A West Village Tragedy Part I.
Mason found his way quickly to the top of the ramp that lead to Seth's new home, a place that he had never been before. The gate there looked complicated though, so he headed past to the end, where the original steps and an ordinary gate remained in situ. Roderick had appraised him the night before of the layout of the little apartment that was now all Seth's, so he knew that if Seth did happen to still be asleep in bed, his knocking would be close enough to his room to rouse him. He stood at the door, and suddenly felt anxious; taking a breath, he pulled all of his acting skills to the fore. He could not allow the pain that he might feel on seeing the way that Seth was now show in his face when the other man opened the door. He was afraid, but he had to remain calm for both their sakes. Taking another breath, he knocked…
After a minute, he knocked again, and then after another suitable pause, he knocked a third time, louder and longer. Something began to worry him when he still had no response; it was not likely that Seth had an alarm clock set for later in the day, and in any case, he had never been the deepest of sleepers. He wondered for a moment if Seth had an appointment somewhere, possibly at the hospital, scheduled for the early hours, and as such, he had missed him. Then he dismissed that notion; someone would have known, and Roderick would have been informed. Now he thought of it, his best friend had stated that Seth was free all day only a few hours ago….
That was when a tiny alarm bell began to ring in Mason's head. What if something had happened to Seth, and he was unable to answer his knocking? After all, Mason knew that he had been suffering bad attacks, and blackouts; that was why there was a rota to ensure that he was visited every day, at least twice. Mason found his feet leading him to the back of the house, to the bedroom window, still clutching the two bags of bagels in his hand. Looking in, he saw that the bed was neatly made, the room tidy. That meant one of two things; either Seth was up and about early, or he had not slept in his bed that night…
With faster steps now, Mason made his way round to the front of the house, the little alarm bell now sounding louder. He paid no heed to the yellow cab that was slowing down to pull up a little way down the street, too preoccupied with the possibilities of what could have happened to Seth. He glanced through the smaller of the two front windows; all he could see was down the hallway to the back of the house, devoid of any sign of life. He hurried to the second, larger window, and this time got a good view of the kitchen counter that divided that space off from the living area, hiding the rest of the kitchen from view. It seemed to be as devoid of life as the rest of the house, but then he noticed something. On the distant counter at the back of the kitchen were two bags, both empty. One had contained salad leaves, according to the packaging, the other was a bag of the kind he knew held rotisserie chicken. He knew that Seth was not an obsessive neat freak, but there was no way that he would have left wrappers like that on the counter overnight…
Mason moved to one side, trying to see round the end of the counter, and then he decided to stand on his tiptoes - and his blood ran cold. There on the floor was a piece of chicken breast, and by it a shard of crockery. Something was wrong; very, very, wrong…
He needed to get inside and check, but how perplexed him. He did not want to start forcing windows, or smashing glass, and he had no means of accessing a key. As far as he knew, the only keys available were with the new residents of the middle house, who did not know him at all, or the one hanging up in Nick and Jeff's home. There was no way that he was prepared to hang around until someone turned up to check on Seth…
Then it struck him. Mike would be the one feeding Caleb, so through him, there would be access to Niff's home, and thus the spare key. Mason sprinted then up the steps, the gate clanging shut behind him, and ran as fast as he could in the direction of Mike's home. That move immediately brought him to the attention of the person that had arrived home earlier than expected, and was paying off her taxi - Kitty, and her two year old daughter Meghan.
Kitty had returned home early from the party upstate for two reasons; firstly, her daughter had become increasingly cranky as the weekend had gone on, and she feared that she might be sickening with something; and secondly, because she was herself finding it very hard to continue being nice to some of the older people within the assembled group, all of whom seemed to believe that they were better than her and Artie, mainly on the basis of their longevity. Then, when she had overheard one of them talking disparagingly about her husband on Sunday evening, she knew that she had to go as soon as possible, because it would totally destroy his big break if his wife happened to murder at least one of the other people involved in the film.
