Chapter Thirteen
The word “accident” had infiltrated every available crevice of Alana’s mind. It was all she could think about. When she closed her eyes, even for just a split second to blink, she envisioned a wreck of the most horrible kind… a wreck that Tony couldn’t have possibly survived.
The very thought of her friend and counterpart lying in a hospital bed, alone, was enough to break her heart. Tony got on her nerves like nobody’s business, but when it came down to it, he was family. He was closer to her than her own blood. Whoever had done this to him, whoever had inflicted this pain unto her friend would pay. It was personal now.
A million different thoughts ran through her mind as the car made it’s way slowly but surely towards the hospital. She had so much she had to do. She needed to call the agency and have a coworker get a hold of the local police department that arrived at the scene of the accident. She needed to know the cause and any other valuable information, though it was information she couldn’t get her on her own.
There was no way she could go poking around. It would draw too much attention to herself. After all, she was playing the part of the pop star’s girlfriend.
The pop star. He was sitting beside her, and yet, he felt like he was miles away. Everything felt so surreal to him. The car that had been carrying Tony had been meant for him. Well, him and Alana. Had Tony’s car not been late, it would have been JC and Alana lying in the hospital somewhere, seriously injured or worse.
The thought alone almost made him sick. Whoever had been sending him the emails, trying to scare him, had crossed a boundary. This wasn’t a game. It wasn’t something that could be ignored. It was real.
And it scared the shit out of him.
~*~
She ran a hand over her tired face. The incessant ticking of the clock in the empty waiting room was enough to drive anyone insane. She glanced over at her charge who sat opposite of her, leaning against the wall, his eyes closed.
They’d been in the emergency room for three hours now, and so far, there had been no word on Tony. Alana rubbed her hands on the front of her pants before she stood. Across from her, JC opened his eyes and glanced in her general direction.
“Where are you going?”
“To check in at the nurse’s station and to get a soda. Do you want anything?”
He shook his head in response and closed his eyes once more. Alana headed towards the nurse’s station, hoping that she would be given any information on her friend. She let out a sigh as she saw the nurse on the telephone, so she waited patiently.
It was almost five minutes before the nurse put down the phone, and once she did, Alana could see that she wasn’t exactly in the mood to chat.
“Can I help you, ma’am?”
“I’m wondering if you have any information on Tony Peterson at this time?”
The nurse heaved a sigh. She had been dealing with Alana for the past three hours. Every so often, she would come up to the desk and ask to see this man. Technically, she couldn’t be given any information, and the nurse had made her aware of that, several times already.
“Ma’am, I’ve told you before. It’s against our privacy law to give you any information on Mr. Peterson. You are not immediate family or a spouse.”
“You don’t understand, lady. I’m all he’s got here. His family is on the other side of the country.”
“I do understand, ma’am. You’ve told me several times. But you’re just going to have to wait for Mr. Peterson’s doctor, and then maybe he can help you.”
It was all Alana had to keep herself from reaching across the desk and strangling the rude douche bag working. She let out a loud sigh and turned, back towards the waiting room. She stopped outside of it and pulled out a handful of change in order to get herself a soda.
Once she was armed with the necessary caffeine to keep herself awake, she headed back inside of the waiting room, and to her horror, found it empty. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she hurried out of the waiting room. The exit was past the nurse’s station. If he’d gone anyway, surely the nurse from hell would have seen him, right?
The woman heaved a sigh upon seeing this lady who she’d just turned away. “Ma’am, I’m still not going to be able to tell you—“
“Shut up!” Alana quickly realized how she’d sounded. “I don’t… I’m not here to bug you about Tony. Did you see anyone go past here while we were talking?”
The woman fought to keep from rolling her eyes. She was not a security guard. She paid very little attention to people going out. “No ma’am, I did not see anyone leave.”
Alana’s heart started thumping painfully in her chest, feeling like it would burst out at any minute as she fled the nurse’s station. How could she let this happen? She had left him alone and now—
The sound of a closing door caught her attention and she spun around quickly. Standing there, wiping his hands on his jeans casually, was her missing charge.
Her eyes floated to the tag on the door as she struggled to calm her racing heart. The bathroom. He’d just gone to the bathroom.
She could have punched him in the face. She had been so worried about him. She had no idea what had happened to him, and come to find out, he’d been in the bathroom?
“Don’t you –“
“Miss Berkeley?”
The sound of her name being called stopped her thought, and most likely saved JC’s life! She whirled around, a scowl on her face.
“What?” She dropped the attitude immediately upon seeing that the person addressing her was donning a white coat. White coat equals doctor. Doctor equals information about Tony. This was the last guy she wanted to piss off!
“My nurse informs me that you’ve been harassing her for the last three hours in an attempt to gain some information about your friend?” A hint of a smile tugged on the corner of his mouth and Alana’s cheeks turned pink.
“I wouldn’t exactly call it—“
“I would.” The comment coming from JC earned him a scowl.
“Nobody asked you,” she responded bitterly, before turning back to the doctor. “Can I see him now?”
