Disclaimer: If I owned it, I would not need to write fic. Maybe.
A/N: The initial premise of this fic takes a little leap of faith on your behalf. I ask your patience as there is more to this story then the initial premise. Thank you for giving this silly little thing of mine a peek! A thousand thanks to EvelynMM without whom this would be impossible.
In the distance she could hear the sound of cars rushing their way to highways to make it home in time for family dinners. Stuck in their warm boxes they didn't feel the bitter wind crawl across the landscape carrying away the rest of what few leaves littered the ground from their fall drop. But in the heart of the park, at one of its less maintained areas, Lux stared deeply towards the heart of the recreational reserve. Everything was so still, so normal. So why did she feel like it was all crumbling down around her?
One stupid frickin' product malfunction. One chance taken too many, and here she was, in more trouble then she could even imagine. And she had done some pretty drastic stuff to get away from some of the more terrible places the state had thrown her into. It was the feeling of another body settling down onto the bench next to her that snapped her out.
"That was a pretty cryptic text." The voice said. She didn't look at the person beside her. "Lux?" he whispered reaching out to her shoulder.
"Lux, what's wrong?" The worried seeped through his voice. It only made her cringe again. "Are you okay?"
"We messed up Eric." She choked, her gaze still fixed in front of her. The color had drained out of her already fair face. "Cate is going to kill me. Baze will probably kill you." She snorted. "On the up side I guess we'll be dead together." She closed her eyes. She couldn't break down. Not now.
His hand moved to her hand, squeezing it tightly. He knew enough not to push her. She already looked like she was going to shatter. This time she moved her head slowly to turn towards him. Barely meeting his own eyes she parted her lips, though it took time for sound to emerge from them.
"I'm pregnant."
The two words fell though the air like bombs, rocking his vision and stopping his heart. His head reeled as fast as hers seemed to have shut down. He sputtered sounds that may have been words. None of them were coherent.
"I... I thought at first it was just stress, you know?" She looked back, pushing herself up to her feet, as if she couldn't stay still. "I was never all that consistent when it came to that kind of stuff. I'd miss a couple nights sleep or something and I'd be totally thrown off. So I didn't even realize anything was wrong."
Eric sat still, watching her carefully move back and forth of the bench as she continued, her hands clutching at pockets of air as if grabbing onto them would help her get a physical grasp on the issue they faced. "But then there were the headaches and…I haven't slept past ten when I hadn't had anything in me since I was," She stopped, suddenly embarrassed at a part of her preteen years that she didn't consider before. "That...doesn't matter. But I woke up at ONE. " She breathed heavily.
"Wait, are you just going on this?" A flash of hope sparked until she glared at him like he said the world was flat.
"…Two." She snapped. He rubbed his palm across his mouth once, his thumb stopping at his lip as he thought of gnawing at the nail there, breathing in deeply and exhaling.
"Eric…" She stopped pacing, her shoulders slumping. Her voice cracked a little. "What… What am I going to do?"
"We." Eric stood up, instantly, shocking both of them with his gut reaction. She almost took a step back when he reached for her. "We, Lux." He said softer, reaching out for her hands to keep her from avoiding him.
"This is not your problem. It's ours." His words made tears flicker in her eyes. Pierced by them he drew her into him, wrapping her up in his arms he kissed the top of her head.
"Lux, I can't tell you what to do about this. We shouldn't have even gotten as far as we did. That IS my fault. But this is your body; Lux. It's your life. It's…." he paused, not liking the sound of the next words on his tongue, "it's okay if you don't want to go through with this. I'd understand. Hell, even if you didn't keep the baby, or if I didn't…"
"NO." Lux jumped back. "I spent half my life in hell because someone gave ME up. I won't do it, Eric!" She snapped suddenly. He held onto her, not letting her completely rip herself away. "Wait… you'd … you'd keep it?" She said shyly. He swallowed once and nodded.
"You shouldn't have to give up any dream you have, Lux. And if that means I get baby duty…if you want me to go away so you don't have to face it or any questions they may have…" The thought was daunting, and possibly too impulsive, but necessary. "I only want you to have everything you deserve Lux."
