Chapter 30: Minuet

BEN

I came awake before my eyes opened, and despite an instinctive attempt to raise my eyelids, for now they didn't rise. Through the translucent patches of skin covering my vision, I was aware of illumination around me. But it wasn't so intense as to make me shy away from it.

Momentarily deprived of my sight, the rest of my senses came alive with much stronger clarity. My sense of hearing noticed a rhythmic beeping sound off to my left, electronic in nature and perhaps a touch faster than one beep per second. My sense of smell scented the cool, dry mustiness of a stale room overprocessed by perpetual air conditioning and never allowed to taste the freshness of the outdoors. And my sense of touch informed me that I was supported in a reclined position with full back support, provided the kind of cushioning that one never finds in a home or office.

Memory returned to me, and as the events leading up to my present condition raced through my brain, I realized that I must be in a hospital bed recovering from my wounds. An attempt to move my left arm resulted in a slight tugging sensation against my skin, no doubt from an IV inserted into my vein. The restriction around my head that reminded me of wearing a baseball cap was likely from some kind of bandage wrapped around my skull. There were plugs in my nose feeding me oxygen, probably the source of that stale smell. And the general aches and pains throughout my body told me that not much time had passed since I received my many injuries.

Taking a deep breath despite the pain in my chest from ribs that were probably bruised, I inhaled and felt a ticklish, almost electrical sensation crawl up and down my limbs. Prior to that moment, my sense of touch had only activated enough to inform me of my position, but now I could feel my toes wiggling and my fingers stretching. And I could also now feel the hand holding mine.

Finally my eyelids rose. The sunlight coming in through the window wasn't that bright, but it was still intense enough to make me squint for a few moments while my irises constricted and my vision adjusted. Turning toward the source of the hand holding mine, I noticed the fuzzy outline of someone's head before me. As the seconds passed, I identified blonde hair, pale skin, and sky blue eyes. And then all at once, the image focused and revealed her identity.

I blinked away crustiness that clung to my eyelids and opened my mouth to gawk in surprise. "D ... Dawn?" I rasped, my throat dry.

"Hey..." she replied sweetly, a nervous smile momentarily touching her lips before her calm serenity returned once more. "How do you feel?"

I blinked twice more, my brain still not quite processing how My Dawn had come to be by my side. "Uh..." I grunted helplessly as my poor mental processes went into a recursive loop of stupidity. I could almost see the egg timer icon in my mind flipping and flipping and flipping over again while my computing power accomplished absolutely nothing.

Okay, time to reboot.

With a groan, I braced my palms on the mattress to either side and pushed myself up. Dawn lurched forward, a hand on my chest as she soothed in a tender voice, "Hey, not so fast. Take it slow."

But it was too late. Pitching my head forward too rapidly, I felt inky black clouds immediately swim into my vision. I got light-headed, and the room spun around me. The last sensation I felt was that of Dawn's hand caressing my cheek, and then the blackness took over and my consciousness was gone once more.

I blinked my eyes open and immediately turned my head to the last place I'd seen her. It didn't seem to take as long to get my eyes to focus, and sure enough Dawn was still in her seat, staring at me with that expression of relief to see me awake and alert. Her eyes were a brilliant sky blue, piercing in their intensity and yet soothing in their softness. The sunlight backlit her so that her blonde hair shined like a halo around her head. And as I gazed upon her for really the first time since I'd nearly died, all I could think of was how achingly beautiful she really was.

"Gonna take it slow this time?" Dawn asked with a mirthful grin, squeezing my right hand with her own.

Blinking slowly, I took a deep breath and felt the ache of my ribs once again. I gave her a nearly imperceptible nod, just once, and instead of trying to sit up, I reached out with my other hand and found the electronic controls for my hospital bed. Looking down at the keypad, I identified the one that would incline my backrest and pressed it. The mechanical whirr of a low-power motor filled the silence in the room as the bed raised my body into a nearly upright sitting position. When I reached the right angle, I let go of the button and winced while taking another deep breath against my sore ribs.

"Surprised to see you here," I stated carefully, grimacing against the dryness of my throat.

