Chapter 7

Of course that is not what was of importance at that very moment. John spoke first. "I apologise but we are going to have to cut the evening short. I am sure you understand."

"Of course," Caroline answered as Hanna picked up her bag to get her phone, presumably for a car. She had mentioned during dinner that her and her husband had been in the area for business and walked with Haerin to dinner. Seeing that their son had brought his car, the couple had then planned to drive back all together instead of calling for an extra vehicle.

Now the plan seemed to have backfired with such a shocking change in circumstances.

"Don't call for a car, we'll take you. I am feeling quite worried now too."

Marcus nodded I agreement with his wife, adding, "Plus with the news, I am sure you want at least one of you to get there as fast as possible and none of you are in a condition to drive." John felt as though his mind had been read, he was just about to propose that he take Joshua's car and go ahead. But Marcus was right, attempting to drive now would be nothing but bad.

After thinking for a second, Hanna agreed. She felt extremely close to Caroline after talking for a few days, she felt like her support would be better than her equally as worried husband.

"In that case, how about our sons stay here with Haerin and when she feels better and Joshua had calmed down completely, they can come to us." The parents all seemed in agreement, only Ramy thinking that could pose a problem seeing as the second Lore son was still shaking a little. But he knew Henry well, he was not going to let Joshua drive if it was unsafe, and so there was nothing wrong with the plan in his eyes – even he had to admit the parents seemed to have been right about their decision.

They all looked aver to Joshua and Henry, still consoling Haerin. "Is that alright?" Rmay's thoughts were proven right about Joshua as the words completely flew over his head.

In an attempt to not completely freak out at the thought of Penelope injured, Joshua had invested everything into making sure Haerin was alright.

Henry naturally took lead once he realised how he was the only clear-minded of the three. "I will make sure both of them get to the hospital safely, you have my word." John found himself almost unable to wait until he could call Henry his son. Normally in a group, if Joshua was out of it the entire group would be doomed. But Henry Reyes didn't seem to fall into that category, he complimented Joshua perfectly.

With the confirmation they needed, they left the restaurant. Henry stood up and called over a server, asking for the check, before going back to calming down the young lady, and in lieu Joshua.

The server had seen everything, easily recognising the two pairs of company presidents. He rightly assumed that the two good-looking men were the less famous members of the two families. Most of the public knew that both the Reyes' and the Lore's kept things quite quiet about their second sons, and now the server could understand why. The two clearly had a good relationship, of what nature he really could not tell – nor would he judge; but if some people came to realise that he Lore and Reyes families were quite close, it would cause quite the buzz, the negative kind.

But if that was the case, what were they doing together I public now? Was it because of the Q Group's expansion? Was a big change about to come around?

When the server came back with the check and a card machine, he saw the young lady on the phone, wiping her tear-stricken face. Slightly behind her were the two beautiful men, the older looking one with slightly wet eyes. The blond man had his hands on the other man's shoulders, talking somehow harshly but comfortingly, the words too soft for the server to hear; under the words, the dark-haired man seemed to visibly calm down. He still couldn't tell just what definition their bond would come under, but it was undoubtedly strong.

Which wasn't in the least bit true, but by this point almost no one would believe otherwise.

Henry finally finished drilling into Joshua's head that things would be fine and that from the sound of things, his sister was not mortal danger. He had finally managed to convince the older man that he had no reason to panic now that there was nothing to distract him. Of course Henry did not pry too deeply, he knew he had to be on good terms with Joshua but that did not mean they were friends, and so he had no idea what had caused this mini breakdown was Joshua thinking he had no way of helping and was only making things worse by worrying so deeply. But in the end, he did listen to the reason in Henry's words.

With all that said, Henry had found himself quite worried too when he thought over everything again, if she had seemed fine, why rush her over to hospital, especially Williamson, there was no emergency room there, just the burn unit. Obviously the young man was not going to mention that, he had put a lot of exhausting work into calming Haerin down and that was almost immediately followed by stoic beauty sitting across from him at dinner like a porcelain doll falling into shock for the second time that day, third if you decided to count his immediate response as a separate episode.

All in all, Henry was tired, it had been an exhausting evening and he was losing his social patience at this point. Much more and his personality would drop.

Joshua noticed the server first asked, "Will it accept payment by my phone?" Henry noticed that the server had returned as the man nodded, too late to stop Joshua from footing the bill of both families. "We could have split it into two, there is no reason for you to take up my family's bill as well."

"It is fine, the money really is not a problem for either families. Just think of it as a return for the coffee earlier." Henry couldn't help but feel the situation was a little too incredulous. In what world, even within the top 1% of the wealthy, did a full five course dinner for four people equate to a simple iced coffee? "If you feel it is too much, you can just repay me in another way." He had gotten along quite pleasantly with Joshua in the day but now, with how tired he was playing a factor in his thought process, he couldn't help but think something wasn't quite right in the pretty man's head.

All the while, with his face as blank and unchanging as usual, Joshua was beating himself up mentally. What on earth made him say something as embarrassing as that? Clearly he had read a little too much of the toe-curling-ly embarrassing cliché romance novels recently. What else could have possessed him to say something so… the only word he could think of was lame.

Nonetheless, despite hating himself for saying something like a pick-up line to a fellow man, he kept his poise showing nothing of it.

This only made henry think Joshua really was mad. Or perhaps exhausted, in that case he would be unable to say anything against him.

Thankfully, before an awkward silence could arise, Haerin got off the phone with Archer.

After her being calmed down, she decided to inform the first son of the incident before he heard it from somewhere else, entangled within false rumours – not that she knew much to start with. This meant she had spent quite some time consoling Archer, convincing him that the urgent meeting on the other side of the country was more important than him rushing back to see his sister, who would have two sets of parents by her side by then.

This seemed to calm the older brother quite effectively because it reminded him of why he was so unhappy with the sudden meeting. He asked Haerin how things went but before she could answer, Archer overheard their words.

More specifically what went from sounding like light flirting to a cheesy pick-up line, coming from his brother no less. Haerin couldn't see either of the men sicne they were behind her so she was in the same boat as Archer, both of them in shock momentarily as someone called for Archer.

This is where the phone call ended, and even though he had received news his sister was in the burn unit, Archer couldn't help but feel a slight weight was lifted off his chest, his brother had actually found someone he liked.

With Haerin no longer on call, the three got ready to leave. The PA stumbled a little standing up, catching both Henry and Joshua's attention. But the latter didn't realise he had not ceased trembling even now. With half a second of thought, he took Joshua's car keys from his coat pocket – Haerin barely masked her surprise at the intimate interaction – before announcing he was going to drive. "You sit at the back with her, just in case she feels sick or passes out." Joshua could only agree to the logic.

The drive was quick and quiet, the PA noticing the real reason why Joshua hadn't been allowed to drive, he was still in shock, although unnoticeably.

Haerin thought he was being discreetly considerate to Joshua, but in reality he was so tired that he threw out whatever plausible excuse would stop any unnecessary disputes.

Once at the hospital, Henry made sure that both got to the right place, safely before informing his parents he was going back to his apartment tonight since it was walking distance.

By this point, Marcus had recognised his son's exhaustion and his slight lack of manners due to it, Caroline picking it up too. This is why the pair could only hold back their smiles, normally when this tired Henry wouldn't have even bother to see the two up; 'he really must like Joshua to put the effort in', is what the two thought.

In Henry's mind, however, he had just been honouring the guarantee he had made to the Lore couple so he could finally let loose and go back home. For him it had been an insane day, talking to his parents could wait until later; right now, all Henry wanted was his bed.