CHAPTER 36

It's exactly 7:00 am Thursday morning, Andie and Nicky wait outside Hope's hospital room. Nicky's looking at his watch. "What do you think is taking so long? I have to be at the airport in one hour to check in for my flight."

Andie answers, sarcastically, "They should just rip that breathing tube out of Hope's lungs because you have a flight to catch, those moron doctors." The truth is Andie and Nicky have barely spoke to each other the past few days since Nicky told her he was still flying back to New York to meet his band.

Nicky glares at Andie. "You need to stop. Your damn attitude is getting old fast."

Jolie exits Hope's room to tell them, "Everything went well. We were able to remove the tube without a problem. Your parents were right there with her, I think that helped."

"Can we see her now?" Andie asks.

"Sure." Jolie escorts Andie and Nicky into Hope's room. The baby's lying in the crib wide awake. She looks much better without the breathing tube. She has only one IV left but there are plastic brace like devices on her arms that look like casts. Jolie explains, "She needs to keep the elbow restraints on her arms until I can remove the sutures from her mouth."

"How long?" Nicky asks.

"About ten more days." Jolie tells them. "You don't want her pulling out her sutures if you don't want her to end up with a scar. If she keeps the restraints on for another ten days her lip and mouth should heal beautifully."

"Okay." Nicky nods.

"Why do you care?" Andie snaps at him. "You're not even going to be home."

"It's Thursday, I'll be back Sunday night. It's three fuckin' days that I'll be gone."

Everyone's eyes are on Nicky now. "Sorry," He says looking at Jolie and Charlotte.

Jolie continues. "We'll continue to feed Hope with the g-tube until I remove the stitches but you can give her watered down apple juice by mouth to satisfy her need to suck. After the sutures are out, she can go back to formula by mouth and when she gains enough weight we'll pull the gastrostomy tube out."

"Yay, Hopie." Andie tells the baby. "No more tube in your tummy soon."

Nicky leans over the crib to give Hope a kiss. "Poppa loves you, peanut. I'll see you Sunday." He hugs Charlotte goodbye before he shakes hands with Cooper and Jolie. He walks up to Andie to kiss her goodbye but she quickly turns her face so he ends up brushing her on the cheek with his lips.

Nicky shakes his head at her before leaving the room. "Unbelievable." He groans as he leaves.

"Break a leg!" Cooper calls out after him to lighten the moment and wish him luck on his tour. Andie shoots her father a disapproving look.

Tess and BJ do their warm up exercises at the park before their morning jog. "This is nice." BJ says as he stretches out his hamstring.

"What's nice?" Tess sits on the ground stretching out her legs to grab her toes.

"Us, we're nice." BJ shrugs. "You've stayed over my place three nights in a row. We jog together everyday. It's nice."

"It is." Tess agrees. "It's nice to have a friend you get along with so well and can tell anything to."

"So, are we girlfriend-boyfriend?" BJ waits for the answer.

Tess thinks before stretching out her upper arm mucsle. "More like friends with benefits."

"Oh." The disappointment pours off of BJ's face.

"I'm not ready for a boyfriend." Tess tells him.

"Because you're not over Chase?"

"I wanna be, I really do but whenever I see Brayden smile, it's like I'm looking at Chase smile. Whenever Brayden makes his little pouty face I think of Chase and his grumpy face. I'm not ready for a relationship yet but friends with benefits works out great for both of us." Tess goes on. "We each get a good friend, not to mention good sex."

BJ stretches."You should think about the time Chase cheated on you with that bimbo he married. That'll help you get over him."

"When I think about that I want to shoot them both." Tess smirks.

"You should talk to a therapist to see why you're still in love with a guy who cheated on you and married the chick he did it with."

"I don't need a shrink." Tess rises up to her feet and starts to jog in place.

"Sounds like you don't want to get over Chase." BJ sounds sort of like he's acussin'.

"Ya wanna be friends with benefits or not?" Tess looks him in the eye. It sounds like an ultimatum.

"Friend with benefits." He agrees before they start off on their run.

The dark haired muscular guy with the blue eyes runs by them. "Mornin'.'' He smiles as he passes them.

"Mornin'." Tess smiles back.

Andie sits next to Hope Charlotte while the baby rests in her crib in the pediatric intensive care unit. She's getting bored watching some cooking show when a breaking news bulletin cuts in to interrupt. A newscaster comes on to announce. "We have breaking news. US Jetaway's flight 383 has crashed after taking off from Chicago's O'Hare airport en route to New York City's JFK International Airport. The pilot reported engine trouble shortly after take off and was attempting to return to the airport. Witnesses reported a huge explosion on impact. There are no reported survivors."

