Chance Of A Lifetime

Keeping It Together

      Ashley marched through the house, searching for the source of the sounds, bumping into furniture several times since he still wasn't completely alert. As he reached the living room, he realized that the sounds were coming from the direction of Aerin's bedroom, so he jogged down the hall and through the open door, where he was able to hear at least two voices other than whoever was screaming coming from the bathroom. He immediately recognized one of them as Aerin, but couldn't place the other until he stepped into the doorway and saw Richie and Aerin apparently trying to support Bobby, who seemed to be having difficulty standing on his own.

      "What the hell's going on in here?" he inquired, and both Aerin and Richie snapped their heads around to look at him. His roommate instantly demanded that he go and bring her a pair of pajama pants for Bobby, and since his brain still hadn't reached full wakefulness, his first response was simply, "Um, why?"

      He was somewhat startled when Aerin practically barked, "Just do it, Ashley! Cuz if I'm right, then we need to get him as cleaned as possible and to the ER."

      Then Richie said something that swept the remaining cobwebs from his brain: "Have I lost my mind, or did Bobby literally just shit his guts out?"

      "Unless I'm mistaken, the answer's yes," Aerin answered, as she carefully moved herself closer to the sink.

      Now thoroughly unnerved, Ashley stammered a reply and stepped back into the bedroom, barely hearing the thanks that she shouted after him. Spotting Bobby's suitcase, he upended it onto the bed, rummaging through the contents until he found a pair of pajama pants, which he quickly took to Aerin. Between the three of them, they managed to get him into the garment, then Ashley stepped in to help support the older man while Aerin dashed out to move her Tahoe to the front of the house. 

      By the time they reached the living room, everyone except CC and Blues had gathered in the living room, confused and rattled by the chaos they'd woken up to, but after a hurried explanation, the group of men had quickly managed to pull together a plan to transport their friend to the truck while causing him the least amount of pain possible. After carrying him out to the vehicle face-down, almost in a crowd-surfing position, they carefully laid him down on a mattress that Aerin had placed in the back of the vehicle, and determined that Zach and Rikki would go along, lying one on either side of Bobby to keep him from being jostled any more than necessary. Noticing that his sister was nearing hysterics, Zach took a moment to reassure her before climbing into the vehicle, seeming somewhat relieved when Aidan came forward to wrap an arm around the younger woman's shoulders and gently turn her back toward the house.

      Once the group had sped off down the street, the others simply stood in the driveway, staring at each other in shock, until Aidan broke the silence by saying, "Okay, we can't just stand out here collecting dew until we hear from one of them, so let's go inside, and I'll make breakfast."

      The other four turned to stare at her as though she had just spoken to them in a foreign language, but then Zoe practically shrieked, "Are you crazy? My dad just got driven off to the damn hospital, and you're worried about breakfast!? Do you really think I'm worried about that right now?" 

      Aidan simply crossed her arms and gave the girl a calm, level stare. "So are you trying to say that you don't plan to eat until your Dad gets home? If so, that's not really fair to him, is it? He needs to be able to focus all of his attention on getting over whatever is wrong with him, and he's not gonna be able to do that if he as to worry about you making yourself sick, is he? And what good are you going to be to him when he does come home, have you thought of that?"

      Bret opened his mouth to respond, but she stabbed a finger at him and snapped, "Don't even. Because if you think there's a chance in hell that I'm gonna stand here and let you throw yourself into insulin shock or something of that nature, and end up in the hospital with Bobby, then you're an idiot. I'll hit one of the others up for your number and call your girlfriend myself before that'll happen!" She then flapped both hands toward the door and grumbled, "Shoo, all of you!"