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In the Blink of an Eye.
Part I
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The usual upbeat feeling on set had suddenly come to a screeching halt. There was a tension in the air that could easily be sliced with any knife. The vibrant colours that splattered all the items and pictures hanging off the back wall seemed to be dulled by how severely the mood had dropped. And five or six pairs of nervous eyes gawked at each other, none of them too sure about who should open their mouth or what they should possibly even say.
Finally breaking the silence that filled the room, Stevie quietly cleared her throat, "Uh… guys, it's barely been four minutes."
Following her lead, Eddie took a subtle glance at the camera. Just as always, it had kept rolling in order to record about ten minutes of completely random conversation to be used for Good Mythical More. But something told him and the rest of the crew that usual operations weren't going to be running so smoothly today.
"Should, um," Eddie stuttered, "Should we just cut it there?"
Almost immediately, Link bolted up from his seat.
"Yeah, thank God!"
The instant volume of Link's voice shattered the set as he scraped his chair back and made a beeline for the doorway. Stevie, Eddie and the rest of the crew cringed as they watched on, while back at the wooden table in the centre of the room, the taller, blonde man could only roll his eyes.
"Is he serious?" Rhett muttered to himself under his breath before finally deciding to jump up and follow him, "Link!"
Without looking back, Link barged into the studio kitchen, glancing over to the lounge area right beside it. He took a second or two to calm his heated nerves before licking his lips to speak, "C'mon, Lando, let's roll, buddy."
Looking up through his blonde, curly mess, Lando stared at his dad. He and Shepherd were spilled out on the floor together along with a box of Lego, while Locke was sat in one of the bright red arm chairs playing with a hand held video game.
The five year old boy frowned, "Why?"
"Because, bud, we're just leaving," Link answered, trying to control his temper. Within the next moment, Rhett appeared behind him in the kitchen, causing the darker haired man to grit his teeth together, turning back to his son, "Now."
Sitting at the kitchen bench, Jen and Becca subtly glanced up from where they had been keeping an eye on all three of the boys while they played. Link looked over his shoulder at them, "Can you two just make sure to lock up properly this afternoon?" he asked.
As they quietly nodded their heads, Link hastily shoved his laptop into its case and gathered the rest of his work stuff into his bag. He slung it over his shoulder, and then quickly hurried Lando along towards the staircase to exit the studio.
The blatant silence from him was absolutely deafening to Rhett, but before he could even dare to call his best friend's name again, the taller man was abruptly cut off by the small voice of one of his own boys, "What's going on?" Locke asked with a confused tone.
Rhett could only bite his tongue. He wasn't exactly sure how to answer what his son had asked him. He and Link had always butted heads every now and again in the past, but this kind of incident – which was now seemingly turning into a full blown argument – was one that Rhett didn't have the first clue how to explain.
The sound of the large double doors slamming back into place downstairs suddenly snapped the older of the two men out of his trance as he simply shook his head and looked to his boys, "C'mon, guys, we gotta' go catch up to him."
By this point, it was painfully obvious to anyone within breathing range of the two of them that Rhett and Link were not currently encapsulated by one of their finer moments. In fact, for about the past week, they had been constantly snapping at one another and bickering over stupid stuff more and more each day. The tension between them had been building – building more, ever so slowly, ever since a mistake that had taken place the previous week.
The comedic duo were on the verge of releasing yet another new music video to their main YouTube channel. It was always exciting for the both of them every time they produced a new masterpiece. Not only was it fun to do, and even more worthwhile to see all the positive reactions from the Mythical Beasts, but from a business standpoint, their music videos also made the two of them a nice, healthy chunk of money. Only this time, right when the video was just in the final draft stages – Link had somehow managed to accidentally corrupt the file.
A countless amount of time, effort and money was suddenly gone in a mere fraction of a milisecond. And while Rhett never once openly came out and blamed Link for what had happened, both of their frustrations were quickly beginning to speak otherwise.
Chasing him down the stairs, Rhett held the door open for Locke and Shepherd. He narrowed his eyes across the parking lot, just managing to spot Link putting Lando into the backseat of his minivan.
