"I'm on my way."

[imitationoflife]

Who: Lisa and Caden Drake
What: Setting aside one's own issues
Where: Neuro Waiting Room, Mount Sinai
When: Sunday morning

Lisa was so new to the City that she hadn't gotten the chance to get to know many people in Caden's life, however Casper definitely was one of them. The young man was bright, bouncy, had a wicked sense of humour, and all-round impossible not to love. She had, stupidly, been hesitant when she heard Caden was dating someone just a couple of years older than her son, but age was just a number and 10 years really wasn't a long period of time.

Waking up that morning, checking her phone had to take a back seat. She was crippled with morning sickness, and it had distracted her from everything else. She still hadn't told anyone her guilty little secret yet. She was trying to find the right moment, and the right way. In the meantime, work had kept her busy, and time had slipped away from her. Once she cleaned herself up and was about to take a shower, she quickly checked her phone and found a string of text messages there from Caden.

She settled on just brushing her teeth and throwing on something presentable before she grabbed a cab and hurried over to the hospital. "Caden!" she called out, spotting her brother pacing up and down the corridor as soon as she stepped out of the elevator. "What's happening? Is Casper okay?"

Comments

[deepinmysoul]

The only thing stopping Caden speed dialling Mark to kick off a law suit right now was the fact he was worrying about Casper. Not that a law suit was off the cards, because the way he was feeling right now, he would be extremely prepared to convince Casper to sue the production company of his show for putting him into a dangerous situation that could quite literally had life-threatening results. Yes, Casper had agreed to it, but at the same time, there had been a distinct uncertainty and the only reason he did it was because he didn't want to disappoint his fans. As it was, Caden was definitely going to have to insist on an injunction to stop the footage of the bungee jump being aired. It turned out that Casper wasn't just motion sick from bouncing up and down on a giant rubber band.

He heaved a deep sigh of relief when Lisa arrived and it intercepted his nervous pacing. "He could have died!" he snapped, because his emotions were in overdrive right now. "That bloody horrific excuse for a bit of fun caused an aneurysm in his brain. It started to leak, that's why he had such a crippling headache. They have to do a procedure to stop a massive bleed, which could kill him if it happens. I want to have that television company put out of business!"

[imitationoflife]

Lisa knew that Caden got in angry and powerful bitch mode when something happened out of his control and he didn't have immediate course of action to fix it. She took both his hands into hers to halt him on getting too deep on that path. "Hey, just take a breath for me, buddy. I'm not going to let you run in light a white knight waving your lawsuit sword around. This isn't your business to be making the calls on this time, it's Casper's. As hard as that is for you to remember right now, you're not married. These aren't your shots to call, okay? Just chill. As much as you can given the circumstances, that is."

She hooked her hand into his arm and tugged him into the waiting room. "Come and sit down, have a drink of water," she urged and fetched him a cup of water from the cooler before taking the seat beside him. "Tell me about the procedure. Is it a big one, will he be in there a long time? Do I need to call anyone for you? I know you're worried, Cay. You love him, and you're scared to lose him. But he's not one of your actors and he's not someone you're automatically in control over."

[deepinmysoul]

Lisa was Caden's big sister, so she had this way of being able to boss him around unlike anyone else. She also knew him probably better than anyone else in the whole world, so she knew all his weaknesses and could read him like a book. As soon as he was sitting, he lost his steam anyway. "It's a relatively minor procedure called coiling. It stops the bleed and after monitoring for 24 hours, he should be allowed to go home if there aren't any complications. It's not invasive like brain surgery as the other option. It goes in through the aorta. Something along those lines."

He sighed and cupped the water in between his hands. "It just scared the hell out of me. I think I've made all the calls I needed to. I left messages for most people because it was so early in the morning. Where's Bren? I tried to call him to tell him we weren't home, but I just kept getting voicemail. They thought it may have just been a pinched nerve in his neck. So, in the grander scheme of things, it's fortunately it's not a spinal injury, but is this a better option? Both were a risk to his life. I can't let this drop. He could well have died if he just went to his own apartment and fell asleep. The only way we knew something was wrong was because I was there with him when he fell ill."

[imitationoflife]

Lisa listened as he spoke. She now had a hand on his back and was rubbing it softly, trying to soothe him a little. She knew it was impossible to be able to allay this worry and fear he was feeling. At the very least, it sounded like the less invasive option and they were acting quickly but she knew trying to engage him in discussions of all the medical ins and outs here would only upset him. He would have been informed, but the details were failing him. One thing about Caden was that the situation had to be concerning for details to fail him. "Brendan had his date last night. He may have turned his phone off if all was going well." She truly hoped it went well for her son. All she wanted was him to be happy and experience those wonderful things that came with falling in love.

"You must let it drop, Caden. These aren't your decisions to make. If he is unwell, the last thing you want is to cause tensions between you getting up in arms about things he might not wish to pursue." She paused, giving him time to let that sink in once again. "Is there a reason you haven't asked him to move in with you? Even just in the short time I've been here, I've seen how close you are. He makes you smile in a way I haven't seen you smile in a very long time. It had to have been a consideration for you, so why haven't you asked him?"

