90210: 2012

Lights flashed past his eyes, buildings too as the car tore across the city through the darkness of the night…somehow he was concentrating on the road and on what was happening but it was autopilot – he wasn't conscious of what he was doing…he had too much going on beneath the surface, he was just allowing the exterior to take control now, putting the processing of the news to the back of his mind – he could cross that bridge once he got to the hospital. Now he simply needed to focus upon getting himself there, in one piece and ensuring he was at the bedside before anyone else.

The hospital loomed out the darkness, its lights warm but at the same time negated by the connotations of the hospital – this was the place where some came to die, and others came to languish in pain for years – it should have been a place of hope, something that heartened him against the grim situation but instead it made his spirits gloomier still if that were even possible. He pulled into the parking lot and pulled out his phone, scanning for a reply texts from anyone – Dixon, Ivy and Ade were en route, he had neglected to text Navid, his estrangement from the gang had made Teddy want to keep him away, he'd rather that they didn't explode into open war when Marco's life was at stake.

He rode the lift to the appropriate flaw nervously and emerged, strolling up to the desk casually as though nothing was wrong, as though every fibre in his body wasn't crying out to see Marco, to hold him close to his body, to reassure himself that his boyfriend was safe and would come out the other side after the shooting – he drummed his fingers on the desk and the attendant turned to him, dressed in the lurid uniforms typical of medical secretarial staff.

"Who are you here to see?"

"Marco Salazar," Teddy replied automatically, even at speaking his boyfriend's name aloud he had to fight back tears, fight to hold his composure in the waiting room, fight to simply keep himself standing up straight when all he wanted was to drop to the floor and sob and allow his pain to somehow dissipate into the air, "I'm his…boyfriend."

"He's in surgery," the secretary replied, "take a seat, his Doctor will be with you as soon as we know something." Teddy nodded and somehow allowed his legs to carry him to a seat, he slumped into it and looked at the time, it was 12:30 AM. Marco had to be alright, there was no way he couldn't be. Teddy was alone in the waiting room, he looked at the square ceiling and cast his mind back to the events of the previous night, they had been planning a romantic dinner together at the apartment they shared, Marco was going to cook and was grabbing the last few pieces for Teddy's Mystery Montgomery Casserole – a mystery because he hadn't actually decided what meat he was going to use so he'd just told Marco to buy a little of everything – and he'd loaned him his car since Marco's had a flat and Teddy didn't want him to have to change it and go to all that trouble just for a meal they were having together.

Marco had gone out the door and everything had been fine, or so Teddy had thought, he'd sat down and flicked through the Sports Channels before sending of a text to Silver to see how Italy was and tell her to give her regards to Naomi. He'd been relaxing and then it had been one hour, then two and then three – he had felt a rising sense of panic, like some anticipation of the grim news. Then the phone had rang and he'd answered, hoping to hear Marco's warm, low voice on the other end – but it hadn't been Marco, it had been a voice that was low but unmistakably feminine, spiced with a little Latin sparkle. She had informed him that Marco had been brought in with a gunshot wound and Teddy's car had been found unattended in the Hospital Parking Lot. The worst part was he'd had to change Marco's tyre before going out, further delaying him from getting to see Marco…he probably should've asked one of the others to take him to see Marco but he needed to be there, he needed to see Marco for himself…and now he would just have to wait on his own.

The sight that brought tears to his eyes was the arrival of Marco's mother, the bolshie, feisty woman bustling into the room, tears in her eyes – which was what had set him off, Marco's Mom was formidable and completely devoted to 'her little soldier' and now he'd been wounded, Teddy crossed to her and she embraced him warmly: she had become like a surrogate parent to him following the rejection from his father. She looked at his eyes and cupped his face reassuringly.

"He is a fighter, he will pull through." She said, though Teddy wasn't sure whether that sentiment was for his or her benefit in situation they were in.

"He has to." Teddy affirmed and she nodded approvingly.

