You Have Us... Always.

Chapter 32- Diet-Planned Smoothies.

"Stop it, Brayden, you'll pull it out," Callan muttered, moving his eyes away from Brynn to his brother, who wouldn't stop fiddling with the IV tube, on the other side of the hospital bed.

"I'm just making sure it's properly-"

"No, you're not. You're fidgeting. Let it go."

Brayden sighed, removing his hands off the tube. His line of vision moved to where the tube went to, the back of Brynn's left hand, as did his right hand to the tape over it. He smoothed it over, gently pushing the lifted ends back down to the flesh they were supposed to be attached to.

"Brayden."

Brayden sighed and reluctantly let go. He leaned back into the chair, looking at his hands clasped together on his lap. He didn't look for any more than three seconds, his eyes going back to the IV tube.

"Brayden, you put it in yourself," Callan reminded.

Brayden nodded, wiping under his nose after sniffing quietly, and stood from his seat. "I'm going to get a coffee, do you want anything?" he asked with his eyes actually meeting Callan's for the first time in what felt like a while.

Callan stared directly back for a few seconds, then he looked back towards the bed, "no, thank you."

Brayden stood there after he answered. When he made no move to leave, Callan looked back up at him. Brayden looked unsure.

Callan let out a soft sigh, watching his younger brother, who clearly wanted something more to do. "I'll have a coffee, please, Brayden. Milk, no sugar."

The man nodded this time, his left leg actually making a move to leave. Once he'd finally left, Callan sighed, and slouched into his seat. His fingers played with the hospital blanket; the rough, scratchy hospital blanket.

Callan breathed in and his eyes searched the room and the bed area, until he was looking to his left, downwards, at the bed cabinets. His finger opened the cupboard, revealing the softer looking sheets. He breathed out. Something to do.

The chair was pushed back and the softer sheets were taken out and inspected, before they were placed at the end of her bed. It was something to do.

Meanwhile, Brayden was walking down the hospital corridors, making all the twists and turns necessary to get to the cafeteria but pausing after walking past a hardly lit hallway.

There was a figure leaning against the wall to the left, quite far down. Brayden squinted his eyes and let out an exasperated scoff.

Brayden made way to the figure, at the same speed he was walking down those previous corridors. The figure, themself, was looking down towards the ground and had a lit cigarette in their left hand, the orange glow at the end of it illuminating some of the area.

Ash from the end of the cancer stick fell down, which become much more noticeable to Brayden as he advanced closer.

Now standing a few feet in front of the figure, he folded his arms over his chest and ordered, "put it out."

Ezra rolled his eyes, bringing the cigarette up to his mouth again and taking a longer drag to piss his older brother off further.

"Put it out, Ezra. We're in a hospital," Brayden ordered again, really not having time for this.

Ezra breathed out the smoke, straight at Brayden, who scoffed and waved the smoke away from his face. "They have smoke alarms, Ezra," the man hissed, really really not having time for this.

"Disconnected them."

"Put it out."

"Relax, Bray. There's no one critically ill within twenty feet."