The Bodyguard - Chapter 29

[teamzaylor]

Title: THE BODYGUARD
Chapter: 29

Rating: Nc-17
POV: Taylor / Zac

Warnings: Language, Death
Chapter Overview: Link

About the Story: The death of their parents broke Taylor and Zac apart. Each of them went his own way of life, Taylor became a famous superstar and never thought that his profession would bring his life in danger someday. Blade (Zac) buried the past and lived his life contentedly in his dark and dirty world as a pimp. Because of some unexpected circumstances Blade got hired as Taylor's bodyguard and the brothers saw each other for the first time after almost a decade. How will they find a way to each other again after the past had put thick walls between them?

Authors Notes: This Past Time Chapter which will clear up some important details. Enjoy ♡ Chapter 30 will be posted in the following days.

PS.: Please use the Chapter Overview or our inserted Links which will forward you to the next Chapter in the right order.

previous Chapter 28                                                                                                          next Chapter 30                                                                                                                             
Year 2000:

Taylor:

"Die villain!" A loud shout behind me, made me jumped up on my chair a little. Typical! My little brother was playing with a toy gun again.

"Can't you knock on my door like every normal person, Zac?" I frowned at him as he stood there in the doorframe, a plastic pistol in his hand.

"No, that would be too boring!" He answered casually, came into my room and sat down on the edge of my bed.

"You're such a doofus sometimes Zac!" I laughed.

"A doofus who just finished building a tree house in the garden." He stated proudly, without minding my insult.

"Is it finished?"

"Yep, thanks to Dad and my awesome self." He smiled and began to make shooting sounds.

I rolled my eyes playfully, closed my diary and put it in the drawer of my desk.

"And you are sure that it's safe?" I frowned at him.

"Hey! Do you question my technical skills, Blondie?!?" He suddenly looked a little annoyed and aimed the toy pistol towards me.

I laughed again and shook my head.

"No, as long as you don't question my musical skills as well."

"Why should I? I know that you have an amazing talent Taylor, everyone in the family knows that."

I smiled. One thing I always appreciated about my younger brother was that, whenever he gave you compliment, you could be sure that he was honest. Zachary was never ashamed to say what he thinks, no matter if they were good or bad, he was never afraid to tell them outright. Sometimes I wish I could also be like that...

Happy about Zac's answer, I stood up and we went outside together in the garden where Dad was waiting for us.

Even though Dad was supporting me so much with my musical career, he had still found time to putter around with my brother at the tree house.

I looked over at the newly made tree house. It was painted mostly with color Blue, Zac's favorite color. I curiously inspected it from our viewpoint.

It was competently built, considering my Dad and Zac were both just laymen.



"Ah Zachary, there you are! Your mother and I have something for you."

Our Dad walked towards us with a Flyer waving in his hand. My tree house inspection from afar was interrupted by our dad's voice. Zac and me curiously looked at the little card in my dad's hand.

"What is this?" Zachary asked.

"Here, take it and read." Dad held the Flyer out to my impatient little brother.

He took it and read out loud. "Vacation in Summer Camp Montana."

"Well, we think you deserve a reward after your hard work with me on the tree house, what do you think about that?"

"That would be awesome Dad!" Zac's excitement was pretty obvious in his voice. I could understand him. A summer camp was a lot of fun for sure.

"But what about Taylor?" he asked confused.

"I can't go on vacation currently Zac, I'm waiting for an important call from the record company." I interjected.

"Yes your older brother will probably become famous very soon." Dad smiled at me proudly and patted my shoulder.

"Oh, so you don't mind me driving alone on vacation?" He turned to me.

"No worries Zac, have fun. You can tell me about it when you are back." I assured him.

"Fine. But you don't know what you will miss Taylor." Zac seemed to try to convince me. But at that time I couldn't drive away because of the phone call I was waiting so much for. So it was totally fine with me not to go. I was happy for Zac and there would surely be other opportunities.

"I think I can live with that," I laughed. "Now, let's finally check out the tree house!"

Even though I wasn't a technical person, I had always loved to climb on things. Both of us excitedly climbed up to the wooden staircase.

A few days later, Zachary drove to the summer camp. We said goodbyes with excitement before he jumped into the summer camp bus. Both of us had different reasons. I, on a call from the record company and he, on his summer camp. None of us didn't know that the following weeks would change our happy lives forever...

