A/N - I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who voted for 'Eternally United' at Twifanfictionrecs - it was placed 8th in the top ten favourite fics for August, WOO HOO!

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

"Paul..."

He jerked his head up quickly and then snatched his hands from mine, scrubbing them over his tear-stained face.

"Sorry...uh...didn't mean to disturb you," he grunted.

"It's ok, I've slept enough. Why are you blaming yourself?"

"Because it's my fault, Jacob," he groaned. "You wanted to walk away and I had to fucking wade in there."

"You weren't to know how it would turn out. Besides, those guys were spoiling for a fight. They probably would have come after us even if we walked away. If not us, it would have been somebody else."

"Well, we'll never know now, will we?" Paul sighed. "And you're..fuck, they said you've been in a coma for two weeks."

"Clearly I'm out of it now." I braced my hands on the edges of the narrow bed and pulled myself up a few inches, noting that I felt stronger than before. I was on a drip and probably had been for the past couple of weeks while they pumped nourishment and drugs into me. "Paul...you're gonna have to stop thinking this is your fault. It could have been a hell of a lot worse."

"How could it have been worse? Leah said you almost died on the table; they had to restart your heart and then it was touch and go for days!"

A memory flashed into my head; something I had forgotten since I woke up and I frowned as I remembered.

I could see myself, as if I were looking through the eyes of someone else. I was lying on an operating table in a bright, white room, surrounded by surgeons and nurses in blue gowns and masks. A breathing tube was in my mouth, taped in place, various other tubes and wires attached, the top half of my head covered by a blue sheet.

"Stand clear!" a deep voice instructed and the people around the table backed away, except for one who held two large paddles in his hands. I watched in horror from the corner of the room as the body on the table - my body - jerked with the electrical pulse and then the beeping sound resumed, fast and erratic, but no longer unbroken. In an instant I was out of the room and encased in blackness again, aware of nothing except muffled sounds and then again, silence.

"I was watching myself," I said. "It was like I was standing in the corner of the room watching the surgeons working on me."

"Fuck." Paul dragged a hand through his hair and then rubbed both hands over his face again.

"Look...I got through it, didn't I? You need to stop thinking about the worst that could have happened and deal with what's going on now. Edward said you were arrested for the fight."

"I'll pay you back the bail money," was the first thing he said.

"For fuck's sake, Paul! I don't give a shit about the bail money!" I exclaimed and he dropped his hands into his lap, his face startled. "Do you even want to be here? Edward said you saw me once and went home. Is that just because of guilt, or...?" I didn't finish the sentence. I hoped this was the reason, but how could I know what was going through his head? Two weeks had passed and he'd stayed away while I lay unconscious. I couldn't imagine that if the situations were reversed, I could ever have done that.

"Jeez, Jake, I'm sorry." He reached for my hand again and I sighed with relief as he continued. "That was all it was. I felt like it was my fault; I thought your family and friends would blame me; that maybe you would blame me when...if you woke up. If you died it would have been like before only this time I'd have been responsible for it and I wouldn't even have been able to..." He choked on the words and finished in a whisper. "...say goodbye."

"Paul," I groaned. "I'm going nowhere, and my family isn't Riley's. It was Leah who told Edward to get you back here and we told Sarah about you too - Leah's idea. They just want me to be happy, they don't care about anything else."

"I'm sorry," he repeated. "You must think I'm pretty useless right now. I should have been here, I just..."

"It doesn't matter. You're here now. So wipe your face and give me a kiss already!"

He grinned suddenly, grabbed some tissues from a box on the table next to my bed and wiped his face, then pulled the chair closer to the bed. "You sure I won't disturb anything?"

"Well, the heart monitor might speed up a bit," I teased. "C'm'ere!"

He leaned towards me and I closed my eyes, my pulse predictably and loudly quickening as his lips brushed gently over mine, drew away and then returned, caressing for a long moment. When he straightened up his eyes were sparkling and my monitor was beeping frantically. The door flew open and one of the nurses appeared.