Artie was left blissfully unaware of the jibes that were being aimed at him behind his back, but Kitty had confided in the director herself, calmly telling her exactly what she had just overheard. She had been as horrified as Kitty, and had been on the verge of a very public showdown with the miscreants there and then, until Kitty stopped her. "All that would achieve is to foster the belief that Artie is a troublemaker, and he would really hate that. No, Mehgan has been acting up, so I will take her home, and in some small way, Artie will receive some sympathy for having a poorly child. I am sure that in due course you will mete out a requisite punishment to those that have spoken out of turn…"
Kitty had subsequently discovered that the last train of the night had left, so she had no choice but to stay just a little longer; a car was booked to convey her to the first train of the day instead, which left just after 4am. Meghan had slept for most of the journey, only waking up as the train began to make its final approach through the tunnel to Penn Station. It had still been an exhausting trip for Kitty, and therefore the last thing that she needed to see as she paid the taxi driver was another former member of the New Directions hurtling along the sidewalk towards her, as if he was being chased by the hounds of hell….
Mason was so concentrated on his mission that he narrowly missed slamming right into Kitty as she stood there, and she decided that he was not going to be allowed to forget that. "Mason McCarthy! Just back on this side of the Atlantic, and already running about like a crazy man, trying to send people flying off their feet! I mean, where on earth is the fire?"
"Seth's; I need Mike to get me the spare key. He isn't answering his door…"
"It is barely 7am - maybe he is still asleep?" Kitty replied tetchily.
"Checked that; his bed is made, unslept in. There is food and broken china on the kitchen floor, Kitty - something is very wrong…"
Kitty's eyes widened a little as she processed the information, but before she could respond, the window of the upper house where Mason had been heading was slammed open, and Tina appeared at the opening. "I'm sorry, can I just ask what all of the commotion is for? I have just managed to get Harry to sleep here, and the last thing that I need outside is a heated argument!"
"It's Seth; Mason thinks that he is in some sort of trouble, and I am inclined to agree. We need the spare key to his apartment, if Mike has it, or knows where there is one," said Kitty with urgency in her tone, but in a low enough voice not to risk waking the sleeping baby upstairs.
Tina's face changed from anger to concern in a moment, and she replied, "I will go and ask him, although I am not sure that we have a key here…"
"I think that there would be one in Niff's place if you don't," said Mason. "Tell him he needs to hurry; I have a very bad feeling about all of this…" With those words he turned on his heels and ran off to the other end of the street again, Tina vanishing into the house. Kitty was left to stand there with her daughter. She wondered just how bad it could be, and shivered at the thought…
Suddenly the door to Mike and Tina's home opened, and a barefoot, pyjama clad Mike came charging down the stairs, his face full of worry. He ran past Kitty without stopping, and went directly to Seth's place. Looking back up at the house, she saw Tina standing in the doorway, shaking her head. "Well, we don't have a key; Jeff has one on his house keys, and he managed to take that to New Zealand, and the only other spare is with Dex and Lawrence. Now I said that Mike needed to go there, but no, he decided that he wants to go and take a look first, before he wakes them up over potentially nothing…"
"Men!" exclaimed Kitty, shaking her own head. "Tina, can you watch Meghan for a minute? I am going to go and sort this out!" Tina nodded, seeing the flash of fire in the blonde's eyes. She suddenly felt very sorry for her husband, Mason, and the two young men sleeping in the house two doors down…
Mason's heart had lifted when Mike suddenly appeared, then plummeted again when he admitted that he did not have the key, and that other than Seth's own, the only copies were in New Zealand, and with Dex. Mike meanwhile was taking a look through the large window, balancing carefully on pointe, and thus able to see a little more than Mason. He saw the debris on the floor, and then… He gasped, then in a small voice said, "I see a foot…"
Mason shivered at the thought, then said, "We need to get in there now; either we get the key from Dex, or I'm calling 911 and asking the fire department to come and smash that front door down, or break the window. He could be badly hurt, and we can't do anything…"
"I will go and wake Dex," said Mike, realising that he should already have done that. Before he could leave, however, Kitty came through the gate and strode with purpose towards the door. Mason and Mike followed her, and saw her staring at the lock, before she started to fish in her purse, pulling out a metal hairgrip. She bent it open, then sank down and started to thread it into the lock.
"I'm sorry, are you trying to pick the lock?" said Mike, a little incredulous at what he was seeing.
