Tragedy Reminds You Of How Much You Care
Summary: Their shoes skidded around the linoleum to witness a closed door, a sign on the door that said 'Surgery in-progress' splayed across a majority of it, making James squeak in alert.
"WHAT?" In what kind of condition was she in?
Rating: T
Pairing: Jades [Jade and James]
AN: So, I wrote my Bade story for the week-time to add a dash of Jades. Thanks for the kind reviews on that one.
~Nat
[OoOoOoO]
"James? You okay in there?" Came the cautious inquire from Logan, who had meekly just knocked on James' bedroom door. The boy had barricaded himself in his room for the past three hours after yet another blow out with Jade West, his long-time girlfriend. The last thing any of them had been expecting was for them to be together for so long or for James to have a meaningful relationship with a girl without screwing it up.
The response came after a long hesitation: "Yes!" But the rushed tone did little to convince the three guys, who had crowded around the door. They exchanged glances, before Kendall took the reins.
"Come on! It's been three hours at least! Dinner's been on the table for ten minutes." He insisted. "You have to come out and eat eventually." He tried to reason, though not ignoring the grumbling of his own stomach.
"Not - hungry!" James snapped back, voice muffled through the door. He always got defensive and short-tempered after a lover's tiff with Jade. Plus, his bi-polar side didn't exactly not aid the fire.
"But we're hungry!" Carlos moaned unhappily, the scent of dinner spreading down the hall just to mess with him. Mrs. Knight had been stern with the ultimatum; get James out of his room or no dinner.
The other guys could only agree with Carlos' statement. The day had been filled early on with recording sessions and finally when they had some time, James called Jade over. Things had seemed fine, until an argument over some pictures she had seen on TheSlap with him and some fans in apparently compromising positions was brought up.
It had been an old set of photos, long before Jade and James had begun dating; yet nonetheless Jade had brought it up anyway in a fit of rage.
Usually after their fights, within a few hours they'd make-up. Jade would pop back over, and they'd have to suffer hearing the repercussions. But now it was nearly eight and nothing still; things seemed fishy.
Abruptly, the door flew open, revealing a flared up James. "How can you even think about food?" He gasped in offense, clearly voicing his feelings for the situation.
Logan made a face. "We're hungry?"
James shook his head and brushed past them in a huff, immediately beginning a series of pacing in the Living Room. "I've texted Jade FIVE times! And attempt to call her TWICE!" He informed them, gesturing to his phone with his hand, eyes glaring fiercely at the screen. "And NO response! Nothing! Nada! Zero!" He made little angry gestures. "She never does this!"
"Maybe she's just preoccupied?" Logan offered, trying to calm his seething, worried friend down.
James whirled around. "On a Friday night? I don't think so!" He was nearly indulging himself in worry, drowning in it! Jade had been the to one to stalk off and leave! It wasn't like they broke up; they just need a few hours to blow off steam.
But the steam had long dissipated.
"I was her plans!" He exclaimed, throwing his arms up in exasperation. "What else could she possibly be doing?"
Kendall did figure he had a point there; girls like Jade did seemingly not have a lot of friends she could spontaneously make plans with. The blonde took a space behind him, leading him over to the dinner table, clapping his hands down on his shoulders and pushing so he would finally sit down. "Just sit down, take a load off, and eat some food." Kendall offered with a gesture.
Carlos quickly took a spot next to him, rubbing his hands together with an anxious expression. Fooooood.
James laughed lightly, forced. "Pssh, yeah. You're totally right." He flashed a smile, picking up a utensil as the others slowly began to swarm around and take their seats. "She's just fi-" But his ring tone cut him off, blaring insistently. "One sec." He pulled it out, yet again, and checked called I.D., expecting it to be Jade.
