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***Martin's POV***

What the fuck is going on? We came here to fix a marriage not to dissolve two. Jesus, God and Ted Turner please send your miracles my way. I am at a devastating loss.

"Mark's on his way, Dad." Mak informs me.

"Thank you." I whisper as I turn to face the city below the balcony.

"He doesn't see it." Mak tucks himself beside me, nestling into my side. I move my hands open then closed, clap them together and finally just rest my forearms on the rails. I don't fucking know.

"Those two aren't like any of us. Like really, none of us are on their level." I admit with real amazement in my voice.

Seriously. I have an incredible life, wife and marriage. I have nothing but amazing and wonderful things to say for Amelia. I love her with everything that I am. However, our love pales in comparison when standing next to Alexei and Gavin. It's different. There is no use in tallying up the score.

"Not once in all that he said did he question Alex's loyalty, devotion or love. It was all on him. He couldn't fathom a world where Alexei could be anything less than perfection. He's right too. Alex would sooner kill himself than fail Gavin." Mak breathes out heavily. I know that's fucking right. Alex loves hard too.

"This is insane, Mak. None of us realize the example we set in our lives when others are watching." I shake my head. "Gavin observes and absorbs everything around him. We should have been more responsible." I admit.

"We can do better." Mak promises me. We have to. Gavin can't take the let down. He is spiraling.

"What's the plan?" Mak asks.

"Mark and Seb broke it. They need to fix it. They must prove that love covers a multitude of sins. If they can't do that, I'm not sure Gavin will walk down that aisle. He won't trust himself." I explain to my son.

"There's one bet I would place." Grey slips out of the glass sliding doors pulling his husband into his side.

"Which one, Daddy?" Mak looks at Grey as though he hung the moon. I know he feels that way too.

"I would bet that Gavin and Alexei make it the fucking distance. I can't imagine anything that could tear them apart. Even this." Grey shakes his head with a smirk on his face.

"Please share, oh wise one." I smile softly at my oldest son.

"They are solid. It's like the Universe crafted them from the same breath. The rest of us are made for one another. They are made of each other. They fucking breathe for each other. Watching them move, speak, exist and love is like watching one single entity doing it all the same." Grey speaks reverently and truthfully.

"That's facts. It's comical, beautiful and damn near impossible to miss the way they go beyond completing each other. It's like they consumed each other and now there is just one of them against all of us." I agree with Grey's previous statement.

"Mark needs to get here. I can't handle this shit." Mak wrings his hands. I know he feels it deeper than anyone outside of Alexei. Mak has the closest bond with Gavin. Sebastain feels guilty. The rest of us feel helpless and empathetic.

"How is Alex?" I ask Grey. I needed a minute. I started imaging throwing Sebastain off the balcony, so I retreated to said balcony.

"Dad, could you breathe without your lungs?" Grey questions me.

"No Son." I confirm the absurd question.

"That's how he's doing." Grey admits with a tangible sadness.

"Let's get back in there. Mark should be here any minute." Mak offers. I nod in agreement. It's time to produce a united front.

Mak opens the door, sliding in first. Grey follows closely with me right on his heels. I feel it the moment I walk in the room. It does feel like a funeral. I shake that feeling off. I know that soon, it is going to feel like a revival. I have trust in my family.

"Where's Gavin?" Mark comes in looking windblown and scared shitless.

"They are on a walk." Kip informs the other half of this massacre's guilty party.

"Sit down, Son. We need to talk." I point at Mark, urging him to move toward the couch. With a nod of acceptance, Mark follows my direction.

Kip leans over to me, whispering. "Can I take this one, please? I happen to know a lot about how Mark is feeling right now. I would like a chance to explain why he still wants to fix this."

Pondering, without knowing much because Kip keeps most shit close to the chest, I agree. If Kip thinks he can handle it, I trust him. Our friendships are all built on that one word.

"No one is blaming you for how you feel with Sebastain. We understand. Your feelings are valid." Kip begins. So far, he has only stated facts.

I peak over at Alexei, he isn't blaming Mark either. It's clear. With the way he is glancing over at Mark, he is feeling every bit as much sympathy for Mark as Gavin portrayed earlier. This is all on Sebastain. Except, it's not because they are one unit. So, the blame must be owned by both of them. Make that make sense.

"However." Kip breathes out. "You're a team. You haven't been a team, man. That's on both of you."

Mark's head snaps up, clear indignation as he glares at one of his best friends. I ready myself to calm the storm. We aren't here for more theatrics; we have used that tactic enough in the last eight days. We need raw honesty. We need healing.

