Chapter 35: Awake and Planning.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Fosters.
AN: Please leave lots of reviews. Shout out to the reviewer, m'j doom, who continues to be one of my favorite regular reviewers. Also, Uncle Evan will just be referred to as Evan from now on, because I find it irritating to put Uncle before his name every time he is mentioned.
Connor's POV:
The first day after the accident, they had to amputate his leg.
I have never seen my dad cry so hard in my life, as we all sat by his bedside after the operation.
That was a month ago.
It's been a month since the accident that nearly killed my Uncle.
In that month a lot has happened.
We received word from Blackened Recordings in San Francisco that the recording contract was a go, as soon as my Uncle was well enough to sign it with me and the rest of the band. As a result, Jude, Castor, Jax, Jeremy, Austin and I all went back through our small archive of songs and set about improving them, as well as writing new stuff and fleshing out the ones we already had in progress.
I continued to bond with my baby brother. He loved to lay in his crib and watch Jude and I make funny faces at him. It never failed to cause the baby to burst into hysterical laughter.
Jude and I continued to plan our wedding in secret. We decided that, given the circumstances, we would wait to announce our engagement until after they brought Uncle Evan out of his coma. Jude did go out and fulfill his promise to get me an engagement ring. I carried it with me everywhere.
Today is the day they're gonna bring him out of his medically induced coma. They said he was healed enough. The swelling in his brain had gone down, his ribs and skull were on the mend, and his arm had been surgically repaired. He would still have a long recovery ahead of him, but he was going to live.
I sat in the waiting room with Jude at my side. Uncle Evan had been brought out of his coma ten minutes ago, and my parents, David, and Albus were the first to go in to see him. Jude was scribbling in a small notebook, his eyebrows furrowed in intense concentration, and his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth. The cuteness was too much to bear, so I leaned in a pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth.
He giggled and turned to face me.
"What?" He asked.
"Hi." I said.
"Dork."
"You love it." I said.
"Yeah. I do." He agreed, "When do you think we'll be allowed in to see him?"
"As soon a mom, dad, David and Al come out, we can go in." I told him.
As if on cue, mom, dad, David and Al appeared in the entrance to the waiting room. Dad approached us.
"You can go in now."
Jude and I rose from our seats and walked down the hall to where the door of the room stood open.
Uncle Evan still looked worse for wear, but he was alive, and more importantly he was finally awake. He offered us a small smile, and I approached the bed and gave him a gentle hug. After a moment, I pulled away and allowed Jude to take my place.
"Good to have you back." I said, "You scared us to death, old man."
"Good to be back." Evan said weakly, "I'm sorry I scared you. And who are calling old, kid?"
Even in this state, with one of his legs missing, he still had a sense of humor.
"How are you feeling?" Jude asked.
"Like I was hit by a car." He said, "Oh wait, I pretty much was. God, that hurts."
He winced, and the stump that remained of his left leg moved.
"I can still feel the limb." He said, "It's like the leg is still there, and the whole thing is on fire. Doctors said it was normal. Phantom limb pain or some stupid shit like that."
"What are you going to do?" I asked.
"I'll have to get a prosthetic." Evan replied, "One of the new ones they developed. I'm rich enough to afford it, so why not, right? It's gonna be a bitch. I'm gonna have to relearn how to walk again with a new leg. Oh, change of subject! How did you guys like the house?"
I laughed at the sudden change of conversation.
"We love it." I said, "We can't thank you enough for all you've done for us, Uncle Evy."
Evan stared at me wide eyed at the childhood nickname.
"You... you haven't called me that since you were a little boy." He said, "You and your little buddy Tommy used to call me that."
Jude snorted next to me.
"What?" Evan asked.
"Yeah, I've actually got something to tell you about that." I said, "I found out where Tommy is, and what happened to him."
"Really? Awesome, bud." Evan said, "How is he? What happened to him?"
"You're not going to believe this... but Tommy... is Jude." I revealed.
Evan looked at Jude, a thunderstruck expression on his face.
"Are you... are you fucking serious?" He asked, flabbergasted.
"Yeah. Thomas was my middle name before I was adopted." Jude explained, "That's why Connor called me that back then, and I called him Ally because his middle name is Alexander. We were going through that phase where we hated our first names."
"How do you know for sure?" Evan asked.
"We have pictures to prove it." I said, "I didn't believe it either at first, believe me. Jude and I nearly had a coronary when Dad showed up at the house and showed us the pictures."
Evan was staring at Jude with a look of awe.
"I can't believe it. Colleen's little boy, all grown up." He whispered, awestruck, "What else has happened while I was out?"
"We got an e-mail from some company called Blackened Recordings." I said, "They said they were willing to go ahead with the record deal you proposed, and that they would come down and have us sign it as soon as you were well enough to sign it with us."
Evan smirked.
"I'll have to remember to call James later, if I haven't fallen back asleep." He said, "Have him and Lars drive down with the contract."
"Wait, James and Lars?"
"Two of the founders of Blackened Recordings." He said, smirking, "Also... lead singer and drummer for Metallica, the greatest metal band ever to grace the stage of stadiums all across the world."
Jude and I stared, our eyes wide.
"You mean... you know Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield?" Jude nearly screeched.
