Downpour (2/3?)
Title: Downpour
Author: Sleepykraken
Characters:Kevin and Scotty, Sarah, Justin, Paige, Olivia, and Daniel in this chapter, mentions of other Walkers.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Scotty has to hold it together. He has no other choice.
Timeline: twenty years post season five.
Disclaimer: Just playing in the sandbox. I'll put my toys back when I've finished with them.
AN: Sequel to 'When it Rains.' Here be angst! You've been warned. I'm not a fan of this chapter. I hope it is readable to you all. The next one will be better, promise.
Scotty woke suddenly. It took him a long moment to remember where he was. Realization dawned suddenly. The hospital. Kevin. He looked over at the bed where he could make out the outline of his husband in the half-light of hospital nighttime. He got out of the uncomfortable chair was doubling as his bed and walked the three steps to Kevin’s bedside. He was moving restlessly in his sleep, his breathing raspy and slightly uneven. Scotty placed a gentle hand on the side of his face, which he found still too warm. His husband stirred slightly at the touch. His eyes opened and he looked up, glassy and unfocused, at him. “Mom?” He called out. “Mom!”
“Go back to sleep, sweetie.” He said for what felt like the thousandth time. He chewed his lower lip in frustration. He felt completely helpless, devoid of human agency. His husband was seriously ill, and all he could do to help was tell him to go back to sleep! The calling out for Nora had started earlier in the evening when his fever had reached it’s present height. Scotty didn’t know how to respond to it, so he just tried to get the other man to calm down and sleep.
He sighed and looked around the room as if the answer was lurking amongst the hospital equipment. Not finding it, he took the only course of action that seemed right. He pulled the chair closer to the bed, sat down, and held his husband’s hand. He imagined what he must look like to an outsider as he kept a vigil by his husband’s side. Someone who did not know him well might assume that he was praying, but Scotty didn’t see the point. He hadn’t gone to church since he left Mississippi at eighteen, and he hadn’t believed in god since well before then. And although he didn’t believe in that new-age hippie stuff either, he found himself imagining his strength and energy flowing from his hand into Kevin’s, as if pure love and strength of will could help.
He sat that way for a long time. Suddenly the light in the room shifted. He looked up and there was figure in the doorway. The light from the corridor shone behind it, making it impossible to make out the face. Scotty stared at the figure a moment, and shielded his eyes against the light. “Sarah?” He got up and walked towards her. She looked old and defeated. Her eyes were red, and she looked like she had been crying. Scotty was immediately worried. Something was not right. “What happened?” he asked with a mixture of wariness and resignation. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but no sound came out. She pitched forward suddenly, throwing herself into his arms and hugging him tightly. Scotty did the only thing he could do under the circumstances. He held his sister-in-law, and tried his best to comfort her. After a minute or so, Sarah pulled away. She looked at him with a look of pure anguish.
“Paige…Paige had a miscarriage.” Scotty stood there for a moment, completely stunned. It felt like the world had tilted on its axis. A voice from a small, cynical part of his brain scoffed that he should be desensitized to bad news by now. Instead, it felt all the more painful. He looked at Sarah; he had no words.
“How is she?” He finally managed to say after a long silence.
“She’s downstairs. Physically, she’s fine. She should have no problem getting pregnant again…but losing a baby, a first baby…” Her voice trailed off.
“Is Peter with her?” Scotty asked, hoping that Paige at least had her husband with her. Sarah nodded.
“Luc is there too. Paige wants to wait until morning to call Cooper and Joe.” She paused. “She wants to see you,” Scotty was taken a little aback, although he didn’t know why. He had had a particularly close relationship with his niece for as long as he had known her. Their house had been a refuge for her during fights with her parents, breakups from boyfriends, and other difficult times. Scotty wanted to be there for her, but he wasn’t sure he could hold it together. He had to hold it together, though. He was being strong for Kevin; he could be strong for Paige too.
“Ok.” He said simply. “Let me check on Kevin, and we can go.” He went back inside for a moment and looked over his husband. “I’ll be back in a little bit, ok?” He said to the sleeping form.
