A gay story: Weak in the Knees Ch. 05 Zach was up early with everyone else a few weeks later, dressing in a suit to head to the courthouse. Reese Morgan and his accomplices were going to be before the judge first thing and Zach had to be there for it. Zach was standing in front of the mirror in the living room tying his tie, and both Zayne and Diego noticed the way his hands shook as he tied it, though Zach was trying not to show it.
Diego shared some side-eye with Zayne, who shook his head to indicate that they should leave it alone for now.
Zayne cleared his throat, which caused his twin to look over at him. “Are you sure you should go by yourself? Someone can go with you, you know.”
Zach pursed his lips together. “I’m fine, Zayne. It’s just the official hearing where they will be pleading guilty and the judge will decide sentencing. I can handle it. I’d be grateful if you all make sure Nadya is taken care of. There might be paparazzi that come to the house to try and talk to you or see Nadya. Just keep her inside and occupied, okay?”
Diego nodded wordlessly, his opinion that Zach was being stupid plain on his face as he picked Nadya up from where she was playing and brought her over to Zach for goodbyes. Zach frowned at Diego but when he turned his attention to Nadya, he was all smiles as he gave her kisses all over her cheek and neck, making her giggle.
“You be good baby for Diego, okay?” Zach told her. Then he kissed Diego on the cheek. “You be good too. No matter how annoyed you are with me.”
“I refuse,” Diego said with a pout, which Nadya promptly mimicked. When Diego saw it he couldn’t help but laugh, causing her to giggle again.
Zach couldn’t help but smile at them both. He kissed Diego again, too briefly for either of their liking, before he walked out of the house and got into his car. Zayne sighed and picked up his phone, deciding that even if Zach didn’t want support at the courthouse, they could at least have everyone come over that evening afterwards.
The courthouse was a somber place to Zach, and he walked through security before being given directions to which room he was supposed to go to. He shook hands with the DA who was the one who was bringing the charges against them.
“Mr. Morgan asked to speak with you before everything begins,” the DA said. “Are you comfortable with that?”
Zach looked over at where Reese was sitting, his eyes on Zach. Zach finally nodded his head and the DA led him over to where Reese was sitting. Zach took the seat next to him. More people were coming in but they were kind of sitting in their own little bubble right then.
“You had to know I never would have hurt her, Zach,” Reese said after a long awkward silence between them.
Zach gave an incredulous look at Reese. “Reese, they shot off a gun right next to her. It’s amazing it didn’t damage her hearing.”
“They weren’t supposed to do that,” Reese commented.
“But they did,” Zach pointed out. “On top of that, she now has pretty bad separation anxiety. I’m getting her into play therapy to help with it, though she is now allowing us to go places without her. She’s very uneasy whenever she isn’t with someone who lives at our house though. And what about me, Reese? What about hurting me? Because having her where I didn’t know what was happening to her, or could happen to her, caused so much damage to me. Does that not matter?”
Reese stared at Zach like he hadn’t considered any of that. Eventually he looked away from Zach, still silent as he mulled that over. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“If only sorry fixed it,” Zach replied. Reese didn’t reply, because he knew Zach was right. Saying sorry didn’t fix any of it.
Zach went back over to sit behind the DA for court. The judge had the DA read off what the defendants were pleading guilty too, and then got verbal confirmation that they all agreed with that. The judge then went over what each sentence would be. Reese himself, as the mastermind of the whole thing, ended up with at least fifteen years in prison. Zach did feel a little sorry for him, because he looked so lost and upset at that, but then he remembered Nadya’s scream of terror and his heart hardened against the pity he felt.
Afterward, Zach sat down for a little bit on one of the benches outside the court, taking a moment to let the emotions of this all wash over him before he let them wash away and then got up and went home. He was greeted with all of their friends there, including Aspen, his sister.
Zach looked between Zayne and Diego, like he clearly thought they were behind getting them there. He didn’t say anything, though, just went around giving everyone a hug and thanking them for being there. He did not hug Daniel, though. Just gave him a fist bump before he sat down on the couch like he was exhausted. His hands were shaking again as he undid his tie.
Diego sat down next to him, holding a sleepy Nadya. “There is someone here who will gladly help you undress, you know,” Diego said conspiratorially to Zach in a quiet tone before telling him in a normal voice, “She refused her nap today. She kept asking for you. I managed to keep her distracted and happy for the most part but I suspect if you hold her she’ll be out.”
Zach smiled and held out his arms for her, and she quickly jumped at him and snuggled in at his side. Diego was right that it didn’t take her long to fall asleep once she was with Zach. He snuggled with her while the others got lunch set up. Zach eventually stood up with Nadya’s head on his shoulder as he took her up to her crib and settled her down for her nap, then snuck back downstairs. He didn’t have a huge appetite right then, but he appreciated what they were trying to do so he took a little bit of food and ate what he could force himself to.
“So, how was court?” Zayne asked.
Zach let out a huff that was half laugh, half annoyance. “Reese wanted to talk, told me that he was never going to hurt her and he wanted to make sure I knew that.”
“Reese is a sad, desperate man,” Daniel said. “His promises mean nothing.”
