Chapter One-Hundred and Fifty-Seven

Brian waited outside of the bathroom stall for John to finish puking. He knew that John hated anyone to know when he was sick, but he also knew that John had a tendency to pass out for a few minutes after throwing up. He listened as John retched and gagged, able to hear when he was only dry heaving and when his stomach had been completely emptied. "John?" He asked as silence fell over the room, gently pushing the stall open to see John hunched over with his head resting on his arms. "You alright?" He placed his hand on John's back, able to feel that his heartrate was slowly returning to normal. "Hey? You awake?"

John gave a shuddering breath, letting Brian know that he was still conscious. "Hurts…"

Brian nodded, remembering the way he'd felt when he'd gotten influenza when he was twelve. "Do you want me to ask the nurse for some Advil?" He offered, praying that it would somehow help with the pain.

"No." John stated, shaking his head. "I want Mom."

Brian sighed, patting Chance's head as she sat at her master's side. "You want me to get Claire?"

John was still for a moment, before he nodded his head. "Yeah…"

Brian smiled, scratching Chance's cropped ears as he stood. "I'll be right back." He pushed the door to the restroom open, nearly bumping into Claire as she waited for John to come out.

"How is he?" She asked, noticing that Brian's new button-up shirt was slightly rumbled from him kneeling on the floor.

"He wants you." He stated, letting her inside of the men's room to see her boyfriend.

She wet a paper towel under the faucet, placing it on the back of John's neck to help his body relax. "Hey, Sugar." She smiled, touching his cheek with the back of her knuckles and smoothing them over his skin. "I'm here."

John lifted his gaze to her, his eyes showing just how broken he'd become. "Help…" He breathed, leaning his head on her chest.

She nodded, knowing exactly what he meant. He wanted help and shelter from the storm raging inside of him, the battle between sobriety and a high; he wanted help finding himself again… and though he knew that no one could help him with that, he wanted someone to lean on and to love him like he'd never felt before. "I can't help you…" She sighed, pressing a kiss to his head. "You have to make the choices." It killed her to speak those words, every fiber of her being wanted to help him, to make the choices for him, to protect him, but she would never be able to do it all. "Just breathe for a second." She smiled as he took a long breath, moving his head so that his ear was over her heart. "There you go…"

John gave Chance the sign for load up that he'd taught her, chuckling as she jumped into the side car of his Harley. "Good girl." Though he was both mentally and physically exhausted, he knew he couldn't stay away from his job any longer. It'd been three weeks since he'd been able to get to work and he knew that the Cooks were getting worried about him because they'd been calling Clarissa a lot. He pulled his helmet on, hating the way it fit over his face with the wind mask that Clarissa had insisted he wear to protect his entire head incase he crashed on his bike.

"John!" Claire's voice called, making John flip the mask up to speak to her better. "I'll bring you something to snack on when I get home. But I have to take Amelia to ballet class before I can get home."

He chuckled, pulling her closer to the bike with a hand around her hips. "I can eat when I get home. I get off at six."

Chance barked, telling John that she was ready for her ride.

"I'm bringing you some food. I don't want you passing out from low blood sugar again." She kissed his knuckles, wishing that the helmet would let her kiss his face. "Besides, I like seeing you all covered in grease and oil."

He chuckled shaking his head as he started his bike. "I'll see you later then." He shouted over the roar of the bike, flipping his visor down as he pulled out of the parking lot.

Chad beamed when he saw John take his helmet off, walking over to the kid and giving him a hard pat on the shoulder. "There he is!" He laughed, ruffling the kid's hair. "Thought for sure you were dead."

John chuckled, placing his sunglasses over his eyes and clipping a leash to Chance's new service dog vest that was supposed to tell people not to touch her without permission. "Nah. Takes a lot more to kill a stubborn son of a bitch like me." He gave a short whistle, telling Chance to heel to him when she started getting excited at all the activity of the shop. "Death tried to take me a few months ago, but that jackass didn't realize that even a hundred mils meth of can't kill a Bender."

Chad shook his head, fighting against the urge to pet Chance as she panted happily beside her master. "What's the pooch's name?" He asked, praying that John would let him pet the fur-baby.

John smiled, able to tell that Chad was itching to love on Chance. "Her name's Chancie." He let her walk over to Chad, watching as he knelt down to love on her. "She's a rescue… kinda like me…"

Frank tapped on one of the cars that John and Chad were standing beside. "Good to have you back, Kiddo." He smirked, jumping as the phone rang. "Oh God…" He rushed for the phone, picking it up and almost instantly going into a panic. "Okay, okay sweetheart, breathe, breathe. It's alright… it's alright…" He looked at his watch, cursing under his breath. "Um… I'll see if one of the guys can give us a ride to the hospital… just… remember to breathe, and try to stay calm."

John's brow furrowed, as he noticed that Frank was starting to panic. "Everything alright?" He asked, letting Chance lick Frank's hand.

"Julia's in labor. I need to get to the house and take her to the hospital." He looked at John, realizing that he wasn't even scheduled for the day, and hadn't clocked in yet. "Bender… I hate to ask you this-"

"Sure thing, man." He grabbed a set of keys for the blue Chevy he'd fixed up. Thanking God that they hadn't sold it yet. "Hop in." He gave a shrill whistle, opening the door to let Chance jump into the cab.