storm ◇ jasper hale ◇

chapter twenty-six ; hardships

"My boys!" Grandpa Dyami exclaimed as best he could when he saw Benedict and Madej. The two smiled at him, hugging him when they were close enough. "Benedict, I heard you've been busy helping your little brother here. I see no gloves are needed." Dyami said, looking at Madej's bare hands, a tired but impressed look on his face.

Madej smiled at him. "I did it, Grandpa Dyami."

"I'm proud, as would dear Anna," he said with a sad smile. "You've come far, Madej, despite what's happened now."

"C'mon, Dad, we won't talk about that just yet," Mandy said, giving her father a pointed look. They looked over at her, saw the way she was trying not to cry, smiling sadly.

"Go and get settled in," Grandpa Dyami said, waving the brothers off, ignoring how the action shifted his oxygen pipes, the IV stuck in his hand.

Benedict pulled Madej along into the spare bedroom.

"You get the bed," Benedict said, eyeing up the hammock on the other side of the room. "I'll battle the hammock."

Madej raised an eyebrow at his brother. Whenever the two of them, and Zeke, had stayed at their Grandpa Dyami's house, Madej somehow always had to sleep in the hammock. Benedict was giving him the bed.

"Don't move around in it too much then, Benny. Your back'll be bitching in the morning," he told him, setting his bags on the bed, pulling out his clothes, putting them in the drawer. He glanced over at Benedict, and he could see him trying to hold it together.

They both knew what was going to happen, and Madej felt it hurt even more so, seeing how upset it left Benedict. He held out their toiletries, and Benedict took them. It gave him a chance to go cry in the bathroom.

Madej sat down on the bed, wiping at his face, other hand gripping his bag tightly. His reality was getting worse and worse with each passing day. Zeke and Grandma Anna had passed, he'd been left alone, had cancerous cells, and now Dyami was going to leave him too. Madej sighed before dialling the number, putting the phone to his ear, hearing the clack of it knocking against his hearing aid.

Paul picked up after a few rings. "Hey, Enchanter, how're you doing? Your grandpa OK?"

"Not really. Uh, you're not busy are you?"

"Nah. Always got time for you, Mads."

Madej smiled at the words. Paul was a nice person, and Madej knew he was lucky to have him. "He's not doing too good. He's putting on a brave face, but ... we all know it's just a matter of time now. And I don't want to bother people like Bella or those at school, and you'll get me more than the others."

"You're with your grandpa, which is what matters. You've got the chance to say goodbye to him. Not that many people get that."

"I-I don't want to-to say goodbye," he said, rubbing his nose, feeling the burn in the back of his eyes. "He's - he doesn't deserve to go like this. I don't want to lose him."

"Shit, Mads," Paul said, because there was nothing he could really say that would make Madej feel better. "You're there with him, and you'll get the final moments with him. He won't be dying alone, because you, your brother and your mom are there for him. Others would kill to have that kind of last moment. So make every moment count, so that he can go on in peace and happiness."

Madej nearly choked on a sob, noises slipping past his mouth that he tried to keep in. "That does help, I'm just really upset," he said, just so Paul knew it wasn't his fault Madej was a blubbering mess. "I'm gonna miss him so much."

"He sounds like a great guy, so of course you're going to miss him. But he'll get to live in what you do; he'll be there in your heart and soul, for as long as you live. He'll be, I don't know, watching over you."