Kendall's P.O.V.
The soft warm hand in mine would occasionally squeeze every now and then making me look over to her. She was flipping through a magazine legs crossed over each other, staying realatively silent. I was worried about her and her current state of mind but said nothing. I never really got in the way of her turning into momma bear. Most times when she did, she was in the right. And only if someone tried to shove back, I would intervene. Those times were rare. "Ken?" I focused my vision back to Juliet who was letting my hand go and standing herself up. I frowned reaching out to her hand to get her to relax but she nodded behind me. I stood up fast and turned seeing two people walking towards me that on any other day would have made me happy. But now all I worried about was who was going to say the wrong thing first.
Logan stopped in front of me with James standing right beside him. I tensed up seeing Juliet trying to walk in front of me but I grabbed her arm and kept her beside me. Logan softly cleared his throat avoiding eye contact with Juliet and crossed his arms over his chest. "Max got his stiches put back in. He's doing really good and can leave in a few minutes." I nodded slowly feeling reliefe leave me just as Juliet spoke up.
"And his doctors can't tell us this why?" I moved my arm around her quick and pulled her into me kissing the top of her head.
"Take it easy." I whispered it into her hair but she wiggeled away from me.
"I don't know if anyone told you two but it is because of your daughter my son got himself hurt." Before either James or myself could stop him, Logan took a few steps forward.
"Your son lost his cool. She did nothing wrong." Juliet laughed loudly and also took a step forward.
"DId nothing wrong? Emily cheated on Max! She broke his heart!" Logan seemed to deflate hearing it and started to turn to James who had a hand on his shoulder. "Of course who really is at fault here? She must be seeing great shinning examples of morals from her parents." I sort of roughly pulled Juliet back and stood in front of her as Logan turned back to us.
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean Juliet? My daughter made a mistake and feels horrible about it. Please don't get me started on the great things Max has been doing!" I frowned at Logan and glanced over to James who sighed out and grabbed Logan. However, Logan shoved him off and pushed me aside. "Maybe she picked up some bad habits from being over at your house. Lord knows she must have picked up some pointers of fucking around from Kendall. Or do you two just pretend like he didn't do anything at all? How is that therapy coming along?" This time I knew that dig was at me and on instinct shoved Logan back. He shook his head and looked at me as James put his hand on my chest.
"Everyone cool the hell down. Let's remember that this is our kids life not ours. Juliet, I am sorry Emily hurt Max. And I'm sorry he hurt himself. But she is just a child. And were all adults. Let's start fucking acting like it." I breathed out hard and turned to see Juliet glaring at James, breathing hard.
"If your daughter comes around my son ever again I will not be nice. And if you two have a problem with it stay the hell away form me." I tried to grab her before she left but she yanked out of my grasp storming off.
"Jules." I tried to yell after her but she disappeared out some double doors making me turn to the two in front of me fast. "Seriously Logan?"
"Fuck you Kendall. of all people to feel the need to judge my daughter you are the worst." I rolled my eyes and moved back to my chair. I sat down hard sinking down and put my head in my hand closing my eyes. "All I wanted to do was check on him. And let you guys know he was doing okay." I heard someone sit down next to me but was too irritated to look up and care. "James...let's just go. He doesn't care so I don't either." I opened my eyes fast and looked to my right to see James sitting next to me, looking at his phone. "James?" James looked up fast and quickly pulled his car keys out of his pocket and tossed them up to Logan. Logan caught them, mouth agape and I sat up looking between the two. "You're a fucking asshole." Logan spun quick and stormed out of the waiting room shoving the door open hard. I swallowed just as hard and looked away as soon as he turned to me. We stayed quiet, me having no idea what was going through his head. I thought to myself that I should probably go find Juliet soon but felt like talking to James about the whole situation. I turned to look at him and saw he was staring at me. I smirked looking away and smiled at a pretty nurse walking by.
"Look, James..."
"She told us yesterday that she cheated. We convinced her to tell Max because it wasn't fair to him. She was devestated with what she did but..." He stopped and we locked eyes. "I'm sorry. I never ever thought my daughter would turn into this...this free spirit who defies our orders, sneaks out...gets caught at a party drinking a wine cooler." I smriked looking away and knew Max was at the same party and probaby got in as much trouble as Emily. "I don't understand the line between being a good dad and a good father." I slowly turned back to him and he shook his head. "Does that make sense?" I laughed and nodded looking back ahead of me.
"Just last week Juliet found weed in Max's backpack. I wanted to be so mad at him James, mostly because I'm the captain of a police station but then I remember our first year in Basic training and how high we always were." James laughed beside me and I chuckled with him relaxing a little bit. "I don't hate Emily. And neither does Juliet. It just probably wasn't the best time to confess to cheating. With his bullet wound and all." I looked down in my lap and shook my head softly. "How long has Logan been holding that shit in about me cheating?"
