Carpe Noctem

Chapter 1

It had been a long night. Justin's inexplicable collapse had happened at around 10pm and now it was closing in on midnight.

When it had happened Deb had immediately called '911'. While she waited for the ambulance to arrive she watched helplessly as a grief stricken Brian held Justin's lifeless form; mumbling to him and running his fingers through the golden strands on the unconscious boys' head. As she looked on she imagined that this was how he had protected Justin all those night's ago on the parking garage floor and it broke her heart to see them both this way. When the ambulance had arrived it taken a lot of gentle coaxing on her part to get Brian away from Justin so that the EMTs could do their job.

Debbie had been at a loss. Brian had stood motionless, tears streaming down his face, as the EMTs strapped Justin on to a gurney. Everything else in the diner had come to a stand still; the patrons looked on in disbelief at the scene unfolding in front of them. Was Brian Kinney crying?! Actually showing emotion?! It seemed to them that the impossible was finally happening.

"Brian?" Deb said softly, reaching out and gently putting a hand on his shoulder. She got no response. She tried again, "Brian, honey?" He turned and looked at her with unblinking eyes that were filled with pain and fear. "Are you going to go with him?" she asked.

He blinked slowly, but gave no response. Brian seemed to be lost in some kind of daze.

"In the ambulance? With Justin? Are you going to go now?" she asked not sure if the man she had known for so long was actually hearing her.

Before she had a chance to say another word, Brian had silently turned and followed the EMTs out of the diner, back to the ambulance and climbed in the back after Justin had been loaded in.

Now, hours later, Debbie looked across the waiting room at Brian. He was standing at a window that faced the outside world, his back to the rest of the people in the room. He'd barely moved from that spot since she'd found him there when she'd arrived. She had been first to arrive after Brian. Before leaving the diner she'd called Jennifer Taylor and Vic to tell them what had happened, relying on them to call everyone else. When she arrived at the hospital she first inquired about Justin and then went to find Brian. She had been concerned for him, having never seen him behave the way he had at the diner. When she got to the waiting area she spied Brian standing at the window and went over to him.

"Brian?" she said gently, just like at the diner. He turned to face her. She looked at him concernedly, but his hazel eyes were dark and revealing nothing.

"Deb." He acknowledged monosyllabically. His walls were up in full force and Debbie knew better than to pry with Brian, no matter how much she felt the need to mother him. He had responded and that seemed to be as much as she was going to get from him. He turned back to the window and Deb went and found a seat and waited for the others to arrive.

Jennifer Taylor was the next to arrive. She came through the doors in a panic; she saw Debbie and raced across the room into her arms. "Why is this happening?! How can I be here again, waiting to see if my son lives or dies!?" Jennifer sobbed into Debbie's arms.

Deb pulled back a touch, so she could look at the woman unravelling before her. "Jenn, sweetie, I talked to the nurse, it's not that bad. He'll be fine. They think that he collapsed from exhaustion."

"Exhaustion?" Jennifer exclaimed. She began sobbing again, partly for her son, but also for not being able to see that something was wrong with her son. "I didn't realise that he was working so hard."

Deb looked over at Brian, who remained motionless at the window, "I don't think any of us did Jenn. Now come sit down while we wait." Deb led her to the seats where she had been sitting before the distraught mother had arrived. They sat in silence for a while longer; Deb kept an arm around Jenn and an eye on Brian across the room.

When she had calmed herself Jenn looked up and noticed that her comforter seemed to be distracted. She followed Deb's line of sight and saw that she was looking at a tall man across the way with his back to the room. He was wearing a dress shirt and suit pants, the jacket lay rumpled on a chair next to the window. It took a moment for her to realise that it was Brian.

"Oh my goodness, Deb! How long has he been here?" She asked, she hadn't even noticed him when she came in. She couldn't even remember if Justin was even speaking to him again, yet here he was at the hospital, and from the looks of him, he'd been here a while.

"He was at the diner when it happened and rode over in the ambulance with Justin. He's barely said two words since Justin collapsed." She explained sadly. She told Jennifer about the scene at the diner. They both sat in silence watching the statue of a man while they waited for news.

