"But you are not alone. I am here with you."

[keytomylife]

Who: Miles Morrison and Casper Price
What: When you understand what a broken heart feels like
Where: Mount Sinai, NYC
When: Morning after THIS

Triage shifts were always mental. Last night was no exception. Miles was exhausted and did need to eventually get home to sleep, but he had something he needed to do before he left the hospital. The night before, bright and bubbly TV personality, Casper Price, had passed his Triage desk. Miles knew of Casper, of course, but he had never met him. Not even with Caden being one of Rhys' bosses now. What he did know - via Rhys - was that Caden and Casper had split up, only just before the news went public. Most had been sad for them, but there were the typical hemorrhoids hanging off the wanker brigade bus of the world who were making stupid comments like 'It was never going to last' and 'Too much of an age different to ever work'. Judgemental fucks. Love was love, and where there was love, there was a hell of a lot of pain when it ended. Miles knew that all too well.

That was why he needed to check in on Casper to see how he was doing. Casper had presented to the ER via a cab with a crippling headache that was causing photophobia, nausea, and vomiting. On the face of it, some may pass it off as migraine, but medically, it wasn't the classic presentation. The pain was more excruciating than a migraine, and considering Casper's recent history with aneurysm, it was quickly classified a urgent case. After the initial examination, Casper was handed over to the doctor, ASAP, and Miles got swallowed up in his continuous flood of patients to assess that night.

He had just spoken to Riley now at the end of their shift, and Riley confirmed that there was no relapse of aneurysm and no bleeding on the brain. In fact, Casper's CT and MRI had come back clear. What they ultimately deduced was that Casper's crippling head pain had been an aftermath of having suffered an aneurysm that had been treated by coiling, and headaches such as this could flare up in aneurysm patients and could keep recurring for for months, or even years. It was possible recent stress has exacerbated the severity, or it was possible the brain just worked in mysterious ways and now, a little down the train, Casper's head was just reminding him he had a near miss.

Either way, he poor guy had been really ill when Miles had seen him. He wasn't confused or losing consciousness, but the pain had incapacitated his functioning across the board. It made him dizzy, unsteady and sick. The vomiting had been severe. Casper was vomiting all over himself when Miles got to him to examine him. He thought maybe he had a head injury, but there had been no visible signs of it, and Casper confirmed he hadn't had one. He passed the neurological exam. No one needed to be a doctor at that point to know Casper was in pain and feeling horribly sick. Miles realised he was feeling alone on top of that when Casper begged him not to call Caden. It hurt. Miles knew how that felt. But he still stayed professional and did his job. It wasn't about him.

Riley had treated Casper with some strong painkillers and meds to stop the nausea, and put him on some IV fluids, admitting him overnight for observation. Miles located the room number and after clocking off his shift, went straight up to check on the poor guy. Casper was awake when he got there, only barely. Miles didn't want to intrude on him and linger. "Hey," he greeted him softly, coming into the room to stand by his bedside. "You're looking a little better than I last saw you. I just wanted to come check in on you, see how you were going."

"Just to keep them talking."

[deepinmysoul]

Who: Caden Drake and Tristan Hewitt
What: PR, at it's most painful
Where: FABULOUS HQ
When: Thursday morning

When this interview and fashion feature had been arranged with Caden, it had been many weeks prior, during a time when things were going well with him and Casper. What it had been was Gen, Paris, and Tristan coming up with a Broadway themed issued, and Tristan had wanted to do a feature spread on Caden and his 'classically classy style'. There would be an interview and a fashion shoot, which Tristan was overseeing. It was to be Ajay's first big Stylist gig for the magazine with his new position of making the styling choices for the subject of the feature spread. It had all seemed like a bit of harmless fun for Caden when he had agreed and signed on the dotted line. Gen was Justin's mom, and Justin was a big part of Caden's life now. It made sense to not put up a fight. PR was PR and Caden always appreciated extra exposure for his productions.

Though, along with the photoshoot would be an interview, no doubt probing some parts of his private life. A private life that had bottomed out from under him. He still didn't quite understand where it all went so wrong, but a lot of it was to with, no the age difference like many assumed, but the fact he and Casper were very different and both had very demanding careers with a high level of public exposure. The pressure of that got too much. They called it quit. Caden still hurt because Casper was such a sweetheart. He really brought a light to Caden's life. It just wasn't meant to be. Life was seeming to be a challenge for a few people lately. He was guilty of going out and getting stinking drunk with Reecy one night when their splits had happened around the same time.

He was sitting in Tristan's office waiting for the Fashion Director of FABULOUS to come through. Tristan had requested via the receptionist that Caden wait in his office. He wasn't late at all, it was Caden who had been early. What that meant was he had time left to sit and stew, wishing he had never agreed to any of this.

"I got you, babe."

[americanskin]

Who: Angela Ashwood and Clint Chevalier
What: Desperate times call for desperate measures
Where: Clint's place, NYC
When: Friday morning

As much as they wished things would stop being so stressful, they just weren't. Not yet. It was too soon. What that meant was the Lincoln was still very much recovering, and because of that, he still needed a lot of help and care from Clint. The knock-on effect of that was that Clint was exhausted. He was doing his absolute best and Lincoln was his Number One priority with everything. But his stress and worry had caused insomnia, which had caused him to fall asleep at the wheel and crash his car. Then, a few weeks later, Lincoln had developed an infection in his stomach and got quite sick, passing out on the bathroom floor. At the time, Clint had been crashed out in a deep sleep because he finally bit the bullet and took the prescribed sleeping pills. Lincoln was left feeling like it was all too much for Clint to handle, and Clint was left feeling like he was failing at caring for his husband.

