Things that belong together

Fear

me being bored completely, posting twice a day... well

Suddenly, they could hear the voices in the surgery raise, someone shouted something and then the silence was filled with a horrible, loud beep...

Ant's head turned around to face the massive door where his best friend still lay in... and from where the beeping noise came. He heard the muffled voices of doctors and nurses, then something that sounded awfully like an electric shock. The man jumped up. "No", he whispered, and then louder: "NO!"

He wanted to run, to scream, to storm into the surgery and do anything, anything to stop whatever had happened. He didn't realize that he was walking towards the door until shaking but firm hands grabbed his shoulders and held him back. He tried to shake them off, but an arm wrapped itself around Ant's chest, forcing him back, and the next thing he knew was, that his knees buckled and he sank down on the floor.

Stephen was shaking. The loud beeping was still ringing in his ears and the sounds of another electric shock didn't help either. He wished so badly to do anything else than forcing Ant down to the floor. There he was now, his face buried in his hands, trembling all over and whispering barely audible phrases to himself.

"That cannot be true... that cannot be true... he isn't dead... he isn't... it's only a nightmare, I'll wake up... he cannot be dead... he cannot... he cannot leave me..." Finally, his voice broke and the floodgates opened. Ant had never been a person to show his emotions in public, other than Dec who wore his heart on his sleeve, he tended to bottle things up until he was on his own. But now, he couldn't help it. The desperation paired with stabbing pain, disbelief and the last glint of hope shook him, there, on the hospital floor, and he didn't care who could see him or not.

Stephen's heart broke when he saw his friend on the floor, shaking with silent sobs and raw emotion. He forced back the stinging in his own eyes and wrapped Ant in a gentle hug. "He can't be dead, Stephen", Ant said with choked voice. "He can't be, he simply can't, he..." He was hushed by Stephen pulling him closer, felt a hand stroking his upper back hesitantly and then there was nothing.

--------------------

"Ant... Ant, you need to wake up... it's not good to lie on the floor for so long, mate, stand up, son... Anthony..."

The voices reached Ant's ears first muffled, then louder like a radio that was turned on. He blinked, opened his eyes and closed them immediately when he was blinded by bright neon lights. Where was he and why? He tried to press his eyes shut, because with the light, the memories had returned. But the harder he tried to keep them away the harder was it and eventually, he gave up fighting. He opened his eyes slowly and found that he still lay on green-greyish linoleum, next to a white wall. Stephen bit his lip sheepishly. "I though you might be in the way when you keep lying in the middle of the hallway, but I couldn't lift you and I didn't know where to lie you down either, so I just pulled you to a wall. Hope that's okay?"

Ant smiled weakly. "Alright mate, thank you. But uh... who else is here?" Ant was relatively sure that the voice that had waken him had been a feminine one. A sad, familiar face appeared in his sight and Ant sat up immedately. "Anne! Oh my... goodness, I..." The woman crouched down in front of him and lay her hand on his shoulder. "I arrived about five minutes ago and Stephen here explained everything", she said in a soft voice.

Ant's eyes started to sting with tears again. "I'm so sorry, Anne, I'm so incredibly sorry. I promised to keep him safe, to take care of him, and now I failed. I completely failed... again. I wasn't able to protect him and now... Now he is..." Another sob was on the verge to escape and before Ant could do anything about it, he was pulled into a warm, tight hug. A hug of the kind only mothers know. Only a mother can hug you like that. Anne held the boy, who was most likely family to her, in her arms and waited until his breathing had calmed, so that he was able to hear her again.

"Now listen here, Ant. You haven't done anything wrong, okay? It wasn't you fault that this car hit him, yeah? You are the best friend he could ever ask for and now stop crying, you need to be strong for him, alright?" Ant stared at her, disbelieving. "How... what do you mean, I need to be strong for him? He... isn't he..." He still couldn't say the word. Anne smiled softly. "No, Ant, he isn't. Dec is alive."

--------------------

TBC...