\n This is the final chapter in the series.  Thank you so much for reading along - I've truly enjoyed the experience! :-)

\n *********************************************************************************************

\n "Well, there is one thing that's changed," Dunny said, turning to face Kip "Short Stack!" Every eye in the locker room turned to face the fox, and for a heartbeat he stood there, completely speechless. And then, for perhaps the first time in his life, he knew exactly what to do. Kip stripped off his towel, draped it over his shoulder, spread his feet wide and put his hands behind his head. He gave his hips a single burlesque buck in Jake's direction, making his junk slap against his belly, and turned around and walked buck naked to the showers, the snowy white tip of his bushy red tail waving goodbye to the fellas as he sauntered away.

\n Behind him, the explosion of laughter told him that nobody was thinking about Jake and his unfortunately timed erection any more.

\n  

\n Within a week Kip was back to his old self in the gym, and after a month of working out with the entire gang coaching him, he had blown past his old limits and discovered new strength within himself. "Jesus, I think they're trying to kill me," he would occasionally bellyache. Yet when Jake offered to slow the other guys down, Kip always refused. "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger, right? And I'm getting stronger every day," he reasoned. "Why would I want to stop?"

\n Kip nodded at Carl as he passed the front desk. The older man was busy helping another large morph fill out his membership paperwork, but he took the time to nod back a quick greeting. Carl had always been polite to Kip, but lately he'd seemed nicer than usual, as if after three years of depositing his checks, he finally trusted that Kip might be around for a while. "Or maybe," Kip thought, "he finally found a bran cereal that works for him."

\n As Kip passed he could see that the new guy had a great build, but his face was hidden over his application. Something about him seemed familiar, but Kip couldn't quite remember where he might have seen him before. He shrugged - probably just saw someone that looked like him on TV, or something.

\n It felt odd to Kip to be working out without his friends there. A month ago he would have welcomed the peace and quiet, but now the gym just felt empty without them. Jake, Dunny and Rob all had a union meeting to attend down at the docks, and Sam had to work swing shift that day.

\n Kip wasn't sure where Ralph and Dave were, but he guessed that since the majority of the group wasn't going to be there, they probably just stayed home. He was surprised that his feelings were hurt a little bit! It was as if they would show up for others in the group, but his company alone wasn't enough to pry them out of the apartment they shared. "Hrmph." he muttered to himself.

\n In the locker room Kip stripped off his street clothes, and was half dressed when Dave came through the doorway. The bad mood that Kip had been cultivating evaporated when he saw his friend stomp into the room. Dave had the strongest legs in the group, and Kip had recently noticed that he really seemed to enjoyed stomping.

\n "Hey!" he called to Kip, in greeting.

\n "Hey, yourself," Kip called back, "where'd you leave Ralph? You didn't lose him, did you?" Jake had told him that he two men had been nearly inseparable friends since elementary school. Seeing one of them without the other was odd, to say the least.

\n "Naw, he'll be here soon," Dave said stripping off his shirt. "he brought his own car."

\n While not as large as Jake's, his muscles were were considerably more defined, and Kip took a second to admire his build. "Have you always been big?" Kip asked, curious. The two rarely had time alone to talk, and he thought he might as well take advantage of the situation.

\n "Hell no," Dave laughed. "I used to be scrawny! I didn't start hitting the gym until after high school."

\n "I thought you were all on the football team in high school?" Kip said, puzzled.

\n "I was a trainer, but I wasn't on the team." Dave explained. "I really wasn't into football, but if you were a trainer you didn't have to go to PE class, so I had Ralph talk the other guys into putting in a good word for me with the coach."

\n "And that's how you met the other guys?"

\n "Yep," he replied, pulling on his shoes without bothering to tie the laces. "Come on, buddy. Let's move some weight! Gonna do legs with me today?"

\n "You've gotta be kidding me," Kip said. "The weight you use to warm up with would crush me into an oily stain on the carpet."

\n "Naw, come on, "Dave encouraged. "I'll show you some new tricks that won't kill you."

\n Kip followed Dave as he stomped his way onto the floor, and soon the two men were joined by an out-of-breath Ralph. Kip was certain that, whatever had made him late, Ralph would have a good story to tell about it, but right now he was trying to catch his own breath to pay Ralph any mind. True to his word, Dave's lifting techniques were requiring Kip to pull from reserves he didn't know he had, and it was mere minutes before he was soaked with sweat and huffing air like an old steam locomotive.

