Sex and the City

Mid-September, 2011. NYC. (Morning after end of Chapter 5)

Kate couldn't even look him in the eyes. She couldn't lie to his face. Her eyes swelled up as she thought about what she was about to do. She knew it was the right thing to do for him though.

"I don't know how to say this," she began.

Tyler looked down at her with his eyebrows knit together. He knew something was off. It had been less than 7 hours since he had told her he had turned down an offer to play hockey overseas during the lockout so that he could stay home with her. Kate had reacted abnormally, and was increasingly more distant.

"This whole thing became a whole lot more serious than what I thought it was going to be." she continued.

Kate could barely speak because of the huge lump in her throat. She had decided beforehand that she would be as harsh as possible so she could quickly end things before she broke down and told him everything. She kept her eyes focused on the TV directly in front of her bed, as she sat there trying to efficiently break Tyler's heart. She could feel his stare, and that was even more motivation to keep staring ahead. Tyler couldn't believe his ears. He had just woken up less than 5 minutes ago and was barely awake.

"I think we need to take a break so we can cool things off." Kate said, coldly.

Tyler was caught off guard and embarrassed. Why was she dumping him? He knew he was a good catch and that there were thousands of girls that dreamed of being with him. Why couldn't she even look him in the fucking eye? He was getting pissed. He didn't deserve this.

"Look at me." Tyler demanded.

Kate stood still and silent. Tyler sat up, and reached his hand up to her face, pulling it towards him. Her eyes began to swell and she clenched her jaw to keep her lips from trembling. She looked him square in the eye and for half a second, he could see fear and desperation in her eyes. He could tell that there was a large part of her that didn't mean what she was saying. Kate gathered her composure and finished what she had begun.

"Why are you doing this?" He asked, aggressively.

Kate always got intimidated when Tyler was angry, but she couldn't let herself be the weak one. She narrowed her eyes at him, purposely giving him a look as if he was nothing to her.

"Don't be so pathetic, Tyler." She snapped.

She could see it on his face that she had successfully hurt him. His face reacted as if he had been smacked across the face. There was also a hint of betrayal in his eyes, that secretly killed Kate. He looked like an abandoned puppy. Kate looked back at the TV as she muttered her last words.

"Don't bother calling me or anything."

Kate grabbed her phone and walked into her bathroom, slamming the door behind her. She kept her face down as tears began to stream down her face. Her heart had never been so heavy in her life. Tyler sat there in her bed, stunned. He was too shocked to even say anything back to the bitch. He got up and headed towards the bathroom door, but something made him change his path. Instead, he headed towards the stairs so he could get out of that apartment. When he walked through the door of his place, he immediately turned and punched the wall. He ran upstairs, not giving a single fuck about the huge hole he'd just made in his front hallway.

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It had been two days since Kate had broken up with Tyler. Neither of them had reached out to the other person since.

Tyler had been frantically moving around his apartment all day. He was packing for his flight to Switzerland that was leaving the next morning. After the other day, he had called his agent and told him that he changed his mind about playing for EHC Biel during the NHL Lockout. There was nothing keeping him in Manhattan anymore, and he knew a few other NHL players who were going to be on the same team. It wouldn't be the same as playing on his usual team, but he loved hockey regardless who he was playing for.

Tyler's alarm loudly rang from his phone. He groaned, rolled over to his bedside table and grabbed the iPhone. He squinted from the brightness of his phone, as he struggled to unlock it. It was 4:00 am. He was dreading the long flight ahead of him, but he found solace in the fact that it'd get him far away from Manhattan.

Meanwhile, Kate was next door, in bed. She hadn't gotten out of bed since Tyler left. She didn't even get up to turn the lights on. Everything seemed like darkness to her anyways. All she could think about was the large void that was now in her life. Thankfully, Chace was too busy on set to come over, so Kate could cry and be as emo as much as she pleased. She had gone on a major alcohol and weed binge by herself, and had been listening to sad music constantly. She felt like such a bitch, but had to remind herself that she had broken up with Tyler for the better of his future. Well, that, and because she couldn't tell him that she was ill. She knew he wasn't mature enough to handle it. She didn't want to cause a serious distraction. But mostly, she didn't want him to feel trapped and forced to stay with her out of pity. If there's one thing Kate never wanted somebody to feel for her is pity or sympathy. As far as she could tell, he had no clue that she was ill. She'd always been good at hiding her pain ever since she was a child. Her parents always discouraged expression of emotions- especially negative ones. They always had to look like the picture perfect family because they were in the public eye, and this was something that had unknowingly damaged Chace and Kate.

