David ignored what was happening around him, his focus was entirely on the gap the rescue team was creating to get to Colby an hour after the second collapse. David was clutching the medical supplies tightly and finally a gap small enough for him to crawl through was made and before any other rescue team member could crawl through David pushed to the front of the group and when the rescue team member protested David just glared at him daring him to stop David from getting to his partner.
David then quickly crawled through the gap and gasped at seeing the still form of Colby. He rushed forward but spun around as the gap he had just crawled through collapsed in on its self.
"David you alright?!" Called Don,
"Yeah!" replied David as he moved to Colby's side and slapped Colby's face. "Colby come on man open your eyes!" This reminded David of the time he had to do CPR on Colby and was thankful that Colby's heart was still beating strong and was still breathing.
"Come on Colby open your eyes!" commanded David and he tightened a bandage around Colby's arm.
Colby groaned and his eyes flickered open, "Dav'd?"
"Yeah it's me buddy" replied David as he leaned more into Colby's line of sight,
"You took your time" murmured Colby,
"Hey, got here as fast as I could and anyway seeing as you're awake you can tell me that story about you and your brothers"
"Huh? Oh right. Well I was 5, Nat was 9 and Ryan was 15 and as it was mother's day and Nat and I thought we'd do something for mom. Big mistake"
~Flashback~
Colby was tucked up in bed wide awake at 5:30 am waiting for Nat to come and get him so they could make a cake for mother's day.
Colby kept his eyes on the door and when it began to creak open he pulled the covers up above his head until he heard a whispered.
"Hey Colby you up?" asked Nat.
"Yeah" whispered Colby as he peaked his eyes above the covers, "the coast clear?"
"Yeah, come on we gotta hurry before mom and dad get up" replied Nat, Colby shot out of bed and together he and Nat made their way downstairs careful to avoid the creaky steps. Over the past three days when they had come up with their plan they had carefully investigated which steps would creak. They made it into the kitchen and checked to make sure their dad hadn't had a similar idea and got to work.
They had decided to make a simple cake so Nat got the mixing bowl, scales and ingredients. While Colby got the recipe book, they stood on some chairs and carefully begun the task of baking their mom a cake, but unfortunately couldn't foresee the trouble they would cause.
Nat cracked for eggs and put them in a mug for Colby to beat while he put 200g of self-rising flour and 200g of softened butter into the mixing bowl.
"Nat I've beaten the eggs" whispered Colby, Nat turned to face his brother and gasped. Colby had managed to get egg in his hair and splattered across his face. Silently Nat took the mug and poured the egg into the bowl.
"Right Colby I'll measure the milk you can put the baking powder and caster sugar in ok?"
Colby nodded enthusiastically and watched as Nat put 2 table spoons of milk into the mixture. Nat turned to put the milk and butter back into the refrigerator and missed seeing Colby put, instead of 1 tea spoon of baking powder, but 2 table spoons of baking powder into the mixture. Thankfully Colby put in the correct measurement of 200g of caster sugar. Colby happily beat in the mixture splattering himself and Nat.
Nat then poured the mixture into the baking tray and placed it in the oven.
"Right we gotta get it out of the oven in half an hour" said Nat, Colby nodded seriously and followed Nat out into the yard to do their chores, for once not having to be forced to do them, it was mother's day after all.
The family lived on what used to be their grandparent's farm but after Grandma (Ellie) and Grandpa (Jordan) Granger felt too tired looking after the farm and with their dad too busy working to help out. A lot of the animals had been sold. But the family did still keep some chickens, a cat named Jetta, three dogs (one for each boy, they had each received a puppy on their fifth birthday) Ryan's dog was a Golden Retriever named Scout, Nat's dog was a Kunming Dog named Wolf for his wolf-like appearance and Colby's dog was a German Shepard puppy of six months named Levi, a goat named Spark (Grandpa had hand raised him and couldn't part with it), a ewe named Fern (which Grandma had hand raised from a lamb after finding her abandoned on the side of the road) and two horses named Scarlett and Zillah who belonged to mom and dad.
Nat and Colby made their way to the barn and put hay in Zillah's and Scarlett's stalls and into the stall Spark and Fern shared (Ryan's job was to help muck out the stalls and turn the horses out to the paddock) Nat put the horse, sheep and goat feed into buckets and put the buckets into the stalls while Colby fed Jetta and the dogs and collected the eggs from the chickens and with Levi trotting at his heels took the eggs back to the kitchen.
That was when Colby spotted smoke drifting out of the oven, not knowing what to do he ran out the house back to the barn, not knowing he had now woken his parents and Grandparents from the banging of the front door. Ryan was still fast asleep as all teenagers would be in the early hours of quarter to six. Levi was excitedly barking jumping up and down thinking Colby was playing with him, but Colby skidded to a halt and huffed "Nat the ovens smoking!"
"What?!" cried Nat as he jogged over to his brother.