"Sue taught all of her Cheerios what she called the tools of the trade, with the exceptions of Blaine and Mason here. She did show Kurt apparently, but not them. I guess she thought it was highly unlikely either of them would be carrying a hairgrip on their person regularly," said Kitty, as she concentrated on her task. Then there was a click, and she allowed herself a brief smile of triumph. She pushed down the handle, and the door opened just a little. They now had the access they required to Seth's apartment…
And yet, for some reason, all three of them stood there, frozen to the spot. None of them wanted to be the first inside, to be the one that potentially made the worst of discoveries. Then Mike stepped up, and gently pushed the door open. "Seth, are you okay?" he said loudly into the hallway. "It's Mike, Mason and Kitty; we were worried about you…" All three of them strained there ears to hear the faintest of responses, but there was nothing, just one of those silences that was best described as deafening, and that made their hearts sink further.
Mike took a breath, and then made to step inside, but Mason suddenly stopped him. "There is broken crockery on the floor, and you don't have any shoes on. It's for the best that I am the one to go in…"
Mike looked down at his feet, only realising then that he had run out of the house without anything on them, and replied sheepishly, "I'm going to go and grab a pair of sneakers, and then I will be back; it won't take me more than a couple of minutes if you want to wait…"
"You can meet me in there," said Mason decisively, then stepped inside. Kitty felt that she should follow, as Mike headed off at speed for his shoes, but instead she stayed where she was for the moment, praying that what Mason was going to find would not be the worst, because Seth was still alive; he had to be. She had actually come to really like him over the last few weeks, and he couldn't be snatched away without a chance to say goodbye…
As for Mason, he felt as if time had slowed down as he walked down the relatively short hallway to the living area, past framed photos on the wall of Seth with his friends in happier times. It was the picture of Seth with Skylar, taken on the latter's wedding day, that made his blood run cold; how would he take the news, particularly if it was the worst case scenario? 'He is NOT DEAD,' Mason thought to himself with firmness. 'He's had an attack, and he is hurt, but he is not dead!'
Then he was in the living area. He turned at once to the kitchen, where Seth's chair lay on its side. The floor was covered by a mixture of salad leaves and chicken pieces, interspersed with shard of broken crockery. There was a broken glass too, the shattered remnants lying in a drying sticky patch of juice. And there, in the midst of it all, lay Seth, motionless, his right leg twisted in a way that did not look natural at all. His face had a few cuts on it, caused by flying pieces of glass in all likelihood. Mason shivered again as he could see no indication of movement at all, nor hear anything that resembled breathing. He knew what he had to do next; he had to check for signs of life, owing Seth and everyone else that much at least. He quietly knelt down next to Seth in a patch that was free from detritus, and gently took his wrist to feel for a pulse…
Mike's return proved a shock to the silent and motionless Kitty. He looked at her, and he realised that he had not seen such a look of pain and anguish on her face before. She was usually so good at keeping her feelings hidden, but this time she looked very emotional. "You should go along and sit with Tina," he whispered to her. "You do not need to be here any longer…"
"I want to be; if he is, then you will need all of the assistance that you can muster. In that vein, you and I should go and check up on Mason as well as Seth. He will need us at his side if…"
Mike nodded, and they headed in together, making their way to the kitchen quickly. Kitty gasped at the tableau before her, whereas Mike moved swiftly to kneel at Mason's side. "He has a pulse," was all Mason said, but it was enough to bring a sigh of relief from the other two in the room. "It isn't strong, but it is there, and he is warm. This looks like it was his dinner, not his lunch, but the fact is that he has still been lying here since then, unmoving, and that has to be a concern."
"Which is why I am calling 911," said Kitty firmly. "We need to get him assessed by experts."
"I will give Ollie a head's up," said Mike, pulling out his own phone, which he had grabbed along with his shoes, and dialling the emergency number that he had been given for Dr Harwood for the first time. Mason meanwhile continued to sit on the floor, clasping Seth's hand, knowing that if the reason that he wasn't moving was because his brain had thrown him into some sort of coma, then he might at least be able to feel his presence. "Why didn't I come here last night?" he whispered under his breath. "I should have done! You would be in the hospital right now, getting treatment; you would not have been left to lie here on the floor all night…"
"The ambulance is on its way, although it might be a while; there is a big fire downtown, and they have had to send a lot of ambulances down there," said Kitty. "I am going to sweep all of this mess up; it will need done anyway, and it gives me something to do…"
"Ollie is on his way too," said Mike. "He will probably get here first, as he said he was going to run over, and knowing him… I should have realised something was wrong last night. I walked past, and the lights were off, and that is not how it would have been normally. I should have known it was off, I should have investigated things then…"
"And if I had not been stuck up in Albany, I could have popped in and checked," said Kitty quietly. "The fact is that we didn't, for a variety of reasons, but we can't alter any of that now. What I would like to know is where was Dex yesterday, when he came to see him, because he was the one that we were all relying on to check up on him!"
