RP LOG with richandlovingit | Information overload
Jess felt ill. Completely and utterly plain ill. If she wasn't sitting down, she probably would have taken a leaf out of Liam's book and passed out. She sat in front of Ethan's huge and sprawling mahogany desk in the high rise of Williamson Kent Pharmaceuticals. Seems this place was going to be her second home right now. Maybe she could get a job here after Tom sacked her? Somewhere on a floor below, Phillipe was probably sitting as his desk trawling over computer coding and oblivious to the world at large. She would give anything to be there and no in this office right now, even if she had come here voluntarily... some fucked up way of seeking solace. After spending the night with Phillipe after running to him when she felt like she could run to anyone else, Jess hadn't known what to do. By the time she turned her mobile phone back on and found so many texts and voicemail messages that her phone had reached capacity, she had freaked out and tried to call Sophie. But she only got put through to voicemail, which is what had Jess running to the office of her brother-in-law on the top floor of the building. It was reactionary, and Ethan had always been approachable with all the Morgan siblings. Initially he had been wary, and even terrified, though he didn't show it. But it didn't take long for him to forge relationships with them and step easily into the role of cool brother-in-law. He always said they could ask him for anything if they needed it, but this was the first time the BIL Batcall had really needed to be put out.
Only, Jess could never have anticipated receiving all the information she did. As soon as she entered Ethan's office, his personal assistant telling her to go in straight away, he had met her at the door and demanded to know where the fuck she had been. Everyone had been worried sick, and she found herself on the end of a very Sophie-esque lecture. He had learnt from the best, and his wife was clearly rubbing off on him. All she could do was stand there and take it. She had known she should have told someone where she was, but she had just needed a timeout, one that Phillipe could offer her. He made her feel like she wasn't alone and didn't make her feel like a stupid bitch for being horrified over what she saw. Only once Ethan got the initial shock of having Jess land in his office and got the frustration out of his system, he had started pacing back and forth in front of the ceiling to floor window and then told her to sit, because there was a lot she needed to know.
Now she knew. No holds barred, he had told her the whole story from start to present. What had gone down, who was involved, how far one little misunderstanding had reached and exploded like she could never have anticipated. Not only had Stuart been in hospital and had surgery, but Liam had been admitted too, for stress and exhaustion, and a bunch of other things that came from a weakened body that wasn't taken care of properly. What she had seen had been an error. Stuart and Tom had split up.
It all ran through her head at a dizzying pace, and it was like she couldn't absorb any of it. It was all her fault. The whole thing was her fault, because what she saw hadn't been what she had seen it all. She had been so sure, but now when she tried to run the scene through her mind again, it was all jumbled and she doubted everything. Nothing made sense, and she felt horribly woozy and leant forward to try and get her mind to stop spinning. "What have I done?" she finally choked out in horror.
Ethan felt that tiredness hit him again as he watched her. He might not have been directly involved in any of what went down, but he had dealt with the rollercoaster of emotions and even earned an extremely hard belt in the face for it from Tom the evening before. He had a black eye and the top of his cheek was an interesting purple colour. He had a migraine to compliment it, wondering if Tom had dislodged his brain on impact. His head had been drilling all day, but when Jess had seemed to choose him as the first point of contact when she appeared again, he had no choice but to be the one to fill her in on the whole story. The headache had been part of the reason why he had gotten so angry and lectured her, but she should know better than to just disappear off the face of the earth. With a family as big as hers, that's a whole lot of worry and overthinking to be done. The argument with Tom had been a whole other story. Ethan had gone to stay the night with Tom, but when he got there, it just seemed like a stupid situation. There was no need for him to be there at Tom's place when there was plenty of room at his apartment where his wife and ill brother-in-law were. Why shouldn't they all be in the one place so he could take care of them all. Sophie might be the big sister mother hen, wanting to take care of all her family, but it was Ethan's job to take care of her, and how was he supposed to do that if he wasn't even with her?
