My Best Friends Brother

Chapter 152

"Can I talk to you both please? Maybe outside so I can get some air?" I'm not sure it's the best idea to talk with emotions so high but Josh agrees instantly, Brie moving into the seat next to him and offering out her arms willingly for Liam's sleeping body.

It's funny, there was a time when that little boy was so afraid of her over the top persona, where he'd run from her loud voice and cower from her unrelenting aura, but now they've built such a connection that the moment he slips from Josh's arms into hers he instantly snuggles himself in next to her neck. They have more in common than most people realise.

She tries to hide it, Brie has always been a master of keeping her strong emotions under control when the rest of us can't, but I see the tiny tear slip from the corner of her eye as she leans down to kiss his forehead. I can't remember the last time I saw her without makeup on, it's probably the first kiss she's ever left on his skin that won't leave a stain, yet it will probably be the one that resides with the biggest mark on her heart.

She's always been good with kids, she once said to me that in life you should try to be the adult you needed as a child, if you are then you know you'll be there for someone who needs you. She's been there for all of us, watching like a protector from the background. She's pretty much the Aslan to our Narnia, giant mane of hair and everything.

I'm more grateful for her than she'll ever know.

Josh and I both follow Jayce outside slowly, joyously taking in the cool fresh air as it smashes against my bare face and feels beyond soothing in comparison with the suffocating atmosphere of depression inside the hospital.

I've always hated this place, nothing good ever happens here.

Jayce looks relieved to be able to breathe again, I'm not sure when the last time he felt like he could was. He's definitely been like this for hours, holding his breath and waiting for his whole world to come crashing down around him.

I'm don't think he'll ever truly let himself relax enough to take in a full lung of air again.

He stands in the middle of one of the hospital gardens, his hands firmly placed in his pockets and head dropped down to the floor as he tries to compose himself. He still appears on the edge of a breakdown. I honestly can't imagine what he's been through today, no matter what I think of him as a brother or all the crap he's put Josh through, he is the best father that I know, that isn't debatable.

His daughter is his everything, his children are his whole damn world. Losing any of them would've destroyed him completely, I have no doubts about that.

It's times like this that I'm glad he's back in therapy, he's going to need it now more than ever.

I step forward ready to comfort him but Josh beats me to it, standing at Jayce's side and rubbing his hand up and down my brothers back to try and bring some kind of peace to his warring mind.

"It's okay Jayce, however your feeling and whatever you want to say doesn't matter, not now. Just concentrate on –" Josh doesn't get the chance to finish as my brother spins completely and throws his body into my boyfriends arms.

Josh doesn't hesitate, wrapping him up and letting him release all the pain that has built within him since the moment the terrifying thought that he was going to lose his daughter entered his heart. My own eyes filling instantly with mirrored tears seeing the two of them like this, this is the way they are supposed to be. They've been a part of each others lives for too long to not be a pillar of strength.

"T-Thank you... you... W-Without you..." I know what he's trying to say through his blubbering broken English, and so does Josh. He stops him from trying to talk where words aren't necessary, grabbing hold of the back of Jayce's head and holding it down against his own.

"Don't thank me Jayce, please don't." Josh sobs, both of them dropping any facade of being men without emotions and letting it just be a time of raw truth. "You don't need to thank me, I love her too."

A gentle splattering of rain flitters down from the heavens, the tiny droplets hit my right cheek and mix with the tears of both the men in front of me.

Even the angels are crying for them now.

This is all I've wanted for these two, I never wanted it to happen this way but I wanted something that would bring them together again. They both mean so much to each other, even if one, or both of them, is too stubborn to admit it.

"I'm so fucking sorry." Jayce pulls back onto the bench behind him, taking Josh along for the ride until they both collapse into the seat. "I'm just so sorry Josh, I never should have done this."

Done what? He didn't do this, he's not responsible for anything that happened today.

Josh looks just as confused as I do, looking over at me for help that I can't offer. I walk over slowly, the two of them are so fucking big that there's no room for me to sit down so I crouch in front of Jayce instead, taking one of his large hands in both of mine and trying to get him to look at me.

"What have you done Jayce?" He lets himself fall back from Josh's enveloping limbs, glancing from the man I love to me and back again. Earlier today I didn't miss how he regarded us together, how he practically ran into the backyard at the sight of us hand in hand. It hurt but Josh said I needed to give him more time, so I didn't rip him apart the way I wanted to.

I don't see that same scrutiny in his eyes anymore.

