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rsadelleOnce upon a time I was going to write a serious Tylers story where TBrown becomes TSegs' househusband (referred to as "Tylers househusband boredom and financial inequality"). I talked it out a lot with various people, and I wrote a couple of snippets, but I never wrote the story. The fic posts for today, tomorrow, and Sunday are going to be those snippets. This one is a melodramatic TSegs pov version of what happens to TBrown that causes him to not be able to play hockey anymore.
There are messages on Tyler's phone after morning skate. A lot of messages. He scrolls through to see who they're from and his heart stops at the missed call from Brownie's mom. There's nothing from Brownie.
Tyler sits down hard and calls Brownie's mom back with shaking fingers.
"Ty, honey," she says when she picks up the phone, and she sounds like she's been crying.
"What's going on?"
"Tyler's been in a car accident."
It's a good thing Tyler's already sitting down, because he doesn't think his legs could hold him if he were standing. "Is he-"
"He's alive," Brownie's mom says. "He's in surgery. We don't know how bad it is yet. We're in the car driving down right now."
Tyler has to bend over with the relief he feels, and he knows he's starting to tear up. "Where?" he asks. "Which hospital? I'm coming too."
"Honey, no, you have hockey."
"It doesn't matter," Tyler says. "Which hospital?"
She tells him, and he says he'll see them tonight, and then he stands up, phone clutched in his hand, and ignores everyone trying to talk to him while he goes looking for Lindy.
Jim is in with Lindy, which makes things easier, and Tyler must look like shit because Jim says, "Sit down, son," and actually puts a hand on Tyler's elbow to guide him into a chair.
Tyler doesn't even wait for Lindy to close the door before he says, "I can't play tonight. I have to go."
"What happened?" Lindy asks.
"My," and, shit, maybe they really should have talked about how they were going to talk about each other because "boyfriend" sounds like they're just kids playing at dating, "partner was in an accident. He's in the hospital, in surgery. I need to go be with him."
"Where?" Jim asks. Tyler tells him, and Jim picks up the phone on Lindy's desk. "I need you to get a ticket for Tyler Seguin to the closest airport to Glens Falls, New York. He'll need an hour and a half, but as soon as you can after that, and a driver or rental car once he gets there. Hotel room too."
A little bit of relief makes it into the mix of things Tyler's feeling. At least this won't fuck up his career. Not that he wouldn't do it anyway.
"Okay," Jim says to Tyler after he hangs up. "We're getting you a flight. We'll text you about ground transportation once you're there. We can say that you're not playing due to a family emergency. Do you want us to say anything more than that?"
"No," Tyler says quickly. "No, that's good. If he's okay, I can fly back tomorrow or the next day."
Lindy and Jim exchange a look, and Jim says, "Just keep us updated. What do you want us to tell the team?"
Fuck, they really should have talked about what they would ever say to anyone else. "Um, the same thing, I guess," Tyler says. "I'll tell some of them, maybe, but we're not really, um, out."
"We can do that," Jim says.
"Did you ride to the rink with Jamie and Jordie?" Lindy asks.
"Yeah."
Lindy nods. "Okay. Go take a shower and change. We'll find someone to drive you home so you can pack a bag and drive you to the airport. Make arrangements for your dog."
"Thank you," Tyler says, and he's probably going to cry.
Jim and Lindy stand when he does.
Lindy puts a hand on Tyler's shoulder. "We ask a lot of you and we expect a lot out of you, but hockey isn't everything. We'll keep your partner in our thoughts and prayers."
"Thanks," Tyler manages, because he is going to cry. He rubs his eyes on his way back to the locker room where he gets cornered by Jamie almost immediately.
"What's going on?"
"Family emergency," Tyler says. "I'm not playing tonight. I have to go."
"What happened?"
Jamie is one of Tyler's closest friends, definitely the person he's closest to on the team, and Tyler's going to tell him about Brownie eventually, but he can't do it now.