It was times like this moment when I truly doubted my Uncle wasn't either a demigod, or a secret real life incarnation of Doctor Who. Just when I think he's reached the peak of his nearly cartoonish acts, he wallops us with something that nearly sends our hearts into cardiac arrest.
"How the FUCK are you on first name terms with them?" Jude and I squeaked in unison.
"That, my dear Jonnor," He said, smirking as I growled at the relationship title, "Is a question which is for me to know, and for you to salivate at the thought of discovering the answer."
Jude stared at him wide eyed.
"You are a GOD!"
Evan laughed uproariously, wincing slightly at the strain on his ribs.
"Not exactly." He said, "I just have a lot of famous friends."
Jude started sputtering, but Evan looked supremely smug and continued on speaking.
"Anyway... what else happened?" Evan asked.
"Can you promise to keep a secret?" Jude asked.
"Hey, it's me." Evan said, "Of course I can."
Jude and I shared a look and nodded. We reached into our pockets and withdrew the engagement rings that lay within, and put them on our fingers.
"Holy shit." Evan said.
He stared at out rings in shock, but after a moment the look of shock morphed into one of absolute glee and he released a loud guffaw of laughter.
It took him a few moments to regain composure. When he did, his eyes were red and tears were leaking down his face.
"I can't believe it." He said, "My nephew is getting married. I am SO proud of you two. Who else knows?"
"Jax, Taylor, Daria, and my brother Brandon." Jude answered, "Jax is going to be Connor's best man, Brandon is going to be mine. Daria and Taylor appointed themselves our "best woman" and Taylor has placed herself in charge of planning things for us. We told her what we wanted, and she's already started planning it within our budget."
"Don't worry about the money aspect." Evan said, waving his hand at us, "I'll pay for everything."
"We don't want you to have to keep paying for stuff for us." Jude said, "It's too much."
"Do you two know how much money I have?" Evan said in a deadpan voice.
Jude and I shook our heads in the negative.
"When I first started out in business," He continued, "It was using the $5,000,000 that my old friend left me in his will. The friend that gave me the revolver that I gave to you, Jude. I invested a whole million dollars in stocks and various businesses. Then I completely forgot about it. Cashed in my investments many years later for almost fifteen times my original budget. Trust me, I can pay for a wedding. With all the money I make a year from the business and new investments, I'd never need to work a day in my life if I wanted to. The only reason I work is because not working would be dreadfully boring. Hell, I have so much money, I could probably buy tower one of the new World Trade Center, and half of tower two. Money is one thing in my life I know I'll never have to worry about."
We both stared at him, our eyes still wide, which was quickly becoming their default setting in his presence.
"What do you guys have planned?"
"We want it to be on the beach." I said, "We want it to be small. Just the family, members of the Mafia."
Evan snorted.
"Still find it hilarious that you guys call your group of friends the Mafia." He said, chuckling.
"Yeah, it wasn't us." Jude said.
"I think it was Jax who started calling us that, and it just caught on." I continued.
"When is it?"
"As soon as you can stand at the altar." I said, voicing a decision Jude and I had made weeks previously.
"What?" Evan asked.
"We want you to marry us." Jude said, "You can get ordained online. You have done so much for us."
"You taught us how to defend ourselves." I continued, "Your lessons saved our lives during the shooting at Anchor Beach."
"You paid for our trip to Vegas." Jude said.
"You gave Jude gambling money that he was able to turn into a small fortune." I said.
"You helped to buy us a house." Jude said.
"You've got a record contract lined up for us." I said, "You're like... you've built the foundation for our future. We owe you everything. And we would be beyond honored if you would preside over the wedding. It would mean the world to us."
Evan looked between the two of us, tears of happiness flowing freely down his cheeks."
"The honor would be mine, boys." He said, choking back a watery laugh, "I would be happy to."
Jude and I both wrapped him in a hug.
"I love you both, so much." Evan said, "And I am so happy for you two."
We separated from the embrace and Evan wiped his eyes.
"So, where do you want to go on your honeymoon?" He asked.
"We don't know yet, exactly." Jude said, "We haven't decided yet."
"Yeah, we were thinking about either going back to Vegas, or going somewhere new." I said
Evan nodded.
"Ever heard of Mackinaw Island?" Evan asked.
"Huh?" I asked.
"Mackinaw Island." He continued, "It's an island in Lake Huron, off the lower peninsula of Michigan. Beautiful place in the summer. No cars are allowed on the island, except for emergency vehicles, so there is practically no pollution. I could book you two a room at the Grand Hotel on the island for a week. Beaches, gift shops, the old fort, walking trails. That's where I went on my honeymoon with David."
Jude and I shared a look.
"It sounds wonderful." We said.
"Then that's settled." Evan said.
Jude and I wrapped him in another hug.
"How will we ever be able to repay you."
"You two owe me nothing." Evan said, "You both mean the world to me. Nothing I do for you, ever has to be repaid."
We visited for ten more minutes, before the nurse came in and gave him his meds, Evan started to fall asleep again from the pain medication. We bid our farewells with hugs, and Jude and I walked out of the hospital hand in hand.
AN#2: Okay, so that's the chapter. Thanks for reading, and please leave lots of reviews. What di you think? Was it good, was it bad? Should the next chapter be the wedding, or should it be Jude and Connor telling the family about their engagement after Evan is released from the hospital?