Hola... I know. Its been awhile. I wont even go into detail about why I have been neglecting to write.
Oh my gosh though!!! I was sucked into Dark Visions, Volume One, The strange Power by L.J. Smith the minute I opened it!!!! READ IT!!!
On a calmer note I will say I'm sorry for making you wait so long.
******
"Hello, this is Officer Trent from Rockford Emergency Response Unit. I'm calling to inform you that Mr. Robert Faysher has been in an accident--"
******
"-and has been transported to St. Anthony's Medical Center and is undergoing surgery. If you would like to know more call 1-815-555-8374 and ask for Julie Lebid. She will give you the needed information. Good-bye."
"No!" Anne whispered unsure that she heard right.
She let go of Garrett faster than he did and nearly tripped. The answering machine had cut off and the voice of the officer was gone. She rushed to the kitchen where the machine blinked a lazy red eye, mocking her. She nearly ripped the phone off the wall in her haste to dial the number that the officer had left her to call for information.
The buzzing sound in her ear cut off at the second ring and when a sing songy female voice picked up. "Hello, St. Anthony's Lobby C and Emergency Room Receptionist?"
Anne figured she knew what she was going to say or ask whoever answered the phone but at the sound of this woman's voice all Anne's thoughts seemed to drain out.
"Hello? Is someone there?" The still-cheery voice asked from the other end of the line. Anne did the first thing she could make her frozen self do.
She hung up, snapping the phone back against the wall so hard it jarred her arm.
"Anne..." she vaguely heard Garrett say, the worry evident in his quiet voice. He stood behind her in the kitchen entrance, his strong arms folded over his chest, a frozen statue with snapping blue eyes.
She did not say anything but rushed around him and down the hall to the front of her house where she grabbed her shoes and shoved her feet into them. She stood up quickly, remembering she needed a coat for the nights were still cold and knocked her head against a shelf that hung on the wall in the foyer. Anne rubbed the spot, silently wondering about how much more her head could take without it just splitting open.
"Anna-Lorraine Faysher," Garrett said softly but firmly his voice very near. "Will you slow down and think for a minute before you hurt yourself again?"
She glanced at him and then bent down to quickly tie her loose shoe laces. Her clumsy fingers only succeeded in creating knots. She sighed in frustration and sat down hard her back against the front door her head in her hands.
"Anne?" Garrett asked making her look up at him. He had come to stop in front of her and stood less then two feet away. The distance was much more than she wished it to be but she could not think about him at the moment. She needed to concentrate on her father; her father that had been in an accident and was in surgery getting poked and prodded by metal contraptions as she sat there.
That fact suddenly came crashing down on her and Anne stumbled as she tried to push herself up from where she was sitting. Garrett was kneeling next to her in a heart beat putting out a gentle hand to steady her. Anne abruptly found herself clinging to his warm body and sobbing into his shoulder. Her thoughts were whirling and she momentarily felt bad for Garrett for not even she could make heads or tails out of anything that went through her head let alone someone who could hear what she was thinking.
"Anne you need to calm down-" He tried to say but she leaned away from him. The look she was giving him made him stop in the middle of his sentence.
"Calm down?" She repeated wiping her tears off with the back of her hand. "Garrett how can you ask that from me? My father is in the hospital-"
"Yes, I got that part but Anne," he brushed a fly away piece of hair from her face leaving a trail of sparks across her skin, "you want to go to the hospital but once you get there what are you going to do? Sit there in the uncomfortable waiting room chairs and read old magazines? You went through that once in your life already; do you want to do it again?"
"Do you think I want to?" She asked feeling a tear flow down her cheek. "I have had my fill of hospital waiting rooms since my mom had to go there all those times but now... I need to be there for my dad and-and..."
He cut her stumbling sentence off with a gentle kiss to her cheek, following the salty trail the teardrop had created. She could not stop the gasp from slipping out her lips or the beat of her heart from picking up. She definitely could not block the electricity that now inhabited her mind nor the silver cord that hummed under their feet.
Anne knew she should stop him and get back to trying to stand up and getting her coat. She really did not want to but she needed to try anyway just to say that she did.
"Garrett..." she sighed his name out.
