Cailen managed to get Ezekiel fed, dressed, and to school on time, surprisingly enough.
He was late for work however, because he stopped in to talk with Ezekiel's teacher, explaining what had happened and that Ezekiel may not seem fully attentive today.
She was very understanding and said she would probably let him go off to the back of room so he could be alone if he needed.
Cailen had thanked her and rushed out of there as fast as he could, apologizing profusely to Madeline when he arrived at work.
Madeline gave him a stern look, probably for the sole reason of protecting her reputation because she then gave him a small smile and nodded him along.
He was grateful to have her as a boss, well she was more a supervisor, but still, she was pretty reasonable at times.
Cailen tried to make it through the first half of his day, going to his usual patients that he had to give medication to, bring their lunch to them and make sure they were comfortable.
He helped admit a new patient, a teenager that broke her arm playing football and was probably the toughest girl he's ever met, she never cried once.
He was trying not to continually ask Madeline for updates on Asher, knowing she was probably ready to throw a clipboard at him everytime he would ask and she would say no and that she would call him if there was.
It was just hard to be so close but so far away, not knowing if he had possibly woken up and was wondering where he was.
Cailen spent his lunch in Asher's hospital room, Asher still very much out of it.
He found it hard to eat though as he sat there and stared at Asher. His skin seemed a little pale, which was only to be expected, really.
The breathing machine was still pumping away for him, making him breathe.
The doctor had been in earlier to work on his lungs, he checked the log at the end of the bed and saw the nurse's entry. Apparently, everything was as normal as it could be at this point, thankfully.
While in there, he made arrangements for William to pick Ezekiel up from school again and bring him here, he also spent about fifteen minutes gushing to William about Ezekiel calling him 'Dad'.
He was pretty sure William was on the verge of telling him to shut it, but then his lunch break was ending and he had to go.
He apologized for rambling about the very memorable moment and hung up, kissing Asher on the forehead because the breathing mask covered his mouth, and left the room to try and make it through the rest of his day.
That evening, they stayed until Carmen came to boot them, claiming they couldn't spend the night again.
Cailen understood this and made her promise to call if he woke up- he didn't care what time it was.
She agreed to this and sent them on their way- William, Matthew and Noah all following behind them.
William had ran up infront of them, taking Ezekiel by the hand and then lifting him by the arm and swinging the boy ahead of him.
Ezekiel laughed at this and told William to do it again, so that's how they walked down to the car, William basically tossing Cailen’s son down the hall.
Cailen wasn't sure if he was being a good father by letting this happen, but William never actually let go of him, so he figured it was alright.
When they got outside into the parking lot, Cailen spotted a familiar blonde girl standing by a little blue car that belonged to Matthew.
It was Hazel, holding Baby Aariyah in her arms and smiling softly when she saw them coming towards her.
She gave Cailen a sympathetic smile to which he shrugged, smiling softly in return because yeah, it suck, but yeah, he was going to be okay.
"Let me see my god-daughter!" Cailen demanded, earning a glare because it was late and Aariyah was probably sleeping, but he figured if she was going to bring Aariyah out this late, Hazel should expect some noise.
Hazel handed her over carefully, Cailen holding her close to his chest and William hovering over his shoulder.
Aariyah had grown a bit of hair, seeming to take on Matthew's dark locks.
Cailen could imagine the contrast between the dark hair and blue eyes but he couldn't see it for she was sleeping, her face calm and eyes shut. She was adorable.
"Papa, can I see?" Ezekiel asked, looking up at Cailen- because Ezekiel thought it suits him more and way cooler, on their way home earlier, and who was Cailen to oppose that.
It was the first time Ezekiel has actually called him 'Papa' infront of the others and they all seemed to notice this.
They all looked to Cailen, then down at Ezekiel and back to Cailen, blinking in surprise and curiosity, even William though Cailen told him about this on the phone.
"Of course, love, she's sleeping though so we have to be quiet." Cailen said, kneeling so Ezekiel could see the sleeping girl.
Cailen took this time while Ezekiel was busy inspecting the little girl to look up at his friends, a grin on his face because it somehow felt different with Ezekiel acknowledging that he was his father infront of others, it wasn't just infront of Cailen anymore.
Hazel giggled at this, leaning her head on Matthew's shoulder who smiled down at Cailen as if he were proud or something.
William nodded, like he was accepting it after thinking Cailen had lied about that fact, Cailen would have to smack him later.
Noah patted him on the shoulder, sending him a wink that Cailen was sure was supposed to mean something but he missed the message.
*****
Unfortunately, this was how the next couple days went.
Cailen never heard anything from Madeline or Carmen about Asher. All he was ever able to find out was that everything was 'normal' for someone in his condition, and that he shouldn't worry too much because Asher would be waking up any day now.
Cailen actually laughed at himself one day when he realized what he was.
He was one of those whiny relatives that asked every hour if there were any changes and constantly questioned the doctor to make sure he knew what he was doing, even though the mother had no way of knowing if he knew what he was doing or not because she had no medical knowledge whatsoever.
Of course, he didn't think he was that bad, he never questioned the doctor, and he would only ask about Asher when he arrived at the hospital in the morning and maybe once or twice throughout the day.
He was just worried because he knew better than anyone that nothing was certain and complications could arise.
Asher's lungs could give out. He may not wake up. His head injury could be worse than they thought and he could possibly have permanent brain damage.
There were a number of things that could go wrong, and the longer Asher didn't wake up, the more likely they might actually happen.
He tried to push his worries aside, not only for his own sanity but for Ezekiel.
Sometimes when they were all sitting in Asher's room, Cailen would have to purposely not look at Asher because seeing him like this was way too hard for him and only made the voices in his head that much stronger and harder to ignore.
He would watch Noah and Ezekiel strumming away on Ezekiel's guitar.
He would watch Matthew and Hazel try to calm Aariyah or make her laugh, both of them making silly faces that Cailen would tease them about later.
He would watch William vigorously type away on his phone, his brow furrowed in concentration, his lip being chewed on continuously.
Cailen had a feeling something was going on there, but he never asked in case William wanted to keep it that way. William would tell him if he wanted.
Sometimes Cailen would excuse himself from the room, taking advantage of his friends being here so they could watch Ezekiel while he went to the toilet to freak out in private.
He wasn't sure if his friends knew that's what he was doing and he prayed Ezekiel didn't know. He couldn't let Ezekiel start to worry if he saw Cailen freaking out because he surely would.
That's where Cailen was now, in the bathroom, taking deep breaths and willing his mind to just shut down, to stop thinking about all the horrible scenarios that were playing out in his mind.
It wasn't working too well.
Cailen was startled from his mind momentarily when he heard the door fly open and hit the wall behind it.
Cailen whirled around to see Matthew standing there, looking a little sheepish and eyeing the door. He obviously hadn't meant to do that.
Matthew's attention was torn from the door to Cailen, his eyes taking in his obviously distressed state but he didn't say anything.
It was very Matthew-like, he never tried to pry anything out of you if you didn't want to tell him, and it was exactly what Cailen needed right now.
He didn't want to hear how he shouldn't worry, how Asher's chances of survival were in his favor because he knew all of that already.
He knew all of that, he just needed a moment to let himself go for a while, to not have to keep a strong face on, to let himself do what he did best- worry.
"Nice weather we're having, huh?" Matthew said, arching an eyebrow at Cailen and stepping over to lean against the sink.