Scrooged

Chapter 1 "Better For Who?"

Warnings: Christmas Magic, A tiny bit anti-Mikey... but things get better.


 

“Just finish the soup, Brian,” Justin said softly. He cautiously sat down on the bed beside Brian.

“There.” Brian shoved the empty bowl toward the blond blindly. Justin was swimming in his vision, but he didn’t want to tell the blond that.

Justin took the bowl and sat it on the nightstand. He reached down and pulled the duvet over Brian's now reclined, shivering body. “Goodnight.”

Brian yawned and peered through his heavy lidded eyes. “I'm not a child,” he grumbled. “You don't need to actually tuck me into bed.”

Justin ignored Brian's harsh tone and leaned down to kiss him on the cheek softly. ”I'll wake you in a couple of hours to take your medicine.”

Brian grunted and closed his eyes. He settled himself deeper into his soft mattress and pillows. “I already took them.” He cracked one of his eyes open and leaned toward Justin. His vision blurred and the room started to spin. ”Shit,” he whispered and closed his eyes once again.

“Do you need to throw up or something?” Justin tried to keep the worry out of his voice. He knew Brian wouldn’t react well to it. Any amount of care Justin put forth had to be done in a discreet or sometimes, even mean manner.

“No. M'fine,” Brian mumbled, closing his eye again. He felt as if he was falling into a sea and his body was tingling from the shaking.

Justin watched Brian closely and listened to his breathing as he drifted off into sleep. After a few minutes, the labored quick breaths quieted. The blond rose from the bed once he determined that his lover had fallen asleep. He grabbed the empty soup bowl and took it into the kitchen. Justin busied himself by cleaning up the mess from his cooking. He was probably the messiest cook in the world, but he was also a great one. Even if Brian didn’t say that he appreciated his homemade meal, he knew the older man had.

After he made the kitchen spotless, Justin grabbed his sketchbook and pencil and walked into the bedroom. He sat at the foot of the bed and stared at Brian’s features. He looked so peaceful sleeping under the heavy comforter.
 

**********
 

“What the...” Brian felt tingles run through his body, his vision darkened and then suddenly, he was staring at Vic.

“Brian, you didn't listen, did you?” the older man said, shaking his head.

“Where are we? This isn't Babylon,” Brian said worriedly. A white room surrounded Brian. Usually when he saw his dead Uncle in his dreams, the setting was in a dance club or in some kind of comic book-like scene.

“No, it's not. That is my version of the after-life, not yours,” Vic said softly. “This is just a stopping point.”

Brian looked around again, spinning on the heels of his bare feet. Trying to pinpoint anything other than white, but he couldn’t. White was all that he could see. There was blinding white light radiating off of the walls that rippled. He closed his eyes and rubbed his shaking hands over his face. “So, I'm dreaming?” Brian’s muttered the words through his hands.

Vic walked closer and pulled Brian's hands down from his face. He waited until the man's hazel gaze centered onto his own. ”You aren't dreaming, Brian,” he told him morosely, squeezing Brian's hands in his.

Brian backed away from Vic, dropping his hands. ”What is....” he trailed off and became pale. “Am I dead?” Now his voice shook.

“No,” Vic told him.

Brian's face went from pained to slightly relieved. ”So why am I...wherever this place is?”

“I said you weren't dead, but you will be in a few days, Brian.” Vic's voice was filled with sadness. “if you continue to want to go on living like you are dying.”

“What are you talking about?” Brian yelled. “I'm getting the treatments. I got a ball removed for Christ’s sakes! I’d say that shows that I am willing to live, to beat the cancer. The doctors say I'm going to be just fine!” He started walking backwards but Vic seemed to be floating closer to him.

“How many of those pain pills did you take on an empty stomach, Brian?” Vic asked him. “Are you sure they were the pain pills for the incision and not Justin’s script of Phenytoin?”

Brian shook his head back and forth, his pace halted. ”I don't remember.”

