe that he had actually cried in front of Darren. He looked
down at Darren who was sitting by his feet. He knew that he owed that man the truth. It involved him and no matter how much it hurt Daniel he has to tell him. "Um, Daz... " Daniel said, breaking the silence that had fallen between them.
Darren looked up at him, his face had a very calm, serene look to it.
It was his eyes that made him so easy to talk to. "I have something that I really need to tell you".
"Yes, what is it?" Darren replied.
"Well... "he began, shifting uneasily in the chair, "You know that some
things have happened since I came home after the tour and since, ... well it involves you and our friendship and, I guess just a lot of things."
Darren could tell that this was hard for Daniel.
"Not long after I got back I had an argument with Michelle, she kept saying that I wasn't giving her the attention that she needed, that all I care about is the
band and the music. I couldn't deny it because I knew that she was right.
Then she said that I should leave the band after the way you treated me because you didn't deserve to treat me that way and that she neverreally liked you in the first place. That was too much. I couldn't take it. She could say anything that she
wanted to about me but when she started talking about you it was the last
straw. I stormed out of the house and didn't go back for two months."
Darren could see the hurt on Daniel's face. "Then about a week ago I
went back to try and work things out but when I got there all of my things
were in boxes and there was a note saying that she had gone to spend the weekend with Jamie, her new boyfriend and that I was to leave my key after I had taken all of my things. I left there went to my mum's house. I didn't know what else to
do. I told her everything that had happened and she said, Do you know what
she said? I still can't believe it. She agreed with Michelle." Tears were now flowing down Daniel's face but he continued. "She said that after the way you treated me that I should never talk to you again and that I should kick you out of the
band and continue myself. I knew that I could never do that. That we were a
team and we needed each other. Even though I hadn't talked to you in four months I still felt, no I still knew that you were my best mate. "
Darren was now the one that was crying. He couldn't believe that Daniel has sacrificed everything that he had held dear for Darren. He didn't know what to say to him. The best he could think of was "Thank You Daniel.", that even seemed inadequate. He followed it by one of his trademark Darren Hayes smiles. "But how did you get hurt?" Darren asked, hoping that he wasn't pressing his luck, but Daniel did look relieved to be getting his problems out.
"Well.... I had been trying to get a hold of you for three or four days and I was having no luck. You weren't answering or picking up your messages."
Darren was really feeling responsible now and it was a awful feeling.
"And I didn't know what to do my world was falling apart and I really needed some one to talk to, I needed to talk to you..... " his sentence trailed off.
Darren could see the tears returning. "It's all right Daniel." Darren said offering his condolences. He was getting the feeling that he wasn't going to like what Daniel was going to say.
Daniel took a deep breath and went on, " I didn't know what to do so I decided to take a drive. It was raining and I guess I may have been driving a bit too fast but I didn't really care. It didn't matter, my mind was spinning, my emotions were out of control....". By this point both men were sobbing. Daniel grabbed Darren's hand and pulled him up into his arms.
Darren was repeating "I'm so sorry. It's all my fault."
It was Daniel's turn to comfort his mate. He held Darren for sometime, his head was on Daniel's chest and his arms were wrapped around his waist. They remained like this the rest of the afternoon. Neither of them wanted to let go of the other after all that had happened. Daniel was looking down at Darren when he suddenly looked
up and met his gaze. "I love you Dan" he said simply.
Daniel bent down and kissed Darren lightly on the forehead and whispered "I love you too Daz."