"Jacob, are you feeling ok?"

"Better than I have in two weeks," I smirked. "Sorry about that."

Reddening slightly, she withdrew and closed the door.

"So, are you gonna tell me what's going on with the cops?" I asked then. "They came to see me, but I wasn't up to giving them a full statement at the time."

"Uh...well...the two guys I was fighting with weren't giving me too much trouble. One of them cracked a couple of ribs, but I barely noticed. Right about then you went down and all three of them backed up like they were ready to make a run for it. My two started to move away and I...I went after the one who hurt you. I wasn't thinking about what I was doing really, I just...I went crazy. He hurt you and I...for a minute or two I didn't want him to get back up again. Then I came back to my senses and realised you were lying there unconscious and I wasn't even with you." He grimaced at this and paused. "A few people were standing around watching by then and one of them must have already called 911 because I could hear sirens. I was holding your hand and thinking...I should have been doing something else, but I didn't know what. There was a lot of fucking blood, Jake..." He shuddered violently. "They brought us both into the hospital in one ambulance and another team picked up the guy I beat on. I was treated and then the cops took me away. The other guys' stories say that we started it. They're all saying the same thing and at the moment I'm looking at an assault charge."

"If there were people standing around when the paramedics came, then maybe there were other witnesses," I reasoned.

"Well, if there are, they're not coming forward so far. It's been on the news. Your name wasn't mentioned initially because at the time they didn't know if you'd...wake up and I guess they wanted to be sure members of your family weren't going to find out from the newspaper. The latest includes your name and mentions the gym though."

"Hell," I groaned, although me being in the press was the least of my worries. "Do you have a lawyer?"

"Yeah; not sure how good he is though. I'm not short of money, but I didn't want to use up what I got using the best lawyer."

"What do you mean, 'use up what you got'?" I frowned.

Paul sighed heavily and dropped his eyes away from mine. "I got fired. Andrew's a decent guy, but he doesn't want someone with a criminal record for violence working for him."

"You don't even have a record yet!" I protested.

"No, but since I've been in the press, he worried about it affecting business. He was nice about it and all, but..." He shrugged now. "I can understand why he did it."

"Shit. What are you going to do now?"

"I'm not sure. Wait for this to blow over, one way or another, and see what happens. You know what was worst? Having to give the fucking car back." He grinned wrily.

"I'm sorry, Paul." It immediately occurred to me that I could ask him to move to New York to be with me and my head was flooded with thoughts of us living together, working together; I could find a position for him in my gym easily enough. I didn't voice my thoughts on that part yet though; it wasn't a decision that could be taken lightly. "You know, you could always stay at my place, if you want," I said instead.

"You mean while you're in here?" His face brightened.

"I meant..." I took a deep breath. "It seems like it's too soon, but I don't know; we already went through a hell of a lot. I meant, maybe you'd like to...move in."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, I'm serious." I felt my face redden and the beeping on the monitor beside me sped up again. "You can say no. I'm not trying to be pushy or anything, but I have been thinking about it."

"So have I," he said at once with a smile. "I didn't say anything; I thought it was too soon also, and I thought it would be difficult for you because of Sarah. I knew it'd be a case of me leaving Boston if we did; you have more here than I have there. In fact, I have nothing there any more, except my apartment."

"Are you tied into a contract?" I asked.

"Yeah, but only for about another two months; it's due for a review."

"So you want to, then? Move in?" I held my breath while I waited for a response.

"Yeah, I want to." His hand squeezed mine tighter. "Thank you for asking." He leaned down again and his lips touched mine briefly. "I love you."

"I love you too. I can't wait to get out of this damned place," I said. "We never got to finish our special night."

"I'm sure your doc will have a list of things you can't do when they let you out," Paul teased. "No driving..."

"I don't have a car."

"No heavy lifting, no working out..."

"Edward and Collin can handle the gym."

"No sex..."

"We'll see about that. I don't know how long I can wait for you to..." I stopped abruptly as the door opened and Leah stuck her head around it. Paul dropped my hand as if it had burned him and sat back in his seat.

