Hayden & Dean (The Sequel) - A Tethered Love

Chapter 18: Thinking Ahead

My dad comes out after sometime. He walks over to me with his head low and barely lifts his eyes up when he says "so, I know what I am going to do."

"What's that?" I ask back lowly.

"She should rest peacefully now, we are going to have to let her go." He explains, getting a little choked up with saying it out loud.

I put my hand on his elbow "I'm so sorry dad" I whisper, not knowing how to handle this. He nods just a little and I can tell how upset he is. I lean in closer to him and hug him. The moment my cheek touches his suit jacket, the tears fall down from my own eyes. She wasn't the best mother on the planet, but she was my mother. I will be losing her for good this time around, and a part of me is upset things never got better.

"Hayden, William- I am so sorry!" A familiar voice grabs our attention.

I lift my head and use one of my arms to wipe the tears away. "Charles?" I ask when I see him. "What are you doing here?"

"I called him." My dad comments. He moves a few steps forward and the two strongly embrace one another.

"Oh." I mutter out, not sure what else to say.

"If there is anything I can do for you, anything at all, please ask." He says as they release. "I'm so sorry, she was a strong women." He says.

I correct him "is."

He nods back "is, yes, sorry." he returns. He leaves his arms open just a bit to his side, a gesture for me to hug him. The emotion comes back and I lean in accepting his kind gesture. We only hug for a moment before I let go. "If you are not comfortable with me here Hayden, I understand, I can leave." He says to me.

"That's okay. If my father wants you here then it's alright with me." I return "I just am not sure why?" I turn to my dad for some answers.

He smirks "Charles always got along with her, she really enjoyed him. I thought it would be nice to have him here when it happened." He explains.

I smile to him "she'd like that." I reach my hand over to his and rub my fingers across the back of his hand. "Should we talk to the doctors?" I ask, taking that first hard step.

He nods just a little and the two of us walk to find the doctor while Charles goes into my mothers room. "We are ready to talk about our options." My father says once the doctor comes over to us.

"Very well. Have you decided how long you want to keep her life support for?" He asks first, his hands folded together in front of him.

My father chokes up "yes, we uhh- we don't want to keep her on too much longer. We want her to go peacefully, no more pain."

"Alright. We can get moving on the paperwork. Do you know if she is an organ donor?" He asks next.

"Would she be able to even donate her organs? I mean, her liver was failing." I ask.

He nods, understanding where my question is coming from "some of her organs are too damaged to use, yes, but there are some others that may be viable." He explains.

I look to my father, not sure if she is an organ donor or not. "She's not an organ donor." He says firmly, standing up a bit taller.

"Alright, let's move along." He says, not pushing anything further. He moves to the side and says something lowly to the nurse. She nods and moves to the computer. "Why don't you go spend what time she has left with her, I will be in shortly with everything we need." He directs to us.

"Alright, thank you." I smile kindly to him and put my hand on my fathers back to return to her room.

The three of us sit quietly in the room for what feels like hours. None of us say anything, just staring either at her or somewhere nearby. At some point, my phone vibrates in my pocket and I excuse myself to answer it "we got something Hayden!" Dean's voice is energetic through the phone.

"Wait, what?" I ask, my own voice picking up in tone.

"Between Charlie and Rowena looking, we were able to find a spell to rid Paul of the mark. We can be done with this by the end of the day." He explains quickly.

"What kind of spell? Is it safe?" My mind races with questions.

"It seems to be, she said it won't hurt him." He tells me.

I chortle back "like we can believe her."

"It's the best we got. How are things with your mother?" He asks me, changing the subject.

"She's on life support." I get out.

I try to explain further but he interrupts me "Hayden, I'm so sorry baby." He says.

"It's fine, really. We're waiting on the paperwork to move on, then we'll follow up with the arrangements and everything." I explain to him, my brain finally moving through the next steps.

"Do you want us to come up there, be with you through this?" He asks.

I smile, loving how sweet he is to me "no, no. I want you to go through with that spell. Get that mark off of our son."

"Are you sure you don't want to be here for it? We could wait a few more days." He says back.

"No. You move forward, I'll be fine here." I assure him.

"Alright H. I'll keep you posted. I love you." He tells me.

"I love you too, Dean." I respond, hanging up afterwards.

When I turn to go back I'm stopped by Charles, whose smiling down at me "you must really love him. You never sounded like that when you told me you loved me."

"I do love him." I affirm to my ex, whose slimy grin annoys me.

He steps closer "well, I just wanted to come out here and make sure you were holding up okay. This can't be easy." He says.

"Thanks Charles, but I'm fine. I haven't really spoken to her since I left New York. I'm here for my father mostly anyway." I tell him.

"Still," he goes on to say "you finally get back in contact with your family and this happens. Its gotta suck."

"Yea well, life's a bitch sometimes." I shrug, not really knowing what he wants me to say back to him.

"You know, you might think I'm some slime ball wall street pig, but I did love you Hayden. And I am happy you are happy." His voice lowers and his dark eyes soften.

I nod "well, thanks." I say, still not believing him.

I chuckles "I know you think I'm lying but I'm here because I care for you, and I know this is going to be hard for your father. You may go back to your life in nowhereville Wisconsin, but he is going to be here, alone."

I sigh, trying not to feel guilty at his words "it's Kansas."

"Whatever." He rolls his eyes. "Your father is a good man Hayden, I think he's really going to need you after this." He comments putting a hand on my shoulder. He slightly smiles once more before heading back into the room. I look at my feet, thinking about everything Dean said and everything Charles said. My son will soon be mark free, able to live his life without that burden but my father is about to lose the love of his life, and I can only imagine the grief he is going to be feeling. Although I'm annoyed at Charles for putting these thoughts into my head, I have a lot more to think about then just future funeral arrangements.