Christian (The Beck Brothers Series)

by Andria Large

  Henry raised an eyebrow. “Of course I am,” he scoffed.

  Margot’s hand flicked out so fast that Christian barely caught it. The next thing Christian knew, Henry was doubled over, one hand cupping his injured balls while the other rested on his knee so he didn’t completely crumple to the floor. All of the men in the room were wincing.

  “You bitch,” Henry ground out then gagged loudly. “I was just screwing with you.”

  Margot smiled brightly. “I know,” she chirped as she spun away and flipped her hair over her shoulder before walking past Christian and into the kitchen.

  Christian chuckled.

  “Oh god, I seriously might throw up.” Henry wheezed.

  “Not on the rug! Go to the bathroom!” Shea exclaimed.

  “I can’t move!” Henry cried.

  Adalyn walked over to him, holding onto the coffee table for balance. She patted Henry’s leg, her big blue eyes looking up at him. “Da-Da?”

  Henry gave her a tight smile. “Hi, sweetheart.”

  Adalyn smiled, showing off her cute little teeth. “Da-Da!”

  Henry pulled in a deep breath and blew it out. “Jesus, that hurt,” he grumbled as he straightened up some.

  “That’ll teach you to mess with Margot,” Quinn said with a pointed look.

  Henry shot him the finger. Christian shook his head at his crazy family and took Skylar into the kitchen to get her a bottle.

  ~Chapter 11~

  The past three months have been a multitude of things for Shea, exhausting being one of them. Skylar was just finally starting to sleep through the night, though. Shea had gone back to work the week after they brought Skylar home. Christian stayed home another two weeks after that to give Henry a chance to find a new assistant. Claire decided to stop working and become the family daycare. Shea and Christian loved her for it. They were both stressing out about putting her into daycare, neither of them wanted to do it. Christian was even considering closing down his studio to become a stay-at-home dad. But Claire announced that she was going to stop working and would take care of the kids. She was an amazing woman. Henry was not overly ecstatic about it, but he didn’t argue with her, which Shea was glad for.

  “Shea, come out with us tonight,” his buddy Greg said as he helped Shea put up kitchen cabinets.

  “Eh, I don’t know…” Shea hedged.

  “Come on, dude, you haven’t come out with us in months,” Dan chimed in. Dan was another one of the guys that worked under him.

  “I have a three month old at home,” Shea said defensively.

  “I’m sure Christian wouldn’t mind if you came out one night,” Greg said.

  “I don’t know.” Shea sighed.

  “Just ask, the worst he can say is no,” Dan offered.

  Shea rolled his eyes. “Fine.”

  Shea got home at around 6:00 pm. He took a shower then sat down with Christian at the table to eat the dinner that he made. Skylar was sleeping in her swing in the living room. Christian made a delicious pasta dish that Shea couldn’t help but scarf down.

  “Chris, would you mind if I went out with a few of guys from work tonight?” Shea asked as he spooned another helping into his bowl.

  “No, not at all, as long as I get to go out another night,” Christian replied.

  “Sure, that’s fine,” Shea agreed.

  “Where are you going?” Christian asked curiously.

  “Just to Mac’s Tavern, nothing fancy, just going to hang out for a few hours,” Shea told him.

  Christian nodded. “Okay.”

  So after dinner, Shea helped Christian clean up the kitchen, then he gave him and Skylar a kiss before heading out to the bar to meet up with the guys from work. Shea had told them all about him being bi and the relationship he was in with Christian. Surprisingly, they had all been extremely supportive about it. He was expecting at least one of the guys to be homophobic and have a problem with it, but no, they were all cool.

  Shea hadn’t realized how much he had needed to get out. He was definitely more relaxed and de-stressed by the time he left to head home. He would make sure Christian got his night out soon, he was sure he needed it just as badly.

  As Shea got closer to his house, he had to pull to the side to let a police car and fire engine by. He really didn’t think anything of it, they lived in the city, police and fire engines ran rampant at all times of the day. Then an ambulance had him pulling to the side again a few minutes later.

