Jack woke up, staring at a strange ceiling. There was a stench of alcohol in the air, and people crowded around him.
"What?" he mumbled, blinking to focus his eyes. All he saw were silhouettes of people, but he could feel hands on him.
"He's alright," said Sarah's voice, and everything that had happened came back to him.
"I…I was dreaming," he said he said, smiling hysterically.
Sarah gave him a pitiful look.
He hadn't been dreaming. He had just fainted the moment he had seen his father's dead body on the hospital bed.
Jack sat on a chair in his father's hospital room, seeing his mother cry loudly while holding his hand.
"I'm sorry!" she cried, fat tears falling down her cheeks. Jack had never seen her cry like that. "Oh Lionel, I'm so sorry!"
He was crying himself, but the fact hadn't really registered in his mind. Tears just fell from his eyes as he stared at his parents, his mind an empty, quiet wasteland for once.
Dead.
His father was dead.
Someone had told him the details, but it was all a blur to him. A stroke, they said. High blood pressure, too much stress, bullshit like that, that made no sense when you were staring at your father's dead body.
A doctor entered the room. "Mr. Spicer? I'm very sorry, but we…we should remove the body," he said, and it took a moment for Jack to realize that when he said Mr. Spicer, he meant Jack. He was going to be Mr. Spicer from now on. It was crazy. His father was dead, and the world had gone crazy.
"Fuck you," he said, standing up. Because what the fuck did he expect him to do? Pull his mom away from him? Drag her out?
Sarah entered the room and ushered the doctor outside.
"Jack, it's…it's late…," she said, patting his arm. "Your mom needs to rest."
"But we can't- I mean, he…I wasn't even here," said Jack.
He had missed messages and messages. Phone call after phone call. All because he had been fighting Chase and Wuya.
And for what? Would a victory gain him a single minute to let him tell his dad- What? Would he even be able to say anything? What would he have said, even if he had arrived on time? 'I love you dad'? 'I'm sorry'? Something stupid like 'Don't go', while his heart stopped?
"Lionel, Lionel, I need you," cried his mom, and Jack felt as if he had been punched in the gut.
He should have been here. To hold her, even if he had nothing good to say. And now he was too weak to get close to her.
"She shouldn't…stay here. It's not good for her," said Sarah, offering him a handkerchief.
Jack wiped away his tears, and felt a bit of panic when he saw the cloth come out black, until he remembered he had been wearing his black eye makeup.
"I know…I know," he whispered, looking at his mom. But he was afraid that if he got any closer to her, he would have crumbled, falling apart from the inside.