"You ok?" she asked. "I noticed the nurse rushing in a few minutes ago."

"I'm fine, don't worry," I said.

"Thought I better warn you; your Dad's on his way here." She glanced at Paul and then back at me. "Are you planning on telling him?"

"I guess I..." I paused, imagining what Dad's reaction would be to me telling him I was gay and that I planned to have Paul move in with me. He had condemned me when I was a kid and he would probably condemn me now, but it was Paul and Sarah who were the most important people in my life and if Dad wouldn't accept it, then it was too bad. "Yes," I finished.

"Ok. I'm going to take Sarah home for a while; if there's bad feeling it's best she's out of the way."

"Shouldn't she be at school?" I asked. "What day is it?"

"It's Monday, but it's the holidays, Jacob."

"Right; I guess I lost track of time."

"You lost two weeks," Paul reminded me.

"See you later." Leah backed out of the room and closed the door.

"You sure you want to tell your Dad about us now?" asked Paul. "I remember what you said he was like when you were a kid."

"Well, he's going to have to get over it or walk away, it's his choice," I said firmly. "He ignored me for the past year because of a disagreement with Leah; if he does it again, it can only be his loss. Of course I care about him, but I'm not letting anything come between us. I was more concerned about what Sarah would say, but she was amazing. She basically said it's ok as long as you're nice to me. Some friend of hers has 'two dads' so I think that made it easier for her to understand."

"Kids can be amazing," Paul smiled. "So I've heard."

Paul stayed with me a little longer and then said he would take his bag to my apartment and get a shower and a change of clothes while I talked to my Dad. However, before Dad came in, one of the police officers who had spoken to me previously arrived with another colleague, asking to continue with their questioning and have me give a full statement. I described everything in as much detail as I could while one of them recorded me and made notes and when I was done, I asked whether any witnesses had come forward. So far no one had spoken up and they didn't know who had called 911; the caller hadn't given a name and the crowd watching us being taken away to hospital had quickly dispersed when the police began asking if anyone had seen anything.

My heart sank. I had hoped that they might have found one person who would speak up on our behalf, but perhaps no one had actually seen the beginning of the fight after all. I was exhausted and my head aching by the time they left and I wasn't really up to talking to Dad when he came in minutes later.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"My head hurts."

"Do you want me to come back later?"

"No, Dad, sit down. I want to talk to you about something."

He sat, hands folded in his lap. "So, what is it?" he prompted when I stayed silent.

I knew exactly what his reaction would be before I opened my mouth. His opinion wouldn't have changed in thirteen years or however long it had been. He would condemn me the same way he had then, for my 'unnatural feelings'.

"You won't like this, but it has to be said," I began.

"I thought we'd moved past what happened," he interrupted. "I apologised to Leah and to you; she's willing to move forward..."

"It's not about that, Dad."

"Oh..."

"Remember when I was a kid? About fifteen, I think. You found a magazine in my room..."

Dad's brows drew together in a frown as he tried to remember and then his eyes widened. "What about it?"

"You condemned me then, when I was a kid desperate not to disappoint you. You made me feel like a freak at the time, but..."

"Why are you bringing this up again now?" he asked warily. "I thought we'd forgotten about that."

"You might have. That was who I was and still am. Yes, I loved Leah and we had a lot of happy years together, but underneath, I was still the same person as I was then; I just did the best I could not to give in to it."

"What the hell are you saying?" Dad interrupted again, his voice rough.

"I'm saying I'm gay, Dad. Leah and I broke up because I can't live a lie any more. It wasn't fair on her or me."

"This is bullshit," he mumbled. "You don't know what you're saying. That head injury..."

"It's nothing to do with the head injury. I've been seeing a guy for a while now. That's why we were attacked. We came out of a club together and some homophobic jerks attacked us."

"Stop right there." Dad rose to his feet swiftly. "I'm not listening to this nonsense."