Teddy led her to the chair and put an arm around her and wiped away her tears, strengthening himself while gripping her tightly and allowing her tears to pour onto his chest, wetting his shirt lightly – she was Marco's mom and Teddy was only his boyfriend, she had more right to cry, he needed to stay strong and resolute for her and not act out of place. He had to do what Marco would've wanted him to do, what he would've expected Marco to do if the situation were reversed. He hugged Consuela tightly and looked out of the window towards the buildings of the City, sparking in the distance and thought back the tears that were already stinging at his eyes, trapped in the growing nightmare.

.

"We have to go!" Annie yelled, hurling a stiletto at Liam which glanced of the side of his chest prompting a groan from his motionless, head-buried in pillows position, he stirred and shot her a look of filthy disgust, Annie simply dropped her hands to her hips and pouted at him in her if I don't get my way you don't get yours and he reluctantly slid out of bed and pulled on his pants, getting dressed he moved to walk past her and she pressed a hand to his chest, "You're showering first." He nodded and promptly dropped his pants and walked into the bathroom, Annie playfully spanked his ass prompting an I'm still half asleep groan from him and a low, dirty snigger as he slipped into the bathroom. She heard the shower switch on and relaxed from her standing position, flopping into the comfortable embrace of the bedding and hammered in a call to Adrianna, glancing at her messages and missed calls and musing it was probably just one of her parents worrying unnecessarily: they had been calling them every day of the honeymoon – it was beginning to get annoying. She allowed the tone to linger and then grinned as she heard Ade pick up on the other end.

"Hey how are you – we're just wrapping up the honeymoon here, Liam's in the shower – I just wanted to say thanks for looking after the apartment while we were away!" Annie enthused excitedly, in truth she was just hungry to get home and share with her girlfriends how completely perfect the honeymoon had been, how completely loved up she felt, how she felt as though nothing could shatter her glorious memory of the vacation or her infinite love for Liam.

"No it's cool," Adrianna sounded distant and Annie frowned, "Annie did you check your phone?"

"No – I just called you right away, I mean I had a couple of new messages but I just guessed they'd be from my Mom or my phone company or something, how come?" Adrianna's perceptible sigh at the other end made Annie's heart sink, she'd obviously missed something important, "Did you and Alexander have a fight or something cause we have time to talk if you need?"

"Annie…Teddy didn't want to say anything to you…he didn't want to spoil your honeymoon but…something…happened to Marco last night." Adrianna said as though it was the simplest of things, as though it didn't carry any weight, which made Annie feel an even more heightened sense of panic…something awful had happened, she could feel it all around her, as though she was sinking into darkness.

Annie felt her smile of a few moments before slipping away completely as her rising sense of dread became visible as her mouth curved downwards and her face creased pensively, "Ade you're starting to scare me."

"Marco…he was shot last night Annie…and I mean I think Teddy's trying to put on a brave face but Doctors don't think Marco's gonna pull through…I just think he could really use Liam and you once you get back, I mean he's close to Dixon but he's so much closer to Liam…they just seem to understand one another…and with everything that happened with Navid I doubt we'll be asking him to drop by any time soon," Adrianna clued-up and Annie almost lost the grip on her cell-phone but held it tightly, "look just…once you land and your settled just come over to the Hospital…I mean me, Ivy and Dixon are rotating but we can't all be here at once you know?"

"Of course," Annie replied automatically, ignoring the urge to cry and express her sadness for Teddy, "I'll tell Liam once he's out of the shower…I'll see you later." She closed of the phone and put in her pocket and slumped into the bed, finding that her legs refused to support her any longer, she registered the shower being switched off but she didn't even react to Liam emerging, a towel tied loosely just below his navel, showing of his toned torso and muscles – any other time and she would have torn the towel of him and roughly wrestled him into bed; not that Liam put up much of a struggle, but all she could do was stare at him, tears in her eyes, beginning to cascade down her face and pat the bed beside her. He dropped his confident, sexy smirk to a more reserved, resolute expression – the kind of sombre-but-with-a-swagger look that he had worked so well when he first came to West Bev.