After all the heightened emotions, it was this realisation that broke his cool, too. He and Tom got into a screaming match before he could stop it. Tom didn't want to stay where Liam was in case Stuart heard about it and made things worse, Ethan threw back asking how it could possibly get any worse. Tom's temper snapped, his own exhaustion and stress getting too much and when they got to the point in the argument that Ethan accidentally let slip that Tom didn't try hard enough to get Stuart back, it was inevitable he was going to get belted for it. He hadn't meant it how it had blatantly come out, but it was a little how he felt. If he had been in Tom's shoes, he would've stayed at that hospital until Stuart talked to him again. But without actually being in Tom's place, it was all-talk anyway. Ethan really had no idea how he would react if he was in Tom's shoes, and he hoped he never fucking found out, either. It was bad enough when he very occasionally argued with Sophie. He knew he would die without her, and maybe there really was a little piece of Tom dying inside. But to Ethan, this was just all the more reason for him to keep fighting to Stuart back. It was this reasoning that had Tom agreeing to return to the Williamson apartment. Ethan pointed out that he could help him get some strength back to find the fight he had lost, because if he didn't, Stuart would be gone forever. Ethan pointedly left out the fact that he had bumped into Angus is the hospital corridor when they were taking Liam home, who had revealed to Ethan that on discharge, Stuart might be going home to Scotland... and had even mentioned a transfer to a cop shop in Edinburgh as a possibility. It was information Ethan had sat on, not even told Sophie. Information he had no fucking clue what to do with beyond do what it took to get Tom in form to fight again, even if it meant receiving a punch to the face.
He typed in a quick text message to Sophie, telling her Jess was here and she was okay, adding that he would call her once they finished talking. Depending on how long the talk actually went, Ethan was more than aware if Sophie wasn't tied up at work, she could well end up in his office too in a very short time. He couldn't help guility wondering how they could get Jess to make herself scarce so he could have a quickie with his wife on his desk. He was trying to be understanding on that front, but he had needs to, and making love to his wife when everything else sucked was one of them. He sighed, placing his PDA on the desk beside him and pushing off the edge where he had been perched to stop himself pacing more. He shifted to sit in the chair beside her, putting his arm around her and giving her a soft, comforting squeeze. "Look, Jess... it could've been any of us that walked in on that, and we would've reacted in the same way. It's just one of those fucked up situations. Just a few months ago, before Stuart, what you thought you saw could well have been happening. But Tom would take his own life before he fucked Stuart over. It was the last thing you expected to see, I know, and it had to have been fucked up seeing your kid brother there of all things, but you have to accept here you made an error. You need to apologise to Tom, to Stuart... and to Liam. He's devastated that you thought this of him, and haven't returned his calls. It all blew up, and we don't know if it will recover, but you need to set things right or this could cause a huge family rift, and I can't fucking stand by and let that happen."
"Because, yeah, I'm supposed to just immediately assume that my promiscuous gay unqualified doctor brother is on his knees in a closed office for my promiscuous gay boss to examine him!" Jess cried in frustration, tears now streaming down her face once again. "I was devastated too! Tom is everything I want to be, and that's what I'm met with? With my baby brother?! So, I fucked up, I know I did! I've fucked up in the worst possible way, but what else was I supposed to think?! I didn't know anything about Tom and Liam being together! I didn't even know they had spoken beyond random passing family things, and then Liam's on his knees for Tom?! If it was all just a horrible mix up, why has everything gone wrong?! Why wasn't the record set straight?! He's a fucking lawyer, he talks his way out of everything, and he just stops that with Stuart?! Gives up?! I'll apologise, but it might be nice to get one in return for not being told fucking anything! Tom and Stuart's break up is not my fault! I didn't hold him and Liam down and tell them to fuck on camera, and I didn't walk away and not let the love of my life slip away from me! He needs to tell Stuart that he can't live without him! What hope do the rest of us have if they don't fix this?" Her tone was just teary and helpless by the time she finished her frustrated and upset ranting. The guilt was burning through her, but Liam and Tom's past secret wasn't her fault. She just screwed up and made it worse. She had been so happy and excited when she realise Tom was getting married, it was like maybe something in the world was going right. Now this?
