LANCASTER AND MAXWELL ( ✔ )

chapter thirty-two.

Chapter Thirty-Two.

FROM the minute that he gets discharged from the hospital a day later, Sully is in Arthur's room. 

He makes up a lie and says that he's Arthur's step-brother (he tries not to think about the incest laws he's currently breaking, but that is a matter that he's gonna have to worry about later), and it hasn't even been ten minutes he's been out the hospital before he's back in a different room. From the moment he steps in, his heart cracks so bad he didn't even know it was possible, and his blood begins to boil. 

Arthur, his Arthur, is bandaged from head to toe, bruises the color of the rainbow painted all over his body as he lays in the hospital bed. He listens to the machine keep up with his faint heartbeat, and he wonders how the hell it ever got to go this far. How the hell did he get this far without protecting the one he loves most?  It's enough to make him want to go to war, raise his fists up and fight the whole world if he's got to. Sully makes a vow right then and there and he's never going to let Arthur hurt like this; not again.

"Oh, Artie," his voice is broken up and soft, barely heard over the hum of the machines beside him. Sully walks up to the bed and sits in the chair next to it, biting the inside of his cheek as he heard for something — anything to say. Leaning forward in the seat, it creaks as he puts his elbows on his knees and runs his fingers through his disheveled hair. "We really fucked up, didn't we?"

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" He doesn't expect an answer, but since the dream he had he feels as if he needs to get it all off of his chest before he bursts. "Why didn't you tell me at all? We could've done something to stop it — Grandmother knows people that coulda had his head chopped off and thrown into the Atlantic. Maybe then you could've been safe, maybe then ..." He trails off, tears threatening to spill from his lash lines.  

However, his tears are saved for another day. He swivels his head at the sound of another voice, and looks over his shoulder to see that the nurse has come in. "Mr. Maxwell, his sister is here to see him, as well," she says. 

He knits his eyebrows together, confused, but when she steps to the side he knows exactly what's going on. Zara steps into the room and looks directly at Sullivan, blue gazing into green. 

The nurse leaves them alone, and the air is so thick with tension, you can cut it with a knife. Finally, Sullivan breaks the silence. 

"You aren't as stupid as you look, you know." They're the first words he's spoken to Zara since the party, and he doesn't feel guilty about how harsh they come out. After all, the last time he saw her, she did try to kill him. 

She says, "Neither are you." Stepping around, she sets the flowers in hand down on the table and sits in the seat next to Sullivan, moving her mouth from side to side. "The first time I expected to see Arthur again was on the football field, not in a hospital bed." 

"This ain't fucking about you right now, so spare me if I'm not as inclined to hear your stupid sob story," he snaps. 

"I'm not the only guilty person here, SJ. Arthur cheated on me with you, too. Don't make me seem like a monster," she bites back.

"You almost killed me." 

"I'm sorry."

He laughs, and she flinches at how harshly it comes out. "Sorry doesn't fix shit. You hurt me and Arthur, and I will never forgive you for that." 

Zara stays silent for a moment, tugging at stray strands of blonde hair in her ponytail. "Do you think you're the only one that cares about him, Sullivan?" She asks quietly. There's no malice in her tone; she just asks a genuine question. "You may have loved him first, but I got him second, and everyone else came third. It kills me to see him laying in this bed just as much as it does to you — everyone around him hurts just as much as you do. The world doesn't turn just because of your love for him, so stop being so fucking selfish." 

Sullivan swallows his pride and nods understandingly. He knows that she's right, that she loves Arthur maybe just as much as he does. Love makes people do crazy things sometimes, even he knows it. As much as it pains him to think about it, Sully has to remind himself that Arthur isn't just his in this new universe, and he hadn't really let it sink in until this moment. 

"Is he gonna be okay?" She questions.

Sully shrugs bitterly. "The doctors say when he wakes up, that he's going to be in a lot of pain. Arthur Senior he..." His temper flares when he thinks about the man that has done him more wrong than any other man in his life. The man had always seemed larger than life to Sully; he was what the young man wanted to grow up to be. Now, all the memories he had as a child of the Lancaster are tarnished by malice and rage. His father had been a wolf in sheep's clothing, and it had been right under his nose the whole time. He had made a false god his idol, and Sully doesn't think he can ever forgive himself for it. "He really did a number on him."

Zara adds, "I had always thought that Arthur was invincible, SJ. I really did." 

He doesn't comment. All he says is, "Did you know?" 

She leans back, the heel of her shoe clicking against the tile. "I had my suspicions, but I was never too sure. Arthur would come to school with a stray bruise or a cut on his lip, and it never sat right with me. I'd ask what happened, but he'd just... shrug it off like it was nothing — just would kiss my forehead and told me not to worry about it. Nobody should be that good at lying, you know?" Sniffling, she clears her eyes of the tears that threaten it before repeating herself. "Nobody." 

Sully turns to look at Arthur lying in the bed, thinks back to that day in the hallway, when he saw the bruise on Arthur's jaw and asked him what had happened, and he feels the sudden nausea in his gut when he remembers that the blonde did the same exact thing to him. 

"Like I said, I'm fine. I'm a Lancaster, remember?"

Was Arthur lying even back then? 

"I never liked his dad, you know." He's taken aback when he looks at Zara and she's got hot tears streaming down her cheeks, her lips pursed into a thin line when she speaks. Her eyes aren't on him, either; they're on Arthur. 

"I... hated that man, more than words could say. He always walked like even air couldn't touch him, like he was above everything that was on Earth. All of Richmond bows to him like he's some sort of god, you know. Who knew that the devil wore a suit and tie everyday?" She laughs humorlessly and bows her head, shaking it once, then twice. "Everybody wants what he has: perfect wife, perfect kids, the perfect life set up for himself, but he's not going to get away with this. He needs all of it taken from him."

"What are you saying?"

"Sully." She turns towards him with a look of determination in her eyes, and he doesn't think he's been more terrified than when he saw tears streaming down her face and the wrath of God in her eyes. "I know that we aren't friends; I know that I've wronged you, but I need you to make me a promise.

"When Arthur wakes up, I want you to fucking raise hell." 

He replies immediately, "I will."