She shook her head in protest. "I don't deserve that, Eric. I…it took me a really long time to forgive Cate. I'm…not sure I completely have some times." She admitted. "I can't just vanish from my kid's life." The uneasiness of the mirror situation made her queasy.
"Lux you…you have to understand that if you have this baby…" He sighed, "Teens aren't the most forgiving people. You know that." She half laughed at the irony of his words.
"You've worked so hard just to be on decent terms with them." He noted. There were still those who taunted or avoided her. She was by no means in the running for prom queen, but she had become civil with many of them. He doubted this would make the later half of her senior year a joy.
"I know I just…I don't know." She admitted. "I'm scared." She whispered, moving in to hug him once more.
"I know. I am too." He muttered as he held her close again. "But whatever you want to do I'm here. If you want me there when you tell your family, I will. I'm not hiding from them, Lux. I can't let you do this and lie for me. I want to be here with you. Whatever they say, however they feel, whatever they do… I don't care."
"No!" Lux shook her head. "If they know everything we've done, fought for. It would be for nothing! Baze might actually kill you!" She panicked.
"Kill me? I don't think he's that kind of guy, Lux." He paused. "Beat the shit out of me and call the cops… probably." He tried to joke but it went horribly wrong. She looked even more scared.
"Do you think that in the end, they would be more pissed if I hid from this or if I stood up for you?" He pointed out. "Lux, you've been incredible. Amazing. It's my turn. And what ever happens, we'll make it okay."
"Promise?" She looked up at him. His arms provided a welcome shelter from the chill.
"Promise." He sealed it with a kiss.
]o[ ]o[ ]o[
Lux closed her phone. She had called ahead to see if Cate and Ryan were home under the disguise that she was passing by a store and wanted to know if they needed anything. With Cate being on the executive side of things, her schedule wasn't always as predictable as it had been. They had come to a mutual agreement that it would be safer for Eric if they told her mother and step-dad first. Ryan might be pissed, Cate might even be. But they weren't likely to launching themselves at him physically.
It wasn't that Baze was violent by nature. It was that he loved, and was passionate. And this was his little girl. It was endearing in its own way, something she loved him for.
"Are you ready to do this?" Eric asked her as she crawled up into his old pick up. She laughed at the mere suggestion. "Right." He confirmed, reaching out to take her hand once more for comfort as much for himself as her.
"We just…need to get this over with." She confirmed, latching on her seat belt as he turned over the engine.
The sun was bright as descended rapidly below the skyline, glaring painfully into their eyes even with the help of visors. But it gave away to streetlights and night. During the ride he tried to distract them from the situation, telling her about the Minnesotan nights with open fields and skies so bright they looked artificial.
"It's beautiful, Lux. Amazing. The lakes are so clear it looks like glass, like you could swim through the stars yourself." He glanced quickly over at her as he switched gears. She had her eyes closed. She was smiling, picturing the sight he described. "I'll have to take you there. It's almost as good as the ocean."
"Mmm. Maybe better." She said through heavy eyes. He chuckled.
His attention turning back to the road he caught something out of the corner of his eye. At his right a car speeding though an intersection. Its driver was out of control. Other cars skidded to a stop or turned away. It was headed directly towards them.
Instinctively, he almost turned towards the open lane. But that would take the car directly into Lux's side. Gritting his teeth he turned the right as well, driving them towards the sidewalk. With the truck in the direction flung himself over the passenger's side trying to shield Lux as the other car met the back of the cab shoving the left hood of the truck into the stationary lamp post at the corner.
The front of the truck crushed in, the left side demolished by the top of the smaller but sizable vehicle. Lux covered her head before impact just as glass shattered around her. The impact had sent her body jerking towards the right. The seatbelt pulled back, but couldn't keep her from crashing into the door. The impact sent her arm and neck into a burn, her vision swimming.
