Author's note: This chapter takes place right after the last one. They were both longer than I expected so I had to split it into 2 separate chapters.

* Onto part 2.

~~~~~~~~~~

Brody was staring at his shoes on the ground as Adrian was still holding his hand on the hospital bed.

"Did you at least getting something to eat while you were home?" Adrian asked, trying to pry more information out of a reserved Brody.

Brody nodded his head, lying to Adrian once again. "Yeah, I made a sandwich to go with some fries." He said all too prepared. "And like a lot of coffee to wash it down." Brody added as he pretended to laugh.

Adrian saw that Brody's eyes were empty, his clear blue eyes that Adrian loved getting lost in were now glossed over and void of anything. Brody was faking it right now, not really present with him and only pretending for Adrian's sake. Adrian didn't know why he was lying to him about something so insignificant, and it made him worried about what was really going through his mind at the moment.

Adrian held Brody by the chin, making Brody look back up at him. "Talk to me, what's going on with you Brody?"

~~~~~~~~~~~

When Brody was forced to look at Adrian, held gently by Adrian grasp as he pleaded Brody to talk to him, he felt conflicted in his heart.

"Nothing's wrong babe, maybe I just drank too much coffee." Brody deflected the situation as he was prolonging the conversation, putting his foot down and continuing to go with the lie.

Adrian sighed as he let go of Brody's chin, lying down and rolling over on the bed as he looked outside the other window - away from Brody.

Brody felt dejected by that action, he knew that Adrian noticed he was lying to him. How was he going to explain what he was thinking, that everything that has happened to Adrian recently was all his fault.

"I'm sorry." Brody said weakly. Adrian still wasn't facing him as Brody continued apologising for his collective actions. "I'm so sorry Adrian."

Adrian slowly sat up from the bed, sitting up from his position. He was looking at Brody with gentle eyes, pleading him to talk openly with him.

"I should have known that Sam would do something so crazy and hurt you like this. I should have been able to prevent all of this from happening and protect you. Every time I see you, all I can think about is that it's all my fault, and you deserve so much better."

Adrian was going to talk when Brody interrupted him.

"I think we should break up."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Adrian's heartbeat intensified when he heard those words. If the heart monitor was still attached to him, then it would be going off like crazy.

"I-I think we should, break up." Brody repeated, speaking quietly as he looked away again.

Adrian wasn't sure he heard right at first, but then Brody said it again. It was quiet but it was clear as day, Brody wanted to break up with him.

"W-what? Why? Is it these scars?" Adrian asked as he self-consciously held them. "They're only temporary, do you see me differently now?"

"No! Of course not, there's nothing wrong or different about you." Brody quickly said as he tried to vaguely clarify the situation.

"Then why?!" Adrian exclaimed out loud. "Why do you want to break up?"

"You'll be better off without me." Brody said dejectedly. "Safer..."

Brody got up from the chair and was heading towards the door.

Having words finally coming out from his astonished mouth, "If you leave through the door, right now, I will never talk to you again."

That got Brody to stay frozen on the spot as he had his hand remain on the door handle.

"If you leave right now, I will never forgive you Sinclair."

Brody let go of the handle as he leaned forward and rested his head against the door, eyes closed and not even looking at the emotional wreck both of them were becoming.

"You better sit down you fucking asshole, and explain everything to me. Right. Now." Adrian emphasised, completely overwhelmed with emotions. It wasn't intentional to sound mean, and calling him an asshole was always kind of an nickname for Brody strangely. But it was indeed forceful as he had to make his point.

Brody didn't want to gloss over the truth and lie about it anymore, Adrian deserved to know the truth about why he wanted to break up with him. So he sat down, and saw the fire from Adrian's eyes when he looked at him.

"You better speak up Sinclair, otherwise I won't be the only one in a fucking hospital bed!" Adrian felt he was coming off as too harsh, but it was pure emotional confusion and rage he was feeling that controlled him at the moment, not wanting to accept their break up.

Brody gulped nervously as he sensed the threat could become real any time soon, despite the fact that Adrian was injured. Even without the threat, he knew Adrian was hurting, because Brody was also hurting too. He was experiencing heartbreak, because he didn't want to lose the person he cared for the most. But Brody felt obligated to help Adrian, by letting him go before he gets hurt even more.

"Ever since I came into your life, I've made your life more difficult than it should have been. When I was pursuing you, I pushed you too much and that wasn't right of me. Imagine if you really were straight, and I constantly badgered you and invaded your personal space, stealing glances and making inappropriate touches with you, do you realise how insane and creepy that would come off as?"

Brody's eyes were on the verge of breaking out in a single tear as he continued talking about how he felt like such a monster, pushing a vulnerable Adrian into uncomfortable situations.

"Even before we first kissed, I was invading your personal space when you weren't even clear on your sexuality. And when we did get together, after only a couple of days I pushed us into sharing a bedroom back at the hotel when you clearly weren't ready. I made our relationship go way to fast, especially considering this was your first one too. I took advantage of you, and I don't know why I didn't see how I was forcing our relationship to go at the pace I wanted."

It was all starting to come out for Brody as he continued rambling on, feeling horrible about every thought and every moment that led up to this conclusion.

"I relied on you too much when I was attacked, so early into our relationship I made you feel obligated to look after me when I was being so weak! Because of that, you had to come out to Ashley and Adam."

Brody didn't forget about Adrian's mom either, how they got caught in the living room instead of letting Adrian decide when he wanted to come out.

"I pushed you into coming out, again, when we got caught by your freaking mom out of all people! Because I was so selfish and infatuated with, I should have been more careful. And now that you've come out, who knows what kind of discrimination you will face as an openly gay hockey player."

