All Night

Chapter Forty-Four

It feels like days later when I pull into my assigned carpark in the underground parking of our apartment building. I turn the car off and walk over to the passenger side to open the door for Nate and help him out.

"You know, I'm the one who's supposed to open the door for you, right?" He smirks as I roll my eyes at his comment but he takes the hand I hold out to him. He steadies himself on his crutches issued by the doctor for a few weeks until his broken leg can heal and we both head up to my apartment. Our apartment. Our home.

When we get to the door, I ruffle through my bag to get the keys out to unlock the front door. Pushing aside all the junk in my bag, the keys are no where to be found. I must have left them in the apartment before I left. I was so worried about Nate that my head was thinking about him and only him. I look over at Nate slowly and he chuckles with a knowing grin plastered to his face. He just lifts up one hand and knocks on the door, waiting for Shaun to answer it. The anticipation in Nate's eyes was bubbling over at the thought that Sky was just behind this door. But there was no answer. I knock again, more rapidly and firmly, knowing that the whole apartment floor would hear it. But I didn't care. Worry begins to rise and goosebumps begin to surface on my smooth, olive skin. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck when yet again, there was no answer.

"Shaun!" I yell through the door but there's still no answer. I press an ear to the hard, cold wood of the door and listen for any noises. There's only one that can be heard and it's the sound of my daughter crying, screeching like she's seeing the monster in her nightmares. Worry builds up inside of me and I turn to Nate who is already digging through the dirt in the pot plant next to the door. He turns back around holding a dirt-covered key and wastes no time inserting it into the lock and turning it. The sound of the lock releasing send relief throughout my body but the hairs on my neck still stand mountain tall. Sky's crying grows louder as Nate pushes the door open and I run inside, dropping the bags at the front door and running into Sky's room, where her small body is lying inside of the crib that Nate built when I was pregnant. I pick her up and rock her in my arms gently until she is calm again. Where the hell is Shaun? I place Sky down in her crib before running my hand over the small head of hair she's had no trouble growing.

"Brook!" Nate's voice yells across the apartment, laced with anger but has a hint of worry on it. I give my daughter one last look to make sure she's okay before leaving the room and going in the direction of his calls. I find him in the lounge room, standing over the lounge, anger plastered on his face. A gut feeling tells me I know what I'm going to find if I walk closer. My feet take me to the lounge without a second thought and my gut was right. Lying on the couch, unconscious, empty bourbon bottle fallen from his hand, is Shaun. Another empty bottle is lying next to the first one but this time, when Nate uses his foot to push it away, the word "Vodka" is written across the front. Before I can do anything about Shaun, I run over to the alcohol cabinet that I keep next to the dining table, where I find half an empty shelf. This was full the last time I looked in it. How long had he been drinking around my daughter? He could've put her in danger. What if we hadn't come home today? All these thoughts play through my head before the sound of Nate calling my name brings me back to reality. Anger stirs inside of me and my hands clench into fists.

I run back into the lounge room and kneel down next to the lounge.

"Shaun!" I yell, shaking his shoulders. There is no response though. His chest is barely moving and his breathing sounds shallow. I yell his name again but the anger inside of me is too much. Before I even know what I'm doing, my hand raises and slaps him across the face, hard. No response. Again. No response. Nate catches my hand before I can do it a third time and his eyes pierce into mine, concern underlined with understanding.

More time had passed than I realise. While I was trying to wake Shaun up, a knock came from the front door and two paramedics rushed in. I move to Nate's side to give them space to work on Shaun as they pull out equipment that's supposed to save his life. They go to work on him and my heart beats in my chest rapidly as they clear his airway and insert a tube down his throat. I've seen this before on one of those medical shows like Grey's Anatomy or Chicago Med when the patient can't breathe on their own. It makes me cringe every time watching the tube slide down the throat, but this time, I was too frozen to react. My hands were still shaking when one of the two paramedics tells us that they're taking him to the closest hospital and asked if one of us wanted to travel with them. I nodded my head hesitantly, knowing that if I go with them, and he wakes up, he will get an earful from me and right now, that feeling surged me on, one foot at a time towards the ambulance which speeds off to the hospital.