Dizzy and her skin prickling she was aware of three things. One, she was pinned between the door, the seat, dash, and a very heavy body. Two, there was blood on her –whose, she didn't know. Her entire body panged with the aftershock making her unable to tell which way she wriggled was least painful. Three, she was about to lose consciousness.
]o[ ]o[ ]o[
"How long does it take to pick up milk?" Cate absent-mindedly to her husband as she sat the dinner table for them, balancing her young son on her hip. He was unable to responded before the doorbell rang. Sighing he offered to go get it. She had barely heard the door open before her name was called.
Seriously, how hard could it be to turn down girl scouts? Though it was a little late for them to be out, she admitted. Turning into the hallway she stopped at the sight before her. Two officers stood stoically before her husband. This couldn't be good.
"Are you Cate Cassidy?"
"What's wrong?" She asked without waiting for them to beat around the bush.
"Ma'am, your daughter's been involved in an accident.
]o[ ]o[ ]o[
The hospital was buzzing. Apparently the crash had lead to a pile up that had injuries ranging from whiplash to mortality. Cate and Ryan weren't the only parents anxiously trying to distract a nurse to give them the time of day as they ran around the emergancy room trying sort out cases by severity.
"CATE!" the small dark haired woman heard her name being called across the room. Across the crowded room Baze broke through the doors. Tasha was at his heels. She had been to the loft looking for Lux when Cate had called him.
"What HAPPENED? Where is she? Have you heard anything?" He asked narrowly avoiding running into a gurney as the receptionists tried to usher onlookers and panicked family alike back out of the main line. They were only delaying treatment by swarming them.
"No!" She said desperately, almost shaking. The police hadn't had details for her. "I don't see her, Baze! I don't see her!" Ryan reached out to her to keep her from shutting down on everyone, their son firmly in his other arm. The baby delt with the noise better then his parents, watching the fuss frightened but contained to a quivering lipi.
"She might have already been admitted." He tried to reason. "Maybe she's getting treatment."
"Oh my god… LUX!" Tasha's voice drowned them all out, causing them to turn towards the window as the next ambulance came screaming into the drop off. From the distant of windows they saw a battered blonde being wheeled in. Directly behind her was another body, male, one that could be barely made out through blood, braces, and breathing implements.
"Who…" Cate squinted trying to make out the figure.
"Oh god…" Tasha's words were barely audible, but the look of horror on her face told the others that she knew something they didn't.
Before they could ask the paramedics made their way through the doors and started yelling stats at the on call doctor. As they rushed her and the male in back, Baze caught the nurse trailing after them by the arm. "That's my daughter." He said simply.
"Sir, is there any medical condition or allergy we need to be aware of?" She tried to keep it business like. Cate jumped in briefly telling her of her heart condition and that she had no medication sensitivities that they were aware of. The attendant nodded. "I'm sorry, but the doctor will be in to see you as soon as possible. We need to assess her before we will know anything ourselves."
With that the woman was gone leaving Cate yelling after her, Ryan stepped in front of the small group's vision. "She's right. All we're doing is slowing down their work. We've got to get these people calmed down and into the waiting room." He admitted looking at the over whelmed clerks.
After a little yelling, a little humor, and a delayed start due to an unnerved set of biological parents, the room was in a mild frenzy. The time ticked away slowly, agonizingly, and yet all too much and all too fast. Cate had settled down, focusing her nervous energy on entertaining little Alex while they waited to distract him from the noise of the room. As it was he had fallen into a half sleep against her shoulder. Tasha had elected to find one of the seats and was fidgeting nervously. Ryan sat beside her, pulling her into a half hug. As somewhat of an outsider to the makeshift family they had become, he had bounded with the girl a little more. While she wasn't blood, she was dear to Lux. And in this weird life they had he understood the 'not quite a part' feeling he knew she must have.
"She hates hospitals." Tasha spoke, staring at her feet.
"What happened?" Baze repeated, "You weren't exactly chatty on the phone." He grilled Cate.