The next two weeks passed by and I still haven't heard anything from the record company and slowly, I began to get impatient. My father assured me that they would surely call me soon, that I did a great job while performing, but the more time passed, the more I got doubtful.

It was quiet in the house without Zachary and much less funnier than usual when he was not round me. I even missed his badinages but I knew that he would be back in a few days and everything would get back to normal again.

I was about to give up my hope when I finally got the call of which I was waiting for so hard. I thought I would die of excitement as I listened to the news from the record company at the other end of the line...

2 days later

I was sitting in the Lobby of the House of Blues of Los Angeles, my legs were shaking uncontrollably because of stage fright.

The stakes could not be higher on this evening for me, because it would decide about my future as a musician and if I'd finally get a record deal or not.

Unfortunately the projected maturity date was too sudden that Zachary wouldn't have been able to come back that soon from Montana. But he was supposed to come home tomorrow anyway.
So I hoped that I could tell him at least some great news when he would come back.

I was like an insomniac in the last two days, completely restless. I could hardly find some sleep or eat anything.

I stood up and paced nervously to and fro, hoping my parents would arrive soon that they could help me to calm down a little before I would have to go out on stage.

I could already hear the hysterical screams from the crowd out there, there were two other boys about my age who were also here to perform at this Festival and in the end, the record company would decide who would get the record deal. I was supposed to be the last performer on this evening.

When will Mom and Dad finally come?? I need them, now!

Impatiently I looked down on my watch. Actually they supposed to be here already. I began to get worried. Usually they would give me a call if they're late.

Do they stuck in the traffic or have problems to find a parking lot...?

I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed Dad's number.

As I waited for him to take my call, the french doors from the Lobby suddenly got pulled open and a person came in which I didn't expect to see here. Our neighbour, Maria Sanchez.

What the hell was she doing here?

My parents had become good friends with Maria and her family since we lived in Pasadena. We didn't have any relatives living in California. Maria's family was living in the house next to ours and they were nice people, but we knew that we wouldn't probably see them anymore soon coz they were planning to move away to another state.

I took my cell phone away as I saw that she looked at me very seriously as she walked towards me. My heart missed a beat, I could feel how my hackles roused, and I suddenly knew something must have happened!

"Taylor, I have some bad news for you...."

I swallowed and my heart sank to my knees as she lied her hand on my shoulder.

I watched her speak and internally prayed that everybody's fine.

I got even more nervous than I already was. I could sense it in my bones that something must have happened because of the serious way she looked at me.

"Your parents Taylor...."

Suddenly I felt a grasp on my heart, it was so hard and heavy, I didn't know how much words could hurt until that moment. I panicky thought of the possibilities.

"No... please don't...." Those were the only words I managed to say. I didn't know yet what's the real news and I was afraid that it would be too heavy to endure them.

I shivered and prayed in the back of my mind as I waited for her to speak out what I feared...

"I'm sorry Taylor... I'm so sorry. Your parents died in a car crash on the way to here. I got a call from the accident hospital and came here asap..."

I was about to sank on my feet when she circled her arm around my back and pulled me into a hug.

My vision became blurry after that and I was sobbing desperately. I couldn't believe it.

My positive side was still hopeful as I tried to alter the situation she just said.

"Maria, that can't be true. Are you sure? Maybe it wasn't Mam and Dad. Maybe they made a mistake and they are just injured or something..."

I hastlily pulled my phone out and wanted to call them again.

"Tay, I just came to the hospital, I saw them." Her voice cracked as she said that.

I looked at her tearfully with a questioning look and she gave me a nod. Tears began to fall from my eyes.

In this moment I realized that it wasn't a joke of fate, my parents were really dead.
Mam and Dad were dead. They died on the way to here. The realization brought me into a state of shock.

My mind was scattered but I immediately thought about Zachary.

What was with him? Was he doing well?

"What about Zachary, Maria? Is he okay? Does he already know?"

My voice sounded shaky and it was overpowered by the loud screaming outside, but Maria managed to understand what I said anyway.

"Not yet, Tay, but he's already on his way home now, I will tell him about it once he arrived tomorrow." Was her reply.

"Oh no! Zac will think that I killed them...he was supposed to come back from the summer camp tomorrow happy. I don't know how I can explain that to him Maria..."

She shook her head and grabbed my shoulder tightly.