His face twisted up in confusion. "South Memorial Hospital?" The three other boys mimicked his expression. "Must be a wrong number." He flicked it on, pressing it to his ear. "Yeah, hi. Think you have a wrong num-yeah, this is James Diamond, one and the only. Why?" There was a pause as he listened, his friends watching anxiously.
James dropped his utensil, the metal clinking loudly across the table, nearly ominously as he leaned forward, not believing what he heard. "Wait-Jade's in the hospital?!"
[OoOoOoO]
The ride to the hospital in Beverly Hills was rushed and panicked, James frightened with the small bits and pieces of information he had acquired about Jade's status.
Apparently, she had gotten into a car accident, currently being checked out now. James wouldn't have had any knowledge of this so early unless Jade had listed him as an emergency contact prior to being brought in; which he'd found out she did.
Strings of questions were delivered to him from his friends; who were just as befuddled as him; even if Kendall and Jade never saw eye to eye.
James didn't even wait for the car to get parked and stop fully before he leapt out, racing through the automatic doors at a speedy pace, a look of disorientation on his face. "What room is Jade West in?" He demanded to the front desk.
The nurse looked up. "And how do you know her?"
James took a moment to recollect his knowledge of hospitals and the visitation rules. Only family and relatives, not boyfriends. "-Uh, I'm her husband, James."
His friends [who had just arrived] looked at him in confusion.
The nurse then proceeded to pull up Jade's file on the computer, brow furrowing. "How strange, she never listed that she was married."
James looked sheepish for a moment. "Spent the fourth of July in Vegas, cute little chapel to tie the knot." He leaned forward, voice darkening with seriousness. "Now where is she?"
"Room twenty-one B." She supplied, the four guys racing off in an instant.
Their shoes skidded around the linoleum to witness a closed door, a sign on the door that said 'Surgery in-progress' splayed across a majority of it, making James squeak in alert.
"WHAT?" In what kind of condition was she in? "Let me in!" He roared and looked like he was going to bash the door down when the three restrained him, grabbing onto a limb and holding restrictively. He was a strong guy, that's why they needed all three of them. The whole scene was quite the commotion when a doctor suddenly approached them.
"Whoa, whoa; what's the hold up boys?" He asked, clipboard in hand.
James was not coherent enough to answer, blinded by rage; so Kendall replied for him. "Well doctor, my friend's-wife is in there. Mind giving us an update?"
The Doctor looked up after a pause, seemingly preoccupied, but had a quizzical countenance on his face, before surveying his clipboard once more. "Well I'm deeply sorry, but your friend was pronounced dead several minutes ago. His surgery failed."
All James heard was dead-dead. Wide eyes turned to James, who looked shell-shocked. Immediately he lurched forward, grabbing the Doctor's balled coat in his hands, clenching his teeth. "She can't be dead! She can't be-wait," He did a double take, eyes averting. "Did you said his?"
The Doctor nodded, grudgingly removing James' hands from his coat, smoothing it. "Yes, Mr. Paul Sanders died nearly twenty minutes ago."
"Wha-?" James mumbled, insanely confused at this point.
Logan stepped forward. "So Jade West isn't in there?"
"Of course not, Jadelyn West is in room twenty-one A." He clarified for them. "My apologies for the confusion."
James slowly edged forward again. "Your apologies?! You just said my girlf-wife was dead and you're sorry?! Why I oughta-" James got cut off when Kendall dragged him down the hall, calling over his shoulder: "Thanks Doc! Appreciate it!" Pulling a disgruntled James along to an open door, revealing a battered Jade West on a hospital bed.
Make-upless and covered in bruises, she was not the definition of fine. Nor was her wrapped up, elevated ankle atop pillows.
"Jade!" James exclaimed, racing over and enveloping her in a tight hug, despite her condition. He just needed to hold her in reassurance.
She let out a little 'oof' of surprise, merely patting his back through a wince. "So they did call you. I told them not to."
James ignored that. "I thought you were dead!"