The luxury Ethan had in this whole mess was that he was on the outside looking in and he could see every side of the story. He could understand why she was upset and frustrated, fingers all pointing at her for seeming to fuck up a wonderful relationship. But she was right. She might have aggravated an already volatile scenario, but it ultimately wasn't her fault. Ultimately, there were a few little faults that all caused cracks and just exploded at the same time. Sometimes in life, clearly, things were just arse. "You can't fix it for them, love. None of us can. They have to fix it for themselves. And ironically, Liam is in the same boat with you here. He was innocent, and has just been caught up in it all. The even more fucked up part is, everyone is innocent, there has just been a lot of hurt feelings and pain. The only people who fix Stuart and Tom's relationship are them. In the meantime, apologise for the mistake. You don't want to be estranged from anyone you love. You need your family."
Jess looked up, her eyes teary and scared. "What if he hates me? What if he doesn't want anything to do with me, can't stand working with me?" she whispered, her stomach lurching at the prospect but she managed not to throw up all over her brother-in-law. She noticed his face now, and the mess of bruising it had swept across his eye and cheek. All she could do was whimpered and hunch over. How could she not feel guilty?
"Because you're family, Jess," Ethan mumbled with a frown of pain. "You underestimated him with Liam... don't underestimate him as a boss. Tom's an amazing person, he's one of the most important people in my life. Please, just give him a chance before you write him off. He respects you highly, or he wouldn't have given you a job. Give him the same in return. He's not the selfish fucker everyone wants to believe he is. Far, far from it." His own shoulders slumped a little as he realised, this time, he hadn't been able to protect his best friend at all. He hadn't been able to stop him getting hurt.
Jess watched him closely, wiping her tears away and then wrapping her hand around Ethan's arm. "I'm sorry I hurt him."
Ethan met her eyes with a small nod and then placed his hand over hers, squeezing. "Tell him that. Please? He needs to know you have his back, even if he won't admit to needing help."
Jess just wrapped her arms around her brother-in-law and hugged him, tightly, like she maybe didn't even want to let go. She had watched Ethan hug Sophie so many times since they hooked up, and she always loved how much his embrace seemed to look like a big protective shield. Jess remembered thinking more than once that if any guy could protect Sophie unconditionally, it would be him, despite his own colourful past. She knew Tom was the same, and she hadn't meant to misjudge him. She just hoped he could find it in his heart to forgive her, because she wasn't sure if she could cope if the one guy she respected just as much as she did her own brothers, as a boss and as family, hated her.
Word Count | 2,506
Only, Jess could never have anticipated receiving all the information she did. As soon as she entered Ethan's office, his personal assistant telling her to go in straight away, he had met her at the door and demanded to know where the fuck she had been. Everyone had been worried sick, and she found herself on the end of a very Sophie-esque lecture. He had learnt from the best, and his wife was clearly rubbing off on him. All she could do was stand there and take it. She had known she should have told someone where she was, but she had just needed a timeout, one that Phillipe could offer her. He made her feel like she wasn't alone and didn't make her feel like a stupid bitch for being horrified over what she saw. Only once Ethan got the initial shock of having Jess land in his office and got the frustration out of his system, he had started pacing back and forth in front of the ceiling to floor window and then told her to sit, because there was a lot she needed to know.
Now she knew. No holds barred, he had told her the whole story from start to present. What had gone down, who was involved, how far one little misunderstanding had reached and exploded like she could never have anticipated. Not only had Stuart been in hospital and had surgery, but Liam had been admitted too, for stress and exhaustion, and a bunch of other things that came from a weakened body that wasn't taken care of properly. What she had seen had been an error. Stuart and Tom had split up.
It all ran through her head at a dizzying pace, and it was like she couldn't absorb any of it. It was all her fault. The whole thing was her fault, because what she saw hadn't been what she had seen it all. She had been so sure, but now when she tried to run the scene through her mind again, it was all jumbled and she doubted everything. Nothing made sense, and she felt horribly woozy and leant forward to try and get her mind to stop spinning. "What have I done?" she finally choked out in horror.
