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Chapter 18
Everywhere she looked, she saw nothing but space. A never-ending, empty, white space. She wasn’t even sure if what she stood on should be classified as ground because it blended into the space surrounding her. Christi was confused, and no one was in sight to clue her in on what was going on. She walked forward for a while, and it seemed liked she hadn't moved an inch so she walked back. Christi still felt as clueless as she was before she moved but felt even lonelier by herself. She sat down and decided to wait until someone came to her.
Christi did not have to wait long before she saw Kaci appear before her eyes, but she seemed to be so far away. Christi stood up and began walking the distance toward her daughter. However, no matter how far Christi walked, the distance between Kaci and her did not seem to lessen. She continued to walk but then felt herself blink to half the distance between Kaci and herself. Not knowing what was happening, Christi stopped walking and looked toward Kaci, but was stunned by some kind of angel she saw Kaci crawling to. Squinting up her eyes to get a better look, Christi recognized the glowing angel as Marci, Justin’s Marci. Just like Kaci, Christi felt herself being pulled in by Marci’s aura and she realized that her feet were walking her in that direction.
Christi almost made it to Marci before she heard voices coming from the opposite direction. The voices were somewhat muffled, but she still recognized those voices as ones she knew. Those voices belonging to her best friends and brother echoed, and Christi followed where she thought they came from. She walked toward the voices in hope that someone familiar would appear like Kaci did. The closer she walked to the voices, the louder they got, and the brighter the white space intensified. Christi did not care about the bright light blinding her. She tightly closed her eyes and continued on toward the voices. Christi wanted, scratch that, needed the voices, anything familiar from home for some sort of security, more than her interest in why Marci was around.
Everything seemed to blur as Christi slowly opened her eyes. Christi blinked a few times before focusing in on her surrounds. She noticed the bed was no where near as comfortable as hers, pillows needed fluffing, blankets did not keep her warm in the cold room, and the atmosphere felt all disinfectant-like and cold in comparison to her homely bedroom. Christi tried to sit up but had great difficulty doing so. She pushed the button for help, and in rushed a doctor with a nurse following close behind him.
**
Jessi didn’t know if she had it in her to deal with Jordan right now. She had the condition of her best friend and goddaughter to worry about. They were all she had left. She didn’t have any siblings. No cousins she knew of. And what parents? So she didn’t know what she would do if something happened to the two most important people in her life.
Jessi looked around the waiting room and found Justin and Christi’s brother ready to pounce on Jordan with Joey, Lance, and Chris right behind them. Serena was off to a corner of the waiting room with Tomas, Christi’s father. Ana and Brian were in their own little world in a different corner. And JC, well he was outside talking to his parents about what was going on. And boy, did seeing JC talk to his mom and dad make Jessi want to talk to her mother just like he could.
Everything became too much for her so she went searching for the cafeteria. She needed food, something to take her mind off of everything.
“Now why does this seem familiar?”
Sounding from above her, the voice brought her out of her thoughts and caused her to look up into the blue eyes gazing into her brown ones.
*FLASHBACK*
"You okay?" a male voice questioned with concern after hearing some of her conversation while he poured himself a cup of coffee.
She looked up and thought he looked familiar. His blue eyes staring down into her brown ones almost took all of her strength to muster a phony model smile and a sarcastic "just great."
"Man, that was good." JC smirked.
Confused by his response, Jesse asked, "What?"
"That was better than Justin's"
Still confused, "Huh?"
JC imitates her smile and sarcasm to clue her in.
"Oh, so you know the trick I take it."
"All too well, in my opinion. So, why are you `just great'? If you don't mind me asking, that is. By the way, I'm JC and you are…"
*END FLASHBACK*
Jessi gave JC the same smile she did exactly a year ago.
Taking a seat in the hospital’s cafeteria chair next to her and pulling her into his lap, JC brushed her hair out of her face. “So how are you holding up? We haven’t really had a chance to talk since everything happened.”
Jessi let out a big sigh, “I’m fine, I guess.”
“Baby, come on. You let me cry on your shoulder then. Now I’m asking you to do the same to mine. I don’t like how you tend to keep stuff bottle up inside.”
*FLASHBACK*
As he finished talking, he noticed the seat in front of him was empty and felt engulfed by two feminine arms. For once, the acquaintance's arms weren't clinging. More like comforting. Comfortable in her arms, JC began to softly cry on her shoulder as she soothingly rubbed his lower back. After about fifteen minutes of the supporting embrace, JC broke the silence. "Now look what I've done," he said motioning to the wet spot of tears embedded on her jacket.
"Hey, you needed it. And my shoulder always welcome The JC," She joked.
*END FLASHBACK*
Jessi nuzzled her head into JC’s neck as she held on to him and just cried, “I want my mommy, Jace.”