Dawn's eyebrows furrowed, and without me saying anything more she pointed to a pea green pitcher on the table beside her. "Want some water?"

I nodded thankfully, watching as she let go of my hand and poured half a Dixie cup. Standing up into a half-crouch, she braced her left hand on the mattress and leaned over me to raise the cup to my lips. I opened my mouth to let her pour some of the water inside before the rest of my body caught up to me, and I raised my right hand to take the cup from her and feed myself.

"Not too fast, and not too much. Your body can't handle a lot just yet, and they told me not to give you more than that or you'd throw up."

Dawn waited until I finished the water and handed the cup back to her. She set it down on the table before reaching up to brush a few strands of her fine blonde hair behind her ear. "Better?" she asked.

I swallowed thickly, still not entirely comfortable, but I nodded in the affirmative. My immediate need taken care of, I returned to my original question. "What are you doing here? And is there anyone else with you?"

"I'm here because you got shot," she replied matter-of-factly before blushing and looking down at the floor in embarrassment. Bringing her gaze back up to me, she added, "I, uh ... Well this isn't the first time you've gotten shot, and I distinctly remember NOT being there for you the last time. No matter what else is going on in our lives, I couldn't let history repeat itself."

I blinked but didn't otherwise respond.

Dawn nervously looked down at the floor again before fiddling with her fingers and taking a deep breath. "As for everyone else, most of them are at the house – my house, I mean. Your parents. My parents. Brooke and DJ and the twins. Even Sasha's been staying with us from time to time. I already called to let them know you woke up for a bit, and they're all driving over here now. Everyone except Adrienne; she's here in the hospital, too, and she's gonna be pissed she wasn't here when you woke up. She went to get us lunch, but I called her and she's rushing over from the cafeteria right now."

"Just you two?" I frowned. "Not to sound egotistical, but I would have thought everyone would be hanging out in the waiting room for me to get out of surgery or something. Isn't that what people do in the movies?"

Dawn shrugged. "They were, for the first two days at least. But the hospital didn't want our entire extended family filling up their waiting room for days on end, so they sent most of us home. We've been on rotating shifts, and I guess I just got lucky that you woke up for me." Her smile was warm but bittersweet.

I blinked in surprise. "'Days on end'? Wait, WHAT?" I tried to sit up straighter again, but Dawn immediately held my shoulder and kept me at bay.

"Hey, hey," she soothed. "Take it easy. The doctor said it would take a little while for you to regain your equilibrium and coordination. It's a common side-effect of being in a coma."

"I was in a coma?!?"

"Hey, reLAX..." Dawn rubbed my arm. "It was medically-induced. You got shot in the head and there were bullet fragments imbedded in your cranium. Good thing you've apparently got a thick skull. But you still got a brain bruise and the doctors said the coma would reduce intracranial pressure or something like that and help you avoid getting any permanent brain damage. It wasn't for that long; just a little more than a week."

"A WEEK?"

"Hey, reLAX..." Dawn repeated, still rubbing my arms. "It's not that bad. They stopped giving you the meds to keep you in a coma two days ago, but there was no way to tell exactly when the drugs would flush out of your system and you'd wake up. Like I said, we've been on rotating shifts, and I already called the house to tell 'em you're awake now. But even still, the doctors are going to have to look you over before they let the whole crowd come visit."

"Ungh..." I groaned and let my head fall back against the mattress behind me.

"You'll do fine. You fed yourself with a cup of water. That's perfect recovery. I read that some coma patients can't coordinate that well for a long time. You're pretty lucky."

"I don't exactly feel lucky right now."

"Yeah, well that's what happens when you get shot in the head. Rushing into a meth house by yourself against guys with guns? Not exactly your smartest move ever."

I lowered my eyelids halfway and glared at her. "I wouldn't expect you to understand. Wanting to be there for someone, really be THERE for them, no matter what."

Dawn bit her lip and frowned, instantly looking pitiful enough that I wanted to take back my harsh words. Yet I couldn't forget how much pain and heartache she'd already caused me, and the hurt, vindictive part of me didn't let me say a word to assuage her guilt.

