"Hayley?" Gillian could not believe what she was seeing. Why is Hayley here, she wondered to herself. "Uh....Gillian....hi. Come on in." Hayley said, stepping aside as Gillian entered the loft. "What are you doing here?" Gillian asked sounding slightly out of it as she sat down on the couch. Hayley wrang her hands and smiled. "Well....uh....you how you have one person that you.....uh...go to when you have problems? Well I had one so I came to talk to Ryan." Gillian nodded and looked quickly away, feeling the tears well up in her eyes. "Gillian?" Hayley placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. "Gillian, what's wrong?" Placing a hand over her mouth, Gillian exhaled shakily. "N-nothing." She replied, still looking away. But she couldn't contain the anguish anymore, and she began to cry. Covering her face with her hands, Gillian cried for her loss, for Edmund's loss. She cried because the world had been robbed of a great man when Dimitri had died.
Hearing the sobs, Ryan emerged from his bedroom to see Hayley attempting to comfort a shattered Gillian. "Princess?" Ryan sat down and wrapped his strong arms around Gillian's sob-wracked form. "Hayley, do you think you could leave us for a while?" Hayley nodded and left the loft without another word.
Pulling away to look Gillian in the eye, Ryan wiped away most of the tears flowing down her cheeks. "Princess, hey, what's wrong? Are you ok? What happened?" Gillian glanced up into Ryan's eyes and saw his concern and hidden love for her there and she began to tell him the whole awful tale. "The other day.....Edmund, Jack, Brooke, Erika and I were all busy getting the last touches on Dimitri's welcome home party, an-and Edmund decided to call the pilot of Dimitri's plane so we would know exactly h-how m-much time we had until they landed." Gillian felt the tears burning the back of her eyes, but she forced herself to continue. "And the pilot said there was s-some kind of problem and t-they were turning the plane around and, and that Dimitri couldn't come to the phone. And then Edmund, he demanded that the pilot land the plane and so we all went to the airport to see what was wr-wrong." Gillian began to sob again, "An-an-and then they rolled Dimitri by on this stretcher and th-the next thing I remember we all were at the hos-hospital and there was Dimitri's new w-wife, Alex. And then th-the doctors came out and they told us the Dimitri was d-de-dead."
Gillian buried her head in Ryan's shoulder and sobbed out her pain, just letting him hold her."Hey, princess, ssshhhhh....it's gonna be okay." Gillian shot up off the couch and began to pace; sobbing and pacing like some madwoman. "Nothing will ever be 'ok' again. How will it? Who am I going to go to when I need advice? Or when I need to tell someone all the crazy things floating around in my head?" Gillian glanced back over at Ryan, not sobbing anymore, just huffing from all her yelling. Her eyes welled up with tears again, and she looked at Ryan, her eyes wet and empty looking, yet still hauntingly filled with anguish. "He's gone, and I an never going to see him again." And then Gillian backed against the wall and sank down, wrapping her arms around her knees. Ryan watched her deflate and felt his heat shatter at the level of her pain, pain that he couldn't make go away. Walking over to her, he knelt and took her hand, forcing her to look at him. "Gilly, if I could bring Dimitri back to you, or take away your pain, I would. I'm so sorry this happened, I know how much he meant to you." Gillian threw her arms around Ryan's neck and hugged him tightly, as if drawing strength from him. "The funeral is tomorrow, will you-" "If you need me, I'll be there." Ryan then pulled back and looked at Gillian, taking in all the pain, and love and faith in him, and then the tiny bit of vulnerability written on her face. Reaching up, he slowly brushed his fingers across her cheek. "Why don't you lie down in my bed and try to get some sleep? You look beat." Gillian tried to get up and failed. "I think I'm going to need some help." Ryan scooped her up in his arms. "Problem solved." He replied as he carried her into his room and tucked her into bed. As he turned to go her felt her grab his hand, "Stay with me.........please?" Ryan layed down next to Gillian and draped his arm over her side. Snuggeling into the covers, Gillian closed her eyes.