"Not a problem," Jason said cheerfully as he started searching through the empty bags and containers. "Damn, it's all empty," Jason grumbled. "Could you go up there and grovel now so that we can get our asses back to my mother's house? I'm starving."
"Yeah, cause it's all about you," Trevor said wryly, turning to head up the stairs.
"It really is though," Jason readily agreed.
"I really don't know how Haley puts up with you."
Jason sighed heavily as he patted his own chest, "Adores. Me."
"Uh huh," Trevor agreed absently as he tried to figure out the best way to grovel to a woman. He'd never done it before. Usually within the first thirty seconds of a fight with a woman he'd simply walk away, but there was no walking away from Zoe.
She was everything to him.
"I'd bring one of the puppies with you to butter her up," Jason said, standing with Max in his arms. "Here, take this one."
Trevor took the puppy and started up the stairs only to pause halfway up. "Where are you going?"
"To give you some privacy," Jason said, heading towards the hallway door. "And to rummage through your kitchen to find something to eat before I pass out. You people aren't taking very good care of me," he bitched as he left with Toby hot on his heels. By now the dog knew the signs of a Bradford on the prowl for food and was making damn sure that he was there to take care of any crumbs left behind.
Petting Max, he slowly climbed up the stairs, wondering what the best way to go about groveling. Begging? On his knees? Promises to buy her the world? Because he'd do all that and more. He loved her and wanted to take care of her and show her how good it could be between them.
He paused at her closed door, wondering if he should knock or state his case behind the protection of the closed door where his balls would remain safe. After a slight pause and a silent apology to his balls in advance, he opened the door, more than ready to take his punishment like a man and frowned when he didn't encounter any flying books or yelling.
"Go find mommy," he said, putting the tiny pup down.
As he followed the puppy as it ran full speed towards the bathroom he wondered if maybe he should hit the pound and get another dog for her since she really loved dogs and he loved the look on her face when was getting puppy kisses. Maybe he should......
All thoughts of what he should do raced from his head as he spotted Zoe crumpled on the floor, lying near a small pool of blood. His heart dropped in his chest as he raced to her side, somehow remembering to be gentle with Max as he picked the dog up and moved him to the side. With a shaky hand he reached out and checked her pulse, praying and promising everything he had if she was okay.
She had to be okay.
He sighed with relief when he felt her pulse. "Baby? Zoe? Sweetheart," he said, resisting the urge to shake her, but barely. From what he could see she'd fallen and he didn't want to hurt her anymore.
"It's okay, Zoe," he said, wishing he'd been a f**king man and come after her and begged her to give him a chance when she ran out of the room instead of acting like an ass**le. This was all his fault, he realized as he went to grab his phone out of his pocket only to remember that he took it out of his pocket and placed it on his aunt's kitchen table so that he wouldn't get it wet while he was doing dishes.
He needed to get her help, but he didn't want to leave her, he couldn't. For the second time since Zoe became a part of his life he was happy that he hadn't had the walls insulated.
"Jason!"
*******
"Sir, you need to calm down," the triage nurse said, probably for the hundredth time that hour.
"I'll calm down when you let me in there to see her," Trevor said, trying to pull out of his uncle and Jason's grasp as they tried to drag him away from the front desk.
"If you'd just have a seat, I'm sure someone will be with you in a moment," she said in that annoyingly calm tone that made him want to tear the place apart with his hands.
"That's what you said an hour ago!" Trevor snapped. "I want to see my girlfriend or at the very least have someone tell me how she is!" he snapped, fighting to get out of the restraint so that he could storm through the double gray doors and find Zoe.
For three of the longest hours of his life he'd been forced to stay in the emergency room's waiting area while doctors did god only knows what to Zoe. When his family wasn't reassuring him that she'd be okay or offering to get him something to eat they were taking turns trying to restrain him.
Never in his life had he appreciated his family more than today. When word got out that Zoe was hurt, every single one of them came running, except for Haley who'd been forced to stay away because no one wanted to take the chance of the babies catching a bug in the waiting room. He hadn't been pacing the waiting room ten minutes when the first flood of Bradfords came storming through the doors demanding to know how Zoe was. They didn't all know her, most of them hadn't met her, but she was important to him so that made her important to them. Plus it probably didn't hurt that she'd tipped them all off about the buffet last weekend.
"Let's go have a seat before she calls the nice security officers on you again," Jared said as he half-dragged/half-shoved Trevor back to the waiting room where a fresh group of Bradford males looked ready to take him to the ground if he moved so much as an inch out of the room again.
For a moment he actually considered going for the doors again just so they'd beat the shit out of him and give him a bed inside so he could go look for Zoe. Then he realized he wouldn't do much good for Zoe if they knocked him out or the nurse had him restrained to a bed since he was acting a bit insane at the moment.
"We should have lied about her family," Jason said, rubbing his hands down his face in frustration. "I should have told them I was her brother so I could find out what the hell was going on."
"I tried telling them that Zoe was my daughter, but the ice princess manning the desk wasn't having it," Jared said, looking like he'd aged ten years in the past three hours.
"I honestly don't know how she's managed," Jason said.
"Managed what?" Trevor said, glaring at a rather rotund man who stepped in his line of sight. The man noticeably started when he spotted Trevor and thankfully moved the hell out of his way so he could keep his eyes on the door.
"Being alone," Jason said softly. "I can't imagine how she did it all these years, having no one and nothing."
"She's not alone," Trevor bit out. "She has me."