Fog. I'm walking through fog.
Or not so much walking, but more or less existing. Being. There.
Occasionally if I watch the foggy haze hard enough, I can make out images, or shapes. But they quickly disappear into a wisp of smoke just as fast, leaving me questioning whether I've really seen them or not.
The first time I make out something in the fog, it's colours. Flashing red and blues. Echoes pound in my head, but nothing distinct reaches me. I try to move, but I can't. I can only watch as the images fade to grey again.
The next time the fog actually lifts, but something funny is happening. I'm moving, even though I'm not. Faces I've never seen before swarm out of the nothingness, followed by Joella, Lauren, and Zach. Where's Acacia? I can't remember.
The last time I see through the fog, it's dark out. But I can actually feel a pain in my head, something I didn't feel before. Again I cannot move, but she's there.
Ally's there.
I'm in a room, not my room or my cousins. Everything is a painful white. My eyes hurt, and I close them shut. Everything seems too loud. This time I want to float back into the nothingness.
But before I quite return to the empty fog, I feel something soft and warm brush against my temple. And an angelic voice that belongs to the one and only Ally Dawson say, "I'm sorry."
But it's nothing more than a dream.
Or maybe a memory.
Beep.
The sound of dripping makes me shut my eyes harder. A moan escapes my mouth.
Beep.
I try to roll over to turn off my alarm clock, when I realize I can't. My eyes snap open as I try to jerk upright, but I'm restrained. A shot of adrenaline pumps through me, as I try to get out.
Beep, beep, beep.
I finally manage to look at my surroundings, and the first thing I notice is the strange computer screen above me with a funny line that squigles up and down. It seems to be moving faster every second. The incessant beeping becomes faster.
The door flies open, and a nurse with red hair and thick glasses comes in. Immediately I sigh in relief as I recognize her. I notice the beeping slow down, and realize that it must be connected to my heart rate.
"Austin you're awake!" The nurse smiles, looking less flustered now that she see's my increased heart rate wasn't due to any malfunctions. "How are you feeling sweetie?"
I notice that the reason I must have been restrained is because my limbs are strapped to the bed. Several IV's feed my arms, and tubes are connected up in places you don't want to know about. For the first time, I notice the white cast up my left leg, and the weird greenish hue parts of my skin have. A line of fresh stitches run up the side of my ribcage right under my right arm.
"What happened Donna?" I ask Dez's mother. She works in the medical department of IMF. We must be in a public hospital, although I suspect that Donna is the only surgeon tending to me.
"What can you remember sweetie?" She furrows her eyebrows as she asks me. I close my eyes, and try to look, but all I can see is that haze.
"An explosion," I finally say, as the sound comes to me rather than the image. I try to dig deeper. "Ally."
Donna nods sympathetically. "I'm sorry hun. We should have had better survellance on you guys. Brandt is beating himself up over it. Somehow they rigged a bomb in your hood so that when you started the ignition, it activated the bomb. Thankfully, there were no fatalities."
"Where's Acacia?" I ask, recalling that she was there. Donna turns to the door, and as though on cue, Lauren, and Joella come in.
Lauren and Joella look like they haven't slept in days, but the smile on their faces is genuine. I frown though as only the two of them come in.
"Where's Acacia?" I'm starting to get worried now. Joella shakes her head.
"Don't worry Austin, she's fine. Unfortunately, she needed some skin grafts on her one shoulder, because she got burnt so badly. It's left her bed ridden. But she's in much better condition than you are."
A rush of relief courses through me. I turn back to Donna. "What's the extent of our injuries?"
"Well, other than the skin graft, Acacia thankfully had nothing more than a slight concussion. You, on the other hand, are a completely different story," She tells me.
I gulp. "Lay it on me."
"Well," She looks at her clipboard. "You rip the muscle in your left calf, as well as splintered that shin. You punctured your right lung, and a piece of the car sliced the same side, which explains you stitches. You suffered some brain trauma,but thankfully after the past four days of rest, it seems to havfe worn off. You nervous sys-"
"Wait," I cut Donna off. "Did you say four days?"
Joella smirks. "If getting four days of peace of quiet means knocking you out, we should do it more," she laughs.
"Excuse me, but I'm not the noisy one," I roll my eyes as the girls snicker. "Seriously though. Four days? That makes it what, Wednesday night?" I do the math in my head. Lauren shrugs,
"Actually it's about four in the morning on Thursday."
