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innerpostmentality · 6 years

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Sometimes Beginnings start with Goodbye Part II - What’s Left

This is a TRR AU fan fic inspired by the Choices book series The Royal Romance All rights and many thanks are given to Pixelberry Studios for the use of their characters. This fic is written for my friend @tornbetween2loves who is celebrating her birthday and requested the prompt “let me love you” for Drake X MC where MC accepts Liam’s proposal. She requested some angsty heartbreak. Please read the parts in order or it may be confusing. You can find all parts on my Masterlist. Still more story but I wanted to post this for her today. There will be at least three parts. I still haven’t decided if I’m brave enough for this paddling pool. I’m sorry this one doesn’t have any fluff. Angst is really hard for me. I promise there will be better in the future. Rating: M - Mature themes Word count: 3000 ish Warnings: discussions of serious illness, hospital setting Tagging: @tornbetween2loves @gardeningourmet @kennaxval @stopforamoment @bobasheebaby @cora-nova @indiacater @hopefulmoonobject @drakewalkerwhipped @carabeth

The phone rang a third time and dropped to voice mail. “You are not in my book. Leave a message.”

Bastien closed his eyes and the muscle in his jaw twitched before he heard the beep that demanded his reply. “Your Grace this is Bastien. I’m at Agia Sofia Hospital where Drake has been admitted. I, I am sorry to have disturbed you.”

He hung up. What was he thinking calling the Dutchess of Lythikos? ‘Hey I’m stuck at the hospital wanna come have coffee with me? I don’t want to be alone.’ He shook his head and his phone rang. “Ya!” “You left a message. Do you need anything? I’m on my way. I should be there in a few hours.” Her voice was different. He was puzzling about that unfamiliar tone. “Bastien… are, are you doing well?” He closed his eyes and sighed. “The doctor advised me to call someone. It’s been… Thank you for calling me back your Grace.” “Ah kanena provlima. Is Savannah there?” He could hear her moving around occasionally calling out orders.

“Not yet. Her Grace is not able to be here until tomorrow afternoon.” “Have you eaten?” “No. No. That one. … I don’t know how long. Yes. Yes of course.” “Pardon Bastien. Just trying to guess what I may need.” Her voice, the sounds of normalcy in the background. It was embarrassing to him how comforting it was. Bastien never gave himself time to be lonely or bored. There was always, always something that demanded his attention and it was his job to pay meticulous attention to every detail. Lives, the lives of the royal family had depended on that dedication and focus for over twenty years. He couldn’t ever remember a time when he felt as helpless and lost as the last four hours, five hours he amended as he reflexively checked his watch. “Bastien? Can you hear me? Ya? Ya?”

“Oh, me synchoreite your Grace. I, no, I haven’t eaten.”

There was an audible sigh. He knew her left brow was raised. Could practically hear her scolding him in that moment before she replied. “Bastien, I want you to go get something to eat. A little. I’ll be there as soon as I can but it will still be three hours. Do this for me so I don’t have to beat you up when I get there. Now I’m thinking you’ve already called everyone. But is there anything you need?” That tone was in her voice again and it was terribly distracting as he was trying to listen to what she was saying and interpret her tone at the same time.

“I need a change of clothes. I haven’t called Leo, or Hana, or Kiera. I didn’t call Maxwell but I expect that Savannah would tell him. There’s not much for me to tell at this point. The doctor couldn’t tell me much because I’m not family. She asked me a lot of questions… It’s not good.” “Bastien…” There was a long silent pause, finally, “I’m going to make some calls and I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He sat there staring at his phone for a long time thinking about the conversation. Thinking how at odds it was with what he knew of Olivia Nevrakis.

***********************************************

It was 9:30 in the evening when Maxwell came into the ICU waiting room with a rolling suitcase. He didn’t spot Bastien at first. The figure in green surgical scrubs with his left elbow propped on the chair arm his left hand holding his brow while he looked at his phone didn’t match any image of Bastien Lykel that Maxwell had.

Bastien looked up smelling the fresh woodsy Ambre Topkapi cologne that Maxwell Beaumont always favored and spotted him looking slightly lost and as serious as he’d ever seen him look. There were only ten other people in the waiting room at this time of the night. He raised his hand and saw the surprised look on Maxwell’s face as he spotted him and headed over.