  Shea turned onto their block and slammed on the brakes. He stared at the scene in front of him, not fully comprehending what was going on. There were police cars, two fire engines, and a couple of ambulances crammed onto his street, in front of his house. Shea blinked, put his truck in park and looked over at the houses to see which one they were there for. The night his parents and sister died flashed through his mind when he saw the smoke billowing up from his roof.

  Horror. Pure, unadulterated horror was all that Shea felt as he shoved open his door and got out of his truck. NO! Shea started forward, taking a few steps before bursting into a full out run. Shea scanned the crowd of people who were out front, milling around, watching everything that was going on. No Christian and no Skylar. Could they possibly still be in the house? Shea almost threw up right then and there.

  “CHRISTIAN!” Shea screamed as he sprinted up his front walkway, blowing past the police keeping people at a distance.

  Shea heard them shout at him to stop but that was not going to happen. There were firefighters lined up just outside the front door getting ready to go in. Shea wasn’t going to wait; he needed to get to his baby and the love of his life. There was no way he would let the rest of his family die the same way his parents and sister died.

  Shea shoved his way past a couple of firefighters who tried to grab him just as they kicked in the door. The black smoke that poured out of the front door momentarily stunned Shea. He stopped long enough that a cop was able to run up and grab him and start pulling him away.

  “NO! MY FAMILY IS IN THERE!” he screamed, tearing himself out of their grasp.

  Shea barreled past the firefighters and into the smoke and flame filled house. He could barely see past the smoke as he started up the stairs. He pulled the collar of his T-shirt over his nose and mouth, but he still started coughing. He crouched low when he got to the top of the stairs and made his way toward the front bedroom, which was Christian and his room. The smoke filled the hallway almost from ceiling to floor. Oh God! Please, let them be okay! Shea made it to the bedroom door, which was closed. Shea was just about to open it when he heard a whoosh and then a roaring behind him. Shea turned to see that the back room, the one at the top of the stairs, was fully engulfed in flames. That was the room that Christian used as his closet, and now there was no way Shea was going to be able to leave the same way he came in. The fire was too intense and close to the stairs. Fuck! They were all going to die. Shea would rather die with Christian and Skylar than be left to mourn them, though. Shea hacked hard and turned back to the bedroom door.

  Shea quickly entered the room, shutting the door behind him. The room was not as smoke filled as the rest of the house, but there was still a lot. Shea rushed over to the bassinette where Skylar was laying. He checked the pulse on her neck, she was still alive, but she didn’t so much as move a muscle when he touched her, which meant that she was most likely unconscious from smoke inhalation. Shea went to the bed next; Christian was sprawled out on his stomach in his underwear. Shea turned him over. He was also unconscious and complete dead weight when Shea flipped him over.

  Shea smacked his face hard. “Christian! Chris, wake up!” Shea yelled before checked his pulse. He was still alive, too, thank fucking Christ!

  Shea looked around the room, trying to figure out what he should do next. First, he grabbed the comforter off the bed and stuffed it against the bottom of the door to stop some of the smoke from coming into the room. Next, he ran over to the windows. He opened one and pushed out the screen. The
y had the kind of windows that you could open in toward you for easy cleaning, which also made them easy to remove. Shea removed the bottom pane of glass then removed the top half. The smoke that had settled in the room started to pour out.

  “HEY! UP HERE!” Shea screamed, waving at the firefighters down below.

  One of them pointed at him making them all spring into action. They grabbed a ladder, setting it up right under the window; one guy held it in place at the bottom while another started climbing.

  “Are you fucking crazy, man?” The firefighter snapped at him when he made it to the top. “You could have been killed!”

  “There are a three-month old baby girl and a twenty-nine year old man in this room,” Shea said, ignoring what the guy said.

  “Jesus Christ…hand me the baby first,” he said.

