The Edge Chapter 4, a fast and the furious fanfic

Chapter 4-The edge

"It's about time." Gio breathed an annoyed sigh as he put his arm around Jayzen protectively, as if to fend off the interested looks of the other racers hanging about.

"I got here as quick as I could, chill out." Jayzen replied, annoyed and just wanting to get him into his car and on with the race. She drew in a quick and shocked breath as he lifted up her chin rather forceful and catching her off guard.

"Don't tell me to chill out. You knew this was important to me." He growled, looking her in the eyes. She looked away, afraid he would be able to read her every thought. "Let's have a better attitude, okay baby girl?" He asked, pulling her closer and kissing her forehead.

"Are we ready to get this race started?" Gio's best friend, Garrett Walhmer, asked the crowd, getting a huge roar of applause. He put his beer can down and pointed to Gio. "Your King of the Streets is here and look, his queen showed up too." Garrett cracked his jokes, getting a drop dead look from Jayzen. The two of them didn't really get along all that well. He reminded her of a typical sidekick of the football star in a small town high school that liked to bully and party and cause trouble. She felt Gio nudge her side, and she stewed silently over him pretty much telling her with that nudge to straighten it up, people were watching her. He was all about his image.

"Jayzen, you counting us down tonight or do we need to have someone fill in for you?" Garrett asked, his eyes locking into hers.

"She's got it. No worries." Gio nodded, taking off his jacket. Jayzen gave him a sarcastic smile.

"Yup, Garratt, I got this. You can go back to drinking your beer." She smiled at him innocently, talking low under her breath.

"Keep it up, Blondie. There are many other girls dying to get with your boy." Garrett growled, smiling as he talked, knowing Gio could see the both of them.

"I'm shaking." She growled, grabbing the race flag from him. "Ready!!" She yelled, hearing the engines gun. "SET!!" She winked at Gio, her heart pumping from the adrenaline of the engines, the mood of the race and the atmosphere. "Go!!" She threw down the flag with such a vengeance the crowd bought it and was more pumped than usual.

"Hey Girl. How's that eye? Your brother home yet?" One of the guys in Gio's crew came up, snacking on a bag of chips.
"It was an accident. And no, he's not home yet." She felt compelled to defend her boyfriend even to one of his boys.

"I know. Just giving you a hard time, girl." Graham nodded, going back to his bag of chips.

"Where's Misty?" She asked, speaking of Graham's girlfriend.

"She's out of town for a while." He nodded. Jayzen's cell phone started to flash, ringing to the tone of Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake.

"Hey, I have to go. I know Gio has at least two legs to go. Can you tell him I had to go? It's Han." She said, knowing not to mess around and make him call her real brother. That was a war she didn't want to start.

"Be prepared to deal with him, but yeah, I'll tell him." Graham promised, opening Jayzen's car door for her. Jayzen drove home, taking her time. The phone flashed at her again, and she reached over to turn it off, now annoyed by it.

"Nice of you to bless us with your presence." Han smirked, leaning on his car when she pulled up in the driveway.

"Your welcome." She shot back, ignoring his sarcasm.

"You know how I feel about you being out with him. What if I told your brother?" He asked, chewing on an apple

"God, do you ever stop eating?" She asked, rolling her eyes.

"Gotta keep in shape." Han shrugged, unphased by her remarks.

"Were you nice to Dominic?" She asked, her eyebrow raised skeptically.

"He's been asleep almost since you left. He was out when I sent my girl to go get some food." Han said, opening the porch door for his adopted little sister.

"Good. I'm tired, I'm going to bed." She said, exhausted from the night's events and all the mental stress.

"Yeah, you should be. All that gallivanting you do." Han remarked with a smile, knowing he was being annoying. That was his job, the way he saw it. He watched Jayzen climb the stairs, her legs seeming like they

weighed like bricks. She was looking a bit older than her years, he mused, as the events of the past but fairly recent events replaying in his head.

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Jayzen drifted off to sleep, watching the stars twinkle above her head in the room her brother had worked so hard to please her with. He had worked hard putting himself through school and raising her since their parents had been killed by a drug lord. Since the justice system had let their killers go without punishment, Brian had vowed to become part of the police force to try to change the system. He had bought this house shortly after their death and made major and minor changes to it. Jayzen being a sullen, angry, scared teenager at the time of her parent's death, he had wanted to give her anything, even if that meant the world. At the time he has asked her what kind of room she had wanted, she smartly replied a room she could see the sky, partly to be difficult and partly meaning it. Never had she dreamed he would actually make her room the exact way she wanted it, but he had. She missed him so much. She had begged to be able to go to LA with him and teared up at the thought of the day he left her in Han's care. She loved Han, he had been around ever since her family had moved here but he wasn't the same as Brian in any way, shape, or form. She jolted awake at her annoying cell phone ringing yet again. She read the number flashing at her, thought it was fuzzy from her eyes still be half closed.

"I'm sorry I had to leave." She mumbled, knowing Gio was going to be pissed at her.

