Northern Districts Hospital - Day 6
"Brax!" Lucas shouts as he barges into Kyle's room, being a little put off as they all stare at him.
"Yes Lucas?" Brax frowns, Blake walking in moments later looking a little out of breathe. "Is everything okay?"
"I just had to run after him, we've got news." Blake says, leaning over to catch his breathe.
"What news?" Casey asks.
"The police came round to the house this morning, and thanks for not waking us up when you left this morning." Lucas says, having slept for the last day and a half as exhaustion had taken over him. "But back to the police, they've arrested mum."
"What?" Tyler exclaims. "She's been arrested for this?"
"And for the robbery in Yabbie Creek." Lucas says. "They searched her motel room and found the cash that was stolen from the bar."
"But it wasn't her." Tyler says.
"It doesn't matter, she's pleaded guilty for the hit and run against Kyle, and for the robbery at the bar." Lucas says. "It's going straight to trial. She's been charged for the robbery, and for attempted murder. The police officer said it will be upgraded to murder if… Well you know where I'm going with it." He mutters.
"What's she looking at?" Heath asks.
"Well currently a cell wall." Lucas says.
"I meant prison time." Heath rolls his eyes.
"Oh, apparently it's going to be a long time. Because she pleaded guilty to both, she won't get as long because she's hired a top lawyer or something. I wasn't really listening." Lucas says, so they look at Blake, knowing he would have been.
"Her lawyer made a deal to get her a lesser sentence if she pleaded guilty in court, so she's only looking at around 9 years they reckon." Blake says.
"9 years for all the torture she's put Kyle through?" Heath frowns. "She deserves life for this!"
"It's better than her walking free." Emily says.
"It's not the justice that's deserved, but if she walked through, she could try and finish the job off. She was crazy enough to run Kyle over in daylight, I wouldn't put anything else past her." Casey says.
"It's still not enough." Heath mumbles.
"Has there been any more said about when Kyle will wake up?" Lucas says.
"Luc, we spoke about this on the phone the other day." Tyler sighs.
"What happened to being positive?" Lucas asks, slightly smiling at Blake.
"We're trying, but it's hard." Emily says.
The positive thinking they had in the beginning was slowly starting to fade with every day that passed. They knew if the doctors weren't positive about Kyle waking up, then there was a pretty big chance it wouldn't happen. They didn't want the day to come, but they knew the next week they'd be talking about the next step. The next step being whether they keep Kyle on life support, or start thinking about whether it should be turned off soon. It's something none of them wanted to think about.
"I'll go and get us some coffees from the cafe. Emily, why don't you help me? It'll be good for you to have a little break." Ricky says.
"Fine." Emily nods, knowing they meant well, she just wanted to be by Kyle's side.
"I'll join you, I could do with a walk." Bianca says, walking out with them.
"Do you really think he's fighting to survive?" Lucas asks his brothers.
"Yeah, he's got a lot to live for." Brax says, struggling to stay strong for his brothers when all he wanted to do was let all his anger out.
Brax knew the doctors were doing their best for Kyle, he just didn't want to believe that there wasn't a great chance Kyle would wake up. He always thought it would be him to go first so he'd never have to go through the pain of losing one of his younger brothers, he just wished there was something he could do to stop feeling so hopeless. He could see how each of his brothers were struggling with what was happening, and he didn't know how to help them.
"I need to go and check on the gym, can you call if the doc comes back with news?" Heath says as he stands up.
"I told you to shut the gym up, it wouldn't matter." Brax says.
"We need to keep an income coming in and we have enough staff to cover us." Heath says before walking out, not before waiting for Bianca to see if she wanted a lift home.
"Should we have kept Angelo's open for a few hours everyday?" Lucas asks.
"No, it'll be fine." Brax says.
"Heath's just using the gym as an excuse, something to take his mind off this." Casey says, Lucas lightly nodding in understanding as Blake's phone goes off.
"Sorry, I need to take this." Blake says before walking out.
"I've come to realise that this isn't the type of family to share feelings, but can we please start now?" Lucas asks, glancing between them all. "Please, I just want to know I'm not alone in what I'm feeling."
"And what are you feeling?" Brax harshly asks, Lucas staring at him as he wasn't expecting him to be so direct to him. "You want us to talk about feelings, so go ahead, tell us how you feel."
"Well firstly I don't like how you're talking to me. We're all in the same boat." Lucas says. "I'm scared because I don't want Kyle to die and I wouldn't know what to do without him around."
"Same. We were close once we moved past the desert, did a lot together and became great brothers." Casey mutters.
"I finally felt like I fitted in somewhere after moving here, and it's been great getting to know Kyle. I never imagined having a triplet, but I'm glad it was him. We've still got loads to do with our lives, like celebrating our 21st together for the first time." Tyler says, slightly smiling at Lucas.
"Well I know one thing. I won't be living with you two if Kyle dies, so you better hope he lives." Brax says, glaring their way.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Tyler asks.
"None of this would be happening if you did the right thing at the start and got rid of your mum for good. By what I could work out, she arrived not long after me and Ricky left for our honeymoon, so why the hell did it take so long to get rid of her?" Brax asks. "Did you not want her gone, is that it?"
"Of course we wanted her gone!" Tyler shakes his head. "I know she wasn't the best person, but I didn't think she would have been capable of doing something like this, despite what I may have said."
"You didn't think she was capable of murder after abandoning Kyle as a baby, an age when he couldn't have even defend himself?" Brax scoffs. "So there we are, Lucas. You wanted us to be honest about what we're feeling, and that's what I feel."
"I didn't mean that." Lucas mutters. "Do you seriously blame us for this?"
"We got the coffees." Ricky says as she walks back in with Emily, noticing the tension. "Right, what's happened?" She asks.
"I've got stuff to sort out." Brax mutters, standing up and walking out.
"Boys?" Ricky asks.
"Brax blames us for this happening." Tyler says.
"I'm sure that's not true." Ricky says.
"He did technically say that, but it's not true. He's just struggling with the fact that Kyle might not wake up." Casey says.
"And the rest of us aren't?" Lucas asks. "He's not the only person who is terrified about what's going to happen over the next week or so, but we should be sticking together as a family, not putting the blame on other people."
"Brax isn't the type of person who opens up about stuff, he prefers to deal with things by himself. It's just something you have to get used to." Casey says.
"But it's not fair that he's blaming us, I don't care how much he's hurting right now, he doesn't need to hurt us by saying stuff like that!" Lucas says.
"It's not intentional, Lucas." Casey snaps. "We know you're really upset about what's happened to Kyle, but stop making big deals out of things that don't need to be fussed over, it's getting really annoying now."
"Leave him alone!" Tyler glares.
"Okay, everyone stop this now!" Ricky shouts. "Do you really think this is what Kyle would want? If he knew how much this family was falling apart over this, it would break him. So start acting like brothers and accept that some harsh things are going to be said in the heat of the moment but it doesn't mean anything."
"And if you're not going to start being nice to each other, then you can leave. I don't want anything negative in this room when it's already tough enough as it is." Emily firmly says. "I won't allow you to argue around him when you know how much it upset him in the past."
"I'm not going anywhere." Casey mutters, turning back to Kyle to keep watch, knowing it's what Brax would want while he's not there.