"The officers said that someone lost control of their breaks at a four way. Lux was in a truck with someone that was hit by the car. It stopped the vehicle, but the truck they were in was pretty much ruined. They didn't know her condition. They just told me they'd be taking her here. Oh god. What if—"
"NO. That's not going to happen, Cate." Baze held a finger up, not allowing her to finish that terrible thought.
"Tasha." Ryan spoke up. "You recognized the other person?" He offered. "Do you know who Lux was with tonight?"
"If I knew she was out somewhere I wouldn't have gone to Baze's." She said, practically. Avoiding.
"But you knew who was on that other stretcher." Baze caught on.
"Tasha." Cate looked at her directly. The teenager looked at the adults, stunned, reluctant.
"Ms. Cassidy? Mr. Bazile?" a weary voice called to them. Instantly their attention was taken to the man in the bleached lab coat.
"That's us." Baze offered.
"Would you come with me please?" Cate looked back at Ryan and Tasha, both looking like an acupuncturist in training was poking them.
"It's okay." Ryan reassured his wife, holding his arms out to take their son. "I'll stay here with Tasha and the little guy." Uncomfortable about excluding him once again, but anxious for news on her daughter she nodded to the doctor. The two former classmates followed him into one of the examination rooms. Lux wasn't in sight, but the chaos and chatter of the emergency room was behind them giving them some sense of privacy.
"Is she okay?" The words left the separate mouths at the same time almost instantly. The doctor had anticipated it.
"Lux should be fine. Currently she's unconscious, but it's likely a mix of natural healing and the medications we have her under. She's going to have a lot of bruising. We had to relocate her shoulder, and her right arm will be out of commission for a while. She's had to have a few stitches from various injuries from projectile fragments."
"What about her heart? She's had a stroke because of an impact before." Cate brought up.
"We don't see any immediate reason to be concerned, but we've sent her for a few scans to be on the safe side. However, we have a few preliminary test results back. Ms. Cassidy, Mr. Bazile, there is something else about your daughter's health you may not be aware of."
]o[ ]o[ ]o[
Beeping. There was that really annoying beeping. Had someone forgotten to check an answering machine or microwave?
Lux groaned, her eyes opening, slowly focusing on the white around her. Splotches of blue indicated curtains while the rough pink and tan blobs to her right slowly formed into the shape of her parents. Their voices were unclear, like the beeping.
"Lux? Lux honey we're here. Can you hear us?"
"Yea?" Why was her voice so groggy, rough?
"Lux," Baze's voice was lower, even. "You've in the hospital. You had a bit of an accident."
Accident?
Lights. screeching, glass. pain, someone calling out to her. Eric! Her mind screamed as she tried to shoot up in her bed only to be reigned in by the pain that followed the fast motion that hadn't allowed her to barely lift her shoulders off of her pillow.
"Shh. It's okay. Lux, relax. You're going to be fine." Cate stood up; the sound of her chair scraping the waxed floor was a bit too sharp. "Just lay back, okay honey?"
Lux let herself listen to them. Once she had her breathe, and her vision back, she listened to them tell her how she had been admitted the night before. Ryan had just taken Tasha home so they could get showers and come back with decent non-cafeteria coffee and clothes for them all.
"But the doctor said that you could be out of here in no time." Baze reassured her. "You just have to rest and get a couple more tests, but if you play it nice and we cater to your every whim…" He tried to make her feel better taking her uneasiness for her disdain for hospitals.
"Good." She said, trying to help him feel better. "...Is…" She started, hoping it wasn't too out of the way but unable to restrain herself any longer. "Is Mr. Daniels okay?" Her parents exchanged an uneasy look.
"…Oh my god." Lux choked. "He's…He…"
"No! Lux, no. He's alive." Cate rushed. Lux felt like she could breath again
"But it's not pretty. He's not doing so good, Kiddo." Baze amended, seeing the panic in her eyes paused. "But he's in good hands, okay?"
Why were they coddling her? There was something they were dancing around. Even in her state she could feel it. "What?" She said plainly.
"Lux…" Cate started, she looked so unsure. She looked weak. "Did you, are you…" her words caught in her throat.
"Did you know you were pregnant?"