AVERY

"She is so excited to meet you, " Dylan's dad laughs as we cross the living room. Although he is trying to act happy, I can feel that the pain is eating him. I remember going through something similar when Marcus left. For them, it must be even worse. They have to see her approach death with every passing second. I don't think I would have survived anything like this.

"I am excited to meet her too, " I say and glance at Dylan, who has his head tilted down and it looks like he is thinking about something. I know he is trying his best not to show his sadness and he gets stressed when it comes to his mother's health. Trying to shift his mood, I lean back and whisper to him, "because she is not like you, arrogant and cocky."

Dylan looks at me and lifts an eyebrow, "but I don't remember you kissing her." My eyes widen and I straighten up. My eyes shot towards Jack who has an amused expression on his face. Although he is avoiding eye contact with any of us, I know he heard it. Gritting my teeth I scowl at Dylan who gives me a little smirk.

We walk up the stairs and Jack leads us to their bedroom. The door is opened and I can see Diana lying on the bed. Seeing her, my feet stop moving. She looks so different from the last time I saw her, which was just about a week ago. Her eyes have sunken and are surrounded by dark circles. Her face is so thin, it seems like someone has sucked the juice out of her face. Her hair is tied into a bun and she lays there motionless on their bed with one hand resting on her stomach and other beside her. Her hands look as if there is just a layer of skin spread on the bones. The hand which is on the bed has IV attached to it and there is a stand beside the bed.

"They run the IV for a few hours every day." Jack stands there at the doorstep looking at his wife.

"But Dr Brown said that she was better now, " says Dylan.

"She was yesterday, even today in the morning but then she threw up a bit after that, so they put the IV, " explains Dylan's Dad.

The nurse stands on the other end of the room, looking through her medications. I watch Diana for a few moments before turning my head and asking Jack, "can I go in?"

"Yeah. Sure you can. I'll be outside. Dylan, you wanna come?" Jack asks Dylan. Keeping his stare fixed at his mother, Dylan nods his head.

"Thanks." I walk into the room and quietly towards her. I can't believe this is happening. That day when she told me about her illness, I didn't think I would feel so awful like this. Seeing her in this way at complete rest makes it even harder for me not to compare it with the woman I met. Jack was always the one to talk less but right from the day of our wedding, every time I saw Diana, I feel more in love with her bubbly nature. Truly, even if I had the last few doubts, seeing her then and now, I understand why Dylan did whatever he did. I will never say that he is 100% right but I would probably do something more than this if it was me. Who better than me can understand what it feels like to be losing the loved ones?

I place my hand and gently sit at the edge of her bed, trying to keep it as quiet as possible. Her eyes flutter open and she looks around the room before it falls on me. A smile immediately stretches across her face as she says, "honey, is that you?"

"Yes, " I smile and nod. "I came to see you."

"I knew you were coming and I was waiting but then I fell asleep, " she says, slowly.

"It's okay. You needed the rest. How are you feeling?" My eyes roam around her body once and it feels even more terrible seeing those channels from this close.

"Truly, not so good. I was feeling good this morning and I was even excited to see you but then..."

"I know. You need to take care of yourself though. I will be visiting you every other day. Don't worry."

"Will Dylan come with you too?" The question sounds a bit sad. Immediately I frown.

"Is he not coming?"

"No, he didn't come to see me since the day they started these things, " she says gesturing around.

"Why though? I thought he came..." As much as I can recollect, he mentioned something about visiting her on Friday, or did he not?

"No, he came to see me but he never came to meet me. For the last two-three times, whenever he came, I was either asleep or not paying attention." Her voice reduces to mere whisper as she completes her sentence. If Dylan is doing this just because he thinks he is scared, then he has to answer me. Right now, the person who needs to be kept happy is Diana and no one else. Why is he acting this childish?

I bring my attention back to her and say, "he came to meet you today. He will come in, I promise. He was actually in a hurry in the last few days so he couldn't stop. Don't you worry." Although I've promised her, I dont know how much I can keep my promise. I realize how hard it is for him to be seeing his mom in this way but he is not a kid anymore.

"Thank you, honey. Anyways Casy, " she calls out for her nurse and says, "can you help me to the bathroom?"

"Sure, " Casy says and comes forward to help her. I hold Diana and help her stand up.

"I'll go let Dylan know that I am done seeing you and now he can come and talk with his mom, " I say. She smiles at me and looks at me with eyes filled with gratitude.

I leave the room and walk down, Dylan is not in the living room, where I thought he would be. Jack sees me and walks towards me, "so you met her?"

"Yes, I did. She is in the bathroom right now. Why is Dylan not meeting her though?"

"I don't know. I tried talking to him but I know how painful it is. I am experiencing it, I can't ask him to do the same but at the same time, I feel that Lizzy wants to see him."

"Who's Lizzy?" I ask. Dylan's mom's name is Diana.

He laughs lightly and says, "it's a joke from the time we met. She hated her middle name 'Elizabeth', so I used to call her Lizzy just to piss her off. That kind of became a habit."

I chuckle lightly with him and say, "I hate Olivia yet Dylan calls me that."

"Wait... That's your name." He looks confused. I never corrected my name in front of them and Dylan kept calling me Olivia all the time.

"No, I go by Avery. I don't use the name Olivia but Dylan likes to call me that just to piss me off." I shrug and look around for Dylan until my eyes fall on him. He is standing by the glass doors to the patio looking outside. "I'll go talk to Dylan, " I say. 

Jack nods. "See if you can make him come up, I'll go check on Lizzy." He walks past me up the stairs and I slowly advance towards him.

"Hey." He looks back, hearing my voice and smiles a little.

"Hi, met her?" He asks.

"Yeah, I did," I say and stand beside him, leaning against the glass door. "So, will you go see her now?"

He turns his face towards me but doesn't meet my gaze as he answers, "Nah, I am good."

"But she wants to meet you." I wait for him to say something but when he remains silent, looking straight ahead, I cock my head and press, "so, will you go meet her now? She is waiting for you." My voice comes out, stern and serious. Dylan is acting like a kid.

Dylan takes in a deep staggered breath and turns his face towards me. I see his eyes getting heavy with tears. His nose and ears turn red when he says with his voice breaking, "I can't, Avery." I did notice one thing though, whenever Dylan has to say something serious, he calls me Avery. Subconsciously, I always knew it so every time I heard him call me 'Avery', I used to get serious.

"Dylan you have to. She wants to be close to her son. She wants to love you and have you close as much as she can."

"I know but I just can't bear seeing her that way." His voice cracks as he gestures towards his parent's room. A teardrop escapes and rolls down his cheeks.

"I know but..." Taking a deep breath, I say, "you need to give her what she wants to make her happy. That was the whole point of the marriage. If you can do that for her, why not this? She wants  to meet her son. That will keep her happy Dylan. If you don't spend as much time with her as you can, then you are going to regret it." I try to imply the whole thing without having to say the exact words.

"I just don't know." He looks away.

I stand up straight and step closer to him. Keeping my hands on his forearms, I say, "go up to her room, look at her and imagine how happy she would get when you say that you want to spend some time with her and talk to her. And if that doesn't make you go in then just come down here. We will go home."

He looks at me, with tear-filled eyes and nods, "okay. I'll do it." I bring my hands up to his face and wipe off his eyes.

"Spend some happy moments with your mommy. No tears."

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