“How is he?” Sarah asked as they walked down the corridor.
“Not good.” He didn’t feel like elaborating, and Sarah had the tact not to press him. She led him down a hallway to an elevator, down a floor and down anther corridor. As they got nearer, Scotty saw Luc standing outside a room, leaning against the wall. They exchanged weary nods. Sarah peeked her head into the room; he could hear her voice as she spoke to her daughter. “Scotty’s here, Chicken, if you still want to see him.” She must have gotten an affirmative answer, as she stepped back to let him in.
Paige was sitting up in the hospital bed, Peter was sitting on the bed as well with his arms around his wife.
“Hey” Scotty said, and immediately wished he hadn’t It hardly seemed like the right thing to say, but then again, what was the right thing to say?
“Hey” Paige responded. She gave him a valiant effort of a smile, but it came out wobbly and half-formed. Scotty sat down in the chair by the bed, and wondered what he ought to do with himself. “What do I do now?” She asked with an air of hope, as though she thought he had the answer.
“You cry, you let us help you, you heal, and then one day, when you’re ready, you try again.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“It’s not going to be. It’s never easy.” Paige got the impression that he was speaking about more than just her. He took her hand. “You’ve got Walker blood in your veins, Paige. You’re tough. Let Peter help you, let your Mom and Luc, and your Dad and Cooper help you. You’ll be alright, maybe not right away, but you will be.” Paige nodded and fiddled with her wedding ring for a moment.
“How’s Kevin?”
“Fighting.” Peter and Paige nodded as they absorbed the information.
“I don’t want you to tell him.” Paige said suddenly.
“He’s not very lucid at the moment. He wouldn’t understand even if I did tell him.” Scotty responded wearily.
“I know.” She said, a little sharply. “What I meant is that I want you to wait longer. Wait until he’s out of danger and out of the hospital.” Scotty considered what she had said. It made sense; Kevin was sensitive, and Scotty didn’t want to jeopardize his recovery with more bad news. He was also thankful for Paige’s subtle assertion that Kevin would recover. Scotty had been trying very hard not to think about the alternative, although the thought crept unbidden into his thoughts in dark moments.
“You should try to sleep for a little while, honey.” Peter said, pulling his wife in a little closer.
“I want to go home.” Paige said in a small voice.
“We’ll be out of here in a few hours, but for now, sleep.” He responded.
“I’ve got to get back to Kevin.” Scotty said. He turned to Peter. “Look after her.” He looked at Paige. “Take care of yourself, Paige.” He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.
“You too, Scotty.”
~
Scotty stood outside Kevin’s room as he tried to mentally prepare himself for a return to his vigil. He knew he should be in there by his husband’s side, but all he could think was how much he wanted to be somewhere else, anywhere but that hospital room. He wasn’t sure he could be brave and stoic for one more minute. He felt completely alone. When he was upset the first person he would go to was Kevin, and that was hardly an option right now. Nora, a font of good advice if there ever was one, was dead and gone. He used to call his father sometimes too, when he needed that kind of fatherly advice, and he felt his absence acutely. He had always prided himself on being able to take care of himself, of liking the company of others without ever needing it. But now, desperately, he needed someone to tell him that it would be ok.
~
Justin woke with a start to the sound of a ringing phone. “Pick it up, Justin.” Tyler said sleepily as she covered her head with a pillow.
“Hello?” He answered.
“Justin?” Scotty’s voice came over the phone. He sounded like he was only just holding himself together. Justin sat up suddenly. There was only one reason Scotty would be calling him in the middle of the night.
“What’s wrong?” He asked warily. “How’s Kevin?”
“Not great, but Justin, I just…I just can’t. I can’t do it anymore!” He sounded slightly hysterical, and so unlike his usual self. “Nora, my Dad, I could handle that, but if Kevin…if Kevin…” His voice trailed off.
“Scotty, listen to me.” Justin said in his calmest EMT voice. “You need to keep it together for a few more minutes, ok? I’m going to come to the hospital; I’ll be there in half an hour. Just hold on.”
