River.

Chapter 54: Devastation

River's P.O.V.

"You feeling okay?" Max asked.
In all honesty, I felt horrible. My chest was hurting like hell and my heart was beating inhumanly fast. My head was pounding and I was in serious need of my inhaler. Something wasn't right.

"Yea I'm fine." I lied. "Just take me home."

"Take you home? No. You're not supposed to be out of the hospital for another few days."

"Max take me home. If you take me back to the hospital I promise I will wreak havoc and let all hell loose."

"I don't care. You need to be under the supervision of the hospital."

"Yea well I'm not going."

Max suddenly pulled over to the side of the highway and stopped the car. He took off his seatbelt and turned towards me.

"Get out then. Walk home. I'm not gonna be responsible for your death." He stated. "You just fought after having surgery and your damn heart's beating so hard I can hear it from over here! You NEED medical attention!"

"I don't NEED anything. I'm fine." I calmly replied.

"No you're not! That's your problem, you always pretend like you're fine even when you know damn well that you're not! What the hell is wrong with you River? There's no telling what's gonna happen if I just take you home instead of to the hospital but chances are you're not gonna make it another day! Not in the condition you're in right now! What don't you understand about that?!?!"

"Its my decision. Take me home." I said again, still remaining calm.

"So you're choosing to die? That's extremely selfish.What about Legend? He looks up to you more than you could ever know. And Journey? She looks to you for guidance. You're the only person she goes to when she has a problem. What about Rome? He's already having to deal with the divorce of you and his mom. And you know that when its finalized he's gonna wanna live with you. He's gonna want you to raise him. What about Grayson? He's already lost his mom, he can't lose his dad too. That kid considers you his hero. What about your dad? You're the only thing he has left to remember your mom by. You remember how horrible it felt to lose your wife and kid? Do you really want your dad to feel that pain too? What about Cassidy? That girl is head over heels in love with you. You're her first love. You mean sooo much to her. Do you know that she was thinking about moving back to Colorado to finish college there? But then she met you and she hasn't talked about leaving since. Hell she worries about you more than I do! What about your unborn kids? They're gonna grow up without having ever met you. Which'll be a huge loss for them because they deserve to know how amazing of a father they have."

He stopped momentarily and took a deep breath as his eyes looked back into mine.

"And what about me?" He said. " River, you and Reese are the only people that know what I've been through because you two lived it with me. We've been through so much shit together. You're the only ones I can talk to about what happened to us when we were kids. If I would have went through that alone I probably would've lost my mind. In fact the only reason why I'm still sane is because I know that I have to look after you. I saw you breaking down and I knew I had to step up and help you get through it because if both of us would've broken down after that period in our lives we'd both be dead right now. I don't think of you as my cousin, I consider you my brother because out of all of my family and friends, you're the person I'm closest to. Because you know my struggles and I know yours. You know things about me that no one else does just like I do about you. That's why I always try to talk you out of doing dumb shit because if anything happened to you I'd be alone in this world. Just please, don't do this."