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Lucas
Bella shivered the entire way to his car, which was parked at the head of the alley, but she refused to say one word about it. He continued shuffling to keep Chris' suit jacket closed around Bella until they were in the car, and she blasted the heat.
Perfect timing for Lucas’ car to decide the heat didn’t need to work.
It didn't matter. Bella was away from the party and Preston. She seemed to melt into the seat, utterly silent other than her chattering teeth, until, "No, I don't want to talk. Just drive."
“You got it.” Lucas made the dumb mistake of glancing at Bella. One glance and his brilliant mind was left numb.
“What?” she snapped.
He should have looked away sooner. He knew precisely how Bella captured his attention. Why he didn't know better by now was beyond him. "Nothing. I'm just proud of you."
Many emotions crossed her face, some melting together and unreadable. She grunted, and Lucas took the hint and started driving as the first tears rolled down her cheeks.
She hated — or loathed with every fiber of her being — anyone seeing her cry or be weak.
Weaving through the streets, Lucas hit traffic only a few blocks away from the Astor brownstone, and they were moving at a snail’s pace. Bella heaved a few deep sighs. His hand slid across the center console, palm up, and her freezing hand slapped into his.
They were thoroughly stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic and going nowhere fast. Some local station played Christmas music so low Lucas could only hear a faint melody when his car idled.
Bella wiped her face with her free hand while squeezing his hand even tighter.
This. Now. Just say it.
“Bella...?”
Her yelp scared the crap out of him. Both let go and jumped, though from what Lucas wasn't sure until Bella produced her cell phone from a hidden pocket among the many, many, many folds of cloth that made up her gown.
“Chris?” Bella’s puckered, sour face paired perfectly with an eye roll. “Bet he needs a ride and regrets not leaving with us?”
When Bella answered, she put the call on speaker and moved in with an immediate kill shot for her twin. “We’re not turning around, you dumbass! Just get a driver...”
"Are you Bella Astor?" A woman, rather professional if exhausted sounding, asked.
Lucas tried to place the voice but couldn’t.
“Yes,” Bella drew the word out, as confused as Lucas. “And you are?”
"Your brother asked me to call you. I'm an EMT. We're heading to Mt. Sinai, but he requested I call you now."
"EMT? What the fuck happened?"
"Mr. Astor?" The woman sounded like she was sitting next to Chris, and he was moaning. In pain. Not... not the other way. "Mr. Astor?" she repeated softly.
“Ugh! I got into a car accident. Are you happy?”
The call dropped, leaving Lucas trying to figure out how to turn out of this traffic and get them to Mt. Sinai.
***
Bella
“I’ll murder him!” Bella tore through the emergency room. Pushing past nurses and doctors.
Patients, which overflowed from the rooms into the hallways, gaped at her gown, and a few brave nurses recognized Bella and stopped her to say hi. But she would not be deterred.
“Where is he?” She stopped at the nurses’ station and glared.
"Evening, Dr. B.," a kind nurse named Walter, his big blocky glasses who always made an impression on Bella, pointed across the hall. Walter was as disheveled as he usually was, his short black hair mostly hidden under a scarf tied over it. "Your brother is there. We're waiting on the results from radiology."
"You'll have to send him back to radiology when I'm done with him."
Lucas caught up and opened his mouth to say something, but Bella stormed right off again into the room Walter indicated.
"Good luck, Mr. Astor," Walter smirked and returned to his charting work.
“Bella?” Lucas said as he tried to catch up with her again.
But she burst through a curtained wall of a temporary room and howled, “You were driving?”
"Oh, delightful. You're here," Bella's brother drawled, pressing himself further into his flat hospital pillow.
Yes, she was there. It only took an hour in New York's forsaken traffic!
They wrapped one of Chris' wrists in a stiff brace. His fingers were swollen and tight.
"You broke your wrist?" She sat on the bed's edge, pressing into her brother to check his eyes and a forming bruise on his cheek. And leaned in further to hiss, "Why the fuck were you driving?"
His eyes flicked behind her, and Bella noticed a nurse standing there, mouth hanging open now, actively trying to look away. And she was blushing.