"No Taylor, he won't blame you. I will talk with him and explain it to him. You don't need to think that way, okay?" She reassured me.

I didn't know what to respond so I gave her only a nod. I never felt so numb before.

"I wanna go home," was all I could whimper.

Maria nodded and took my jacket before we left.

I felt that I was falling in a deep and dark cloud of blaming and reproaching myself. Mam and Dad supported my music career in every way, we even moved to California because of supporting me. And now they died on the way to my performance.

How couldn't I blame myself?

Making music was my big dream and they paid for it with their lives.

Were their lives the cost of my dream to come true? How could I explain it to Zachary?

If I would have known that, I would have given up on my music career.

I didn't want that. I didn't want to kill my and Zachary's parents. I was the one who caused their death.

God, what have I done...?


Zachary:

I was sitting in the bus on the way back from the summer camp, wistfully looking back to the last two weeks. I had made a lot of new friends, with which I had spent two awesome weeks in Montana. Every day was full of discovering something new and I knew a part of me would surely miss that time for a while, but I was also very much looking forward to see Taylor and my parents again. I've never been a big writing letter person, so instead of writing a letter I had drawn a calendar for Taylor, with a picture of what I had made each day which I wanted to give him when I would come back home.

I got excited to see Mam, Dad and Taylor again the closer we came to my hometown. It was almost lunch time when the Summer camp bus finally arrived at the bus stop in Pasadena. Heavily loaded with my travel bag I got happily out of the bus and said goodbye to my new made friends.

The excitement and happiness to be home again blew the wistful pain that those great weeks were over in a snap away.

The bus drove away from the parking area and I looked around to see where Mam and Dad were. They promised to pick me up from the bus stop today. But instead of them, I saw our neighbour Maria Sanchez waiting in front of her car a few meters behind the bus stop.

She waved at me to come over to her. Frowning, I walked over to her.

"Hey Maria, where are Mam and Dad?"

"They couldn't come Zachary. I'm here to pick you up. Come on, let's get your stuff in my car first."

"Hmm, Taylor has an important appointment?" I asked, as she opened the trunk and helped me to put my travel bag into it.

Knowing that Taylor always had to keep appointments to progress his music career and Mam and Dad always giving him their back it was normal for me that my first guess was that they couldn't come because of my brother getting famous.

"No Zachary, your parents couldn't come... because they had a car accident yesterday." She said in a quiet tone, closed the trunk and went over to the driver's side.

"You are kidding me Maria, right?" I smiled and looked over to her if she would smile back. But she didn't.

Instead, she kept silent and got in the car. A shiver went down my spine. I hastily opened the passenger's door and sat down next to her.

"Where are they? Are they alright? Are they in a hospital? What happened? And when did it happen? Let's drive, quick! I gotta see them."

The words spouted off my mouth in a split of a second. If something serious happened with Mam and Dad, we didn't have to waste time.

"Calm down Zachary... please. Let me explain it to you."

"What is there to explain? We don't have to waste time Maria. Get a move on!" I gesticulated wildly with my arms around me that she would finally start the engine.

"It's too late Zac, your parents... are dead. They died in a car accident yesterday evening. I couldn't tell you earlier because you were already on your way home. And we didn't want to worry you on your homeward journey, coz you couldn't have changed anything anyway Zac."

"We? Who is we? Where is Taylor? Why didn't he come?"

She sighed about my impatience.

But how could I be patient with coming home and learning horrible news like that?

"I'm talking about Taylor and me, Zachary. Your brother Taylor and I got the news yesterday evening from the accident hospital. He didn't come because he is in shock Zachary. That's why I came to pick you up and drive you home. Taylor stayed at home..."

I didn't listen to more of her words, I already had teared the passenger door opened again and ran out of the car.

"Zachary..." I heard Maria's yelling voice shouting after me, but I didn't stop. I needed to see Taylor, I had to talk to him. I didn't care if Maria's car would have brought me faster at home, but I just couldn't sit there, waiting quietly until she was ready to go.

The last mile I could manage by myself somehow. I ran through the streets of Pasadena, didn't care about my tears falling down my face which I wasn't able to stop. I ran home.

My heart beat so fast and hard that I could feel every heartbeat like a hard hit on a drumkit...

As I finally reached our house, I already heard Maria's car arriving behind me, left the front door open for her but didn't stop. I stormed into the house and ran upstairs towards Taylor room.

