The Seven Pieces of a Feuilleton

Chapter 5

He had decided during that dreadfully laggard hour that he couldn't do it.

He couldn't just stand there whilst his sister suffered. He couldn't get the image of his girlfriend - ex-girlfriend's - stunned expression out of his head. He couldn't stand to see his mother's tears as she clung on to his comatose twin's hand. He couldn't bear the foreign concept of his broken father. He couldn't watch his family fall apart.

Moreover, he couldn't listen to his twin's husband continue to prattle on like nothing happened, like everything remained the same as it had the day before, before Dylan McKay decided his vows were just words on a page.

"B, that's my wife in there. We just lost our first kid. She needs to hear it from me. I need to be there when she wakes up," his fingertips rubbed furiously under his swollen eyelid, "and she will wake up."

"First?" Brandon gave a harsh, fatigued laugh, the result of a late night in a torture device which the staff of Cedars-Sinai incorrectly called a chair. "You're more of an idiot than that quarterback on Daria if you think Bren will ever let you touch her again."

"Brandon, just let us explai - well, no, we can't really explain, but, Brandon, look at me. Please, baby, look at me."

Pressing a hand to his aching temple, he shrugged off the warm hands which slid along his shoulders.

It was happening again. Her pain physically became his.

"Why are you here, Kel?" he managed through what felt like a collapsed lung. "Dylan was my niece's dad, he has a right to be here, but why the hell are you?"

"I'm here for you," she whispered scratchily, "you and Bren."

"You did a real good job of being there for us when you were banging my best friend, didn't you? And you! McKay, how could you hook up with someone else? What the hell did Bren do to deserve that?"

"She didn't do anything. I - I didn't do anything!" Dylan's hands balled into fists.

"Baby -" Kelly began, cut off by a nearby holler.

"You did what?"

A flash of blond curls lunged itself at Dylan.

"You cheated on Brenda? Again? What the fuck is wrong with you, McKay?"

"I - I didn't. I - Sanders, I swear man, I didn't!" Dylan ducked from the flying fist of Steve Sanders.

"Tell me, Steve, what d'ya call it when two people in relationships with two other people sleep with each other?"

"Depends, Brando. Are we talkin' a foursome? Because I'd call that a fucking great night. Assuming the three other people are all women."

Dylan stared at Steve, disgusted.

Shaking her head, Donna set a hand on Steve's arm. "Dylan slept with Kelly."

"No, I fucking didn't!"

"Wait, Kel cheated on Brandon?" Steve's eyeballs sought to leap out of their sockets. "Kelly, what the fuck?"

"I didn't!"

"Oh come off it, Kel," Donna glared. "I was there. I was right there beside the twins when they found you. That was no platonic embrace."

"Dylan, man, you've got to face that you were high as the Empire State Building last night. Let me take you home, get the remaining buzz out of your system. Then you can see Brenda."

"He's not seeing Bren."

"Silver, don't touch me." Dylan maneuvered away from David before swerving his bloodshot eyes to his brother-in-law. "Brandon, please."