Prologue
Two weeks earlier;
Robert had been out of sorts lately, more so than usual, everyone saw it, and Keith sensed it. Robert attempted to act normal, but he didn't fool Keith who could hear the erratic way Robert's heart beat when they talked.
Something definitely seemed wrong, he only wished Robert would confide in him. Instead, Robert spent more time away from home, more time with Al. Which shouldn't have been so concerning, they both enjoyed a good game of golf, and Lord knew that man needed a break from the ranch, he'd literally work himself to death if given half the chance, but that wasn't it.
Even though Keith hadn't meant to, not at first, he'd followed him the other day. Robert headed straight to Al's office and stayed there for a while. And, because he wasn't much of a sleuth, after a couple of hours waiting out front in the parking lot, Keith finally left. While the visit shouldn't have been such a big deal, considering they'd been friends for a long time, it bothered him when he'd asked Robert about his day the next afternoon over lunch, and Robert lied.
He said he'd spent the day at a local shelter, helping out like he often had in the past. It didn't make any sense to Keith. What reason did he have to lie to him? They told each other everything; they were probably closer than most brothers.
It worried him. Just as the headaches did, and the dozens of other little tics he'd noticed lately. Like how he'd shake out his legs, or squeeze his eyes shut the way a person would when experiencing pain or having trouble seeing. He assumed nobody noticed, but not much got by Keith.
With the recent accusations being thrown around by the police, everyone on the ranch appeared to be on edge lately, and Keith had his plate full, no doubt about that, but he still recognized minute differences when it came to Robert.
Of course, his insistence that his dear friend saw a doctor fell on deaf ears. Keith had done a little research, wanting to match the symptoms and figure it out for himself, but without hearing it all from Robert, he really didn't have much to go on, a number of things might have been going on ranging from harmless to severe and even life-threatening.
In addition to seeing Al more frequently, Robert also spent a lot of time shut up in his office with the laptop lately, they hadn't had dinner together in almost a week. All the secrecy bothered him. Keith planned to catch up with him tonight and attempt to shake some information out of him. Hell, he'd get physical and literally shake him if he had to.
Keith finished with the ultrasound of the pregnant dog Robert had brought in the other day and put her in the temporary kennel they'd made for her in the clinic. It wouldn't be long before she gave birth, a couple weeks at best, and they wanted her to be comfortable, after which he fed her and closed up for the night.
Nearly to his truck; he had a date tonight with a hot real estate agent, he heard something strange. Like a low pitched gurgling noise accompanied by what sounded like a hoarse whisper.
Tom and Nicole had stopped off earlier to check in with him before leaving, so there shouldn't have been anyone but him and Robert left on this part of the property, and as the sun made its descent dipping below the horizon, even Robert should have been tucked away inside the house for the night.
He heard the commotion coming from over near the wolf enclosure, and fearing that one of the wolves may have been in trouble, or that a wild animal had stumbled into their habitat, Keith hurried in the direction of the barn. The closer he got, the quicker he realized that it sounded human and not animal, sending him into near hysteria.
He prayed it wouldn't turn out to be another incident like the one last year, especially since none of the wolves had ever shown an ounce of aggression, but accidents did happen. Keith ran as fast as possible, afraid of what he might find.
Nothing would have prepared him for what he saw though.
Robert lay on the ground, flopping like a fish, trying to right himself, his face askew, his cheeks flush, and his mouth lopsided. His eyes seemed unable to focus. Vomit covered the ground in front of him.
A stroke.
It had to be a stroke!
Keith scrambled to reach him, sliding into the dirt and lifting Robert into his arms, he carried him quickly into the animal clinic as Robert moaned, grasping at his head.
"My head... my head..." he murmured incoherently.
Keith held onto him with one hand, digging frantically in his pockets for the keys to the clinic, listening to Robert, he started running through the list of symptoms in his head, wondering if Robert had suffered from a ruptured aneurysm, the cerebral bleeding would have easily caused a stroke.
He had no idea how long Robert had been out there, lying, seizing in the dirt, but with a hemorrhagic stroke, time was of the essence. Crashing through the door of the clinic, Keith laid Robert gently on top of one of the tables, whipping out his cell phone and dialing 911.
They had a dog with a blood clot once, probably still had some medication around somewhere, but he didn't want to risk injecting him with a blood thinner and it making the bleeding worse. An aneurysm requires surgery. Keith had never performed brain surgery, and he definitely hadn't operated on a human before. His best, really, his only option, required getting Robert to the hospital as quickly as possible.
Robert began to sputter again, doing his damnedest to sit upright as his body continued to betray him. Keith realized he wanted to say something, so he leaned down, taking Robert's head in his arms.
"Help..." He moaned, the word barely louder than a whisper of air.
"The ambulance is on its way," Keith replied, doing everything possible to keep him comfortable, cursing himself for not being able to do more.
"Help..." He breathed again.
"I can save you, Robert. If you want me to, I can do it. I can save you."
Robert seemed to shake his head vehemently though it may have been a spasm. He coughed, choking on his saliva, desperate to be heard. Keith lifted his head higher, he took a deep breath, he tried to concentrate.
"The angels..." Robert said a little more clearly. His words still partially slurred, his voice shaky. "They can't... they can't..."