That was something he hadn’t been expecting. He thought she was going to spill what she was thinking about Christi but not her mother. JC hadn’t realized that Jessi had never really approached the subject of her parents with him up until this point in their relationship. And here he sat, not knowing anything about his girlfriend’s parents although she knew everything about his. He didn’t know what to do so he let her cry for a bit before he spoke up again. “You do?”
“Yeah.”
“How about I bring her to you?”
“You can’t.”
“Why not?”
“She’s in heaven.”
Another thing he wasn’t expecting. “What?”
Jessi went on to tell him the story that had already been told to Justin and Chris as JC sat there listening. He comfortably rubbed her back when she started to get hysterical again to calm her down.
“What about your dad?”
“He doesn’t care about me.”
“What do you mean he doesn’t care?”
“When mom passed away, he became nothing but an ol’ Scrooge. The only thing he cares about is himself and the law firm.”
JC sensed that Jessi was only getting more and more upset as she talked about her father and wanted to try cheering her up. “Well, you always have my parents.”
“And Christi’s parents. She told me the same thing, but I don’t want them without her.”
“You’re not going to have to.”
“How do you know?”
“I don’t but neither do you so stop jumping to conclusion.”
“But Christi and Kaci are all I have left.”
“Baby, you have me.”
“Yeah, but-”
“Yeah, but what? I don’t count for anything?”
“Jace, that’s not what I meant and you know it. You mean the world to me. I just don’t want to lose Christi because she’s always been there for me and I’m not ready to be without her. She’s a sister to me like Justin is a brother to you. You just wouldn’t want to be without him.”
“I wouldn’t. I get your point. How about we get rid of these tears by checking on Christi? That will calm you down some.”
Jessi stood up and stretched and JC grabbed a hold of her hand to lead the way. “Thank you.”
“No need. I’m here for you when you need me. I’m your boyfriend you know. Now let’s go.”
As they walked down the hallway, she continued on, “You’re my only boyfriend that’s even remotely cared enough to.”
“Yeah, well your exes suck,” JC laughed.
Jessi pinched him before she started singing to herself, “I don't want to go another day, So I'm telling you exactly what is on my mind. Seems like everybody is breaking up, Throwing their love away. I know I got a good thing right here. That's why I say, Nobody's going to love me better, I'm going to stick with you forever, Nobody's going to take me higher, I'm going to stick with you. You know how to appreciate me, I'm going to stick with you my baby, nobody ever made me feel this way, I’m going to stick with you. I don't want to go another, So I'm telling you exactly what is on my mind. See the way we ride, In our private lives, Ain't nobody getting in between. I want you to know, That you're the only one for me. And I say, Nobody's going to love me better, I'm going to stick with you forever, Nobody's going to take me higher, I'm going to stick with you. You know how to appreciate me, I'm going to stick with you my baby. Nobody ever made me feel this way, I'm going to stick with you. And now Ain't nothing else I can need…"
“I like that. Where’d you get that?” JC asked once he heard her voice fade off.
She didn't think he could hear her so she was a little taken back when he asked her that. “Well, um, I wrote it.”
“Look at you. I created my own little songwriter,” JC joked before asking, “Any more to it?”
“And now I'm singing 'cause you're so, so into me I got you We'll be making love endlessly I'm with you Baby, you're with me. So don't you worry about People hanging around, They ain't bringing us down. I know you and you know me, And that's all that counts So don't you worry about People hanging around, They ain't bringing us down. I know you and you know me, And that's why I say… Jace, that’s all I have for now.”
JC gave her peck on her lips as they continued quietly down the hall to the waiting room.
**
“Have a nice nap?”
Christi smiled at the woman examining her as the nurse checked the IV. “Yeah. But now I’m all confused.”
“What are you all confused about? Maybe I can help you out.”
“First of all, what am I doing here?”
The doctor did not want to confuse Christi more, so she chose to fill in the missing pieces. Nothing’s worse for a patient than being told that something happened and not being able to remember the experience. “Well, think. What was the last thing that you remember?”
“I don’t know,” Christi sighed, “I remember panicking, seeing bits and pieces of my life flash before my eyes, but I don’t know why or what was happening at the time.”
“What is the last thing you remember doing? Describe it to me,” the doctor asked even more cautiously as she watched Christi’s leg movement under the covers and saw her wince. The doctor made a mental note that Christi wasn’t paralyzed but still needed to get her leg looked at.
“Well, I remember being late to my daughter’s party and talking on the phone with my best friend as I drove, but that’s all I remember.”
‘At least she doesn’t have amnesia,’ the doctor thought, sighing with relief.
“You were in a car accident. A drunk driver hit your truck. And from what I know of the accident and what you just told me, you did not see the other car coming, but you most certainly felt the impact of the collision.”
