Reliving the Nightmare

♡LOLA'S POV♡

SIX WEEKS LATER

I sighed as I picked up another one of Brian's shirts from off the ground on my way to bed; his mind was all over the place these days and although I didn't blame him for it, it would be nice if he didn't use the floor as a wash basket. I chucked it into the basket in the bathroom on my way past, then slowed down when I heard Brian speaking quietly within the bedroom. I hesitated as he murmured noises of agreement before tiptoeing gently through the door, smiling encouragingly at him when he lifted his eyes to acknowledge me but gestured pointedly to the phone pressed to his ear.

"I know she is, I'm just worried," he muttered softly as he ran his fingers back and forth tensely across his temples. He stood by the window, staring out into the darkness with his stiff shoulders revealing a tension that I don't think he even realised was there.

"Ok then, tell her that Lola and I are thinking about her," he said before ending the call. As soon as the screen turned black, his shoulders slumped defeatedly and his hands covered his face. My stomach turned at the indicator that the update he had received was not a positive one.

I padded up to him and laid a hand timidly on his arm, bringing him to look at me. "How is she?"

He pinched the bridge of his nose, a sign I'd come to recognise as one that meant his head was killing him from the stress, and smiled tensely, "She responded well to the Chemo but she freaked out when a clump of her hair fell out. Dad suggested she shave it off but she says no."

I shook my head and fought back tears, "That's good that she's agreeing with the chemo. I just wished she felt better."

"I know. She's so brave about it but she shouldn't have to go through this Lola," a flicker of familiar fear tainted his voice.

"Nobody should."

I thought back to the awful day when I found out that Brian's younger half sister, Laurel, had leukaemia.

I had walked in on Brian pouring out his doubts to Zacky and I had only caught a bit of the conversation which made it appear that he was cheating on me. My god, I wish now that he had just been cheating on me. Instead he had reluctantly told me that he had found out from his Dad that his sixteen year old sister had developed leukaemia. He hadn't wanted to tell me because he wanted to deal with it himself, not burden me with the stresses it entailed.

Since then our lives had been taken over by hospital visits and constant worry. I met Brian's sister the day after he told me about her and couldn't help but be coaxed into loving her by her sweet nature and caring disposition. Her charcoal black hair and burnt brown eyes alongside her cutting cheekbones showed that she was definitely part Haner but not as much as her determination and fight did. She accepted me as part of the family from day one and I liked to think that we had become really close over these six weeks. Which just made it more difficult to see not only her in pain, but her loving family and distressed brother.

And I had to cope with Brian's agony every single day as he fought to protect to his little sister to no avail. If she had been getting bullied, he could have asked her who was doing it and knocked them around. If she had been struggling at school, he could have offered his support and helped get her self back on track. But she had a terrible disease that was killing her slowly. What could Brian do to fight a disease? And I was forced to witness his silent acceptance that he couldn't anything about it every time he saw her throw up blood but waved it off as nothing or when she was too weak to get out of bed but she still managed to throw jokes his way.

Not only did he have to watch his sister die, but he was still battling his drug addiction at the same time. We both attended therapy together every Tuesday and Thursday and discussed our problems and Brian worked separately with a specialist for his addiction. I knew every time he received bad news about his sister that he so badly wanted to lose himself in a haze of blissfully ignorant drugged dreams. But he struggled without his relief and relied on the support of his band members and me.

We kept in good contact with the rest of Avenged although Brian had officially announced publicly that he had left A7x. The fans had naturally been devastated but the amount of support he had received for his sister had been overwhelming and I had printed out some of the nicest messages and stuck them around the house.

"Babe, let's go to bed. We've got to get up early tomorrow for Laurel's changed visiting hours," Brian said tiredly as he climbed into bed.

I nodded and stripped out of my clothes. His eyes followed me lazily as I shuffled over and clambered in beside him. His thick arm snaked out and wrapped round my naked waist, pulling me not so gently toward him. I giggled at the feeling of his cold hand splayed across my stomach and the sensation his lips caused when they met the hollow of my throat. I nestled into the comfort of his hard body, relishing the skin on skin feeling.

We fell asleep as we did now every night: with the worries of Laurel being chased away by each other's touch.

Notes

So a short chapter just to show that I'm still alive and writing! Sorry for the massive delay!:/
I know that Syn has a real sister but I'm not using anything about her in my story to avoid any issues.
Thanks,
L xxx