"I wasn't part of the team. That's the fucking problem, Kip." Mark grinds his teeth.

"Yes, you were. You were. Maybe not the part you wanted to be or when you wanted to be but all the same. You have a part to play and you're not fucking here to play it. So, let me explain that one." Kip looks a little on edge. I don't recall Kip ever looking on edge. It's a bit unnerving.

That takes Mark a second to register but he accepts it somehow. Calming down, he settles the heated features and steadies his gaze into one of understanding. That's fucking growth for my boy if I have ever saw it. I can't help but feel pride. He is definitely looking at the bigger picture. I can't be prouder of that one.

"When our partner hurts us, and they will, we have a job to do. It's our place to forgive. If love can't build that bridge, it is not love. That's a fundamental fact. Because the easiest effort for love to carry forward is forgiveness. No one asks you to forget, to pretend it didn't occur, to go on without asking for change. That would be irresponsible. But if it's love, a love that walks you down an aisle, it's capable of some pretty hefty forgiveness. Am I incorrect?" Kip looks around the room before stopping at Mark for confirmation.

"I already forgave his stupid ass." Mark mumbles. I can't help the chuckle that leaves my lips. Of course, Kip is right. He hasn't been wrong yet.

"Then am I right in assuming we are at the punishment stage of this partnership?" Kip requests with a small smile that holds no amusement.

"You are damn right we are. He fucking hurt me again. Promised. Promised me that we were in this together. But we haven't been. It hasn't been us at all. It's him. He makes the decisions. He chooses what to divulge. He assumes how much poor fucking Mark can handle. I guess I am too damn fragile or too fucking soft to do something so trivial as deal with a setback. Although, I am not even sure that it's that either. I think, I can't know because he won't talk to me, that he is the one having a hard time swallowing the minor speed bumps. He has some kind of idea in his head that he isn't going to make it. He doesn't trust himself to get through all this. Instead of talking to me and letting me reassure him, Sebastain shuts down. He isn't fucking dying. He is sick. There is a damn difference. If he would just talk. Tell me how he is feeling. Tell me the bad days and when I need to be a little more than myself, I would step up. I am always willing to do more. Instead, I break my back going over and above because I never know how much he actually needs. I am fucking tired, exhausted. I am giving one-hundred and fifty percent every day on the off chance that he may need an extra ten percent. Because I don't know." Mark groans, dragging his fingers through his hair. Kip takes a moment to digest it; we all do.

"I want kids, man. With Sebastain, I want it all. If he could just talk to me and tell me when his days are subpar, I would know that it was my turn to carry the load. I don't know how I can expend all that extra towards him blindly while taking care of extra souls who will need my extra no matter what. It's like Seb doesn't understand. I just need a plan. I need to know what I am working with. I have to know how much armor to carry so I can dump the rest off. I don't want to haul around all of it just in case." Mark starts crying. I know that feeling.

It's the one where your best is killing you. Giving it is just what you do because everyone around you needs it. Sometimes it comes easy. Other times, you feel it in your joints, in the weight of your mind and in the breaths that don't come as easily as you expect.

"Can I offer a little advice?" Alexei breaks in. It's the first time he has uttered a word since his meltdown. The broken gravel in his voice tears my fucking soul in half. God, this is torture.

"From the relationship God?" Mark rolls his eyes. "Man, please do. I am begging you."

Alexei let's out a chuckle but it's not one he would use with Gavin. That hurts more than the gravel. It's fucking sick. Painful.

"Gavin told me a week ago that our relationship worked because him and I talked. All the time. But there was a very bad two weeks where we didn't talk at all." Alexei's confession takes a moment to swallow. I did not know that.

"I'm sorry. I'm a little baffled." Grey is gasping like a fucking fish. Me too, Son. Holy shit.

"I was overwhelmed at work. I had so much going on and he sort of let me ignore him. He just blended into the background noise in my life. He became invisible but also his presence is what kept me fucking going. So, it carried on with me not thinking an issue was lying in wait. I wasn't thinking at all, honestly. Then, he lost his mind. It finally got to be so damn much that one little thing from me sent him flying straight off the handle. He was right too. Once he lost his shit, hindsight was 20/20 and a wrecking ball to my chest." Alexei looks sick. He looks like the memory is wrecking him. I imagine so knowing that he had forgotten that his vital organ existed.

"How did you fix it?" Grey asks. I love my son. He is probably cataloging all this because he is a smart fucking man. He knows relationships have ups and downs. There is a chance he may need to remember this in the future.

