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I step back a furrow on my brow. “What? No, we’re coming with you.” I turn to Xander who nods.
“Of course. We aren’t leaving you to go through this alone.”
He tries to hide it but I see the relief wash over Beck and know there’s nowhere else I’d be when he needs me.
“Thank you.”
“No need to thank us, Beck. You’re ours and we’re here for you.” Xander grips his shoulder and I can see Beck soaking up his strength.
This.
This is why we work because when one falls there’s always someone there to pick them up.
21: Beck
The plane ridewas short and I can hardly remember being in the car from the airport. Xander handled everything because I was in a fog, my mental capacity just shut down on me. On the plane, Amelia sat beside me and held my hand and Xander sat across from us, his worried gaze on me the whole time. This reaction isn’t something people are used to from me. I’m the calm one, sometimes the funny one, but always the one in control. Especially when it comes to anything medical.
“Hey, we’re here.”
The car has pulled up and Xander exits first and then Amelia. I take a second to try and pull myself together. We’d been having such a fun time at Disney, despite a few tense conversations with Xander and Amelia, and me feeling like my insides were trying to come up through my windpipe.
I let Amelia grip my hand, needing her touch more than oxygen right now. She’s my rock, my anchor when I have no clue what awaits me. My mother is gentle, fragile almost, but she never lets it show. She’s always holding herself together so tightly that nobody sees how broken she is. I wonder if this is her body’s way of obliterating that control.
I walk up to reception with more confidence than I feel, Amelia pressed to my side and Xander at my back. I want to lean on that strength right now, to let myself sink into him and let him take the weight for just a moment in time, but I can’t.
“I’m looking for Margarete Goldsmith. I’m her son, Dr. Beckham Goldsmith.”
Yes, I just pulled out the doctor card and with my name being so well known in my field it’s no surprise when her eyes widen.
“Of course, Dr. Goldsmith. Second floor, room 218.”
“Thank you.”
I head for the elevator and we stand silently waiting for the doors to close. Someone tries to get in with us, but Xander steps up and puts his hand up.
“Get the next one.”
I appreciate him trying to give me privacy as we’re whisked to the second floor and spat out into a reception area. I ignore everything around me as I tow Amelia toward room 218. My step falters when I see my father standing with my older brother, Giles. At that moment my father looks up and I don’t see the stoic man who shows very little emotion, I see a man barely hanging on. His graying hair is messed, his eyes red-rimmed, and his posture, normally so rigid, is slumped, defeated.
“Beck.”
Giles rushes toward me, and he’s like an older version of me. I stiffen for a second as he wraps me in a hug before I hug him back awkwardly. My family aren’t huggers. In fact, I can count on one hand how many times my brother has done that, and three of them were when he was drunk at his bachelor party and we never spoke of it again.
“How is she?”
We move toward my father and I feel Amelia let go of my hand and move to embrace my father when I can’t. He looks surprised before he hugs her back, closing his eyes and doing what I’ve been doing since I heard and taking strength from her.
“Good to see you, Mr. Goldsmith. Sorry about the circumstances.”
“They won’t tell us a lot and what they do say is confusing.”
Both men, who I’ve always felt looked down on me for choosing this career, are now looking at me for answers and it snaps me out of the panic-induced fog I’ve been in since Giles called me. “Where is her doctor?”
“In with her doing something.”
My father motions to the room next to where we’re hovering. He looks like he’s going to fall down so I grip his arm and motion for him to sit. “What happened?”
His hand shakes as the normally composed Elgar Goldsmith rubs his hand over his mouth. “She was sitting in the sunroom reading when the book fell from her hand. I asked if she was okay and she didn’t respond. So I went to her and she couldn’t speak and the side of her face had dropped. I remember you telling us some of the signs of a stroke, so I called an ambulance.”