"Taylor, Tay where are you?" I shouted.

The door of Taylor's room was closed. I began to pound against his door in panic.

"Taylor! It's me Zac." I shouted again.

"Go away Zac. Please." Taylor's tearful voice came from inside.

"Taylor, please. I gotta talk to you. Open the door!" I cried.

"I can't talk to you now Zac. Please go away, please..." He cried louder this time.

"But Taylor..." I sobbed.

I felt Maria's hand on my shoulder and turned confused around to her.

"Zachary, please give your brother time. He can't talk to you right now. Let's go downstairs, we have to talk about some important things."

I didn't know what to do. I couldn't understand Taylor. I couldn't understand what happened.

Why didn't he want to talk with me? I wanted to hear from him what happened. Why didn't he let me in?

Maria repeatedly told me to go down with her.

I followed her very reluctantly. I didn't want to let Taylor alone. My face and my clothes were sweaty from running, my shirt was soaked from my tears. I didn't expect that my homecoming from the summer camp would be like that.

I came home and didn't have parents anymore. And now Taylor didn't want to talk with me. What have I done wrong?

Maria gave me a few minutes to calm down and then we sat down in the Living room. I realized that I wouldn't get to know more details if I didn't listen to her.

She laid his hand around my back and let me cry for a while. I felt pathetic. I couldn't even remember the last time I cried. I didn't want Mam and Dad to be dead. They were such great persons and have been always fair to us. They didn't deserve to die at such a young age.

"I'm so sorry for your loss Zachary. But please understand that Taylor needs time to handle their death in his own way. You can't expect him to talk with you if he is not ready for it. Everyone has another way to deal with death. And Taylor has a different way to deal with it than you Zachary. We have to give him time. But to arranging the matters about your parents death, I need help from one of you boys. Taylor isn't ready to speak yet, that's why I need you Zachary. You know that me and my husband will move away in a few days. Until then you have to arrange these matters. I will help you, but you have to call your relatives in Tulsa and inform them about the happenings. That's the first thing we have to do. Afterwards you will go upstairs with me and pick out some decent clothes from your parents which they'll need. And it is a tradition to hang up a crape at the front door. We need a black ribbon for that. But one thing after another."

"I don't know Maria. Sure I will stay... but I can't do this without my brother." I said, all these information were so much at that moment.

"Zachary, listen. I know that it's hard for you and Taylor, but you have to arrange these matters now. You have to arrange these matters properly for your parents Zac. You have to be the strong one now! I'll tell you what you have to do, but you have to arrange the funeral preparations. Your parents need you and your care about their matters now, do you understand that?"

I didn't know what to say. I agreed, even though I couldn't understand why Taylor wasn't here with us. The news about our parents death hit me hard, as much as it was hard for him.

Why did I have to arrange everything without him?

I wanted to be there for him. I wanted him to be there for me. I wanted us to share our pain and sorrow.

But he wasn't here.

He told me to go away and I didn't know what I had done wrong to him...


6 days later

My life had changed in the last week. It felt to me as if I wasn't the same person I usually was anymore, coz I couldn't laugh anymore. The funeral of our parents has been two days ago and Maria and her family moved away yesterday. Taylor still hadn't talk to me, even though I tried to talk with him over and over again.

He always wanted to be alone and avoided me. Every time I tried to talk to him, he mumbled something about he would go to play some music in the garage, walked away from me and locked himself in it. I couldn't understand him.

How could he play music but not talking with me about what happened?

I knew that another reason why he locked himself in the garage was to cry. He didn't want to share his grief with me and it made me even more sad. I knew that Taylor could always lock himself away if he wanted to be in his own little Taylor world. Lying on a couch with closed eyes, with big headphones on and listening to music for hours, all caught up in his dream world was one of his typical features. I did not mind that my brother was a dreamer until this very time in my life. Coz I needed him now and he wasn't there.

Our friends and grand parents from Tulsa came and a few of them had stayed in a hotel for a few days.

As Taylor still wasn't responsive, they talked with me. They wanted me to move back to Tulsa. They knew that Taylor's future would be here in California, but I was only 16 years old.
But I didn't want to move back to Tulsa. I didn't want to be without Taylor. And I didn't want to leave him alone. I was sure that he would talk with me again, I just needed to give him time like Maria said.