\n After an hour of leg work that left him tottering around on thighs that would barely hold him upright, Kip had to throw in the towel. "I'm going to take a breather, guys."

\n Kip wobbled around the gym trying to get his breath back, and even through his exhaustion he could feel that something wasn't quite right. Taking careful stock of his surroundings, he saw nothing out of the ordinary except for the new guy, who was lifting obscene amounts of weight on one of the cable machines. His stood facing away from Kip, affording him a view of a well developed back and a shock of greasy-looking black hair. Something about him set Kip's teeth on edge, but he couldn't put his finger on what that was. Hell, he hadn't even seen the guy's face! He could end up being the nicest guy in the world, for all he knew.

\n Somewhat mollified, Kip continued meandering around the gym's machinery, winding a path between the less-often used devices while his heart rate slowed. He wished that Carl would clear out some of this little-used crap and make a proper walking path through the gym so he could cool down. His mind grew quiet as his heartbeat slowed, and he felt the welcome and familiar peace descend on his thoughts. This was his favorite part about working out, the sense of calm he always had afterwards.

\n Kip's thoughts were so lost that it took him a moment to react when he saw Jake crossing the room. His meeting must have ended early! Kip began working his way out of the tangle of exercise equipment when two hundred pounds of plates slammed down like a gunshot right beside him. His reflexes were as good as they ever were, and he ducked his head a millisecond before the heavy steel handle of the cable machine could implant itself in his temple.

\n "What the hell!" Kip thought. "Did the cable snap?" Then he heard the low chuckle coming from the other side of the machine, and he knew that his instincts had been right. The cable hadn't snapped, it had been released, timed so that the handle would come whipping around to hit him in the head. If it was meant to be a joke, it had been a deadly one.

\n But then, he knew that laugh, and he knew it had been no joke. No passing of years would let him forget the cruel sound of humorless laughter that had been carefully engineered to demoralize and humiliate. It was the same now as it had been in high school. The only difference was, back then it had made him want to crawl inside a hole and disappear. Now it just pissed him off.

\n "Did ya miss me, fruitcake?"

\n God, how he had hoped to never hear that hated nickname again. Kip felt a fury that was alien to him blaze up in his heart as he began to walk around the rack of machinery to face his attacker. "Never again," he told himself, balling his fists. "I will NEVER live in fear again!" He was fully prepared to convince this bastard, by whatever means were necessary, that attacking him had been an unwise idea.

\n To Kip's minor disappointment, he didn't have the chance. It had only taken him five or six seconds to recover his wits and come around to the front of the machine, but that had been enough time for Jake, his Jake, to cross the distance between them and rip his attacker out of the machine. By the time Kip got there Jake was holding the man by his bull neck with a single hand. It was a good thing this bastard's neck was strong, Kip thought analytically, because his feet were dangling a good half meter off the floor. Fuck, but Jake was strong!

\n The Bastard clawed ineffectually at the fingers tightening around his throat, his eyes beginning to bulge slightly. The gurgles of his strangled breathing were the only sound in the gym; nobody could possibly have missed hearing Jake's vicious whisper.

\n "He's mine," the huge morph growled, low and dangerous. He spoke slowly so there would be no misunderstanding between them. "Leave him alone or I will kill you." And there wasn't a single person in the room, The Bastard included, who had the slightest shred of doubt about the truth in his words. Jake held him for another few seconds, long enough to make sure he saw the seeds of fear take solid root in The Bastard's eyes, then slammed him into the cinderblock wall and turned his back on the crumpled man, not really caring whether he got up or not.

\n Turning his attention to Kip, his attitude transformed completely. The same paws that had just thrown a 300 lb man across the room were warm and gentle on Kip's shoulders. "Are you all right?" Jake asked, his brow furrowed with concern.

\n Kip nodded and put his hands on top of Jake's. He gave his partner a weak smile. "You're early!"

\n  

\n Kip took another bite of his hamburger and wondered how long they could dance around the elephant that was sitting squarely in the middle of the room. After getting cleaned up, the guys had all gathered down the street from the gym at the 24-hour diner where they would sometimes sit and talk until the wee hours of the morning. This time they had something pretty big to talk about, Kip thought, but they were talking about everything except what had just happened. Nobody brought up the fight, and nobody mentioned what Jake had said about him although everyone had either heard it, or heard about it.

