Helena
It was almost midnight when I got the call. Ali was sound asleep, and the only thing keeping me from the same was the fact that I didn't seem to sleep anymore. Every night was the same, fears and nightmares and cold sweat that left me gasping for breath in bed.
When my phone started buzzing, I knew that it was either going to be very good news or very bad. I answered the call, hoping against hope that I'd hear Dominick's voice on the other end. That it would be him reassuring me, that everything was going to be fine.
It wasn't Dominick.
Dom's mother was a lovely woman, but I still wanted to cry when I realized it was Jane Henderson calling me so late at night. I braced myself to hear the worst, but it never came.
Quite the opposite.
Dominick was okay.
He was awake.
I was too relieved and too happy to question why he hadn't called himself. The doctors had told us that coming out of a coma could be rough, and it was understandable that he'd be exhausted even after a week of sleep.
Relieved? Hell, I was ecstatic.
I don't remember waking up my father so he could watch Ali, or getting dressed, or the drive down to the hospital. I don't even know how I made it through the now tiny contingent of reporters, or anything else. But I knew must've done all of those things, because the next thing I knew I was back in the now-familiar ICU of Massachusetts General Hospital.
Alton was the first familiar space I spotted, just outside of Dom's room. I knew he still didn't like me much, but the two of us had come to an awkward truce ever since the accident. Whatever else his faults were, I knew he cared about Dominick—and it seemed that, for the time being at least, he was willing to give me the same benefit of the doubt.
Behind Alton was another face I didn't recognize, however. A tall guy with a large frame that seemed to emanate menace. His arms were crossed over his chest and his eyes locked dead onto me, making his already ominous appearance feel all the more threatening.
Alton spotted me soon after.
"Helena," he said, his smile downright welcoming by comparison. "How are you?"
"Fantastic," I said, my eyes reluctant to leave the larger man. "Best day I've had since all of this started. Jane called and told me the news. Is he really up?"
"Yes, yes, he is," Alton said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
My manners forgotten in the rush to see Dominick, I practically bolted for the door.
Or I tried to, anyway.
The large man moved equally fast, blocking the frame with his thick and muscled body. Shocked, I was at a loss for words as I stared up at him and realized he wasn't budging.
Well, I wasn't so much at a loss for words as it was that I had too many words to pick from.
Pretty much all of them were curses, though.
"So…uh," Alton said from behind me, and I spun back around to face him. "Everything is fine," he said.
Now it was my turn to cross my arms. Out of all the ways he could've began the conversation, few of them boded quite as poorly as everything is fine. Except of course for….
"We need to talk," he finished.
The words deflated my anger in an instant, indignant rage immediately replaced by renewed fear. I remembered the way that it had been Jane who called me, not Dominick, and my mind went into overdrive with worrying scenarios.
Had something terrible happened?
"Alton…" I began, unable to keep the tremble from my voice. "What's wrong? What happened to Dominick?"
"Nothing happened. He's fine," Alton reassured me before muttering something under his breath that I couldn't follow. The only words I picked up were stubborn and tantrum.
"So what's the problem?" I asked, and Alton shook his head.
"You know, I could really use a coffee or something. And I haven't eaten since lunch. Let's take a walk, okay?" he asked. His casual tone seemed forced, but I could tell that he wasn't lying about Dominick—he really was okay, more or less.
Hating to leave Dom's room but glad to get away from the stranger blocking the door, I followed Alton down to the hospital cafeteria.
"This has been one hell of a day, you know," Alton said, wiping his sweaty forehead as he got a coffee from one vending machine and a glazed donut from another. He looked dejected and worried, and reluctant to meet my gaze.
"Start from the beginning," I pleaded. "I'm lost. Who was that man? Why can't I see Dominick? What happened today?"
"Well, for starters, the pictures resurfaced," Alton said, and I didn't need to ask him which pictures.
Those of the day I had my ultrasound.
I shook my head, disgusted by the news. "Dominick is in there fighting for his life, and they're trying to expose him behind his back? That's horrible."
"That's typical, you mean," Alton said, laughing bitterly into his donut. I'm sure whoever took those pics laughed all the way to the bank, and now they're going to try twice as hard to get twice as many new ones. A wounded hockey player was big news for a few days, but mix in a story like yours? It's going to be like winning the lottery for whoever sinks lowest the fastest."
"So that man outside Dominick's room…" I began.
"Bodyguard," Alton explained, and suddenly I was glad that the stranger had been so ruthlessly intimidating.
I hoped it would be enough.
"I know we've never exactly gotten along," Alton said suddenly, retrieving a thick wallet from his pants pocket. "But I care about Dom a lot. I've only ever had his best interests at heart."
Opening the wallet, Alton slid his fingers under the flap and pulled out a bunch of old dog-eared pictures before sliding it over to me.
I recognized Dominick immediately, younger and skinnier but unmistakably him. In all of the photos he was with Alton, the two of them looking happy.
Dominick and Alton on worn out skates with huge smiles.
The two of them working together in a garage, apparently restoring the motorcycle I recognized as Dominick's current bike.
Young Dominick and Alton, surrounded by attractive women in bikinis on the beach.
One photo in particular caught my eye, because Dominick was beaming pride at the camera. It was similar to an expression I knew well; I'd seen him wearing it often whenever he spent time with Ali or even with me. This time however, the younger and lankier Dominick was smiling as bright as the summer sun while on a boat in the middle of a lake. He was holding a huge fish in one arm and giving a thumbs up with the other, looking immensely satisfied.
