Blake and my brother have been keeping me sane. Finn has been checking in a lot, he knows how I get when I'm stressed and anxious. Not gonna lie, I wanna run... but Blake keeps me grounded. I love him, a lot.
Whoever Hayden's emergency contact is, isn't answering any of the hospital staffs calls and I can tell Mac is getting frustrated. It's been days and I'm afraid Hayden's health is going to decline.
"Finneas, what do I do? She's been unconscious for three days now, and her mom is more or less a cunt." I whisper over the phone.
"Well you're not wrong." a booming voice catches me off guard and I end the phone call.
My head snaps up and I'm met with the eyes of a man who's obviously seen a thing or two during his time. He sticks his hand out for me to shake, and it's stained a grayish black color.
"I promise I washed my hands, it's hell getting crude oil off of anything. Name's Alan." he says with an awkward expression.
I take his hand and he gives me a firm handshake. "Billie." I reply as my brain racks itself trying to figure out who he is.
"Ahh you must be Mr. Grey." Mac chimes as she comes in.
Does that mean-?
This hospital room is feeling a little crowded.
"Yes ma'am. I got all the voicemails you left, sorry I couldn't come sooner. It's a pain trying to find someone to cover my position on the rig at work plus it's a in the ass driving all the way from Galveston to here." he explains shoving his hands into his pockets expectantly waiting on what Mac has to say.
"I totally understand Mr. Grey. Well Hayden listed you as her emergency contact in addition to giving you power of attorney in the event that she's unconscious. Right now we have her in a medically induced coma for a few reasons. The main one being, we found a low-grade tumor located in her prefrontal cortex." she explains.
"Prefrontal what? Sorry, I'm not stupid... but ma'am, I'm a drilling engineer on an oil rig. I can do differential equations all day long. Mention human anatomy, and I'm lost." he says with a chuckle.
Mac blushes a little bit from embarrassment. "Sorry about that. Here..." she says pulling up one of Hayden's scans in her tablet pointing to the clearly defined white mass invading the front of her brain.
"I strongly believe this is what's been causing the blackout seizures throughout her life as well as the grand mal seizure she experienced the other day. Due to its location it's also safe to say that this is true cause for the schizophrenia she's been experiencing as well." she explains.
Alan just stares at her for a second scratching the back of his neck while he processes everything. "Alright little lady, you probably need me to sign some papers so you can get this show on the road. Can't have Hays hurting anymore." he says as he grabs the pen and paper from Mac and signing on the dotted line.
"Great. I'll put her on the OR board for first thing tomorrow morning." she says before giving Alan a quick handshake and heading out.
Alan turns around and sees me. "Oh, I sort of forgot you were here." he says before peering around me. "Is that? Blake?"
I take a protective step back. I don't know this dude. "Yeah... look, I'm sure you're great and all but I'll be honest, for as long as I've known Hayden, I've never heard her talk about you. So, why come around now?" I question him harshly.
He sighs, "Her mother put her through so much shit and I was always out of town for work when she was a kid. I wanted to provide for my family... it's not like she and I don't speak, she'll send photos of little man and lately she's been talking a lot about someone named Billie, which I assume is you?" he says the last part in more of a questioning tone.
"I've always told her that if she called for any reason, I'd drop what I was doing and drive through the night just to be here. She never took me up on it, which I was surprised the hospital called me instead of her mom. I don't get good reception on the rig, so when we hit stateside again the messages flooded in. I just wish I could have been here sooner. I'm sorry that I wasn't." he apologizes avoiding my gaze.
Hayden does the same thing, maybe it's because she doesn't want to see the hurt in a persons eyes. Speaking of eyes, now that I've met her dad, she gets a lot of her features from him. The shape of the eyes, the color, the slope of her nose is almost identical. His has a small ridge in it, like maybe he's broken his nose before. I wonder if mine has a ridge in it.
The little intricacies about him are the same ones that I admire so much in Hayden. For the little time they spend together, they have a lot in common.
He takes out a small notebook and scribbles something down before handing it to me. "I've gotta set up a place to stay while I'm here, but if anything changes while I'm running errands, call me. I'll drop what I'm doing and be here." he says in a serious tone before turning on his heel. I watch him start to walk away.
Maybe he could...
But I don't know him that well...
He is family after all...
"Wait!" I say and he pauses in his tracks. "What if- maybe- what if you stayed with me and Blake? We're staying at Hayden's house and there's a spare bedroom already made up."
He gives me a small smile, "I'd like that."
The sweet moment lasts for just a second before the alarms start going off again...
No. Not again.
a/n: Stay safe and stay alive. I love you bubbies. 💕