  Shea ducked back into the room and grabbed Skylar. His stomach rolled at how limp her body was. Shea handed her out to the firefighter then went back for Christian. Shea blinked away tears, not sure if they were from the smoke or the emotions roiling through him. He pulled Christian up into a sitting position so that he could hook him under his arms and drag him over to the window. He had just tugged Christian off the bed when a couple of firefighters came through the window. One of them came over and hoisted Christian’s slack body up over his shoulder.

  “Get the hell out of here!” he said, his voice muffled by his oxygen mask and shoved Shea toward the window.

  Shea nodded, coughing hard as he started toward the window. The smoke was really starting to get to him, and he was actually becoming lightheaded. The other fireman was standing by the window, and helped Shea out of the window and onto the ladder. Shea stepped off the latter and fell to his hands and knees from a horrendous coughing fit that racked him; he coughed so hard that he swore his lungs were going to come up his throat. He watched through blurry eyes as the firefighter carried Christian down the ladder. Christian just hung over the guy’s shoulder, arms dangling limply. That was the last thing he saw because he passed the hell out, face first on the front lawn.

  “Sebastian! Sebastian, come here!” Raelynn called from the kitchen. Sebastian frowned at the franticness in her voice.

  He got up from the couch and walked into the kitchen. He found Raelynn leaning in close to the police scanner she had on the counter, her face screwed up in concern.

  “What’s going on, sweet cheeks?” Sebastian asked, going to stand next to her.

  “I think…I think Christian’s house is on fire,” Raelynn said warily.

  “What?” Sebastian squawked.

  They listened for a moment. Sebastian couldn’t understand a word of it, but he knew Raelynn understood. After a moment, Raelynn gasped and straightened up. When she looked up at him, Sebastian’s stomach dropped at the grim look on her face.

  “What? What did it say?” Sebastian asked frantically.

  “It’s Christian’s house. One adult male ran into the burning home before the firemen. One infant female and one adult male were found unconscious in bed.”

  “Jesus fucking Christ!” Sebastian cried and ran for the front door.

  He glanced at the clock on the cable box and saw that it was midnight. Henry and Quinn were probably sleeping, but he had to call them. Sebastian shoved his bare feet into his sneakers, grabbed his keys then raced out the door without even saying goodbye to Raelynn.

  While speeding toward Christian’s house – which was only ten minutes from his own – he called Henry. Henry in turn called Quinn. Sebastian pulled onto Christian’s block behind Shea’s truck, which was parked in the middle of the street. He got out and ran toward the horrific scene in front of him. Sebastian hasn’t felt this kind of fear since they thought Henry died in that plane crash. As Sebastian got closer, he saw that Shea was laying face first on the front lawn and a fireman had Christian over his shoulder as he carried him down the ladder from the second floor window. Christian was dangling lifelessly over the guy’s shoulder in nothing but his black boxer/briefs. Sebastian rushed forward only to be stopped by a police officer just before he stepped onto the property.

  “Hold on there, pal, we already had one maniac run into the house, we don’t need another one,” the officer said.

  “I’m not running into the house, but that’s my brother they are carrying out,” Sebastian said as calmly as possible.

  The officer glanced over his shoulder then looked back at Sebastian and gave him a tight nod before moving aside. Sebastian thanked him and ran for the fireman who was carrying Christian toward the EMT with a gurney that was running to meet him. Sebastian made it to him just as the fireman placed Christian on the gurney. Christian was out cold and looking a bit blue.

  “Oh, Jesus.” Sebastian breathed, frozen in place as he watched the EMT rush Christian toward the ambulance.

  Sebastian heard one of them yell that he needed to be intubated. Sebastian turned to look at Shea. Two EMTs had rushed over with a backboard and gurney and were rolling him onto the backboard and putting a neck brace on him. They strapped him in then lifted him onto the gurney and started for a second ambulance.

  “Hey, where are you taking them?” Sebastian asked as they walked by.

  “Aria Hospital,” one answered.

  “And the baby?” Sebastian asked.

  “The baby is going to CHOP.”

  Sebastian nodded. “Thanks.”

  The fireman who carried Christian out stopped next to him. “Are you family?” he asked.