\n Rob, as usual, was the first to broach the subject, and he timed his question carefully. As soon as Ralph and Dunny had taken big bites of food and couldn't interrupt, he asked, "So what went on in there, anyway?"

\n Jake sipped his tea, as much for a few seconds to think as to clear his mouth before answering. "I got out of the meeting a little early, and I thought I'd join these guys. When I came in, I could see this guy in the mirror looking at Kip out of the corner of his eye. I could see that he had the cable machine completely loaded up, but I had no idea what he was planning. As soon as Kip was in just the right spot, he intentionally let go of the handle so it would brain him. And all the time, he had this weird smile on his face." Looking over at Kip, he asked, "Did you know him?"

\n "He was one of the guys I told you about who used to torture me in high school," Kip said, chewing the words out like they were bitter. "I never thought I'd see any of those jerks again. The fact that he'd try something like that after all these years just pisses me off."

\n "I could tell!" Ralph said, excitedly. Now that his mouth wasn't stuffed full of food, he was free to comment at will. "By the look on your face, that asshole was lucky Jake got to him first. You looked mad enough to rip him limb from limb!"

\n "He could have done it, too," Rob said, smiling in his direction. "Short Stack's meaner than he looks."

\n "That's right," Kip confirmed, "so don't mess with me."

\n "I think someone else is messing with you, though!" Ralph said, smirking towards Jake and laughing too loudly at his own joke.

\n Sam groaned and slapped his forehead with his palm, "Too soon, Ralphie! Too soon."

\n "What?" Ralph asked, oblivious to his indiscretion.

\n "It's no big deal," Rob said to Jake, hoping to smooth any feathers that might have been ruffled by the other man's comment. It was a generic comment, but everyone knew that the unspoken meaning was, "It's no big deal that you're gay".

\n "Wait a minute," Jake asked, "you knew?"

\n "You mean about you and Kip?" Sam asked

\n "What makes you think there's a "me and Kip"?" Jake said, then backpedaled furiously. "I mean, well, not that there isn't, or anything, but... How did you know?" he ended feebly.

\n Dave groaned and rolled his eyes. "Oh, please! It's obvious, even to me! You can't keep your eyes off each other."

\n "Huh," Kip muttered, "I thought we were being discreet."

\n "You probably were, to anyone who didn't know Jake as well as we do," Rob said, "and the way Jake reacted when he saw someone try to hurt you kinda sealed the deal.  He was ready to rip that asshole to bloody shreds." Then he added, almost as an afterthought, "We've been waiting for years for Jake to decide which team he wanted to play for."

\n "Jeez, is it really that important?" Jake asked, embarrassment evident on his face. "Can we stop talking about this, please?"

\n Rob's voice was quiet, and for once nobody interrupted him. Now he was speaking for them all. "Yes, it really is that important to the people who love you. More than anything else, we want you to be happy. When Kip came along, we all knew that he could do that for you, if you gave him the chance. And don't bother asking me how we knew, we just did."

\n "So that's why you warmed up to him so quickly?" Jake asked.

\n "Dude, we didn't have much choice," Ralph said around a handful of french fries. "He was gonna be family, so we had to get along. Besides," he added, glancing over at Kip, "he ended up being pretty cool. We'd have let him in even if you decided that you weren't through sitting on your fence." He ended his compliment by casually shoving another dozen fries into his mouth.

\n Even though Jake had known these guys for most of his life, they never failed to amaze him. He looked at each one in turn, his heart glad that he could count them as friends. In each face he could see different qualities that made them who he was. Sam's intelligence, Dunny's stubborn determination, Rob's good spirits... Each of them had added something unique and important to his life, and now they would share those same positive traits with the man he loved.

\n "Donna!" he signalled their waitress, waving a beefy arm in the air to get her attention, "Bring us a whole cherry pie and seven plates, and put it on my bill." Under the table, where none of the other guys could see, Jake put his warm, strong hand on Kip's leg and gave a gentle, loving squeeze.

\n "What are we celebrating?" Rob asked as the waitress came back to plunk a huge, freshly baked pie down in the middle of the table and pass out a stack of plates and forks.

\n "Sometimes you don't need a reason to celebrate," Jake said, to the seven most amazing men he'd ever known. "Sometimes just having your best friends around you is enough, right?" He plopped a huge slice of dessert onto a plate and passed it to his best friend, a huge smile plastered across his face. "Now, shut up and eat your pie!"