~
Justin was a little shaken by the time he reached the third floor. He had gotten lost looking for the elevator and had run into, quite literally, Luc. After they had picked themselves off the floor, Luc had filled him in on what had happened to Paige. Suddenly Scotty’s distress was clearer. There was only so much bad news a person could handle.
As he walked down the hallway, Justin prepared himself for what was coming. His brother was sick, and his brother-in-law, a rock if there ever was one, was about to come apart at the seams any moment. Of all his siblings-in-laws, he was closest to Scotty. They shared a certain calmness of spirit, and a ‘let’s just settle down and deal with this’ approach to problems. He could always count on Scotty to be on the same page.
But now, now things were different. Justin felt exhausted and emotionally drained by the events of the last month, but as bad as it had been for him, it was surely worse for Scotty. Scotty had not only lost Nora, who was just as much of a mother to him as she had been to any of her biological children, but he had lost his own father as well. And now his husband was in the hospital.
As he neared his brother’s room, he saw Scotty leaning against the wall. He watched as the other man sighed, then sunk down to the ground and put his head in his hands. Justin quickened his pace. “Scotty?” He said gently. He looked up, red-eyed and weary.
“Justin.” He sounded defeated.
“Alright, let’s get you up off the floor, ok?” He held out a hand. Scotty offered his own, a little reluctantly, and Justin pulled him up. “I know about Paige.” He didn’t need to say more than that. Scotty nodded.
“I don’t think I can be brave anymore.”
“You have to.” Justin said seriously. “Kevin needs you. You can fall apart when he’s doing better, but for now you have to be strong.” Scotty looked back with a hopeless expression. Then he closed his eyes for a long moment, and Justin could see him pull himself together.
“Ok.” He said, tired but resolved. “I can do this.”
~
So they kept up their vigil all night. Kevin carried on rambling one-sided conversations with his mother when he wasn’t coughing or sleeping fitfully. Scotty held his hand while he was sleeping, held him bodily when it seemed like the force of coughing would cause him to break apart, and sat there awkwardly while his husband discussed him with his dead mother-in-law. Justin talked to doctors in hallways and exchanged worried glances with the nurses who flitted through the room at regular intervals. He translated the doctorspeak into plain English, and tried to stay optimistic.
After a while Kevin’s rambling slowed and stopped and he lay very still, pale and grey and breathing unevenly in the narrow bed. Scotty stroked his hair and kissed his forehead gently. “He’s getting worse.” He said to Justin. He nodded. “Do you think I should call the kids? Do you think they should be here? I didn’t want them to worry too much…and they said that this was just precautionary, but he’s gotten so much worse than he was just a few hours ago…” Justin considered the question seriously.
“Yeah, I think we can initiate the Walker phone tree. You should have people here, not just me. Your children should be here.”
“Will you stay with him while I call?” He stood up. Justin nodded, then pulled him into a tight hug.
“We’re going to get through this, I promise.”
“Don’t make a promise you can’t keep.” Scotty responded wearily.
“I never do.”
~
Scotty walked down the corridor as he considered how his children would react to a three AM phone call. He was loathe to do it, because bad news in the middle of the night always seemed worse than bad news at any other time of day. But he had to do it; they needed to know. He decided to call Daniel first. He picked up on the second ring with a surprisingly cheery and awake-sounding ‘hello?’
“What are you doing up?”
“History paper” he said a little dramatically, but his tone changed quickly when the only logical reason for his dad to be calling him at three in the morning sunk in. ”…what are you doing up?” He asked worriedly, although he knew the answer already. “What’s wrong? Is Dad…”
“He’s not doing very well, Daniel.” Scotty tried to keep his tone neutral and calm.
“Not very well? He’s really sick, isn’t he?” He asked in a small voice, sounding all of six years old again.
“Yeah, he’s gotten a lot worse over the course of the night.”
“Ok.” He said a little shakily. “I should come down, right? Of course I’ll come down. I can be there in…it takes six hours to drive, I need to email my professors and pack a bag, so seven hours. I’ll be there in seven hours. 10 AM, give or take…” Scotty smiled just a little to himself. Despite bearing no genetic relation to Kevin, Daniel had somehow inherited his husband’s emotional sensibilities and tendency to ramble when he was worried.