Brinxton eyed Daniel meaningfully from outside of Daniel’s sightline but didn’t say anything. Diego noticed it, though and the look further confirmed his judgment that Daniel was not well-liked among his friend group right now. Zach narrowed his eyes at Daniel, which Daniel did catch, but neither said anything. Brielle had frowned but just ate her salad.
“Either way, he’s getting at least fifteen years in prison,” Zach finally broke the awkward silence. “That’s a lengthy amount of time for that. I feel some pity for him, but…”
“Of all of the people to have sympathy for the man, I wouldn’t have figured it’d be you,” Elias pointed out.
That got some of them to start joking about Zach’s righteous fury, which Zach took graciously by laughing at them. It wasn’t like they were wrong. Zach could have a temper though it rarely flared up at people he cared for. It usually flared up when someone he loved was threatened or hurt. Though now he worried that Diego would think it was an issue Zach couldn’t handle.
When they finished with lunch, everyone helped clean up and then they ended up in the living room talking about everything they had all been going through. Talking about it like this made Zach realize he’d been dealing with a lot: from Kali’s death and Nadya’s birth, to his MS diagnosis, the kidnapping, and his symptoms getting worse.
It made him emotionally exhausted just thinking about it. Of course, he wasn’t the only one with issues. Aspen and Elias were in limbo on whether they were miscarrying a baby right then, Zayne and Brinxton were talking about whether they could handle a baby of their own on top of everything and unsure at the moment, and Brielle and Daniel were having some marital problems, which Zach was mostly staying out of.
And thanks to the kidnapping, Zach also knew Diego was having issues with his school funding. He didn’t think Diego would let Zach just fix it for him though. Diego was blissfully unaware of some of the issues plaguing the rest of the family, though he would have welcomed the knowledge if it had been offered. He knew from simply living in a house with them that Brinxton and Zayne were trying to figure out whether they wanted to be parents.
They had asked to babysit Nadya a few times to see if they could handle it with Diego still in the house just in case. That was before the kidnapping, of course. She was just starting to accept being watched for a little bit without Diego or Zach around, but it was touch and go some days.
At some point they got to talking about the surprise of the pregnancy with Nadya and Zach changing around his priorities, which some of them never thought would happen.
“You jumped into daddy role so fast though,” Aspen said with a smile. “It’s like, as soon as you knew Kali was keeping the pregnancy, you wanted nothing more than to be a good dad.”
“Who knew you had it in you to be a dad and not ‘Oh spank me, daddy’,” Zayne added.
“Hey now, I can still do both roles,” Zach argued.
“Can he?” Brielle asked Diego.
“No,” Diego answered seriously but with a smile on his face, “it squicks him out for me to call him that.”
That wasn’t untrue so Zach just shrugged his shoulders to show Diego was telling the truth.
“You should call him Papi then,” Zayne added, and then the others joined in with other versions of Daddy Diego could use to much eye rolling from Zach.
“Still, the whole baby thing really puts a damper on your social life,” Daniel said. “The minute Kali ended up pregnant, you were only focused on the baby and have been since then. You’ve changed a lot.”
Zach looked confused as he stared at Daniel for a moment. “Well, I mean, I had to. I’m her whole word. It’s starting to expand now, but she needs me. That will probably change a lot as she gets older, but for now she has to be my world too.”
Diego also looked confused. “Why would such an important event like fatherhood not change someone’s approach to the world?” he asked incredulously.
“Not everyone changes their entire life for children,” Daniel said. “I’ll still be working just as many hours as I am now if I have children, and I will still get my time away, just like Brielle will get her me time as well.”
“Oh, ‘me time’, huh?” Elias asked. “Is that what you call the dicking days?”
Brielle rolled her eyes at that but stayed silent. Zach shook his head at his friend but the next time he spoke was to Daniel. “I know that a lot of friends and friends-with-benefits dropped me because I became a dad. I’m okay with my life not being as glamorous as you think it should. The reality is that I always kind of wanted this, you know? A family. I just didn’t have a lot of good ways to get it that made sense. Of course, I should be doing this with Kali, but life doesn’t always give us the easy path.”
Daniel rolled his eyes at that while the others were somber and gave looks of sympathy to Zach. Zach narrowed his eyes at Daniel though. “What is that expression for?”
“You’re just…such a fucking softie,” Daniel replied with a shrug. “I never would have imagined it though, with that temper of yours. I knew Kali too, and I wouldn’t put it past her to get pregnant on purpose to make sure she was always taken care of. Too bad for her that her gold digger ways caught up to her in the form of karma.”
Diego’s mouth gaped open in shock that Daniel would even say such a thing. Zach stood up from the seat he was in, moving closer to Daniel with his eyes like little slits now. Diego could see how pissed off he was, but Zach was trying to hold it back. “And just what does that mean, Danny?”
Brielle was looking up at Daniel from her seat, her expression saying that she was upset. “Daniel, don’t.”
“No, Brielle,” Zach said, his stance casual but his tone anything but. “Don’t stop him now. Let’s hear it. You’ve been dying to tell me for a while, haven’t you?”
“Zach,” Brielle pleaded, but Daniel cut her off.
