Chapter 10

                                    

                                          
    Everything fell into a comfortable routine after that trip with Dylan. He and I were friendly; though, we weren't friends like we had once been. I doubted that we would ever be that close again. Andrea finally quit hating him. Matt and I were doing a jam up job of running the oil business for Mr. Winston. Andrea and I bought her gallery the next year in the fall, and Matt proposed to her that Christmas. They got married that spring and bought the house next door to our rental. Dylan had been his best man. Trey and Liam moved in with me, and I bought the house. Mom started dating a guy from her work and finally introduced him to everyone that year at Christmas. They got married the next year on Christmas Eve. Mr. and Mrs. Winston decided to retire that next year and turned the business over to Andrea. I was also given a very large stake in the company. Andrea had no interest in running the company, so she turned it all over to Matt and I to run. Dylan stayed single through it all. We had unofficially resumed the late night thinking sessions out at the golf course. We never discussed it, but somehow we both started showing up on Thursday night at the same time. We would discuss our week and work. Sometimes offering advice, but mostly just listening. I asked him once if he ever planned to get married. He had just laughed and told me that he would get married when I did. I took that to mean never since Liam, Trey, and I couldn't get married and dropped it. The summer of the fifth year after I moved back the guys all decided to go to Las Vegas for a guy's trip. Andrea and I had taken them to the airport. They were all so excited. It was like watching kids at Christmas. They weren't even gone 2 whole days before my world imploded. Andrea and I were having dinner with my mom when when Matt called. Andrea had put it on speaker thinking we would be able to talk to all of the guys. I don't remember most of the conversation. Just bits and pieces. "Robbery... I'm fine... Trey's gone... Liam and Dylan critical" and a horrible keening that sounded like an animal was dying. Later, they told me that the noise had been coming from me. Andrea immediately called everyone's families, and we all flew out on the company jet. Matt had run into a store to use the bathroom, and the other three had been standing outside waiting on him to come out when a junkie hopped up on meth shot them and tried to rob them. Trey has been shot in the head and died instantly. Liam and Dylan were in critical condition in ICU. Both were comatose and hooked to ventilators. My knees nearly gave out as I approached Liam's bed. Collapsing in the chair next to the bed, I took his limp hand in both of mine and began pleading.
                          
"Baby I... I know it's not looking real good right now, but I really need you. We need you." I said placing my hand over my belly, "You're going to be a dad Liam. I can't do this on my own. I can't lose you too. Please baby wake up."
                          
    Mom had let out a gasp when I mentioned the baby and Andrea had started crying harder. I hadn't told anyone I was pregnant yet. I had planned to make the announcement when the guys came back from their trip. Now there was a possibility that neither guy would ever know. After sitting with Liam for an hour and pleading with whatever God was out there to please spare him, I got up and asked the hospital staff to take me to the morgue to see Trey. They left me alone with him to say my goodbyes. I wanted to crawl up on that table with him and just never wake up. Looking at him, it felt like someone had ripped half of my soul from my body. Part of me died when I saw him laying on that table cold and lifeless. I finally walked out two hours later after leaving instructions for his body to be cremated once everyone else had said their goodbyes. Once I made it back upstairs, I paused at Liam's door to look in on him before making my way to Dylan's room.
                          
"We'll give you some time alone." Mrs. Richardson said as she and Mr. Richardson stood, "We've been wanting to go get coffee, but couldn't bare to leave him alone." 
                          
    As they left, I took a seat in the chair his mom had just vacated. 
                          
"Dyl, I know you can hear me in there. I need you to wake up. I can't lose you. They can't lose you. I dont know how we're going to recover from the loss of Trey. We can't lose you too. Please just wake up. I need you. I need my friend. You're one of my best friends. No one else would ever be willing to sit out on that golf course with me at night and talk. No one else can give me advice as good as you do. Please Dylan don't leave me here." Pleaded as I squeezed his hand.
                          
    My tears fell onto the sheet. Dylan didn't wake up though. After a while, his parents came back and I left to return to Liam's room. 
                          
"Is there anything we can do?" Andrea asked.
                          
"No. I asked the morgue to have Trey cremated. It's what he wanted. I'm going to waiting until these guys recover to have a memorial. I'll deal with that when the time comes. He's gone. He's really gone, and he's not coming back." I said before I collapsed against Matt crying. 
                          
    I spent every day and night at Liam's bedside praying and pleading. The only time I left was to shower, eat, and visit Dylan. Liam fought hard, but a week after the incident he was done fighting. He coded and they couldn't get him back. The doctor said he threw a clot. Pulmonary Embolism they had called it. I didn't care what they called it. All I knew was that he was gone and, just like Trey, he was never coming back. I made the same arrangements for Liam to be cremated as I had Trey. I moved my watch to Dylan's room after that. I lost the baby two days after Liam died. Trey's family had gone back home after they saw his body. Liam's followed suit once he was gone. Mr. and Mrs. Winston flew out after Liam's death as well. They took over running the company temporarily, so that we could all stay out in Las Vegas. Mom, Matt, Andrea, and Dylan's parents had to leave at the end of week two. Everyone needed to return to work and we had no clue how long Dylan was going to be like this. I had refused to leave. We didn't have any open cases that required my presence, so I told Matt I would work remotely. I just couldn't bring myself to leave Dylan there alone. Especially if I didn't absolutely have to. 
                          
"Baby are you sure you won't come home with us? I don't want you here alone. Not after losing the boys and the baby. You should be at home recovering and mourning." Mom had pleaded the day that they left. 
                          
"I can mourn and recover from this hospital just as well as I can from home. I won't let him wake up here alone. He's going to wake up and I'm going to be here when he does. I have to do this mom." I argued in return.
                          
    Mom had looked like she wanted to argue further, but Andrea had intervened. I moved into Dylan's room after his parents left. I even slept in the room. It was another two weeks before he woke up, but he did wake up and I was there for it.
                          
"Arden?" Dylan called in a voice hoarse from lack of use. 
                          
    I had dozed off, but immediately woke up when he had called my name. I was so excited that he was awake that I had flung myself into the bed wrapping him in a hug while tears streamed down my face. 
                          
"Arden what's wrong? Where are we?" Dylan asked.
                          
"I'll explain everything I promise, but I need to call the doctor to come check you over first. Then I need to call your parents and tell them that you're okay." I said as I climbed off of the bed.
                          
    The doctor came in and checked him over when I called his parents. They had agreed to call and tell everyone else so that I could go back and be with Dylan. The doctor said everything looked good and ordered a whole lot of tests to be performed. Once I returned to his room, I told Dylan everything that had transpired. We cried together as I relayed the whole story. After a week, Dylan was moved out of the hospital to a rehabilitation center. He had to relearn to walk, eat, dress himself, and every other thing that I had taken for granted. I found a rental on Airbnb that I booked for the two months that he spent in rehab. He had been in there about a week before we got into a fight. 
                          
"Hey Dyl? How are you feeling today?" I asked as I walked into his room.
                          
"Go home Arden." He said without even looking at me.
                          
"What? Why?" I asked.
                          
"Because I can't fucking do this today." He growled.
                          
"Do what? What's wrong?" I asked.
                          
"Everything. Everything is wrong!" He shouted before continuing his rant, "I can't walk. Hell I can't even wipe my own ass. I'm a grown ass man stuck in a fucking wheelchair, and I can't look at you again today. Why are you even here? I'm not your charity case. Trey and Liam are gone and sitting here with me everyday fussing over me won't fucking bring them back! Go home. I'm sick of looking at you. I'm sick of pretending like life doesn't suck just because I'm alive and they're not. I can't do this shit."