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Despite being on opposite sides of the world, and newly single for now over a month, neither Kate nor Tyler had moved on or been with another person. Both obviously assumed the worst and thought that the other had been hooking up with somebody new. In reality, Tyler had completely thrown himself into his hockey career, and had made it so he'd never have down time to go out or sit and think about Kate. He was doing exceptionally well, and had become the top scorer on the team. He had become good friends with Patrick Kane, but they didn't spend that much time together since Kane was always at the rink or bar. Other than that, Tyler hadn't really reached out and gotten to know anybody on the team. He was much more quiet and introverted than his usual, loud and goofy self.

Meanwhile, in America, Kate had become extremely ill. She was noticeably weak, and had finally told her brother what was going on. He insisted on being at her place whenever he wasn't filming, so he could take care of his baby sister. The two had always relied on each other their whole lives, since they didn't ever really get much love and affection from their parents. They were often cared for by some nanny while their parents were in Paris, or some other chic place in Europe. The Kempner kids had learned to fend for themselves at an early age, but this was something Kate couldn't take on by herself anymore.

"Alright, I gotta go do a morning shoot, then I'll be back." Chace told his sister.

Kate nodded and turned off the TV. He gave her a hug, and headed downstairs. Kate waited to hear the front door shut behind him, and then slowly got up. Her whole body was stiff, and ached. She felt like a 90 year old woman. She finally got to the bathroom, and turned on the shower. She stood in front of the mirror as she undressed herself. She looked like a sickly skeleton. As she pulled her sweatshirt over her head, she got a weird feeling in her back. It turned to a shooting pain, and it slowly started to spread across her back. The next thing she knew, she was lying on the cold marble ground. She laid there, unable to move. A paralyzing pain was now spanning across her whole body. She looked around the room, afraid that she was dying. She couldn't even move to call 911. She laid there for over an hour before she slowly started to regain feeling in her body. Afraid that she had smoked a batch of some bad weed, she kept herself from going to the hospital or calling anybody. She turned off the shower, and returned to her bed.

The next morning, Kate awoke to her brother's voice.

"Goooodd morningggggg" he cheerfully greeted her.

Kate opened one eye, seeing her brother in running clothes, holding two venti Starbucks cups. She smiled and sat up.

"You're my favorite!" she said while holding her shaky hand out.

Chace looked at it when he handed her the coffee. Kate looked down, embarrassed.

"So it's my day off…" Chace told her while sitting down on her bed.

"Wanna watch a scary movie?" Kate asked him.

"Uh, obviously." Chace responded.

"Go shower first- you smell." Kate teased him.

"Alright, alright. Jeez." Chace said, heading out the door.

Chace walked downstairs in the guest bedroom that he often occupied, and pulled one of the dressers' drawers. He grabbed a t-shirt and pair of boxers, then walked into the bathroom to turn on the shower. He responded to a text from Blake Lively, then threw the phone onto the bed. He was walking towards the bathroom when he heard a loud thump come from upstairs. He quickly looked up, thinking that it sounded like Kate had fallen. He ran upstairs, and found his sister laying in the doorway of her bathroom. As he got closer, he saw blood behind her head. It was't a lot, but she was still bleeding- from her head. He grabbed the phone that was mounted to the wall, and dialed 911 as his sister laid there with her eyes closed.

"Hi- yeah, my sister just fell in her bathroom… and she hit her head on the marble floor, and she's bleeding… from her head. and she's not answering me or waking up… I need an ambulance, please!" Chace yelled into the phone.

Within minutes, Chace could hear the sirens in front of their building, and then a pounding on the door. He ran downstairs to open the door for the medics.

"She's upstairs in her bathroom!" he yelled, leading them up to the second floor.

Chace grabbed his sister's phone off her bed, and ran downstairs to get his. The medics carried Kate down in the gurney, as Chace ran out of his room. He followed them out the door, frantically grabbing his jacket at the last minute. As he followed closely behind the gurney into the hallway, Chace saw Freddy coming out of his apartment to see what all the noise was about. Freddy's eyes and mouth widened when he saw Kate lying on the gurney, unconscious, as one of the medics held gauze with blood covered all over it.

"What the fuck happened to her?!" Freddy yelled.

He looked to Chace for an answer, but he couldn't spit one out. He looked like a complete wreck, and his hair was all messed up from freaking out and anxiously running his hands through it so much. Freddy kept walking with them.

"I'm sorry, but you can't ride in the ambulance with us unless you're family." the medic said to Freddy.

Distraught, Freddy immediately called Tyler. He didn't care about how expensive the international call was going to be, he had to tell Tyler that the love of his life was unconscious and going to the hospital. Freddy shook as he held the phone up to his ear, waiting to tell Tyler the bad news.

