*Edited
This chapter has brief mention of strong language
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Maxwell's POV
A week later.
He didn't plan on going, but he had to. Steve and the rest of the guys went too, they had to stay far away, but they were there, honoring the lives of those who passed on that awful night.
He didn't like to think about it much, but when he saw her in the black dress, holding a bunch of white roses, the blank distant look in her eyes as the service commenced it rushed to him like ligthning.
He knew she was not okay and for some reason, no matter how he tried to shake the feeling that he could help. That he should help. He just couldn't.
He was never like this, he was usually glib, but this time, it was some what personal. He began to imagine all the other people that died, how they meant something to their families, but now they were dead, gone to never return.
His stomach churned.
"Fuck!."
He had not felt like this since his grand dad died, he never wanted to relive that day, but this was coming pretty close.
"We'll get them man." He felt Steve clap his back and walk away. He looked up and realized that the service had ended and rain was coming.
He turned to leave, when he noticed her frail looking self standing still as people became scarce, every one trying to hide from the rain, but she didn't move. He frowned.
He knew something was wrong, his first thought was that she had collapsed or fainted while standing and nobody knew, it had happened to him before. He was leaning on a wall in his case.
"You coming?." He heard on of the guys call out to him, he turned to see them fill up in the van they arrived in. With his car parked behind the van.
He wanted to leave, that was what he would have done on any normal day. But as he looked back at her, he knew he couldn't leave, she needed someone. And he wouldn't say he was the best candidate.
He also knew her car was bad, so she would probably take a bus which was quite a walk from the cemetery or hail a taxi. He didn't notice a purse or a bag with her, so there was a possibility she had no cash.
As much as he would have wanted to leave, he couldn't leave her stranded, he could do that much.
But he knew he shouldn't get too close - anymore and he would be too involved, but there was no one around, not a single person stayed that could give her a lift. He couldn't blame them either, he wanted to leave too.
"No, you guys go, I'll catch up." He told them, but even after they all left, he didn't move. He didn't go to her, he only stood watching. Promising himself that he wasn't going to go up to her till he was sure she absolutely needed help.
Then the rain started and she didn't move still. Finally fighting his better judgement, he cursed again and walked to her slowly. He had barely taken two steps forward when she suddenly fell to the ground crying loudly.
She began to fist the ground, trying to dig with her bare hands. He ran to her.
Not knowing what to say, he tried to lift her up. He was usually at the receiving ends of sympathy and condolences himself, so he didn't know how to do the comforting.
It also didn't help that he never really dealt with his own hurt, he just bottled them up, punched every thing he could for a few years and moved on.
He cleared his throat slowly, "Its okay, let it go." He practiced what Petra used to say to him. But he, being the stubborn person that he was, never really let it go.
"He's gone." Her voice came in a small quiver. The rain pouring around and on them, he tried not to think off pneumonia and the germs, he pulled her closer, trying to use his body to shield hers. He could almost feel the pain in her voice when she said she couldn't live without Jack.
He had once said those words too, but in an entirely different scenario. A scenario where he was stupid.
He watched her scream and shout in the rain, till she was completely worn out and her voice was hoarse.
Slowly, he led her to his car, both of them drenched in the rain, but he didn't care. He had more cars anyway.
They got to her house and she thanked him for his help, but he didn't feel like he had helped at all. He was a man of a few words, but he found himself blurting that she didn't need to repay him.
He didn't want her to think that she was indebted to him in any sort, or that he did it for some ulterior motive. But she reminded him of something that had slipped his mind momentarily.
"But you're my Professor." She said.
He wasn't her dad, or her uncle, or any of her family members, he wasn't a friend, or a personal tutor, he didn't have a personal relationship with her or any of his students. He was just a professor, he had no obligation towards her.
'Why am i so bothered?.' He asked himself. He had not felt 'guilt' in a long time, he was used to being always right, like an arrogant idiot that he was, he felt like he had done her and almost every other person that died, some injustice.
Making a mental note to find the families and back story of every victim of that night and help out in any way that he could, he sighed.
"I know its hard coping with loss," He paused, remembering on his grand dad's death, how it tore him apart, he was his grand dad's favorite. That alone made Martha very mad, because their grand ma had passed before they were born.
"I understand what you're go……." He was interrupted.
