Callen stopped him.
“It’s not about my brother. It’s about you.”
Well, okay.
This should be interesting.
In that moment, Gene gave him a chance.
“Okay,” he stated. “What do you want to know, exactly?” he inquired.
Callen went there.
“Were you born gay or made gay?” Callen asked, hoping the man didn’t laugh at him.
From where he sat, Gene was confused.
“Made gay?” he asked. “You’re going to have to elaborate on that part, Callen. I’m not quite sure what you mean by that. As far as I know, you can’t be‘MADE’gay. You liked what you liked.”
Callen didn’t know how to ask this. It was part of his past, and a deep dark secret. Only, he needed to know if what he was feeling for Ethan was because of it or just...
Something else.
“Were you…?”
When he paused, Gene lifted a brow. It took him a second, but from reading the room, and how uneasy Callen was asking him this, there could only be one thing he was talking about.
“Molested and made to like dudes?” he asked. “Is that what you’re asking me?”
Callen nodded.
Well, he hadn’t been expecting it to go there. Gene shook his head.
“No, I just never liked girls. I’ve always liked dick. No one made me this way. That’s not how being gay works. Some peopleONLYlike dick. Some people go both ways. I am a dick connoisseur. Ethan's, specifically. He’s been with me and women. He technically isn’t gay. He’s Bi. Neither one of us were ‘made’ into this. Why?”
Hearing that, Callen said nothing.
That’s when Gene got it.
Taking two and two, and adding them together, he believed he understood why Callen was asking him this.
“Were you molested as a child, and then you think your attraction to Ethan is because of that?” he asked.
Oh, and he did it gently.
If Callen had been a victim, the last thing he wanted to do was be cruel.
That wasn’t how he rolled.
He’d dealt with plenty of child victims, and it made him want to protect them even more.
From where he sat, Callen nodded, but he wouldn’t look up at Gene. He was horrified he was asking this, but he had no one he could ask. Maybe a part of him hoped Gene would tell Ethan, and his brother would…understand.
Or maybe he assumed he’d never see Gene again either.
At his acknowledgment, Gene was horrified.
Jesus.