“Six, Brian. You took six, added to the two Percocets. You could barely see what bottle you opened. But you took a handful of them anyway,” Vic informed him angrily. “You took them haphazardly because you didn't want your lover waking you up to help you when you needed your next dose of the Percocet.”

“I don't need Justin's help,” Brian retorted. “He doesn't need to be spending his time coddling me!”

“Apparently you do since the chicken soup he forced down your throat is the only thing keeping you alive right now.” Vic grabbed Brian’s hand and pulled him toward the closest wall.

“Vic! What are you doing?” Brian asked. He tried to grind his feet on the white floor but his feet gave no friction. He was surprised at the dead man's strength.

“You need to see this!” Vic yelled back dragging him along.

“Vic!” Brian closed his eyes just as the wall came closer to his vision. He thought the man was about to slam him up against what looked to be the end of the room and turned into a white wall. “Are you trying to kill me?” Brian screamed.

A tingly sensation went through his body and he opened his eyes, shocked when he didn't hit the wall. He looked around him and saw he stood in the kitchen of his loft. He didn't see Vic standing behind him.

Brian blinked a few times and let out the breath he'd been holding. “I must have been sleep walking,” he thought. He looked down at his body, noticing he was still wearing his gray sweatpants. Brian felt overwhelmingly tired and he wanted to go back to sleep. “Stupid nightmare.” He started to walk out of the kitchen, but stopped when he heard Justin’s voice.

“Please…. God… anyone who can hear me.”

Brian walked toward the bedroom and stopped when he saw Justin kneeling on the stairs going up to it.

“Just let him be okay,” the blond whimpered. Heavy tears fell down Justin’s pale cheeks and onto the wooden stairs as he bowed his head.

Brian stared, shock-stock still at his lover. He'd never seen Justin pray. Hell, the boy had told him many times that he didn't believe in God. But there he was, looking up into the bedroom as if it was an altar. Justin was praying.

“Let him help him, like he helped me. He needs me. I know he does.”

Justin sobbed out that last few words at the end. They punched into Brian's heart and silenced anything he would have said to alert Justin to his presence.

“Help him believe that I won't leave him. I... I... love him.” Justin collapsed forward and started to cry furiously.

Brian watched as Justin's body shook. He felt choked up and opened his mouth to say something but just when he was about to he saw Justin raise his head and look up into the bedroom again. He looked on as the blond rose to his feet on shaky limbs and climbed the stairs, disappearing into the bedroom. Brian took a step to go after him.

“I wouldn't do that if I were you.”

Brian nearly jumped out of his skin and spun around to see Vic leaning up against the refrigerator. “Back again. Great! Justin would love to see you too!” Brian reached forward and tried to pull Vic out of the kitchen and in the direction of the bedroom.

“Brian, my boy, stop! I'm telling you. Stop. You don't want to go in there.” Vic halted his steps and Brian let go of him.

“This is my house. I can go where I want,” Brian yelled back like a petulant child. He stalked toward his bedroom.

Vic watched as Brian stalled in his angry footsteps going up the stairs. He was there, behind him in a flash.

“What the fuck is going on?” Brian roared. He looked back and forth between Justin and the figure in the bed. ”Justin!” he yelled out.

The blond did not acknowledge Brian.

Justin sat on the bed with a sketchbook in his hands and drew Brian's figure as he studied the man in front of him.

Brian walked up into the room and tried to shake Justin. His touch passed through Justin’s body as if he were a ghost. “Justin!” Brian yelled again. “Justin! What’s going on? I’m here, Justin!”

Vic had seen enough. He went into the bedroom and pulled Brian back against him, trapping his wiggling body in his arms. “Shh, my boy. Settle down. You wanted to see this scene and now I can't stop it. Neither can you,” he whispered.

“What are you talking about?” Brian asked. He struggled against the older man's super-human strength. Quick movement on the bed brought Brian's attention from Vic to Justin again.

