Fighting our demons together

Chapter 8

It was early morning when Judd took him out of the house. Carlos was dozing when he told him to go with him, to get in his car. He leaned his head against the window and almost fell asleep, but the trip was over quickly as soon as they reached the hospital.

"Judd, what happened? TK... Something happened to TK didn't it?"

"Don't ask me, I'm just the messenger." Carlos sat up in the seat of the car as his friend parked and grabbed his arm. "Don't fuck with me Judd, if something happened to TK..."

"It's TK who asked me to bring to the hospital in the middle of the night. I told him to let you sleep, but he insisted he needed to see you now, before tomorrow's surgery."

Carlos squeezed his friend's arm a little tighter as he remembered the operation. He felt it like a guillotine that was about to sever his whole life. So many things could go wrong with the next day's operation and as bad as it sounded, TK's death on the operating table was not even the worst of the options.

Carlos said nothing more and followed Judd into the hospital. They didn't go to the room where TK had been admitted that afternoon to prepare him for the next day's operation but instead made their way down other corridors on the first floor, to a place that was starting to look familiar to Carlos.

"Are you taking me to the chapel?"

"Close but no. You know our boy is not very religious, so no, I'm not taking you to the chapel."

Carlos stared at the door to the small chapel, he knew he would be there in a few hours. Whether or not his praying had worked, but TK was as well as he could be after having his skull cracked open, so it wouldn't hurt to go in again, the operation would be long, and he'd have time for everything.

But now they passed him by, and Judd took him to the garden that Carlos didn't know the hospital had in the back. It was not possible to see it from the street, so no car noises could reach it. It looked like a peaceful little paradise full of trees, with benches everywhere for the sick and their companions, and there was even a small lake.

As they approached their destination, Carlos could make out the figures of all those he cared about. There was the entire 126 team, including Grace, some of his closest colleagues from the station, Owen, and his parents, and in the middle, TK, standing.

Even in the distance, he could see that TK had a hard time standing, but he figured he had been stubborn enough to not want to sit down.

"Judd..."

"I said don't ask me, Reyes. I just had to bring you here, the rest you discuss with your boyfriend."

Judd broke away from him and hugged Grace while Carlos kept walking over to where TK was.

He wasn't dressed in his hospital pajamas but had changed into regular clothes, a shirt, and jeans. Carlos stared at him, then looked at his parents and Owen, waiting for an answer that would make sense of what was happening, but when he realized that everyone was dressed more dressed up than they would be on a typical hospital visit he thought he understood everything.

"TK, what's wrong?" he asked anyway, afraid he was wrong.

"I needed to see you."

"It's the wee hours of the morning and Judd dragged me out of the bed your father sent me to a few hours ago."

"You needed your rest, boy." Owen reached over and patted him on the shoulder. "Besides, TK asked us to throw you off so we could get this ready."

"Set up what?"

TK hugged him and Carlos noticed he let himself fall into him. He barely weighed as much as a real doll and just wanted to hold him forever and right now tuck him into bed so he could rest. But TK pulled away from him, kissed him, and smiled.