Our grandparents didn't like the idea to leave two Teenager boys alone in Pasadena, but they also knew that they couldn't force us to go with them. In conversations which didn't seem to end about living expenses and how we could keep the house, I finally managed to convince them that Taylor and me could stay in our parental home. I wanted us to be there for each other and heal our common grief.

Added to that, I didn't want to impose on our grandparents at their age. I was relieved when they finally accepted my decision after a long exhausting talk and went back home again. As much as Tulsa had always been our beloved hometown, I knew that Taylor wouldn't get happy if we move back. And I wouldn't get happy without him.

I hoped that the course of time would fix Taylor's and my wounds and that he would realize how much we need each other.

I slept the last night alone in the tree house. Actually, I was waiting for Taylor until he would finally came out of the garage yesterday evening. But I was fallen asleep after hours of waiting for him and didn't hear anymore when he finally came out and went back into the house.

I was thinking back about the last days, the funeral, our grandparents and our friends which heaped us with their visits of condolence. Mam and Dad lost their lives in a car accident. That was all I knew. Maria didn't tell me more details, she said it would only hurt me more and wouldn't change anything. I wanted to know everything, I didn't like the fact that in that case I felt treated like a child, even though I had to arrange Mam and Dad's funeral preparations without Taylor. But it felt like I had no choice than to accept her decision. I knew that Maria was a good friend of our parents and she meant it well. I wouldn't have known what there was to do if she didn't instruct me.

Currently, I didn't know with how much more I could deal with anyway. Everything I had to endure the last week was so much for me. I wanted to ask Taylor what he knew, coz he was here when the car accident happened but he denied to talk with me. There were so many questions left of which I wanted answers.

It caused a heavy pain in my heart that Taylor didn't give us a chance to be there for each other. It would have been easier to go through all of this if he was here.

Even though I was sure that I made the right decision to stay with Tay in California, I felt lonely. I wanted to talk to him so badly.

I was still lying on the wood floor of the tree house which I finished building up with Dad a few weeks ago, crying silently as I suddenly heard the slamming of the front door from our house.

In an instant, I jumped up and and hurried over to the security handrail next to me. What I saw shocked me. Taylor was walking away from our house entrance, a suitcase carrying in his hand.

He wanted to go away.

"Taylor!" I shouted. "Where are you going?"

As he heard my shout, he stopped and winced. He looked like he was thunderstruck. Slowly, he turned around to me and looked up to me in the tree house. I could see his scared and tearful face from afar.

What is wrong with him? I panicked.

"Stay there,Taylor!" I yelled. I moved fast, coz what I saw in his expression made it clear to me that he would ran away.

Instead of saying anything, he suddenly turned around and ran away as if I frightened him. He ran away from me, our parental home, our home, from everything...

"Taylor, stay here! Don't go away!" I shouted again.

Hurriedly I ran over the wooden ladder and almost jumped it completely down. I didn't realize that I've been too boisterous with my intention until I heard a cracking noise under me and the sprung on which I stood gave in. I fell on the ground and scraped my left knee, but I didn't care. As fast as I could I jumped up and ran across the garden to follow him.

"Taylor!" I yelled again and tears of panic and fear ran down my face. I didn't want to be alone.

Where did he want to go? Why did he want to leave me?

But when I had finally reached our driveway, I could not see him anymore. He was gone.

"Taylor where are you? Please don't leave me!" I screamed out as loud as I could before I fell down on my knees.

Nobody knew how much I cried that day when Taylor left me.

Realizing that my brother which I needed so badly was gone, I suddenly knew from one day to the other that my childhood was over...

previous Chapter 28                                                                                                                                                            next Chapter 30

Chapter Overview: Link

Comments

[zacharygirl.livejournal.com]

yay finally another new Chapter! The different ways of how they came to known the news about their parents was so sad. It must have been so horrible for Taylor to think it was his fault that his parents died and if Zac wasn't in the summer camp he even might have died with them... Poor Zac left alone in confusion and with no one else around him. No wonder that he acted that way towards Taylor... :-( That he didn't even know the reason of Taylor's leaving was a surprise! Looking forward to more!

[jennifer-may.livejournal.com]

aww that was so sad! Hopefully they'll talk soon, if Zac will find out Taylor's reason, maybe he'll understand why he dit it...

The little insights how lucky they had been once at the beginning were great. Loved this Chapter very much!