To say the tension between Cal and Ethan was tight would be an understatement. If the two were in the same room, things would become suddenly colder. You could practically slice through the tension with a knife. This wasn't unnoticed by anyone.
Everyone knew what happened between them for two reasons. The first was Taylor's fake charity. Many of the ED staff had contributed to it, only to find out it was fake. The second was Cal's desperate state and Ethan's obvious anger towards Cal, even though it wasn't without pity.
Ethan was on the edge only a couple of days previously, only for Cal to tip him over it when he undermined Ethan throughout their shift, causing Ethan to tell Cal to move out. It was obvious Cal was in denial about what happened. To him, Taylor and he had something that nothing can part, and everything Taylor did had a good enough reason that it would easily be forgiven. No one could convince him otherwise, not even Ethan. Following Cal moving out, he had been kipping on Robyn's, Lofty's and Max's sofa. He would have spent it in a hotel but Robyn didn't trust him enough not to get drunk and end up in a gutter somewhere.
Robyn and Lofty had left a sleeping Cal on the sofa when he had dropped off in the middle of a film they had been watching. Robyn covered him up with the usual blanket he used and went up to bed herself. She hadn't blamed Ethan for kicking him out, after all they hadn't exactly been the best brothers since she had known them, and she could only imagine what it was like before they arrived at Holby ED.
Cal woke up to darkness. Feeling the floor, he managed to locate his phone and check the time. 1:23am. He hated staying up since Taylor disappeared, it only made him think more about her. For the next 10 minutes, he tossed and turned on the sofa, but found he couldn't sleep. Taylor haunted his thoughts and he could only think of doing one thing. He pulled on his jacket, surprised he slept fully clothed, grabbed his wallet and phone, before sneaking out the door.
Ethan, however, lay in bed staring up at the ceiling. His money was the least of his worries. Despite that being his inheritance from his late mother, all that he could think about was Taylor and Cal. After Cal undermined him, constantly, he blew. Cal had been on his nerves, and especially in the past week, so he just saw red. It was the final straw and Ethan couldn't take it. Thinking back on it, Ethan didn't know whether he was being harsh or not. Technically, Cal stole Ethan's money, which is a criminal offence, but Cal, being Cal, would do anything for love, Ethan just didn't know he was prepared to steal from family. What he did know was how much Cal actually loved her- he did want to marry her after all. One thing that baffled Ethan was what Cal told him a little over a week ago. 'I wanted to do something good- for once in my life.' Ethan wondered whether Cal truly thought that he had never done anything good in his life. That was a conversation for another time. Ethan just hoped that Cal would see sense soon.
A banging on the door awoke Lofty and Robyn from their sleep. Robyn looked over at her clock. Who the hell would be knocking on their door at 4 in the morning? If couldn't be Max for he was defiantly with Zoe- the pure fact they were dating confused Robyn to the extreme. Despite that, she rolled out of bed, almost landing on the floor. Slipping on her dressing gown, she noticed Lofty had woken too and heard him coming out of his room. "Who do you suppose would be knocking?" Robyn enquired, switching on the landing light.
"This time? Could be a drunk who found the wrong house..." He speculated before laughing slightly, which Robyn followed with a smile. The knocking continued louder. "We better get that before they wake up the whole neighbourhood." Lofty and Robyn made their way downstairs and both walked to the sofa to check whether Cal had woken up, both rather surprised they hadn't heard a sound from him. They looked down and gave each other knowing glances. Cal wasn't on the sofa, and they rightly guessed who was at the door.
Lofty opened the door and wasn't surprised when Cal almost fell on him. He held him upright, and with the help of Robyn, guided him to the sofa to sit him down. All they heard from him were slurred mumbles for about 5 minutes. Seemingly a little more sober, Cal took a grateful sip from the water Lofty had handed him and sat back of the sofa, holding back tears that were starting to form in his eyes. "What time did you leave?" Lofty asked tentatively.
"About 1:30." Cal admitted, a tear rolling down his cheek. Both Robyn and Lofty felt sorry for the man sat by them. Not only had the love of his life gone walkabout, Ethan didn't seem to be forgiving him anytime soon, and he probably felt guilty about it all. "Sorry for...er...waking you."
"It's fine." Robyn consoled him. She knew Cal had gone out drinking to forget, but she saw it only made everything worse as more tears escaped his eyes and he tried to hide them.