“Breathe, Daniel. You need to calm down. Are you going to be ok to drive, or do you want us to book you a plane ticket?”
“I’ll drive. At least it’ll give me something to do. I don’t want to wait for a plane, then wait on a plane…”
“I understand.” And he did.
~
“Ok, I’m going to book a flight as soon as we get off the phone. I have personal days I can take for work, Marc can look after the cat, I can do this.” Olivia sounded at once in control, and like she was trying to reassure herself.
“What did you name the kitten?” For some reason knowing the name of the cat was very important. It seemed like a lifetime ago when his daughter’s new kitten was the most interesting piece of news in his life. He longed to go back to that time. A small part of his brain hoped that having a name for the kitten would somehow make things better, though he couldn’t possibly imagine how.
“Ivan the Terrible.” She responded, slightly bewildered. “Are you ok, Scotty?” Scotty knew that a parent should always be calm in front of their children, but Olivia was different. She had been more mature at nine than he’d been at nineteen. And she was a grown woman now, with a job, an apartment, and a serious boyfriend. And a cat.
“Not really.” He responded quietly. “It’s hard…Olivia, there’s more. Paige had a miscarriage.”
“Shit.” It was the first time he’d heard her swear. “Is she…”
“She’ll be alright, physically. She just needs to heal. I’m sure she’d like to see you.” He could hear his daughter speaking on the other end of the line, but he was momentarily unable to understand her. Justin was at the other end of the hallway, hurrying towards him. This wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all. All Scotty could think was how it couldn’t happen like this. Not at 3:37 AM in a hospital corridor. Not all alone. “Olivia, hold on.” He tried to read Justin’s expression, but he knew what he was going to say. There was only one thing he could say. “He’s…” Scotty tried. He couldn’t say it. He felt the tears coming. Once they started there would be no fighting them. He blinked and looked back up at Justin. He was…smiling?
“His fever’s breaking.” Justin grinned. Scotty had been right, once the tears started, they couldn’t be stopped. And for once in his life, he couldn’t care less.
Author: Sleepykraken
Characters:Kevin and Scotty, Sarah, Justin, Paige, Olivia, and Daniel in this chapter, mentions of other Walkers.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Scotty has to hold it together. He has no other choice.
Timeline: twenty years post season five.
Disclaimer: Just playing in the sandbox. I'll put my toys back when I've finished with them.
AN: Sequel to 'When it Rains.' Here be angst! You've been warned. I'm not a fan of this chapter. I hope it is readable to you all. The next one will be better, promise.
Scotty woke suddenly. It took him a long moment to remember where he was. Realization dawned suddenly. The hospital. Kevin. He looked over at the bed where he could make out the outline of his husband in the half-light of hospital nighttime. He got out of the uncomfortable chair was doubling as his bed and walked the three steps to Kevin’s bedside. He was moving restlessly in his sleep, his breathing raspy and slightly uneven. Scotty placed a gentle hand on the side of his face, which he found still too warm. His husband stirred slightly at the touch. His eyes opened and he looked up, glassy and unfocused, at him. “Mom?” He called out. “Mom!”
“Go back to sleep, sweetie.” He said for what felt like the thousandth time. He chewed his lower lip in frustration. He felt completely helpless, devoid of human agency. His husband was seriously ill, and all he could do to help was tell him to go back to sleep! The calling out for Nora had started earlier in the evening when his fever had reached it’s present height. Scotty didn’t know how to respond to it, so he just tried to get the other man to calm down and sleep.
He sighed and looked around the room as if the answer was lurking amongst the hospital equipment. Not finding it, he took the only course of action that seemed right. He pulled the chair closer to the bed, sat down, and held his husband’s hand. He imagined what he must look like to an outsider as he kept a vigil by his husband’s side. Someone who did not know him well might assume that he was praying, but Scotty didn’t see the point. He hadn’t gone to church since he left Mississippi at eighteen, and he hadn’t believed in god since well before then. And although he didn’t believe in that new-age hippie stuff either, he found himself imagining his strength and energy flowing from his hand into Kevin’s, as if pure love and strength of will could help.