"Well I will be," She wheezed. "If you don't stop crushing my bruised rib cage." In which he quickly complied, instead taking a seat beside her.
The other three guys kept by the door, watching.
Thought James did take her hand, just wanting to hold onto a part of that wasn't purple and or swollen.
Jade raised her eyebrows at him, looking funny doing so with the nasty, stitched up cut on her forehead. "So they consider a sprained ankle, a mild concussion, and some bruises dead now? Weird specification changes."
"The Doctor screwed up." Kendall chimed in from the doorway, taking Jade's gaze away from James for a moment.
"So you showed up too Blondie? Didn't know you care." She sniped, still having a snarky attitude despite her whirling head.
Kendall smirked. "Well, when my best friend practically passes out when he gets the call that you went and got yourself hurt, couldn't pass up the opportunity to see you weak at the knees."
"Cute." She scowled and looked to James. "Passing out, huh?" Now it was her turn to smirk.
"What?" James pouted. "It was unexpected."
Jade rolled her eyes. "You and me both." Her eyes then shifted over to the three guys, sending them a stern look to get out now. Not that she was going to necessarily rehash anything with James, now that he had showed up despite her contrary belief, but for the fact that if she got affectionate with him; she didn't need witnesses; especially witnesses who would later use it against her.
The three soon fled to avoid her stare, thankfully. There wasn't much she could execute currently.
He stroked her palm with his thumb absently. "So-concussion? Sprained ankle? What happened?"
Her expression soured gruesomely. "Ugh, idiot drive ran a red light and smashed into the rear end of my car. Air bags flew out and practically crushed me, that explains all my bruises. I was propelled back, doing something to my ankle and I smashed my head into my steering wheel, signaling the whole concussion." James made many facial expressions as she explained, gripping her hand a little tighter, lacing their fingers.
"Then again, I'm sure I wasn't an innocent in the matter, I was pretty pissed after our little encounter." She added, earning a frown from James.
"Look, Jade, about that-" She leaned over, pressing her free fingers to his lips to shush him.
"Shut up. I brought it up stupid, don't apologize for something that you didn't control. I was just being overbearing and jealous, that's the only explanation for it." She leaned back, running her fingers through her hair. "I suppose I'm lucky, he broke his leg and got a serious amount of bumps and bruises, along with a severe concussion that they need to keep him over night. I just got some head trauma and a janked-up ankle. At least my car's fixable." She wouldn't be too happy if her only car was completely trashed.
James winced. "Ow." He pointed to her forehead. "That looks sore."
"Don't touch it!" She hissed, swatting at his hand.
"I was pointing!" He exclaimed in his defense, but let it go. "I'm just glad you're okay. I don't think I would be able to cope real well if you would have been dead." His tone softened, voice lowering a few octaves.
"Okay is the exaggeration of the year, but fine." She cracked a loose, half-smile, one usually only he could generate out of her.
"So when can you get out of here?"
"Tonight." She shrugged. "Just need you to sign me out."
James looked at her dumbfounded and questioned stupidly: "You're driving back?"
Four face palms echoed through the room, the three guys had returned as Jade spent time scoffing at his lack of intelligence. "With the rear of my car imploded, a sprained ankle, and a concussion. No way in chiz!" Sometimes he could be so dim.
James crossed his arms. "Fine Jadelyn." Soon met with a glare.
"NEVER call me that." She forewarned. "If you wanna keep your life."
James gulped. "Okay."
Soon the Doctor [a different one, this one female and specifically monitoring Jade] breezed in. "Seems you found some visitors Mrs. West, ready to go home?" She asked.
Jade didn't answer and looked at James in question. " Mrs. West?"
James looked sheepish. "Happy marriage?" He was definitely going to get killed by the end of the night.
[OoOoOoO]
AN: So, good enough? I wrote it all in a notebook at a late hour so I hope at least some of it is considered decent. Reviews are like gold when it comes to cross-over stories, so please do!
~Nat