Chapter Eleven
Two hours and forty five minutes after landing in Texas, Greg finally got to lie down on a big comfortable hotel bed. They were planning on staying with Nick's sister Kayla, but her in laws stopped by unexpectedly, taking up their only guest room. They stopped by the ranch after that for a quick lunch with Nick's mother, but she decided to leave minutes before they arrived, saying she had errands to run. Nick's Aunt fixed them lunch, before she had to get to a spinning class.
Now, they were finally alone in a hotel room and all Greg wanted to do was go back home.
"There's a guy in the hallway lightin' up a cigarette. Friggin' idiot. Right under the smoke detector as well." Nick pushed the door to their hotel room shut with his foot, making his way through to the adjoining bedroom with all the shopping bags in his hands. "Their kitchens out downstairs, so I had to go to the store. You wonna come help me figure out the oven settin's?" He dropped onto the bed beside Greg, playfully running his fingers through the adorable man's hair. "Baby, you said you were starvin' after that sandwich my aunt served you."
"Too tired." Greg kept his eyes closed, allowing a smile to spread across his lips as his husband climbed onto the bed with him. "You smell like fish. You didn't get it, did you?"
"No, I looked, but nothin' looked that good. Plus I don't really like fish. I got some steaks."
"Something that you can't even cook yourself." Greg giggled softly, opening his eyes to look at his partner leant over him. "I'm sorry I dragged you out here. It's been a disaster so far. Maybe if your Mom didn't know I was with you, she wouldn't have rushed out when she did." He moved himself closer against his partner's side, feeling the man's belt buckle against his baby bump.
"I thought we agreed that anythin' they do over the course of this weekend wouldn't affect us? We're here... or I am anyway to see my Dad. And that's it." He pressed a kiss to the side of his head, smiling as he looked into his big brown eyes. "Let's just treat it as our weekend away, before we have four kids dependin' on us."
"I'm way too tired to do anything. You mind if I just lie here?"
"Honestly, it won't make any difference to what you normally do." Nick teased him, brushing his fingertips down his partner's arm, sending tingles in the direction of his wrist. "Have I told you how much I love you lately?"
"No... I don't think you have actually." He glanced down as his partner's cell started to ring from his jeans pocket, watching him quickly retrieving it.
"Yeah." Nick answered, not recognising the number. He looked down into Greg's eyes as they spoke, feeling his lower lip starting to quiver. "Yeah... uh... we can be there in a few minutes. Okay." He snapped it shut in his hand, taking a moment to himself, before he told Greg. "That was my brother's wife. They're up the hospital . . . my Dad's had a stroke."
Greg reached out for his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze in his own. He wanted to ask him how bad it was, but he could already see that Nick was on the brink of bursting into tears. "We should go." He leant up on his elbows, feeling his heart aching inside of his chest for him. "I'd come in with you, but none of them would exactly be happy with my presence. I can stay in the car." He quickly suggested, pushing himself to a sitting position as he saw the familiar signs of Nick's tears coming on. "Had a stroke can mean anything, Nicky. One of my Dad's brother's had a stroke in his early forties. He's fine now." He tried to reassure him, pulling his sneakers on ready to leave.
"That doesn't help me, Greg. My Dad's in his eighties." He pointed out to him, closing his teary eyes as they became too blurry to see through. He didn't even know why he was crying. He never wanted to come here to say goodbye, he preferred his childhood memories of his father. They hadn't exactly had the best relationship since he grew up and now he might never have the chance to sort their relationship out.
"C'mon, Nick. C'mon..." Greg helped the man to his feet, brushing his fingertips beneath his teary eyes as soon as he was off the bed. "If you stay here, you're gonna space out and go into one of your usual emotional comas. Let's go to the hospital with them, so you don't have to sit around here worrying. C'mon, I'll drive."
"Okay." Nick put his phone back in his pocket, grabbing their hotel room card key on their way out the door. He followed Greg out to the car, trying not to worry as he climbed in. He didn't know how bad it was, but all he could think about was that he was going to lose his father.
With Nick in his current state, Greg had to use the GPS on his phone to find the hospital, glad he remembered the name of the hospital that Nick's father had been staying in during all his recent heart problems. They arrived within twenty minutes or so, sitting in the car for a few minutes, before Nick was ready to go inside. He held Greg's hand tightly, letting him do all the talking to find out which ward his father was on.
"That's my brother's wife." Nick motioned down the hallway, towards a woman in a purple blouse. She was alone in the hallway outside the room his father was in, looking a little anxious as she paced the tiled floor beneath her. "Margaret," He spoke softly, so they wouldn't startle her. "Is he?"
"He's gone for a CT scan. Hi, Nick." She hugged her brother in law. "Billy's upstairs with your mother. I said I'd wait down here, so it wasn't too crowded up there."
"Okay. This is Greg." He quickly introduced the younger man beside him to her, getting a smile from the woman. They stood in awkward silence for the next few minutes, before Nick's older brother joined them, holding a coffee from himself and his wife.
"Hi, Nicky." The man gave him a nod, not even looking at Greg as he handed his wife the second coffee cup from his hands. "The hospital diner is right down there if you want anythin'." He directed his brother towards the double doors he just came through. "Dad's still in the scan thing."
Nick gave him a nod, taking Greg over to the chairs as he saw him rubbing his sides for the second time. They had already taken three flights of stairs up because Nick didn't like elevators, making the younger man a little breathless with the babies pressing against his diaphragm.