"We talked. A lot. We made a plan to talk. He made me compromise and set a schedule. We don't follow it anymore because it was a foundational tool that got us to a point where we didn't need it. We scheduled everything from a conversation, a date, to food, down to a bath together. The only thing that didn't get scheduled was sex because My Heart wanted to try to keep that one spontaneous. The more time I spent communicating with him, the more I needed. It grew to be a fucking necessity like breath. I found myself rushing home from everything to get to him. I couldn't wait to talk. I wanted to fill him in on everything, listen to his opinions, watch his face contort as I explained my fuck ups. It bonded us because he is my person. I needed him like I needed fucking oxygen." Alexei's eyes are somewhere else. His mouth is in the room, but those eyes are on another planet that belong to his heart.

"That's probably the biggest mistake we all make." Kip agrees softly. "Communication. If Mario and I had communicated early on, about anything, we would have been together immediately. I'm not talking about our feelings, if I would have told him about that part of me that missed his friendship while I was suffering, we would have figured those out."

"Why is it so fucking hard?" Mark growls out.

"Because I was scared." Kip admits. "I was scared to admit that I needed someone else. Scared that I was going to be a burden. Scared that Mario would figure out that I was trying to make him jealous when I went into that room. Scared that I would lose everything if I let one piece accidentally fall out of place."

"Because I didn't want to be a burden on Grey. I didn't want to be the weak link. I didn't want to admit that I couldn't control the narrative in my own life. Scared that he would finally realize that it could be easier without me. I wanted to break my own heart so he wouldn't be the one to crush me." Mak reminds us. That one still makes me want to give my son a whipping. Goddess bless, these kids I manage are going to give me even more grey hair.

"Because I wasn't even thinking about it. Gavin just fit so easily into my life that I didn't notice when I took advantage. If he wasn't demanding attention, I assumed his cup was full. Truth be told, he was running on fumes. When the fumes evaporated, the vessel started cracking. Mark, you're running on fumes brother. You have been doing so fucking much trying to keep all the balls in the air. You didn't ask your husband for a hand. You didn't communicate your needs. He isn't a fucking mind-reader. He has this whole boat load of shit that he is trying to trek across a rough sea, and he has a hole in the vessel. You two must get on the same damn page. When is the last time you sat down and made a plan to compromise? Communicated expectations?" Alexei takes a few breaths. We know he isn't finished because his breathing is labored. He is struggling.

"Mark, a marriage is a business. Time to take this shit to the boardroom. You are CFO of Parker Inc. But you are Co-Owner of Royal's Enterprise. Right now, you are staring bankruptcy in the face because the owners aren't in the war room. Get in the fucking war room, man. Fight. Sit his stupid ass down. Get in his face. Lay it out. Tell him what you need, what you expect, how to give it to you and don't leave the fucking room until you have a solid plan. It's not easy. Someone's feelings are going to get hurt. No one said it was supposed to be easy. You love him. Help him. Stop letting that man hurt you. Stop standing by while he fucks up hoping your passive-aggressive nature finally clicks with him. It won't. That's a dangerous game that you are losing. Now, I AM FUCKING LOSING BECAUSE OF IT. PLEASE. Mark, get your shit together so I don't lose." Alexei breathes out a sob. I rush him, snatching him off the floor as my arms snake around his back. I slam my hand over his head to hold him to my shoulder. Fuck.

"We don't realize how we affect others." Mark states as he wipes tears from beneath his eyes.

"Gavin looks to all of us for fucking hope. He is counting on us to prove that he can be good enough for Alexei. We know it. Alex knows it. But, if we can't get our shit together, he will assume he won't be able to either." Mario inserts as he walks over to rub Alexei's back. The man is fucking sobbing into my chest. I hate it.

"I'm sorry, Alexei. I'm not even apologizing. I am literally saying we are sorry. This is a poor example of love. Not that we don't love one another. We do. We just lost sight of that for a moment. I will fix this. I promise." Mark stands up, walking to the kitchen as he grabs a beer. He takes a large gulp before splashing his face with water.

I notice that he doesn't look any better than Seb. He hasn't slept. I can tell he hasn't been eating. I can see the telltale signs of this war destroying his soul. It's time to call a truce.

"Not that I don't trust you, actually I don't. I apologize. How do you intend on repairing this damage?" I ask Mark. I need some solid confirmations that we walk out of here tonight better than we were before this all started. I want everyone to be better for each other.

"Set the table. We need food, drinks, pens and notepads." Mark orders.

"I can do that." Mak stands. "Why?"

"We are all going into the War Room. Together." Mark informs us. "A united front so that we have witnesses and accountability. Let's go."