No Dogs inside the hospital. Those were the rules and Gavin had always abided by them. His dogs didn't go where they were not welcome. This was the first time he'd broken that rule but nobody cared. The hospital was like a war zone after last night's storm and the rage running high in so many people. Gavin was just tired. He'd wanted so badly to go out and stop a fight or two because he honestly worried about some of the nurses but he ended up getting the dogs from the truck and closing the door to Amelia's room with a chair under the door knob to keep it shut. She wasn't in a private room but the other people in there were well past caring what he did and Gavin was afraid they and Amelia were all about to expire.
To begin with they almost hadn't let him in to stay with her at all. He wasn't listed as her father anymore and that stung to the point where the thought he might just adopt this new niece of his called Lyra seemingly out of the blue. Maybe one day. He ended up crawling into the vacant bed next to hers and passing out while the storm wailed outside, beating on the windows and drowning out the sounds of angry yelling outside her room.
Amelia woke up before he did and for a little while she was confused by her surroundings. She had no memory of coming to the hospital, the last thing she recalled was Jasper sitting by her side being creepy and wrong. It didn’t take her long to remember that he had done this to her. She was in the hospital because of him.
It filled her with rage and sadness in equal measures and she shoved the covers off and climbed out of the hospital bed. The old lady in the corner bed was awake too and they gave each other a look that Amelia felt was both knowing and confused, a brief wordless communication between two victims of the same strange thing.
She was wearing a hospital gown and that wouldn't do. She needed to get out of here and make sure her family was okay. She was halfway to the closets when she saw Gavin where he slept with the dogs piled on him. The next thing she noticed was the chair holding the door closed and that gave her pause. It was a familiar sight that meant shit had gone down. The light outside made it feel like it was a beautiful day out there but she knew she could still find something horrible waiting in the hallway if she moved out there too fast. Shadows or more people like Jasper, wrong and draining. Evil didn't only lurk in darkness. She'd taken a couple of steps towards Gavin to wake him up when Max raised his head and then squirmed out of his sleeping position to get off the bed and rush over to her with his butt wiggling madly. This in turn woke Rude and then Gavin, both equally happy to see her though they weren't quite as wiggly about it.
"You're okay," Gavin said as he sat up, his voice raw, his movements a little sluggish still. "C'mere, you're okay." He pulled her into a hug that was a little too tight when she approached him, only letting her go because she was too stiff in his arms.
"I need clothes," Amelia said. "And a gun." She gestured to the door - to the chair. "What the fuck is going on?"
He motioned to the bag he'd brought for her and told her what little he knew while she pulled her clothes out and started dressing, maneuvering around the hospital gown. The older woman in the corner chimed in with what little she knew and between the three of them they had at best half the story and were all painfully aware of that fact.
"I'll make some calls," Gavin said quietly. "Find out what's going on." He was still tired and didn't really feel fit to fight if it came to it, though Amelia looked like she was ready to take on a battalion the way she was pacing around the room. "Sit down," Gavin pleaded with her but she just stormed to the window instead, peering out from what she considered a somewhat safe angle.
Gavin sighed and opened up his contacts panel. Aaron was at top, given his name, and that was pretty much the only deciding factor in Gavin calling him first. It was early but given the state of things Gavin wasn't very worried about waking him. If that was the worst thing that happened today than that was a blessing.
Aaron had only been able to mentally justify having Mila pay for one night at Juniper, so he was back at Caden’s place the next night. The windstorm and power outage weren’t the most fun things to go through in a mobile home after he’d just buried his murdered father, but Aaron had managed without freaking out too badly. He and Caden had stayed up together for quite a while and drank. It was easier to sleep once everything died down after midnight, and he was out cold when his phone started to ring. It took several of the loud trills to bring him around, and Aaron fumbled to answer it, his heart suddenly pounding hard in his chest. He glimpsed the screen enough to see that it was Gavin, and that just made his adrenaline pump even harder. “H’lo?” he mumbled, some rustling going down the phone line as Aaron pushed covers back and sat up in bed.
Gavin took a shaky breath, realizing he wasn't sure what he'd been expecting but Aaron sounded fine - like he'd been sleeping - and maybe that was a good sign. "Aaron," he said softly, glancing at Amelia and her roommate who were both staring at him with obvious anticipation. "How are- How bad is it out there? I'm at the hospital with Amelia, it sounded... Something was really wrong last night. Is it safe out there? Are you okay?"
Rude was sniffing at the door and whining and Gavin knew he couldn't keep the dogs inside for much longer but god, he was still tired and he was unarmed. Bringing a gun into the hospital just seemed like a good way to get into trouble although he regretted it now.