"Sorry," he whispered against her skin, "But, I can't help it. You're hurting and I don't know how to help you. I feel as helpless as I did when your mother was sick. And," he said quietly, "Your eyes glow when you're angry and your cheeks get all flushed." He moved his soft mouth farther along her cheek and jaw. He trailed his lips across to her neck placing gentle kisses against it and making her breathless. "It's almost too hard to restrain myself."
Anne immediately made herself move away from him although it hurt her heart to do so. "Garrett..."
Anxiety flashed in his eyes at her fear filled expression. "I'm sorry Annie, I didn't mean to scare you." He bent his head down looking ashamed, "I have been restraining myself for the past twelve years and it's only gotten easier with time so you shouldn't worry about that. Finally being open with you about my feelings..." he paused and gave me a crooked smile, "let's just say it's intoxicating and it makes it hard to think straight."
"It's okay," she told him quietly moving to take his hand in hers. She added in a whispering voice as she twined her fingers with his a dim gold light framing her eyesight as she looked at him, "At least I think it's okay. But Garrett Redfern, I have other things to worry about and you are distracting me."
"Darn you caught me..." he said with a soft laugh. He looked up catching her green eyes with his bright blue ones and placed his free hand gently against her cheek. A current of golden light flowed through her body from that place of connection and from where there hands linked.
Neither of them were able to move from that spot nor did they particularly want to.
Slam!
The two of them jumped when the sound of the garage door leading to the kitchen crashed open and a voice rang through the otherwise silent house.
"Annie Bananie! I brought food home!"
"Oh my gosh. Braden..." she whispered not breaking her gaze from Garrett's but feeling a weight press itself back against her momentarily relieved shoulders. "He wouldn't know about our-our father."
"Well then you best tell him," Garrett said, gracefully standing and pulling her up with him.
"Anne, where are you?" Braden called just as he turned down the hallway and caught sight of them. His voice lost its joking tone when he spotted Garrett standing so close to his little sister. "What the heck are you doing here, Redfern?"
Anne did not need the power of telepathy to know what her brother was thinking as he took in her disheveled appearance and tear-stained, flushed cheeks.
"Brad..." Anne tried to explain but it was too late. Her brother charged at, grabbed, and then rammed the compliant vampire up against the wall.
Braden shook Garrett none too gently who, in turn, did not lift a finger to defend himself. Her brother yelled, "I thought you were just giving her a ride home! What the hell have you been doing here for the last four hours? Why did you make her cry?"
"Braden!" Anne said rushing over to yank her brother away from her friend. It wouldn't have worked if Garrett hadn't been silently 'convincing' her brother to let go anyway but since he was she dragged him back while saying, "He didn't do anything to make me cry!"
"Well when I come back to the house I don't usually expect my little sister to have some boy over when no one else is home," Braden said heatedly still glaring at Garrett. "What else am I supposed to think when I see the two of you standing so close and you with tears all down your face?"
Anne replied just as angrily, "I would have hoped you'd think something sane and not have blown this way out of proportion. And Garrett isn't some boy. He's been over a hundred times without adult supervision."
"Uhh, did I miss something?" A quiet, shocked voice said from down the hallway.
Anne turned while keeping her hands on Braden and saw that Lerata was standing in the kitchen entrance with a bag of Subway sandwiches in her hands.
Garrett visibly stiffened when Lerata walked farther into the room and Anne could not even guess why the short, slender female would effect him like that. Instead she said, "You didn't miss anything. We're just having a minor altercation."
"A minor altercation that will end with Redfern walking out the door and not coming back for a while," Braden practically hissed through his clenched teeth. "Anna-Lorraine let go."
"Are you going to charge him again?" She asked hesitating. When he nodded but kept glaring at Garrett she rolled her eyes and dropped her hands from where they had held her brother.
"You heard me, Redfern, leave." Bradon said gesturing at the front door.
Garrett did not immediately turn to leave but instead looked at Anne asking a silent question in not so many words.
She nodded ever so slightly hoping that he could see that she did not truly want him to go just that it would be easier for her to tell the news to Bradon if he was not seething at Garrett. She took a step towards the door and pulled it open letting in a chilly breeze that wafted its way around the four of them. Garrett sighed slowly and forced a grin to his features as he walked to the threshold.
