XXVIII.
The next morning was Christmas Eve, and Ben arrived at the hospital fifteen minutes before six. He brought Dr. Glass a coffee.
"You didn't have to do that, sweetie," she told him, leading him upstairs to in-patient rooms.
"You didn't have to help me," he returned.
"I suppose," Dr. Glass said, with a coy smile, accepting the coffee.
Dr. Glass brought Ben into Jimmy's room. It was nice, the bed looked comfortable and the decorations were pleasant, it was also a private room, which surprised Ben for a moment, until he recalled the mansion Jimmy's parents lived in, and realized their insurance, and as an extension of that Jimmy's insurance, was most likely the best money could buy. Jimmy was out cold on the bed. The swelling was gone, as was the tube from his mouth, though he still wore an oxygen mask. IVs were still attached to his arm.
Dr. Glass checked Jimmy's vitals and the chart at the foot of his bed while explaining, "His physician will be in at ten to decide whether or not to release him, but…everything looks good to me. I imagine you'll have him home by noon."
"Thank you," Ben said earnestly.
Dr. Glass left and Ben dragged a chair up beside Jimmy's bed, sitting down. He took Jimmy's hand in his own, folded his arm across the bed, flush with Jimmy's side, and lay his head down atop it, cheek resting against the edge of Jimmy's stomach, and then he drifted to sleep. He woke an hour later at the touch of Jimmy's hand ghosting across the back of his neck. Ben peeled his eyes open and met Jimmy's own bright blue ones. They exchanged a smile.
"Hi," Jimmy greeted, his voice was barely audible and sounded painful.
Ben winced in response. He lifted himself up and gave Jimmy a long and sweet kiss.
"Sorry," Jimmy said, when Ben released his mouth.
Ben shook his head, brushing the hair from Jimmy's forehead then relaxing his hand there, smoothing the skin with his thumb, "It's okay. Don't even worry about it."
Jimmy relaxed, closing his eyes again. Ben sat down again, settling back in the chair.
"Karen feels awful," he told Jimmy, "She wanted to come, but I think Hal talked her out of it."
"It was good," Jimmy croaked, wincing and opening his eyes, shrugging, "Dinner. Tasted good."
"Would you say it was so good it was to die for?" Ben teased.
Jimmy nodded, smiling, and whispering, "Dork."
They sat together talking for the next few hours, it was a lopsided conversation, Jimmy contributing maybe one or a few word responses here and there, until Jimmy's physician came in. It was an older man, well groomed and somewhat pompous. From the way he spoke and Jimmy's familiarity with him, Ben surmised that this was Jimmy's regular physician, probably a private practice doctor called in when Jimmy was admitted to the hospital. It took Ben aback; he didn't know doctors made 'house calls' anymore.
As Dr. Glass predicted, the physician decided to release Jimmy.
On the drive home, Ben finally brought up the inevitable, the Christmas party at Jimmy's parents' house. After the way dinner ended on Wednesday, Ben was fairly certain Jimmy wouldn't be interested in going, and he was confident by Mr. Boland's parting words that they wouldn't be welcome, but he felt he should bring it up anyways. It didn't sit well with Ben, the idea of Jimmy being cut off from his family during the holidays, no matter how awful they seemed.
"We could maybe just stop by, see your sister," Ben suggested.
Jimmy shook his head.
"I know what your dad said was harsh, but I'm sure he didn't really mean it. He was just angry," Ben continued.
"Leave it," Jimmy muttered.
Ben let it drop, easing into a different topic, about his family's plans for the night and Christmas morning. Typically, they left early on Christmas Eve and drove out to Lynn Woods, played in the snow for the day, visited Walden Pond and stargazed at night as Tom and Rebekah took turns reading Christmas stories, including passages from the bible of the Christmas story. Jimmy's emergency trip to the hospital the night before sort of threw a wrench in those plans, but there was still time to head out there. Then they would wake early on Christmas morning to go to the first service at Church, Rebekah would throw something together that could easily be tossed in the oven later for brunch, then they would come home, eat and open presents. Jimmy listened distantly, nodding as Ben spoke.
"I don't want to go to church," Jimmy murmured after Ben was finished explaining the plans.
"You don't have to," Ben replied gently, sweeping Jimmy's hand up and pressing a kiss to it, "My parents will make me though…so you might be alone for a few hours if you stay home…"
"That's fine," Jimmy said, and fell silent again.
When they reached the house, the Mason family met them at the door, smothering Jimmy in greetings and questions about his well-being.
"I'm sorry I ruined your dinner," Jimmy told Karen earnestly.