"What's the matter?" he said putting his arm around her and pulling her close to him, despite the fact that she should have pushed away from his wet torso she was glad of the warm comfort as her tears streaked down her face and onto his chest, tracing down so she couldn't distinguish between water droplets and her tears, "Did something happen back home?" That word would have any other time evoked a flicker of warmth, she would be confident Liam enjoyed marital life with her and was happy where they lived – she could be confident one day she wouldn't wake up and find her dream over and find he had left their happily ever after for new horizons, now it merely added to the bubbling, swirling, confusing cauldron of emotions wreaking havoc in Annie's brain.

"Marco's been shot…and they don't think he's gonna pull through," Annie said, and though she didn't see Liam cry or sob as she did, she saw a tear form in his eye and knew somewhere within him the news had effected him – she hadn't even realized Liam and Marco were close but clearly their combined love of mechanics and the time they'd spent working together had forged a bond between them: a close one. And now they were all close to losing someone that they loved dearly, "I said…we'd go by the hospital…Ade thinks Teddy needs you…she says that your closer to him than anyone."

Liam acknowledged with a curt nod, "What about Navid?"

"He needs to be kept at arms length," Annie suggested and immediately Liam knew she was right, "he's too volatile at the moment…we don't need him creating an atmosphere…we all need to be there for Teddy…Dixon and Navid's…feud can wait."

.

Silver could see Naomi's eyes flickering to the waiters swinging through the waterside bar at Amalfi and if she could steal Naomi's attention for just a second she'd have shot her a warning glance – leopards never change their spots and Naomi had always been boy-hungry but she was in a relationship, a committed one – she'd moved into his 17th Century Family Home and started eating dinner with his parents and him every night…but that would never change Naomi.

"Naomi…Earth to Naomi," her blonde friend lowered her aviators and shot Silver a mischievous look and then it iced over as she realized that Silver was about to go all serious on her, "would you like to ask one of your friends to take our order?" Silver said, smiling in a very forced polite way that prompted a groan from Naomi as she raised her hand and in an instant a server had swept over to them to take their order, Naomi ordered what they wanted in fluent Italian and then the waiter turned and swept away, "Since when did you-"

"-start speaking Italian? I'm actually pretty linguistic now," Naomi smiled confidently, "French, Spanish, Italian – who knew fashion had so many uses," she said eyeing up the rear of a waiter and Silver shot her another reproachful look, "oh come-on Silver I'm in Italy, I'm in Europe – there are so many," she lost her train of focus as a particularly, hot, shirtless blonde swept past the bar on a moped, "cute boys – besides we need to find you a new guy now that you finally dumped Navid!"

"Hey," Silver fired back in protest, "for one thing I'm actually really upset we broke up Naomi – we actually seemed to…you know…click together…and then he and Dixon fell out and everything fell apart…you know you might be able to move-on and keep moving all the time but some of us have to sit back and wait a little while before we move on: we actually try at our relationships."

"Try at our relationships?" Naomi scoffed, "Have you heard yourself, Silver you and Dixon finished because you kissed another guy, then you moved onto Teddy and he came out as gay – and Navid? Please – he has a spat with your ex-boyfriend and you side with your ex, if you were really trying at your relationship would it have fallen apart?" Silver leaned back, infuriated and Naomi relaxed back into her seat, pausing to consider her friend and whether she'd been too hasty.

"Well my relationships might have all fallen apart Naomi – but at least I've had them, Ethan was fooling around a hell of a long time before you two broke-up and as for Liam? You lost him to Annie too – and I mean who has there been since then Naomi? You can only sleep with a guy and not even leave him your number – because you're too afraid to commit to a relationship that you know might end badly." Silver glared at Naomi and she leered back fiercely. They paused as both their phones chimed with the arrival of a text and scanned at them and then looked one another in the eye.

Naomi threw up her hand and called a waiter over, cancelling their order and then grabbed her bag, Silver mirrored and they rose as one moving out in the street to where they'd left the car and settled into the open-top, vintage roadster, Naomi gunned the engine and they tore off along the road, Silver opened her phone and scanned through flight-times.