Brody moved onto the physical injuries that Adrian has suffered since they got together, remembering every single one.

"You've been attacked multiple times, harassed by my teammates verbally and physically. Multiple head injuries, the injury on your jaw, beatings on the ice from my teammates. My ex put you in a fucking hospital bed! Stabbed you multiple times and with injuries so bad we didn't even know if you would make it! Imagine the idea, of me, making your mom childless."

Brody was struggling to cope with all of the guilt he felt for not protecting Adrian, for pushing Adrian out of his comfort zone for his own selfish gain, and assessing everything he did wrong in their relationship.

"I'm the reason you're always hurt, Adrian."

~~~~~~~~~~

Brody was finished talking and he felt like he could collapse from the emotional toll his outburst came up with.

Adrian let him rant, let him explain his way of thinking about everything. With all the time Brody got to talk, Adrian got to think about everything he said, silent as he absorbed all of the information in.

Adrian finally opened his mouth, having his first words come out ever since Brody talked for so long.

"Bull. Shit."

Brody was caught off guard by Adrian's first response to his long speech. Brody cocked his head, not expecting that at all.

"All of that Brody, was fucking crap. Bull. Shit. That was just, so much bullshit that it may have been the stupidest thing I have ever heard you say."

Brody angrily collapsed onto the chair, parking his body in the chair as he was frustrated about his emotions being seemingly cancelled out by Adrian. "Tell me how you really feel then." Brody laughed sarcastically.

"How about we go in chronological order then, how about that? I mean that stupid speech was long as fuck, you must have been planning that for ages, which means you wanted to break up for god knows how long ago!"

If Adrian wasn't bound to bed rest , he would be pacing around the room, psyching himself up for his own personal rant to fight for their relationship.

"Let's talk about my sexuality first, okay? I'm gay. I, Adrian Jones, am gay. How long have I known I was gay? Who the fuck cares!" Adrian shouted out loud.

"You may have been a catalyst, sure, but that doesn't make you the sole reason and the main cause that kick started me identifying as gay. If it wasn't you, then maybe it would be some hot guy at a club, or some cute barista at the coffee shop. The end result is that I'm gay, people kind of have to get over because what's done is done. If it affects my future as a player, then I'll cross that bridge when I get to it."

Adrian came out with one last sentence to summarise what he just said.

"I think you're hot as fuck, and I'm still, insanely attracted to you ever since we first met."

Even with the emotional outburst, Adrian was still way too truthful and candidly open with everything. He didn't let it stop as he continued arguing against all of the pointless statements Brody came out with.

"Was our relationship moving too quickly? Probably. But every relationship is different, and if the relationship was too fast then we would have broke up sooner. But we didn't, because it felt right, everything about our relationship has felt so right. Coming out to everyone was just inevitable, because I am gay Brody. So there really is no way you 'forced' me to come out because it would happen eventually either way, with or without you in the picture."

It was true, Adrian knew he had all the time and chances to break up with Brody if he truly wanted to. But he didn't, because he cherishes Brody.

"When you were attacked, I didn't feel obligated that I had to take care of you. I did it because you're my fucking boyfriend and I bloody care about you! I would have done it for everyone but because it was YOU, I did everything in my power to make sure you bounced back. Because you would have done the same for me."

Adrian then lifted the hospital gown so that Brody could see the stab wounds on his body. "This, is from that psycho Sam. YOU didn't plunge the knife into me, and make me into a human pincushion."

Adrian grabbed Brody's hand and placed it onto his stomach.

"This. Wasn't. Your. Fault. Brody." Adrian emphasised this, slowly so it would be clear as day that he didn't blame Brody for any of this. "And the other stuff with your teammates? Well they're just assholes, especially Hanes, but whatever."

Even with the difficult times they were going through, Adrian still made Brody laugh.

With a smug smirk, Adrian pushed the hospital gown down and kept a hold of Brody's hand.

"I don't need protecting Brody, I just need you."

Adrian ignored the tears that were falling from his face as he looked at his injury before looking back at Brody.

"My stomach still hurts, but this would be the part where I would pull you into a kiss right about now." Adrian laughed quietly.

Brody met Adrian halfway and leaned forward to seal the deal himself. Pulling his head closer, Brody passionately kissed Adrian with all the emotions he could surface from within his soul. It felt like the kiss lasted forever, neither of them wanting to be the one to pull apart as Adrian then tilted his head to slot their mouths closer together.

Only when they needed to catch their breath, Adrian rested his head against Brody's, their lips in such a close proximity.

"Are we good?" Adrian gently whispered to Brody softy.

Brody nodded his head, with clarity running through his mind. With Adrian's strong choice of words, his rational speech helped ease Brody's guilt and sense of responsibility over uncontrollable situations.

Brody didn't want to end this relationship, it was stupid of him to think it would make each other better. Because frankly, his life was so much better with Adrian in it - as his boyfriend. And he didn't want to lose Adrian anytime soon.

"A verbal answer would be nice." Adrian joked as Brody chuckled.

Adrian gently tapped their heads together after every word, playfully head butting him in the process. "Are. You. Still. My. Boyfriend?"

Brody kissed Adrian's head, brushing his lips against his temple that was probably a little sore from the head butting impact.

"There's no way I'm leaving you now."

==========

Another author's note: I'm from the UK and it's kind of in our culture to insult the people we care about - friends, family etc. So from where I'm from, it's kind of normal to call each other names and insult each other playfully, and that's without a malice meaning, it kind of shows that we care too.

And this is kind of my style of writing in this story as you can probably tell, just wanted to clarify anything in case because I've been doing that a lot and I don't know if some people don't get why.

===========