It was the summer of their fourteenth year. They were in their favorite spot, in the shade of that old willow tree they’d sat under on hot days most of their lives. On this day they sat shirtless, their swim trunks drying in the summer’s heat. They’d been swimming in the pond that sat about twenty yards from their spot, the blanket underneath them damp from their shorts and skin.

They lay stretched out under the long, thick branches, the shadows of the leaves dancing a magical waltz across their bodies to the wind’s rhythm. Their hands were linked and they were emerged in conversation, the rest of the world nonexistent to them at the moment. 

“How would you want your wedding?”

Sy thought about the posed question with a lazy grin. “With you. On a beach somewhere warm. With just our closest friends and family. Maybe Jamaica or something.”

“White sand and clear blue water. And the most beautiful man on earth. Me.” They both laughed, Sy pushing Sam back jovially on the shoulder. 

“Jerk!” His laughter smoothed into a small grin as Sam’s lips gently pressed into his.

Sy looked around at the small gathering of people that had come to celebrate this special day with him and Sam. Among the small group seated in the chairs set in just a few rows were the most important people in their lives. He saw his mother and sister laughing with Logan and Carrie. Behind them were Sam’s parents, Dexter, Liz and Reagan.

Shelly, the one person who for so long took care of him, guided and nurtured him, helped him raise his son, and not only helped to save his life, but saved his soul, stood beside him. She smiled brightly at him, happiness for him shining in her eyes and all over her face.

She and Reagan had moved in together going on sixteen months previous. He and Shelly were in daily contact, and she made sure to come to the house to check in on Sammy and take him out to eat or play several times a week. And most weekends consisted of Sammy going and staying at her and Reagan’s.

Reagan had taken an instant liking to the boy, often accompanying them on their adventures. She quickly became a member of the family and it was as if now like she had always been there.

When it was time, Shelly walked Sy down the aisle, ‘giving him away’ to Sam before they stood in front of Casey, who was officiating their wedding. Before stepping away from her best friend, she kissed his cheek and whispered, “I’m so proud of and happy for you.” Looking at Sam, who had stepped up beside her, she said, “You, sir, better take care of him or I might have to kill you.” She smiled at him, but Sam knew that she was serious.

In a tone equalling hers, he told her, “I will always take care of him.” Satisfied, Shelly stepped back after giving over Sy’s hand to Sam. When they turned and faced Casey, the three of them smiled at each other, and Casey began to speak.

Sammy stood behind and to the right of Sam, the ring bearer, smiling as brightly as the sun. Over the course of the last year, Sammy’s brain had been well on the mend, with most of his cognitive ability back to the way he was prior to the accident. He had learned the coping skills he needed with Miss Makayla, who still taught him by his own request, and he continued to employ these skills now.

“I was told that the two of you wrote your own vows,” Casey said. “And that Sy, you wanted to start?”

Sy nodded, his eyes never leaving Sam’s, his hands gripped tightly within the man’s before him. “For so long there was a hole within me. A place that you once were that was so quickly torn away. A place that nothing and no one else could ever fill. And for so long, I tried keeping to the shadows, denying myself so many of life’s pleasures. Happiness. Love. And then one day there you were…so out of the blue and in just the moment where I needed you the most.” 

His voice cracked with the emotion that was bubbling to the surface at the moment and at his words. He knew the journey in which they’d both traveled, individually and together, to get to this point. They’d each had to fight their own demons and the cruelty of man and addiction. They’d survived beyond measurable odds of the statistics of addiction, suicide, and conversion therapy camp attendees.

“Since we were children, you’ve always been my protector. And like you did for me as children, you protected my son from being hurt the day he got lost. You found him. And then you found me. There is nothing I can say to describe the feeling of seeing you that day…but I don’t think I have to…I think you already know.

“I love you, Sammy. I love you to my very core. I always have. We lost each other once, but I swear, I’ll never leave you again.”

Sam wiped Sy’s cheeks as well as his own before taking a deep breath, preparing to speak his own truths and his own promises. “The last time I was in the hospital, I had a dream. I dreamt that I would be walking through a park and find a boy. He took my hand and led me straight to you. I knew then that I would find you again. I knew…I just…knew. That was the moment that I decided to get my life together. To stop all the bullshit and make something of myself. In the dream you told me that we would be together soon. But I had to be on a different path than the one I was on. 

“I love you beyond all measure. I love the family that we’ve created over the last two years and the life that we’re building together. It’s beyond anything that I ever could have imagined or anything that I ever wished for. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Living without you for so long taught me the meaning of you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. And I know that most people don’t get a second chance like this. I don’t aim to ever spend another day without you. I love you.”

They both could hear sniffles in the crowd and waves crashing gently in the ocean beside them. The white sand glinted in the sun and the palm trees swayed in the wind. They kissed as they were announced married for the first time. Sam scooped up Sammy after the ceremony was concluded, the three of them now all officially and legally family, the adoption of Sammy concluding only weeks before the wedding.

As Sy looked at the family he never thought he’d have, with the man that he never thought, in any realistic way, would ever be his again, the happiness that was surging through his body, his very being, was undiluted and unpolluted with the pains or previous fears of the past.

He had his bad days from time to time, but they were fewer and further between. He’d learned to talk further about his days at the camp, confiding in Sy not just what was done to his body, but what was done to his mind. He found it freeing and he felt that the talks brought the two of them closer.

They each endured the pain of separation, by force and then by circumstance. But now they were determined to live out their lives happy, free of everything that once held them down and kept them apart, and most importantly, together.