“Oh stop,” Daniel spat. “Brielle seems to think you’re this sensitive, caring man who is deeply mourning Kali’s death and we have to tiptoe around your emotions and trauma.”
“Are you kidding me?” Zach asked. “I watched her die, Daniel! I spent almost every bit of time by her bedside while she was dying as I could while nurses did most of the work with Nadya in the NICU! Just because we weren’t romantic didn’t mean I didn’t love her!”
“You want me to be honest?” Daniel asked, and Zach nodded his head. “Kali dying was the best thing for you. The only thing that would have been better is if the eighteen-year baggage upstairs had died with her too.”
Diego gasped in revulsion at what he was hearing, standing up himself and only stopping his advance toward Daniel because Zach was in his way. Zach took a step back, his eyes wide as he took that in. He looked like he had been slapped in the face by the information, but it didn’t take too long for his eyes to turn calculating. Zayne moved his wheelchair forward, but he didn’t have time to do much before Zach went after Daniel, punching him hard in the cheek, which grazed off him and to the side. Daniel staggered back slightly before gritting his teeth and attacking Zach back.
“Zachariah!” Zayne called out while the others tried to tell them to stop as well, but neither of them were listening. Eventually, Elias and Diego managed to pull Zach away, but while Brielle tried to pull Daniel away, a punch meant for Zach strayed and hit Brielle in the lip, sending her tumbling to the ground. All movement stopped once she landed on her ass, with Elias and Diego able to loosen their grip on Zach because he was staring at Brielle in horror.
Brielle brought her hand up to her lip and when she brought it away, she could see blood on her hand. Diego still clung to Zach, more for support as the adrenaline began to wear off. Diego assumed that Zach would need the help and would also be too proud to ask for it.
“It was an accident,” Daniel said as Aspen helped Brielle get to her feet.
“Uh huh, and was Zach’s face an accident too?” Brielle asked, which caused Zach to touch his face where wounds were already bleeding freely.
Brinxton stepped forward, addressing Brielle, “Do you want him out of here? Just say the word.”
“Zach started the fight!” Daniel cried, but Brielle ignored him and just nodded her head to her brother to say she wanted him out.
“No, you knew his buttons and you pushed them,” Zayne pointed out to Daniel angrily. “You knew what you were doing!”
Brinxton didn’t waste any effort on talking to Daniel, he simply walked up to him and took a firm grasp on his bicep and began to propel him toward the door, pausing briefly by the coat rack to shove Daniel’s coat into his free hand before pulling open the door and practically launching the man out of the house. The softness with which Brinxton closed the door afterward was a stark contrast to the business-like and almost angry way he had manhandled Daniel.
He could hear Daniel yelling from the other side of the door that Brielle had the keys to the car and smiled smugly on his way back to the table. Aspen had already gotten Brielle sitting down, while Elias and Diego got Zach into one of the chairs as well. Brielle only had a split lip, but Zach’s face was a different story. One of his eyes would definitely turn black, his lip was split in two different places, his chin was bruised, as was his cheek, and he had bleeding wounds on most of those areas as well as his nose was bleeding.
Aspen handed an ice pack to Brielle while Elias grabbed the first aid kit to start working on Zach. Diego assessed the damage to his boyfriend judiciously and suggested that they get him to a doctor and possibly even file a report with the police.
“You’re an idiot,” Elias said to Zach as he grabbed two tampons from Aspen’s purse and stuck them up Zach’s nose where he deposited them to stop the bleeding.
“You heard what he said!” Zach cried.
“Right, and I also know he was goading you,” Elias added. “And you took the bait like you always do. He could try to go to the police and say you started it. You technically threw the first punch. And he’s right, you need a doctor, mostly to make sure nothing got broken.”
Zach let out a huff and looked away, but Zayne was looking off at the wall, though not really seeing it when he asked, “Was he always like this and I was just blind, or did he get worse over the years or something? I’m not going to pretend he was perfect when we were together, but it’s like I don’t even recognize him now.”
“Sometimes I think you three were his conscience,” Brielle admitted. “He seemed better when he was around you three, regularly, as friends. He didn’t fall into a great crowd after you, and that’s eaten away at him. Plus, I think he’s bitter over everything that’s happened, especially since you two got married.”
“What do you want to do?” Aspen asked Brielle. “I know some real shark divorce attorneys.”
Elias gave her a look but she just smiled at him. Brielle, though, nodded her head slowly. “Get me those names. That’s not who I want to have children with.”
Brinxton, standing behind his sister and out of her sight, pumped his closed fist in a gesture that clearly demonstrated his feelings on the matter. Elias couldn’t help but smirk at him, though he tried to hide it from Brielle by focusing on Zach again.
Brielle looked over at where Zach was, the hard expression on her face softening. “Go to the hospital, you oaf. And make a report. He said something so inflammatory towards your daughter, who just got kidnapped recently, and it is normal to have responded the way you did. You both went into the fight knowing that he knows how to press your buttons and that you aren’t as strong as him now.”
That last part made Zach look over at where she was. Most of the time, Zach was trying to pretend that nothing had really changed with his health, but hearing it that starkly put made him look down at his hands, which were shaking slightly again. Zach’s eyes went out of focus and he finally just nodded his head.
