The Dance

Looking back on the memory of

The dance we shared 'neath the stars above.

For a moment all the world was right

How could I have known that you'd ever say good-bye?

And now I'm glad I didn't know

The way it all would end

The way it all would go

Our lives are better left to chance

I could have missed the pain,

But I'd have had to miss the dance

Holding you I held everything

For a moment wasn't I a king?

But if I'd only known how the king would fall

Hey who's to say you know I might have changed it all

And now I'm glad I didn't know

The way it all would end

The way it all would go

Our lives are better left to chance

I could have missed the pain

But I'd have had to miss the dance

It's my life. It's better left to chance

I could have missed the pain,

But I'd have had to miss the dance.

"Did you really expect him to show?" Daphne asked as she and Justin headed to the parking garage. Justin had been a little down all evening. She noticed him watching the door on more than one occasion. Sure enough, he was looking to see if Brian would show. And as expected the man did not. What Justin ever saw in Brian, Daphne would never figure out. Other than the fact that he was drop dead gorgeous and from what she’d seen he had an enormous dick. Okay, maybe that's what Justin saw in him.

"No, not really." Justin sighed heavily.

"Then why bother being upset about it? He said he wouldn't come so he didn't. It's not a big deal."

"But it is a big deal. I know this is gonna sound really weird, Daph, but I just had this feeling that he would show after all. Something in my gut told me that he would be here even though he said no. Maybe it was just wishful thinking."

"Most likely," she said with a nod.

"So......where are we going now?" he asked.

"Um.......I think we were going somewhere to eat." She looked back over her shoulder at that moment. "Hey, there's Dana. I'll go see what they're doing and maybe we can go with them. I'll meet you at the car, okay?"

Justin simply nodded and continued on toward the car, as Daphne went back to make plans. Justin was about five feet from the car when someone came out of nowhere and hit him from behind. He hit the cement like a ton of brinks. The sound of the impact echoed through the parking garage and Daphne looked up just in time to see Chris Hobbs bring the bat down once again.

"JUSTIN!" she screamed and ran toward him. Chris dropped the bat and took off. By the time Daphne got over to Justin, there was blood everywhere. She almost got sick as she looked at him. His head had been smashed in. She looked at the crowd of people that had started gathering. "SOMEBODY CALL AN AMBULANCE!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

As Dana ran in to do just that, Daphne remembered that Justin had his cell with him. He always carried it so that he could get in touch with Brian no matter what. She pulled the phone out and called an ambulance. Once the ambulance got there and the 911 operator hung up with her, she looked down at the phone in her hand.

As the EMT's worked on Justin, putting bandages on to try to stop the bleeding, putting a neck brace on him, Daphne just stood there staring at the phone. She asked if she could ride along, but they refused. It was at that moment that Daphne realized what she needed to do. She turned the phone back on and dialed one on the speed dial.

"What is it?" Brian said into the phone. He must have looked at the call display and thought it was Justin calling. From the loud music in the background Daphne figured he was at Babylon. It was a Friday night after all. She was silent for several minutes. "Hello? Justin......if you're going to call me at least say something."

"Brian......." Daphne finally found her voice just as he was about to hang up. It was obvious from her tone that something was wrong.

"Daphne? What's going on?"

"Brian.........Justin's........hospital." She started sobbing at that moment, the reality of what happened finally hitting her.

"Daphne, calm down, I can't understand you. Where are you?"

"Parking garage.......hotel"

Brian rolled his eyes. "Which hotel?" It was obvious the girl was upset so he was trying to remain calm.

"Radisson on fifth," she managed.

"Okay, give me ten minutes, I'll be right there." He hung up and started to leave. He gave no answer to the questioning looks of Ted and Emmett. He simply left the club, got into the Jeep and drove around the parking garage until he found Daphne, standing by a rather large puddle of blood. He was suddenly rather sick to his stomach and he had a very bad feeling about what happened.

"Daphne.......where's Justin?" He tried to keep his eyes off the puddle of blood. He looked at Daphne, who looked like she had been crying the whole time he was on his way there and his heart sank. The blood was Justin’s; there was no doubt about it.

"Hospital...." was all Daphne could manage.

"Do you know which hospital?" Brian asked and she shook her head. He tried to stay as calm as possible, but that was getting harder by the minute. Then he remembered that the closet hospital to this particular hotel was Mercy. "Daphne, I think I know where they took him. Come on." He leaned across and unlocked the passenger side door. He barely waited until the door was shut before taking off.

When they got to the hospital Brian barely took the Jeep out of gear before getting out and running in. Daphne followed, but stood off to the side while Brian went up to the nurse's station. He had to wait all of five minutes for someone to appear and that made him very upset. Waiting was not something he did well in situations like this.

"May I help you, sir?" the young woman asked. She was obviously a rather new nurse.

"I'm looking for Justin Taylor. He was brought in recently."

"Are you family, sir?"

Brian was about to make some kind of smart-ass remark when he thought better of it. "I'm his uncle."

The woman nodded and looked up the information on Justin. "I'm afraid he's still in exam, sir. You'll have to wait out here and the doctor will see you as soon as possible."

Brian nodded, then went over to where Daphne was standing. "He's still in exam so it could be a while, do you want something to drink?" he asked her. He was amazed at his own ability to stay calm in this situation. Daphne nodded. "How about some water?" he asked. Once again she nodded. He led her over to one of the chairs and then walked up to the nurse's station.