There was a long silence between us, but after a moment Dawn slipped her hand into mine. For some reason, I didn't jerk my hand away like I thought I would, and she squeezed my fingers.

"I know I wasn't there for you before," she began. "I was messed up, and I wasn't who I needed to be for you. I know it feels like I kept running away from you right at the times when you wanted me to stick it out by your side and make things work together. I didn't, and for that I'm eternally sorry. But sorry isn't good enough, and words of apology won't fix what's happened between us. You're angry and resentful even now, a year after everything went down between us, and you have every right to be. But I don't have a time machine. I can't go back to the past and undo my mistakes. All I can do is be here for you NOW. As soon as my mom told me what happened, I drove here as fast as I could."

Folding my arms over my chest, I sighed and stared away from her. "So what, if I hadn't gotten shot, you'd still be up at camp? Gee, thanks for only coming back to me NOW."

"You didn't want me here before. You made that clear enough on that phone call New Year's Eve. You hated me, and you had every right to hate me. So I stayed away. I spent a lot of time thinking about us, but more importantly, thinking about you and me as separate entities. I was desperate before, desperate to win you back as my soulmate, as my lover, as my husband for all time. But that was part of the problem. All my sense of happiness was tied up in you, and it was only AFTER I finally managed to let you go that I was able to move on."

I snorted. "I'll bet you did. Does your friend Nick have a big dick? Does Deedee's pussy taste as sweet as you dreamed?"

Dawn frowned at the bitterness in my tone, but she shook her head. "I never slept with them. Thought about it, of course – goodness knows I got horny enough – but I didn't do it. Not out of some kind of loyalty to you; that would still be fixating on you as my ultimate goal, an unhealthy obsession. No, I did it for me. Believe it or not, some 21-year-olds out there in the world have to live their lives without getting regularly laid. I've always been a very sexual person, but I committed myself to rising above my carnal instincts and really focusing on what makes me happy as a person deep inside."

"That a crack about the way I'm a slave to my carnal instincts?"

Dawn shook her head immediately. "I'm not here to judge you. I drove all this way down here to support you as best I can. But I'll listen, too. If you don't want me here, I'll go back to camp; Norma will understand. But Ben ... you're my friend. You've always been my friend. And even though I went a little out of my head this last year or so, I'd like to think the twenty-one years we had together BEFORE that will still mean something to you. I'm not here to interfere in your romantic relationships or reclaim some lost part of your heart, really. And maybe my timing sucks and dealing with me coming back to town is the absolute LAST thing you want to deal with. But the fact is that you almost died, and the thought of you and I being parted for all eternity WITHOUT ever getting the chance to make things right between us ... well it freaked the hell out of me. So I'm here. I just want to be friends. That's all, okay?"

I took another deep breath and sighed, shaking my head.

"Baby steps. A chat, here and there. Otherwise I'll stay out of your hair. I'm moving back in with my parents. I'll be close enough to visit but far enough away that I won't bother you, alright?"

"I've got a ... well ... we're not officially boyfriend/girlfriend or anything yet, but things are getting there."

"I know. Sasha's nice. She's sweet, and she's smart. I always liked her."

"She's a stripper ... or ... she was."

Dawn shrugged. "A girl's gotta have an edge if she's gonna keep up with you. As long as she loves you properly; that's the important thing."

"She does." I nodded before narrowing my eyes at Dawn. "So you're really not here to make trouble or try to win me back?"

Dawn shook her head. "I wouldn't do that to you."

"Not sure I believe that, especially after what happened the last time we saw each other face-to-face."

Dawn sighed. "Well, it's the best I've got right now, unless you can think of some way you'd like me to prove it."

I mused on that for a second, scrutinizing the open, unthreatening look in Dawn's eyes. "Prove it? Alright. Stick around. Get settled in back home. Make nice with your sisters, especially DJ after what you did to her that last time we saw each other. And don't fucking run away from me again, you got it?"

Dawn smiled and squeezed my hand again. "Got it. I'll be here. I won't leave you again. Not after the universe gave me such a kick in the ass."