"Don't!, don't say, you understand what I'm going through please!." Her voice wavered, she was pushing down her tears, he could tell. "........it doesn't make me feel any better in any way!."
'Shit!.' He didn't mean to upset her.
'"How on earth am I supposed to go on with life?, get a job?, like nothing has happened at all when I'm continuously haunted by the look on his face when he breathed his last!, he died in my arms! In my own arms!, I watched as life slipped away from him!." She screamed shaking.
He bit his lip, remembering the said look on as he pulled her away from Jack that night. It would haunt anyone, but he had seen enough dead people in his life to become immune to it. But he couldn't imagine what it felt like for her.
"Don't tell me you know what it feels like!......it doesn't make me feel the slightest better." She growled.
Even though he had the experience of his grand dad, it still wasn’t' identical to what happened to her, his grand dad died of natural causes and old age, Jack was murdered in cold blood, right before her eyes.
He may not know what it felt like, but a professional would, not just a psychology professor, as himself, but a real therapist.
He tried to pitch that to her, but she flipped. "It might help if you talk about it, to a professional……"
"I don't need therapy, Professor." She cut him off again.
"I didn't say you did, I just thought…."
"Stop thinking about my problems!, I'm not your responsibility, find someone else to be your charity case!."
'Charity case?.'
It was far from it, he wanted to tell her, but she was heated at the moment. He tried telling her not to bottle her feelings, it was never worth it. He knew that all too well. It wasn't pleasant.
All the feelings just kept swirling in his mind, hanging over his head like a dark cloud. It shrunk him.
"Wilson." He called out, to stop her train of words, but she ignored him.
"I'm very grateful for your help but stop meddling!." She screamed, her throat popping with veins. He looked at her wide hazel eyes, red from crying, her hollow cheeks, like she hadn't eaten in days, her dry chapped lips, quivering from the wet clothes and from staying under the rain.
Her clipped finger nails, she had been nervously picking at it the entire ride. Her eyes dark and sorrowful, with huge bags under them, her nose red and swollen, twitching.
It was then he knew. He couldn't leave her alone, she couldn't be alone right now. She would hurt herself.
'Fuck me!.'
OH MY GAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Well, this was dark. Breanna's side of this scene is coming soon, i wanted it to be in the same chapter, because i don't really enjoy writing the same scene in multiple Povs.......but the chapter was getting too long. And, what is Maxwell hiding?! Like, comment, share, leave a review!. Love, Bee.
*Edited Breanna's POV She took a deep breath through the lungs, as the warm air hit her face, the breeze tugging at the skirt of the black dress she was wearing. The town was holding a mass burial for the people that died that night. So here she was, with a bouquet of white roses in her hands, Jack loved roses, especially the white ones, their mother had a white rose garden when she was alive, where she would spend hours trimming and nursing all weekend according to him. A few of Jack's friends came to support, but she couldn't register any of their faces, his producer and even his boss from work. His girlfriend didn't make it, she didn't even bother to ask why. She didn't tell her dad, he wasn't even in the right frame of mind to understand anyway, it was useless telling him. It would only cost her more money to bring him all the way here. The service ended as quickly as it started, she didn't hear a word the priest said, she felt like life had left her and that she was just dri
*Edited This chapter contains strong language and reference through out. ******************** Maxwell's POV Petra called him at eleven pm, and couldn't stop talking about Wilson. "Max!, you didn't remember to tell me she was gorgeous!." She sang over the back ground chaos of her husband yelling at their kids not to kill each other. He sighed, dragging a hand over his face. He had a long stress filled day, that wasn't over yet. With a lot of work on his table, he didn't need her prying self. The night was especially hot and it was killing his work progress. A mail arrived earlier and he was informed that his deadline was shifted up. So since he got home, he buried himself under piles and piles of papers work, locking himself away in his office. The moonlight peeked in from the large sliding doors that led to the patio, casting a shadow over the large book shelf. He could hear the distant hoot of the owls on the trees, and the crickets in the mud, the sweet soothing sound of natu
*Edited Breanna's POV Two weeks later Dr. Robinson invited her to the grand opening. Thus her current rummage through her closet to find a decent enough dress for a grand opening and cocktail after party in the awful state of her room. Although she had only been working a week, easing into the work atmosphere was definitely easy. Besides, the clinic was yet to be properly opened so all she did was organize her boss's emails and report the last details of work needed to be done to the place. The only issue was her sleeping routine. For a whole year she used to stay up all night working. Unlike now, she was awake both at night, due to her nightmares and all day attendng classes or at work. So she was tired a lot. Settling for her old high school gold prom dress, she got ready. Shoes weren't an issue, although cheap and thrifted - she had a number of them from stripping. The dress was tight, extremely, it had been almost three years since she wore it. She wanted to sell it when s