"I pretty much expected you to say something like that; either that you wouldn't listen or that I was some kind of pervert. I can't stop you walking away, but you're gonna have to accept that it's who I am. Paul is moving in with me; it's not a temporary thing. I..."

"Enough!" Dad almost knocked his chair over in his efforts to get away from the side of the bed and stride to the door, where he paused and looked back at me, his face purple, eyes avoiding mine. "I just hope if you insist on carrying on with this...this..." He stopped and cleared his throat. "Well, you better make sure Sarah doesn't become exposed to it!"

"Sarah already knows and believe me, she had a hell of a lot more understanding and mature reaction than you have!" I exclaimed. "You know what? Walk away. I expected you to anyway, but I won't live a lie any more. Sarah just wants me to be happy; Leah does too, regardless of how she might feel about us breaking up, so perhaps you need to think about what's important to you, Dad. You could bully me into being something I wasn't when I was fifteen, but not any more."

He swung around, opened the door and rushed through it without another word and I slumped back against the pillows with a sigh, my heart monitor skipping rapidly again. I breathed deep and closed my eyes, trying not to feel upset over Dad's reaction. It was only what I had expected, but it still hurt that he wouldn't even try to understand for my sake, or even his granddaughter's. If he turned his back on me and returned to Washington, he wouldn't be able to see her either.

"Hey."

I opened my eyes again to find Leah in the doorway and a nurse checking the monitor.

"I thought you were taking Sarah home," I said.

"She wanted to get a milkshake in the cafeteria; I left her with one of the nurses," Leah explained. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah. It went as you would expect. He wouldn't listen, thinks 'exposing Sarah to that' is wrong and so on and so forth."

"I'm sorry. I guess he's getting too old and set in his ways to change. Even so, I would have thought that now..." She stopped and glanced at me anxiously.

"What were you going to say, Leah?"

"He hasn't told you, has he?"

"Told me what?" I frowned.

"You know I said he'd been sick? Well, he's not actually better, Jacob." Leah came to sit beside me and rested her hand on my arm. "Your Dad has cancer. I'm sorry, Jake. They think he has about a year, if that."

"Fuck." I squeezed my eyes shut again. "Why didn't he tell me?"

"I don't know, initially he just wanted to fix things with us and then he told me why. He didn't want to pass away with any bad feeling between us. I think he was probably waiting for you to get out of here first."

"Isn't he having treatment?"

"He had an op and a round of chemotherapy and went into remission for a while, but it's back and spreading. There's not much they can do now."

"Wait...if all this has happened, then he must have known before he moved back to Washington," I said.

"Yeah, he did know. He would have told us, he said, but he didn't want us to worry to start with and then there was that fight with me, so he just moved back to Forks and had treatment there. He didn't actually say so, but I get the feeling him keeping his distance so long also had something to do with him not wanting us to find out how sick he was. I don't think he wanted us to feel sorry for him and try to fix the fight just because of that."

"Jesus," I groaned. "And now he's probably going to leave again because of what I just told him."

"I'll talk to him." Leah got to her feet again. "Try not to worry too much."

"Yeah, that'll be easy to do. My Dad hates me and is dying of cancer," I grimaced.

"He doesn't hate you, Jacob, he's just set in his ways. I'll see you later."

She left me alone and I lay there thinking about Dad. How could he not tell us he had cancer? Go through all of that alone just because of a stupid disagreement with us? Even though he hadn't been part of my life for a while, and now he had again turned his back on me because of what I'd told him, the thought of losing him was hard to take. He was only fifty-eight years old and so far as I knew, he didn't really have anyone in Washington to take care of him or spend time with him. It was doubtful he would want to stay in New York to be near us if he couldn't accept me and I cursed to myself as just one more worry joined the others I was already facing. How much more would any of us have to deal with?

It wasn't until the next day that there was good news. Leah had called later that evening to tell me she had talked to Dad and he was being as stubborn and stupid as ever, but hadn't decided to leave yet. Paul came back and spent several hours with me until the nurses eventually threw him out and told him to go home and let me sleep, which I did, like a rock. When I woke again it was bright daylight and Edward was sitting next to me, waiting for me to open my eyes.