Christi chuckled lightly, “That explains the fact why my body feels like it was run over by a truck.”
Amused at her patient’s ability to act so nonchalant, the doctor conversed with Christi a little more before getting down to business. “Not necessarily run over, just hit. The EMT's tell me that it wasn’t even a truck that hit you. Some sports car rapped itself around your car. But anyway, let me take a look at you. Aside from your right leg, where else do you feel pain?”
“In-,”Christi started but was interrupted by one of the voices, arguing with someone, from her dream. Justin and Jordan. The entire floor, not just Christi and the doctor, could hear them yelling about having some kind of right or another. Christi shook her head, “How long has that been going on?”
With a look of defeat, the doctor answered, “On and off for the past three hours.”
“You seem a little distraught there, Doc.”
“You try working a twelve hour shift and then have to deal with that. And that’s Doctor Daniels to you, Ms. Fuentes.”
“Well Doc Daniels, call me Christi and do me a favor.”
Doctor Daniels smirked, “Such a demander, I have on my hands. Depends.”
“Can you bring Justin in here? It will make the yelling go away,” Christi bargained.
Raising an eyebrow, Doctor Daniels spoke, “So the culprits belong to you, huh?”
“Guilty as charged. And if you let Justin in here, both of them might just leave without you having to do some surgery on them.”
Walking out the door, the doctor replied, “You owe me, Fuentes.”
“Actually, you owe me!” Christi shouted loud enough so that Doctor Daniels heard her in the hallway.
With the doctor gone for a bit, Christi’s mind drifted to the voices she heard. She could not help but think that if she had not heard those voices in the first place, she would not be awake now but subconsciously getting to know it up with Marci. ‘Where the hell is Kaci,’ Christi thought while thinking about Marci. Christi’s mind took another turn as she began wondering why Kaci, unlike everyone else, was in her dream. Christi did not get too far in thought when she heard the door open and Doctor Daniels and Justin walk in. Well, more like Doctor Daniels walked in and Justin stayed glued to the closed door as he watched Christi.
“Do plan on just standing there?”
Justin softly spoke, “No.”
“Oh now you wanna quiet down when I’m awake. Get over here.”
“She’s a demander, this one.” Doctor Daniels nodded for Justin to bring a chair from the corner up to the bed.
Justin did what the doctor told him and took Christi’s hand in his. But when he spoke, Justin looked everywhere but Christi, “Um, you’re mom called Jordan to come because Kaci was in the car with you.”
“I agree with her about Jordan, Justin. He’s been trying these past few weeks as much as I hate to admit it,” Christi reasoned before she panicked, “Where’s Kaci, Justin? Is she okay? What’s going on? Tell me damn it.”
Doctor Daniels pushed her clipboard aside for a minute and gave Christi’s free hand a comforting squeeze, “She’s slipped into a coma.”
Christi was more confused only by the way the two were looking at her like she should be breaking down than anything else. “She’ll wake up like I did. She just needs some time.”
“No, you were just unconscious. Your daughter has slipped into a deeper state of unconsciousness, making the possibility of living slimmer. But you’re right about waiting. That’s all we can do for now.”
And that was all it took for Christi to break down like Justin and Doctor Daniels were expecting. Justin made room for himself on the bed with Christi so he could hold her as she cried and Doctor Daniels slipped out of the room, leaving the two alone for now.
Startled by the young man outside the room, Doctor Daniels jumped, “May I help you with something?”
“Is she going to be okay?” Jordan nodded toward where Christi, whom he sees being comforting over the loss of their child by another man through the window. And if he told the truth, he was somewhat jealous of Justin, whom Jordan believed had stolen his spot in both Christi’s and Kaci’s life. ‘But he’ll be damned if he thinks I’m going to sit around and let that happen,’ Jordan thought.
**
Forty minutes later and all cried out, Christi pulled away from Justin, “I want, scratch that, need to see her. Show me my daughter.”
Christi went to stand up and Justin saw her nearly fall before she steadied herself. “Not like that, you’re not,” Justin said as he pulled her back down and put her legs back on the bed, “I’m going go get the doctor and then we’ll see about Kaci.”
“But Justin-,” Christi went to argue him but saw that he meant business and gave up. Christi did not have to wait long for Justin to come back with Doctor Daniels.
“What’s this gibberish I hear about a runaway patient?”
“I don’t know. You tell me because I didn’t go anywhere. I think you have the wrong room.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s get this leg checked out and see about a little girl.”
“That’s all I ask,” Christi turned to Justin, “You coming or not?”
“Yeah. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
‘Whoa,’ Christi thought, ‘Where did that come from?’ But she did not say anything as Doctor Daniel and Justin helped her into a wheelchair before wheeling away to get her leg x-rayed.