"He must have been here," said Mike, seeing that Kitty was about to rage. "That bag that held the chicken is from the rotisserie counter at the Stop and Shop. That is all use on the day of purchase stuff, according to Seth. He must have brought it to him, for him to eat for his evening meal, and not long after he left…"
"Whatever happened, the poor kid is going to be devastated," said Mason. "If he was the one that had been entrusted to care for him this weekend, and this happened, then he will blame himself, even though we all have to admit that there was nothing he could really have done, even if he had been here at the precise second it occurred…"
"All we can do now is hope that he comes round soon, because the longer that he is out and cannot tell any of us exactly what happened, the worse the speculation will become for all of us," replied Mike sagely.
Seth, however, showed no signs of regaining consciousness, and all the time his pulse remained slow and weak. Mason continued to sit by him on the floor, holding his hand, as around him Mike and Kitty kept themselves busy, making short work of cleaning up the mess. Seth's cellphone sat on the top of the kitchen counter, and Mike swiped his finger across it gently, revealing the lock screen. It showed that he had no missed calls thankfully; that was something that left Mike relieved. He was also glad that Ollie would be the one that had to tell Thad everything, and even happier that Thad would be the one that had to break the news to Skylar. However, he resolved there and then that he would be the one to inform Nick once they knew more.
He knew that Jeff would be heartbroken, and blame himself, even though there was nothing that he could have done, even if he had been in New York. There was of course no way that they could hurry back. He knew that in some ways, it would be best not to tell them at all right now, but the problem with that was that they would find out what happened, and they might never forgive those that had kept them in the dark, particularly if the situation turned out to be really bad…
He heard the gate from the street open, and the sound of feet hurrying down the steps. Before he could move, Kitty was already heading for the door. They both knew that it would probably be Ollie, and indeed it was. The way that his face changed when he saw his patient lying there told Mike all that he needed to know; this was not something minor, this was part of the endgame for Seth, and that broke his heart. Mason lifted himself up off the floor so that Ollie could have full access to examine his patient, and instinctively Mike placed an arm around his shoulders; that simple gesture was enough to send the younger man into floods of tears. Mike realised that his own eyes were moist too then, and saw that Kitty was standing and staring out of the window, her back to them all, and he knew that she was crying too, but did not want anyone to see…
"He's unresponsive, which is not a good sign at all," said Ollie to the room at large. "When he had his previous attack and passed out, the moment that Jeff took his arm, he woke up. This time, I think that his brain might have been affected far more, and that is why he is not able to wake up. You said that you had called for an ambulance? When it gets here, I will go with him, and that way I can start all of the tests I need to do at once…"
"So he is in a comatose state?" asked Mason quietly.
"It certainly appears to be the case, I'm afraid. Whatever has happened might well have overwhelmed the brain's pain receptors, and caused him to shut down, so to speak, in the face of it all."
"What do we say to people now, if they find out?" asked Mike.
"That he has had another attack, and it is a serious one. As to how serious it is, well I don't want to speculate until I have run the tests…"
Along the street, Dex had just woken up and was preparing his breakfast. His little brother had had a disturbed night, one of his periodic nightmares about his experiences in L.A. during the quake, and had relived the deaths of his mother and stepfather no doubt. He had left Dex what was by now a usual note, asking him to let him sleep through the day; his bad dreams never assailed him during the daytime naps for some reason. He had just started to eat his breakfast when he heard the sound of a siren, which seemed to be coming closer then stopped abruptly. Curious, he headed to the front window to see what was going on, fearing for the elderly lady across the street that seemed so nice… He could see the back of an ambulance, and the sight of the crew heading down the steps towards…
Dex had dropped his breakfast, thrown on some more clothes, then raced along the street to see what was going on. He found the front door open, and he raced in, to find the place full. What horrified him was seeing Dr Harwood and the two paramedics clustered around Seth's recumbent form…
"What time did you see him last, Dexter?" he suddenly heard Kitty hiss in his ear. "I warn you now, be truthful; I wouldn't want to have to hurt you later when I found out you were lying…"
"Kitty!" reproved Mike at once, and Dex spun round, seeing the two of them and Mason for the first time.