He sat that way for a long time. Suddenly the light in the room shifted. He looked up and there was figure in the doorway. The light from the corridor shone behind it, making it impossible to make out the face. Scotty stared at the figure a moment, and shielded his eyes against the light. “Sarah?” He got up and walked towards her. She looked old and defeated. Her eyes were red, and she looked like she had been crying. Scotty was immediately worried. Something was not right. “What happened?” he asked with a mixture of wariness and resignation. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but no sound came out. She pitched forward suddenly, throwing herself into his arms and hugging him tightly. Scotty did the only thing he could do under the circumstances. He held his sister-in-law, and tried his best to comfort her. After a minute or so, Sarah pulled away. She looked at him with a look of pure anguish.
“Paige…Paige had a miscarriage.” Scotty stood there for a moment, completely stunned. It felt like the world had tilted on its axis. A voice from a small, cynical part of his brain scoffed that he should be desensitized to bad news by now. Instead, it felt all the more painful. He looked at Sarah; he had no words.
“How is she?” He finally managed to say after a long silence.
“She’s downstairs. Physically, she’s fine. She should have no problem getting pregnant again…but losing a baby, a first baby…” Her voice trailed off.
“Is Peter with her?” Scotty asked, hoping that Paige at least had her husband with her. Sarah nodded.
“Luc is there too. Paige wants to wait until morning to call Cooper and Joe.” She paused. “She wants to see you,” Scotty was taken a little aback, although he didn’t know why. He had had a particularly close relationship with his niece for as long as he had known her. Their house had been a refuge for her during fights with her parents, breakups from boyfriends, and other difficult times. Scotty wanted to be there for her, but he wasn’t sure he could hold it together. He had to hold it together, though. He was being strong for Kevin; he could be strong for Paige too.
“Ok.” He said simply. “Let me check on Kevin, and we can go.” He went back inside for a moment and looked over his husband. “I’ll be back in a little bit, ok?” He said to the sleeping form.
“How is he?” Sarah asked as they walked down the corridor.
“Not good.” He didn’t feel like elaborating, and Sarah had the tact not to press him. She led him down a hallway to an elevator, down a floor and down anther corridor. As they got nearer, Scotty saw Luc standing outside a room, leaning against the wall. They exchanged weary nods. Sarah peeked her head into the room; he could hear her voice as she spoke to her daughter. “Scotty’s here, Chicken, if you still want to see him.” She must have gotten an affirmative answer, as she stepped back to let him in.
Paige was sitting up in the hospital bed, Peter was sitting on the bed as well with his arms around his wife.
“Hey” Scotty said, and immediately wished he hadn’t It hardly seemed like the right thing to say, but then again, what was the right thing to say?
“Hey” Paige responded. She gave him a valiant effort of a smile, but it came out wobbly and half-formed. Scotty sat down in the chair by the bed, and wondered what he ought to do with himself. “What do I do now?” She asked with an air of hope, as though she thought he had the answer.
“You cry, you let us help you, you heal, and then one day, when you’re ready, you try again.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“It’s not going to be. It’s never easy.” Paige got the impression that he was speaking about more than just her. He took her hand. “You’ve got Walker blood in your veins, Paige. You’re tough. Let Peter help you, let your Mom and Luc, and your Dad and Cooper help you. You’ll be alright, maybe not right away, but you will be.” Paige nodded and fiddled with her wedding ring for a moment.
“How’s Kevin?”
“Fighting.” Peter and Paige nodded as they absorbed the information.
“I don’t want you to tell him.” Paige said suddenly.
“He’s not very lucid at the moment. He wouldn’t understand even if I did tell him.” Scotty responded wearily.
“I know.” She said, a little sharply. “What I meant is that I want you to wait longer. Wait until he’s out of danger and out of the hospital.” Scotty considered what she had said. It made sense; Kevin was sensitive, and Scotty didn’t want to jeopardize his recovery with more bad news. He was also thankful for Paige’s subtle assertion that Kevin would recover. Scotty had been trying very hard not to think about the alternative, although the thought crept unbidden into his thoughts in dark moments.