“Ah. I get it. You were flirting with the nurses, too? First of all...” Each word was a struggle to keep her rage contained and muscular arms wrapped around her, keeping Bella from attacking her idiot brother.
The nurse scurried through the curtain wall, and Lucas kept hold for dear life.
“What the hell were you thinking?”
“I was pissed off, Bella! I always thought Pres, my friend, would treat my sister better! And then he said...”
“So, what? You left for a leisurely drive?" Bella kicked to get free, but Lucas was strong and held her well.
“I... I...”
The curtain parted, and an ER doctor walked in, gaping at Bella. “D-Dr. B?”
Still struggling against Lucas, Bella said, “Hello, Dr. Pearson.”
A man, about Bella's age, with dull dark blond hair and pale skin, gave the scene a once over and kept reading his notes.
“I should have known. Mr. Astor has a broken wrist and...”
“And we’re going to add to that,” Bella growled.
“Bella, big breaths!” Lucas said, still fighting to keep her from pouncing.
"Whoever you are, sir, we thank you for your service." Dr. Pearson's face lifted a bit, adding, "Looks like Mr. Astor does not have a concussion, which is fortunate. Could have avoided that altogether if Dr. B wasn't called."
Chris sighed and ran his uninjured hand through his messy curls. “She’s my emergency contact.”
“That’s unfortunate for you.” Dr. Pearson kept an utter deadpan the entire time. “We’ll finish up the paperwork. Discharge you.”
“You can keep me here. I will sit in a corner...”
Pearson had the dead stare of a doctor on hour 14 of a 12-hour shift. "We're discharging you, Mr. Astor. It's a broken wrist. I'd say you shouldn't drink and drive next time, but your BAC was zero."
"Wait. Zero? You were drinking with me for like an hour before Preston and I..." Bella took stock of her own body. She wasn't drunk either, even after four champagnes.
"Mother switched to sparkling grape juice and other non-alcoholic drinks for most at the Christmas gala after a disaster last year and..."
That garnered a renewed howl from Bella.
"Get well soon, Mr. Astor." A cold flash crossed Pearson's eyes.
“Keep me here!” Chris called again.
In the same deadpan, Pearson said, "Hell no. You're Dr. B's brother. I'm not that stupid, and you've got tall, handsome, and blond there. Maybe you won't be back tonight."
Lucas's grip on Bella had loosened, but now he tightened again.
"A car? You hadn't driven since your driver's test when we were 16!"
"That is wildly inaccurate," Chris said, resigned to the torment he was about to endure. "I drove that one time after getting my license. By the way, your stranglehold on Manhattan medical treatment is awe-inspiring."
***
Lucas
Chris wrecked a Porsche. What model? Who knows? Lucas didn't pay much attention to that kind of stuff, and the pictures on Chris' phone were of a twisted pile of metal and tires that did not currently resemble a car. He also tried to keep his attention on driving back to their condos and preventing Bella from launching herself into the backseat to murder her twin.
The struggle continued from Lucas' car to the elevator and all the way into Chris' condo.
“No, really! Explain it to me! What possessed you today, of all days, to get behind the wheel of a car?”
“I told you!” Chris threw himself through his door, trying to get away.
Lucas grappled with Bella, but he could only keep his grip on her arms or torso for a moment before she wiggled free. Chris was frantic to get to safety and tried shutting the door on her, but Bella slammed into it before Chris could close the door. And she was advancing again.
“Bella. We might all need to take a step back... breathe.”
"I'm breathing just fine!" She was fighting with all her remaining strength. Thankfully for Chris, she wasn't as fast as usual. "Mother seemed rather nonplussed about her dumbass son stealing a car...”
“I own the car,” Chris said on his way around the breakfast bar.
“It’s a family vehicle, you twat!”
“I bought it for mother! My name is on the title!”
All Chris’ stupidity brought was renewed growls from Bella and her chasing him through his condo straight into his bedroom. Where he locked the door, leaving Bella to smash her palm against the wood.
“Well,” Lucas said, standing at the door of the condo because what else was there to do when two siblings in their 30s were chasing each other like they were six? “Don’t inflict bodily harm while I...”