  “Yeah, you just carried my brother out,” Sebastian said.

  “Who is the other guy to you?” he fireman asked curiously.

  “He’s my brother’s boyfriend,” Sebastian answered.

  The fireman shook his head. “That crazy motherfucker just saved your brother’s life, and the baby’s, too. We would not have made it in time,” the fireman said, awed and saddened at the same time.

  Sebastian gaped at fireman as he walked away still shaking his head. Sebastian slowly made his way back to his truck. He called Henry back and told him to go right to Children’s hospital. Sebastian was going to head to Aria. Henry agreed and said he would tell Quinn to go to Aria, too. Sebastian got in his truck; his heart was pounding furiously, and Christian’s face with its blue tint was permanently burned into his brain. His little brother could possibly die and so could his niece. How long had they been in that smoke and fire? Sebastian raced toward the hospital, hoping like hell that Christian and Skylar were going to be alright.

  Shea dragged open his eyes and groaned. His throat was killing him, and he felt like he had an elephant sitting on his chest. What the fuck happened? Someone touched his arm. He turned his head to see Sebastian’s grimly set face looking at him. Shea frowned at him.

  “Sebastian?” he croaked.

  “Hey, buddy,” Sebastian said. “Doing okay?”

  “Wha…” Shea started, not understanding what was going on at first but stopped when everything that happened came rushing back.

  Moments of what happened flashed through his mind - seeing his house of fire, finding Skylar and Christian unconscious in bed, how limp Skylar’s body was when he picked her up, the way Christian’s arms dangled over his head as the firefighter carried him down the ladder. Shea sat up in a panic and looked around frantically. Oh shit! He was in a hospital room!

  “Christian and Skylar!” Shea cried frantically and tore off his blankets.

  He had no idea if they were alive or not. He had to get to them! Sebastian stood from the chair he had been sitting in and grabbed his face.

  “Shea! Shea, calm down, they’re okay,” Sebastian assured him, sitting down on the bed next to him.

  “Where?” he asked hoarsely, grabbing Sebastian’s shirt with both hands.

  “Christian is in a room down the hall and Skylar is at CHOP. Henry, Claire, and my parents are with her; Quinn is with Christian.”

  A ragged sob escaped Shea as a wave of relief hit him so fucking hard. He squeezed his eyes shut and sagged
forward against Sebastian, his forehead dropping to his shoulder. Sebastian wrapped his arms around him.

  “What you did, Shea, was so fucking stupid, but if you hadn’t run in there like you did, my brother and niece would be dead. A fireman and the doctor said five more minutes and they wouldn’t have made it. The firefighters would have taken too long to get to them,” Sebastian whispered.

  Shea almost passed the hell out. He almost lost his family again! Sebastian said only minutes separated them from life and death. He came so close to losing the two loves of his life. He would not have been able to survive it if they had perished. He knew without a doubt that he would take his own life before living in this world without Christian and Skylar.

  Sebastian silently held him and waited patiently for him to pull himself back together. Sebastian might be the jokester of the family, but he could be stone cold serious when the moment called for it. Shea pulled back, Sebastian grabbed the box of tissues from the side table, and handed it to Shea. Shea yanked out a couple, blew his nose, and dried his face.

  “Did…” Shea started but had to stop to clear his throat. The smoke he inhaled had done some damage, that was for sure. “…Did they say how it started?” he asked, his voice rough.

  Sebastian sat back down in the chair next to the bed. “I was told that the fire started in the dryer; Christian must have turned it on before he went to bed,” he said with a frown.

  Shea stared at him for a moment. “Have you not talked to Christian?” he asked in confusion.

  Sebastian sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “They have Christian in a medically induced coma because they had to intubate him. His throat had swelled shut from all of the smoke and soot that he had inhaled,” Sebastian said sadly.

  Shea flinched as if slapped. Oh God! “What about Skylar?” he whispered.

  “She had to be intubated at first, too, but she was able to be taken off of it a couple of hours ago. She just has the tubes up her nose now,” Sebastian said.