He stood to greet him. Maxwell pulled him into a hug. “Thank, thank you Lord Beaumont.” He patted Maxwell’s back awkwardly. Maxwell felt his stomach knot as he took in Bastien. He’d gone camping with Bastien and Drake and never seen Bastien look so distressed and disheveled. He remembered joking with Leo when they were young about Bastien never seeming to have afternoon scruff. He speculated that he kept a razor in his pocket so he could shave anytime a hair might dare to grow. And Leo assured him that Bastien simply intimidated his beard into not growing when he was at work. It would all grow out overnight and he would look like a great bear when he woke up in the morning before he shaved it. “Bastien, no formalities. I just got the message. What happened?” He cleared his throat struggling with his emotions, again. “I don’t know, Maxwell.” Shaking his head he ran his hands through the dark fullness of his hair. “I found him unconscious in his bathroom floor. I’ve no idea how long, how long he’d been out…” Bastien closed his eyes and locked his jaw struggling with the need to just weep over the vision he kept replaying of the moment he found Drake. Maxwell was hugging him again. “Hey Bastien, my man, I brought you some clothes and things if you want to ditch the doctor disguise. Though I have to say you lend a whole George Clooney debonair style to them.” He patted him on the back and let him go. Giving him a concerned smile. “Oh, and I was supposed to make sure you had gotten something to eat. Olivia was… Well she was very Olivia about it all.” Not trusting his voice Bastien just nodded and took the suitcase from him. He had another moment when he opened the suitcase and found that Maxwell had packed him a full suit, a couple of handkerchiefs, ties, shirts, boxers, and socks. But there in the bottom was also a carefully folded set of denim clothes for Drake.

He turned on the water in the handicapped sink washed his face and hair and wept. For a few moments with the water running he just wept. Then he caught a deep breath. Turned the water on cold and ran the icy water over his head and face before grabbing one of the hand towels Maxwell had packed to dry himself off. He shaved. Brushed his teeth. And changed into the suit. For the first time in hours he felt in control of himself again when he left the bathroom and headed back to the waiting room and Maxwell. Maxwell looked up from his phone when Bastien returned. “You should have called me Bastien.”

Bastien heard the hurt in the young man’s voice though his face was open and friendly as always. “Me synchoreite. Truly. I called Savannah and just presumed that they would let you know.”

“Yeah. I’m sure they would have but I wasn’t there. I’ve been helping out with a children’s theater group here in the capital. So I just got a text from them saying I should call them when I got a chance. I was going to call them when I got back to my room; but Olivia lit up my phone with calls and texts and voice messages.” He shrugged. “It worked out. I just wish you had called me.” He smiled.

Bastien knew Maxwell was truly hurt when he saw that smile. It was a tell of his since childhood. When Maxwell was hurt emotionally he would smile. When he was around someone who was in distress he would say something funny or complimentary to cheer them up.

“You’re looking better.” He fidgeted a bit not wanting to cause more distress. “So um, what has the doctor told you?”

Shaking his head Bastien sat down. “Nothing. I’m not immediate family so they won’t tell me anything. Savannah said they would be here tomorrow afternoon. Bianca won’t be in for a couple of days. I expect Liam and Giselle around six in the morning. I suspect they will talk with the King and Queen.”

Maxwell stood up with a determined look. “Well I’m his brother. So let’s see what the doctor will tell me.”

Bastien smiled remembering when Maxwell helped him locate Tariq. “Let’s go see if we can find Dr. Ardes.”

He took Maxwell to the ICU nurses station and introduced him as Drake’s brother-in-law and returned the scrubs they had lent him thanking them. The head nurse looked at Drake’s chart and immediately called the doctor. After a brief conversation she told them the doctor would come find them in the waiting room and they were sent back to the same place as before.

Maxwell sat down looking a little frustrated. But Bastien pulled out his phone and started searching the internet. A few minutes later Bastien was looking grimly at the screen and Maxwell realized it. “What’s up Bas?”

Bastien shook his head. “This isn’t good. I saw a few things on his chart. I just wanted to see if I could find out what they meant.”

Just then he saw Dr. Ardes walk in. He stood up and introduced her. “Lord Beaumont this is Dr. Ardes. She is the doctor who spoke to me earlier who has been taking care of Drake.”

Dr. Ardes extended her hand to Maxwell and rather than shaking it he took it and bowed over it. “Thank you for taking care of my brother, Dr. Ardes. Mr. Lykel raised Drake and his sister after their father was killed in the line of duty. You have full permission to discuss anything with him that you would with us. He is family I assure you.”

Bastien caught the faint dilation of her pupils and slight flush as Maxwell bowed over her hand. She had changed her clothes since speaking to him earlier. Of course there was no way to know what she had dealt with in the last couple of hours since speaking with him.

“Thank you for coming Lord Beaumont”, she smiled at them and nodded for them to take their seats. Bastien understood the subtle authoritarian move at the same time he admired the skill she executed it with.

She looked at her watch before she started. “A little over six hours ago your brother was brought in to the emergency center here unresponsive, dehydrated, with low blood pressure and with mild hypothermia, that’s low body temperature. That’s what we know for certain.