"Garrett," she whispered suddenly stopping his steps. Her brother was quietly talking to Lerata his words drowning out what Anne said next, "I-"
She did not have to finish her sentence for he knew what she was trying to say. He nodded. Before he stepped out into the night he briefly laid a warm and electrifying hand over hers that was holding on to the front door's handle. He smiled down at her, a sad and loving one and then went out the door. His long legs carried him swiftly and gracefully across the lawn where at the edge of the grass he turned to meet Anne's watching eyes. The sun finished setting but a last ray glanced over Garrett's face flashing over his eyes making them go silver, gold, then the blue that Anne knew she could peacefully drown in.
You know, Garrett said in her mind and making Anne jump slightly. What your brother was thinking when he saw the two of us in the front hall wasn't that far off from the truth. Though he did blow it way out of proportion. You kept you shirt on the whole time.
She rolled her eyes though a shaky grin spread across her face. You are such a guy, even if you do sprout fangs on occasion. A quiet chuckle drifted across the lawn to her ears. Then it stopped as Anne went on. I have one question though, she said to him and biting her lip. What... what was that thing that happened between us? It didn't seem real but I definitely could not have imagined it.
I told you Annie, came his sweet answer, it's called the soulmate principle.
Soulmate... Anne repeated a shiver going down her spine at the truth that that one word held. She leaned against the still open door and sighed. That sounds.... scary.
He was back in front of her in a heartbeat, his eyes filled with many emotions that Anne could not read. Scary? Why? I won't ever hurt you. I'll protect you from everything-
Garrett, she said interrupting his silent tirade. Glancing back behind her to see her brother and Lerata still deeply immersed in their conversation Anne swiftly stood on her tiptoes and threw her arms around his neck. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and inhaled his unique spicy aroma. It's not you that scares me. It's the fact that my free will was taken away from me. I never got the chance to think about what I wanted. This soulmate thing really is uncontrollable and overpowering and its sheer power is enough to terrify even the strongest person.
So you regret that it was me that this happened to you with? His voice nearly broke her heart when she heard the dejection and misery in it.
"No, Garrett," Anne said out loud this time and leaned back to look into his eyes. "You are my other half. You have always been my friend, my brother, and now you get to be my boyfriend, and eventually maybe even my husband but," she paused and lost her voice for it was starting to get choked with emotions. But now I'm getting ahead of myself. I need to go and so do you.
Speaking of getting ahead of yourself... he paused, with his crooked grin showing on his pale, beautiful face. The next words were a whisper through her mind like his lips had been on her skin. I love you Anna-Lorraine.
She could not help but smile as her heart fluttered. I have the sudden urge to say I know and that I should have realized a long time ago that I love you too.
They were leaning towards each other as if a magnet was pulling them closer when Bradon's voice interrupted.
"Anna-Lorraine!" It thundered angrily behind her.
"Our separate paths call," Garrett whispered his breath tickling her ear. "Remember to be strong and that I'm only a phone call away. Or if I'm close enough all you have to do is think my name. I'll hear it if it kills me."
"It better not kill you," she objected. "I couldn't live without you."
"Well since dying is not on my agenda to do..." he said teasingly and earning an eye roll from her.
"Anne!" Bradon yelled from inside again making her frown.
"Bye, Gary..." she whispered still not ready to let him go and return to the pain that waited for her.
"Bye, Annie." He slowly removed his arms from where they had held her against him and started to walk away through the dark. She knew when he had left the edge of her yard and disappeared into the night.
"So," Braden said causing her to turn and meet his fuming gaze, "just what were you two doing? And also, if he didn't make you cry what did?"
The world and the everything that went with it came back and Anne had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep herself from crying. "Come here," she said heading around them to the kitchen, "you have to listen to this."
The red light that signaled a message continued to blink as the three of them stopped next to the machine where it rested on top of the counter top. Anne slowly reached out and hit the play button. She focused in on watching Braden's reaction knowing if she listened to the reminder that her father was in the hospital she would break down again. But as she watched her big, strong brother seem to cave in on himself as he heard what had caused his sister's tears she felt emptier than ever.
