Walk the Line

four

~You're dripping like a saturated sunrise. You're spilling like an overflowing sink. You're ripped at every edge but you're a masterpiece and now you're tearing through the pages and the ink~

Brandon was late on Tuesday. So late, Callie thought he wasn't coming and that he thought he was gonna be too late.

But he walks through the doors just in time and as soon as Callie sees him, she leaps to her feet and runs over to him.

She hugs him tightly and says, "I thought you weren't gonna show for a minute there."

"I promised you I'd come," he reminds her. "Of course I'm here."

Throughout the whole process, Brandon doesn't leave Callie's side. Stef and Lena think it's kind of bizarre, considering how they haven't seen them talk or hang out hardly at all recently. But they don't say anything. Brandon must just be looking out for Callie, his sister.

But at one point, Callie latches onto Brandon's hand. Brandon is hesitant at first, but quickly accepts her hand when he remembers his promise to himself to help her through this in whatever way she needed. The moms give each other sideways glances when this happens, but again don't say anything.

And every time something cancer-related happens, Brandon is there and they act the same way with each other as they did the first time. He's there whenever she's in the hospital. He's there when she gets her head shaved. He even moves back in with his moms so he can be there for her late-night bouts of sickness. They're the closest thing you can be to being in a relationship without actually being in a relationship, especially since he broke up with Lou.

And everyone thinks it's strange. He's always the one she asks for when she doesn't feel well or she just needs someone. He holds her when she's sick, and other times, too. They latch hands whenever she needs support. If someone were to walk by during one of these times, not knowing their story, they would think they were a couple. But Brandon and Callie don't seem to care, so the rest of the family doesn't either, though this is on the assumption that Brandon and Callie see each other as siblings.

There is one night in particular where Callie is feeling extremely sick. She calls Mariana awake and promptly tells her to get Brandon.

It has been awhile since Callie got diagnosed, so it wasn't unusual for any of them anymore to get Brandon when she needed him (which was more often than not). 

He hurries into her room, rushing to the side of her bed. Mariana stands in the doorway, watching.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He asks her gently, running his thumb against her cheek.

"I feel really sick," she mumbles.

"Are you going to throw up?"

She starts to cry and he knows that means yes. He pulls the bowl out from under her bed, then gently lifts her up so that he can sit behind her with her between his legs and her back against his chest.

He holds the bowl in front of her with one hand and rubs her back with the other. She weeps harder.

"Brandon, I don't want to throw up anymore," she sobs out. "I'm so sick of this."

"I know," he murmurs. "But soon, you'll feel better. You'll be better soon."

She just shakes her head against his chest before suddenly taking the bowl from his hand and raising it to her mouth. He rubs her back and whispers soothing words in her ear as her body racks from vomiting.

When she finishes, he sees there's hardly anything even in the bowl. It's like her body is throwing up just for the sake of throwing up. He takes the bowl from her hands and moves to go clean it, but she holds him back.