"I stood in the way of something beautiful."

Oh Jayce...

He increases the grip he has on my hand, holding it tightly against my own as I refuse to relent my own grasp. "She was so angry at me, rightfully angry. If she hadn't..." He pauses, the words almost to painful to say out loud. "If she hadn't made it then she would have died angry at me."

Heather.

"Jayce, she wouldn't-" He waves me off to stop before I even begin, I think he just needs to say his piece here.

"She was right, she's always right that girl. Sometimes I think she's too much like her mother for her own good that way, other times I realise that maybe I just need to be a bit more like my wife." If this was any other set of circumstances I'd laugh, he ain't wrong. The women of Westbrooke rule us for good reason. "I should never have felt the way I did about you two in the first place. I don't know why it took me so much longer than everybody else to get there, but Brie was right, not that she isn't always... If it was anyone else I might have a leg to stand on but I don't because... It's you Josh."

I know what he's trying to say, I've always understood why he would have concerns about our relationship given the circumstances but he never needed to... I've never been in safer hands than I am with Josh.

He's perfect.

He's mine and I'm his, equally.

Jayce slowly pulls his hand from mine, taking hold of my fingertips and guiding it's over to lay on top of Josh's flat open palm.

"I should have known that you wouldn't have done this unless you truly felt this way about him Josh, unless there was so much there that you couldn't fight it... I should have seen this years ago with you too Milo. I'm sorry that I wasn't paying enough attention, I won't make that mistake again."

He doesn't need to say sorry, not after all this. Today has proven what actually fucking matters in this world. He just keeps looking between us, I can see all the words he wants to say spinning and forming behind his eyes so we both just sit patiently and wait for him to find them, he needs this.

"I love you, I love you both and I'm so fucking sorry for trying to stand between you. I don't want to be an obstacle to something so fucking special. I promise you, I will never be anything but supportive again. Time is too fucking short and life is too precious, if you two are happy then I'm fucking happy for you." He is, his gentle smile says it all. Jayce likes to think that he's so hard to decipher but he's always been an open book to me. "I appreciate you probably won't want to forgive me for being such a fucking cunt about everything, so I won't ask you too. I'll prove it though, I'm on your team, both of you."

I hate it had to happen this way, but if nothing else came out of this situation then at least I know I got my Jayce back, our Jayce.

Damn, I've missed him.

Josh and I both look at each other, I think we both feel like we need to say something here but no words seem like enough. Instead we do the only thing we can, wrapping Jayce up in both our love and showing him how much he means to us, even if we can't set it out as a sentence.

We love him. We just love him.

The rain starts to get heavier, the light showering quickly turning into a downpour before all three of us escape from the garden and rush back into the hospital, just in time to see Mum coming back out through the doors.

"Brie, she needs you." Josh attempts to take Liam back into his arms but when Steve notices how wet he is he takes the little boy from his fiancé's chest instead, Brie stroking Liam's hair and tucking him back in under my hoodie before going to be with her best friend.

We have the most dysfunctional family on this planet, connections made by both blood and soul but a family nonetheless... For now.

But we are missing a piece, a broken piece still out there somewhere.

There's a lot of people in this room that don't want to see my sister right now but I have to go fucking find her, she doesn't have anyone else.

Dad rises to his feet, kissing Mum goodbye and waiting for me to do the same thing with Josh, it's actually kind of sweet. Josh has always hesitated to kiss me when we are around certain people, he's strong and secure in our relationship but he never wants to throw it in the face of those who would feel uncomfortable. It's just who he is.

This time though there's no hesitation, this time he doesn't hide fuck all. Bringing his lips to mine to say goodbye exactly the same way any other couple in this room would, because that's who we are now, we are as much a couple as any of them and there is not a person here that objects to it any longer.

Thank fuck.

Now we can just be us... Forever.

As Dad and I walk back out towards the car, Jayce sits down next to Mum and I notice her stroking at something yellow and fluffy in her hands.

It's the cardigan that Heather was wearing today. When she came running into the house this morning I laughed and called her big bird, two words which end with me getting a hard slap to the thigh from that little powerhouse.

It fucking hurt.

I know that she'll get through this, I never should've doubted her. She is the strongest seven year old I've ever met, both physically and mentally funny enough. She'll bounce back and be beating her way out of situations with her fists in no time, I know she will.

Mum still looks terrified though, it must be those grandmother instincts forcing their way to the surface...

Grandmother.

Shit.

"I know where she is."