Snow Lodge
Chapter 57
A few minutes later Brian and Kevin pulled back from each other, wiping their eyes as the door cracked open, and Nick walked in, almost carrying a still drowsy Howie.
"Howie?" Brian called softly.
"Should he be up yet?" Kevin asked Nick.
"Nope." Nick replied as Howie stumbled across to Kevin's side. Kevin caught him and held him up.
"I can rest just as well in here. " Howie replied stubbornly, his words slurring slightly as a side effect of the drugs.
Brian reached out a hand to Howie, which Howie took gratefully. Brian then pulled him as he slid across the bed, making room.
"Come up here, before you fall down." Brian urged him.
Howie clambered up with a little help from Kevin, and lay down beside Brian. Brian settled down beside him and wrapped his arm around Howie's strong shoulders. Howie fell against him, and the two laid together in silence, thinking about AJ. They were able to take comfort from each other, knowing that they were both equally scared. Howie was AJ's best friend, and he loved him as much as Brian did, only as a brother, rather than a lover. But both men were petrified that they were going to lose AJ, and each took comfort in the fact that the other was as close as they were going to get to him.
Nick and Kevin could only watch the two on the bed, feeling their pain as well as their own. They had been together so long, were so close, that the five of them were almost joined, and losing any one of them was unthinkable, yet for all they knew, that was exactly what had happened.
The shrill sound of the alarm was still ringing in Nick's ears, along with the panic on the faces of the staff, Jonesy included, as they rushed inside the room.
He and Howie had been forced back down to the waiting room, told to stay there until someone came and found them, but no one had. In the end they had made their way back to AJ's room, only to be found by a member of the nursing staff, who had refused to tell them anything.
Nick looked at Howie's back, which was heaving with his tears, recalling how Howie had flipped out at this, scaring Nick. He had never in all the years he had known him, ever seen Howie like that, and he hoped he would never have to see it again either. And now he was watching him slowly fall apart with the unbearable knowledge that he may very well have lost his best friend.
All four of them jumped as the door behind them opened, and Nick spun around on his heel to face the doorway, finding Jonesy standing just outside, an unreadable expression on his face.
