CHAPTER ELEVEN

Taylor passed yet another window, glancing in as he passed. What he saw stopped him cold. His mouth dropped open in surprise, he went to the doorway.

"Kai?!" He exclaimed.

"Taylor, man, how are you?"

"Excuse me? Are supposed to be in here?" An old nurse said sternly.

"He’s with me." Kai smiled.

"Oh!" The nurse exclaimed, and nodded her approval. She was greatly pleased that someone had come to see Kai.

"Oh my gosh, it’s so great to see you!!" Taylor exclaimed, slapping hands with his friend.

"You too man…I knew you’d show!!" He replied.

"What do you mean?"

Kai smiled.

"I believe you know the little lady sleeping right over there."

He gestured to the bed beside him. Taylor’s heart leapt as his eyes fell on the sleeping Shannon. He walked over to her and touched her hand. She was nothing like Rachael. She wasn’t gorgeous. In fact, she looked terrible from the night’s ordeals. Yet, his heart would not stop pounding as he softly held her hand, and a smile played at the corners of his mouth. For an unknown reason, he felt remarkably relieved to see the steady rise and fall of the bedclothes as she breathed, and realised with a shock how much it would have hurt if they had lost her.

"She’s been crying." Taylor said softly, and cautiously touched her cheek.

"She was very scared." Kai said, his heart warmed by Taylor’s gentleness towards her. This was exactly what he wanted to see.

"Did they find anything wrong with her, when they operated?" Taylor asked the nurse.

"No, just some internal bruising. Nothing that won’t heal with a little TLC. Are you her boyfriend?"

"No!! No." Taylor exclaimed. "She’s just a friend."

"Oh, I see." The nurse said, winking at Kai and grinning before leaving the room. Kai flashed his infectious smile at her before dropping to a serious tone.

"Tay, I heard about Rach. I’m sorry man."

Taylor’s expression fell, and he dropped his heartbroken eyes to the floor.

"You’re better without her, kid." Kai whispered. "I’m so serious when I say you’re too good for her. You were always too good for her, Tay."

Taylor shrugged, and shook his head.

"You know," He said softly, "The weird thing is…I know."

Kai smiled a little.

Taylor turned to Shannon, and touched her arm with his fingertips.

"And she knew too."

Kai nodded.

"I know. I really like her Tay!" He announced, lying back with a grin. "Such a nut though…her insides were practically falling out, and the only thing she was freaking out about was the injection. Man, did they have trouble knocking her out!" He chuckled as he remembered the way she had shrieked.

Taylor smiled, watching her thoughtfully.

He realised that he didn’t know her as well as he might have liked.

They chatted for a while, and once again Taylor was utterly charmed by Kai’s quick wit. He wondered if he would know this much about life when he turned 25…

"So Kai, how’s the gutterball?" Taylor remembered after some time.

"Oh she’s such a great little dog." Kai smiled, "And you’re gonna be seeing a whole lot more of her, you know. Shannon’s agreed to adopt her!"

Taylor looked confused.

"Really? Why…"

"I can’t look after her anymore kid. And I feel safe putting my faith in Shannon. Anyone would."

Kai shut his eyes slowly, with a deep breath. Taylor suddenly became aware of all the equipment around the seemingly health man.

"But…Kai why can’t you look after her? Why are you in here?" Taylor began to feel a little uneasy as he didn’t answer.

"Kai?"

The heart monitor beside Kai’s bed jumped into irregularity. Taylor hadn’t noticed it’s steady beeping before.

"Kai?!" Taylor demanded, his head beginning to pound in alarm. "KAI?" Taylor spun around the empty room, quickly falling into panic.

"SOMEBODY HELP." He yelled.

Almost immediately, three nurses swiftly entered the room. Taylor stood back in shock, glancing around desperately. The heart monitor remained as a lifeless straight line, and the deadly tone of the machine chased his tormented mind into hysteria. It was the nurses who were confused him the most. They didn’t seem to be doing anything.

"What are you doing? Why aren’t you doing anything?" He exclaimed in horror.

The nurse who had spoken to him earlier took him by the shoulders and tried to turn him away from Kai’s limp body. He tore himself away, and looked back just in time to see another nurse slowly flip the switch on the machine, silencing the mind grating beep and throwing the room into silence. Taylor felt grossly nauseous.

"What’s going on?" He cried, hugging himself in shock.

"Hey, hey…Taylor? Is that your name?" The nurse asked softly, holding his shaking shoulders firmly. "Kai had a inoperable brain tumour which he has been fighting for about three years. He never wanted people to know..."

"No! No, it’s not true, it’s not true…" The distressed defiance wailed from his lips. He refused to believe this. Not after everything else which had happened. There are good and bad experiences in life. Taylor thought that it was time for things to get better. He was depending on that belief, and he was slashed with the realisation that he was grossly wrong.