Diego was already over by the coat tree gathering his and Zach’s jackets and grabbing the keys to Zach’s car off the wall. He brought Zach his coat and basically bundled him up in it while asking Zayne and Brinxton to listen for Nadya. “If she wakes up, just sit with her in her room until she goes back to sleep. She doesn’t usually want anything but some companionship.”
Zayne nodded his head and motioned for them to go. They could handle their niece while Zach got medical help. It was good practice for them in case they had their own baby someday. Zach let Diego drive to the hospital since his contacts were bothering him now, especially in his injured eye. Zach took his contacts out on the way to the ER and threw them away.
The doctor looked over the wounds, and laughed at the tampons Elias had used to stop the bleeding in the nose. They took those out and one side was still bleeding a little bit. He sent Zach off for x-rays for the nose and then they took photos of his wounds, cleaned him up, and stitched up a few of the cuts they didn’t think would heal well without it.
He did have a broken nose so the doctor had to reset it before putting a cast on the nose to keep it in place. Diego hated hearing the way Zach cried out in pain when the doctor reset it.
It was after all of that happened that the cops came in to speak with Zach. They went through everything and took photos of the wounds after being treated, and accepted the photos from before that the nurses took.
“Do you want to press charges, Mr. Lennox?” one of the cops asked.
Diego, who had remained quiet through all of this, looked Zach in the eye and said, “Yes, he would.”
Zach looked at Diego, and Diego could see some slight hesitation before he finally nodded his head. The cops accepted that as an answer and left them alone in the room. Once they had left, Zach sighed and laid his head back on the pillow.
“I didn’t manage to do nearly as much damage to him, did I?” Zach asked after a moment of silence.
Diego didn’t even hesitate. “No, he barely looked like he had been in a fight. He could just as easily have tripped over his own feet and fallen against a wall or something, based on his injuries.”
“The last time I hit him at least gave him a bloody nose and lip,” Zach mused. “He deserved that one too, but it’s weird what a few years can change. It’s not like I’ve been in a ton of fights, but the ones I have been, I usually came out on top at least.”
“Well, once your face stops looking like hamburger you can work on coming out on top of me, but until then you need to focus on healing,” Diego said.
“And here I was kind of worried that me taking the first swing would make you think I was a walking red flag or something,” Zack laughed weakly. “You must really like that tiny warrior princess or something.”
Diego colored a little. “I couldn’t love her more if I was her biological father,” he said almost too quietly for Zach to hear.
Zach couldn’t help but smile at that. “Well, that’s probably good because I can’t imagine how she’ll react when she sees me. She might not leave your arms for a bit.”
Diego frowned at Zach. “I doubt she will reject her daddy. She might look at you funny for a bit, but she finds so much comfort in you.”
Zach ran his fingers gently along his lip, which was already swelling up a bit. “You might be right, but I don’t imagine she’ll react well to her daddy looking like this either. It’s not like she saw it all happen, which I’m glad for.”
Diego paled as he considered that, “Yeah, me too.”
Zach frowned and got a far away look. “I don’t think Daniel would have cared if she had been present for any of that. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself.”
Diego’s expression said a great deal about his opinion of Daniel. Zach took Diego’s hand, smiling a little as he took in that expression, thinking that Diego was smarter about Daniel than any of them. For all Zach had said about Zayne being too soft on the man, Zach had fallen into some nostalgia too. Daniel wasn’t who he used to be though, and that was clear now.
“I’ll trust your judgment on people,” Zach said quietly. “You seem to be a good judge of character.”
Diego smiled at the compliment, “I had to learn how to size people up pretty quickly, unfortunately.”
“I guess my parents shielded me more than I thought,” Zach admitted, and then the nurse came in and disrupted their conversation. She told them to use ice on his face to bring swelling down, and what to look out for as signs of infection or concussion and when to come back. Once she had Zach sign the paperwork, she let them go home.
Nadya was awake and sitting in Zayne’s lap as he made spaghetti for dinner. She looked over with a big grin when they first walked in, but then she saw her dad’s face and her face dropped. She started yelling out the word no over and over as Zayne turned to try and see what was wrong.
“Dada, no!” she cried.
“Shhh, daddy just got hurt but he’s gonna be okay,” Zayne murmured to her as she looked at her dad with a pout, holding onto Zayne tightly. “It’s still daddy.”
Zach knelt down in front of where she was sitting and looked at her with what felt like a smile though he was swollen so he couldn’t be sure it translated well. “It’s just me, Princess. Daddy just…had a bit of an accident. But it’s still me under here.”
Nadya slipped off her uncle’s lap and carefully toddled over to where her dad was kneeling. She looked over his face with an expression that spoke to how unhappy she was with this development but then she started to pet Zach’s shoulder to make sure he was okay. Her expression was one of worry as she said “dada” a few times like she was checking that he was fine.
“I’m okay, sweetie,” Zach told her quietly and she brought her tiny hand up to rub his cheek gently. It hurt a little but he didn’t want to react in case it scared her away. Once she seemed like she wouldn’t startle, Zach scooped her up and went over to the couch to sit down with her where Diego could join them.