"I came in about 5 last night…how bad is it?"
"He is unresponsive, probably in a coma," replied Mason calmly. "When we got in here, he was surrounded by a mix of salad leaves and chicken, as if he was about to eat…"
"BBQ Chicken? I brought that to him when I came, and I swear he was absolutely fine then. I told him I would come back and keep him company, but he said not to, that he was having a great day, and I shouldn't waste my time. He was fine…"
"So I am guessing that he had the attack not long after you left," said Mike quietly. "That means that he has been out cold like this for 14 hours…"
Ollie could not help but overhear what was being said, and the length of time Seth had been out deduced by Mike seemed plausible, and left him worried. Yes, it was less than on the previous occasion, but then he had been responsive. This time was different, the lack of response an indicator perhaps of something much more serious, something that had affected his brain. He kept his thoughts to himself though, just observed as the two paramedics lifted Seth onto a gurney one had fetched from the ambulance. As they wheeled the patient out, he turned to the four people assembled in the room.
"I need you to all know this; what has happened here is nobody's fault. If I am correct, and all of my experience and previous work with MND sufferers would indicate that I would be, then even if he had had someone right here with him, preparing his meal for him as he sat in his chair, they would have been powerless when the attack hit. He would still have ended up in the exact same position that he is in now. Truth is, his body is tired; it has been fighting the MND for so long that most of the reserves of strength that he had are depleted. This is no-one's fault, and I do not want to hear that any one person is getting blamed, and nor will Thad." Kitty nodded, as did Mason, both observing the fact that Dex was now in tears, Mike's arm wrapped around him. "I will let my little brother know what has happened as soon as I am sure, and he will no doubt communicate that to everyone else. Until then, just be sure that the only thing to blame for this are the flaws in Seth's DNA…"
The paramedics had by now reached the door, and Ollie knew that he had to head off with them, but he wanted to say a little more before he left. "I will know more once I have done a few simple tests, and I should have the results of those before noon. Until then, I would suggest that you keep what has happened here to yourselves. As I have already said, the last thing that any of us need is speculation, and moreover, you do not want have to be dealing with a constant stream of phone calls either. When I have more information, I will send you a message…"
"Just tell Thad," said Mike sagely. "He will be only too happy to let us all know what is going on. Could you just tell him that I will be happy to be the one that has to call New Zealand and let Nick and Jeff know, because we all know that the latter in particular isn't going to react well to this."
Ollie nodded in agreement, then hastened off to climb into the ambulance with his patient. There was silence in the little apartment then, none of them quite knowing what to say. Then Mason turned to face Dex, and said, "Ollie was right. What happened here today is no-one's fault. Deep down, we all knew that something like this was going to happen sooner rather than later. With any luck, Seth will be conscious again soon, and he will be able to tell you the same thing." He paused, and Dex opened his mouth to respond, but Mason just shook his head and spoke again. "We will not be having any of the 'If only' and 'What if' moments either. What has happened has happened, and it is in the past; there is never any point in raking over the decisions we have made now with the benefit of hindsight. So we get this place tidy, then we lock it up behind us, so it is all ready for when Seth comes home. We must of course tell those closest to us what has gone on, but then swear them to silence. Tina will need to be told exactly what has happened, and I won't lie to Jane either."
"If Lawrence is awake, he will need to know where I have been," admitted Dex.
"I think that we can all agree on that, and then we just wait for news from Thad as to how things are going," said Mike. "You and Dex get off Kitty; Mason and I can sort things out here, and your daughter is probably wondering where her mother has gone." Kitty nodded, and headed for the door; Dex followed, but only after he had handed the spare key over to Mike.
Alone, Mason turned to the older man, and said quietly, "Between us, I don't think that Seth will be coming back here; the look on Ollie's face… I think that this is the moment that he goes to Ohio for good." Mike nodded grimly, then set Seth's chair back into the upright position. At that moment, he did not envy the task that would befall Thad very shortly. He had agreed to break the news to Jeff, and that would be bad, but it would be a walk in the park compared to having to be the one to inform Skylar…