Shannon opened her eyes and saw everything as if in slow motion. First everything was blurry, and the room spun. She had expected to have a group of people fussing over her when she awoke from the drug, but there was only distant background noises. She had trouble deciphering them in her semi-conscious state, and shook her head gingerly in an effort to regain her senses. The deep, stitched up gash in her stomach twinged and sent jagged spears of pain up through her chest and down her legs. She tried her best to keep still. She turned her head, and began to feel more and more that something was wrong. She could make up a group of people standing near the bed to her left…Kai’s bed. Slowly, she began to realise what had happened, and squeezed her eyes shut in dismay. She had never said goodbye to Kai. Distressed voices and white figures flashed before her, merging into one terrible scene which she desperately didn’t want to be a part of. She felt sick. The strong hospital smell burned her nostrils, and drew consciousness back. She opened her eyes. Her senses were returning now, and she absorbed the distressing scene silently, her heart rate steadily increasing. Her vision merged into clarity and the voices in the room became crisp and clear, bringing the room into it’s tragic perspective. She jumped a little as a nurse stepped in front of her.

"Welcome back. How do you feel?" The nurse asked softly.

Shannon didn’t take her eyes off the bed beside her.

"Kai…"

"Yes." The nurse cut her off before she could say anything. "His time came."

Suddenly, Shannon spotted somebody else in the room beside the nurses. She was startled to see that it was Taylor. His body was choked yet he stood there frozen. His body language and agonised expression clearly displayed his pain, and Shannon’s grief was slowly twisted into a horrified, nauseous sympathy. She felt her throat becoming swollen and thick with shock. Why oh why did he have to be here when it…happened. The nurse noticed Shannon’s eyes on Taylor, and joined the nurses as they rolled Kai’s body out of the room. Hot, frightened tears fell down Shannon’s cheeks as she lost sight of him.

She slowly looked up at the mortified boy standing numbly nearby. Her heart pounded in terror. She frantically needed this to be a nightmare, a delusion, a figment of her imagination, anything but reality. Anything but this.

"Taylor." She whispered, almost choking. Her abdomen screamed as she spoke.

He looked at her, unable to say or do anything. He just stood there, his mouth open in shock, mortified.

"Tay."

Shannon extended a shaking hand towards him. He walked over to her bed, and sat down slowly on the chair beside her bed. He felt like he was going to throw up. Shannon couldn’t bare to see him like this, and was terrified of the emotions which must be surging inside of him. She didn’t want to be here with him. She didn’t want to have to deal with this. She wanted to hide in a corner and cry and cry until it would all just go away. She wanted him to be ok, but she was so scared.

Shannon carefully reached her arm over towards him and took his cold hand gently in hers. Her sympathy quickly broke his chill, and overdue tears flushed into his grief ridden eyes.

He turned, buried his face in the mattress beside Shannon, and cried. He didn’t care for vanity anymore. Shannon was sickened by his sobs, and her head throbbed with nausea. They lost track of all time as they lay there, with Taylor’s face buried and Shannon’s arms wrapped around him. There were moments where she would have done anything to calm him, and stop the sobs that were slowly driving her insane. She wanted to hug him and hold him and find someway to make everything, including herself, ok. But she was held down by the stitches in her stomach and a lifetime of fear and nothing could change that. Not even now. Manic thoughts flashed through her mind. Could he be strong enough to get through this? What if he didn’t? The truth was that Shannon wasn’t sure Taylor could do this on his own anymore, and she was so scared for him. She was so terrified. She so badly wanted him to be ok. He just had to be ok.

After what seemed like forever, his body calmed, and he lay still with his face buried in his arms. Shannon kept her arms around him, listening to her own heart beat and feeling his. Eventually he pulled up carefully and sat back in the chair, sniffing and drawing his knees defensively into his chest. His bloodshot eyes were fixed on the floor. Shannon felt the silence go on for eternity and searched the depths of her soul for something appropriate to say. But there was nothing. She couldn’t fix this with words. Taylor shifted, and Shannon looked up to see him glance over at her. Their eyes met for a moment and they acknowledged one another with a stare. His blue eyes lingered in her memory. Even though they were dulled from incessant tears, they were still infinitely more piercing than hers could ever be. He broke their gaze, got up, and silently walked from the room.

Shannon didn’t take her eyes off him until the last.

And soon we’ll find its a little bit too late

_ _ _

Shannon’s evocative feelings for Taylor never died down or went away, as she had expected them to. Instead, the memory of his blue eyes and entrancing lilting voice haunted her every thought and taunted her imagination every minute of the day. Anxiousness and worry over his wellbeing plagued her thoughts. He was the first thing on her mind when the sun rose each morning, and the last thing as she slipped into sleep each night.

And over those seemingly endless days in that hospital bed, ever so slowly, she finally began to understand what Kai had been trying to explain to her in the brief time that she had known him.

Taylor needed someone right now more than anything in the world; and she was falling in love with him.

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