Justin tossed his supplies aside and knelt at the head of the bed beside Brian's face. “Brian?” Justin put his ear next too Brian's lips. “Brian!” he screamed in panic and reached out to shake the brunet's body.

“Justin! I'm right here!” Brian screamed. “That isn't me, Justin.”

“That is you,” Vic told him. “This is your present.”

Brian looked at Vic. ”Who the hell are you? The grim reaper?”

“I’m your guide, Brian. I always have been. I guess I didn’t do a good enough job when I was alive,” Vic told him.

Brian shook his head at Vic. He didn’t know how to reply to that.

Justin jumped from the bed suddenly and rushed through Brian and Vic's bodies. He grabbed the telephone from the living room and raced back into the bedroom faster than they could move.

“Yes, this is an emergency,” he said into the receiver. Justin took off the blankets from Brian's body. He gripped the man’s hand tightly. “My partner isn't breathing. He has cancer,” he cried out into the phone. “The address is 6219 Tremont Street, top floor.” Tears continued to fall helplessly down Justin's face. ”You want me to give him C.P.R.? Yes, I know how to do it, okay.”

Justin put the phone down beside him and started to administer C.P.R. to Brian. “Come on, Brian,” he whispered in between breaths.

“Why are you letting this happen?” Brian roared. His own eyes filled with tears. He glared at Vic. “Stop this! Look at him! He’s going out of breath. He’s going to have a panic attack!”

“The only one you have to blame this time is yourself, Brian,” Vic told Brian in a soft firm voice. He squeezed Brian’s weakening body to his chest. They both felt the immense pain Justin was in radiating out of his body, as the boy continued trying to revive Brian's body with his own breath.

Justin tried the C.P.R. repeatedly. Breathing and then manually pumping Brian’s heart, but nothing was working.

Brian and Vic watched Justin helplessly. Brian was stunned into silence by the scene that took place before him. It wouldn’t be the last time. A buzz rang through the loft and this time Vic pulled Brian out of the way as Justin raced down the stairs of the bedroom and over to the speaker.

“It's open!” he yelled buzzing the building's entrance door before yanking open the large metal loft door. He could hear the loud noise of people running up stairs outside the loft. Justin ran back to Brian's bedside. “They're coming, baby. They're almost here.” Justin bent down and kissed Brian's breathless lips. “Hold on, Brian, please! Please, Brian. Please, don’t do this. Don’t leave Gus.”

Justin looked over at the loft's door from the platformed bedroom and called the paramedics. “Up here! He's up here!”

Brian and Vic watched the scene helplessly as Justin told them everything he knew about Brian’s condition. Brian and Vic were helplessly pulled along with the blond as he raced down the stairs behind Brian's body that the medics strapped to a gurney.

Vic forced Brian into the ambulance to sit beside a dazed looking Justin. Brian noticed that Justin's hand never left his lifeless looking one. He ached to reach out and touch Justin, but knew he could not. Brian and Vic could only sit back and watch the horrifying scene as the ambulance drove on.

Once at the hospital, the doctors told Justin to stay outside of the emergency room where they wheeled Brian. Justin didn’t know what to do. He tried calling their family and friends but it seemed like the Devil was controlling his fate. He only reached voicemails. Justin left them all messages as he waited and paced and constantly asked for updates that weren’t forthcoming from the nurses.
 

**********

Justin was beyond scared for his lover. It had been hours and no one from their family or friends had called him back, and he had no word on Brian. The doctors and nurses wouldn’t tell Justin anything regarding Brian’s care. Brian had not put Justin’s name anywhere in his records. Essentially, this made Justin no one to Brian. After five hours of waiting and continuous calls to unreachable cell phones, Justin stood up from the uncomfortable waiting room chair and went to the desk once again. ”Please just tell me if he's okay,” Justin asked the nurse he’d pleaded with countless times before.