It didn't take much longer for the rest of the family to start to trickle in to the hospital. Daphne was next to arrive after getting a frantic call from Molly. When she got there she rushed over to Jennifer and gave her a hug and some words of comfort before joining her and Deb in the seats. Unlike Jennifer, Daphne wasn't surprised to see Brian standing guard in the waiting room. She knew that Brian and Justin were talking, not much, but in contact nonetheless. That made her happy, because despite all the problems between the two them she knew that Brian cared for Justin, plus she wasn't exactly Ethan's biggest fan. Sure he claimed to love her best friend, but Justin didn't seem any happier now than those last few weeks with Brian. She hadn't been able to drag whatever had been bothering him out of Justin and now he was in the hospital again! When she'd settled her stuff with Deb and Jenn and given them both hugs she walked over to where Brian had stationed himself. Debbie and Jenn followed her path with their eyes. They'd never really witnessed much interaction between Daphne and Brian and both were interested to see how the only two people who remembered the fateful prom dance would interact.

As she crossed the room she took in his appearance. His shirt was slightly rumpled and his jacket was just tossed aside on the chair next to him. He didn't seem the confident man she had come to admire. His shoulders were slumped and his arms were crossed. She took up a position next to him at the window and cast a glance at his face. She was shocked at the fear and pain she saw written across his beautiful features.

"I should report you to the fashion police for tossing couture aside like that." She said in greeting, although not looking at him, but gazing out the window at the view they were sharing. Brian turned to look at her. Her brown eyes met his hazel gaze.

"Daphne." He stated, then turning back to the view of the Pitts and the cars and the few people going about their late night business. Daphne resumed looking out on the city as well. She wasn't sure what to say to him, he seemed almost broken, if that was the word she was looking for, although she wasn't sure it was. When she looked into his clouded hazel eyes she could see how much being here, in this hospital again was hurting him.

"He's going to be fine, he always is." She stated plainly, then added, "He still loves you, you know, he never stopped." At first she thought that maybe she should have left that last bit out, knowing how Brian was always harping on love. But then he turned to face her again, and his face seemed a little softer.

"Thanks Daph." He said softly. The emotion in his voice broke her heart. She thought of her best friend and wondered how he could ever doubt how much this man cared for him. She leaned in and gave him a hug.

Across the room Debbie and Jenn were awestruck as Brian returned the hug briefly and then turned back to his post. She hadn't heard the words spoken but Deb was grateful that Daphne had been able to get some kind of response out of Brian 'It's no wonder she and Sunshine are friends,' she thought to herself, 'they're the only ones that can get past the Brian Kinney barrier.' Daphne said a few more words to Brian, folded his jacket gently across the chair and turned to leave, she didn't return to the seats, however, but walked off down the hallway.

Not soon after that Ted and Emmett arrived and after them, within minutes, Ben, Michael and Vic showed up. All of them made their way over to where the distraught mothers were sitting. Mel and Linds finally arrived after finding a last minute late-night sitter for Gus. They made their way over to where the rest of their family was sitting. Deb was recounting the days' events up to the collapse, although avoiding Brian's part during the ordeal. Everyone else was putting in their two cents about the situation, mentioning things that could have been construed as signs if they had been looking.

"He wasn't able to concentrate when we were working on the last issue of Rage." Michael put in. "I thought it was personal stuff, but now that I think of it he really didn't seem himself." Everyone else started to think about how Justin had been acting lately. Justin and Ethan had been together for about a year, so it wasn't realistic that he was pining over Brian, although some of them had thought that this was the root of his behaviour. He had seemed increasingly tired, but those who weren't convinced it was because of Brian were sure that it was just school getting to the blonde.

Daphne was making her way back to the waiting room with a tray of four coffees. She could see that the rest of the family had arrived. It warmed her heart to see that Justin had such a great group of people who cared about him. If he had only let them in, this whole situation probably could have been avoided. She saw that none of them had noticed Brian standing at the window yet, which was probably a good thing; from how he'd been with her earlier she doubted that he would be receptive to his friends right now. It was interesting to her that this gorgeous and confident man could just fade into the background when he saw fit. As she passed the entrance she bumped into someone coming in the doors, almost spilling the coffee.

"Shit." She muttered to herself

"Daphne?!" She heard the person who'd bumped into her exclaim. It was Ethan. She could see the worry on his face. Even though they didn't get along all that well, he cared for her best friend, which was at least one thing that they had in common. "Is he alright?" he sounded panicked.

"Follow me." She said and continued her way back to the waiting room. She had taken a few steps when she noticed that he wasn't following. She looked back and saw the fear on his face as he looked at the rest of the gang who were already there. "They don't bite, I promise. We're all worried about Justin, just like you, so come on." That was all it took. He steeled himself and followed Daphne as she made her way back to face the strange group of people that had become her best friends' family.

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