"He hasn't Kendall. He just felt cornered. You know you're like a brother to him." I shook my head but he continued. "Logan and Juliet are best friends dude. When they fight of course they are going to say nasty shit to break each other but..." He stopped suddenly and perked up in his chair. I frowned and followed where his gaze was set on. It was a group of doctors walking out of the double doors Juliet just went out. One of them, a tall sort of good looking young guy seperated from the group and walked to one of the vending machines. "Give me one sec Kendall." James stood up and walked towards the doctor by the vending machine putting his phone in his pocket. I slowly started to stand myself up to follow him to ask what was wrong, but out of the corner of my eye I saw my son walking out from the ER doors, holding a water bottle, walking with his doctor. I turned to him quick and met them both halfway there.
"Mr. Knight. I hope you know this son of yours is a tough kid." I smirked seeing Max blush, but even behind the blush I could see the pain he still felt. And not about the stiches in his side. "I heard he is going to start physical therapy next Monday." I nodded letting Max stand beside me, sort of leaning into me. "I'm going to put in a suggestion that we push it back one more day, and instead of taking the stiches out on Sunday, we'll move it to Monday. Then on Tuesday you can start your therapy. Hopefully get you out on the feild again." I laughed and so did Max, but we both knew Juliet wasn't going to let that happen any time soon.
"Thank you Dr. Brown." He smiled very kindly and shook my out stretched hand. When we let go Max shook his hand too, but looked to me with really heavy eyes. "I'm gonna get him home to rest."
"Good! Drive home safe guys. Hope I don't have to see you again until Monday Max." Max chuckled and nodded, but turned away from the doctor. I turned with him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and walked at the slow speed he was walking.
"Where's mom?" Before I could answer, James walked right up to us. Max stopped short making both James and Max stare at each other in an awkward state. I sighed out and pulled Max closer to me.
"I'm gonna get him home. I'll talk to you later James." James only nodded putting his hands in his jean pockets. I felt a little bad, because James always had a good relationship with Max, but since his daughter cheated on Max, I doubt it would be the same.
I walked Max all the way down to the first floor, where I wasn't surprised to see Juliet sitting in one of the chairs in the lobby, by herself. As soon as she saw us, she took Max in her arms and held him. It was like, as soon as he was in his mothers arms, he fell apart. He cried quietly on her as she walked them out. I put my sweater over Juliet as they waited out in the cold, windy rain and I got the car. Because he came to the hospital in an ambulance, and Juliet insisted she drive with them, I took my truck. Which was a little high for my 5 foot 6 wife, and son who was as tall as me, but wounded, and I hated myself as I helped Max get in the backseat. He was a wreck. He was sobbing now and because of it, Juliet climbed in the back with him and let him lay his head on her lap as he continued to cry. I kept the radio off, put the heat on high and let my sons sad, painful cries make me concentrate on the road to our house.
I didn't have to carry Max inside like the first time he came home from the hospital but he struggeled climbing the stairs with his mother. I let her take him. She knew exactly what to do to make him feel better. I waited until I couldn't see them anymore and walked into the kitchen. Max's school work and spilled soda were still everywhere. Half the papers were soaked in brown liquid while the other half were either tearing or torn. I pushed the sleeves up on my plain black shirt and sighed out. I tried so hard to save some of the papers but it was no use. I threw them all away and made a mental note to go to his classes tomorrow and just pick up the work for the rest of the week. I wiped the floor with our electric mop and just as I was about to go over another stain, I stopped. It wasn't soda. It was blood. I felt my throat swell as I went to my knees grabbing a clorox wipe as I went and started to scrub the dried blood up. I was so into my cleaning, even after I cleaned the floor, I didn't realize how much time had passed. That is until Juliet appeared behind me putting her arms around my waist as I washed dishes. I felt soft little pecks to my shoulder blades. It made me smile. "How's he doing?"
"He's so heartbroken Kendall. He doesn't understand why someone who says they love them, would hurt them." I closed my eyes feeling her lay her cheek on my back squeezing me softly. "I told him I don't know why someone would do that either. But..." She paused and I opened my eyes turning the water off, filling the kitchen with silence. Until she spoke. "I told him that as bad as it hurts now...it gets better. The things that hurt now, with time, disappear. I told him love isn't easy and no one gets a manual on how to deal with heartache. Which means some people deal with it differently. And then he asked me how I could have stayed with you after you..." She trailed off and my heart snapped. "I told him it was really simple." I turned in her arms leaning back against the sink seeing tears form in the corner of my eyes. She was also crying but had a smile pulling on her lips. "I love you. And I know you love me." I reached up quick to wipe away her tears, just as she wiped at mine. "I know you're probably pissed off I talk to Logan about us but sometimes..."