A string of profanities from Bella changed Lucas' mind. He wanted to get her something to wear, not her ball gown, and maybe a blanket. But leaving Bella alone in the condo with her brother was not an appropriate option. She might remember how to pick a lock and actually get into her brother's bedroom, and then they really would be back at the ER.
Next to the door was a bag of dirty laundry sitting out for Chris' cleaning service to clean. The plastic tore easily, and Lucas rifled for a pair of lounge pants and t-shirt and threw them clear across the room, hitting Bella in the back.
“I’m not leaving,” she insisted and slammed on the bedroom door again.
"Didn't think you would, Bells. Get changed." Lucas tossed the winter jacket off and fell next to it. "I'm not leaving you alone with Chris."
“You’re the wisest of us all!” Chris shouted from the door.
"No!" Lucas shouted back. "That would be Alicia for not being with us tonight."
Lucky woman.
Bella emerged from Chris' bathroom a few minutes later, leaving behind a sparkling pile of satin on the bathroom floor and her brother's suit jacket. When Lucas peeked in, the jacket was in a soaking heap on the floor. She gave her brother's bedroom door a passing slap, and the door rattled in response as if Chris were sitting against it and jumped.
"Come out here, and I'll show you how I really feel," Bella seethed.
“Holt! Convince my sister to get the fuck out of my house!”
Lucas responded with a quick, "No." He hadn't needed to know them for years to learn not to get in the middle of their arguments. Even if the fight was mostly incoherent screaming and Bella threatening bodily harm to her brother.
Bella rested on the couch's armrest, staring daggers at the door. Whenever there was a sound, she threw a pillow at the door, and there were renewed scramblings. Eventually, she ran out of pillows and had to pick them up again.
Lucas turned on a movie, the volume reasonably low, so Bella could hear what her brother was up to and pounce when the time was right. Honestly, for as worried as they’d been when the EMT called, Lucas was grateful for a distraction for Bella. Bella had spent so much time worrying about Preston that this was a reprieve.
Bella tucked her feet under Lucas' legs to keep warm. Rightly refusing to wear Chris' dirty socks. When a shiver passed through her, Lucas draped his jacket over her like a blanket. A few minutes later, Bella drifted off and fell against Lucas' chest.
But he would not let Chris know. Let the jerk stew in his room all night.
***
Bella
A commercial invaded Bella's dream, snapping her out of a world where she was in a stadium, wrestling her brother in professional wrestling style. Costumes. Chairs. Cage matches. Bella was winning, and now she was back in her brother's bare, overtly ugly contemporary condo.
Lucas' aftershave, a rosemary and musk scent that reeked of Chris (as in a gift), greeted her. He'd untied his tie, and fallen asleep in his contacts again, which meant his eyes would be bugging him all day. The clock read just past 5 am on Christmas Eve. Lucas was leaving today for his family celebration.
Bella turned down the TV and wrapped herself tighter in the jacket but stopped before resting her head against Lucas again.
Confusion and doubt swirled from her stomach to her head. Part of her said stay, rest where she'd been resting. Where she always slept best. With Lucas on the couch, snuggling.
Part of her screamed to leave. Give him space, and live his life. Like she'd been trying to do!
A red paper slipped from the jacket's pocket, crinkling loudly when Bella shifted. She grabbed it to toss on the table until she noticed her name written on the front. A ribbon tied in a handsome bow kept the letter together. Bella pulled the ribbon and unfolded the paper as quietly as she could.
Inside was a letter, written in Lucas’ doctor-like penmanship.
Bella,
For how many times I've written this letter, both in my mind and in reality, this is the best I've been able to do. But you deserve so much more.
Since the moment we met, there hasn't been a time when you weren't the one picking me up. Whether I was at my lowest or not. You were there. When we met, you couldn't have known how close to quitting Columbia I was. My life has changed for the better every day since meeting you.
I've struggled to tell you how much you mean to me, Bella. And no time will ever feel like the right time, but I needed you to know that I love you.
Merry Christmas
Lucas
Bella's vision went blurry. Hot, fat tears falling dropped onto Chris' white tee. She had to reread the letter a few times, and even then, Bella felt shaky and unsteady.