Diego sat gingerly next to Zach and Nadya immediately stepped into his lap and checked his face for damage. When he didn’t seem to have any, she nodded to herself as if she had confirmed some suspicion she had and went back to her daddy. She eventually settled herself between them while one of her shows played on the TV. Zayne brought over an ice pack for Zach to put on his lip and eye with the hope the swelling would go down.
Within a week, there was news about Daniel being arrested for assault and Brielle filing for divorce. Worse than that, though, was an article that had reporters flooding to one of Zach’s builds to try and catch him for commentary, as his Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis had been leaked. It made Zev force Zach to stay at home and hide for a bit so he could get the paparazzi away from the building site, but Zach was fuming over it, especially because he was still healing and his wounds had made Nadya more clingy.
There was talk about who leaked it, whether it could be someone violating HIPAA, but Zach was pretty sure that Daniel had done it, and they couldn’t do much about it. It was a retaliation for going to the police and he had no avenues to make Daniel pay for that, though Brielle was furious.
“I will happily ruin him in the press,” Brielle told Zach one night at dinner when they had everyone over. “The divorce is already filed so I can spin it like I’m the victim of his secret dickings.”
Zach snorted. “Nah, it’s fine. It would have likely come out eventually, I’m just angry he took away my choice in it.”
“I’m angry he exists, at this point,” Brinxton grumbled.
“Well now you don’t ever have to call him your brother-in-law again,” Zayne said with a gentle elbow to Brinxton’s side.
“And we never have to hang out with him again,” Zach added.
“Out with the old!” Elias said as he raised his glass and then glanced over at Diego before he said, “And in with the new!”
Diego looked apologetically mortified at Brielle and said, “Sorry honey, I don’t swing that way. You’ll have to find someone else for that position!”
Everyone laughed at that while Zach lightly slapped Elias on the arm in jest. Brielle gave an exaggerated pout but then laughed when she couldn’t keep it up anymore. Then Brielle looked at Zach to take in his healing wounds and patted his cheek before looking over at Diego with a smile.
“Just take care of this one and it’s all good,” she replied.
“No promises. What if he likes it rough?” Diego asked exaggeratedly.
Brielle looked over Zach appraisingly and then shrugged. “As long as he’s happy, I suppose. Though let those poor bruises and cuts heal first.”
Zayne put his hands over Nadya’s ears and said in a stage whisper, “Don’t you listen to them now. You’re too young to be corrupted like this.”
It took a few weeks, but Daniel’s attorney eventually reached out to Zach to settle out of court so they could have the charges dropped, and Brielle was included because she had made her own police report. Zach knew Diego was against it, but he decided to go and meet with them with his own lawyer so they could talk. In the end, they walked out of the meeting with an agreement between them that both could live with.
Daniel would move into a backseat at his company and let his brother Garrett take over as CEO, and Daniel would pay a fair amount of money for medical expenses and damages to Zach. He also would give Brielle a fair divorce that followed the letter of the prenup they had and was quick, and Zach and Brielle would drop the criminal charges.
When he got home from the meeting, he told Zayne, Brinxton, and Diego what they had agreed to and would be signing by the end of the week. Brinxton and Diego both seemed to be of the opinion that he had settled a little too easily, but they didn’t offer comments.
“Oh, I didn’t mention the best part,” Zach said with a grin at the expressions on their faces. “He has to issue a public apology and stay away from me and Nadya or we can file later for a protection order from him.”
Zayne chuckled at that. “Oh, he’s got to be pissed about the public apology.”
“His lips looked like a cat butt when I demanded it,” Zach confirmed. “He has to apologize for leaking the MS diagnosis too.”
“I can’t imagine him finding a way to make that shitty, but I’m sure he will,” Brinxton grumbled.
“Yeah, he might, but I can weaponize the press too,” Zach acknowledged.
“I’ve got a weapon you can press…” Diego mumbled only loudly enough for Zach to hear right next to him.
Zach smirked and kissed Diego briefly but passionately because he whispered right into his ear. “I’ll hold you to that.”
Diego smiled but wasn’t so easily distracted. “So he basically gets away with beating you up for the price of not being a complete shit-heel? Seems like he kinda won out on that one.”
Zach let out a sigh and sat down. “The reality is that he wouldn’t have gotten any jail or prison time anyway. His dad would have fixed it if Daniel couldn’t himself. He would have paid a bunch of money and it would have gone away for them. At least with this, he has more punishment than just losing money. He loses his wife, his place as CEO, our entire friend group, and has to publicly embarrass himself to make it right.”
“Still seems like a shitty deal, but if you’re happy with it…” Brinxton said.
“As long as I never see his smug face again, it will do,” Zach admitted. “I’m most worried about Nadya being safe, and having someone around who can say that about her mom and her is not safe.”
Diego clearly agreed with that sentiment and so did everyone else present. They all simultaneously voiced their support for ejecting Daniel from the circle. Zayne still looked like he was contemplating what the hell had gone wrong with Daniel, but Brinxton’s reminder that he couldn’t save everyone helped.
A few weeks after that, when most of the swelling and bruising had gone down, Zach came down the stairs wearing what he normally wore to work sites, Diego had realized. They were always his more casual pairs of jeans, t-shirts, work boots, and sometimes a flannel overshirt if it was cold outside.
