AN: Hello everyone! Yes it is I the one who wrote Love Like Crazy. I had this idea running around in my mind for a while and now have finally decided to publish it. Yes, I know that the Hairspray fandom is small, but I love it dearly. And from the reads I got from my one-shot it gives me some hope that we are bigger than I thought. Please review! They help me get inspiration, and I love to hear what you all have to say. Without further ado here is Angel By Your Side.
1965
She was staring at the clock on the wall. This was taking too long. They had been in there for 3 hours. Nobody came out. Nothing happened. Looking across the room she saw him. That backstabbing jerk whom she never wanted to see again, yet she had to. The young woman of 20 glared at the man. While she sat trying to console a little girl, he just paced and paced and paced. He did nothing but pace. She couldn't blame him though. If she could have, she would have paced a hole into the ground like in the cartoons, but she hadn't. She had a bigger part to play. Take care of the three year old and one year old whose parents were in that room. That dreaded room. That dreaded car. That dreaded drunk.
If she hadn't agreed to take care of said children, they would be in that dreaded room. In that dreaded car that was hit by that dreaded drunk. While he did nothing. While that thing barely able to pass for a human being, just said no to helping. He would have gone to a party than help some of his best friends. And he had almost gone to a party, he was so close to it, but that call stopped him. If he had been at that party, and they had left later, he could have been that drunk to hit that car. But he wasn't, and if he was she would have killed him on the spot. She still wanted to kill him on the spot. For being a selfish jerk.
Suddenly there was movement by the door. That dreaded door leading to the dreaded room. A man came through the door way, he was a doctor. Completely decked out in scrubs and a face mask splattered with blood. He took off his blood stained gloves as he turned to the man and woman. "I'm sorry sir, ma'am, but I have the terrible news of telling you that Mr. and Mrs. Collins have died."
The woman bit back a sob as her hazel eyes filled with tears. She didn't want to wake the small children sleeping on the waiting room chairs, and tell them their parents died. The man looked at the woman and had the urge to hug her, but he knew he couldn't, shouldn't. They had barely said one word to each other in three years. To see her in this much pain, and to think about these two little girls in such pain, made his blue eyes well up. "Thank you doctor." He said in a hoarse voice. The blue eyed man then picked up the small children, and motioned for the woman to follow him. She was reluctant but followed, for she knew that she would have to take care of the children that were currently resting in the man's arms.
Making it to the man's car the woman stepped in. The two little girls were placed in the back, and the man put the car into drive. The drive was a decently long drive from the hospital. The music coming from the radio was soft and fell over the two adults like a blanket keeping all the bad, cold things out. He man wanted to say something and knew he should, but she wouldn't want to hear it. That how it always started, but he was stubborn just like her so he would try. "Look, Tracy, this could have been worse…" He tried, but Tracy scoffed at him.
"Oh, yep. A whole lot worse. Corny and Amber are dead, Link. Dead. Like a freakin' doornail! How could it get any worse? And if you had gone to that party, you could have been the drunk to T-bone their car. Then you would be in jail." She finished. Link was bewildered. What did he have to do with any of this? He had come as soon as he heard. He had done nothing wrong. Not that he knew of. So why was she turning to him suddenly?
"What do I have to do with their death? If you hadn't noticed, I was the only other person to show up to the hospital when anyone else could have. I came to get you and Lily and Emma then I waited for three hours to see if some of my best friends had survived. So sue me for being a good friend." Tracy rolled her eyes at his little speech.
"Well news flash, we aren't friends, and of today you're obviously not friends with Corny and Amber anymore." Link's blood was starting to boil. She had the nerve to say things like that to his face.
"Oh, and like you are? As you can see they're dead, so they can't be your friends either." He finished looking ahead. Looking ahead was all he wanted to see. No Tracy, no dead friends, no little girls in the back of his car, no mess. He didn't want to think about it. He just wanted to get this, this stranger out of his car. They had been friends years ago, but this woman, he didn't know who she was. And he was positive that's how she thought of him.
He finally pulled up to Tracy's house. This road that seemed so familiar, yet so unfamiliar at the same time. Link didn't want to be a gentleman to the woman in his car, so the only thing he would do for her was get Lily and Emma. He wasn't even doing that for her; he was doing it for them. They reached the door and he handed the girls to Tracy. She smiled a weak, fake smile. Taking them in, she didn't even bid him goodnight. Just a curt nod and a slammed door to the face was his thank you.
He walked slowly to his car. Thinking about the day's events. He did not think that he would lose one of his best friends today. Or that he would have to be in the same room, let alone car, as Tracy Turnblad. When he reached his car it started to rain. Nothing major, just a sprinkling. Link didn't want to move from the curb. He was sure that he would start crying on the road, and with the rain quickly picking up it would be hard enough to drive already. So the man sat in his car and he let loose a sob. A sob for those girls, innocent little girls who had their parents ripped from them. He cried for his friends who had died that night. And he cried for Tracy. Someone he loved dearly, but wouldn't let him love her. Link hit the steering wheel. This was too much for him to take. He was tired of the crap and pain. He couldn't sit outside Tracy's door anymore, she would get suspicious. He slowly drove away from the last thing that was important tonight.
However, on the inside of that house he didn't know that Tracy was thinking the exact same thing. After settling the girls on the couch, Tracy rushed to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Though one look in that mirror and she was a goner. She didn't know what she was going to do. She sobbed and sobbed. Though the sobbing was quiet as not to wake her parents or the girls on her couch. She cried for those poor children without a home and without a family. She cried for her two friends who never really got to live life. And she lastly cried for Link. God forbid, she cried for him. She thought about the times they were together, and what broke them apart. She cried for the times with him, Corny, Amber, Penny, Seaweed, Inez, and everyone else on the show. Quietly she moved from the bathroom. Tracy had to move before she cried herself to sleep in there. She would much rather cry herself to sleep in her own bed. And cry she would.