"Jay, it's Garrett." Garrett's deep voice came over the phone.

"Why you calling from Gio's phone?" She asked, sitting up, starting to wake up.

"Jayzen, I have to talk to you. It's important. It's not good." Garrett started.

"Tell me, Now. What is it" She asked, feeling dread in the bottom of her stomach. She drew her knees up to her stomach and took in a deep breath, fighting off the panic attack that was about to happen. She hated to be anxious.

"Gio died. He crashed on the last leg. He started racing again after you left and he crashed on the last leg. He's gone, Jayzen." Garrett's voice was husky and full of emotion. Jayzen felt dizzy all of a sudden and flashbacks of the night in the hospital when she was given the news of her parents death.

"No. no. no" She took in a gasping breath, not able to move. Her heart pumped, her palms were sweaty, and she fell on her bed backwards, ready to scream. The phone fell off the bed and onto the floor, leaving Garrett still talking on the other end. Jayzen's head raced as she tried to figure out what it was she needed to do. She leaned down, still stunned, and picked up the phone. "Where is he at? The hospital?" She asked, her eyes wide.

"His family is at the hospital. Are you sure you are hearing me? He's fucking dead, Jayzen. D-E-A-D. What good would going to the hospital do?" Garrett asked, shouting into the phone. Jayzen hung up the phone and threw on some clothes, still feeling numb.

"Where you going?" Dominic asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Just go back to sleep." She said, heading out the door, the door slamming. She fished for her keys from her pocket. She jetted back inside and took Han's keys from the key rack by the door and jetted back out. She started the car in a haste and backed out without the lights on. She waited until she hit the road and then she turned on the lights and gunned the engine. Pretty soon, she was cruising at full speed down the gravel highway to the small town city hospital. She barely put the car into park as she jumped out to rush inside to the emergency room. "Is he okay?" She rushed to his mother's side. His whole family was there and she was too out of it to realize they were all staring at her as though she was intruding on their private moment.

"Get her out of here." The mother said, her hands shaking. Jayzen looked at her and turned an even whiter sheet of white.

"I wasn't with him…I …I didn't cause it. I didn't do it. Just tell me he's not dead!" Jayzen said, her left over mascara running down her cheeks as one of Gio's brothers pulled her away from the family as the mom was led to a chair. Jayzen couldn't understand why they weren't allowing her to be there, she hadn't done anything and she was practically already adopted into their family.

"You …Bitch! You got him killed!" The sister charged at her, swearing in French.

"What are you talking about? He's not dead, please tell me he's not dead." Jayzen dropped to her knees, feeling pretty dizzy at the moment.

"YOU did it, Jayzen. Get out of here." His brother said, pulling her up from underneath her arms from behind. He helped her to stand hastily and led her outside.

"You are wrong about that, so wrong." Jayzen shook her head, wiping her eyes, and trying to stand up on her own. "I was at home sleeping. I didn't do it." She wailed, her voice breaking again like her heart felt like it was doing at the moment.

"He got his ass kicked because of you. All because you ran home to your little crew and told them what he did and yes, you did get him killed." The brother said angrily, his vein busting out the side of his head. He was shaking with anger.

"I didn't tell anyone anything." Jayzen continued to wail, still holding onto Gio's brother, as if begging him not to go inside. It felt like that would be the final judgment of her really having killed her own boyfriend if he went inside. "Please, please don't go in there. Please. Tell me what happened. I at least deserve to know what happened." She wept, pulling at his arm with panic.

"He got his ass beat because you went and told what he did to you and that he beat you up and he went and got drunk after that because of YOU and what you did and he crashed into a wall doing over a hundred and ten. He never had a chance, Jayzen. NEVER had a fucking chance. I hope you are happy with your life and yourself because if you would have just kept your mouth shut, this would have never happened. Get the fuck off me and get the hell out of here before I do something I'll regret." His brother warned, throwing her into the grass as he tried to shake off her grip. All he wanted to do was be with his family and she was keeping him from doing just that. Jayzen got up and stumbled numbly backwards, trying to gain her footing just like a deer would do after just being born. She took a few gasps of air and felt like she wanted to lie down and die. She wasn't even sure how she made it to the car. She sat there and put her head on the wheel, sobbing until her rib cage felt as though she couldn't take another breath. She continued to sob for another hour or so and started the call, ignoring her cell phone that had been ringing like crazy.

"Hello." She said, finally picking up the phone, not really even registering that she was pulling out of the hospital's emergency parking lot.

"You okay?" Han asked, his voice full of concern. Obviously Dominic had been concerned enough about her to wake him up and after finally getting a hold of her, relief could be heard in his voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just went to see Gio." She said, her voice an eerie calm. She was not aware of how she had quit crying hysterically or how she had managed to sound so calm, she was just thankful she was calm at the moment.

"Forget seeing that punk, I want your ass home right now. DO YOU HEAR ME?" Han asked, raising his voice as he looked outside to notice his car was missing in action.