Diego smiled broadly, reaching into the fridge to grab a few things and put them into a lunch cooler. Zach kissed Diego and accepted the lunch cooler. “Play nice with the other construction workers and be careful! There are a lot of things that can hurt you out there!” Diego said sweetly as he escorted Zach to the door.
Zach chuckled. “Yes, dear. I’ll play nicely with the other kids and stay away from the pointy objects when not working with them.”
Diego patted him on the head and said, “There’s a good boy,” before gently smacking him on the ass on his way out the door.
Zach gave him a grin and then headed to the car. They were still working on finishing up the last of the structural work of the theater before they moved on to creating the inside so there were still open beams with no walls. Zach helped with giving direction and carrying materials to where they needed them.
Zev was still acting CEO, though Zach was meant to take over soon, so Zev still came to the construction sites as well. He was there overlooking everything, making sure everything was up to his high standard. Zach greeted him before being asked to help up on one of the beams.
Zach went up to join the guys up there, helping them lay down what would eventually be built up into the floor later when he felt dizzy and everything around him began to spin around. He stumbled back and grabbed onto one of the beams.
“Dude, you okay?” one of the workers asked, and Zach could really only manage to shake his head before he slid down the beam and everything started going black.
The worker jumped forward and grabbed Zach to try and keep him on the beam, holding him in a sitting position. Everyone who could see them knew something was wrong, and it didn’t take Zev long to call an ambulance while two workers made sure Zach didn’t fall off of the beam while he went in and out of consciousness.
The times that Zach was conscious, he realized how dangerous this was, but there was nothing he could do about it. The other workers got Zach into a harness once the EMTs got there and they used ropes to get Zach down to the ground where the EMTs could get him onto a stretcher and check him out.
Zayne was working with his laptop in the living room where Nadya was toddling around playing with toys when his phone rang. “Hey dad, what’s up?” Zayne listened for a moment and then looked at Diego with alarm on his face. “Is he okay? Yeah, what hospital? Are you going with him? Okay, thanks.”
Diego’s face went from terror to a cold blank stare over the course of the conversation and he stood and limped out of the room without a word while Zayne finished the phone call. When he came back in, Diego was carrying a backpack and a baby carrier sized for Nadya.
“Is she going with me or…?” Diego asked kindly but sort of mechanically.
Zayne looked at the clock and then shook his head. “No, I can watch her. Brinxton should be home soon anyway. Just go to Zach. He’s okay but he passed out at work.”
Diego dropped the carrier on the couch as he nodded. He asked, “Which hospital?” as he put on his shoes and grabbed the keys to his motorcycle.
“Denver Health,” Zayne replied. “They’re probably taking him straight to the ER. He’ll be taken there by ambulance.”
Diego nodded and held up his cellphone so Zayne could see it as he left the house, pulling his backpack over his shoulders and grabbing his helmet. He arrived at the hospital before the ambulance got there and waited in the ER lobby for the gurney to be wheeled in.
Zach was still not completely conscious when they wheeled him in. Diego tried to follow him back to the triage room, but without any proof that he was with Zach, the nurses refused to allow him back. He anxiously checked in with the visitor desk and they informed him that he would be called when Zach was given a room.
As soon as they got him into a room they started an IV, and he was briefly conscious long enough to let them know that Diego was his boyfriend before he was out again. A nurse came out to get Diego and bring him back to Zach’s room, where Diego got his first good look at him. His skin was paler than normal, and even in the brief moments he was awake, he was out of it. His eyes didn’t focus well so he barely was able to acknowledge that Diego was there and he seemed weak.
Diego was worried, but stoically kept himself stone-faced while working internally to keep his mind focused on what he could do so he didn’t succumb to the depression spiraling just on the edge of his mental vision. He answered what questions he could from the doctors and brought up the emergency medical information screen from Zach’s phone, grateful that they had both updated their information after the kidnapping.
One of the nurses came in to take blood from Zach, as well as a urine test, which they used a catheter to get. Then she started giving Zach saline to help with dehydration they found based on his skin and the color of his urine.
“Dehydration and stress can make autoimmune issues worse,” the nurse explained to Diego.
The doctor also ordered steroids, as he was sure this was an MS flare up. Between the fluids and the steroids, Zach finally came out of it and was able to stay awake. The doctor had Zach tell him what happened from his perspective, asked questions about his diet, his stress levels, and how much water he took in daily, before asking Zach about his MS medications and treatment plan.
The doctor prescribed a longer round of steroids that Zach would start at home, and he told him to up his water intake before he left the two of them in the room alone while he worked on Zach’s discharge.
Zach let out a sigh and leaned back in the bed while he shifted his eyes over to Diego, taking in the neutral expression and tension in his body. “Are you okay?”
Diego shook his head, the expression on his face making it clear that he didn’t want to talk about it right then. “Let’s focus on you. What do you think all of this means? And why in the hell were you up on a beam when your balance has been so bad and your legs have been giving out randomly?”