That's why it was time to call for back-up. Angela had come up with the idea of getting a big place they could all live together, which would give Clint extra help if he needed it. They would all still have their own lives, but they were a family and families were supposed to stick together in times of need. This was one hell of a time of need... but she knew how hard it would be for Clint because he wasn't used to needing help of this level. He was always used to being in complete control of everything. It had all slipped out of his hands when Lincoln had been stabbed and nearly murdered.

That morning was a perfect example and Angela knew it was time to sit Clint down and talk. Lincoln had a few appointments at the hospital with doctors and physiotherapists that morning, but Clint had been up all through the night with a bad migraine. Lincoln had called Emily first thing and asked if she could take him to his appointment because Clint was knocked down with the migraine. Emily agreed without hesitation, of course. But it led to her and Angela having a quiet conversation in bed before they got up about it being time to talk to Clint about this suggestion. Instead of bombarding him, they decided Angela was the best to talk to him. They had an open and honest, yet very close, relationship. Angela was one of the few people who could talk to Clint on a different level.

Emily had bundled Lincoln up to take him to the hospital, fussing over him and him letting her. Twin prerogative. Angela waited a little while before Clint surfaced from the bedroom looking now unlike the walking dead. She went straight over to him and wrapped her arms around him in a secure hug, rubbing his back. "When did you last puke? You probably need some fluids. Are you up to eating? I can make you a bit of toast and a cuppa," she offered quietly and pulled back to kiss him on the forehead.

"It's time."

[thankfuckforlife]

Who: Just Richie
What: MF'ing Disneyland
Where: See above
When: After THIS

Richie's granddad had let slip over a family dinner one night one of Richie's amusing childhood moments. Having gotten pissed off at kids asking him why he didn't have a dad, he had began a phase of telling people 'I don't ever want to get married, I just want to go to Disneyland!' It was hilarious when you were eight years old. In many ways, Richie had grown up like his mom, ultimately being hardworking and career-focused. His conviction about Disneyland had never changed, but his ideals about marriage definitely had. Especially since Adrian had come into the picture.

It had been a rocky road, there was no doubt about that. Richie's life had been complicated shortly after Adrian had paid a million bucks for him in the bachelor auction. Even had Richie had been skeptical about the whole thing, they ended up sleeping together and the sex that first night had been fucking fantastic. Romance blossomed, and even though other parts of Richie's life became confusing and scary along the way, things kept evolving with Adrian.

Adrian never held back. He was romantic, funny, smart, talented, gorgeous. He was the perfect package, and it lead to Richie feeling sometimes that he was too good for him. Or that Adrian would eventually get fed the fuck up with having to run back to New York every time Richie got himself ill, injured or in an emotional wreck. But it had been Adrian who had been there for him when the ordeal with Zoran happened, when Richie had fallen ill and started bleeding internally, when things with Jeff died in the ass, and then when Richie suffered the vicarious trauma through his job with the rape victim patient and started drinking heavily.

( The drinking heavily had lead to him doing dumb shit like getting a tattoo of Adrian's name on him, which caused a hemorrhage... )

COMPLETE

"Her hands are never cold, she's got Bette Davis eyes."

[zedblaze]

Who: Zoran Jennings and Melody Winters
What: Behind every great man is a great woman
Where: Melody's place, NYC
When: Friday morning

Zoran had completed his PTSD residential rehab program. He had been there for three months, after initially checking in for four weeks. In that entire time, he hadn't been in touch with anyone. Ultimately, he had isolated himself so he could focus on his treatment and therapy. There was no other way for him to get his life back on track when he had been feeling like he didn't want to go on. The urges to end himself had been back, and with the confession that he had been the one who killed his father, it had been the straw that broke the emotional camel's back. It took three times longer than anticipated to make leeway and begin to feel human again.

He had flown back from Arkansas that morning, but he hadn't told anyone he had finally checked out. It wasn't Zoran than he went to first either. It wasn't Naomi, or his parents, or siblings in New York. There was one person who had always been by his side, and who had never given up on him, or walked away from him. The one person he should have gone to all along to help him through this, but he had been trying to protect and from the pain.

He hitched his backpack up onto his shoulder and ran the buzzer of Melody's apartment. He had always been gay and they had never had a romantic relationship. They had so much more than that. She was his girl, and he needed her. Everyone else could wait for now.

"My love for you, insatiable."

[moviesismagic]

Who: Adrian Hewitt and Richie Jameson
What: Happiest Place on Earth
Where: Disneyland
When: After THIS

That day had been, without a doubt, the best of Adrian's life. He had done and seen some incredible things in his relatively short life, but that day he had laughed more than he ever had and Richie had him smiling so much, his face was aching. They had a ball on all the rides, and it was the uplifting fun they needed after moving through a dark and stormy cloud together recently. No one was drunk, no one felt like they needed to be drunk, no one was bleeding, no one was feeling like this wasn't working. It was just perfect. The exact sort of perfect Adrian knew he wouldn't ever forget.

Now they were in a VIP area watching the Paint the Night Parade and waiting for the fireworks to start in a little while. Adrian had his arm tucked cosily around Richie's shoulders, while Richie stood snuggled in beside him with his arm wrapped around Adrian's waist. They were both wearing Mickey Mouse ears, because no trip to Disneyland was complete without that, as dorky as it probably was. Richie was munching on cotton candy, and feeding pieces of it to Adrian as he broke them off and tugged them free. The latest piece, Adrian bypassed and instead caught Richie's lips in a deep kiss. His lips and tongue tasted sweet, and Adrian smiled into the kiss. "Happy?" he asked with a smile, their lips still so close.