For Dolly.
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Part 10: Devastation
Devon's phone rang at six in the morning. Sebastian, dozing for the first time all night, cursed, while Devon started awake and rolled to the edge of the bed so he could get his phone from the nightstand he had left it on.
"H'llo?" Devon mumbled. His voice was rough and scratchy from the night before.
Sebastian sat up and ran his fingers through his hair. The room was dark except for Devon's phone screen. He searched for a light.
"What?" Devon said, sounding suddenly awake. "No, wait. Here he is." He handed his phone to Sebastian.
Sebastian gave up messing around his own nightstand to try and find the lamp switch, and took the phone.
"Yes?" he asked, yawning. Devon reached around him and flicked on the lamp.
"Seb," Sheila said, sounding just like when she had told him Marina was in the hospital. Sebastian's blood froze in his veins, and he struggled to draw in a breath. "Seb, she's okay. Marina is okay. Her fever broke a little while ago, and the doctors say she's out of immediate danger."
Sebastian took a deep breath, and another. Relief flooded him, and the tension in his neck and shoulders eased. Across from him, Devon slipped out of bed and gathered up the clothes he had discarded a few hours before. He started getting dressed, back to Sebastian and facing the wall.
"Sebastian?"
"I'm here," Sebastian said, refocusing. "She's okay? Is she awake?"
Devon, who had was in the middle of pulling on his discarded button up, spun around and looked at him expectantly.
"Good news?" he whispered.
'She's okay,' Sebastian mouthed, and went back to focusing on the phone.
"She just fell back asleep a few minutes ago. They're moving her to a permanent room in a few hours. If you want to come around dinner time, she should be settled in," Sheila explained.
"Alright," Sebastian said. "Thanks for the update."
"I called your phone, first, but it went straight to voicemail," Sheila said. "Your manager gave me this number."
"I'll tell her thank you, but this is Devon's phone. Don't go handing it out to people," Sebastian said. "I'll come by and see Marina later." He hung up without saying goodbye, and collapsed back onto the bed.
Devon crawled next to him, and hugged him as best he could. "What did she say?"
Sebastian hugged him back. "She woke up for a little while. They're moving her to another room this morning, so I'll go over tonight." There was a part of him that wanted to say, 'Screw it all,' and head over right away, so he could see for himself that Marina survived and that he still had a baby sister. The logical part of his mind, the one that had been in this situation before, knew all too well that the morning would be stressful and filled with tests, and the move to another ward even worse. He would just get in the way. Sebastian set his jaw.
"Do you want company?" Devon murmured into his shoulder.
"Like you need to ask, Killer," Sebastian replied, and let go. Devon moved back so Sebastian could dress. "Let's go see if there's anything for breakfast. I don't know if my father remembered to tell the cook he wouldn't be here this morning."
The kitchen was in the back of the house, by the herb gardens, and it took a while for them to walk there. The initial energy burst from the call and subsequent news flagged quickly. Sebastian could almost see the Devon droop, which would have been funny, had he not been in the same boat.
"Did you get any sleep at all?" Devon asked, stifling a yawn.
Sebastian shrugged. "A little. Your snoring could wake the dead, so-"
"I'm sorry, I was so upset-"
"Relax, Killer," Sebastian said. "I was just messing with you. You didn't actually snore."
"It's too early for a sense of humor," Devon muttered.
"It's never too early to make fun of you," Sebastian protested. Devon rolled his eyes.
There was light under the kitchen door. Sebastian grabbed the handle and said, "We're in luck, neither of us need to figure out if we can cook," and swung open the door.
Instead of the cook, they found Anita and Riley seated at the kitchen table, surrounded by newspapers. Both of them had economy-sized coffees before them and tablets in their hands. Breakfast was nowhere to be found.
"Riley!" Devon said.
"How did you get in this house?" Sebastian demanded.
"Your stepmother is a very nice woman, did you know that? She gave me the gate key yesterday." Anita did not look up from her screen.
"How are you feeling, B? You look like you need some coffee and a hot shower." Riley held out another coffer cup to Devon, who took it with a grateful look and immediately started drinking. "Sit down, sit down." Riley was even smaller than Devon, with thick dark hair and a voice that was always enthusiastic and kind. He cleared a spot for Devon to sit at the table.
Sebastian looked at Anita.
"You have hands," she said, not looking up.
Sebastian and Anita had a very different relationship, obviously. He huffed, and pushed at the papers until there was room to sit beside Devon.
"Drama queen," Anita said, sotto voce.
"Are these from today?" Devon asked, before Sebastian could snark back (it may have been more of a rescue than he realized, because Sebastian was far too tired to come up with a good taunt).
Sebastian picked up the nearest paper. "Devon revealed! See inside for exclusive pics." He looked at his friend. "Radical stuff."
"This is just the ones who managed to switch their print run so late," Anita said. "You should see some good stuff in the next few days. It's the online pieces that we need to keep an eye on."
There are a lot of trashy newspapers, Sebastian thought. Flipping through the closet stack, he saw publications with Devon's face superimposed over a Catholic school uniform, yearbook photos, images of Devon on stage, and at interviews, and cornered on the street. It was worse than the time that Sebastian and Devon had crashed into the parking meter.
Devon said, "Looks like the rumors about us are going to flare up again."
"They died down?" Sebastian asked wryly. "Something in particular?"
Devon handed him a paper. In grainy news ink on the cover was Sebastian and Devon leaving the hospital, with their tangled hands in focus. 'DEVASTATION?' was printed in Ariel Bold across the top. 'Devastation,' of course, was the portmanteau of 'Devon and 'Sebastian,' as long as you were drunk. Sebastian blamed the Devon fangirls.
"Someone's punning. Anita, make them stop punning," Sebastian groaned.
Devon smiled faintly. "Relax, Bas, I promise not to jump you in the shower."
"Killer, you can jump me anytime you-"
"That reminds me, I had Stacy put together a bag for you before I left the hotel," Riley interrupted. He set his tablet down and grabbed a duffel bag up from the floor. "There's absolutely zero chance of you going anywhere unnoticed, and Anita remembered that the two of you had expected to go back to Dalton last night."
Devon reached across the table to take it from him. "Thanks," he said. "I was feeling pretty gross."
"I have one for you too, Seb," Anita said. "It's over by the microwave."
Sebastian nodded his thanks. "There's a bath connected to the guest room we stayed in last night," Sebastian told Devon. "Towels and toiletries should be there, too. Let me know if you need anything."
Devon nodded. "Thanks, Bas. Does anyone mind if I go wash up?" No one did, and Devon left.
Once he was out of earshot, Riley said, "He looks bad."
Sebastian raised a mocking brow. "I have no idea why he would be upset. It's not like he was accidentally outed as a superstar and his almost-boyfriend dumped him for it, is it?"
Anita frowned. "You dumped him?"
Sebastian thunked his head on the table. "I hate you. I want a new manager," he said into the wood.
Riley said, "Some of his friends reacted badly."
Anita said, "These things never turn out well."
"You can't really fault Blaine for this," Riley objected. Sebastian heard the subtext: 'It was Sebastian who leaked the story.'
Sebastian stood up, clattering against the table and chair. "I'm going to wash up," he announced.
"Seb! Seb!" Anita called after him.
In what he would later admit was a spectacularly dramatic fashion, Sebastian walked out of the room.
End Part 10
Uploaded 11/27/2013
Next Week: Sebastian and Blaine vs. Dalton
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