It was Friday, and on that particular weekend, Jessie and Christy had gone away for a girls' trip, taking Lily with them. As well as that, Lincoln was at a friend's house for the day, leaving Rhett and Link to take the other three boys along with them to work that morning. The plan all along had been to only do a half-day's work – just enough time to film Good Mythical Morning – but now their day was being cut a lot shorter than either of them were anticipating.
Finally arriving back within ear's reach to his friend, Rhett opened his mouth, "Well, that was embarrassingly unprofessional."
Right as he placed Lando into his booster seat, Link glared absolute daggers at Rhett, "I can't have embarrassed myself much more than how much you embarrassed me just now!"
Rhett heaved his shoulders in a defeated shrug, "What are you talking about?"
"We said that we'd use Good Mythical More to explain why the music video was gonna' be delayed," the younger man started, "But you never let on that you were just gonna' sit there and put all the blame on me!"
Letting this argument settle into the back of his mind for a moment, Rhett soon scoffed in disbelief, shaking his head, "What, so you're blaming me for the comments you're gonna' get from a couple of people?"
"Seven million people, Rhett!" Link clarified, "Seven million people who already have pretty strong opinions about the both of us, and I'd hazard to say that you haven't really done the ones about me any favours."
The short and sharp tone from Link threw Rhett back in total disbelief. The amount of times that they had both made fun of each other during a number of episodes of Good Mythical Morning, and this was the incident that Link was seriously choosing to react to? It's not as if Rhett had pointed his finger right into his friend's face and commanded that all the Mythical Beasts blame Link for the delay of the new video – he had only been messing around with him. But now, the more Rhett continued to consider how much Link was over reacting, the angrier it was only making him, as well.
Huffing out a loud, agitated breath, Rhett bit his tongue and instead began to usher Locke and Shepherd into the car he had driven to the studio. As if their Friday hadn't already been inconveniently interrupted enough, they hadn't been able to carpool that morning as Link's minivan was jammed full of props and part of the set from their music video. Rhett and the boys had instead come in the truck that he and Link had purchased together for their weekend off-roading adventures.
But as of right at that very moment, Rhett was pretty damn relieved that he and Link wouldn't have to endure a car ride home together that afternoon.
Swallowing his pride, Rhett brought his voice to an emotionless mutter, "Are you still gonna' drop all that set stuff off at my place?"
"Uh huh," Link spat, sliding the back passenger door across and slamming it into place, "I don't want your crap sitting in my car all weekend."
Instantly, Rhett laughed with another cynical scoff, "Jesus, man!"
"I'm serious, Rhett!"
By this point, Locke and Shepherd were exchanging a nervous glance with one another. They knew that their dad and his best friend both had a short temper and could get annoyed with each other sometimes. But neither of the boys had ever heard Rhett and Link argue like this. Ever.
"Honestly," Link went on, just as infuriated, "I've never been so close to calling it a wrap in the middle of an episode with you in my life!"
"Well, why stop there, man?" Rhett challenged, "Why not just call it a wrap on this whole entire thing if that's how you really feel?"
The insulting and patronising words that flowed so easily from between Rhett's lips made something inside of Link suddenly snap. His whipped his neck around, glaring at his friend as the tall, bearded man leant casually up against the passenger door of the truck. His face read completely blank, with not even the slimmest hint of remorse towards what he had just spoken. And it only made Link even more furious.
"Oh my God, dude, you are such an – "
The two kept their eyes brutally locked as Rhett braced himself for what Link may have been about to say. However, the precise second that the younger man had cut himself off, Rhett raised a curious eyebrow at Link. The dark haired man was clearly trying to hold his tongue as he peered through his glasses at the open back door of the truck where Locke and Shepherd could still clearly hear every word that was being said.
Following his gaze, Rhett rolled his eyes. He tried to ignore the looks on concern on the faces of his boys, as he gently pushed the door shut and pierced Link with his vision once more, "Yes?"
Slowly shaking his head, Link shrugged his shoulders. The fury he felt bubbling in his stomach was so severe that he could only bring his voice to a cold, solemn grumble, "You can just be the biggest asshole sometimes, man."
A stabbing feeling immediately twinged sharply in the pit of Rhett's guts. As much as the painful word echoed in the back of the older man's mind, he didn't allow any emotion to cross his face. Instead, he simply held the same belittling smile as he shook his head back and forth, "God, you're dramatic."