"I'll tell you about it later," Tyler says. "Right now, I need to go."
Jamie backs off. "If you need us to do anything, we will."
"Thanks," Tyler says, all choked up again. He ducks around Jamie and into a quick shower. By the time he's out of the shower, one of the front office people is there to drive him home.
Tyler calls his dog sitter in the car, spends a couple of minutes saying hi to Marshall and packing a bag, and then gets back in the car.
It's barely two hours after he talked to Brownie's mom that he's on a plane. He's replied to some of his texts, the ones from people he's closest to, and sent a longer text to his parents and his sisters so they know what's going on.
He would sleep on the plane, but he's too keyed up for it, and he fidgets for most of the flight to DC, and then the one to Albany. He manages to eat in DC because he knows he has to, and he grabs a sandwich he can eat in the car in Albany. He has a text about a car reservation, so he follows the signs to rental cars, hands over his credit card, and puts the hospital's name into the car's GPS.
It's another hour before he pulls into the hospital's parking lot. A sign on the wall informs him visiting hours are over, but he's been getting updates from Brownie's mom, so he just takes the elevator up like he's supposed to be there.
Brownie's mom meets him in the hallway, and Tyler crumples into her hug.
"How is he?" Tyler asks into her shoulder. He's not sure he can meet her eyes.
"Sleeping," she says. She pulls back and keeps her hands on Tyler's arms while she tells him the rest. "He shattered his knee. They were able to fix a lot of it, but it's not going to be the same, not even close. He woke up earlier and was pretty disoriented, but that might have been the sedation from the surgery, and they don't know yet if he has a head injury."
Tyler squeezes his eyes shut against the tears he can feel starting to form. "Can I see him?"
"Of course you can, honey." She pushes open the door to Brownie's room and lets Tyler go in first.
There's a soft, regular beeping in the room. Brownie has a couple of bandages on his forehead, an IV in his arm, some wires going from him to whatever's beeping.
Brownie's dad is sitting in a chair on one side of the bed, looking tired and worried. There's another chair on the other side, and it was probably where Brownie's mom was sitting, but Tyler pulls it as close to the bed as he can and sinks down into it. He slips his hand into Brownie's and puts his head down on the bed, just close enough to feel the slightest touch of Brownie's skin against his forehead. He's alive. His skin is warm, the beeping is steady, and if he looks, Tyler can see Brownie breathing.
That's when he cries, really cries, face buried in the blanket on Brownie's bed to muffle it. Brownie's mom pats his back once, but then she and Brownie's dad let him just cry.
He wipes his face with a tissue from the box next to the bed when he's done, and then he and Brownie's parents just sit there for a couple of hours, watching Brownie sleep and not saying much.
"We should get some sleep," Brownie's dad says sometime after midnight. "They don't expect him to wake up until tomorrow."
Tyler hates to leave Brownie's side, but he knows Brownie's dad is right, and he needs to eat something too.
"I have a hotel room," Tyler says. "Where are you staying?"
"We hadn't gotten to that yet," Brownie's mom says.
Tyler checks the text about his room. "I can get you a room too."
They take separate cars to the hotel. Tyler hands his card over to the man at the front desk and gets a second room for Brownie's parents. When he asks about food, the guy gives him a pizza menu for somewhere that's still open.
Brownie's parents decline to join Tyler for pizza, so he waits up for it alone, eats, and then crashes into bed for a couple of hours. Brownie's parents are already gone when he gets up in the morning.
Tyler finds a diner, because he really does need to eat, and then drives over to the hospital and goes up to Brownie's room.
Brownie's eyes are open, and he blinks slowly at Tyler. "Segs?"
"Yeah, baby." Tyler sits down in the chair Brownie's dad gets out of and takes Brownie's hand. "Hi."
"What are you doing here?"
Tyler puts his free hand on Brownie's cheek. "You scared the shit out of me." He leans in to brush a very soft kiss over Brownie's mouth. "Of course I'm here."