"That's my nephew's best friend. She was there when he got injured and she's a little out of it right now. I'm going to go get her some water. Could you keep an eye on her for me?" he asked as politely as possible, again amazing himself. No one would believe him if he told any of those who knew him.

The nurse nodded and Brian smiled.

"Thank you," he said, then he turned to walk away. Suddenly he remembered something and turned back to the nurse's station. "Could you please contact my sister and let her know that her son is here?"

"I'll need her number, sir." She handed him a piece of paper and a pen. Somehow Brian had Jennifer Taylor's number memorized, though he didn't know how, and he wrote it down.

"Could you specify that her brother Brian is here with him? She might think it's our brother Michael." He smiled sweetly and she nodded.

He then went to get the water for Daphne. When he got back to Daphne she’d calmed down slightly, though it was obvious she was still upset. He sat beside her and handed her the cup of water, then put an arm around her shoulders. He had never shown any kind of affection toward someone he knew so little about, but it seemed the right thing to do at the time. And Daphne seemed to appreciate it. After a few sips of water she leaned her head on his shoulder. Brian instinctively kissed the top of her head while silently hoping that Justin would be okay. When Jennifer walked into the ER waiting room she noticed Brian and Daphne immediately and made her way over.

"Any word yet?" she asked and he shook his head. She took a seat beside him and leaned in to speak softly. "When the nurse said that my brother Brian was already here waiting I almost blew your cover until I put two and two together."

He nodded. "I'm sure it was a little confusing. I knew that they would probably say something and I didn't want you to say 'but I don't have a brother.' So that's why I told her what I did. Give you a chance to put two and two together." He was speaking softly simply because of the fact that Daphne had fallen asleep. Brian had gently laid her down, using his lap as a pillow, and was absentmindedly stroking her hair. Jennifer smiled slightly at the show of affection but said nothing about it.

"How's she doing?" She motioned with her head toward Daphne.

"She's rattled, but that's understandable. She said she didn't see the whole thing, but she did see part of it. It was that Hobbs kid."

"What happened?"

"Apparently Hobbs decided Justin's head would be good for batting practice." He hated being so harsh but he couldn't think of any other way to put it. Just the idea of it made him sick to his stomach and extremely angry at the same time. Jennifer went pale at the description.

"Is he gonna be okay?"

"Won't know anything until the doctor comes out," Brian sighed. He looked down at Daphne. Jennifer simply nodded. They sat there in silence for what seemed like an eternity before the doctor finally came out to talk to them. A cold lump formed in Brian's stomach when he saw the look in the doctor's face.

"Mrs. Taylor?" the doctor asked and Jennifer nodded. He seemed to get a sympathetic look on his face. That was a look Brian had seen before. A look he prayed didn't mean what he thought it meant. The doctor took Jennifer off to the side and spoke to her and Brian's worst fears were confirmed when Jennifer almost collapsed, crying and screaming. The commotion woke Daphne who sat up and looked at Brian, confused. Brian got up and went over to Jennifer.

"I'll take care of her," he said in a monotone voice as he put his arms around her. The doctor nodded and walked off. Brian led Jennifer over to a chair and helped her sit, taking a seat beside her and just holding her while she cried. He stared at the floor, though his eyes weren't really focused on anything. Jennifer buried her face against Brian's shoulder.

"He's gone........my baby's gone," she kept saying over and over again. The thought just didn't register in Brian's brain. Justin couldn't be gone. He's only eighteen he can't be dead, Brian thought to himself. When Daphne came over and figured out what was going on, she began to cry again, hugging Jennifer as well. Brian sat there trying to comfort the two crying women wondering where he was finding the strength to keep from becoming a sobbing mess himself.

 *****

Brian awoke with a start. He sat up and looked around. When he realized that he wasn't actually in a hospital holding Jennifer Taylor as she cried over Justin's death, he let out a relieved sigh, then lay back against the pillows. It had been three months since the Rage party and Brian had no idea what had triggered this dream. He thought back on his day to see if maybe he could figure it out.

After thinking for several minutes, he realized what it was. Amazing how a song can trigger memories. He'd been flipping through the stations trying to find something decent to listen to when he came across this one country station. He usually didn't give country stations a second glance but then he heard the tail end of the chorus of this one song and he stopped to listen.

"I could have missed the pain, but I'd have had to miss the dance," the singer had said. Brian had no idea who the singer was since he never listened to country music, but as he listened to the second verse his mind wandered back to Justin's prom. He smiled as he thought about how he felt during that dance. How much love he had seen in Justin's eyes. The amount of love he felt toward the eighteen year old in his arms. Regardless of what happened afterwards, he would never give up that dance for anything in the world. Even if it meant preventing Justin from getting bashed. Even if it meant having the blond there in his arms rather than in the arms of the fiddler. Brian would never give up the memory of that dance.

As he lay there thinking about it he realized that he probably had saved Justin's life by being there. Everyone had already told him that a hundred times. Who's to say that Hobbs hadn't decided to bash him whether Brian had been there or not? Brian thought about all the possible scenarios had he not been there and in every one of them Justin ended up dead. Maybe it was just his ego, maybe not. The one thing that had saved his life was the fact that Brian was there to warn him, to get him to turn so that the blow would be non lethal. He could finally let go of the guilt he'd held on to all this time, knowing that his presence had not caused the attack, but had prevented it from killing Justin. With that in mind, he rolled over and went back to sleep with one less burden to bear.

Return to Rena's