“You should try to sleep for a little while, honey.” Peter said, pulling his wife in a little closer.
“I want to go home.” Paige said in a small voice.
“We’ll be out of here in a few hours, but for now, sleep.” He responded.
“I’ve got to get back to Kevin.” Scotty said. He turned to Peter. “Look after her.” He looked at Paige. “Take care of yourself, Paige.” He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.
“You too, Scotty.”
~
Scotty stood outside Kevin’s room as he tried to mentally prepare himself for a return to his vigil. He knew he should be in there by his husband’s side, but all he could think was how much he wanted to be somewhere else, anywhere but that hospital room. He wasn’t sure he could be brave and stoic for one more minute. He felt completely alone. When he was upset the first person he would go to was Kevin, and that was hardly an option right now. Nora, a font of good advice if there ever was one, was dead and gone. He used to call his father sometimes too, when he needed that kind of fatherly advice, and he felt his absence acutely. He had always prided himself on being able to take care of himself, of liking the company of others without ever needing it. But now, desperately, he needed someone to tell him that it would be ok.
~
Justin woke with a start to the sound of a ringing phone. “Pick it up, Justin.” Tyler said sleepily as she covered her head with a pillow.
“Hello?” He answered.
“Justin?” Scotty’s voice came over the phone. He sounded like he was only just holding himself together. Justin sat up suddenly. There was only one reason Scotty would be calling him in the middle of the night.
“What’s wrong?” He asked warily. “How’s Kevin?”
“Not great, but Justin, I just…I just can’t. I can’t do it anymore!” He sounded slightly hysterical, and so unlike his usual self. “Nora, my Dad, I could handle that, but if Kevin…if Kevin…” His voice trailed off.
“Scotty, listen to me.” Justin said in his calmest EMT voice. “You need to keep it together for a few more minutes, ok? I’m going to come to the hospital; I’ll be there in half an hour. Just hold on.”
~
Justin was a little shaken by the time he reached the third floor. He had gotten lost looking for the elevator and had run into, quite literally, Luc. After they had picked themselves off the floor, Luc had filled him in on what had happened to Paige. Suddenly Scotty’s distress was clearer. There was only so much bad news a person could handle.
As he walked down the hallway, Justin prepared himself for what was coming. His brother was sick, and his brother-in-law, a rock if there ever was one, was about to come apart at the seams any moment. Of all his siblings-in-laws, he was closest to Scotty. They shared a certain calmness of spirit, and a ‘let’s just settle down and deal with this’ approach to problems. He could always count on Scotty to be on the same page.
But now, now things were different. Justin felt exhausted and emotionally drained by the events of the last month, but as bad as it had been for him, it was surely worse for Scotty. Scotty had not only lost Nora, who was just as much of a mother to him as she had been to any of her biological children, but he had lost his own father as well. And now his husband was in the hospital.
As he neared his brother’s room, he saw Scotty leaning against the wall. He watched as the other man sighed, then sunk down to the ground and put his head in his hands. Justin quickened his pace. “Scotty?” He said gently. He looked up, red-eyed and weary.
“Justin.” He sounded defeated.
“Alright, let’s get you up off the floor, ok?” He held out a hand. Scotty offered his own, a little reluctantly, and Justin pulled him up. “I know about Paige.” He didn’t need to say more than that. Scotty nodded.
“I don’t think I can be brave anymore.”
“You have to.” Justin said seriously. “Kevin needs you. You can fall apart when he’s doing better, but for now you have to be strong.” Scotty looked back with a hopeless expression. Then he closed his eyes for a long moment, and Justin could see him pull himself together.
“Ok.” He said, tired but resolved. “I can do this.”
~
So they kept up their vigil all night. Kevin carried on rambling one-sided conversations with his mother when he wasn’t coughing or sleeping fitfully. Scotty held his hand while he was sleeping, held him bodily when it seemed like the force of coughing would cause him to break apart, and sat there awkwardly while his husband discussed him with his dead mother-in-law. Justin talked to doctors in hallways and exchanged worried glances with the nurses who flitted through the room at regular intervals. He translated the doctorspeak into plain English, and tried to stay optimistic.