Zach winced at the last questions because Diego was right, and Zev would likely read Zach the riot act later over this. “I don’t know. I’d been feeling better recently, and we hadn’t seen any recent issues with the legs. Getting into the work is part of the business, and I wanted to get back to things being more normal again when they hadn’t been in a while. It just…it feels so unfair to lose my independence and ability to work for my living. It feels like everything has been spiraling out of control for a while now, and I can’t do anything to fix it. The only bright spots are you and Nadya.”
Diego nodded as if he understood that, “I get that, but you have to take care of yourself so you don’t end up leaving Nadya and me without you to brighten our days.”
“I know,” Zach agreed and looked down at his hands, which he was fiddling with anxiously. It took another forty minutes before they let them leave, and they stopped by the site to get Zach’s car afterward and drove home.
Zev was already at the house when they pulled up, parked on the street, and Zach looked nervous as he parked the car and they went into the living room. Zev looked a lot like his children, though his hair was a dark blond as opposed to the auburn hair his children sported. He was taller than his sons and imposing, and Zach kind of slunk by him to go and sit down on the couch where Nadya crawled over to him from Brinxton’s lap and snuggled into his side like she had been waiting for that.
“I can’t believe you,” Zev said once everyone was settled, all of his attention on his oldest. “You were a liability to the company and to our workers! On top of that, you could have gotten yourself killed! And all for what, your god damned ego?! That was not the decision making of a CEO in training, so if you can’t do this job, then you tell me now and we can bring someone better in who can!”
“Dad,” Zayne chided gently. He knew his dad was angry but he wasn’t sure Zach deserved all of that.
Zach bit his lower lip, his eyes trained on the ground as he blinked away tears. “I’m sorry,” he finally said in a small voice, one Diego had never heard come from Zach before. “I’m sorry.”
Diego’s suppressed anger at Zach surged forward, redirected in his defense. He stood up, berating Zev in a mixture of English and Spanish. “Ease up off your son, cabrón! He’s never had MS before and he’s asustado ahora! You should be more understanding and compasivo as his father!”
Before he could go much farther, Brinxton interceded by stepping in between them, facing Diego with his hands raised to eye level, palms outward in a calming gesture. “Easy, Diego, I think he gets the point.”
The level of Zev’s anger seemed to have gone down between Zach’s and Diego’s responses, but before Zev could say anything, Zach shook his head and said, “No, he’s right. I was a liability in more ways than one because I didn’t want to accept that things have to change. I put myself and the company at risk, and everyone here has reason to be angry.”
“Disability is hard,” Zayne interjected. “Really hard. It changes everything about your life and the way you view it, and it changes the way the world sees you. I had to get my crash course in it all at once, but at least we had a pretty good idea once we did the original surgeries of what we could expect for my mobility. You’re having to figure that all out a bit at a time. Your body is changing, your ability to react to the world as an able-bodied man is changing, and you’re freaking out and not sure how to do it.
“And that’s pretty normal. Gradual disability almost always leads to the person doing too much and then paying for it. You’re in that particular stage of gradual disability, and that sucks. And everyone does have reason to be angry, but we can be compassionate too.”
“Alright, I hear both of you,” Zev acknowledged. “I’m sorry. I went too far, Zach. But we do need to figure out what to do about this.”
Zach took in a shaky breath and let it out before he nodded his head. “Yeah, I’ve actually been thinking about that since I woke up, and I think we should bring Tyson out to take over as CEO instead.”
Brinxton seemed to disapprove, but kept his peace because this was a family business and he had no right to offer his opinions. Diego seemed mostly concerned for Zach’s welfare, but he also knew how important a decision this was for him. Diego rubbed his arm in support. Zayne and their dad mainly looked surprised, silently mulling that over for a moment as Zach started to fidget from the silence.
“You don’t have to make any hasty decisions,” Zev finally said.
“It’s not really that hasty. There are areas of the job I can’t do anymore, and the list of things I can’t do will only get longer as time goes on. Tyson and I can discuss with you what it will look like, but so long as I stay on as lead architect until I…” Zach swallowed hard here, obviously having a hard time with this. “…until I can’t sketch anymore, then I’m fine.”
Zev looked at his eldest for a moment somberly before he nodded his head. “Alright, I’ll ask Tyson to make the trip here and we can discuss how this will go. I love you, Zachariah. You’re the first baby of mine I got to hold and got to see. I was only angry because I was terrified.”
“I know, dad,” Zach replied quietly, then he looked up at Diego, his eyes still wet with tears. “I really am sorry.”
Diego wordlessly continued rubbing his arm in support. Zach put his own hand over Diego’s. Zev didn’t want to talk business when Zach still looked so pale so he bid them goodnight. Zach helped Diego get Nadya ready for bed, letting Diego do all of the lifting so he wouldn’t run the risk of dropping her.
Zach knew they should talk about Diego’s feelings in all of this too, but he didn’t want to push him before he was ready to talk. When they snuggled up in bed that night, Zach safely within Diego’s arms, Zach broke down from all of the stress and the uncertainty of what the future held with his health.
Diego decided that this was not a good time to talk about his feelings, especially with Zach still processing his own concerns with adjusting to his new circumstances. He held Zach until they both fell asleep. That night he dreamed about fighting a war he couldn’t win with too-little support while carrying a baby on his back instead of his usual rucksack.. He jerked awake to find Zach sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed and contented noises coming from the baby monitor, letting him know that Nadya was awake but not in distress.
