In Loving Memory, Frank Warren

Chapter 29: Lily's Fall

Stopping by his supervisor's office Frank was glad to see Bill sitting behind the desk. "Hey, Bill? John won't be in today. He's sick."

"Sick?" Bill barely glanced up from his computer screen. "What's wrong with him?"

"Hangover from hell." Frank nodded down the hall. "Can I go to work now?"

"Isn't he a little old for hangovers during the work week?" Bill demanded, lifting his head to stare at Frank. "What's the occasion? I thought his birthday was in the spring, like yours."

"Guy Night."

Bill grimaced. "I thought you two were done with those."

"Oh, come on. It's the first one since..." His throat threatened to close up, catching Frank off-guard. He had nearly said something, something true, something horrible. Fortunately his wall, broken and battered though it was, filtered out the horrible thing.

"The first one in a year," Frank insisted, as if this were what he had intended to say. "Dean and his best friend went too."

"Sounds like quite a Guy Night." With a deep chuckle Bill shook his head. "You know, I'm almost tempted to take you up on your standing offer to go next time. Did John dance again?"

"Yep." Frank grinned shamelessly.

"It's a good thing you two don't do it more regularly," Bill chortled. "All right, I guess John is off the hook. This time." He shook a reprimanding finger at Frank. "No Guy Night during the week for at least a month."

"Yeah, yeah." Chuckling, Frank waved off the warning as he walked away.

His work day started off fine. John's 'sick' day had not aggravated Bill. None of the accounts went crazy wrong. As a matter of fact, it was turning into one of those days when the numbers seemed to know what they needed to do and all Frank had to do was let them. He loved work days like this.

As Frank happily shifted the numbers to where they made more sense, his cell phone went off. The William Tell Overture. John must've woken up. Finally.

He picked up his phone off the desk and answered without bothering to check the screen. This ringtone per caller thing was fantastic. "How'd you sleep? Was the couch as comfy as you remembered?"

"Don't freak out."

Funny thing about when someone tells you not to freak out, typically freaking out is the first thing you want to do. Especially when said someone is your best friend.

"What happened?" he demanded, alarms and flashing lights going off inside his head. The dreaded buzzing noise hummed in his ears.

"As far as we know, everyone is fine." John's voice was far too calm, too controlled. "So don't have a stroke or another heart attack. Okay?"

"What. Happened." Frank felt a pressure in the center of his chest. With a glance down he confirmed the heel of his hand pressed against his sternum. Closing his eyes he forced himself to focus on John's calm voice.

"Dean's mother called after you left for work. She slipped in the bathroom. No blood or anything, okay? She just couldn't stand back up on her own. So Dean asked me to drive them to the ER. To have her checked out."

"And?" Frank demanded, his hand nearly embedded in his chest as the buzzing increased in volume. "How is she?"

"That's the reason I'm calling. She won't let anybody here do x-rays or anything. I was kind of hoping you'd talk to her-"

"Which ER?" Frank stood, his hand falling away to grab his wallet and keys.

"I can hand her the phone," John argued.