"Me getting shot is not the universe telling you to come back to me."

"Maybe not. Maybe there's no such thing as Destiny. Maybe there aren't any cosmic forces that bind you and me together. But this is fact: I woke up in a cold sweat just before midnight on the sixth of May. I was shaking and I was crying, practically hysterical. My roommate Zoey said I kept screaming your name. I knew something was wrong with you. I KNEW it. So I called home and woke up my parents. Mom was on the phone trying to calm me down and tell me that she was sure you were just fine when Dad got the call from DJ. And then all of a sudden Mom was freaking out and asking me how I knew."

I blinked and my jaw dropped open.

"I told her I didn't know anything. I just had a feeling. Mom explained to me what had happened, so I got in the car in my pajamas, and now I'm here."

I was still blinking in surprise.

"Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe it was just a bad dream. But I choose to believe that there's still something between us. Maybe we're not destined to be romantic partners someday. Maybe we still are. I don't know, and I'm not going to rush into anything or pressure you or do anything like that. I've made a lot of mistakes I need to make up for, and I'm not here to mess up your life. But I believe the universe gave me a sign, and I'm sticking around here until I figure out what that means."

I couldn't answer, and I didn't answer. Just then, the door opened and Adrienne rushed in, followed by two nurses. "Holy shit, Tiger! You ARE awake!"

I smiled and opened my arms for a hug. Adrienne launched into me a little harder than was probably good for me, and I groaned in obvious pain. The next twenty seconds was a flurry of activity with nurses reprimanding Adrienne to be gentle while she apologized profusely, me complaining about how everything was achy, and Dawn smiling and squeezing my hand the whole time.

It was good to be alive.

The next couple of hours flew by in the blink of an eye. Dawn and Adrienne were allowed to stay, but had to step aside while the doctors and nurses ran a series of tests on me to verify what I already felt inside: that I was just fine and would make a full recovery despite suffering a cerebral contusion and spending more than a week in a medically-induced coma. My aches and pains were more from my body not moving for more than a week than the beating I took, and would go away soon. My brain swelling had gone down as well. Ultimately, they were confident I would suffer no lasting effects from my ordeal save for occasional dizziness that would eventually discontinue, and an ugly bullet scar on the upper right side of my head. They'd shaved my skull for surgery, but eventually my hair would re-grow and cover up the scar, and with enough time I'd be good as new.

Maybe there was something to this Destiny bit after all...

The rest of my worried relatives, plus Sasha, all arrived before the doctors were done with their tests and had to wait outside for a while. A good chunk of the Tri-Delt harem came too, which likely made for some interesting conversation with the parentals. So they were all chomping at the bit by the time my immediate family was allowed into my room, and all of a sudden no less than three people were asking me questions and trying to talk at any given moment, filling the room with more noise than a Las Vegas pick-up bar. But finally my dad got everyone to calm down, and with the parentals asking questions first, everyone was eventually satisfied that I was indeed alive and would remain so for the foreseeable future.

Thankfully, nobody asked me about the ill-fated trip to Carter's. I gathered tangentially that the other people who'd been there had already been grilled to death on the subject, especially DJ, Brooke, and Adrienne. But I still didn't know myself how things had turned out, and once the two sets of parents stopped interrogating me, I started thinking about getting some questions of my own answered. But just then a dizzy spell hit, I started moaning and groaning, and the thought of talking any more than I had to really didn't appeal.

I was fine, really, just woozy and tired. My energy reserves were non-existent and the time spent going through tests and talking with my family had wiped me out. Inky black clouds covered my vision once again and I passed out.

When I woke up again, it was dark outside and a different Evans sister was holding my hand.

"Hey, kiddo," I rasped, coughing just a bit.

DJ was actually talking to Brooke and didn't realize my eyes had opened until I said that, and she nearly jumped out of her chair. But she recovered quickly and cocked her head, asking, "Dry throat? Want some water?"

I smiled at the sense of déjà vu and nodded while pushing the button to raise incline my bed. She poured the Dixie cup full this time and was about to feed me when I took the cup from her and fed myself.

