Authors Note: I own nothing. No ownership rights to Beverly Hills 90210.
Chapter Thirty-One
Once Dylan was back asleep Jack left in the town car to go and get out of his tux, grab a car, a change of clothes for Iris and a bag for Dylan, he also arranged with Brandon to swing past Casa Walsh and grab clothes for me. By three am we were all out of our formal attire, our lawyer had arranged the NDA's and had left, Dylan had woken only briefly from a coughing attack, and the three of us were now trying to sleep in chairs around the room. Dylan had tried once his cough had settled to at least get his parents to go and sleep at home but it was a losing battle, Iris wouldn't budge nor Jack. Dylan rolled his eyes at their unwillingness to take his advice but I knew he was secretly loving the care and concern his parents were showing him. He was now the age where we all became legal adults but it was the first time I think he ever felt like a kid being doted on by his parents.
Iris and Jack slept through when the nurse came in around five to set another IV. He was two hours away from being allowed more paracetamol but his temperature was still a little too high, though his extremities were cold, it was causing him to sleep uneasy. While the nurse used cold presses to bring his temperature down I rubbed his feet to keep them warm. It eventually came down and he began to sleep better, I dozed a little after that but woke when I heard Iris greet Dylan's Doctor at morning round's. They'd take more bloods and keep his antibiotics high throughout the day. His lung capacity had improved some but that was not saying much as it was very very low when he arrived, they were going to keep him on oxygen for the day and maybe part of the next.
When the doctor left I went to grab us all coffee; it was terrible but with barely any sleep and so many emotions running through me, giving me a fatigue hangover, it would do. When I came back in the room Dylan was awake, and Jack was helping him change into a new singlet. He had sweated on and off throughout the night, giving him something fresh would make him feel better.
"There you are, I woke up and you weren't here I worried Jim had changed his mind until Mum told me you were getting coffee. Did you get me one?"
I hand Iris hers and then when Jack moved back from helping Dylan I gave him his, "nope you are on a drip and coffee isn't good for you, especially this rubbish. Anyway the doctor wants you resting no stimulants."
"Just a sip?"
"Nope."
"A kiss then?"
I laugh, "is that kiss out of love or just to try and get a drop of coffee?"
"Both?" I lean down and kiss his cheek, "hey!"
"Yeah out of love for you I'm not giving you coffee."
"Bbbrrreeennn…" he whine quickly turns into a cough.
"See you need rest to heal not coffee to keep you awake."
"You are a mean wife." He smiles at me to show me he is teasing.
"Yep."
Jack informs Dylan of what the Doctor said earlier. As he speaks and I sip my coffee, Dylan plays with my rings on my finger. His ring is still on his finger, and his half of the heart is on the chain over the top of his singlet. It's the longest we have got to wear them in each other's presence since Paris. When his Dad finishes going through all the Doctor's updates, Dylan lifts my hand to his lips and kisses it, "at least I get you by my side today."
"Which I'm going to insist you sleep mostly away."
"No. I've been sleeping for days." His whinge makes him sound like a toddler about to have a tantrum.
"Because you are sick and your body is trying to heal." I have the need to ask his parents if he has always been like this when he was sick but I stop myself. I don't know the outcome of the question maybe neither have ever seen him sick, it could have been the Nannies role even when Iris was gradually coming back to herself.
Jack goes and grabs a newspaper and magazines to keep us entertained, Dylan all but manages to read half an article when his eyelids become heavy again. He's out within minutes.
When it hits nine we discuss risking the cafeteria for breakfast but before we have are orders down there's a knock on the door, my brother's head pokes through a second later. He see's Dylan sleeping so quietly comes in.
"I popped past The Pit, thought you guy's could do with some good coffee and breakfast."
"Brandon Darling you are a lifesaver, we were just discussing who was going to try the cafeteria food first. If they survived the rest of us would eat it. Brenda and I voted for Jack to be the sacrificial lamb but he thinks prison means he has developed an iron stomach, I personally believe he's too chicken."
Brandon looks at me wondering if Iris is serious, I chuckle lightly. If Dylan and I mock bicker for fun, then Iris and Jack see it as an Olympic sport. They are hilarious.
After Iris has taken the bag and Jack the tray of coffee's from my brother he comes over to the other side of the bed, "how's he doing?"
"Some improvement but he's unable to stay awake for more than twenty minutes, he's trying to fight that though."
"Jones fighting conformity I'm not in the least bit surprised. What's he wearing?" I look down and immediately see our rings next to each other, our fingers on display- fuck!