“I'm sorry, Mr. Taylor. Your name is not listed as his power of attorney, next of kin, you aren’t legally bound to him and you aren't family. We can't tell you anything,” the woman told him remorsefully. “It's hospital policy. I could lose my job.”

“But, but, he's my partner!” Justin lost any of the control he’d maintained and sobbed. ”I just need to know if he's alive. Brian was barely breathing when we got out of the ambulance. Please, can you just go find that out? I'm begging you.” Justin slammed his fists on the counter, his fingers hung onto it as his knees started to give out.

“Stop this, Vic!” Brian yelled as he walked up behind Justin. They had been in the waiting room, watching Justin the last five hours. It tore Brian apart to see Justin there waiting for him and asking about his condition with desperation. Brian didn’t think he was worth the pain Justin felt because of him. “Please, Vic!”

“You know I can’t stop this, Brian,” Vic told him sadly.

Brian went and tried to help the boy stand, but his fingers only passed through Justin’s living body, sending tingles through him.

“Vic…” Brian pleaded looking back at his Uncle.

“I can't stop anything you already put in motion. I can only prevent...”

“Fuck you!” Brian interrupted. “What did you do to us? What did you do to me?” Brian charged at Vic.

The older man easily evaded Brian. He hoped that letting the angry man shout and wail accusations would clear the man's head. After a few moments, Vic took Brian into his arms once again and restrained him. ”Turn around and look at Justin carefully, Brian,” he ordered.

By this time, Justin had returned to his chair. He stared emotionless and motionless at nothing. And then yet again he broke down suddenly. Justin put his blond head in his hands and whimpered, his shoulders shaking.

“You are afraid of commitment. You put Mikey as your Power of Attorney, Brian. Do you see what it got you? What it got Justin? Who do you think is his P.O.A., Brian? I'll give you one guess!” Vic informed Brian.

Brian broke away from Vic's loosened hold when he saw Michael rush into the doors of the emergency area and head straight for the desk. ”Someone called me about Brian Kinney?”

Justin's head popped when he heard Brian's name. He ran over to the desk toward Michael. “Michael, I’ve been trying to call everyone for hours. No one picked up any of their phones. Oh god, Michael please, they won't let me in there with him. They won't even tell me if he's alive.”

“What happened?” Michael yelled, turning from the nurse behind the desk. He glared at Justin. “A nurse called me and told me he was unconscious.”

Justin wiped his eyes with his hands and cleared his throat. “I don't know. He was j-j-just fine and then he...he...wasn't breathing.” Justin's voice sounded hoarse from all the crying and pleading he'd done. ”I’m afraid he may have taken too…too…many of his pain pills.”

“What do you mean too many pain pills? Weren't you looking after him?” Michael accused.

“He didn’t know, Mikey!” Brian yelled, going between Justin and the dark haired man to yell in Mikey’s face.

Vic shook his head and grabbed Brian, taking him away from the scene. ”I'm not very proud of my nephew right now, Brian, but you need to realize that you gave him this power over Justin.”

“What the fuck?” Brian looked back at his best friend and lover.

“I did take care of h-h-him, Michael. I did. I swear!” Justin sobbed. “I made him chicken soup. He took me b…b…back and I made him chicken s...s…soup,” Justin said, delirious from the pain and confusion.

Michael turned back to the nurse behind the desk. “Can you please update me on Brian Kinney's condition? I'm Michael Novotny-Bruckner.” Michael pulled his I.D. card out of his wallet and showed the woman.

“Yes, sir,” the nurse said. She gave Justin an apologetic smile and stood up from her desk. “Let me go find out his condition from the doctor. I’ll be just a moment.” She left the waiting/reception area and disappeared through the emergency doors.

Michael glared at a wilting Justin the entire ten minutes the woman was gone. When she came back, her face was very sullen looking. “He’s been stabilized,” she told Michael

“Thank God!” Justin freaked out, drawing the nurse’s and Michael’s attention to him.