Brownie's still pretty out of it, even if he is awake for bursts of time, and Tyler mostly just sits there with him and his parents. He steps out into the hall a couple of times to call and update his parents, and spends some of the time Brownie's sleeping texting updates to friends, his sisters, and Jim and Lindy.
Jim asks him to call in the afternoon, and Tyler steps out into the hall to call.
"When do you think you'll be ready to come back?" Jim asks after he asks after Brownie.
Tyler tips his head back against the wall. He doesn't want to leave Brownie at all, not until they know he's going to be okay, but he still has hockey too. "Tomorrow," he tells Jim. "Is that okay?"
"I'll have the front office make arrangements and text you," Jim says. "It'll probably be before noon."
"Okay," Tyler says.
"I know this is a tough time," Jim says gently. "We'll see you tomorrow."
"Yeah," Tyler says. "See you tomorrow."
He goes back into Brownie's room and stays there with Brownie's parents until the hospital kicks them out.
Brownie's more awake in the morning, and he smiles at Tyler when he comes in, leans up for a kiss.
Tyler sits down and takes Brownie's hand. "I can't stay long," he says. "I have to go back to Dallas."
"I can't believe they let you come at all."
Tyler would hold Brownie's hand harder if he weren't worried about hurting him. "Some things are more important than hockey."
Brownie looks at him seriously, and pulls on his hand until Tyler leans over him enough for Brownie to put his free arm around him. "I love you."
Tyler nods and tries not to cry into Brownie's neck. "I love you too. So much." He presses a kiss to Brownie's skin. "I've never been so scared in my life."
"I'm going to be okay," Brownie says, and it's probably the truth, no matter how bad his knee is.
Tyler manages a smile. "You'd better be."
Brownie smiles too. "You'd be lost without me." He squeezes Tyler's hand gently. "Get out of here. You have goals to score for me."
"Lots of them," Tyler says. He leans in to kiss Brownie as thoroughly as they can with Brownie in a hospital bed with stitches in his face. "Love you."
"Love you," Brownie says.
Tyler has a hard time leaving, but he goes out and hugs Brownie's parents in the hallway.
"We'll keep you up to date," Brownie's mom promises.
"Thanks," Tyler says. "Take care of him for me."
"Of course we will, honey." She pats his cheek. "Try not to let this be too much distraction from your game."
"I'll try," Tyler says, and then he says goodbye to both of them and drives down to Albany to catch his plane.
He texts the dog sitter so Marshall is waiting for him when he gets out of the cab and goes up to his apartment. Tyler leaves his bag in the entryway and sits down on the floor with Marshall slobbering all over him. Tyler buries his face in Marshall's back and lets his simple dogginess comfort him.
When he feels ready to get up, he gets a six-pack out of the fridge and takes Marshall up to Jamie and Jordie's.
"You look like shit," Jamie says when he opens the door. He hugs Tyler, rubs the top of Marshall's head, and lets them into the apartment.
"Thanks," Tyler says, and he follows Jamie into the living room where Jordie's sitting on the couch in front of a paused video game.
Jamie takes the beer into the kitchen and comes back with three of them uncapped. "You ready to talk about it?"
Tyler puts his beer down on the coffee table without drinking from it. "Brownie was in a car accident." Tyler takes a deep breath. "He's not just my best friend. We're together. He's my partner, the most important person in my life. I had to go."
"Is he okay?" Jamie asks.
"Alive," Tyler says. "No brain damage." He rubs his eyes. "His knee's fucked up." He doesn't say more than that. Jamie and Jordie know enough to know what that means for a hockey player. "He told me to score goals for him."
Jamie holds out a fist for Tyler to bump. "Let's do it."
Tyler knocks his knuckles against Jamie's and then Jordie's, and then picks up his beer. He's not going to stop worrying about Brownie, but that's not something he can do anything about now. Hockey is where he can make a difference right now.