"She's gone..." He choked out. "I thought...I thought she liked me..." Both Lofty and Robyn gave him sympathetic glances. "I loved her..." Lofty and Robyn didn't know how to respond to this, but it didn't really matter for Cal was fast asleep in a matter of seconds after telling them that.
"He is going to have the mother of hangovers tomorrow." Lofty laughed slightly, before placing a bucket next to Cal for when the inevitable would start. Both he and Robyn made their way up to bed after that.
Cal dragged himself into work the next morning with a hell of a headache being numbed by a couple of Panadols. He could only hope that he didn't look too rough. Walking into the staff room, he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Ethan. Ethan spun round and saw Cal, before immediately making his way out of the staff room. Neither of them had spoken or even made proper contact with each other since a couple of days previously, apart from the odd glance between them- speaking unheard words on great volume.
Cal was leaning against a table in the nurse's station willing for his head ache to go away, while avoiding contact with Ethan who was looking at something a bit too intensely. Ethan was really just staring blankly at the screen, wondering whether to approach his brother. A few more people were there to, glancing nervously between the two of them, dreading anything that could happen. Then Cal's phone started to ring.
He looked at the Caller ID, and saw it was Unknown. Despite that, he answered and was shocked at who he heard next. "Cal, it's Taylor, you have to help me!" She pleaded. The desperation in her voice made Cal feel sick at why she sounded so vulnerable.
"Taylor?!" He spoke in shock. Everyone's heads shot up when Cal said her name, even Ethan's. Cal didn't even register this, he was too focused on the girl on the other end of the phone. "What's wrong?!"
"I need you to come." Cal felt a sense of duty to her as she told him where she was.
"I'll come as soon as I can." He quickly hung up and noticed many of his colleagues staring intently at him. He saw Ethan approach him, but couldn't make out his facial expression.
"Was that Taylor?" Ethan already knew the answer to that, but needed confirmation, which the nod of Cal's head gave him. Cal quickly pushed his patient notes into Ethan's hands.
"Cover for me." Cal sounded like he wasn't going to take no for an answer, but this was Taylor.
"You can't be serious, Caleb! This is Taylor, who disappeared with 15 grand a week ago. Then you back out of calling the police on her, after having a one night stand with some random woman and arrive in her flashy car. Then you have the cheek to borrow more money from me after apologising for stealing the 15k. Oh, and, of course, then you spend a whole shift undermining me. You expect me to cover for you so you can run after this woman?! For god's sake Cal. She had a fake charity, she moved out without telling you, and you're just running after her?!" He spoke disbelievingly.
"I love her Ethan! Don't you want me to be happy?" Cal spoke. Ethan was taken aback at this. Of course he wanted Cal to be happy, but he needed to see what was right in front of him.
"Right, fine. Go and run after a criminal, who you stole your own brother's money for. Oh, and also forget that she completely used you. But, of course, that doesn't matter, because you're prepared to betray your own brother for a woman who played you." Ethan fought back. By now, most of the ED staff had gathered to see what all the commotion was about.
"That isn't fair, Ethan. I was doing something good!" Cal shouted at him. Ethan slammed down the patient notes and stood his ground.
"Just because you blew your inheritance, doesn't give you the right to steal mine! Hmmm...what was it our mother put in her will? Oh yeah, she didn't want you spending the inheritance on 'gambling, drink and women'. Well, Caleb, you did just that, with not only yours, but mine. Of course, that doesn't matter because Taylor is more important than anything. You run out during shifts for a booty call, you steal for her, and you still deny the fact that she used you. She doesn't love you, Caleb. I'm sorry, but she doesn't." Ethan could see the hurt on Cal's face, but also the anger and the denial still present.
"No. We have something special, and she needs my help." Cal told him before darting out of the ED, leaving a very frustrated Ethan behind.
"I am going to kill him one day." Ethan spoke before seeing those who had witnessed the whole thing disperse. Rita walked up to him to offer comfort. "He is love struck..."
"I know, but you have to be there for him when he crashes and burns." Rita told him.
I wrote this last night between 2 and 5 am, because sleeping wasn't possible with this floating around in my mind! This is chapter one of two, and the second should be up tomorrow before Casualty!
If you have a spare minute, a review will be greatly appreciated!