“Can we talk about this in private please?” Michael asked snidely.

“Of course, sir,” the woman said. She once again looked at Justin and smiled apologetically. “I can lead you to his room. They have him in stable condition and you may speak with Dr. Rhine about his care.”

“Thank you,” Michael said. He started to follow her out of the waiting room.

“Michael, please! I read the handbook, I did! I didn’t listen to his bullshit and I did just what he wanted. I promise,” Justin yelled. “He was just fine when he got in bed! He was sick from the treatments but…”

Michael turned around sharply. “Well you obviously skipped over some parts then, didn’t you? Like how to make sure that he didn’t overdose on drugs? I left him in your care and look where he is now.”

Brian couldn’t stand watching this any longer. “Shut up, Michael! Shut the fuck up. It’s nobody’s fault that I’m in here but my own!” Brian got in between Michael and Justin again, spitting his words into the black haired man’s face.

Vic stepped up and pulled Brian to him again as Michael turned away from Justin. “We need to follow Michael,” Vic told him.

Brian looked at Justin. The boy cried helplessly into his hands. He reached out and tried to touch his spiky blond hair when Justin suddenly tore his hands away from his face and popped his head up. “Brian,” Justin whimpered.

Blue eyes stared at Brian’s for a moment and Brian felt his heart quicken as he thought Justin could see him. But then, Justin’s eyes darted back toward Michael and a second later he felt tingles as Justin’s body passed through his own.

“Michael. Brian would want me in there with him. Please let me come with you,” Justin said, obviously trying to get his composure back as he ran after Michael.

Michael turned around once more. “No. He wouldn’t,” he said, with a definite tone.

Justin held in a sob. His cell phone started to ring. He sighed dejectedly and moved back toward the couches. “Mom?” Justin said his mother’s name with a sob into the receiver. “Brian’s in the hospital. Please come!”

Brian watched Justin for a moment, glad that he’d have his mother there soon with him. He then turned around to Vic. “Well, Mikey was right about that one.”

“He’s right that you wouldn’t want Justin in there to see you? You don’t even know what you look like lying in that room. What are you so worried about? That he’d see you weak? That he’d want to hold your hand and will you to live?” Vic spat in anger. “Come on.” Vic shook his head at Brian. “Let’s go.”

“Where?” Brian couldn’t even get the whole word out. He stood inside his own hospital room.

Michael sat in the chair beside his body, holding onto his limp hand, talking to a doctor that stood over him.

“So you don’t know if he’s going to wake up?”

“Of course I’ll fucking wake up, Mikey,” Brian said exasperated. His eyes scanned his body that was lying in the bed. He could practically feel the itchy, starchy material of the hospital issued sheets and blankets that cocooned him. His face was a very pale white, as were his lips that wrapped around a breathing tube down his throat. There were several machines beeping and whirring, measuring his life with the tubes and wires attached to him. It occurred to him that as sickly as he looked, he also looked peaceful.

“That’s because you’re almost dead,” he heard Vic say, reading his thoughts. “People in comas almost always look peaceful.”

Brian was going to refute the claim and tell him all about how damaged and tortured Justin had looked when the boy had been in his coma, instead though, he chose not to verbally say anything back. Vic could hear him anyway.

Brian gave his attention to listening to what the doctor was telling Michael. He was surprised the man was keeping it together so well, even if he had treated Justin like shit. Brian thought for sure that Michael would be a sobbing mess, but he wasn’t. That actually irked Brian more than it comforted him.

“We have no way of knowing whether or not Brian will wake up. We will run some tests tomorrow to test his brain activity again, but with what we’ve already seen, the prognosis isn’t hopeful,” the man said.

“So what exactly happened?” Michael asked.

“We ran a blood test and found that he had high levels of Percocet and Phenytoin in his system. I reviewed his medical records and we aren’t sure why he had Phenytoin in his blood. Do you have any idea?” the doctor asked. “It’s usually a drug…”

“I’ve known Brian to use many different prescription and non-prescription drugs for recreational purposes, Doctor,” Michael interrupted. “It was probably something he wanted to try out, but didn’t realize they’d mess with one another,” Michael explained.