There are messages on Tyler's phone after morning skate. A lot of messages. He scrolls through to see who they're from and his heart stops at the missed call from Brownie's mom. There's nothing from Brownie.
Tyler sits down hard and calls Brownie's mom back with shaking fingers.
"Ty, honey," she says when she picks up the phone, and she sounds like she's been crying.
"What's going on?"
"Tyler's been in a car accident."
It's a good thing Tyler's already sitting down, because he doesn't think his legs could hold him if he were standing. "Is he-"
"He's alive," Brownie's mom says. "He's in surgery. We don't know how bad it is yet. We're in the car driving down right now."
Tyler has to bend over with the relief he feels, and he knows he's starting to tear up. "Where?" he asks. "Which hospital? I'm coming too."
"Honey, no, you have hockey."
"It doesn't matter," Tyler says. "Which hospital?"
She tells him, and he says he'll see them tonight, and then he stands up, phone clutched in his hand, and ignores everyone trying to talk to him while he goes looking for Lindy.
Jim is in with Lindy, which makes things easier, and Tyler must look like shit because Jim says, "Sit down, son," and actually puts a hand on Tyler's elbow to guide him into a chair.
Tyler doesn't even wait for Lindy to close the door before he says, "I can't play tonight. I have to go."
"What happened?" Lindy asks.
"My," and, shit, maybe they really should have talked about how they were going to talk about each other because "boyfriend" sounds like they're just kids playing at dating, "partner was in an accident. He's in the hospital, in surgery. I need to go be with him."
"Where?" Jim asks. Tyler tells him, and Jim picks up the phone on Lindy's desk. "I need you to get a ticket for Tyler Seguin to the closest airport to Glens Falls, New York. He'll need an hour and a half, but as soon as you can after that, and a driver or rental car once he gets there. Hotel room too."
A little bit of relief makes it into the mix of things Tyler's feeling. At least this won't fuck up his career. Not that he wouldn't do it anyway.
"Okay," Jim says to Tyler after he hangs up. "We're getting you a flight. We'll text you about ground transportation once you're there. We can say that you're not playing due to a family emergency. Do you want us to say anything more than that?"
"No," Tyler says quickly. "No, that's good. If he's okay, I can fly back tomorrow or the next day."
Lindy and Jim exchange a look, and Jim says, "Just keep us updated. What do you want us to tell the team?"
Fuck, they really should have talked about what they would ever say to anyone else. "Um, the same thing, I guess," Tyler says. "I'll tell some of them, maybe, but we're not really, um, out."
"We can do that," Jim says.
"Did you ride to the rink with Jamie and Jordie?" Lindy asks.
"Yeah."
Lindy nods. "Okay. Go take a shower and change. We'll find someone to drive you home so you can pack a bag and drive you to the airport. Make arrangements for your dog."
"Thank you," Tyler says, and he's probably going to cry.
Jim and Lindy stand when he does.
Lindy puts a hand on Tyler's shoulder. "We ask a lot of you and we expect a lot out of you, but hockey isn't everything. We'll keep your partner in our thoughts and prayers."
"Thanks," Tyler manages, because he is going to cry. He rubs his eyes on his way back to the locker room where he gets cornered by Jamie almost immediately.
"What's going on?"
"Family emergency," Tyler says. "I'm not playing tonight. I have to go."
"What happened?"
Jamie is one of Tyler's closest friends, definitely the person he's closest to on the team, and Tyler's going to tell him about Brownie eventually, but he can't do it now.
"I'll tell you about it later," Tyler says. "Right now, I need to go."
Jamie backs off. "If you need us to do anything, we will."
"Thanks," Tyler says, all choked up again. He ducks around Jamie and into a quick shower. By the time he's out of the shower, one of the front office people is there to drive him home.
Tyler calls his dog sitter in the car, spends a couple of minutes saying hi to Marshall and packing a bag, and then gets back in the car.