"Do we want to fly direct or switch-over?"

"Which is quicker?" Naomi quizzed.

"There's a flight leaving to New York at 16:30 and we could catch the flight to LA from there like two hours after that? Or we could fly direct but then we only leave Rome at like 19:30." Serena clued-up, having cross-referenced the earliest flight times.

Naomi paused for a moment, "Book us on the New York one," she handed over her phone, "can you call Celia – the housekeeper," she added when Serena gave her a quizzical look, "tell her to just pack our bags – she speaks English."

The roadster tore across the country-lanes as they were enveloped by the vast tracts of open fields on route to the Farmhouse, Silver cast her head skyward and looked toward the clouds, hoping that somehow her mental message of reassurance would reach Teddy. Hoping that Marco would pull through, hoping that they could get there in time, either way.

.

Ivy lingered at the edge of the waiting room, Teddy was sat as he had been intermittently for more than a day now, he looked like a wreck, sleep-deprived and shaking from a mixture of the amount of caffeine he was pumping his body full off in order to sustain himself through the day and his feelings of growing trepidation about the news that he knew as coming from the Doctor, Mrs Salazar was watching over Marco alone and Teddy was respecting her wish to be alone with his son, but Ivy could recognize that he wanted nothing more than to be Marco's side to hold him and tell him it would all be alright, until the end.

She crossed and settled beside him – being caring was not something that came easily to her, despite her compassionate nature, she had made her life in being detached from other people, from her father that had abandoned her, from her mother that lived around her rather than with her, even at times she'd been removed from Dixon, Liam and everyone that she was no so close to. She tenderly patted at his leg and he looked at her and smiled weakly and then the smile was extinguished as the display of friendship melted away beneath the tidal wave of pain just waiting to crash upon Teddy, any moment now Ivy reflected grimly.

"You know," she said softly in her most loving voice – for it was a kind of friendly love she felt for Teddy, with Dixon and Liam there had been love or an attachment, Teddy was her friend…through all the time she'd known him he'd always seemed so full of life, so full of joy and delight that she had never looked past it, to anyone looking at them they would seem curiously out-of-place, with Dixon and Liam she had after all had a bond that had at least for her been more than friends at one time or another, with Teddy he had just seemed…removed from their group, but that was wrong, so very wrong…she felt such feelings of sorrow that she had never made the time to be there for him, that they had ever allowed people to get that impression…now she would make amends, "you've always seemed…so brave…to me at least.

"You've taken everything in your stride and seemed so calm and serene about everything, so relaxed in the face of everything…everything that's happened to you, so strong and so resolute…in a way you're the most grounded of all of us, throughout all our dramas you've always been there to turn to…and," Ivy felt her voice break but forced herself on, "and somehow I think I've always known that, and been contented by it…but somehow I've neglected it…somehow I've always known that I should have tried more or done something to try and make a difference…Teddy I'm-"

"-Shhh," he interjected, smiling at her in that handsome way that would have prompted a right-on from Ivy's Mom or made Naomi harass the boy until he slept with her…in Teddy it was just the sign of a friend who despite all his troubles, personal and otherwise would try and assuage everyone's problems and issues even though they were all of their own making…because he saw beyond the face value and formed attachments…because in a way behind the bravado he had always been insecure…and been so wonderful for that insecurity, "you don't need to say anything, just…just be here when I come out of there…because right now," he looked her straight in the eyes, "it is so hard to hold everything in…and hold it all back, and once it happens Ivy…I don't know what's going to happen." He looked away from her as a Doctor emerged and Teddy nodded, reaching out his hand and Ivy took it, holding it until he walked off in the direction of Marco's room, and Ivy found herself in floods of tears. Sobbing and crying out. Her body ached. And she felt all the worse knowing that her suffering was nothing in comparison to what he was about to go through, there was no way to draw comparisons, a part of him was about to die. Forever.

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Hope you liked Chapter 2,

Reviews and responses as always are welcome,

Acrobat

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