When I was done, I handed the cup back. DJ accepted it, looked me in the eye, and whimpered, "I'm so sorry."

I arched an eyebrow. "Is this Evans-daughter apology day?"

"What?"

I shook my head and smiled. "Nevermind."

DJ frowned and glanced at Brooke. My little sister widened her eyes and then head-nodded for her best friend to get on with it.

DJ took a deep breath and turned back to me. "I'm sorry for everything. I'm sorry you got shot. That never would have happened if it wasn't for me."

"Hold up. Me getting shot had nothing to do with you."

"Of course it did – well, me AND Brooke. The only reason you were even THERE at Carter's place was to watch out for us. If we'd listened to you about how dangerous he was, none of us would have even BEEN there."

I exhaled slowly and shook my head. "Not true, not last night at least."

"Uh, it wasn't last night," Brooke explained. "It was more than a week ago."

I stared at her dumbly for a moment, unable to reconcile that my memory really had a gap of that many days. "Whatever. The point is: I actually went to that party for reasons beyond just you two. I went ... Oh, SHIT. Where's Elyse? What happened to Elyse?"

"Elyse?" DJ and Brooke looked at each other for a second before turning back to me. "You don't know?"

"I just fucking woke UP," I growled before taking a deep breath. I really was low on energy. "The absolute LAST thing I remember before waking up here is passing out in Carter's bedroom. But before that, I distinctly remember Elyse getting shot, too."

"But didn't anybody tell you anything when you woke up before?" DJ asked.

Brooke, who had been there with my immediate family, shook her head and explained, "He passed out before he could ask any questions. So no, nobody told him."

"Tell me now, please," I said wearily.

Brooke leaned forward in her chair. "Elyse is fine. Bullet went clean through her. She was hospitalized for a couple of days, of course, but she doesn't have insurance and they were quick to discharge her. Adrienne paid to put her in professional rehab not too far away from here. She's there right now."

I sighed and managed a smile of relief. "That's good. That's good. What about Carter? Is he dead?"

DJ took a deep breath and nodded slowly. "Yeah. Autopsy came back on that. Cameron hit him with a gut shot, and he probably would have died from that alone. But your letter opener severed an artery and that's what really did him in. You killed him." Her tone was matter-of-fact, with neither pride nor pleasure nor accusation in her voice.

I took a deep breath and thought about that. I'd never killed anybody before. I felt justified in my actions, knowing that I'd been coming to the defense of Elyse and Cameron and everyone else the bastard had preyed upon. But as evil as he'd been, I could still wish it hadn't come to that. I was still in shock over everything that had happened, but my rational brain told me I'd never forget cutting short another man's life, and I had no idea how doing so would or wouldn't haunt me for the rest of mine.

"What about Cameron? Is she okay?" I asked, once I'd gotten a hold of myself.

Brooke frowned. "You were there. You don't remember?"

I shook my head. "All I can remember is jamming that letter opener into Carter's chest and then collapsing. It took every last shred of energy I had left to do that. I really don't remember anything else until waking up here."

Brooke and DJ exchanged a look. Brooke winced, but she took a deep breath and hedged, "Physically, Cameron's fine. We don't know a whole lot of details, only what Amber told us. She got to Carter's bedroom before we did."

I sat up straighter. "You all ended up in Carter's bedroom? So you saw the whole scene?"

Brooke grimaced and DJ turned a little green. DJ was fighting off her nausea, so it was Brooke who continued. "Yeah. We all heard the gunshots. After the first one, we all just sort of looked at each other wondering if we'd heard what we thought we heard. One of the girls suggested it was just part of the music, and when we didn't hear anything else for a while the situation seemed to calm down. But then there was a second gunshot, and a third. That sent a bunch of girls screaming out of there, and some of the guys started heading down the stairs. It was DJ who realized that even though Adrienne and Meli and Lexi had come upstairs already, YOU were still down there somewhere. She took off running even before I figured it out."