It's barely two hours after he talked to Brownie's mom that he's on a plane. He's replied to some of his texts, the ones from people he's closest to, and sent a longer text to his parents and his sisters so they know what's going on.
He would sleep on the plane, but he's too keyed up for it, and he fidgets for most of the flight to DC, and then the one to Albany. He manages to eat in DC because he knows he has to, and he grabs a sandwich he can eat in the car in Albany. He has a text about a car reservation, so he follows the signs to rental cars, hands over his credit card, and puts the hospital's name into the car's GPS.
It's another hour before he pulls into the hospital's parking lot. A sign on the wall informs him visiting hours are over, but he's been getting updates from Brownie's mom, so he just takes the elevator up like he's supposed to be there.
Brownie's mom meets him in the hallway, and Tyler crumples into her hug.
"How is he?" Tyler asks into her shoulder. He's not sure he can meet her eyes.
"Sleeping," she says. She pulls back and keeps her hands on Tyler's arms while she tells him the rest. "He shattered his knee. They were able to fix a lot of it, but it's not going to be the same, not even close. He woke up earlier and was pretty disoriented, but that might have been the sedation from the surgery, and they don't know yet if he has a head injury."
Tyler squeezes his eyes shut against the tears he can feel starting to form. "Can I see him?"
"Of course you can, honey." She pushes open the door to Brownie's room and lets Tyler go in first.
There's a soft, regular beeping in the room. Brownie has a couple of bandages on his forehead, an IV in his arm, some wires going from him to whatever's beeping.
Brownie's dad is sitting in a chair on one side of the bed, looking tired and worried. There's another chair on the other side, and it was probably where Brownie's mom was sitting, but Tyler pulls it as close to the bed as he can and sinks down into it. He slips his hand into Brownie's and puts his head down on the bed, just close enough to feel the slightest touch of Brownie's skin against his forehead. He's alive. His skin is warm, the beeping is steady, and if he looks, Tyler can see Brownie breathing.
That's when he cries, really cries, face buried in the blanket on Brownie's bed to muffle it. Brownie's mom pats his back once, but then she and Brownie's dad let him just cry.
He wipes his face with a tissue from the box next to the bed when he's done, and then he and Brownie's parents just sit there for a couple of hours, watching Brownie sleep and not saying much.
"We should get some sleep," Brownie's dad says sometime after midnight. "They don't expect him to wake up until tomorrow."
Tyler hates to leave Brownie's side, but he knows Brownie's dad is right, and he needs to eat something too.
"I have a hotel room," Tyler says. "Where are you staying?"
"We hadn't gotten to that yet," Brownie's mom says.
Tyler checks the text about his room. "I can get you a room too."
They take separate cars to the hotel. Tyler hands his card over to the man at the front desk and gets a second room for Brownie's parents. When he asks about food, the guy gives him a pizza menu for somewhere that's still open.
Brownie's parents decline to join Tyler for pizza, so he waits up for it alone, eats, and then crashes into bed for a couple of hours. Brownie's parents are already gone when he gets up in the morning.
Tyler finds a diner, because he really does need to eat, and then drives over to the hospital and goes up to Brownie's room.
Brownie's eyes are open, and he blinks slowly at Tyler. "Segs?"
"Yeah, baby." Tyler sits down in the chair Brownie's dad gets out of and takes Brownie's hand. "Hi."
"What are you doing here?"
Tyler puts his free hand on Brownie's cheek. "You scared the shit out of me." He leans in to brush a very soft kiss over Brownie's mouth. "Of course I'm here."
Brownie's still pretty out of it, even if he is awake for bursts of time, and Tyler mostly just sits there with him and his parents. He steps out into the hall a couple of times to call and update his parents, and spends some of the time Brownie's sleeping texting updates to friends, his sisters, and Jim and Lindy.
Jim asks him to call in the afternoon, and Tyler steps out into the hall to call.