"Thursday?!" I try to get up again, but am restrained by the stupid straps. "The plays tomorrow! And the Fall Ball!"
"No shiz Sherlock," Joella says. "Thankfully no one has made a move on the Vermeer."
Donna's watch suddenly beeps, and her eyebrows raise when she looks at it. She turns back to me, and begins to loosen the straps that restrain me. And then to my surprise she starts to take off my cast.
"Um, Donna?I know that you're the doctor and everything, but don't I still need that?" I ask. She shakes her head.
"Dennis created a new invention while you were asleep. It's a prototype, but due to the urgency of the situation, your parents signed for it," She tells me, removing the cast and revealing my leg.
Or at least, part of my leg.
"We surgically removed your splintered shin and replaced it with this," She gestures to the cool metal that covers about a foot of where my left shin used to be. I run my fingers over it, unaccustomed to the strange thing.
And then Donna lifts my leg, allowing me to see the wires that run into the muscle.
"Dennis made it so that it's holding together your ripped muscle too. Your skin is still there, it's just been tucked underneath the metal. It wires into the shredded tissue though, so it takes off the stress of when you use it," She informs me as I stare blankly at my leg. "Theoretically of course."
"Can it ever go back to normal?" My voice cracks. Screw the mission. I would have rather had that stupid painting burned than loose my shin and muscle. How could my parents have signed for this? Donna rubs my back slowly.
"Of course hun," She smiles smally. "Once things calm down for a bit, as long as you don't damage it anymore, we should be able to replace the shin with bone again, and allow the muscle to re-heal properly. This just makes you be able to have use of the leg temporarily."
I nod slowly, swallowing the lump in my throat. I suppose it's just for a little bit. And then I will have my real leg back. I just can't injure it anymore.
"Well kiddos, I want to stay, but I'm needed to help with Acacia's graft. I'll see you guys after school," She smiles before leaving the room. At almost the exact instant that she walks out the door, Dez and Zach walk in.
"Austin!" Dez runs forward and engulfs me in a hug. I smile and hug him back. "Hey man."
"My mom didn't embarrass me, did she?" He asked, cringing slightly. I manage to chuckle.
"No, you're good man," I tell him. Zach nods towards me, and I do the same for him.
"Good to see you up," He tells me. I smile.
"Good to be up," I tell him. They all look tired and worn out. "Give me stats guys," I tell them as I begin to pull the wires and needles out from me.
"No action at all Hale wise. Not even a false alarm," Dez says. I sigh in relief.
"Any word on Ally?"
Lauren and Joella share a look, before Lauren turns to me and says, "Ally has been at school acting completely normal. Unfortunately we don't have enough evidence to take her in," Lauren scowls. I shake my head.
"That's because she's good. The guys she's working for, are good too. Good plus good equals no evidence," I sigh. Zach's brow furrows.
"What makes you think she's working for someebody?" He asks, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.
I finish pulling the last IV from my arm, and manage to sit completely u[pright. My muscles are stiff and sore, and so I stretch gently. "Snippets of her conversations point in that direction. Also, the man she met with on Friday seemed to be a messanger relaying information from a superior. And she came and visited me while I was here," I tell them.
"Wait, what?" Dez asks, eyes wide. "How'd she get in? I designed the security for your room myself!"
I shrug. "I don't know, but she apologized as though she didn't really want to blow me up. Makes me think there is someone behind the scenes pulling strings."
"Like a spider in a web," Lauren mutters, quoting Sherlock Holmes again.
"Precisley," I say. But we can't let them win. We need to get the Vermeer before they do. Or at least figure out why they want it," I tentatively place my feet on the cool floor, and apply a bit of pressure. My muscles groan, but holdsteady, even with the new shin.
"Should we go in tonight?" Zach offers. Ishake my head.
"We wouldn't stand a chance against their security, with, or without Dez's help," I say. "And, it's just too packed."
"We need to access it when the pop[ulation level is minimum," Lauren mumbles. I nod.
"Tomorrow night."
"Tomorrow night?" Dez asks confused. Taking a quick breath, I stand up and quickly walk over to the table. My shin hurts, and I almost trip, but I make it, leaving heavily on the table top. Using my left arm, I brush the cups away, and grab some paper. I reach for the pen with my right hand as they crowd around.
"Tomorrow night isn't just the Fall Ball," I tell them, "But also the premiere of the play."
I begin to write numbers down on the paper, caluculating numbers in my head. I approximate a couple, but for the most part, my numbers are accurate to the last decimal. I scrawl another number, and Lauren points to the .07.