Andie gulps, her heart sinks into her stomach. She knows Nicky is flying on US Jetaways this morning. She remembers his plane was delayed Sunday when he had to switch planes in Chicago. He had a round trip ticket which means he would have to switch planes again today at Chicago's O'Hare airport. She calculates in her head if his flight was to leave LA at nine, it would have arrived in Chicago about two hours ago, enough time for Nicky to board the plane from O'Hare to Kennedy with a safety buffer to get to his concert. She starts to tremble and picks up the phone.

Charlotte's in her office completing paperwork.

"Momma." Andie yells into the phone. "I need you in Hopes's room NOW! It's an emergency!"

"On my way!" Charlotte drops her pen on her desk. It takes her exactly four minutes to make it from her office on the first floor to Hopes's hospital room on the third floor. Charlotte runs into the room. The first thing she notices is Hope asleep in her crib. The monitors are all functioning properly. She looks at her sobbing daughter. "What is it?" She rushes over to her.

Andie points to the breaking news report on television which is still covering the plane crash. "I think Nicky was on that plane. Nicky's dead." She clutches onto her momma, sobbing.

"Was that his flight number?" Charlotte looks up at the television. "Are you sure he was on US Jetaways 383?"

"I didn't ask him his flight number. I was mad at him but I know he was switching planes in Chicago and the times work that he could be on that plane. He was supposed to leave LA around 9:00 which means he would be in Chicago by now and have enough time to catch that plane."

"Did you call the airline to ask if he was on that flight?"

"I'm too scared, can you call momma?"

"Okay, you call his momma or Cody or someone who might know his flight number." Charlotte takes out her phone to call the airport.

Andie tries calling Nicky's mother but gets her voicemail. She decides not to leave a message about the plane crash. She calls Cody next.

"What can I do for ya, my fair lady?" Cody recognizes Andie's number.

"Do you know Nicky's flight number?" Andie's voice is trembling.

"No, why?"

"US Jetaways flight 383 from O'Hare to Kennedy just crashed. I think Nicky was on that plane."

"Holy crap!" Cody exclaims.

"Do you know if he was on that flight?" Andie asks. Her voice is full of fear.

"The flight number sounds right. He was supposed to switch planes in Chicago and arrive at Kennedy around three pm. I'm supposed to pick him up at the airport. We have a show tonight at eight…-"

"Oh, shit. That's not the answer I wanted to hear, Cody."

Cody reports, "I talked to him this morning. He told me he was going to try to switch another flight out of LA that flies directly to Kennedy so he wouldn't have to switch in Chicago. The last time he was delayed for two hours in Chicago."

"I know. He didn't get home until really late. Sunday night. I was waiting for him to come home to take Hope to the hospital."

"Yeah." Cody agrees. "He was afraid the plane would be delayed and he wouldn't have enough time to get ready for the concert so he wanted to get on the direct flight that left fifteen minutes earlier. He didn't know if he was going to be able to make it. He was waiting for them to pull a tube out of Hope's mouth. He wasn't sure if there would be any standby tickets left by the time he got to the airport."

"He never called you back to tell you if he made it on the earlier flight?'

"No, he didn't but he might not have had time before he boarded the plane."

"If you hear from him, please call me Cody."

"Same here." Cody and Andie both hang up.

Andie looks at Charlotte who has tears in her eyes. "What did the airline say, momma?"

"Nicky's name was on the flight list for 383 but the woman at the desk said several people switched over to the direct flight that left fifteen minutes earlier. They don't have an acurrate list of the names yet of the passengers who made the switch."

Andie paces around the room. "Cody said Nicky wanted to switch to the direct flight. He was worried about getting delayed in Chicago again." Andie looks up at the ceiling and prays after she tells Charlotte.

"Does Cody know if he made the switch?" Charlotte asks

"Cody said it depended if there were any standby seats left by the time he got to the airport."

Charlotte informs, "the direct flight was full when it left maybe he made it on the direct flight."

"Do you think so, momma?" Andie asks, desperately. "Do you think he got one of those standby seats?"

"I hope." Now Charlotte feels like she's trembling inside, herself.

"If he didn't it's my fault, momma. He would've left earlier if I didn't make him feel guilty for wanting to leave Hope. I made him wait until they pulled the tube out."

"You can't blame yourself, Sweet Pea." Charlotte hugs Andie. "You had no idea there would be a plane crash."

"I'm going to be sick, momma." Andie rushes to the bathroom. Charlotte follows her.

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