"They can't what? What can't the angels do? What are you trying to say, Robert?"
"Promise me... the angels... you won't let them... promise me..."
Keith heard the sirens wailing in the distance, Robert became more frantic as they drew closer to the ranch, he coughed and gagged. Keith realized that whatever he wanted to tell him had to be right there on the tip of his tongue, it probably made perfect sense to him, but the few broken fragments he'd been able to understand didn't strike a chord with Keith.
"The cure..." He spat, saliva dribbled out of the corner of his mouth as he attempted to speak. "The angels can't have the cure."
"What cure Robert? What angels? Please, I don't understand! Help me understand!"
Time was running out, footsteps sounded on the pavement, he heard the slamming of a door, then one of the paramedics rolled a stretcher into the clinic, the other right behind him. Together they lifted Robert onto it, the old man jerked and shoved at them, his eyes wild as he pinned Keith with a pleading glare.
"Madison..." He raged, that single word coming across clearer than anything he'd said yet.
One of the paramedics started to strap down his legs while the other fought to restrain his upper body, Keith did little more than look on in horror, watching as his best friend fought to get free. Likely confused, he didn't understand that they only wanted to help him. Keith willed him to relax, he begged him to calm down, tortured seeing him like this.
And all at once, he stopped.
With one last jerk of his body, Robert collapsed on the gurney. His eyes seem to roll into the back of his head, one of the paramedics swore, the other dropped the duffel bag he carried and began rifling through it.
In his panic, Keith leaned over him, pushing a medic out of the way and beginning to administer CPR as the other paramedic came up with a compression mask and attempted to pump oxygen into his lungs.
"No!" Keith shouted, "don't you die on me, Robert! Don't you dare die on me this way!"
The medic he'd pushed out of the way rushed back from the ambulance with a defibrillator, ordering Keith to step aside, but like a madman, he wouldn't give up, not now, he shoved the man backward, barely noticing when he crashed to the ground.
Keith had to save him, he had to save his friend.
Hours later, Keith sat on the porch steps, nursing a bottle of Jack Daniels, wishing himself into a drunken stupor, and ready to sell his soul to the devil if that would bring Robert back when Al pulled up in his Mercedes.
The two said nothing for a time, Al sat down next to him, a man he would have normally characterized as strong and intimidating, looked completely rumpled and defeated. They'd both lost their best friend tonight.
"Did Robert say anything to you, Al?" Keith finally asked.
Al remained silent another moment, he reached out and grabbed the near-empty bottle from Keith, taking the last swig and dropping it at their feet with the other bottles scattered in front of them. Al pondered his answer a moment longer.
"I'm fairly sure he understood the seriousness of his condition. He came to me a couple of weeks ago wanting to get his affairs in order." He replied solemnly.
"I begged him to see a doctor."
Al nodded. "So did I. He told me once, that sometimes a man just knows when it's his time to go."
"That's horse shit!" Keith erupted, kicking a bottle in front of him and sending it shattering down the driveway.
Al flinched, he'd known Keith almost as long as he'd known Robert, and he'd never seen the man lose his composure, it unnerved him.
"Did he leave any kind of note for me?"
"No."
Keith stood abruptly, shaking his head as he let out a string of curses, pacing the length of the porch.
"Robert told me this morning that he wanted to write you a letter, and that he'd give it to me when he finished it, he wrote one for Madison."
Madison.
Keith buried his face in his hands as he remembered the way Robert so desperately said his daughter's name.
'Promise me you'll protect my daughter.' He'd said during a conversation they'd had last week. Keith hadn't understood at the time, the request seemed a little out of place. Which meant he knew. He knew, and yet, probably because of everything going on, because of all the stress Keith already faced, he hadn't told him.
"Damn it," Keith swore, storming into the house and leaving Al behind.
Keith ran up to Robert's office, hell-bent on tearing the place apart, he opened every drawer, he checked the closet, everywhere. Frustrated, he rummaged through his bedroom. Nothing, absolutely nothing. Ready to give up, Keith decided to check one more place.
He found Robert's laptop right where he always left it, he typed in the password and pulled up the history log. Robert had been quite busy these past few weeks. He'd searched all kinds of medical sites, researching aneurysms, symptoms, treatment, and prognosis, so he'd obviously understood the risks.
He knew that he could be saved.
Why hadn't he gone to see a damn doctor?
Keith found a couple of word documents Robert had recently been working on, the first to his daughter, he read it with tears in his eyes. He couldn't help it. Keith understood how much Robert loved his daughter, how much he wanted her to be a part of his life.
He found a second letter addressed to him, but only about a paragraph long, like perhaps he had trouble writing it. He probably had no idea how to tell his best friend that he basically wanted to commit suicide.
The letter started off with an apology after which Robert pleaded his case. It read like a cop-out. Keith had a hard time picturing Robert as a coward, which only served to fuel his rage. Why had Robert been so selfish?
Robert asked Keith to remember everything they'd talked about, and his promise, his promise to take care of Madison, 'She's the one,' he wrote. And nothing else. Either he didn't have time to finish, or he'd still been searching for the right words.
But he didn't even get a goodbye.
Robert's final words haunted him though, she's the one.
The one? What the hell did that even mean?