“It’ll be just a few minutes. We’re going to keep him over night, so we’re in the process of moving him to a room on the third floor. If you’d like, you can go ahead up to the third floor waiting room and check in with the nurse. You’ll be able to see him as soon as we get him situated.”
Alana could have kissed the doctor. She’d been given the run around all afternoon, and it was nice to finally be getting somewhere! She thanked the man profusely before she turned and grabbed JC’s arm. “Let’s go.”
He allowed himself to be pulled towards the elevator, and once they were inside, Alana lit into him.
“What the hell were you thinking?”
“That I had to pee, most likely,” he responded, rolling his eyes. “What’s the big deal?”
“The big deal, JC, is that someone wants to hurt you! And for once, it’s not me! You need to remember that! You can’t just go walking off without telling me where you are!”
He wanted to argue with her. He wanted to tell her how ridiculous she was acting. But he couldn’t. She had a point, after all. Things had escalated quite a bit in just the last few hours. He had to start being more careful himself.
“I’m sorry,” he responded. “This is kind of hard to get used to. I mean, I have people around all the time, but not quite to this extent,” he said with a sigh.
Alana nodded in understanding. She reached for his hand as she looked up at him. “I’m not trying to get on your case, alright? This has been a long day for both of us and I’m sorry. I was just worried when I walked into the waiting room and you were gone.”
He looked down into her blue eyes and could see the genuine concern she had for him. To tell the truth, it was kind of flattering. She wasn’t acting like this because she was getting paid. She cared for him, on some level.
She could see him, searching her eyes and immediately she looked away. The elevator dinged once before the doors opened and they stepped out together. Alana had never released his hand, but she squeezed it gently before she stepped off the elevator, waiting for him to do the same.
She took a deep breath before heading towards the nurse’s station. Things between her and JC were changing. Whether she wanted to admit it or not.
~*~
She pushed the door open to the hospital room containing her friend, and all at once, tears filled her eyes. She had promised herself that she would not cry, but it was impossible. She hurried over to the bed beside her friend and hit him gently in the arm.
“It’s a good thing you’re hurt,” she said, sniffling slightly. “Otherwise, I would kick your ass for scaring me like that!”
A chuckle rumbled from his chest, but ceased immediately. “Don’t make me laugh. It hurts,” he groaned. Alana frowned. The doctor had not told her the extent of Tony’s injuries, just that it was nothing life threatening and that he’d be good to go in several weeks.
She could see, obviously, that his leg was broken, as an ugly white cast covered his big leg. She almost giggled at the thought of how much plaster was used, but refrained.
“What’s the damage?” She asked, looking him over. She could see several cuts and bruises on his face, and the ace bandage wrapped around the wrist opposite of her.
“Two broken ribs, a sprained wrist, a leg broken in three places and several cuts and bruises. And you know what REALLY sucks?”
“What’s that?”
“I don’t even have a really good story for what happened! How boring is it to say I was in a car accident? I mean, come on now. That’s as bad as that time you fell down one step and sprained your ankle. There is nothing cool about that.”
She couldn’t help from laughing at that. Leave it to Tony to make light of the situation. He was always doing that. Although she would never tell him, that was one of the reasons she liked him so much.
Glancing past her, Tony noticed JC standing near the doorway. “You can come in, you know? I ain’t going to bite you.”
Alana looked over her shoulder and smiled, before turning back to Tony. “He said he wants to give me some privacy, but I told him there was no way in hell he was standing out in the hallway alone,” she explained.
Tony rolled his eyes at her. “You’re such a mean ass. It looks like you put him in time out,” he snorted. This time, it was Alana’s turn to roll her eyes.
“I’m not going to let him stand outside of the room alone. Anyone could just come up and grab him and THEN where would we be?”
“Al, we’re in a hospital, okay? If someone just walked up and grabbed him, don’t you think the nurses would notice?”
She hadn’t thought about that. Well, it was possible, but she still wasn’t willing to take the chance. She told Tony this, right before telling him to shut his mouth before she added a couple more injuries.
She chatted with her friend for nearly an hour before his eyelids started to drop. The medicine the doctor had given him for the pain was just starting to kick in.
“I’ll be back to pick you up tomorrow morning,” she assured him. She let out a sigh as she stood. JC had joined the group about fifteen minutes into the visit, and so he stood from his place on the other side of Tony was well.
“You ready to go?” He asked Alana. He watched as she nodded, her own eyelids drooping slightly.
It wasn’t even six o’clock yet, but the two of them were drained. Luckily for JC, the concert that had been scheduled that night had been postponed, though no word as to why had leaked to the press or the fans. And Johnny was keeping it that way. At least for the time being.
“I think when we get back, I’m taking a nice hot shower and going to bed,” she told him with a yawn. JC nodded in agreement.
“That sounds… perfect,” he said. It had been a long and trying day for the two of them. What he didn’t know was that this was just the beginning.
Number of reviews: 222
Print:
Chapter or Story