After a while Kevin’s rambling slowed and stopped and he lay very still, pale and grey and breathing unevenly in the narrow bed. Scotty stroked his hair and kissed his forehead gently. “He’s getting worse.” He said to Justin. He nodded. “Do you think I should call the kids? Do you think they should be here? I didn’t want them to worry too much…and they said that this was just precautionary, but he’s gotten so much worse than he was just a few hours ago…” Justin considered the question seriously.
“Yeah, I think we can initiate the Walker phone tree. You should have people here, not just me. Your children should be here.”
“Will you stay with him while I call?” He stood up. Justin nodded, then pulled him into a tight hug.
“We’re going to get through this, I promise.”
“Don’t make a promise you can’t keep.” Scotty responded wearily.
“I never do.”
~
Scotty walked down the corridor as he considered how his children would react to a three AM phone call. He was loathe to do it, because bad news in the middle of the night always seemed worse than bad news at any other time of day. But he had to do it; they needed to know. He decided to call Daniel first. He picked up on the second ring with a surprisingly cheery and awake-sounding ‘hello?’
“What are you doing up?”
“History paper” he said a little dramatically, but his tone changed quickly when the only logical reason for his dad to be calling him at three in the morning sunk in. ”…what are you doing up?” He asked worriedly, although he knew the answer already. “What’s wrong? Is Dad…”
“He’s not doing very well, Daniel.” Scotty tried to keep his tone neutral and calm.
“Not very well? He’s really sick, isn’t he?” He asked in a small voice, sounding all of six years old again.
“Yeah, he’s gotten a lot worse over the course of the night.”
“Ok.” He said a little shakily. “I should come down, right? Of course I’ll come down. I can be there in…it takes six hours to drive, I need to email my professors and pack a bag, so seven hours. I’ll be there in seven hours. 10 AM, give or take…” Scotty smiled just a little to himself. Despite bearing no genetic relation to Kevin, Daniel had somehow inherited his husband’s emotional sensibilities and tendency to ramble when he was worried.
“Breathe, Daniel. You need to calm down. Are you going to be ok to drive, or do you want us to book you a plane ticket?”
“I’ll drive. At least it’ll give me something to do. I don’t want to wait for a plane, then wait on a plane…”
“I understand.” And he did.
~
“Ok, I’m going to book a flight as soon as we get off the phone. I have personal days I can take for work, Marc can look after the cat, I can do this.” Olivia sounded at once in control, and like she was trying to reassure herself.
“What did you name the kitten?” For some reason knowing the name of the cat was very important. It seemed like a lifetime ago when his daughter’s new kitten was the most interesting piece of news in his life. He longed to go back to that time. A small part of his brain hoped that having a name for the kitten would somehow make things better, though he couldn’t possibly imagine how.
“Ivan the Terrible.” She responded, slightly bewildered. “Are you ok, Scotty?” Scotty knew that a parent should always be calm in front of their children, but Olivia was different. She had been more mature at nine than he’d been at nineteen. And she was a grown woman now, with a job, an apartment, and a serious boyfriend. And a cat.
“Not really.” He responded quietly. “It’s hard…Olivia, there’s more. Paige had a miscarriage.”
“Shit.” It was the first time he’d heard her swear. “Is she…”
“She’ll be alright, physically. She just needs to heal. I’m sure she’d like to see you.” He could hear his daughter speaking on the other end of the line, but he was momentarily unable to understand her. Justin was at the other end of the hallway, hurrying towards him. This wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all. All Scotty could think was how it couldn’t happen like this. Not at 3:37 AM in a hospital corridor. Not all alone. “Olivia, hold on.” He tried to read Justin’s expression, but he knew what he was going to say. There was only one thing he could say. “He’s…” Scotty tried. He couldn’t say it. He felt the tears coming. Once they started there would be no fighting them. He blinked and looked back up at Justin. He was…smiling?
“His fever’s breaking.” Justin grinned. Scotty had been right, once the tears started, they couldn’t be stopped. And for once in his life, he couldn’t care less.