#bendies

I mean I'm sure he wouldn't be surprised that the two of them are together after catching them together trespassing on the gym but still, I think it would've been quite a shock to have that out of nowhere lmao

omg thank you 😊

dsfjkasldfj poor Washington. yeah, like you mentioned, i always think that he was pretty aware of the fact that something was going on after they got caught in the gym together. and then John ends up riding in every morning with Alex after the fallout with his dad... Washington definitely knew even if they didn't tell him lol

She requested Bendies John with appendicitis, and Alex having to call John's dad for the first time!

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“Hello?”

Alex stares at the wall opposite him, unable to find words. Today has been… well, today has been long to say the very least.

It had started fairly uneventful. John had been complaining of some stomach pain, but he had shrugged it off. He’s nearly as stubborn as Alex himself, after all.

Fuck.

He should have known something was off. He should have told John to stay home. To go see his doctor. Something.

Instead, when John said through gritted teeth that he wasn’t going to miss their last practice before the upcoming meet, Alex had fucking smiled. Had made some dumb comment about how a little upset stomach could never stop someone as determined as him.

What a fucking stupid thing to say.

His knuckles are white where they grip restlessly at his phone, and the buzz of the waiting room echoes around him like static, overwhelming to his ears.

“Hello? Who is this?”

Alex swallows around the rawness in his throat and forces out words. “Hi, yeah, uh… Mr. Laurens? Henry?” He cringes to himself and shakes his head, wondering idly how many of the other hospital visitors are listening in on his failure of a conversation.

“Yes. Who’s calling?”

“It’s Alex,” he says, the words stilted. Disjointed. As if they’re not even coming out of his mouth. “Uh, Alexander Hamilton.”

Alex hates how fucking off center this whole thing makes him feel. The last time he and Henry spoke had been, what, Christmas? Or Easter, maybe? Whenever he went with John to family events, he and Henry kept conversation to a minimum. He still remembered how fucking broken John had seemed way back in the beginning of their relationship, after all. And he remembered the way Henry had thought of him, had thought that he wasn’t good enough.

He’d accepted they would never be friends a long time ago, and he was okay with that. He was fine with spending holidays talking with John’s kid siblings, and occasionally his Uncle James when he was in town. He never needed Henry’s approval. He has John’s, and that’s all that matters.

Well– at least it was all that mattered until John fell down from the high bar at the gym, clutching at his stomach and curling in on himself in pain, unable to move from the mat as he cried out.

In the moment, Alex hadn’t known what had happened. John wasn’t doing anything particularly difficult. Hadn’t been training new or risky moves. Alex hadn’t even seen the exact moment he fell, too preoccupied with his own vault practice.

“Ah. Alexander.” Henry sounds almost as awkward as Alex feels, and it’s a small, but noticable consolation. At least this is incredibly, painfully uncomfortable for the both of them. “Hello.”

“Hey. Uh, it’s– it’s John. He’s in the hospital.”

The responding silence is so long, Alex is almost afraid the line has dropped. He pulls the phone away from his ear, just barely far enough to see that the time for the call is still ticking slowly onward at the bottom of the screen. Second after agonizing second. “...are you still there, Mr. Laurens?”

“Yes. I’m here. Just… is Jack alright?” Alex isn’t quite ready for the genuine concern in Henry’s voice, deep and intimately vulnerable as he waits with bated breath on Alex’s response. Fearful of the worst, hoping for the best.

He doesn’t keep him waiting long, because for all that he kind of hates John’s dad, Alex isn’t a monster. “He’s okay. Well, I mean, he’s going to be okay. It’s his appendix. Appendicitis. I’m at the ER with him now.” He stares hard at the ground, his brow furrowing. “Well, I mean, I’m in the waiting room. They wouldn’t let me go in. He’s having surgery soon. I checked with the nurses, and the surgeon is good. Has almost twenty years of experience. A degree from Harvard–”

“Is there someone I can talk to?”

“–what?”

“A nurse? The front desk? Can you pass me over to someone?”

“Oh. Uh.” He glances up at the front desk, and the woman there is blessedly unburdened by other patients. Alex should have known. There’s no way Henry wants to hear from him. Doesn’t want to share in his anxiety over John, all alone as he waits for his procedure. “Yeah, sure. One sec.”

He gets the nurse’s attention, asks if she’ll speak to the patient’s father. And then he waits.

Without even his phone to keep him distracted, it’s an agonizingly long couple of minutes, only incomprehensible snippets of the conversation audible from his end as the nurse responds with short, one or two word answers to most of Henry’s questions.

When she hangs up the phone, Alex is left feeling almost hollow. He thought… well he isn’t sure quite what he thought. That this awful moment would be enough to bring the two of them together? That Henry would potentially offer some sort of consolation to him? Assure him that John would be alright?

The nurse holds his phone out to him, and Alex steps forward again, ready to settle back in for a long night– “Mr. Hamilton?” She asks carefully. He nods, confused.

“You can head back to see Mr. Laurens. He’s in room 132.”

Alex blinks, unsure if he’s heard correctly.

“Mr. Hamilton?” she repeats, more slow and insistent this time. “It’s right this way. Through those doors right there to the left. Just follow the signs.”

“I–” he pauses, unsure what to say. Settles on, “Thank you,” and pushes his way through the double doors, shaking his head as he presses on down the hall, trying to wrap his brain around what exactly just happened.