"Morning," he grinned. "You were snoring."

"I do not snore."

"Yeah, you do. Ask Paul," he teased.

"What are you doing here, Edward?"

"Don't worry about the gym, Collin and Emmett are in charge," he said at once.

"I wasn't worried; I was wondering what you wanted to talk to me about, since you're here so early."

"I have some good news for you."

"Believe me, Edward, I could so with some right now," I sighed.

"There was a witness to the fight."

"What? Who?" I gasped.

"Guy named Mike Newton. He uses the gym nearly every day..."

"I know him; blond, spiky hair, blue eyes, about eighteen years old?"

"That's him. He's right outside, shall I bring him in?"

"Yes!"

Still grinning, Edward got to his feet and left the room, returning a moment later with a rather anxious looking Mike Newton.

"Hey, Jacob," he said timidly.

"Hey. Sit down. Edward says you saw what happened that night?"

"Yes." He sat and Edward took the other seat. "I'm sorry I didn't speak up before; I was scared."

"Of what?" I frowned.

"I'm...uh...you see, I..." he stammered, flushing vividly. "I'm...gay," he said finally. "I'd been trying to pluck up the courage to actually go to the Stonewall Inn for about six months since I turned eighteen and I was...uh..." He laughed awkwardly now. "I was outside, I'd been pretending to be walking by for maybe an hour and..."

"Trying to actually take that final step and walk through the doors?" I put in.

"Yes, exactly. Then I saw you and...your friend walk out and I...um...well, I was surprised; I didn't know you were...I mean, I thought you were married."

"I was, but we split. I'm gay, Mike," I said.

"Ok. Well, I saw you and I ducked out of sight in case you saw me. Then this guy stepped up in front of you and started insulting you. I could see you wanted to walk away, but then the other two guys appeared and it seemed to me like there was going to be a fight, even if you had walked away. I...um...I saw everything. It was me who called 911, but then I...like a coward, I ran away and went home. I should have stayed and talked to the police, I know that. My parents didn't know, you see, about me."

"Wow," I breathed. "Well, thanks for coming to talk to me. But what now? I don't know if you know this, but Paul, my boyfriend, was arrested. The three guys are saying we attacked them."

"I know, I read it in the paper. I would have come to see you sooner, but like I said, I was scared. I talked to my parents first, just yesterday. They were actually pretty understanding, although maybe not too keen on me...uh...going to a gay club." He grinned suddenly. "So...they said I should do the right thing and talk to the cops, so here I am."

"I'm glad your parents supported you," I said. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you right now. Paul already lost his job and without a witness, I guess there's a chance he could go to jail. Are you sure you're happy to go ahead with this? If it went as far as court you might have to speak as a witness and your name will probably be in the press."

"I don't care," Mike said at once. "I don't have many friends and my only family is Mom and Dad and they already said they support me. You and your boyfriend shouldn't have to go through this, just because I'm scared of what people will say. You almost died, I heard. I mean, that might even have been me. Those guys can't get away with this. So I spoke to Edward at the gym this morning and we came straight here."

"Thank you, Mike," I said. "I really appreciate this."

"I have to go to work soon, but my Dad's gonna pick me up after and take me to see the police and make a statement," the boy went on.

"Thank you," I repeated. "Look, I know it's not much, but when I get out of here, come see me at the gym. I'll make sure you get a free membership, ok?"

"Oh, you don't need to do that."

"Yeah, I do. You're the only person that's actually given me some hope the last couple of days."

"Well, thanks, I'd really like that," he nodded.

"Thank God," I breathed after he had left the room. "Thanks, Edward."

"Hey, I didn't do anything except bring him here. I better get back to it anyway."

"I need to call Paul and tell him," I said eagerly, grabbing for my phone just as the door opened.

"No need, I'm here. Couldn't you wait?" he grinned.

Edward slipped out and left us alone.

"I have a witness!" I exclaimed. "Someone who's gonna speak up for us and hopefully get you off the hook."