He was displaying symptoms of Sepsis which is a systemic blood infection and possible Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome as indicated by terribly low Thiamine levels and certain abnormalities in response. This is what we suspect at this point and what we are testing and treating him for.

Right now his kidneys are having problems and we are trying to get them to respond using fluids via IV. Because we don’t know how long he has been unconscious I would like to go ahead and put him on dialysis. That might give his kidneys a little help while we wait for the lab work to come back and hopefully identify the source of the infection.

He has had a couple of seizures we suspect are related to his drinking. We are giving him massive doses of broad spectrum antibiotics as well as Thiamine in his IV for the Sepsis and Wernicke. Once we get some of the lab work back hopefully we’ll be able to use targeted antibiotics.

I’m certain you have questions. I will answer to the best of my ability.”

Maxwell looked pale and was blinking trying to process all the information.

Bastien nodded at her, “Thank you Dr. Ardes. Could you give us some idea of what you expect to happen in the next few hours?”

She nodded. “Well I can tell you my hope. I’m hoping we put him on dialysis and his kidneys wake up with minimal damage. If we start the dialysis in the next half hour we should know more about that in the next four hours. In the next six hours I’m hoping we get lab work back that tells us how to target this sepsis. I’m hoping that within that time he wakes up and complains a LOT about being here and what we’ve done to him.”

Bastien gave her a grateful smile. “Thank you. Thank you for taking care of him.”

Maxwell finally asked, “Is, is he going to make it? Can we see him?”

She lifted a brow assessing. “Lord Beaumont your brother is gravely ill. But he also has what is in my, perhaps biased opinion, the best staff in the world treating him in what is one of the top hospitals in this country. And he’s young. In fair physical shape taking things into consideration. And he has a good support group. I think we can get him through what we are seeing at this time. His temperature has regulated in the last hour and that is a good sign. So I’m hopeful.”

She looked over at Bastien a long moment before continuing. “But… Lord Beaumont, twenty nine year old young men who are in good shape and live in palaces with access to the very best medical care don’t wind up with these conditions unless there are other factors. His long term prognosis is going to have everything to do with us identifying and treating those factors.

What I have to concentrate on right now is this minute, this hour. And I have to respond to the now. Because now is what we have. If, if we get to the other side of this, then and only then can we evaluate what’s left and make a plan going forward.”

Maxwell was silently weeping beside him and Bastien patted him on the back.

“Dr. could we see him?”

She nodded. “Follow me.”

“Lord Beaumont are you willing to sign treatment papers for him? Since you are here I really can’t proceed without your permission.”

He nodded wiping his eyes. “Of course.”

She led them into the ICU spoke quietly with the head nurse and signed treatment orders on his chart before she took them over to a small table so they could get gowned and masked. She explained it was for Drake’s protection that he wasn’t contagious but his immune system was struggling at the moment and he didn’t need to catch anything. When they were all properly dressed she led them to the far left corner of the U shaped ward.

In the center of the room Drake lay in the hospital bed with his head slightly elevated. IV’s dripped in both arms and Bastien noted that both his hands and feet were secured to the bed with buckling lambs wool cuffs. Blankets were draped over the raised bed railings. And the heart monitor silently showed the graph of his steady heartbeat, oxygen levels, and blood pressure.

Bastien softly asked the doctor about the cuffs. She met his eyes, “In case of another seizure. We need him staying still and not injuring himself.”

“Gentlemen, please excuse me. I’ll give you a few minutes while I arrange for the dialysis. Lord Beaumont before you leave I’ll need your signature.”

Maxwell carefully moved up and took Drake’s hand. “Hey Buddy, You have us all decked out for you. Just like when we saw the baby pandas. I need you to get better for me. Keep me in line. Seriously. You’re like the glue that keeps us all grounded. Doesn’t put up with all the noble nonsense.” He sniffed and Bastien saw the tears streaking down to the mask over his nose. “And you know you must get better so you can show Bartie all your awesome soccer moves. That was the deal we made. I’ll teach him to dance and you teach him to play football. And we’re about to have a niece to spoil as well. You need to get better so you can help me terrify all her suitors. You know I’m not going to be scary enough without your help. Please Drake, hang in there. I know it’s tough. We just love you brother.” He squeezed his hand before laying it back down and walking out of the room where Bastien heard him sobbing.

Careful of all the cords Bastien stepped up toward the head of the bed and leaned over kissing his forehead though the mask covering his nose and mouth.

Softly Bastien whispered in his ear. “You are the son of my heart. And I love you. Drake, I love you. I need you to get better.” He took his hand taking comfort from feeling the warmth there. He closed his eyes and prayed, prayed for more time, and another chance.

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