He was confused for a moment at Gavin’s questions, frowning down at his thighs. Aaron hadn’t really gone out the day before, though he’d heard some commotion here and there in Seaview. It had been difficult to worry about at the time, he’d been content to stay indoors and get drunk with his brother. But now his other brother was all worried ... what had happened? Just the windstorm? “I dunno, I haven’t been out,” he answered, rubbing a hand over his face. “Not since ... the other night.” Aaron cleared his throat and stood up to move to the bedroom’s window. He peered out. There were some branches down that he could see, but other than that the view looked pretty normal. “You’re still at the hospital? How’s Amelia? How’s Mom?”
"Mom is here?" Gavin asked as his brain started trying to connect the dots. Joseph had been hurt too, had Bridget been as badly off as Amelia? His girl had been touch and go for a while, what if his mother was dead? It wasn't something he wanted to care about, he'd never been close to her and oftentimes resented her for staying with Joseph but the thought of her being sick or possibly dead gripped his heart like ice cold claws. "What happened?" he asked, forcing his voice to sound calmer than he felt. Maybe it was unrelated but he doubted it, picturing her already, comatose like Amelia had been.
Belatedly Aaron realized he probably shouldn’t have mentioned their mother yet, not while Gavin was stressed and worried about Amelia ... but at the same time if Aaron didn’t tell him and Gavin found out they were in the same building ... he didn’t know. He just knew that now the lies had to start. His and Caden’s story was simple enough, but God it hurt his heart to tell it. “Yeah, she uh ... she called Caden, day before yesterday, and sounded real bad. He called me to come help, and when we got there she was in bad shape. Like couldn’t get up. So we took her to the hospital. Last I heard she was stable, but she’s there.” It was only a partial truth, which made it slightly easier, but if Gavin started asking more detailed questions, he would have to really start lying. “How’s Amelia?” he repeated instead.
"I'll check on her," Gavin muttered to himself before clearing his throat. "Yeah, uh, Amelia's okay. She's worried." She hadn't said as much but she was watching him like a hawk now, her brows furrowed and her eyes wide. "But she's awake now and uh... Have you heard from Jasper?" He winced when Amelia's eyes narrowed at the name and God, they needed to fix this somehow, whatever this was. Amelia worshipped her brother, it felt all types of wrong to see her angry with him. Angry, or worried, or both? Unhappy at least. "You should probably stay away from him and dad, something's... something's up with them."
Aaron briefly took the phone away from this face and rubbed at his eyes as bad feelings twisted in his chest. On one hand it was a relief that Jasper hadn’t stormed through the town hunting down his family, but God, this was such a big, heavy lie. Aaron tried to quickly swallow all that back and lifted the phone again. He thought of poor Amelia and all she’d been through. Everything Gavin had been through. He might find out anyway, but Aaron wasn’t going to be the one to tell him. Not yet, anyway. “No uh, I haven’t seen him, haven’t heard from him,” Aaron said, sounding as even keeled as he could. “Haven’t seen dad either, he wasn’t at the house when we were there.” More half-truths. “I’ll keep an eye out though. You all right though? You need me to come up there? What did you mean how bad is it out?”
"Something was going on last night," Gavin sighed, shaking his head at Amelia to let her know Aaron didn't know anything. "Lot of fighting out in the halls, I thought it was another... Fog thing." He'd been too tired to deal with it, to even check, so maybe it had sounded worse than it was, he hoped that was the case but that didn't mean there wasn't a whole heap of shit they needed to deal with. Mainly figuring out what was going on with Jasper. "Just reaching out, making sure it's safe to leave." Maybe he should be apologizing for calling so damn early but he hadn't been sure if this was an emergency or not.
He’d been pretty drunk the night before -- something he’d done so often now that he didn’t really have a hangover -- so Aaron only vaguely remembered hearing some ruckus outside before the wind got bad. Then there’d been nothing else to hear but that. He and Caden had stayed in, and that now sounded like a good decision. “Well, nothin’s happening right now as far as I can see, but that’s just out the window ... You want me to go check it out a bit?” he asked again. “I can run and check on the dogs or something ... if you got Amelia with you, I know you wanna be careful.” Aaron didn’t know what kind of shape she was in, but ‘okay’ and ‘worried’ were better than being completely unresponsive.