"Come see!" and Colby grabbed onto Nat's hand and dragged him into the kitchen where their parents and grandparents were now gathered.
Colby and Nat were just in time to see their dad pull out what was supposed to be a cake, but what was a mess that had exploded in the oven becoming a charcoal mess.
"Boys" warned dad, Colby and Nat gulped looking up at the stern face of their dad.
"We wanted to make a cake for mom as it was mother's day" said Nat,
"Yeah! But I must have read the recipe wrong" added Colby,
"No it was my fault I should have been watching Colby" corrected Nat,
"No it was my fault Nat!" argued Colby,
"No it was mine!" protested Nat,
"Nuh uh!"
"Yeah!"
"I can't believe their fighting over whose fault it was" muttered Jordan as he leaned closer to his wife; Ellie just shook her head fondly watching as her grandsons tried to take the blame for the mess.
"Boys that's enough!" ordered Anne, Colby and Nat stopped mid-sentence to look up at their mother.
"It was a generous thought but next time leave the baking to your Grandma and I until your older ok?"
The boys nodded shocked that their mom wasn't yelling at them, their dad was also shocked.
"That's it Anne?" asked Jack,
"Yes Jack" smiled Anne, "because they only meant well and looking at their clothes they've even done their chores. Is that right boys?"
"Yes mom" chorused Colby and Nat.
"What shall we do with this… er… creation?" asked Jack holding up the attempt of a cake. Jordan took the backing tray and held it down to Levi's nose level. Levi eagerly moved forward to eat it but at one whiff of it yelped and took off outside.
Jordan straightened up and said "well if Levi won't eat neither will I"
"You're always thinking of your stomach" said Ellie looking at her husband fondly.
"Yeah" replied Jordan, making Nat and Colby giggle. They received the signal to go get cleaned up and made their way upstairs.
"That could have gone better" said Nat,
"Well we know where we went wrong so there's always mom's birthday" replied Colby,
"Yeah you're right Colby! Let's do it!" agreed Nat.
~End of Flashback~
David was chuckling at the end of Colby's story and had to ask "you didn't try again for your mom's birthday did you?"
"No" replied Colby, "dad got up early because he guessed we would try again and instead had us just do our chores and make mom's breakfast"
"What was for breakfast?" asked David,
"Orange juice and cereal" Colby smiled wistfully at the memory of the mess he and Nat still managed to create.
"You planning on going out to see them?" asked David checking the bandage on Colby's arm,
"Yeah, but haven't had the chance yet. Any holiday I have had is only a couple of days and it isn't enough for a decent visit.
"Have they come out here?" asked David even though he was pretty sure he knew the answer.
"No, Nat and Ryan have to look after their families and can't afford to bring out their families. And mom and dad need to stay and look after Grandma and Grandpa"
"Oh so it wasn't your Granger grandparents that have died?" said David awkwardly,
"No" smiled Colby, "Grandma and Grandpa Granger are still going strong at the age of 85"
"Oops" said David, and he claimed to know all about Colby after one bored stakeout when they told the other their whole life story.
"You should come out and meet my family. You'd fit right in" stated Colby,
"I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or an insult" David replied frowning.
"Take it however you want" smirked Colby.
Their conversation was interrupted by the rescue team who soon had Colby strapped to a backboard and pulled him out and placed on a stretcher and then rushed to hospital with David sat next to him.
####
An hour later Colby was settled into a room with stitches on his arm and his left leg in a yellow cast.
David who was sat in a chair next to Colby's bed looked at the cast and asked "why yellow man?"
"Because it's different" was Colby's reply,
"That defines you alright" muttered David; he could see Colby was growing tired by his drooping eyes. "Rest Granger and I'll come see you tomorrow" Colby sluggishly waved goodbye and was asleep before David left the room.
Outside David pulled out his cell phone and dialled the number Don had given him.
"Hello Mrs Granger?... My name is David Sinclair I work with Colby…so you have been informed of what happened today…no Mrs Granger he is fine just a little tired…I can do better than send him your love Mrs Granger…you see my boss and I have arranged time off for Colby to come out and visit you for three weeks…oh no Mrs Granger I couldn't put you out like that!...But-…yes Mrs Granger I understand…yes I will take time off as well and join Colby while he visits if you're sure it won't be any trouble…ok Mrs Granger…um sorry…Anne…I'll see you next Tuesday when we land…bye" after he hung up David couldn't wait to see the look on Colby's face when he told him that Colby was able to go home for a three week visit. David was still confused on how Mrs Granger, no Anne, had roped him into coming as well. He shrugged to himself and smiled as he went to buy to plane tickets to Idaho.
A/N one more chapter when David is introduced to the Granger family, I know in the series Colby's dad died when he was 15 but I just felt like having him alive in my story I hope that doesn't bug anyone. Thanks for all the reviews they meant a lot!