At his absolute wit's end, Link marched around to the driver's door of the minivan and tore it open. Both of their arguments were exhausted, and quite frankly, Link just wasn't prepared to fight anymore.
"Screw you, Rhett," he sniped, taking his seat and roaring the engine to life.
Watching the minivan pull out of the studio parking lot, Rhett remained still for a moment. He tried to go over in his head everything that he and Link had just spoken to each other, but the whole occurrence had flashed by so quickly and heatedly that it all seemed like a blur now.
Deciding it best to just try and shake off the thought, Rhett took the keys to the truck out of his pocket and climbed into the driver's seat. As he adjusted the rear view mirror, he stared back at Locke and Shepherd.
"Did you tighten his seatbelt for him?"
Gazing up to meet his dad's reflection, Locke quickly looked down to where Shepherd was strapped into the middle seat before quietly nodding his head, "Mhm."
For a split second, Rhett felt himself frown as he backed out of the studio parking lot. Both of his boys were usually much more talkative than this, but soon enough, the blonde man fell back to silence. He was far too consumed with thoughts of his fight with Link to focus on anything else in that moment.
He didn't feel particularly guilty. He didn't even have any real reason to. Did he? Rhett knew that he and his best friend had been treading on thin ice with one another as of late, and maybe he had been just a bit of a jerk. But surely that didn't excuse Link from freaking out on his so badly. Surely…
"I still get to hang out with Lincoln."
As his train of thought was hastily derailed, Rhett blinked a few times before he looked up at the mirror once more and gazed back at Locke in confusion.
"What?" he asked, surprised to hear his eldest son's voice.
Angrily, the eleven year old crossed his arms over his chest, "Just because you and Link aren't friends anymore doesn't mean that I don't get to stay friends with Lincoln, too."
A small chuckle escaped Rhett, "What?" he repeated, "What, no, buddy. We're not not friends anymore, we just…" he trailed off, trying to decide how best to explain himself, "We just had a fight."
Locke's retort was immediate, "Well, best friends aren't 'sposed to fight like that."
As they suddenly pulled up to a red light, Rhett groaned softly to himself and ran his hand down his face. Had he really just been put in his place by his eleven year old son? Glancing over at Link's minivan, the blonde man found that he was stopped at the traffic lights now, as well.
Rhett was in the right lane, two cars away from the intersection. He had his indicator on, ready to turn down his street, while Link was at the front of the left lane, waiting to drive straight through it. As much as the dark haired man wished that he could just go and pick up Lincoln from his friend's house and then drive home, he knew that once he had both his boys he still needed to drop into Rhett's house first.
The feeling of disconnect was bizarre. In thirty years of friendship, the two hadn't quite come to blows like this before. Maybe it had something to do with how much older they were getting. They had a million and one things on their plate now – along with the show and their main channel content and their families and travelling back to North Carolina twice or three times a year, both Rhett and Link were under more stress than either of them had ever been before.
But still, despite the uncertainties around why they had been arguing, there was one thing that Rhett could be certain of. And that was he sure as hell wasn't going to be apologising to Link for this one.
As the light turned green, and Rhett prepared to round the corner and head down his street, he completely refocused on the road in front of him. He touched his foot to the accelerator ever-so-slightly, watching the car in front of his start to turn the corner, until all of a sudden, it slammed on its brakes. Before he could even question what the holdup was, a terrifyingly loud screeching sound from the other side of the intersection caused Rhett to snap his neck around to the left.
And then, Rhett felt his heart stop.
The second that the light had turned green, Link had taken off from the white line and into the middle of the road, only to have a complete maniac of a driver run their red light and plough straight into the left hand side of the minivan.
Rhett's eyes widened in shock and disbelief as the minivan spun out at a one hundred and eighty degree angle before flipping onto its side and rolling onto the roof. The fearful yelling and shouting from Locke and Shepherd in the backseat was completely drowned out by Rhett's own inner torturous screams. The whole ordeal seemed to stretch on for an eternity, but the exact moment that it was all over, and the minivan slid across the asphalt in an array of sparks on its roof, Rhett snapped out of his trance of denial.
This couldn't be happening.
"Link!"
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