"We need to get to the hospital," Braden said finally after a moment of staring blankly at the answering machine. He searched his pockets for the keys to his car while Anne just nodded and went to grab her coat. She came back to see Lerata grab the keys from Anne's brother's back pocket making a visible shiver race through his big body even as his face grew paler by the second.
The small blond female said, "I'll drive Brad, since neither of you are in any condition to do so."
"Fine..." Braden said, clearly still in shock after hearing the message for otherwise he would have argued and demanded to drive them.
It could not have taken more than a few minutes for them to get situated in the car and start driving, but to Anne it felt like a century since Garrett had left. And the ride to the hospital was silent. It was so different from the song that had been playing in her head since that afternoon. She leaned her head against the cold glass of the window and let more tears fall as all the warmth Garrett had given her left her body.
How- why- Nothing would connect in her mind, all her thoughts leading to dead ends in a labyrinth. What she did register was Lerata's manic driving and her brother's wide-eyed gaze as the big five story stone, brick, and steel hospital building with its blazing lights came into view.
The inside hospital lights were too bright and everything seemed to gleam. People were everywhere in the place where Anne, Braden and Lerata walked in.
Braden immediately walked up to the front desk foregoing the line that was already there and said in a demanding voice, "We would like to know what room, if any, that Mr. Robert Faysher is in. He was in some sort of accident if that helps at all."
"I'm sorry son," one of the receptionists said looking up briefly from where she was typing rapidly on her computer, "But you need to wait in line just like everyone else."
"But," Bradon tried to say but was pushed back by the next few people who bustled up to the desk.
"Let me," Lerata said putting a hand on Braden's shoulder. The violet eyed female turned and smiled at the woman behind the counter. "Excuse me," she said politely.
The receptionist did not even look up at Lerata as she answered, "I'm sorry, miss, but I just told your friend that you will have to wait in line."
"This is important though," Lerata said in a quiet voice as her fingers almost subconsciously started to play around with a necklace that Anne just noticed was around the blond's neck.
It looked to be some type of jewel but as it caught and threw around the fluorescent lights Anne had to look away from its piercing beauty. Instead she looked at the woman who had glanced up from where she was shuffling papers and now saw Lerata's necklace and its charm. Something fell from the woman's stern gaze making it become relaxed and much more open.
"What?" She asked in a shaky voice, "Mr. Robert what... oh yes, yes I remember. I need to see some identification first-"
Braden whipped out his driver's license even before she was finished and made the woman pause to look at it.
"Okay then," she said handing it back still with a vague glaze over her eyes, "one moment please. I need to look it up."
"Thank you very much," Lerata said with a blazing smile and tucking her necklace back under her shirt. The blond turned to Braden and said, "You just need a woman's touch on conversations sometimes."
Anne was not so sure for a tickling feeling had started to become apparent in the back of her head. But she brushed it off when the woman started talking.
"Just go up to the third floor and the ward that's marked Trauma," the nurse said to the three of them. "When his surgery is done Mr. Faysher will be moved to the Critical Care Unit room 316."
Anne and Braden were already heading to the elevators as the nurse finished speaking.
"Thank you," Anne yelled over her shoulder as her brother mauled the UP button for the elevator hitting the already lit-up switch many more times than necessary.
"Brad," Lerata said putting a hand over his as it hit the button again. "It's coming, now calm down. Your father will be fine-"
Her sentence was interrupted when the elevator doors slid open and the rushed into the nearly empty car. Its doors closed and they made their way up at an agonizingly slow speed. Lerata did not bother to finish what she had started to say.
Finally the elevator's doors opened on to the third level and they rushed out but not before Anne said quietly to Lerata, "I'm sorry you have to be caught up in this. This probably wasn't the way you wanted to spend your Saturday night here."
"It's okay," the blond responded with a small smile, "I'd rather be with Braden than anywhere else."
"You really care about him don't you?" Anne asked as they turned a corner of the hallway, "I haven't known you that long but I can really tell that you care about my brother."