Neither were particularly well rested when they woke up the next day, as Diego had disturbed sleep and Zach was back to feeling out of it and dizzy. A nurse came later in the morning to set up an IV line that would stay in for the entire week. She showed Zach how to take care of it and got his first dose of steroids started before she said she would be back tomorrow and left. Zach dozed a little through the time it was dripping down the IV line but he was awake by the time it was done and Nadya was down for a nap.
Zayne had gone into the kitchen to make his own lunch so he brought some food out for Diego as he sat down on the couch before offering Zach some food. Zach shook his head and just took a bottle of water to drink.
When Zayne went down to his room to use the restroom, Zach looked over at Diego thoughtfully. “We should probably talk about yesterday.”
“Are you ready for that conversation? I figured it could wait until you were more comfortable with your diagnosis,” Diego said.
Zach frowned at that, looking up at the IV pole that was currently set up by the couch for him. “Getting comfortable with it will probably take some time. It feels like my body is betraying me, or I’m betraying everything I’ve worked for. I can’t really tell, to be honest. That’s a work in progress though. It doesn’t mean I can’t deal with the other side of it. It’s not just about my emotions.”
“Okay,” Diego agreed, “What would you like to talk about?”
“Dad was very loud with his emotions, Zayne was gentler with his, but you haven’t mentioned how you were feeling,” Zach said. “You said you weren’t okay but didn’t want to talk, so…”
“I was terrified of losing you. I still am. Not just because of the paycheck, or that perfectly-veined dick either,” Diego answered.
“As I said, you really like that tiny warrior princess,” Zach replied with a hint of humor.
Diego smiled slightly, acknowledging the truth of that. “I do. The thought of never seeing any of you again is more devastating than the idea of never coming home from the front lines.”
“Even if something happened to me, there’s no way Zayne would just send you off without another thought,” Zach pointed out. “Everyone has gotten really fond of you, and they know how important you are to Nadya.”
“That’s hardly a guaranteed thing,” Diego said quietly, nearly in tears.
“You’re right,” Zach acknowledged, then chewed on his lip as he considered the problem. Of course, he had assumed that Diego cared more about Nadya than him, so the practical side of him wasn’t surprised, but the non-practical side was a little hurt. “I’m more than happy to talk to Zayne about that and put it in the will that if I die, Zayne gets custody so long as you stay on with her and have access to her.”
“It’s not just Nadya, you simpleton!” Diego said, a little louder than he intended. “It’s falling in love and then almost losing everything in a single minute. You, access to Nadya, the life I’m trying to build, all of it! I’ve never cared about where my life was going before I met you. Now I’m afraid I’ll lose all of it.”
Zach stared at Diego for a moment, a dumbfounded expression on his face. He couldn’t help the smile that blossomed on his face after that, but then he realized maybe that wasn’t appropriate for the conversation so he tried to hide it by biting on his lip. “I’m sorry. I never wanted to terrify you like that, and I’m sorry I did. I’m not going anywhere, though. I’m relatively okay, though not feeling great, and I won’t do that again. I may not have a good idea of what my health looks like in the future, but whatever it is, I want my daughter and the man I fell in love with to be in it.”
Diego nodded, tears still in his eyes. Zach put his hand on the back of Diego’s neck and gently guided Diego to lay up against him so he could put his arms around him. “I promise, no more reckless decisions, okay?” Zach whispered to him.
Diego gave Zach the side-eye, not certain he actually believed this promise, but willing to accept it at face value. He straightened up his appearance, wiping his face and sitting up.
Zach caught the side-eye and said, “I said reckless. Not that I wouldn’t make stupid decisions because I can’t promise that.”
Brinxton, who had walked through the door just as Zach started talking, chimed in, “You can say that again! He’s the King of Stupid Decisions, Diego; present company excluded.”
Zach pursed his lips together in faux annoyment. “See what I have to put up with in this house?”
“Well you are more than welcome to leave,” Zayne joked as he wheeled back out. “That cutie and Diego can stay though.”
“That cutie doesn’t get to stay without me,” Zach replied.
“That’s not true,” Diego said to Zayne with a smirk, “he just promised to make sure I get to see Nadya in the event of his untimely demise…”
“Oh, then we’ll just push up his murder,” Zayne responded cheerfully.
“You devious little sneaks,” Zach cried.
Zayne just grinned at him, which led Zach to let out a huff and cross his arms before he remembered there was an IV in one and he hissed in pain.
“Dumbass,” Diego said in a loving tone while fussing over Zach to the extent that Zach waved him off like he was a cloud of gnats.
Zayne gave a knowing smile to his husband, glad that his brother seemed happy in a relationship, especially because he thought Diego was good for Zach. They were all still talking when Nadya came crawling backwards down the stairs, still looking a little sleepy but smiling. Everyone stopped to stare at her in shock because she had been in her crib and no one had let her out.
“We have a jailbreak!” Zach cried as he picked her up. “You tiny acrobat!”
Everyone laughed and cooed over how silly and cute Nadya was. It was moments like this that Zach felt really lucky with his life. He would deal with the hard part later, but for now, he was happy to just be with the people he loved.