“Way to go, Mikey! Sell me out as a drug addict why don’t you?” Brian yelled in sarcastic anger.

“Justin wouldn’t have done that,” Vic murmured.

“He had a severe reaction to the medication. The amount we found in him was lethal.”

“Lethal?” Michael said softly. “I can’t believe this.”

“His immune system is practically non-existent because of the radio-therapy he’s been enduring the last couple of weeks. He had next to nothing in his stomach to dilute the pills. This is good and bad. Good because some of the pills weren’t able to dissolve but it was bad because it made it very hard to pump his stomach. The E.M.T’s that brought him in said that his friend gave him a bowl of chicken soup before he went to sleep. That’s probably what saved him and kept him alive.”

“Chicken soup?” Michael couldn‘t believe it. “He never eats chicken soup.”

”Well, thankfully his friend got him to eat some.” The doctor continued when Michael nodded his head in agreement. “We administered an I.V. of fluids and gave him some blood to help flush his system. However, he did not awaken when we gave him a shot of adrenaline so it is most likely that the medication already reached his brain. This is most likely why he isn’t showing signs of brain activity. He’s had a severe overdose and the reactions of the medication have had a toxic effect.”

“S-s-so that’s why he’s still knocked out? The pills are still in his system?” Michael guessed.

“Mr. Novotny, Brian isn’t just asleep. He isn’t in a medically induced coma. In the small tests that we did, his brain activity was practically undetectable. The medicine most likely has poisoned his brain which may very well cause brain damage or at the very least nerve damage. The overdose is what put him in a coma. I know this is hard to hear. I hate to deliver any bad news to family. This being the Holiday Season makes it even worse. No one wants to go through anything like this, this time of year. But you told me you wanted me to be completely honest with you. And I have been.” The doctor took Brian’s chart from the table and looked at it again.

“He hated Christmas anyway,” Michael whispered. “I think he’d like it if he just slept right through it anyway.”

“You’re wrong, Michael!” Brian said outraged. His voice echoed in the room only to Vic’s ears. He paced back and forth. “You’re so wrong, Michael. You’re wrong about everything!”

Vic took in Brian’s behavior and allowed the man to vent. He thought that he might get over the test a lot sooner than he originally thought and they could both go back home.

“You see!” Brian turned his attention back to Vic, stopping in front of him. “This is why Justin shouldn’t be in here. Michael is wrong about the whole ‘sleeping’ thing. I’d rather be awake and…”

“He’s going to wake up though, right?” Michael asked the Doctor interrupting Brian’s tirade, though he hadn’t actually heard it.

“He may not. We will take him for some tests tomorrow morning, and we will know more then,” Doctor Rhine said.

Michael looked over at Brian’s body and then back at the doctor. “Is this the worst case scenario?” he asked weakly.

“It depends on how the tests turn out. Are you asking what will happen if Brian doesn’t show any signs of brain activity?”

“Yes,” Michael confirmed quietly.

“Then we will be dealing with the worst case scenario. He will probably never wake up if there are still no signs of activity. You may want to inform his family and friends. You may want to have them come in to say goodbye to Brian.” Dr. Rhine cleared his throat. “I’ll need you to sign some papers. I’ll have them up at the nurse’s ICU station.”

Michael nodded numbly at the doctor. He took a deep breath. “But that is the worst case scenario, right? I mean, there is a chance he can wake up?”

“I’ve told you the worst case scenario?” Doctor Rhine said. “If he hasn’t awakened within the next forty-eight hours starting tomorrow, it is likely he never will. Brain activity doesn’t usually just suddenly appear after an overdose as severe as Brian’s. You’ll need to decide whether you want to keep him alive through the artificial means necessary or…”
 

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