"You don't need to explain yourself to me." She looked down, keeping her hands on my face and I shook my head. "I feel like I can't talk to him about this. I know he resents me." She frowned pushing her body into mine. "Jules ever since he started building muscel he's been protective of you. Even against me. How do I tell him to not lose hope on love when I almost destroyed mine?" She wiped one last tear off my face and got on tippy toes.
"You tell him you love him and will be there for him for whatever he needs. That's all he needs to hear from you and I right now." I nodded dropping my hands to her lower back and locked my fingers together sighing out. "With time he'll come back around."
I believed she was right.
For the following few days, however, it didn't seem to be getting better. Each morning Juliet and I would check on him in his room, but it was always the same. He was under his covers watching a mind numbing cartoon on his flat screen. We'd offer him food, but he declined. We'd leave him alone. Throughout the day we'd periodcily continue to check up on him but it was the same thing. Still under the blankets, only eating food we had to physically put in front of him. We were both worried because the days started to blend together. As hurt and heartbroken as he was, I felt like my relationship with Juliet was starting to get better. Every night we were having sex. And not just regular sex. We were making love. If we could, we would be making a couple of babies. But the sex wasn't the only great thing happening. Because we both were off work for a while, we were starting to talk to each other again. And not about our jobs. About each other. How much traveling we'd be doing once we retiered. It almost felt like I was falling in love with her all over again.
We let Max sulk and be by himself for 5 days. By Saturday my worries got the best of me and I told Juliet I was going to take him out. Let him pick what we did. She thought it was a great idea, so while she went into her home office, to look over some emails, I went up to his room and walked in. This morning was different than the last few ones. For one, his blinds were wide open. I stopped in the doorway seeing him sitting at his computer desk, his feet up on it while he strummed on his guitar. I knocked gently on his door making him spin to me fast. He lowered the guitar and stood up putting his guitar on the desk. What really got me however was his entire room...was clean. His bed was made with what looked like clean sheets. His laundry his mom did for him, was folded and put away. He had a stack of I had to assume completed school work on his desk and had a fan circulating in the corner, probably to air out the depression. I opened my mouth but closed it quick watching him walk to me. He was jsut out of a shower. He was only in a pair of basketball shorts with no shirt, showing off his line of stiches. "Hey dad." I looked up at his face and smiled at him. "I was just going to come get you guys. I know...mom had asked me to clean my room a long time ago but..." He stopped and shrugged looking around. "I know I haven't really seen you guys lately..."
"Don't worry about it buddy." He turned back to me and I set a hand on his shoulder, squeezing softly. "I wanted to come check up on you...wanted to see if you wanted to go out today. Do something." He crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged lightly. "I already got the okay from your mom. Whatever you wanna do, we'll do. No matter if it starts raining." He laughed quietly and turned, wlaking to his closet. He opened it, showing me the clean and organized space, but bent slightly grabbing something on the ground. When he turned to me, football raised I chuckled and put my hands in my jean pockets. "Park?" He nodded grinning big and I nodded back. "Get dressed and well go now before it gets too nasty out there." He nodded faster this time and turned back to his closet.
I walked back downstairs directly into Juliets office and leaned in the doorway. She smiled up at me over her computer screen and pushed up the glasses on her nose. "When we leave, you should see your sons room." She frowned sitting back but I laughed. "He actually cleaned it Jules." She raised her eyebrows, both of us laughing together. "We're gonna go toss the football around down at the park for a bit. It's what he wanted to do." She sighed but nodded standing up. Just as she grabbed her mug full of steaming tea, frantic knocks came from our front door. I turned quick and walked out of her office, just as Max came bouncing down the stairs. He had changed into sweats and a sweater, with some Nikes, but gave me a concerned look as I pulled the door open. Before I could say anything, Logan's small frightened voice made me freeze.
"Is Emily here?" We locked eyes but I shook my head. He closed his eyes tight and turned letting James hold him as he approached the door.
"What's going on?" James sighed out holding onto Logan who was now crying quietly.
"Emily didn't come home last night. She sent us a text at about 11, saying not to wait up, she was almost home. And then she never showed up." I felt someone scoot past me but I felt like my gut got punched hard. "We've tried calling her, texting her but she's not answering us. We've tried a few of her girlfriends, but no one has seen her." I saw Max tense up, standing next to me and gripped his shoulder.
"Have you called the cops?" James shook his head running his fingers through Logan's messy hair. "Okay...come inside. I'll make some calls."