"I'm sorry I almost killed you," she laughed in return, pulling him into a hug that he awkwardly returned.
Once the excitement of his return died down and the family moved back into the house, discussing arrangements for heading out to Walden Pond, Jimmy disappeared upstairs.
"He alright?" Hal asked Ben, gesturing to the second floor with a jerk of his head, as the rest of the family chattered excitedly around them.
Ben shrugged, furrowing his brow at his brother, determining that Hal was really just wondering if Jimmy might be upset with Karen or even the whole family for what happened, which was fair, the way Jimmy had fallen back into utter silence and slipped away at the soonest opportunity.
"He's just embarrassed is all," Ben answered quietly.
"He's embarrassed? We're the ones that almost killed him," Hal pointed out, incredulous.
"Well, you did make it sound like his fault last night," Ben grumbled.
"Hey…it was a stressful moment; I don't exactly remember all of what I said. Seriously, though, who forgets to mention to people making their food that they're deathly allergic to shellfish?" Hal returned rationally.
"I don't know," Ben muttered, thinking miserably, the same person that 'forgets' to mention his family and friends are all richer than God, 'forgets' to mention that his parents don't know about the relationship he has with his boyfriend until they're on the doorstep, 'forgets' to mention any of the details about the fight he and his father had or that it came to violence.
Upstairs, Jimmy checked his cellphone. He had several missed calls from his mother and a few from his sister, and a number of voicemails to match. He also had a slew of text messages from Ryan, which he shot off a response to, then tossed his phone on the bed. So far the entire trip had been a disaster, and as perfect and sweet as Ben had been about everything, Jimmy wasn't sure how much longer he'd be able to take it all and a growing dread in his stomach, his phone buzzing with another call from his mother, made him wonder how much longer he could fend off the inevitable. A knock at the door startled him and he called a harshly rasped, "Come in."
Tom opened the door, peeking into the room at Jimmy. Jimmy brushed the hair from his face and forced a smile.
"Hey, what's up?" he greeted.
"Nothing, just came to check how you were feeling," Tom explained.
"Okay. I'm okay."
"Good, the family is worried," Tom said, with a kind smile, "You up for a drive out to Walden Pond?"
"Yeah. Sure."
Tom nodded. He looked at the ground a moment, as though debating something in his mind, then sighed, shuffled into the room and quietly closed the door behind him.
"I wanted to talk to you about something," Tom started, and then wondered, "Would that be alright?"
Jimmy tensed, "Yeah? Okay. What is it?"
Tom gestured to the side of Jimmy's face, where the bruising was still evident from his chat with his father. Absently, Jimmy brought his hand up to trace it, looking quizzical at Tom.
"I fell," he explained, "On my walk."
"I see," Tom murmured, "Ben was thinking it might've been something more serious."
"I told him that I fell," Jimmy replied insistently.
"Right," Tom said, nodding, "Right. He's probably just worrying. Ben can be a bit of a worrier, he gets that from his mother. They all get it from their mother. They have to constantly check in on everyone, make sure everyone is alright. They…uh…heh…they act like it's their responsibility to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. Ben told me that…uh…that you got in a fight with your father the other night."
Jimmy frowned, stiffly nodded.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Tom told him earnestly, "Parents…they always want what is best for their children."
Jimmy snorted softly.
"Even if it's not always clear to them what's 'best'," Tom finished sharply, "Rebekah and I always wanted our children to know that no matter who they were or what they did in their lives, that they could always come home and that they were always loved. I won't pretend we haven't made mistakes, we've made plenty of mistakes with our boys, and we haven't always been right, but it was important to us that, no matter what, they knew they were always welcome here. I wanted to let you know that you're always welcome here, too."
"That's nice of you," Jimmy noted, "Thank you."
"Sure," Tom returned, "It's not a problem. I mean, you're important to my son."
"For now," Jimmy absently remarked.
Tom faltered, furrowing his brow, "What does that mean?"
"Nothing," Jimmy hastily caught himself, shrugging and fiercely shaking his head, "It doesn't mean anything. Sorry…I mean, thank you, Mr. Mason. Um…when did you want to leave for the pond thing?"
"Probably soon," Tom answered distantly, "I'm going to go downstairs to muster the family…uh…dress warm, alright?"
"Okay," Jimmy whispered, watching Tom leave the room, then slumping on the bed and picking up his phone. Three more missed calls from his mother, three more new voicemails, and a response from Ryan. He checked the text, then tossed his phone across the room and fell back on his bed, glaring at the ceiling, and scoffing, "Merry fucking Christmas."
