Chapter 6

Kristina stood at the doorway looking into the hospital room. With all the bruises and cuts it was hard to tell who was lying in the bed hook to all of the machines. She knew it was her cousin, but he looked like a stranger. Her other cousin sat vigil by the bedside, his face buried deep in his hands.

"Hey," She said, finally making her presence known.

He looked up. His dark eyes looked so tired. It was almost amazing that he was even awake. "Hey, Kris…what are you doing here this early?"

"I came to relieve you." She pulled the stool next to the bed and sat down. "You need to go home. Take a shower; get some rest…something to eat."

"I'm not hungry," he said turning away from her gaze.

"Oh, now you're starting to sound like Samantha."

"How is Sam doing?" He asked. He knew the circumstances. Hell he was there. He knew that Sam was blaming herself for the accident. And for a moment he blamed her too. It was easier to blame Sam than to accept what was happening. It seemed to be a family trait. But he loved his cousin and was genuinely concerned for her.

"Same…" Kristina answered. "She's having a hard time with it."

He got up and paced the room rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, she came by last night, but she didn't stay."

"I had a feeling that she was here. She didn't make it to dinner again last night. When I found her, she was at work."

"Has she eaten?" he asked.

"No. Mom's been pretty worried about her."

"How is Aunt Alexis?"

"She's putting up a strong front. But you know how Mom is…"

He nodded as he sat back down. He knew that Alexis was going to put everyone else above her. That's just the way that she was. The matriarch of the family; Helena would have been so proud. He laughed to himself when he pictured the look on Helena's face. I'm sure great-grandmother is rolling in her grave; knowing that Alexis was the one that survived them all.

"Molly's back." Kristina said breaking the silence. He looked up. "She and Ty got in last night. Sam called her."

"Does she know?"

"She knows bits and pieces. Sam only made it through about half of the story when she ran out of the room."

He closed his eyes and held them until the tired burn faded away. He could feel tears coming as he tried to fight them. He curled his fingers into a fist and placed them over his mouth as he turned to Kristina. "I can't do this Kris," he started to cry.

Kristina leaned over and pulled him into her arms. "Shh. I know."

"NO. You don't know. You can't know." He pulled away and started pacing again.

"He's laying there dying, Tina. And he hates me."

She got up and pulled him into another embrace. He wrapped his arms around her tightly as he cried into her shoulder. "My dad hates me, Tina. My dad hates me."

Kristina stood there and held him tight. Just like her sister had done for her so many times through the years. She let him cry. He needed to cry. He needed to tell someone how he felt even if it wasn't justified.

"He doesn't hate you, Spence," she assured when his sobbing slowed. He pulled away and wiped his tear stained face.

"He's lying here dying and there's not a damn thing that I can do about it."

Kristina closed her eyes and listened to his rant. "Our family owns this damn hospital and we can't save him. What the hell is wrong with that picture?" With one swing of his arm, in anger, he pushed everything that was on the table tray to the floor.

"Who…who are you calling?" he asked when Kristina pulled out her cell phone.

"Mom…" she answered. "You need to get out of here for awhile."

"No, Tina. No."

"Spencer, please just let Mom take to you the Lakehouse for a while. Visit with Molly, take a nap, get something to eat."

"NO!" He yelled slapping the phone out of Kristina's hand when she hit send.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa…what's going on in here?" Lucky and Lulu entered the room. Lucky pushed Spencer against the wall breaking up the altercation.

"Take him home," Kristina said looking from Lulu to Spencer. "He needs to get out of here. He needs a break."

Kristina fled from the hospital room. She stopped in the hallway a few doors down and let the tears fall. She knew that this was hard on Spencer it was hard on them all. Once her tears slowed, she made her way to her car. But she couldn't drive. Her mind kept remembering when they were kids.

Flashback

"Come on, Spencer..." Kristina called to her younger cousin and sister. The three were walking the path from the big castle to the stables. They had dug through the pantry until they each found an item. Kristina was carrying a bag of carrots, Molly had the bottom of her shirt curled up to form a pouch that was filled with apples, and Spencer was skipping behind holding a box of sugar cubes.

"There he is, I see him." Molly called out as she point to the fenced in barnyard. "Rubi...we're coming and we have goodies." The trio had waited all afternoon for the stable hand to put the horses out to graze in the afternoon sun. Kristina new the schedule and was watching the clock. When it struck 1:00 she gathered her sister and cousin.

As they got closer to the wooden fence, they all took off running. Each trying to be the first to give Rubicon a treat. But Spencer was the one that Rubicon was looking for. The little boy that he came to visit him every day. Spencer carefully pulled a handful of sugarcubes out of the box and placed them in his hand. He crawled up onto the wooden rung and gleefully held out his sugarfilled hand. Rubicon gently licked the sugarcubes out of the little boys hand. Spencer giggled all the while.

The animal moved to the next child, opened his lips and snatched the whole apple from Molly's small hand. He alternated between apples and carrots until the children's supply of goodies was exhausted. Spencer once again held out his hand. Rubicon knew what Spencer wanted. The horse turned sideways along the fence allowing all three kids to use the fence as a ladder and crawl onto his back. Spencer had a tight grip on Rubicon's mane, Molly sat behind Spencer and wrapped her arms around his waist to hold on. Kristina crawled up behind Molly and held onto her little sister.

Rubi always knew when the kids were riding and always gingerly walked around the barnyard. The kids never saw any harm in this activity. Rubicon was such a quiet horse. But this day was different. Nobody noticed the rabbit that was chewing on the long grass. The rabbit frieghtened Rubicon when it poked it's head up as the horse drew near. Rubicon quickly jumped to the side when the rabbit took off on a high speed run. Each child was caught unawares and all three landed flat on their backs in the barn yard.

Spencer was the first to get up. He wiped his hands on the back of his pants then turned to help the girls. "Boy that was fun," he laughed.

"My butt hurts," Molly replied.

Kristina looked around to make sure that no adults had seen. She was relieve that she didn't see anyone in sight. "Are you two okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, lets do it again...Rubi...come here boy..."

"No Spencer, if Mom finds out we fell off the horse, we're all dead." Kristina was wishing that she had stopped them before they got on the horse.

They made a pact that day. They would never ride Rubicon by theirselves again. And they would never, ever tell their parents.

"I promise, I will never tell anyone about today" Spencer stated.

"Me neither." Molly followed.

"I won't either." Kristina finished.

"What about you rubi. Are you gonna tell?" Rubicon simply snorted and shook his head.

Kristina smiled to herself as she remembered that day. "We'll be okay, Spence.I'll still never tell" she whispered.