"Amber was already down there," DJ intoned quietly, staring a thousand yards off to my right. "She said you'd texted her to say you were going downstairs, but when she texted you back you didn't answer. She got tired of waiting and snuck into the house. She got downstairs and watched Cameron shoot Carter and you stick that letter opener into his chest. But then Cameron looked at her with this expression of total and complete guilt over shooting him, and she turned the gun on herself."

"On herself?" I frowned. "But you just said that she's physically fine."

Brooke explained, "Amber knocked the gun away right as Cameron pulled the trigger. The shot went off but the bullet just went into the wall. A bunch of guys also got to the room just before DJ and I did, but they took one look at the scene and just RAN. Someone had already called 911 and they didn't want to be anywhere near that place when the cops showed up."

I took a deep breath and nodded. "So that's the end of the party house."

DJ nodded, took a deep breath, and looked over at me. "Amber saved your life. You were bleeding from your head wound, losing too much blood really. She bandaged your head and did some other ER-wizardry until the ambulances arrived. The doctor said that if she hadn't gotten to you as soon as she did, you might not have made it. Even so, they had to medically induce this coma to keep your brain from swelling."

"Where's Amber now?"

Brooke shrugged and said. "She flew back to her hometown. Said she couldn't wait another day before going back to her ex-boyfriend. Life is precious, right? She couldn't take the chance of something like this happening to him before she had a chance to make amends. Cameron went with her."

That got my attention. "Cameron's gone too?"

Brooke nodded. "Needed a fresh start and everything. Once the cops got done questioning her, she and Amber took the next flight out. Amber said that she'd be back to visit you once you woke up; Adrienne called her already. Plus, Cameron might have to return depending on how the criminal cases go. But with Carter dead, I don't know how much they're going to get into it."

"Just promise me you won't go vigilante or something," DJ said quickly, a spark of intensity in her sky blue eyes. "Trying to bust up the rest of Carter's buddies or something stupid like that."

I raised both hands, palms out, before using them to rub my head, which was covered only by a very thin stubble of hair. "No, no, I've learned my lesson. I'll stick to the fights I know I can handle and leave that sort of thing to the authorities."

DJ leaned over and hugged my belly and legs, whimpering, "Thank goodness. I can't believe how close we came to losing you as it was."

Brooke piped up. "Speaking of vigilante justice, the police are going to want to talk to you. Probably soon. Everyone else gave their statements, but you were the one with fingerprints all over the knife."

"Letter opener," I corrected.

"Whatever."

I sighed. "Great."

"You'll be fine. They've already talked to everyone else, including us. Everyone else's statements already prove you were acting in self-defense, especially Cameron's and Elyse's defense. Sam and Mario are the only ones the cops got, and they're more worried about their own skins than going after you."

I raised a hand to my forehead and rubbed it over my eyes. "So that's done."

"That's done. You're a hero, you know that?" Brooke reached out and patted my chest.

"Not really worried about that kind of thing."

"I know. But we all still think of you that way." Brooke grinned before getting up and pecking my lips. "My big brother, a genuine hero."

I blushed and waved her off. Brooke beamed at me, but when I looked over at DJ, the blonde had tears in her eyes and looked a little green around the gills. Only now did I realize she'd been quiet for a while, and I asked, "Hey ... you okay?"

Her lower lip quivered for a moment, and suddenly DJ burst into tears as she dropped her face onto my stomach while wrapping an arm around my torso, hugging me tighter than before. "I'm so SORRY!"

Instinctively I held her, furrowing my eyebrows in confusion as I looked down at her. "Sorry for what?"

But she didn't reply directly. Instead, still blubbering with her face against my belly, she muttered, "It was horrible. There was blood everywhere. Carter lying in a pool of blood with his dead eyes staring off at nothing. Elyse slumped in a corner moaning and bleeding out herself. And you! Ohmigawd. Your whole face was covered in it. Amber was cradling you and trying to wrap you up. I thought you were already gone. I thought you were dead."

"But I'm not dead. I'm right here, kiddo," I soothed, stroking her back.

"I thought you were dead," she repeated, her voice a whisper.

I kept stroking DJ's back, and she clutched me tightly for what felt like a long time. But after a while, she shuddered and tilted her head back to look up at me.