Ethan felt that tiredness hit him again as he watched her. He might not have been directly involved in any of what went down, but he had dealt with the rollercoaster of emotions and even earned an extremely hard belt in the face for it from Tom the evening before. He had a black eye and the top of his cheek was an interesting purple colour. He had a migraine to compliment it, wondering if Tom had dislodged his brain on impact. His head had been drilling all day, but when Jess had seemed to choose him as the first point of contact when she appeared again, he had no choice but to be the one to fill her in on the whole story. The headache had been part of the reason why he had gotten so angry and lectured her, but she should know better than to just disappear off the face of the earth. With a family as big as hers, that's a whole lot of worry and overthinking to be done. The argument with Tom had been a whole other story. Ethan had gone to stay the night with Tom, but when he got there, it just seemed like a stupid situation. There was no need for him to be there at Tom's place when there was plenty of room at his apartment where his wife and ill brother-in-law were. Why shouldn't they all be in the one place so he could take care of them all. Sophie might be the big sister mother hen, wanting to take care of all her family, but it was Ethan's job to take care of her, and how was he supposed to do that if he wasn't even with her?
After all the heightened emotions, it was this realisation that broke his cool, too. He and Tom got into a screaming match before he could stop it. Tom didn't want to stay where Liam was in case Stuart heard about it and made things worse, Ethan threw back asking how it could possibly get any worse. Tom's temper snapped, his own exhaustion and stress getting too much and when they got to the point in the argument that Ethan accidentally let slip that Tom didn't try hard enough to get Stuart back, it was inevitable he was going to get belted for it. He hadn't meant it how it had blatantly come out, but it was a little how he felt. If he had been in Tom's shoes, he would've stayed at that hospital until Stuart talked to him again. But without actually being in Tom's place, it was all-talk anyway. Ethan really had no idea how he would react if he was in Tom's shoes, and he hoped he never fucking found out, either. It was bad enough when he very occasionally argued with Sophie. He knew he would die without her, and maybe there really was a little piece of Tom dying inside. But to Ethan, this was just all the more reason for him to keep fighting to Stuart back. It was this reasoning that had Tom agreeing to return to the Williamson apartment. Ethan pointed out that he could help him get some strength back to find the fight he had lost, because if he didn't, Stuart would be gone forever. Ethan pointedly left out the fact that he had bumped into Angus is the hospital corridor when they were taking Liam home, who had revealed to Ethan that on discharge, Stuart might be going home to Scotland... and had even mentioned a transfer to a cop shop in Edinburgh as a possibility. It was information Ethan had sat on, not even told Sophie. Information he had no fucking clue what to do with beyond do what it took to get Tom in form to fight again, even if it meant receiving a punch to the face.
He typed in a quick text message to Sophie, telling her Jess was here and she was okay, adding that he would call her once they finished talking. Depending on how long the talk actually went, Ethan was more than aware if Sophie wasn't tied up at work, she could well end up in his office too in a very short time. He couldn't help guility wondering how they could get Jess to make herself scarce so he could have a quickie with his wife on his desk. He was trying to be understanding on that front, but he had needs to, and making love to his wife when everything else sucked was one of them. He sighed, placing his PDA on the desk beside him and pushing off the edge where he had been perched to stop himself pacing more. He shifted to sit in the chair beside her, putting his arm around her and giving her a soft, comforting squeeze. "Look, Jess... it could've been any of us that walked in on that, and we would've reacted in the same way. It's just one of those fucked up situations. Just a few months ago, before Stuart, what you thought you saw could well have been happening. But Tom would take his own life before he fucked Stuart over. It was the last thing you expected to see, I know, and it had to have been fucked up seeing your kid brother there of all things, but you have to accept here you made an error. You need to apologise to Tom, to Stuart... and to Liam. He's devastated that you thought this of him, and haven't returned his calls. It all blew up, and we don't know if it will recover, but you need to set things right or this could cause a huge family rift, and I can't fucking stand by and let that happen."
