The idea for this popped into my head while I was watching the first season (which, I have all my roommates hooked on the show now too, and when I come home from class, I often find them watching my DVD's. It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside). In "The Proposal" one of the Newpsies say something to Marissa along the lines of, "you and your mother will never have to worry about money again." Inspiration struck. In this, Caleb never was involved in that whole Rene Wheeler scandal. So Lindsay doesn't exist, and he was never involved with the police. Oh, and Ryan never left Newport. Okay? Awesome. Review and let me know what you think. And don't worry I'm still working on my other fic, this just won't get out of my head. The quotes from this chapter are from the song "Life will go on" by Chris Issak.
Disclaimer: In the spirit of Christmas, or Chrismukkah, how about you don't sue me? Okay. The characters are not mine.
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Broken sky, heartaches that flowers won't mend
Say goodbye, knowing that this is the end
Tender dreams, shadows fall
Love too sweet to recall
Dry your eyes
Face the dawn
Life will go on
Life will go on
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The phone rang at three in the morning waking everyone in the house up. In Sandy's experience, middle of the night phone calls were never a good thing, and he quickly ran through his head where the most important people to him were. Kirsten was lying next to him, now sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Seth and Ryan had stayed in that night with Sandy and Kirsten. They had rented movies and made popcorn, and as far as Sandy knew, they were both in their beds sleeping.
"Hello?" Kirsten had reached over first to grab it. "Julie? It's three in the…is he okay? I'll be right down." Sandy watched as his wife went pale, and hung up the phone and just sat staring at the wall in front of her for a moment shell shocked.
"Honey? Are you okay?" She was trembling, he noted, and he was suddenly very worried himself. "Kirsten? Baby, what's the matter? What did Julie want?"
"It's my dad," she said softly. "He's had a heart attack." Sandy immediately reached over and pulled Kirsten into his arms.
"Oh baby, I'm sorry. I'm sure he's going to be fine," Sandy assured her rubbing a hand down her back. His feelings for Caleb aside, he was still Kirsten's father, and she still loved him. Kirsten pulled away and ran to her closet and threw on a pair of jeans and a sweater. Sandy got himself dressed just as Kirsten emerged from the bathroom, her hair thrown into a ponytail.
"I have to…wake up the boys. And call Hailey…and I have to call the office…and…" She trailed off and Sandy wrapped his arms around her again.
"Get your shoes on, I'm going to go let the boys know where we're going," Sandy said. Kirsten managed a nod, and Sandy went to Seth's room first.
"Seth, buddy, wake up," Sandy said shaking him lightly.
"What? Dad, it's the middle of the night," Seth whined. Suddenly as if it just occurred to him the time, Seth sat up. There was no reason that his father would wake him up unless something was wrong. "What's the matter? Is it Mom? Is it Ryan?"
"Your grandfather had a heart attack, I'm taking your mom to the hospital. I just wanted to let you know where we were going to be," Sandy told him.
"Is Grandpa going to be okay?" Seth asked. Sandy didn't want to lie to him, especially because he really didn't know what was going on, so he just shrugged.
"We'll see when we get there," Sandy said honestly. "Your mother is pretty upset." Seth could only imagine.
"Tell Mom that I love her? Tell Grandpa that too," Seth said and Sandy was reminded of what a great kid he had.
"I will, we'll call when we know something." Seth nodded, and Sandy left and made his way through the dark house to the pool house. Ryan was sprawled out on his stomach, but woke up as soon as the door closed behind Sandy.
"Sandy?" He asked sleepily, turning over to face him.
"Caleb had a heart attack, I'm taking Kirsten down to see him." Ryan nodded. "We'll call when we know something. Go back to sleep." Sandy closed the door behind him gently and found Kirsten in the kitchen, pouring coffee for herself and Sandy into travel mugs. She handed one to him, and he was pleased to see that she had stopped shaking. Kirsten looked calm and composed.
"I tried Hailey, but I couldn't reach her in Japan," she said. "Did you tell the boys?"
"Yeah, you ready to go?" Kirsten let out a shaky breath and nodded. Sandy reached out and took her hand in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
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All along thought that we still had a chance
Letting go, this is the end of romance
Broken heart, find your way
Make it through, just this day
Face the world
On your own
Life will go on
Life will go on
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Julie shifted on the uncomfortable chairs in the waiting room. Marissa, who in an unusual act of sympathy and kindness towards her mother had come with her, was now curled up a few seats down from her. Her eyes were closed, but Julie was sure that she couldn't be sleeping. The chairs were not the most conducive for sleeping, and add to that the television in the corner, and the woman across the room sobbing into her hands, there was no way that someone could sleep here. But driving her mother to the hospital was as far as Marissa's kindness extended, she certainly wasn't going to talk to Julie.