Lerata's smile widened and she nodded. "It was one of those moments that the movies describe, the ones that tell about how you just know that you are meant for each other. The minute I saw your brother, which was right after he was done with his football practice mind you, I thought he was the most amazing guy I had ever seen. Though my family would kill me if they knew about my feelings for Brad..."
Anne was prevented from asking just what she meant by that when their small trio rounded a last corner ans were met by a flurry of activity that consisted of nurses and a very tired and hassled looking doctor.
"Dr. Barnhart!" Anne called to the man in the flapping white coat. Dr. Barnhart had been her families doctor ever since Braden was born and he had been with the Fayshers as their mother had slowly succumbed to cancer. Now the man was dressed in the smocks and funny looking surgical clothes and as he turned to look to see who had called his name Anne saw his eyes were glassy and the look of shock was evident.
"Anne, Braden? What- Oh," he said practically all in the same breath as understanding dawned on him. "You heard. I had thought that I could break the news to you myself but-"
"A police officer called our house and told us our father was in surgery," Braden asked in a rush. "Where is he now?"
Dr. Barnhart looked at the tall young man and then at his sister and the other female standing next to him. "You haven't heard? Oh my," he said quietly making Anne's heart start to pound loudly in her chest. He gestured for the three of them to follow him down the hall and into an empty room where over night patients would normally stay. "Listen before I say anything-"
"What happened?" Braden demanded interrupting whatever the older man was going to say. The doctor looked from each of their faces. "Anne, Braden I'm terribly sorry but-" Dr. Barnhart paused and seemed to get choked up for a moment.
"But what?" Anne asked not wanting to know why the man was looking at them with such a pitying face.
The doctor put a gentle hand on her shoulder trying in his professional way to calm her down even before he broke the news. "I'm terribly sorry to have to bring this information to you but your father was declared dead a half an hour ago."
***
Anne's heart stopped briefly before she shook her head and asked, "You can't be serious can you? The officer said he was alive and in surgury, he was... he was..."
Her voice dropped off as the older man continued to shakes his head and when he said, "If you would like to call anyone, any family members, there is a phone that is available for that down stairs."
Anne suddenly found herself falling back into the wall for supports as her hearing became blocked by a roaring sound and a fog that swept into her mind. A hollowness yawned in her chest leaving nothing in its wake. Shock and pain swirled through her veins, a physical ripping feeling tore through her body shredding her from head to toe.
"What?" That was Braden's voice, far off and nearly inaudible to Anne. He sounded like a six year old lost in the park, bewildered and confused. "Did you just say...it can't be... Dad?"
Lerata had her hand up to her mouth clearly in shock as much as the other two. "Oh my gosh, Braden... Anne, I am so sorry."
Anne did not answer, her mind was blank except for words that were being screamed silently at her.
No! No! This isn't happening. Why my family? Anne laughed a harsh and wrenching sound that fell from her throat which startled the doctor and a nurse nearby. What family, Anna-Lorraine? It's just you and Brad now. There is no one left in Illinois now for you to go to.
Anne suddenly realized that her feet were moving, carrying her away from the silent brother and his girlfriend that was able to give him what comfort she could. She heard Dr. Barnhart call after her but Anne ran down the white halls foregoing the elevators and taking the stairs knowing she had to keep moving. She could not let the pain catch up to her, the pain that was following her like a hound on the hunt with her scent in its nose. The stairs ended to soon and she was rushing past E.R. doctors and residents who looked at her quizzically with brief concern before going back to their jobs. The parking lot and its maze of cars came and went and Anne found herself running alone along a cracked sidewalk in some unknown direction.
Her adrenaline driven run had to stop before she passed out. Her legs ached and lungs burned but not as much as her heart. Everything was numb though, her brain was in denial of the realization that her father was somewhere in the huge hospital behind her under a sheet, his eyes never to open again and his jovial laugh forever silenced.
So caught up in her misery, Anne never saw the moving shadow and she did not even realize something was behind her until a splitting pain ripped open her head and darkness became her world.
***
Wow. I started writing this chapter completely unaware of just where it was going but now that I got to the end of it I'm still not sure. I think there is one or two (most likely two) chapters left in this story though... *sigh* the end is near...
I'll try to make it less than three weeks before I update again.