[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
As A.J. was driving as fast as he possibly could, Leighanne sat in the backseat staring out of the window, seeing the trees going into a big green blur as A.J. kept his foot on the pedal. Leighanne was worried for both her husband’s health as well as Wendy’s. A.J. told her he got a call from the hospital, saying that something was wrong with Wendy, and that Brian had found her unconsciousness. She knew how tough these last few months had been on Brian. Ofcourse she was worried about Wendy herself, but he and Wendy had already known each other for about fifteen years. They grew up together, him looking after her when her parents had died and she was there for him when he found out that he needed to have surgery. It was Leighanne who had told him that she would end the relationship if he would put it off for the third time, but Wendy was the one who had discussed the issue with him for hours, when Leighanne had given up trying. Brian was a stubborn kind of guy, who didn’t want to let management and the guys down. In fact, in some ways she had Wendy to thank for him finally agreeing to the surgery. He didn’t want Leighanne to leave, but he also was so scared that the guys would blame him for causing trouble.
Leighanne sighed as she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. At first, it seemed the guys did blame him, for they weren’t there when Brian awoke from surgery. Ofcourse Leighanne had been there, and after they had some private time together, Wendy had joined them. When she found out that none of the others had visited or at least called, she went into a frenzy. She had called a little meeting to discuss this issue, well, she had yelled at them for the most part. But it had worked. They were ashamed of themselves for behaving this way, and stood by Brian every step of the way after that.
Leighanne smiled. Wendy and herself became close friends after a while. So close that Wendy knew Leighanne was pregnant before she had told Brian. She never said a word about it, but Wendy could tell. How exactly? Leighanne wasn’t sure, but it had been special as she kept the secret to themselves for two days, until Brian returned from a few meetings with management. The smile on his face when she told him, it was priceless. At first he picked her up and twirled her around, but suddenly put her on her feet again, a worried look on his face. He told her he was scared that this could’ve hurt the baby. It took her quite some time and pregnancybooks to convince him that it was safe to hold her tight and such.

“We’re here, Leigh..” Howie said as he opened the door and helped her get out.
“I’m scared, Howie. For Brian too..” she softly said, feeling guilty that he was her first concern.
“I am too, Leigh,” he replied as he gave her a quick hug. “Let’s go see what’s happened.”
Leighanne nodded as she grabbed her purse out of the car and shut the door, after which AJ locked all doors with his remotekey and they walked over to the entrance of the place they had seen too much of lately.

~~~~

Nick and Brian had finally found the courage to get back to the family room, where they already found A.J., Howie and Leighanne waiting for anyone to tell them what was wrong. As soon as Brian saw his wife, he walked up to her and pulled her in a hug, while a tear was running down his face. “Shhh..” Leighanne whispered as she rubbed his back, feeling his pain in her heart as he sobbed. Just seeing her made him give in to his tears that had been hiding somewhere. He knew him crying made Nick feel uncomfortable when it was just the two of them. Not that his best friend minded holding him, but he knew Nick found it hard to see him in such a state. He had once told him that he felt like there was nothing he could do, which wasn’t the truth at all. This time it wasn’t as if he felt he could cry when they were in the chapel anyway, in there he felt like this was all a nightmare, that he would wake up soon, but he didn’t. He knew he had been in some sort of shock. Seeing Leighanne made him snap out of that for some reason.

After a few minutes he let go of her and sat down in the chair next to her, immediately grabbing hold of her hand. A.J. wanted to ask him what happened, but wasn’t sure if Brian could handle it. He waited for another minute, but then curiosity took over. “Rok, can you tell us what happened this morning?”
“I’m not sure, Alex. When I went in she was asleep, or so I thought.” Brian told them everything he had told Nick in the chapel, at the same time feeling the guilt rising up to the surface of his thoughts.