The last thing he wanted right now was to have Greg in hospital too, so he made a quick trip to the diner, getting him some sugary foods and a bottle of water to keep his energy levels up. He felt bad for leaving him with two people that he barely knew, but he didn't want to drag him back down three more flights of stairs to the diner.
After an hour or so, they were directed to the relatives waiting room, not being told anything about Nick's father in the process. Greg eventually slipped away to find the bathroom, glad to finally be out of that ice cold room. It wasn't so much the temperature, but more the atmosphere that he couldn't bear. Nick's brother wouldn't even look at him, let alone talk to his own brother and his wife wasn't much better.
He made another six bathroom visits, before they were finally told anything about Nick's father. He was back from his scan so they could go and see him, but only two people at a time. Greg opted to stay put, so did Margaret, leaving the brothers to make their way to their father's room.
After nearly half an hour alone with Margaret, Greg decided to make his way outside for some fresh air. He took a seat on a bench outside, ringing his mother to check in on the boys. "Hey Mom."
"Hi, sweetheart. Everything alright?" She asked, redressing her grandson after he got out the swimming pool.
"Sort of. We're up the hospital with Nick's Dad. He had a stroke. He's got a blood clot in the left hand side of his brain and it's affected his right side. They're still really concerned about him, because his breathings not doing so good anymore."
"How's Nick, is he doing alright?"
"Yeah... I think so." He shrugged, leaning back against the bench as he felt the babies kicking him. "Nick's older brother is here too, but he's not exactly talking to Nick."
"When we were up the hospital with your Granddad, none of Daniel's brothers were talking either. You could hear every sniff and gulp in the waiting room where we were all sat. It's probably just because they don't know what to do."
"Is that Jacks?" He heard a voice in the background. "Are they okay?"
"Yeah, we had some lunch earlier. Zane took them out for some ice cream too, so that was a nice treat. They're all just having a swim and lazing around the pool now. Jackson ate all his dinner last dinner. Your Dad said that they were fine in the car. Jackson fell asleep as soon they left Las Vegas and Colt just watched his DVD."
"That's good. Nick was worried that Jackson wouldn't be able to sleep and get on Dad's nerves." He glanced up as Nick came out the double doors, looking a little worried. "Oh, I gotta go. Nick's back. I'll call you later." He climbed to his feet, grabbing his husband's attention before he went out of his mind with worry.
"Where'd you go?" Nick immediately wrapped his arms around him. "Margaret said you just left."
"I told her I was going outside for some fresh air." He hugged Nick back, gently combing his fingers through the hair on the back of Nick's neck. "Did you get to see him?" He queried, hoping that they could go back to the hotel soon as he felt exhausted.
"Yeah, for a few minutes anyway." Nick pulled back from him, taking the younger man back to the bench he had been sat on. "He doesn't look too good. They can't do the heart op anymore either, which means his valve isn't gonna get repaired." He held Greg's hand, tilting his head back against the bench. "It's weird... seein' him like that."
"Well yeah, he's your Dad. As a kid, you think your parents are indestructible. Like nothing can ever happen to them. It's only as you get older that you realise that they are human after all and they can get hurt or sick, just like everybody else." He weaved their fingers together, almost crushing the bones in the older man's hand from his tight squeeze. "The same with boyfriends you know. You think that they'll always be there. That they're indestructible and nothing bad can ever happen to them."
"I've already had my repeat blood test and scan. We'll get the results back when we get back home. It could still be nothin'."
Greg rolled his eyes at him, before he pushed himself to his feet. "Can we please go back to the hotel now? They're just gonna be doing tests and stuff for the rest of the evening, right? We can come back in the morning to see how he's doing."
"Okay. I just gotta go say goodbye to my Mama. I'll meet you in the car." He pecked a kiss to the corner of Greg's mouth, returned to the ward where his father was. He didn't want to let onto Greg how bad his father really was as he didn't even want to admit it to himself.
Meanwhile, Greg waited in the car for him, feeling as though he was waiting hours, before the passenger side door finally popped open. He started up the car, giving Nick a moment to strap himself in, before he tried to find the way back to their hotel.
He crashed onto the big double bed as soon as they got in, stuffing a pillow beneath his stomach as he rolled over onto his side. He watched Nick in the adjoining room, knelt down beside the oven with the instruction booklet in his hands. Greg didn't even know that ovens came with instructions, but Nick managed to find one and was trying to decipher how to work it.
"Nick." Greg patted the bed beside him. "There is such a thing as room service, you know."
"Too expensive. These taste just as good, but they're cheaper." He held up the steaks he had bought. "I think I got it." He pushed some buttons, smiling victoriously as it started up. He put the steaks in before he finally joined Greg on the bed. "He can't talk... my Dad. He can't talk." He confessed, circling his fingertip across his partner's hand. "The stroke affected his speech. They said it's still really early since it only just happened last night . . . but he's practically paralyzed."
"Doesn't mean anything. Like you said, it's still early." Greg tried to comfort him. "Lay down with me." He pushed Nick's elbow out from under him, collapsing him onto the bed beside him. He reached for Nick's other hand, placing it on the side of his stomach as he felt a kick. His partner hadn't actually felt a strong kick like this before and he could tell that it made him happy from the look in his eyes.
"I love you, Greg."