Her Safe Haven

Chapter 37 - The Wait

Previously on Her Safe Haven: Sasha Brown was behind all of Winter's attacks. In a last desperate attempt to get rid of Winter, Sasha asked her 'boyfriend' Bryan to kidnap and possibly hurt Winter. But Winter managed to convince Bryan that Sasha was just using him. In his anger, he went to stab Sasha, only Winter jumped in front of her and in turn Winter got stabbed instead.

"How could you let this happen?! You were supposed to protect her!"

In the heat of it all, Caleb could scream at Gray as they stood in front of the door to the emergency room. Both were tense and looked about ready to attack each other at any moment. Yet from an outsider's point of view, with how Caleb was brought up not to show personal matters in the scrutiny of the public's eyes, they could just be having a normal conversation with how he managed to keep his hiss down to a minimum.

Gray was angry, very angry not because of his brother's accusation, but because it was true. It was his fault. And he did his best to amend it — he rescued his sister from the abandoned barn and gave her emergency blood transfusion — but still, they ended up here, and his sister was in a realm of the living and the dead, and it was all his fault.

Caleb sighed after he looked at that expression on his brother's face, that expression like he was about to cry, yet too prideful to actually cry. "...No, I'm sorry. It's not just your fault," he said a little bit softer than before, "mom and dad are still stuck in Hongkong. Dad can't leave yet, but mom just called in the plane. She'll be here tomorrow or by early Sunday."

Seth, a far observer of the conversation, couldn't really make out what the brothers were saying. Yet he could obviously tell one thing: Gray was more devastated than what he ever remembered seeing him.

Kai and the girls came then, and the panicked running and huffing soon turned quiet as they noticed the gravity of the situation from the McHalen brothers' tense stances. They quietly rushed towards Seth on one of the visitors' seats in the waiting room. "We came as soon as we heard. What happened?" It was Tria.

Rose, to Seth's amusement, ran immediately towards Gray. And in that instance it was as if all arguments between them long forgotten as she held on to his shoulder. Upon her arrival, Caleb left for another room to give his brother some privacy.

"Kai's parking the car," Helena came a bit later and said quietly before Seth could ask.

Seth nodded, and under the questioning looks from Riley and Tria was about to explain to them what happened when Jonah and Dylan came next, more chaotic and louder than the previous visitors. "I swear to God, I'll hunt her down and if I ever find her I'll—"

"Jonah!"

At Seth's warning hiss, Jonah's anger dissipated if not only just a little to observe the room. Then he found Gray, his best friend, frozen on the spot with his hands balled into fists, Rose stood worriedly by his side, and Jonah left his rage to immediately rush towards him.

They looked at each other silently then, Jonah looked almost as hopeless as Gray, and in that moment Jonah's anger completely disappeared. In that moment it was as if they understood the pained expression in each other. Because the next minute they were hugging. And they were silent but they did not let go for a long time.

Seth was silent in reverie as he watched. Winter was as dear to him as she was to them both, too, he thought. And he was just as angry and scared for her life and was silently brooding when Dylan broke his musing. "We couldn't find you before. Winter's GPS location wasn't working."