The door slid open and Kirsten and Sandy hurried in. Sandy's hand was tightly wrapped around Kirsten's, as he led his wife over to where Julie and Marissa were sitting. Marissa opened her eyes, and smiled slightly at her stepsister, standing and wrapping her arms around her. Julie climbed to her feet as well, and was surprised when Sandy gave her a hug.
"How is he? Have they told you anything?" Kirsten asked Julie as she gave her a hug of her own.
"No," Julie said shaking her head. "They haven't told me anything yet." Sandy wrapped an arm around his wife, and gave her a kiss on the temple.
"I'm going to go see what I can find out," Kirsten said. Julie wanted to argue with her, tell her that there was no point in her going over there. They wouldn't tell Julie anything and Julie was his wife. But instead, she just let Kirsten walk away.
"How are you holding up?" Sandy asked Julie. Marissa had sat back down in her seat, curling up, and once again closing her eyes. How was Julie holding up? Well, she had run through a gauntlet of emotions in the past hour. First there had been anger at Caleb for waking her up, and then had come the fear when she saw that he was struggling to breathe and was turning blue. She had screamed for Marissa, who had come running, and dialed 911 for her mother and then went down to wait for the paramedics. There had been relief when the paramedics finally arrived. There had been a tiny bit of happiness when Marissa had offered to drive her mother and stay at the hospital with her, even gave her a small hug. Then there had been the phone call to Kirsten which brought on the fear again, and now here she was terrified, nervous, and sick of waiting for the doctor to come out.
"I'm…terrified," Julie finally settled on, and Sandy nodded. Kirsten reappeared in the doorway, a doctor trailing behind.
"How did she do that?" Julie wondered out loud.
"You forget," Sandy said smiling a little at his wife. "She is Caleb Nichol's daughter."
"We've taken Mr. Nichol into surgery," the doctor said. "If you would like to go up to the surgical waiting room, it's a bit more comfortable." Julie nodded, and felt a hand on her elbow and was surprised to find it belonged to Marissa. The four followed behind the doctor as he led the way upstairs. Julie caught the word bypass along with other medical terms that she didn't understand. Kirsten did, apparently, because she was nodding and asking the appropriate questions.
Well, Julie decided. Kirsten could take charge. Julie did not usually do that well in a crisis. Generally, she would panic and end up making rash decisions without thinking through the consequences. Or she would think that she was doing the right thing, but never actually was. That had been what had gotten her in trouble so much with Marissa in the past. So instead of trying to be the one in control, Julie relinquished that job to Kirsten and just followed behind Sandy and Kirsten and tried to catch every other word, knowing that Kirsten would fill in the blanks.
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There'll be blue skies
There'll be true love
Someday I'll hold you again
There'll be blue skies in a better world, darling
Tender dreams, shadows fall
Love too sweet to recall
Dry your eyes
Face the dawn
Life will go on
Life will go on
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Kirsten had her eyes closed, her head resting up against Sandy's shoulders. Sandy had his arm around her, and was absentmindedly running a hand up and down her arm. Julie was sitting a few seats down from the couple, staring straight ahead. Marissa was on the other side of Kirsten, offering one hand to her stepsister, and the other was being held by Ryan, who along with Seth and Summer had come down to wait.
When the door opened, all heads shot up and all seven got to their feet. Seth knew it was bad news as soon as he saw the doctor's face. And he knew that his father knew it too, because he wrapped his arm around his wife tightly, and shared a worried look with both Ryan and Seth.
To Kirsten, she felt like she was underwater and the words the came next were distorted and muffled. But she heard them.
"I'm sorry, there was nothing we could do," the doctor said, and Julie managed to nod numbly sinking back down into a chair, but Kirsten tumbled to her knees, despite Sandy's firm grip, sobbing into her hands. Sandy immediately dropped to his own knees, pulling Kirsten to him, and rubbing a hand up and down her back and repeating that it would be okay, and that he was there for her. Summer had wrapped Seth in a hug, and Marissa and Ryan both stood shocked. Marissa finally went to her mother, sitting next to her and offering her a hand. Sandy stood up, with his arms still around Kirsten, letting her sob into his shoulder. Seth went to his mother, and the two stood holding each other, as Kirsten cried clutching her son's sweater. Sandy pulled Ryan into a hug and Ryan was surprised to see tears glistening in Sandy's eyes. He wasn't sure if they were for Caleb, or for Kirsten who was so obviously heartbroken.
"I was starting to become fond of the old bastard," Sandy said letting the tears escape, as his wife came back into his arms.
Julie sat shocked on the chairs, not able to cry, or to even begin to think about what would happen next.
Caleb was dead.
Her husband was dead. And she couldn't cry for him. And she only had one thought going through her head,
What would happen now?
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Broken heart
Find your way
Make it through, just this day
Face the world
On your own
Life will go on
Life will go on
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Okay so that was the first chapter, let me know what you thought of it, and if you want me to continue! Thanks!