"It'd be .08," She tells me, scanning over my equations. I check over my work, and raelize that she's right. I quickly fix the mistake.
"And so," I mutter as I write the last number on the page. Most of them just look at it blankly, but Lauren quickly flits over my calculations. She nods her heaed slowly.
"You're right," She mumbles.
"About what?" Joella looks at the big numbers confused. I don't blame her. Mathematics and Physics were never her forte.
"The majority of the populatio, taking into consideration children and younger ones, shall be at the school tomorrow to see the play. Knowing Marino, they'll hire a good force of officers to keep the party in check," I point to another one of my equations. "Meaning that-"
"We're robbing the Hale tomorrow."
I turn around to see a familiar head of red hair that is too short to be Dez. Acacia rolls in, a shiny wheelchair supporting her. Bandages cover her shoulder, but she's smiling.
"Donna told me you were awake, so I threw a fit until she let me come visit," She explained as I finally smiled a big smile. "Nice to see you got off your lazy butt," She jokes at me. I laugh.
"Good to see you Ace," I tell her, using the nickname I made for her when we were little. Being amazing at sports, it was my very un-original nickname for her. I stopped using it when I turned ten though. Don't know why.
"Planning our next move," Acacia asks, rolling over. She takes my papers with my calculations and looks at them blankly for a second. And then, much to my horror, she rips theminto pieces.
"Hey!" I protest, eyes wide. Acacia rolls her eyes.
"Wheelchair or not, I can still beat you up," she warns me, sending me into silence, and Zach into a fit of laughter. I mutter something under my breath, but she sends me a glare, and for health reasons, I shut-up.
"So your saying that tomorrow, we should get the painting while during the premiere of a play in which you play the lead role?" Joella asks incredously.
"With any luck, we'll grab and go and get to the ball before intermission. I'll be able to be in the second half, and no one will suspect a thing," I figure. "Connor, my understudy, will just have to be prepared."
"Let's hope," Zach mutters.
We spend the next couple of hours studying blue prints and figuring out plans. By the time we're ready to head to school, we have our usual foolproof plan ready.
Sore does not describe how I feel as I climb out of my car, and into the parking lot of Marino High. I'm burning. And not just because of my good looks. Zach ran me through a couple of excersises to wake up my dormant muscles this morning, and now I'm beginning to regret it. But I should look at the plus side. I can walk,can't I?
Joella had picked out my outfit, it being cool, yet comfy so as not to put strain on my stitches. he shirt is a loose blue and white stripped shirt, that has a couple of buttons down the front. I'm wearing black skinnies and vanns to finish off the outfit.
Because the sleeves of the shirt are only three-quarter legnth, some of my stitches and bruises show. But Acacia tells meto leave them uncovered, because they make me look 'tuff.' I just think she's been listening to Joella for too long.
With myleft hand I hold a slim, silver cane, that is attached to my wrist. I don't need it to walk, but when I stand it's good for me to put my weight on it so that I don't strain the machineryin my shin too much.
Surprisingly, I didn't get burnt like Acacia did, but I do have quite the blue jaw from hitting my face on the ground. Ruffling my hair, and sliding on my aviaters, I step outof my car, the others hot on my heels.
Acacia is wearing one of my loose, baggy t-shirts and sweats, because she still has the bandageson her skin grafts. Lauren and Joella finally look rested, and wear simple summer dresses. The first time I saw them I did a double take. It's almost impossible to get Lauren into a dress.
Zach is rocking the bad boy look to finish off our group. AsI wince at the sunlight, I catch people staring at us and whispering. Whenever I look their way though, they immedietaly get quiet.
As we walk through the halls of Marino High, peopl look at us, but we ignore them, walking purpposefully. I don't know what they know, but I do know that it must be better than the truth.
And then I see her, talking with Trish at her locker. As we walk by, she looks up slowly.
And the look on her face is p[riceless.
At first it's shock, and her mouth hangs open in surprise. She quickly closes it, but her eyes are still wide. And then a look close to something like admiration fills them. But she's still surp[rised. I would be to if I was her.
As we pass I smirk at her, raising my eyebrows slightly. And it manages to convey everything.
I'm Austin Moon for crying outloud.
It's a lot harder to kill me then that.
Hey guys, sorry for the wait. Life's been crazy. All I can suggest is that you read some of my other fics in between the wait. Yeah, you guys should do that. Hope you guys like, and pretty please review!