"I have to go." Jayzen said numbly, her fingers somehow reaching the phone to turn it off. She put both hands back on the wheel to steer but her mind wandered. How was it that anyone had known? Han wouldn't have had enough time to go beat up Gio, Dominic wouldn't have known who he was, and Brian was still in jail. And how many times had she begged Gio not to drink and drive, much less race and drive. His brother's voice kept replaying in her head.

"Yes, you did kill him."

Big tears streamed down her face yet again and she fought to breathe. This wasn't the first car racing accident she had lived through. But it would be her last, she thought loosely. She took a deep breath, her chest feeling like it had two thousand bricks sitting on it. She fought the dizziness that was coming back and she flashbacked to her in the hospital of when Brian had broke the news to her about her parent's being killed.

"What do you mean they didn't make it, Brian?" She asked, still sitting in the hospital waiting room.

"I mean they are dead, J. They didn't make it. Dad's heart quit during surgery. The doctor's tried everything." Brian looked at her with his piercing blue eyes, tears rolling down them as he grabbed her and held her close as she began to sob.

"You're lying! You're just messing with me again! Stop it!" She yelled, punching him as hard as she could, screaming.

"I wish I was, J. I wish I was." Brian said, taken aback by her reaction. The two were so close and she had never acted like this to him. He was 21, she was 14. She felt the familiar chest pain come back to her and she flailed her arms, wanting to get away from Brian as fast as she could. She would never forgive him for playing such a cruel joke on her like this again. It couldn't be true, it wasn't true. Her parents wouldn't leave her like this.

"She's in denial. This is normal, Mr. O'Connor." The doctor put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "In situations like this, and especially in your case, I recommend that you let her see them. Otherwise, she will never believe you or trust you." She could overhear the doctor saying as she stared out the hospital window, her arms hugging her own waist. She fought to control her shaking but she wasn't doing such a good job at it. She would make sure to tell her mom just how bad of a joke Brian was pulling on her. She would get him in all kinds of trouble.

"Won't that be traumatic for her?" Brian's voice cracked as he wiped his tears and stared at his sister.

"It is traumatic no matter how you look at it but I do feel like she needs to see them. It's one way I can feel better about her going with you and believing you and what you are telling her. It is going to be a long road with her if you really are planning to try to get custody of her." The doctor advised.

"I guess I can see your point. Let me talk to her for just a moment." Brian sighed, not sure what to do at this point. He was torn. He himself didn't want to see their dead parents but a part of him wanted to see them too. He wanted to make sure this wasn't a bad dream like he was hoping it would be. He walked over to his sister and put his arms around her from behind. "We can get through this together, Sis." He said, holding her head to his chest as his body racked with sobs. He fought to hold them in for her sake.

"I hate you for saying those awful things! I hate you!" She tried to pull away, gasping for air. She felt like she couldn't breathe anymore. He was taking her very breath from her. He couldn't do this to his own sister, how could he?

"Just come with me and I'll show you." He said, now knowing he had to prove it to her. He pulled her towards the door to follow the doctor. She drug her feet, fighting him all the way to the door. The doctor led them to an elevator and down they went to the basement. In the door marked "Morgue", the doctor swiped the badge.

"Tell me I'm on TV, tell me you're joking!" Jayzen screeched as she read the sign through her tears and fought to get loose of his grip. "Please, pppppleassse." She wailed, her voice going deep from desperation.

"I wish I could, I wish I could. This is the only way." Brian said, getting a better grip on her and leading her into the eerie stone cold room that was laced with silence and heaviness in the air. They were led over to a table where his mother lay, she was covered up to her neck. Brian assumed that was because of all the stab wounds the intruder that had broken into their house had given her.

"NO! NO! NO!" Jayzen dropped to her knees, feeling like she was going to pass out. She struggled to talk much less move. She got up like some wild animal that had just been hit by a car, trying to get up any way she knew how and looked at her mom. She stared at her in silence, not wanting to believe this was her mom in front of her. She was so pale and drained of her normal color. She looked peaceful but that didn't give Jayzen any peace. She stood at her mother's side. "Please, Mommy, talk to me. Anything. Please, please." She tried to shake her mom, withdrawing at how cold she felt. She drew her hand back as though she had been shocked by an electric fence. Brian winced and looked down, hating that his sister was having to go through this. He was at a loss for words and felt like a horrible big brother. He was at a loss as what to do to help her. He couldn't help himself, much less her at the moment he thought with severe frustration. "She won't talk to me, Brian."Jayzen wailed, her voice deep and sounding like she was about to die. It was like a horrible moan and Brian swore he would never get that sound out of his head again."Why won't she talk to me?" She asked, breaking into sobs and falling down to her knees again. That was the last she remembered. The doctor had injected her with a needle and the next time she woke up was to Brian standing over her in the hospital bed as though it had all been a bad dream.

Lights flashing and the sound of a horn passing her by brought her out of the replaying of her memory. She saw more headlights and realized she was on the wrong side of the road. One second more and all she heard was the sound of metal screeching and smelt rubber burning. Then it all went black.