"Because, yeah, I'm supposed to just immediately assume that my promiscuous gay unqualified doctor brother is on his knees in a closed office for my promiscuous gay boss to examine him!" Jess cried in frustration, tears now streaming down her face once again. "I was devastated too! Tom is everything I want to be, and that's what I'm met with? With my baby brother?! So, I fucked up, I know I did! I've fucked up in the worst possible way, but what else was I supposed to think?! I didn't know anything about Tom and Liam being together! I didn't even know they had spoken beyond random passing family things, and then Liam's on his knees for Tom?! If it was all just a horrible mix up, why has everything gone wrong?! Why wasn't the record set straight?! He's a fucking lawyer, he talks his way out of everything, and he just stops that with Stuart?! Gives up?! I'll apologise, but it might be nice to get one in return for not being told fucking anything! Tom and Stuart's break up is not my fault! I didn't hold him and Liam down and tell them to fuck on camera, and I didn't walk away and not let the love of my life slip away from me! He needs to tell Stuart that he can't live without him! What hope do the rest of us have if they don't fix this?" Her tone was just teary and helpless by the time she finished her frustrated and upset ranting. The guilt was burning through her, but Liam and Tom's past secret wasn't her fault. She just screwed up and made it worse. She had been so happy and excited when she realise Tom was getting married, it was like maybe something in the world was going right. Now this?
The luxury Ethan had in this whole mess was that he was on the outside looking in and he could see every side of the story. He could understand why she was upset and frustrated, fingers all pointing at her for seeming to fuck up a wonderful relationship. But she was right. She might have aggravated an already volatile scenario, but it ultimately wasn't her fault. Ultimately, there were a few little faults that all caused cracks and just exploded at the same time. Sometimes in life, clearly, things were just arse. "You can't fix it for them, love. None of us can. They have to fix it for themselves. And ironically, Liam is in the same boat with you here. He was innocent, and has just been caught up in it all. The even more fucked up part is, everyone is innocent, there has just been a lot of hurt feelings and pain. The only people who fix Stuart and Tom's relationship are them. In the meantime, apologise for the mistake. You don't want to be estranged from anyone you love. You need your family."
Jess looked up, her eyes teary and scared. "What if he hates me? What if he doesn't want anything to do with me, can't stand working with me?" she whispered, her stomach lurching at the prospect but she managed not to throw up all over her brother-in-law. She noticed his face now, and the mess of bruising it had swept across his eye and cheek. All she could do was whimpered and hunch over. How could she not feel guilty?
"Because you're family, Jess," Ethan mumbled with a frown of pain. "You underestimated him with Liam... don't underestimate him as a boss. Tom's an amazing person, he's one of the most important people in my life. Please, just give him a chance before you write him off. He respects you highly, or he wouldn't have given you a job. Give him the same in return. He's not the selfish fucker everyone wants to believe he is. Far, far from it." His own shoulders slumped a little as he realised, this time, he hadn't been able to protect his best friend at all. He hadn't been able to stop him getting hurt.
Jess watched him closely, wiping her tears away and then wrapping her hand around Ethan's arm. "I'm sorry I hurt him."
Ethan met her eyes with a small nod and then placed his hand over hers, squeezing. "Tell him that. Please? He needs to know you have his back, even if he won't admit to needing help."
Jess just wrapped her arms around her brother-in-law and hugged him, tightly, like she maybe didn't even want to let go. She had watched Ethan hug Sophie so many times since they hooked up, and she always loved how much his embrace seemed to look like a big protective shield. Jess remembered thinking more than once that if any guy could protect Sophie unconditionally, it would be him, despite his own colourful past. She knew Tom was the same, and she hadn't meant to misjudge him. She just hoped he could find it in his heart to forgive her, because she wasn't sure if she could cope if the one guy she respected just as much as she did her own brothers, as a boss and as family, hated her.
Word Count | 2,506