Chapter 2 – A call for help

Tommy's world tilted when he picked up the phone. Its shrill ring that cut through the darkness should have been a warning, but all it was, was a rude awakening that chased away sleep and mocked dreams. The phone call was a crashing of reality that destroyed everything, everything except friendship. That phone call was an ending and in some ways a beginning; in a tilted world how can you tell?

"Hello?" Tommy tried to shake the sleep from his head and focus on the voice coming from the other end.

"Are you Thomas Oliver?"

"The serious tone of voice penetrated his head and started a tingle up his spine. "Um yeah, can I help you?" He checked the alarm, it was one in the morning.

"I'm calling from Angel Grove, St Michael's hospital, I'm sorry to inform that your friend Jason Lee Scott has been involved in an accident."

It was an instant. An instant that made his heart stop and his chest clench, lack of air made him feel sick and the world was momentarily blank. The world crashed back in.

"What kind of accident? What happened?" The questions poured from his mouth and his mind raced as he pulled himself out of bed and started to hunt for his clothes.

"We believe it was a car accident, I'm afraid we can't really discuss the details over the phone-"

"What do you mean you can't discuss the details?" Tommy asked incredulously. "Well is he okay, I mean is he alive?"

"He's currently being operated on-"

"Shit," Tommy interrupted the voice again. "I'll be there in a few hours." He slammed down the phone, managing to resist the urge to scream and rage at the person on the other end. They had phoned him to tell him that his friend was in hospital but then tell him that they can't say anything else, what was the point? Even in his panic crazed mind he had known that shouting wouldn't get him there faster but driving like the devil was after you would.

The roads were empty and dark except for the occasional twinkling of lights telling him he wasn't quite alone, that the world was still there for him, still waiting. It was in the darkness that it crashed in on him like a rolling wave on the surf. Jason's parents were dead and he had no other close relatives, Tommy remembered all too well the day Jason had come over and told him he had placed him as next of kin. The seriousness of such an act had never really hit Tommy until now; it was power over life and death and though he and Jason had laughed it off the words had always been serious.

"I don't have anyone else Tommy and I don't think I would want anyone else. We always say we're brothers and one day I might need you to be exactly that Tom, okay?"

"Come on Jase," Tommy's voice was laced with nervousness. "You'll be fine for ages yet, what's brought this on?"

Jason scrubbed a hand through his hair. "I'm going to be traveling a lot for a while bro and if something happens to me whilst I'm gone I'm going to need someone to do certain things for me and…and I want you to bring me back."

Tommy looked at the paper in his hand without really seeing it. "It'll be okay," Jason said, placing a hand on Tommy's shoulder. "I'll be around for a while yet and besides you'll probably never need this; I'll meet a hot girl and settle down in which case she'll be my next of kin. Her and our thirteen kids, and you and I will grow to be old and balding men!"

Tommy laughed, the conversation slipped back into its usual banter. "Well baldness might run in your family bro but I can tell you now I'm going to be the best looking grandpa you ever saw!"

It was funny how a few words spoken years ago could have such a profound effect, could change the course of two lives. Tommy had almost forgotten the duty Jason had given him, they'd spoken on the phone just the other day and now his friend, his brother was fighting. They'd been fighting their whole lives but now it seemed that the fight, that struggle for life was worth a whole lot more.

Tommy knew he'd have to let the others know, they had to know and if Jason died…No, no he wouldn't think like that because losing his brother was like losing everything, was like losing the world. The road was long but he'd get there eventually and when he did he wasn't going anywhere for a long time; he had to stay, to just be there because that was what really mattered in the end, he could say he had been there.

It was strange that the world no matter how tilted and distorted it was could go on just as it always had. Yet his world had somehow stopped and it felt like everything between now and when he had last spoken to Jason was simply a kind of waiting; as though time stopped between their conversations. The world was waiting, waiting for him to rejoin it, to continue its usual thread and rejoin the millions of people who walked through life as they had always done until one day their world was shifted.

The lights still twinkled through the windows beckoning him back, calling to him. It was still out there, life was still out there and the world still turned and life continued. It was still waiting for him, he wasn't alone.

A/N This chapter sets up some recurring themes which are meant to tie the whole story together so don't get confused at the continual repetition. xxx