When my twin picks up the chain my anxiety dissipates some, I try and subtly cover Dylan's and my fingers with my other hand. "Is that your Christmas gift from last year?"
"It's his side of it."
"Jack pick it up for him last night?" He looks at me and sees my chain under my flannel, "no, you guy's wear them all the time right?" I nod. "Bren on our birthday what exactly is going to happen? Dad and Mum from their conversations this morning aren't going to become reasonable because we are eighteen?"
"No I don't think they are. They have decided how they want my life to be and won't accept any alternative."
My twin gives me a scrutinising look and then his face changes to one of understanding, he's suddenly looking at me as if I have turned transparent. "Can I speak to you outside for a second?" It's posed as a question but it's not really.
Before I walk out I move Dylan's hand underneath the covers and then subtly pull down my sleeve hiding my hand. We don't speak until we are behind a closed door in the hallway. "You're going to leave again." It wasn't a question but he pauses for confirmation. I eventually nod. He runs his hand through his hair. "Bren, Mum and Dad still have leverage, College is expensive-" I look down breaking eye contact.
Without marriage it looks strange that Dylan would be paying for college, it looks strange that someone so independent whose fighting the control of one male is walking into another home where there will be a power in balance. Marriage has made our commitment to each other a clear forever, and with that we promised so many things to each other in Paris. One of those promises was that we'd be true partners equal in everything. That was absolute for both of us, for me to see the money as just Dylan's would be a betrayal of that promise I wouldn't ever do that, but without declaring the marriage to my brother my boyfriend paying for college looks strange.
"Bren…" he gets it without me saying it, gets why I'm not fearful of that leverage of College tuition. He also gets that I'm embarrassed by the optic's of this, and he is right if Dylan was my boyfriend that would never be even a consideration. "I hope you know what you are doing. Dylan and you… I get that you love each other, I can see that so clearly but he's struggled… he's still a loner at heart. When the honeymoon of his parents being there, and then having you there… when having so much accountability to so many people…" he doesn't want to speak badly of his best friend, his brother but I know what he is getting at. "Bren what happens to you if he feels it's too much? What happens if his old running instinct kicks back in?"
"It won't-"
"You willing to bet your whole college future on that? If you leave… Dad is strong willed very much like Grandpa Walsh, he won't just let you back after this. He'll see this as a public humiliation. Everyone will know, Dad will find that hard to forgive."
I don't know what to say, how to make him see that that won't happen. Dylan immediately came home to me that day after Dad's threat, and from there we had rebuilt our foundations together we had made us into a stone structure of old. We would last thousands of years, weather any storm, revolution, any generation, in the face of a new modernity we would be the grandeur of old the love that people strive for. I knew how solid we were, I wouldn't have the ring's on my finger if there was even a spec of doubt but I couldn't explain to my twin why. I could only give him my word not my reasoning, not my knowledge of what I now knew in my blood, in my marrow to be true.
"Brandon I'm impulsive and dramatic at times. I can be as stubborn as Dad. I can be romantic and dreamy. I can also run scared. I know my faults, and I know when I have made reckless decisions with one of those faults blind-sighting me, blocking my logic making me act recklessly. Dylan and I have spent months making sure we are not only in the same book, on the same page but we now have learnt how to hold the same author's pen and write in tandem, write our story together. I'm not gambling my future. I need you to trust that Dylan and I wouldn't do that too each other, we wouldn't lock ourselves into a commitment that is so dissolvable."
He holds my eyes, he is measuring me up. I can see him examine me to see if one of my faults maybe clouding my vision on the reality of my decision. He must not find anything there as he steps forward and hugs me. "I'm going to miss you not being there every day. I thought we would at least have the full year together."
"You've seen the house you know how many rooms there are, hell you can have the whole upstairs wing above Iris and Jack to yourself."
"Yeah that would go over like a lead balloon at Casa Walsh."
"True. I'm sorry to leave you to deal with the repercussions of this. Dylan and I have tried to be good so you have truthful deniability but…"
"You weren't counting on him getting sick."
"Yep."
Brandon and I return to the room and I eat my breakfast while he chats with Iris and Jack. Dylan wakes a little while later and the two carry on in their usual banter. He leaves just before lunchtime and I walk him out needing some air. He knows I'm planning on being back at Casa Walsh tonight, well as long as Dylan's vitals continue to improve and he is responding to the antibiotics. He is on close at The Pit but promises me that we can get up early tomorrow to drop past the hospital before school.
