Alone Together

Taylor had never broken any bones. She’d never had to have any major surgeries. She hadn’t stepped foot in a hospital since her mother died. The beeping that echoed through the halls made her heart stutter, and each thud felt like it stilled the world on its axis. Her eyes desperately searched the frames of all the doors she passed, looking for the numbers the nurse had recited to her.

327.

327.

“Taylor, here,” Patrick said, pointing to a room situated in a corner between two nurse stations. He barely had time to blink before a flash of red blurred before his eyes, and Taylor disappeared into the room with the whisper of a hiccup trailing her. Out of respect, Patrick decided to linger back in the hallway, glancing down to see all of Pete’s panicked texts in response to his earlier alert of the situation.

“Dude, she’s freaked, man,” he murmured a few moments later when Pete answered his phone.

“What happened?” Pete asked. He sounded out of breath, like he was furiously tugging clothes on while simultaneously sprinting around his hotel room.

Patrick sighed and glanced in the room. Taylor was sitting by her father’s bed, her back to the door and her hands clasped over her mouth. Sylvia sat on the opposite side, all trembling lip and quivering fingers.

“Heart attack, apparently. Doc says they brought him in this morning.” Patrick bit his lip when he noticed Taylor’s frame begin to shake, ever so slightly.

“I’m on my way now,” Pete said, and Patrick could hear the click of the door as he left.

Patrick glanced once more into the room before shuffling away a bit. “Listen, dude, just…I know you and Taylor had issues this morning. Maybe don’t bring that up—“

“Dude, are you fucking serious right now?” Patrick could hear panting and the swift release of a colorful curse. “Fucking cabs. Patrick, why the hell would I bring any of that shit up? Taylor needs me right now. That other shit can wait.”

Before Patrick could retort, Pete muttered a swift, “Be there in twenty.” And the line went dead.

“Did the doctor say when he should wake up?” Taylor asked. She was terrified of speaking in anything louder than a whisper, as if the weight of her voice would offset the delicate balance keeping her father stable.

Sylvia shook her head, her chocolate eyes never leaving her husband’s slumbering face. “No, but he will. In his own time.” A stray tear ran down her cheek, tracing her smile before falling off her chapped lips as she patted his thigh. “Your father is a stubborn one, Katherine. He’s not going anywhere without a fight.”

For some reason, Sylvia’s words made Taylor’s cheeks flush in anger. Wouldn’t go anywhere without a fight? Like when he’d fought for Taylor to not go to Tennessee? The pang in her chest was so deep Taylor lost her breath for a moment, but she couldn’t explain it. Looking at her father, she wondered if it might be worth getting her own heart checked out while she was here.

“Taylor?” Patrick felt awkward in there, well aware that it was not his place to be privy to such an intimate moment in Taylor’s life. When she looked up at him he saw only a shadow of the girl he’d met all those years ago, a girl so content and vibrant with life. “I’m sorry, Tay, it’s just—Rae’s called me, and I need to—“

“Go ahead, Patrick. It’s fine. Thank you for getting me here.” She made no move to hug him goodbye; it was as if there was a force keeping her parallel to her father’s bed. She tried offering him a smile, but they both knew it didn’t carry up into her eyes.

Still, Patrick ducked in a pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You call me if you need me, okay?” When she only nodded, he sighed and took off. His departure issued in a new silence that fell over the room like dust, just as suffocating, just as final.

“You know, Gerard’s had health issues for a while now,” Sylvia said, evidently over the fear that her voice could startle her husband into some kind of shock. When Taylor’s eyes shot up to her, she nodded her head. “Oh, yes. Fool wouldn’t listen to me when I told him to go to the doctor. He never seemed too interested in taking very good care of himself. Until…”

Taylor watched her face, how her eyes fluttered to Gerard, full of more adoration than Taylor had ever witnessed. “Until a young man called him with information about his daughter,” she finished. “It was like he had purpose again. Brought back from some death he hadn’t even realized he’d suffered.”

It was easy for Taylor to see what made Gerard fall in love with Sylvia when she looked back at her. Her eyes had a softness worn down by time, yet with a vibrancy that could never falter or fade. She must have been a beautiful young woman if she was still this stunning in her later age. “After he got to talk to you that night, Katherine, your father was so happy. He couldn’t stop talking about it for days.”

