In the words of Sia. . . I'm alive! I apologize for the very, very long wait between chapters. . . No excuses.

Enjoy!

Chapter 11

Claire Miller hung up the phone in the waiting room of the hospital, and wiped her eyes. After a moment, she looked over at the girls. "They. . ." She swallowed hard. "The boys just landed at the airport . . . they'll be here in a few minutes." She sighed. "I can only imagine what they're going through."

"Ha," Brittany gave a wry smile. "They probably don't care."

"Brittany!" Mrs. Miller said, stunned for a moment.

"What," she questioned. "They probably only came because Dave said they had to."

Jeanette shook her head. "No. . . Simon still cares . . . I know he does."

"I doubt Alvin does." Brittany looked down. "He doesn't care about anyone but himself."

The woman shook her head. "I can't believe you said that. . . Especially since the two of you used to be so close."

Brittany looked back at the woman "Were, being the key word here." The chipette looked back down, and her voice became low. "We didn't part on the best of terms."

The three of them sat in silence for a few minutes. Then Jeanette spoke up. "You know, I'm kinda exited to see Simon again . . . even under these circumstances." She cast her violet tinged eyes down at the floor for a few moments, and then she looked back at Mrs. Miller. "I've always kicked myself for how we left things. . . And I thought maybe. . ." Her thought was interrupted when the door opened and a familiar group entered the waiting room.

Mrs. Miller stood up as Dave came closer. As the two humans embraced without a word, Alvin and Simon eyed the girls with nervous energy. After a few moments however, Jeanette jumped off the chair. She approached Simon and met his eyes with her own.

His blue eyes were bloodshot and the fur around them was damp with tears. She took his paw in her own, and smiled. "I'm sorry." Then suddenly, she threw her arms around him and embraced him tightly.

To her surprise, she felt his arms around her, holding her just as tight. "I'm sorry too. . ." Simon whispered in her ear. "Is Theodore?" He stopped, unable to make himself say the words.

She gave him a weak smile. "He's stable."

"Can we see him?" Alvin spoke up for the first time. The others looked at him without expression for a few moments, prompting him to speak again. "Please? . . . I" he glanced at Simon, "we need to see him."

After another moment, Jeanette nodded. "I'll show you the way." She looked at Dave. "Do you want to come?"

The father smiled softly, "go ahead. . . I'll be there in a minuet." He sat down in the chair next to Mrs. Miller as the three chipmunks scurried down the hallway. He looked straight into her eyes and got to the point. "What happened?" She took a deep breath, but said nothing. "Please Claire, I need to know." He waited for her to speak, but Brittany spoke instead.

"They were riding in the RV that you rented for them. . . Rosie, Cody, Eleanor and Theodore, Along with Matt in the front seat with one of our drivers, well driving."

Mrs. Miller picked up from there. "They were following one of our stage trucks, with one behind them too. . ." she dabbed her eyes with a tissue. "A car pulled over in front of the first stage truck, cutting him off. . . Our driver couldn't react quickly enough." The woman sniffed and wiped her tears again. "I heard a pop and a crunch and then another pop and crunch."

"Basically, the RV became a sandwich between the two trucks." Brittany said, deciding to give Mrs. Miller a break. "Other than the fact it's about half the length it used to be, its fine." She gave a wry smile, but she could see Dave wasn't amused, so she continued. "The two trucks went to one side of the freeway, and the RV went into the meridian and . . ." She took a deep breath, "rolled onto the roof."

Mrs. Miller reached out and took Dave's hand in her own. "I'm sorry David; Matt was in the front seat with our driver. . . They both died on impact."

Dave felt his heart sink into his stomach.

Matt and Dave were very close, and more like brothers than friends. When Dave was a struggling music artist, Matt was by his side telling his everything would get better. And when Matt's wife died, Dave was giving him the same words of encouragement.

It hurt losing his best friend, but would hurt more if he lost his youngest son.

"And Theodore?" he asked.

"Like Jeanette said," Brittany responded. "He's stable . . . beyond that, we don't really know." There was an edge of anger in her voice. "No one will tell us what happened, not even Eleanor."

"Maybe we just need to give her some time?" Dave said. When she didn't respond, he turned to Mrs. Miller and asked another question. "How's Cody holding up?"

Mrs. Miller glanced down the hallway, then back into Dave' worried eyes. "I don't think it's quite sunk in that his fathers," she unsuccessfully tried to swallow the lump in her throat, "gone". She looked down the hallway again, "at the moment, he's more concerned about Theodore."

Cody gave a small smile as he ran a delicate finger over the chipette's blond colored fur. 'I'm glad she finally fell asleep,' He thought, 'It took her long enough.' After almost two hours of trying, Eleanor had finally fallen asleep in his lap. 'She was definitely beyond tired . . . especially after everything. . .' He tried not to, but he let the events of just a few hours ago go his mind.

Minutes later, he was pulled from his thoughts when he heard three sets of footsteps coming closer to the room. He realized that they weren't footsteps, but paw-steps.

After he placed the sleeping chipette on the bed next to Theodore, he walked to the doorway and stopped. The human focused his eyes on the three of them.

"Simon." He regarded the blue eyed chipmunk neutrally, but when he turned to the chipmunk with brown eyes, his voice held more than an edge of anger.

"Alvin." After a few moments, his voice softened. He turned to Jeanette. "Eleanor finally fell asleep, so we need to be quiet."

The chipette nodded and gave a small smile, "We'll be quiet." She took Simons hand in her own again. "Are you re-"

She was interrupted by Alvin surprise as he was picked up by Cody. "Hey," Alvin struggled to keep his voice at a whisper. "What are you doing?"

"Put my little brother down!" Simon said as his eyes grew wide, "Now!" He also almost failed to keep his voice at a whisper.

"I just want to talk before I let him in there." Cody said, focusing his eyes on Simon. "I promise I won't hurt him." He moved aside to let them in the door. "You can go ahead, if you want." Simon hesitated, so Cody pointed to a bench down the hallway. "We'll be right there."

Alvin looked down at his older brother. "It's okay Simon. . . I know he won't hurt me." He gave the human a pointed look. "Whatever hurts us hurts Theodore, remember. . . Cody wouldn't hurt Theodore."

The blue eyed chipmunk silently nodded and watched as the two of them walked toward the bench. Then, he turned to Jeanette. "Are you ready?"

She raised a curious eyebrow. "Are you? I mean, he's your brother."

He looked back at the door tentatively nodded. "As ready as I'll ever be, I suppose."

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