Dylan continues to show signs of improvement making Iris feel secure enough to go home mid afternoon for a sleep. Jack drives her home and then pops quickly back to bring some items that Dylan requested before leaving again to join Iris at home. He will come back tonight to stay with Dylan, and Iris will take over in the morning. Dylan and I spend our hours alone with me reading some of the pieces for the magazine, when he is awake he asks me to make edits and notes on piece's. He insists when he is able to stomach some mash potatoes and gravy, with a jello dessert that he is getting better and that I could help him shower before I leave. The nurse only grants his shower request because there is a seat in his bathroom and he will only be off the additional oxygen for a few minutes, and that he will have supervision. When we are in there my husband typical to form tries to convince me that I should shower with him, that it would lift his sick spirits. I laugh and tell him he isn't up for that.
Though as I watch him shower he keeps pointing out how up he actually is.
The night doctor on his last round gives positive signs that Dylan is improving and that the oxygen should not be needed in the morning as the coughing has slowly declined throughout the day and his chest isn't so congested. I spend the few minutes before Jack arrives laying next to Dylan careful not to put any pressure on his chest. We hold each other's hands and just spend the minutes quietly enjoying the closeness of the other.
On Monday morning he has more colour in his cheeks which could be from his Dad reading him the Archie cartoons as Brandon and I walk in. I smile at the both of them and clock how quickly my husband puts his left hand under the blanket. I kiss him as Brandon passes Jack a coffee we picked up for him.
"Do I get one today?" Dylan nods at the cup in my hand.
"Nope but maybe tomorrow."
"You are still a mean wi- lled woman."
I laugh and kiss his lips again, then whisper "nice save."
"Everything okay at Casa Walsh?"
"Tense but nothing for you to worry about."
He must see right through me as he looks over to Brandon, "B how bad?"
"It's back to Baja level crazy but I've got her back."
Dylan nod's then looks at me, "remember your acting doesn't work on me Baby. I see through it." He picks up my left hand that is void of our symbol of commitment and kisses where my rings should lay. "No lies remember?"
"While your doctor is saying you need to be kept calm, rest and heal I promise nothing more than to try and accomplish that. Don't worry about Casa Walsh I have thick skin."
He pulls me down and rests our foreheads together, "no you only appear that way. You my love our fragile."
It's not an insult but the knowledge that he knows me better than anyone else, "only when I feel secure to do that. After my birthday-"
"I'll be there to catch you and hold you together."
We stay only a half an hour longer but I promise to come back in the afternoon.
Brandon is working so Steve volunteers to take me, Dylan is less than impressed with my choice of driver's. When Steve who has been listening to Iris's travel stories hears Dylan's grumbling for a third time about my choice he loses his patience.
"McKay I'm not an idiot. I know where Brenda and I stand, even if she is absolutely missing out on the better man. I know she has eyes only for you so relax, and then thank me. We dropped past Casa Walsh on the way here, we are hanging out 'studying' which means Jim has let lose his need for twenty four seven supervision of her. We can hang here for at least a couple of hours before Bren actually has to help me with maths…" he looks at me then. "I can't believe I told you about the legacy key offer at our movie night, no maths study would be needed if you weren't the voice of reason."
I smile at his attempt at frustration, "you would have been caught and potentially kicked out. You should be thanking me."
"Thanking you for giving me a year of homework?"
"Yes a year of learning new things and skills; preparing you for college."
He teasingly groans, "it sounds boring. McKay did you make her this way? When she first arrived she used to go to parties, jump from planes, have fun…"
Dylan for the first time since we arrived laugh's, "nope Bren's obsessive organisation and need for preparedness is all her's, along with her thorough broader line crazy study habits."
"Hey?!" My outrage is cut short by a knock on the door. Kelly pops in a few seconds later with what look like a care package and some food.
Her surprise to find us all here is clear, "oh I rang your home Bren they said you were at Steve's studying I felt bad Dylan would be by himself so I came over."
I smile at my best friend, "that's nice of you Kel. Come in, you are saving me from being meanly teased."
"Hey Kel is that for me?" Dylan nods at the gifts, eyeing the drinks.
"Yeah hospital food sucks." She puts down the food on the table besides Dylan's bed and wheels it forward, closer to him . "So I got you a burrito and-"
Before she can say anything more he has snatched the coffee off the tray and is taking a large sip. "Dylan?"
He holds the cup in both hands over the other side of the bed away from me, "Kelly's nice she got me coffee unlike some other mean people."
Before I can answer back at his teasing and blatant breaking of the Doctor's orders, Kelly interrupts mine and his glaring, "Dylan when did you start wearing rings?"
Shit!