She was sleeping. He sat beside her, head in his hands, wondering why he had done this to her, to himself, to them. They had been so happy in the beginning. Of course there were little disagreements, slight arguments. They never got into any shouting matches. That’s the way she was: quiet. Silent tears welled up in his eyes, rolling down his cheeks. Maybe crying wasn’t manly, but it certainly felt like the thing to do at the time.
Heather watched quietly as Joey rocked slowly back and forth. She had no doubt that he loved her cousin, but she did seriously wonder about whether there was any hope of saving that marriage. Sadly enough, she didn’t think so. She saw Gina’s eyes flutter open, saw her look at her husband. She also saw her cousin turn away and attempt curling into a ball. She managed rather impressively, in spite of the physical pain. Of course, Heather supposed, the physical pain was probably nothing compared to the mental and emotional anguish.
She leaned back against her own pillow and closed her eyes, forcing her mind to turn to happier thoughts. If she didn’t she would go insane. She was almost asleep when the door swung a little further open. Chris entered quietly and sat in the chair next to her bed. He pretended not to notice the other side of the room. He took his wife’s hand and smiled.
Lance stared out the window. He was home, and bone-weary, but he couldn’t sleep. Zahra had fallen right into bed but he was too wired, no matter how tired he was. He needed something to relax him. He wasn’t really a big drinker, but he did keep a fully stocked bar for parties and such, and he decided that was what he needed right then. He opted for brandy, just because it was the first thing he saw. He downed two glasses before trying once again to go to bed. It worked fairly well and he slept until mid-afternoon the following day. He found a note from Z saying she had gone to the studio but she would meet him at the hospital that evening.
JC grudgingly opened his eyes as sunlight streamed through the window. There was an irritating beeping sound coming from the general direction of his answering machine. New message. He stumbled into the bathroom first, then wandered back through the living room to the kitchen, pouring himself a cup of strong coffee from the pot he kept set on an automatic timer. He went to the front door to get the paper and finally, mainly because he couldn’t stand it anymore, pressed play on the machine. The first message was one from his mother. There was a second from Steve about Joey being gone and Gina being in labor, and the third was from Amanda.
"Hey, Josh. Listen, I’m sorry about what happened at the hospital earlier. I really think we need to talk - in person. I’ll be at the studio if you can come by sometime. Lunch maybe? Anyway, I’ll see you soon."
He sighed, knowing what she wanted to talk about. Both of them knew exactly what was going on in this relationship, or what was left of it. They needed to decide if they wanted to save it, or if it was even worth saving.
Sugar woke Justin up at 9:30. "Come on, gorgeous, you’ve stayed in bed long enough."
"Humph . . ." was the only answer she received as he shoved his head under the pillow.
"Big baby. Come on, you have to do your exercises before your appointment and we have to be at Dr. Perkins’ office by 11:15." After another 25 minutes or so, Justin finally agreed to get up.
| [::-::Back::-::] | [::-::Next::-::] |