**
“Any word yet?” Jessi asked Serena.
“We know that she’s awake and sent for Justin, but that’s all. It’s a good thing though because Jordan and Justin looked like they were finally going to d4etear each other apart.”
Saddened that her best friend of years did not ask for her, Jessi asked, “Just Justin?”
Both Serena and JC knew what Jessi was thinking, but they did not know how to cheer her up. So JC took a seat and pulled Jessi into his lap as they waited for more news. For some reason, they both were feeling rather clingy to each other ever since the accident but neither of them cared.
An hour later, the doctor permitted Christi’s family and friends visitation but only two at a time. Justin was already in there so only one more could go now. Serena and JC both agreed that Jessi would be the one. A little hesitant, Jessi told Serena that she should see Christi first but lost the battle when Serena put her foot down and told her to “march your butt into Christi’s room right now.”
Walking into Christi’s room, Jessi spotted her best friend, awaiting a hug with her arms wide-opened.
“Jessi!”
‘At least, she did not forget me,’ Jessi thought while giving Christi a hug. “How are you, chica?” Jessi asked as she sniffled. ‘Damn hormones. I told JC I would not cry anymore.’
“I’m all good except for some scrapes and bruises.”
Justin gave Christi a knowing look, and she continued, “And a broken ankle. But that’s all.”
“You gave me a scare there.”
And once again Justin spoke up, “ALL of us.”
Christi asked, “Justin, can you give us some time alone?”
Knowing that she was not really asking but telling him to go, Justin left the room.
Jessi took his spot on Christi’s bed as soon he was out the door.
“So what’s up with the tears? I’m awake and well on my way to recovery.”
“I do not want to lose you. If I lose you, I will have no one left.”
“First of all, you are not going to lose me because I don’t plan on going anywhere for a long time. So get that thought out of your head. Secondly, I’m not all you have. You have JC, Justin, Lance, K Dot, Joey, Kelly, my brother, Adriana, Ana, Br-,”
“Okay, I get your point. Why is it when I had this same conversation with JC, I won, but with you, I lose?”
“Because we love you in different ways. I love you enough to fight you and make you see you’re wrong. He loves you in the way that he’s willing to let you believe that you are right.
“I love him, too,” Jessi stated of her blue-eyed boyfriend.
“I know you do, very much.”
“He thinks I don’t.”
“Why do you say that?”
“He said he felt left out when I told him that you were all I had left.”
“Naturally,” Christi understood JC response.
“But you know what?”
“What?”
“I love him so much that I want to marry him. I can soooo see us as a married couple.”
“I soooo see ya’ll as a married couple too. And I never thought the day would come when I did that.”
They both laughed then quieted down some.
“So…”
“So, um, I saw Marci.”
“Impossible, she passed away a year ago today.”
As soon as the words left Jessi’s mouth, light bulbs went off in Christi’s head. ‘So that’s what up with Justin. Man, I must have really scared him.’
“When I was unconscious, I did. She was glowing and everything.”
“What happened?”
“Well, I don’t really know. Everything seemed so surreal.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t know exactly where we were but the place was all white,” Christi paused at how that sounded before warning Jessi, “Don’t you even say a word?”
Jessi smirked, “You set yourself up. So were these walls padded? I’m trying to get a feel here.”
Christi let out a grunt before continuing, “Anyways, I was by myself in this unknown place when Kaci showed up. I started walking toward her but found that I wasn’t actually moving. Then all of a sudden, I appear to be half way to Kaci. I try walking toward her some more but stop when I see who she was crawling toward. She crawled to Marci and I started walking that away. As soon as I approached her though, I heard these loud muffled voices, Justin’s, my brothers, and yours, and start in that direction. And the next thing I knew, I was waking up.”
“Weird.”
“I know.”
“I wonder what that’s supposed to mean.”
“Me too. I think that both Kaci and I were in the same place mentally, if possible, and she’s still there trying to figure out how to wake up.”
“Could be.”
**
After walking Jessi to Christi’s room, JC decided on wandering the halls instead of going back to the waiting room. He was sick of sitting in one spot and waiting. And as he wandered, he overheard a conversation that caught his interest.
“…drunk enough run her car into the truck of that girl who was in those tabloids last year.”
‘Who was it?’ JC wondered, knowing that the drunk driver’s identity was never revealed to anyone close to Christi. As JC’s curiosity got the best of him, he discreetly peeked over the doctor’s shoulder to see the file. And once again, JC had not been expecting something as unexpected as finding out Lana, his ex-girlfriend, drunkenly crashed her car into Christi’s, his girlfriend’s best friend and one of his best friend’s sort of girlfriend.
"Stickwitu" by The Pussycat Dolls
