Snow Lodge
Chapter 24
Brian couldn't believe that he could have been so blind. How could he not have seen it? If only he had known, maybe he could have done something... Yet the signs were always there in the things AJ said, and the way AJ had acted after they had parted, even in the looks the other guys had given them both, and the comments they had made.
It seemed everybody else knew except for him. It was their fault. They should have told him, let him know what was going on. If they only had then...
No. It had been his own fault. He had thrown himself into his new life with Leighanne, never once taking the time to see what was happening around him. Never once stopping long enough to listen to what the others were trying to tell him. They had tried, many times, but he had never listened. Not even the time when AJ had...
Brian squeezed his eyes shut as he remembered that awful night at the hospital. Leigh had arrived, and he had spent the entire day fawning all over her, trying to make up for the time they had been apart. AJ and Nick had gone out, which wasn't unusual at the time, and Brian had taken his wife back to their room to make up for lost time.
It was the middle of the night when Kevin had banged on the door. Yelling at him to wake up. Brian had been mad as hell at him for waking them up, he knew that Brian didn't want to be disturbed. But all the anger had slipped away when he had seen Kevin's tear stained face and heard what he had to say.
Alcohol poisoning. AJ had to have his stomach pumped, and was sedated so that they could treat him. He had woken up and tried to leave, but he was in no condition to. Brian barely even remembered sitting in the waiting room with Leighanne and the others, he had been practically in a trance since he had heard the news.
Nick had been a complete mess, and it took both Howie and Kevin to calm him down. Brian remembered just sitting there shaking, his heart pounding loudly and almost painfully in his chest, whilst Leigh sat beside him.
At the time, Brian had put it down to his fear of hospitals, but now, looking back, he realised that the symptoms had actually stopped- the minute the doctor had come in and told them that AJ was going to be okay.
Brian reopened his eyes and looked down at AJ's still form. He looked so peaceful, so still, laying there like that. Brian didn't like it. It was so unlike AJ. His Alex was never still, alway in motion, like a ball of energy. Even in his sleep he still moved, his limbs twitching occasionally as he slept.
He covered AJ back up, and picked up the snow-pack he had dropped, before laying it next to AJ's side in an attempt to cool him down. He got up and walked into the bathroom, wetting a face cloth with cold water and taking it back to the bedroom, setting it across AJ's sweating brow. He felt like he was on autopilot, as if he wasn't really there. He went outside and made another snow-pack, setting down on the other side of AJ before finally collapsing to his knees at the side of the bed, as the fear and the pain finally broke through.
With a voice thick with tears, Brian did the only thing he could think of left to do. He took AJ's hand in his own and he prayed.