“How did Pete find him?” Taylor asked.

Sylvia shrugged. “That’s something you’d have to ask Pete, dear. Your father was as amazed as I’m sure you were.” Her gaze was unnerving, like she could see right through Taylor as she pondered her next words.

“Taylor, I know I’m an old woman, but I was young once, too.” Sylvia laughed when Taylor’s mouth gaped open, and she held up a hand to silence her. “Oh honey please, look at these gray hairs. My point is, I know what it’s like to fall in love. It’s not very pleasant, is it?”

“No,” Taylor said softly. “It’s…difficult.”

Sylvia smiled and reached over the bed for Taylor’s hand. “Anything that comes easy isn’t worth having, honey,” she said. “It’s the things we work hardest for that make us the most happy.”

“Yeah, it took this woman two years to agree to marry me,” Gerard piped up. Both women jumped and looked over at him, and he smiled at them through heavy lids.

Sylvia tutted and gently swatted at his arm. “Oh, you’ve been awake for a while, haven’t you?”

Gerard’s chuckle was slightly winded and he took Sylvia’s hand in his with a small shake. “Don’t abuse me, woman, I’ve only just recovered from another attack.”

Sylvia laughed and shook her head. “Oh, you doof. You nearly scared me to death!”

His laughter joined in with hers, forming a harmony that offset the unpleasant beeping from the machine in the corner of the room. “Taylor, don’t let this gal fool you. She’s been making her food so tasty on purpose in an effort to be rid of me.”

Sylvia was just shaking her head, happy tears trailing down her cheeks. “You’re impossible, Gerard Barrie.”

They looked so happy, Pete noted as he leaned against the doorway trying to catch his breath. The laughter of the little family soon overpowered the echoing beeps of the hallway, hovering in the air like the soft notes of a lullaby. Taylor didn’t look so sad; she looked gleeful and elated that her father was okay. Maybe she didn’t need Pete. Maybe she never did.

By the time Taylor glanced over her shoulder, Pete was gone. All she saw was an empty doorframe muffling the sounds of sad footsteps walking down the hall.

--

“Have you talked to her?” Patrick asked the next day, trying to remain out of the way as their things were loaded back onto the tour bus. Rae was fluttering around, scolding people for dropping her bags and scattering her eye shadow everywhere. It didn’t seem to matter that Patrick would just buy her some more when they reached the next town. She was so particular.

Pete glanced up from his shoes, blinking away the daydream he’d just been replaying in his head of his last night with Taylor. “Hm? Oh, yeah. We talked on the phone this morning.”

“And?” Patrick prodded.

Pete shrugged with a sigh. “Dude, her dad’s in the hospital. That’s her priority right now. We’re gonna meet back up after the tour and see where we’re at.”

“That’s fucking lame,” Rae said, walking over with her makeup back cradled under her arm. “Why didn’t you ask her to come along or something?”

“Rae,” Patrick warned, shaking his head with a glance towards Pete.

“It’s fine, Patrick,” Pete sighed. “I’m gonna get on the bus.” The couple watched as he trudged away, not even partaking in some of the revelries of the rest of the crew on his trek as he normally would in the hype of continuing the tour. Brendon and Dallon shot Patrick a look, as if to say ‘What’s up with him?’

“She knows we’re leaving, right?” Rae asked, looking to Patrick with her eyebrows raised.

Patrick nodded and scratched the back of his neck. “Yeah, but Pete’s right. She’s freaked about her dad still. At least they talked a little before we left.” He shrugged and pulled her into a hug. “Nothing we can do but see what happens I guess.”

Rae scoffed and nuzzled into his neck. “Please, you know I’m gonna be working on this.”

“Just be subtle.”

“Aren’t I always?”

--

Taylor had been staring out the window for a while now. She hadn’t really noticed when Sylvia, Evan and Hailey had excused themselves to get lunch down at the cafeteria, nor when the nurses came in with Gerard’s food and he happily munched on the hospital food as pleasantly as he could. Her focus couldn’t seem to drag away from a flower that had been sent to her father as a get-well-soon offering that lay on the window sill: a pink rose, with no note indicating its sender.