[deepinmysoul]

It had completely slipped Caden's mind that last night had been when Brendan had his date. His nephew hadn't been home in the day and Casper had spent the night, waking up in the morning with a terrible headache and feeling ill. Caden had been really worried about him the worse he got. Hew knew that for Casper to be saying it had 'the worst headache of his life', it wasn't just being a drama queen. Casper had a flare for the dramatics, but he had been visibly ill and unable to move much because of the pain in his head. "Of course... I did know that was happening last night, it just slipped my mind. You haven't heard from him?" he asked, because he, too, was wondering how Brendan had gotten on.

He hesitantly met his sister's gaze and gave a small shrug. "You haven't seen his apartment. It's not unlike that of Tom Hanks in the movie Big. Just full of more colour and more fun things to do. I didn't think he would want to give that up to come live with me. There's always this uncertainty in the back of my mind that I'm too dull for him. That we want different things. That he is going to wake up on any given morning and think this is all so bloody boring for him."

[imitationoflife]

Lisa shook her head. "Not as yet. He's young and free. He doesn't need his mother and uncle chasing after him the morning after a date to keep tabs on him. If I don't hear from him by this afternoon, I'll call him and tell him what's happened with Casper. To try to intercept him feeling guilty that he didn't get your messages and kick himself for being on a date in the first place. He really is a lot like you, you know, love."

She raised her eyebrows and analysed him closely for a few moments before she actually chose her words carefully to continue. "I think you're making excuses because you're scared. Not because you truly believe he will feel any of those things. He's become extremely important to you, and you're scared his goals might be very different to yours. But how will you know that if you never talk to him about it? All this, it sounds like he will need time to recuperate and rest. Maybe that's a perfect time to start talking to him about your future together? If there is one. Wouldn't it be better to know now if there wasn't?"

[deepinmysoul]

Caden gave a small snort of amusement because he knew she was 100% right. Brendan didn't need them running around keeping check of every move he made. He was only just beginning a path of exploration and he had an open and honest relationship with both of them. They wouldn't want to make him feel like they were being pains in the ass so he couldn't tell them anything. "He and Casper are good friends. I know he would want to know. But you're right, let him enjoy the morning after phase. I hope it's all gone well. Kyan is a lovely lad, so I assume his brother is also."

Damnit. Foiled again my big sister logic. "He's young, I am more than aware of that. I have people at the ready to remind me that literally every day. But if it takes him ten years to get to the place I am in now, I will be in my early forties before that happens. Then potentially my early fifties before any children we may have even begin high school. It's all very exhausting to think about. He will need time to recover and I'm going to take care of him the whole way. You're right, though. It is probably better to discuss these things now than keep avoiding the subject."

[imitationoflife]

Lisa was smiling at this. Yes, Casper and Brendan were close in age, but not the age where Caden himself could be the father of either of them. That was the whole point with this. Ten years was nothing, and happiness breached time anyway. Though all this was just making her stomach churn nervously because she knew she was pregnant and there would be a 17 years age gap between her youngest and this baby. She didn't know how anyone was going to take the news, and she was worrying extensively about the big announcement. How was Sam going to take it? It was hard to tell. They hadn't had conversations about the future yet, it was still early days. That was the nervy part of all this. "I am sure he will spare you all the gory little details. You haven't met Trey? I was hoping you might have."

"He is young, but was the young man, Jace, not twenty-one when he got married? Young people aren't immune to wanting things like marriage and children. We all know I had my first at sixteen. It's all numbers, Cay. You shouldn't let yourself get stuck on that. Let him make the choices himself, don't pre-empt them for him. That's not fair. He has fallen in love with you knowing the gap in age and it has neither bothered him or impacted on your relationship. You could have someone your own age who was just as different to you as Casper is." She messed his hair up a little... big sister prerogative.

[deepinmysoul]

Caden had to laugh softly at this. There had been a bit of an early bone of contention - pun unintended - about this issue with Caden dating Casper, and Casper's penchant for spontaneous sex. Not only had Brendan walked in on them, but so had Justin. It meant they had to employ a bit more discretion with their alone time and remember to make sure doors were securely locked. "Do you think there will be gory details? I wasn't sure if he would be more reserved in the progression of that. No, I haven't met Trey, but he works for Mark. He's a law student and beat out over two hundred other candidates for the placement with Mark's firm, so he's reputable. Brendan seems quite smitten."

He looked at her when that penny about Jace dropped. "You're right. Jace was twenty-one, I believe. Jesse is a few years older than him. But Casper's been carefree and free-spirited his whole life. He's not had setbacks like those young men. Not that I mean to make excuses. I just don't want to hold Cas back from anything. This is going to hit him hard, I know it will. He wasn't really processing any of it before the procedure, so it will hit him afterwards. I just want to be able to take care of him, but not stifle him."