How had she not known? Did she know?
She'd always wanted to be around Lucas back in college. Maybe part of her even wanted more until her grandfather shot down any dreams of being with anyone he disapproved of.
And her grandfather certainly disapproved of Lucas after one time when Preston tricked Lucas into joining an Astor party without an invitation. It had been the catalyst for sending Bella to a finishing school.
Lucas was her constant. She always loved him, but she never thought about what kind of love she had for him.
She loved Lucas.
Bella couldn't imagine her life without Lucas in it.
Beside her, Lucas shifted, sitting up a little straighter and murmuring her name in his half-asleep state.
Crushing the edge of the letter in her hand, Bella threw herself into Lucas, her arms around his neck. Lucas woke with a start, and before he could say anything, Bella kissed him.
***
Lucas
The world was still a fog, like before actually waking up. A sudden warmth and weight confused Lucas, but it was probably just Bella...
A crushing squeeze grabbed his neck, quickly giving way to a soft yet urgent press of lips against his. Long hair fell against his cheeks and hands as he brushed her cheek.
Her. Cheek?
The only 'her' he was with was Bella. So the only 'her' that could be kissing him was Bella.
A shuddering gasp and Bella pulled away, only the barest amount before Lucas closed the gap again, no thoughts other than giving in.
This time the kiss deepened, Bella climbing onto his lap. He’d felt her sleep against him for years, but this was different. It was...
Slam!
A pillow smacked both Bella and Lucas' faces bringing them to an abrupt stop. Bella pulled away, and she sported a familiar scowl.
“Finally! You two took way too long.” Then Chris yelped and careened into the kitchen when Bella hopped over the couch back after him.
“Too long? Says the asshole who drove when he doesn’t drive!” The kitchen island stood between the two siblings. Bella feinted one way then the other, trying hard to lure Chris to her.
This wasn’t a dream.
Holy shit, it wasn’t a dream.
Lucas wanted to throw up. How... what... just how did this happen?
A paper resting on the back of the couch scratched his neck. The letter had been in his jacket.
Short, sharp gasps gripped Lucas. Bella read his letter.
Bella read... the words...
He pressed into his chest, willing his body to work right.
“Better help the guy out. Lucas might pass out!” Chris tried to divert her attention, but Bella wouldn’t be swayed. She dove for her brother and chased him into the living room again as he raced into the safety of his bedroom once more.
Lucas stood, his knees threatening to give out, and caught Bella loosely in the living room, already feeling dizzy. “Bella, I can explain.”
She wheeled around to face him, and suddenly they were way too close together. "Why didn't you ever say anything?" The crazed look was mainly gone.
Lucas dropped Bella, staggering back. “I-I... Bella... how could I screw up the best thing...”
He wasn't sure what to expect when she launched herself at him again. But he was pleasantly surprised that it ended with Bella jumping on him (not actually unusual, she did that often) and a kiss. Tender and short, leaving Lucas' brain fog even worse than when he first woke.
"You should have said something sooner." Her eyes closed, and she leaned her forehead against his. Lucas closed his eyes and felt her breath on his cheek.
She'd read the words he'd always wanted to say, but trying to say them out loud took every ounce of courage. "I-I love you, Bella."
***
Christian
Who knew when it would be safe to come out of his room again. Chris slid down against his locked door and then played with the velcro on the wrist brace. All he’d wanted was a yogurt and to use the bathroom. At least the physical torture of Bella and Lucas was over.
Still sitting on the charger next to his bed, his phone rang with a haunting melody.
Mother’s ringtone.
“Good morning, mother!”
“Please tell me it’s all over, finally?”
“Bella and Lucas?” Chris sighed. “Oh, my word. Was that all you?”
“Not all of it,” Lina said, her tone as biting as ever. “But it was bordering on the absurd.”
“I want no other details, mother. Or Bella will be taking over responsibilities as CEO because I will be rotting in a gutter somewhere.”
“Give your sister some credit. She’s brilliant enough to dispose of you properly.”
“Mother! Was that a compliment?” Chris asked, but the call had already ended.