Tyler was driving to the rink when he saw Freddy's picture show up on his phone. It was around 5:00 pm in Switzerland, and he was headed to the arena for his game.

"Freddy, my boyyy… What's up?" Tyler asked.

He was surprised that Fred was calling him, since they had been just texting.

"Look Segs, I don't know how to tell you this but…"

Tyler's breathing quickened.

"What" he let out, thinking that he was about to hear something like that Kate and Ashton were dating.

"Kate's…" Freddy started.

Tyler waited for Freddy to finish his sentence. But he didn't.

"Kate's what?" Tyler asked.

"Kate's…" Freddy started again. He let out a long sigh.

"Kate's… I saw… I saw Kate going to the hospital and… fuck… she, she wasn't awake. and she was bleeding from her head. I tried to go, but they'd only let family come with her in the ambulance."

Everything went blurry for a second, and Tyler regained focus as a car honked at him, swerving out of the way. He had accidentally gone over to the other lane when he heard the news. He decided to pull over on the side of the road.

"What?!" Tyler yelled into the phone.

"I wish I wasn't being serious, bro." Freddy's voice was quiet.

"Fred"

"Yeah?"

"Text me what hospital she's at. Don't tell anyone I'm coming home."

"You serious?" Fred asked.

"Yeah. Just don't tell anybody I'm coming. I'll figure it out." Tyler said, then hung up the phone.

Tyler got back onto the road, and headed for the airport. He frantically called his coach to tell him that he was going to have to miss the game because there was an emergency back in New York City that he needed to fly home for. He could care less if he'd get kicked off the team or whatever else could happen. He only had one thing on his mind.

Kate woke up to multiple annoying beeping and other noises. Chace was sitting with his head in his hands. His foot was nervously tapping at the hospital floor.

"Chace?" she called out, in a quiet and raspy voice.

Her brother looked up, and smiled with tears in her eyes when he saw his sister awake. He walked over to her bed and sat down beside her. Kate could see his jaw clench, trying to keep the emotion inside.

"They know why you fell…" Chace began.

His voice cracked as he reluctantly told his sister the name of the illness the doctors had discovered she was suffering from.

Kate's eyes swelled up immediately, causing Chace's to do the same. She had never seen her brother cry before.

"I'm not going to die… right?" Kate asked.

Her brother shook his head no.

"They said you have to do a month of aggressive treatment, but then you're done. They said it's going to be really, really rough though." Chace explained.

Their conversation was interrupted by an old nurse walking into the room.

"Are you feeling up to having a visitor?" she asked Kate.

Kate nodded.

The nurse walked out of the room, and a different figure walked back through the door. Kate's eyes teared up as Tyler walked towards her. He was wearing his warm up gear, his favorite hat (backwards), and held a teddy bear in his hand. He threw his long arms up in the air as he said,

"What the fuck?" aggressively.

The frustration and anger was clear in his voice. Chace pretended that he was getting a phone call and excused himself so his sister and Tyler could privately discuss everything. Tyler grabbed one of the chairs in the room and pulled it up next to the hospital bed. Kate looked down at her hands and looked back up. This time, she was going to have to look him in the eyes and tell him what was really going on.

"I didn't want to be a burden..." she started, quietly.

He shook his head in disbelief. How could she say that when she knew how much he cared about her?

"I didn't want to make you feel trapped. Like you couldn't leave me out of pity... And I, I, didn't want to be a distraction. I couldn't let you make the mistake of putting me before your career and dreams…"

He continued to shake his head a few more times. He sat there in silence, as he tried to work through all the things in his head that he wanted to say.

"You could never make me feel trapped or pressured. I'd rather be alone than not have you," he began.

"I thought YOU broke up with me because you didn't want to be with me anymore... Kate, I flew all the way across the Atlantic to come make sure you were okay. I had a whole month of freedom and I chose to do nothing with it. I was constantly thinking of you. I can't believe you didn't tell me you were sick..."

Kate smiled as tears fell down her cheeks. She looked up into his warm chocolate eyes and could see that he meant every word he was saying. She felt so guilty for doubting Tyler's maturity and character. Tyler reached his large hand out and gently placed it under her eyes, wiping away the tears. He moved his hand to the back of her head and pulled her in, kissing her on the forehead. Tears began to flow down Kate's face as Tyler held her close. She thought back to when she was in her tub after she had dropped the dishes, and when she questioned if she'd ever find anybody who she could freely express herself to. She allowed herself to cry hysterically to the point where she was shaking in his arms. It was then that she realized that she had found that person. Tyler let go of her and held up the teddy bear he had gotten for her.

"Well, I kinda got you this teddy bear so he could keep you warm, but I think I'm going have to take over that," Tyler joked.

Kate laughed and wiped the last of her tears away.

Notes