"I remember that day so vividly," Alton said as he looked down at the picture. "One of the best days of my life. We'd heard stories about that damn fish, something of a local legend. We spent the entire damn morning trying to catch it, and Dom was determined not to give up. Even when I suggested we stop, he kept going. He was stubborn back then, too. We were so young, and just celebrating one of our first seasons with the Bruins."
I looked at Alton, surprised by the unexpected sharing.
"I bought that farmhouse with my salary," Alton said, pointing to a building I'd missed in the background of the picture. "I don't know how we caught it. It was our first time fishing. Hell, it was our first time in the woods at all. We'd always wanted to go, but we never had the time or the money. And then suddenly we had loads of both. No wonder I got so carried away."
I smiled, happy that Alton seemed to be accepting me more now. Dominick was probably right that he was an okay guy, although by all accounts the man would've rather chopped off his own tongue before opening up to anyone like this—least of all me.
The pictures were all different, but they were all the same in reality.
Dominick and Alton. Always the two of them, always together, always happy.
Except in the last photo. That one was older, and of a sad-looking woman I didn't recognize. As soon as my eyes fell on her, Alton snapped his wallet shut and he pulled it back across the table.
A small tear fell down his cheek. Alton scowled, wiping it off with his sleeve almost in agitation.
"He's like a brother to me. You know, what he did for Ali is just so…typical of him. I'm not surprised. I think he would've done that even if she wasn't his biological daughter."
"What he did for her?" I asked. Other than taking her on a ride that almost proved deadly, I didn't know what Alton could've been talking about. "What do you mean?"
"She didn't tell you?" Alton asked, surprised.
"No," I shook my head. "I'd been hoping to get the story from Dominick. Ali blames herself for the entire thing, and it's still hard for her to talk about it in detail."
"When Ali fell off, he stopped his bike and ran to her," Alton began. "Ran straight for a car that was heading towards them both, the crazy bastard. He barely made it in time, but instead of getting out of the way—instead of giving up—he grabbed Ali and threw her to safety. That's how he got hit."
"Jesus," I said, feeling dizzy and my heart pounding in my chest. Suddenly it all made sense; why Ali's injuries were so much lighter than Dominick's, why she could hardly talk about the accident.
Dominick had sacrificed himself for Ali.
Tears welled up in my eyes, and I prayed that the man's incredible courage would be rewarded instead of punished further. He was out of the coma, and everyone said he was doing well.
And yet I was having this conversation with Alton, not Dominick.
"Yeah, that's Dominick in a nutshell," Alton said quietly, and I nodded.
I was too stunned to speak.
"And you can bet your sweet ass that this is exactly the kind of stuff that those reporters will stop at nothing to find out. This has been the calm before the storm, Helena."
"What—what should we do? Please tell me you have some kind of plan."
"Yeah," Alton said, sitting up straighter as he spoke and tapping his wallet pointedly. "We go to ground and stay there for a while. Once Dominick is good enough to be discharged, I'll take him to the farm. It'll be easy for us, we can disappear for a while."
"But I can't just quit my job like that, and Ali can't quit school," I said, hugging myself.
"No, you can't. It'll be harder for you, the media is going to find you and camp out in front of your house. But as long as you don't give them anything—not one word, not one gesture—they'll give up eventually. You can only get ratings for so long by filming somebody's yard. After a while, you're literally just watching the grass grow. We'll provide you with your own bodyguard."
"I've been a recluse most of my life, I can handle a few more weeks of it," I said, hoping I was right. "But what about you? You're just going to drop your entire life to help Dominick hide out in the woods?"
"That's pretty much my plan, yeah," Alton said with another sheepish smile. "I don't have much of a life to begin with, and I've already put it on hold. I've been here every single night since the accident. No parties, no drinks, no floozies, nothing. Dominick might not be my actual brother, but I love him like one. And when I heard the news, it was like I was losing the very last thing I actually gave a damn about."
"He feels the same way about you, you know," I said quietly.
"No, he doesn't," Alton said, giving me a sad smile.
"What are you talking about? Of course he does."
"He used to, but now he doesn't. How could he? Look—what did all those pictures have in common?"
"You were both happy in them."
"It was just the two of us. Even when other people were around, it was still just us. But not anymore. Dominick has a family now. He has you, he has Ali, he has a son on the way for crying out loud," Alton said, shaking his head. "The moment I saw you, I knew things were going to change. Hell, they already had changed."
"He's still your best friend," I said. "He's talked about you. He still thinks the world of you."
"Yeah, we'll always be friends," Alton agreed. "But the truth is, Dominick grew up and became a real boy. I think he'd been wanting to for a long time, to be honest. But he never would've. Not if he hadn't met you," Alton explained before once again muttering under his breath.
Unlike earlier however, this time Alton spoke loudly enough for me to hear every word.
"Which is why it's so surprising that he's acting like such a freaking baby now," Alton said quietly, rubbing his face as he spoke. After he was done, he gave me a long look.
"What are you talking about?"
"I only want what's best for Dominick, you know," Alton said, ignoring my question. "And after listening to his half-lucid babble as he woke up these past couple of days, I think I've got a pretty good idea of what that is."
"Alton," I said, feeling sick as the truth crept up on me slowly. "Why wouldn't the bodyguard let me see Dominick earlier?"
"Because," Alton answered slowly, wincing as he spoke. "Dominick says he never wants to see you again."