"We've got the dogs here," Gavin replied. "So if things have gone back to normal I'm probably about to get chewed out for that." Amelia looked ready to get out of there now, braiding her hair with a look that said she was ready for a fight. Gavin would never get used to that look on her. "We'll be okay, I'll go check on mom. Is Caden with you?" It would probably end up being Gavin who opened the bar today, he was loath to admit he had no idea who had opened and closed the day before, it was all a blur of tiredness and paranoia. At least he felt better and it looked like Amelia was going to be fine.
Aaron almost laughed at the phrase ‘back to normal.’ What the fuck did that even mean anymore? He was pretty sure normal was gone for good, if it had ever really existed. Your son’s a murderer, he killed our father. I buried him, was on the tip of his tongue. The words weren’t vindictive in his head, more awed and a little hysterical. But Aaron couldn’t tell him. Not like this. So he swallowed and scraped his tongue over his teeth and glanced behind him at the bedroom door, like that might tell him where Caden was. “He was here when I went to bed, lemme see ...” he told Gavin, and shuffled toward the door. The house was quiet, but that didn’t mean much. He got to where he could look out the front window and saw that Caden’s car was still in the driveway. “Yeah, he’s here.” Gavin obviously wasn’t going to give him anything helpful to do, didn’t need him, and he already felt at loose ends now that he wasn’t so tired.
"I don't even know who's working today," Gavin admitted tiredly as he got up off the bed and started walking slowly toward the door. He wouldn't open it until he was off the phone, wanting his awareness fully intact. "Are you coming in? Roxy?" Miles had been working too much lately and Gavin was aware of it. He was also aware that if he was that kind of a person he would probably give Miles some thank you gift for all his trouble but Gavin wouldn't even know what kind of thing to buy for such an occasion and it'd be weird. Too weird.
There was always a schedule, but honestly Aaron didn’t know if he was supposed to work or not. ‘Supposed to’ probably didn’t matter at this point. He hadn’t given a single shit about the bar since ... everything had happened. “Uh ...” he floundered for a second, worried Gavin might be pissed at him for forgetting his schedule. He didn’t have a good reason he could present. “Yeah, uh, I’m coming in. I dunno about Roxy. I’ll call Miles too, make sure he’s all right after whatever was going on last night.” If there had been violence in the streets, chances were it had spread to the bar too. Fuck, what if it had been trashed or something? But nobody had called about it, as far as he knew, so maybe it was okay. “I’ll head out there soon as I get dressed, make sure everything’s in one piece,” Aaron offered.
Gavin had the sudden idea in his head that The Back Porch had burned down while he was away. He had been back in that pit of despair he'd gotten so intimately familiar with when Amelia went missing, unable to focus or care about anything that was going on around him so of course he hadn't gone to the bar to check. He hadn't even talked to his brothers or Miles to make sure things were okay, too certain he was losing his little girl for good and frantically worrying about Jasper being wrong somehow. Jules had plans and he had no idea what they were but it seemed like she had done whatever it was she needed to do because suddenly Amelia was okay. If the bar wasn't... Well, they could rebuild, he supposed and tried to remind himself that if that was the case, he'd still be grateful for what he hadn't lost. "I can come in later today, tie up any loose ends," he said, relieved to hear Aaron would go there, then he could take his time at home, check in on Jasper and Charlie, make sure Amelia was really okay. "Just stay away from Jasper if you see him, there's something going on there, I don't know if he's okay yet."
That warning was like a punch in the chest, and Aaron again had to move the phone away from his face so he could make a little sound of distress. It suddenly occurred to him that Jasper could be waiting at Gavin’s house, ready to kill his dad and sister, and his heart dropped into his stomach. He swallowed thickly, mentally flailing for a couple of heartbeats until he thought of a plan. Gavin would still be at the hospital for a little while if he was going to check on Bridget, Aaron would just get his ass in gear and go over to Gavin’s house to make sure it was secure. Then he could go to the bar. He refused to think about what would happen if Jasper was there intent on killing again, he would just ... figure it out. “Okay, uh ... I’ll be on the lookout for him,” he said into the phone. “You be careful too, okay? Let me know what the docs say about Mom. I’ll see you later.”
Aaron sounded a little off but not in any way Gavin could really pinpoint enough to ask about it. Maybe he was just tired, he certainly wouldn't be the only one. "I'll go find her now," he agreed and god he hoped Joseph wasn't with her, though that might explain some of the fighting he'd heard out there, a fun thought indeed. "I'll see you at the bar." Responsibility was kicking in again and as much as he didn't want to go to work he at least had to check on the place. At least. "Call me if there's trouble." He hung up before Aaron did, they'd said all they needed to say and he was now itching to get the chair out of the way and find out if it was safe out there. He didn't even know what he'd do if it wasn't. Hopefully get to the car and take it from there.