But Taylor knew full well who it was from.

Gerard watched his daughter thoughtfully as he swallowed the last of his pudding. He pushed his tray away with little effort and shifted to a more comfortable position before speaking. “A watched flower never blossoms, Katherine.”

Being directly addressed seemed to snap Taylor from her trance, and she looked over at her father as she recovered from her daze. “How was your food?” she asked, turning away from the window to sit on the chair next to her father’s bed.

“Wonderfully bland, with a pinch of no flavor. Everything a heart attack patient should expect.” He chuckled, pausing when she didn’t laugh along at his joke. “You have something on your mind.”

Her smile was small, too small to highlight the dimples in her cheeks. “Am I that easy to read?” she asked. Gerard just smiled and waited patiently, clasping his hands in his lap. She sighed and sat back in her chair, feeling the plush cushion hit her back with all the softness of a used carpet square. “I’ve been thinking—something that Sylvia said…”

Gerard waited for her to continue, but when she made no move to do so, he raised his eyebrows. “Katherine—“

“Why didn’t you fight for me, Dad?” she asked, looking up from her nails and into his eyes. He didn’t move, obviously not expecting this to be the turn their conversation would take. When he didn’t respond, Taylor pressed on, ignoring the catch in her throat and the sting in her eyes. “Why did you let Aunt Cynthia win me? Didn’t you want me?”

“Oh, honey.” His hands wrapped around hers, and she tried very hard not to stare at the IV protruding from his veins. “Of course I did.”

“Then why did I go with her?” Damn, that catch in her throat stung now, burning her insides as she fought away the incoming storm. “Why didn’t I ever hear from you?”

They stared at each other for a while, and Taylor could see the pain in Gerard’s eyes. She ignored it, knowing that it was reflected in harsher clarity in her own. Finally Gerard sighed. “Katherine, sometimes the world is against you, and it beats you down until you’ve given up any hope that it can work for you. I did fight for you, and I still lost, and I’ll never understand why. But a day never went by where I didn’t love you, or think about you. I’m just sorry it took me so long.”

What was there to say to that? Gerard didn’t know any better than she did why they had been forced apart. Maybe they would never know. But at least he had never abandoned her. The world just wasn’t on their side.

“How’s Pete?” Gerard asked a few minutes later, after the nurse had come back in and taken away his tray.

Taylor shrugged and looked back down at her nails, trying to avoid his gaze. “He’s fine,” she said softly. “They left today to continue the tour.”

Gerard seemed to pick up on more than her words, and he nodded thoughtfully. “You know what one of my biggest regrets is?” he asked. She looked up at him, and he looked up at the ceiling before staring her in the eye. “Not telling your mother how much I loved her. I was always working, you remember. Never home when she needed me, always obsessing more about what bulbs I needed to plant at the next site instead of the family time with you two.”

He looked back up at the ceiling. “I sometimes wonder what it would be like now if I had told her more often how much I loved her. Showed her how much more she meant to me than some silly flowers.” He cleared his throat and settled back into his pillows. “I only hope you’re not making the same mistake as I did, Katherine.”

Was she forever damned to tears now? It seemed the case when she reached a hand up to her cheek, brushing the traitors away with a frown. “It’s difficult, Daddy,” she muttered.

“The only difficult thing is you, Katherine,” Gerard said. “That boy has done a hell of a lot to show you he loves you. I wonder if it’s time you do the same.”

It was odd being lectured by her father from his hospital bed. Taylor’s stomach churned uneasily, and she glanced over the rose again. “He’s probably already gone by now,” she murmured.

Gerard’s eyes were closed, and he yawned. “It’s a good thing your business is so successful, Katherine. I’m sure that allows its owner some vacation time, hmm?”

“I don’t remember you being this snarky,” Taylor laughed, hurrying up and grabbing her coat.

Gerard just chuckled. “I was never drugged up before. Now go get that boy before he puts more inappropriate pictures of himself on the internet in his loneliness.”

With that image in mind, Taylor sprinted out of the room, ignoring the curious looks of the nurses and Evan and Hailey’s yells asking if she was all right. She would be soon. As long as she could catch that bus.