*Edited Maxwell's POV His frown deepened as he noticed Martha walk in. The monotone business conversation that he paid no attention to in the first place and the slow jazz music in the background blurred around him. After his speech earlier as one of the partners, he had been swarmed by business men trying to pitch to him, but he wasn't interested, he already had enough on his plate business-wise. Some even brought their sisters or nieces to set him up with. He had tired one too many blind dates from networking events like this to know better than to show any interest. His eyes met with Petra's and she gave him a sly smile before walking to meet Martha. Looking around frantically, he found Wilson, by herself looking into a glass of wine suspiciously in front of her. With only one thing on his mind, 'to get her away from Martha' he walked briskly towards her. Before they could get to her and start drilling her with questions that would forever ruin him in the eyes of his innocent
*Edited Breanna's POV She walked around for a while, inhaling the cold windy air. Rain was coming, she could feel it. But she didn't want to go back into the party. Not after what happened with Professor Caines. She just wanted to go home. But she was stranded, a long way from home without a ride because he was the one that brought her here. She knew he didn't like her, he didn't come off across like he liked anybody though. With the recent changes in her life, she was glad for his help but she didn't need him to baby sit. She was perfectly capable of handling herself among a few business people. She had been doing just fine on her own till now. The rain started suddenly. She tried to find shelter, but she had wandered away from the building. Just then her phone rang in her purse. It was from the nursing home. They had called three times before but the loud party didn't let her hear. "Hello?." "Breanna?." Nurse Gabriella shouted over the speaker. She pushed the phone slightly
*Edited Maxwell's POV He chest squeezed at the sight of her, drenched - and crying. He frowned, the feeling, foreign. The anger he was feeling had long disappeared. Ten minutes ago to be precise, since he started looking for her. Martha was right, she meant something to him. He had anger issues, always had, one out of many reasons why Petra was his therapist aside from being just an overbearing friend. His "issues" in general started a long time ago, when he got a first hand experience of abandonment and heart break. As corny as it sounded, his first heartbreak, broke him. He was still dealing with the aftermath. It was why he never committed, why he didn't let anyone in, despite all the eligible blind dates he had been on in the past. The thought that, if he didn't let anyone in, he wouldn't care, too much that it would hurt him again. He didn't want that. He had tried in the past and it didn't end well at all. But here he was, feeling all these feelings he hadn't felt in a wh
*Edited Breanna's POV "Breanna, I'm afraid we have bad news." She had been worried, ever since she arrived, her stomach twisting and churning with worry. "How bad?." Breanna felt her throat dry up instantly, the Doctor's face and tone didn't exactly do anything to ease her worries. "See you father developed a clot on his hind brain a few weeks ago, covering his cerebellum and medulla which is dangerous for a patient already diagnosed with Alzheimer and which caused his stroke, he is old, and had been sick for a while, I'm afraid his body can't take another stroke, that is bound to happen." "What does that mean?........" Her heart sunk at the doctor's words, her head began to spin, but she managed to stay still. 'There should be a solution'. She told herself. "The clot needs to be removed and hopefully, with the clot gone, another stroke can be avoided. But more than that, the clot is very hazardous to his health." She paused and locked eyes with Breanna before she continu
*Edited Breanna's POV She managed to slip out of the hospital to find Jeremy. It was the weekend, so if things were still as she left it, he would be working and that was her way in. If she was going to do this, she needed to be with the big people with fat bank accounts. She contacted him through social media and messaged him to meet her at a diner beside the town high school. "Lil sis!." He called out as he spotted her. Jack's friends always called her that, she was a younger sister to all of them. Jeremy was the biggest kid, so from eighteen he had been a bouncer, it started with little birthday parties and small high school parties. Before she finally left for Lakeside, she heard he was a bouncer for a big casino in town. He didn't go to university like Jack did, not many of his friends did. Some got requited to the army, some just stayed in town to continue family businesses - that was the biggest trend. A few attended a local college but that was it. "Jeremy." She stood