"When do you think you'll be ready to come back?" Jim asks after he asks after Brownie.
Tyler tips his head back against the wall. He doesn't want to leave Brownie at all, not until they know he's going to be okay, but he still has hockey too. "Tomorrow," he tells Jim. "Is that okay?"
"I'll have the front office make arrangements and text you," Jim says. "It'll probably be before noon."
"Okay," Tyler says.
"I know this is a tough time," Jim says gently. "We'll see you tomorrow."
"Yeah," Tyler says. "See you tomorrow."
He goes back into Brownie's room and stays there with Brownie's parents until the hospital kicks them out.
Brownie's more awake in the morning, and he smiles at Tyler when he comes in, leans up for a kiss.
Tyler sits down and takes Brownie's hand. "I can't stay long," he says. "I have to go back to Dallas."
"I can't believe they let you come at all."
Tyler would hold Brownie's hand harder if he weren't worried about hurting him. "Some things are more important than hockey."
Brownie looks at him seriously, and pulls on his hand until Tyler leans over him enough for Brownie to put his free arm around him. "I love you."
Tyler nods and tries not to cry into Brownie's neck. "I love you too. So much." He presses a kiss to Brownie's skin. "I've never been so scared in my life."
"I'm going to be okay," Brownie says, and it's probably the truth, no matter how bad his knee is.
Tyler manages a smile. "You'd better be."
Brownie smiles too. "You'd be lost without me." He squeezes Tyler's hand gently. "Get out of here. You have goals to score for me."
"Lots of them," Tyler says. He leans in to kiss Brownie as thoroughly as they can with Brownie in a hospital bed with stitches in his face. "Love you."
"Love you," Brownie says.
Tyler has a hard time leaving, but he goes out and hugs Brownie's parents in the hallway.
"We'll keep you up to date," Brownie's mom promises.
"Thanks," Tyler says. "Take care of him for me."
"Of course we will, honey." She pats his cheek. "Try not to let this be too much distraction from your game."
"I'll try," Tyler says, and then he says goodbye to both of them and drives down to Albany to catch his plane.
He texts the dog sitter so Marshall is waiting for him when he gets out of the cab and goes up to his apartment. Tyler leaves his bag in the entryway and sits down on the floor with Marshall slobbering all over him. Tyler buries his face in Marshall's back and lets his simple dogginess comfort him.
When he feels ready to get up, he gets a six-pack out of the fridge and takes Marshall up to Jamie and Jordie's.
"You look like shit," Jamie says when he opens the door. He hugs Tyler, rubs the top of Marshall's head, and lets them into the apartment.
"Thanks," Tyler says, and he follows Jamie into the living room where Jordie's sitting on the couch in front of a paused video game.
Jamie takes the beer into the kitchen and comes back with three of them uncapped. "You ready to talk about it?"
Tyler puts his beer down on the coffee table without drinking from it. "Brownie was in a car accident." Tyler takes a deep breath. "He's not just my best friend. We're together. He's my partner, the most important person in my life. I had to go."
"Is he okay?" Jamie asks.
"Alive," Tyler says. "No brain damage." He rubs his eyes. "His knee's fucked up." He doesn't say more than that. Jamie and Jordie know enough to know what that means for a hockey player. "He told me to score goals for him."
Jamie holds out a fist for Tyler to bump. "Let's do it."
Tyler knocks his knuckles against Jamie's and then Jordie's, and then picks up his beer. He's not going to stop worrying about Brownie, but that's not something he can do anything about now. Hockey is where he can make a difference right now.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-03-06 05:53 pm (UTC)Looking forward to the next part, although I'm a little sad you're abandoning the bigger story
(no subject)
Date: 2015-03-06 06:41 pm (UTC)I'm sad too! It's one of those things I really wish I'd found a way to get into writing.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-03-06 06:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-03-06 06:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-03-08 02:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-03-10 02:43 am (UTC)