~~~~

No answer. Just now he finally had the courage to call her. Kevin closed his cell and put it back on the nightstand with a sigh. He wondered why she didn’t answer her phone. It wasn’t as if she was ignoring his calls, because he knew for a fact that hospital phones didn’t have caller ID. For a moment the thought of her being hurt crossed his mind, but he quickly erased it. Last time he had seen her, things were going great, physically. Maybe she had already been transfered to “Hope”. Maybe that’s why she isn’t answering her phone, he thought. If that was the case, he was happy for her. But what if that wasn’t the reason she didn’t answer his call? What other reason could there be.
He reached for his cell again, with the intention to call his cousin, when he heard his voice in his head, saying You’re DEAD to me..
He couldn’t, he could not call him even if his own life was at stake. He knew Brian meant every word, because of the look he gave him while he walked out of the front door. The look was filled with pure hatred, something he never expected to see in Brian’s eyes. A.J. had yelled that he hated him, and he knew for a fact that he was serious. Howie did try to call him, but never left a message on his cellphone, so Kevin was anxious to call him too. That left Nick and Leighanne. Well, Leighanne always stood by her husband, so he might as well forget about calling her. Nick was the only one he could call right now, for he didn’t yell at him or anything. But Kevin knew that Nick was most likely to be angry as hell with him too, both for hurting Wendy and his best friend. He was surprised that he hadn’t come by to teach him a lesson using his bodystrength to set things straight. Nick wasn’t the agressive type, but whenever a guy messed with one of his friends, causing them pain, he was likely to let you feel some of that pain too.
Kevin closed his eyes and rubbed his temples with his thumbs. He knew he didn’t have a choice. There was no-one he could call right now to find out if Wendy was alright. No-one, except for the hospitalstaff, he suddenly thought. He still had the card with all the phonenumbers in his wallet. He got up to search for it, for he didn’t have a clue where he had seen it last.

~~~~

“I think we should call him, Brian.” Howie whispered so softly that it was only noticed by Brian who was sitting next to him. “Hell no!!” he exclaimed, causing the others to almost jump out of their chairs.
”Hell no what, Rok?” Nick asked him, surprised by his sudden outburst.
“I just told him that I think we should call Kevin.” Howie now looked at the others, regretting he had said those words instead of just calling Kevin again after they’d get some news. A.J. stared at his hands, feeling that Howie was right. He kept thinking of the way his big brother stood there in the doorway, exhausted and suddenly looking so fragile after he had snapped at him only seconds before. He didn’t say a word though, not wanting to start a fight right now. He just wanted to hear thatWendy would be alright, and deal with the whole Kevin-situation later. So he kept his mouth shut.
Leighanne kept quiet as well. She knew the fight was affecting Brian more than he admitted. She knew he needed his cousin right now, even though the others were there for him as well. Kevin always stayed positive, well, he did before he just decided to no longer visit Wendy and no longer care for her. Leighanne had tried to figure out what could’ve been the reason for this big change, but nothing about this whole situation made sense. She had tried to talk to Wendy about the day he ran off and what had happened, but she said she didn’t know and that he just ran off all of a sudden, for no apparent reason.
“We are NOT going to call that piece of shit..” Brian spat out the words as if they were poisonous.
“But..” Howie tried to make his friend see this was something Kevin should know about.
“NOT another word, ANY OF YOU!” Brian yelled. “HE said HE no longer cared, so WE are NOT going to call him. I DON”T want any of you to mention his name to me EVER AGAIN!” Brian clenched his fists so hard the his knuckles turned white and his eyes spat fire. “He no longer deserves to know how she is doing.” He softly continued, thinking of her. “Please let her be alright..” he then whispered. Nick had been silent all this time, he silently agreed with everything his best friend had just said. “Please, let her be alright..” he softly thought as he thought of her beautiful eyes, her beautiful smile. After Brian’s outburst, silence was all that filled the air, together with tension and fear. They just sat there in silence, waiting for anyone to tell them that she was alright.