Dear Leo (An Area 11 FanFiction)

Chapter Twenty Eight-Ten Years

28th February 2010

Quick note-this is kind of a sad chapter. Just a heads up!

"Dad, don't talk like that!" I protest. "Talking like that makes it feel more real!" He laughs loudly from the hospital bed, breaking into a cough.

"Sorry love, I can't help it." Dad smiles. "I'm just thinking of the future, and if I'm going one day, then I want you guys to have something to remember me by!" He pushes the two books into our hands.

"You're recovering though, so really we don't need to think of the future yet. Focus on getting better and getting out of here!" Leo says, referring to the hospital we're sat in. Dad was in a car accident, and has been in here for almost a week now. We'd been told it was a couple broken ribs and a few nasty bruises. He should be out in the next couple of days, they'd kept him in for so long just to monitor his progress.

"Well, considering I've barely seen you two since you were little, it might be best for you to have them now anyway," Dad answers, pushing his dark hair from his face. "Who knows when I'll see you again!"

"I'm not letting you go that easily!" I grin.

"Yeah, but mum will protest..." Leo points out. "She doesn't even know we're here!" Dad sighs and shakes his head.

"Your mother...sometimes I wonder why she acts like that..." he murmurs, before smiling at us once more and gesturing to the books. "Now come on, I want to see your faces when you read them!" He sounds like a child at christmas, it's hard to believe he is thirty five, not a little kid.

I run a hand over the A4 hardback cover, tracing the swirls on the brown cover (must be recycled). The inside is filled with page after page of Dad's swirly handwriting, photographs and postcards. Each page details a different week-from tour dates to the wonderfully grey weather, almost every moment of the past ten years of Dad's life was crammed into these two notebooks.

"I wanted to see you look at them, just so I knew you had them," he explains. I blink back tears and wrap my arms round him. I feel Leo do the same, all three of us hugging in a small circle.

"Thanks, I love it!" I grin, pulling back and flicking through the notebook for a second time. "I'm going to read all of it, so I know everything I've missed out on!"

"Same here," Leo agrees as he sits back down. "We've told you what you missed, so it is our turn, I guess."

Dad gives us a sad smile. "I love you kids so much. It's funny to think that last time I got to properly talk to you was when you were tiny. You've grown up so fast." He wipes a small tear away. "I promise this time we'll find a way to see each other. I can't bear the thought of having to leave you behind again. I'm never leaving you two again."

A nurse pokes her head round the door. "I'm sorry, visiting hours are over, you have to leave," she says apologetically. Leo and I stand up, both gripping our notebooks, hug Dad again, and leave the room.

"Love you Dad!" I yell behind me.

Slowly, we walk away. There's no point rushing home, mum will just ignore us or yell at us. Neither of us have any other plans, and as much as I dislike hospitals, we might as well take our time. Maybe we could stop for a McDonald's or something on the way home.

We get to the end of the corridor before a couple of doctors rush past us. I only hear snatches of their conversation, the words "critical" and "room 102".

That's Dad's room.

We race back down the corridor, but are stopped outside Dad's room by a nurse. "You can't go in."

"But we're family!" Leo protests angrily. "We need to see him!"

"I'm sorry sir, you have to wait here," she replies calmly, pointing to a row of seats not far down the corridor. Leo grips my hand in his and leads me over to sit down.

"It's no use, she's not budging..." he mutters, his hands shaking. I shuffle a little closer to him.

"When do you think we can see him?" I ask.

"Hopefully not long. Hopefully..." but I can tell we're both thinking the same thing. We both heard the doctor say "critical".

Nearly an hour later, a doctor steps out of the room, shaking his head. He glances in our direction and walks over. My blood feels like ice as he kneels in front of us and starts talking.

"You are Robert Taylor's children, I presume?"

The next minutes of him talking are drowned in pure fear and shock. I barely take in anything he's saying, I've gone numb. I can hear myself screaming, feel myself crying, but it doesn't feel real. Like I'm watching myself, an out of body experience. This shouldn't be happening. This can't be happening.

He promised he wouldn't leave us.

"I can't believe it. He's gone..." I mumble into Leo's shirt, making it blotchy with tears.

"I know...But we'll always have a part of him with us. We won't forget him."
Leo sniffs, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie. "We'll carry on as he'd want us to. Together. We'll make him proud. We'll carry on."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

AAAAHHHHHHH. IM SORRY ABOUT THAT.

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