Boy, it's been a while since I updated this story huh? I just keep getting reviews so I guess I'll keep writing; sorry it took so long to start this back up again. Anyway, thanks to all the people who reviewed this story during its hiatus. Keep it up!
Chapter Six
The Getaway
Ryan was more then a little shocked to hear Marissa's words; he almost asked her to repeat them but knew that he'd hear the same thing again. How could Marissa want to go to the service of the person that had shot and almost killed her, that had possibly paralyzed her for life? It didn't make much sense to him.
"What?" Seth questioned, so that Ryan didn't have to. "You want to go to Oliver's service?"
Marissa nodded. "Yes." She saw the questioning look on Ryan's face and said, "I don't really know why but it just seems like something I have to do."
"Absolutely not." The stern voice that came from out in the hallway was unexpected and caused them all to turn in the direction of the speaker. Julie was standing in the doorway, a Get Well Soon balloon in one hand and a surprised but firm look on her face. "You will not go to that service and even if I thought it would be helpful or healing in some way, you're in the hospital Marissa. You're temporarily paralyzed. Going anywhere is out of the question."
Marissa glared at her mother. "I want to go." She said just as firmly as her mother had spoken. "I don't think I need your permission."
Seth looked surprised, gazing back and forth between mother and daughter. "What? I'm sorry, paralyzed?" He repeated, growing more shocked with each word that escaped his lips. "You're paralyzed Marissa?"
Julie answered before the girl he was addressing had a chance to. "The doctors here are going to perform an operation later this week; Marissa will be able to walk again after that." She sounded so sure and definite that it was almost impossible to believe what she was saying. Even Marissa knew there was a chance that the operation wouldn't work and pretending that everything was going to be normal again wasn't the best way to go as far as she was concerned.
Seth didn't look convinced either but he remained silent, looking at Marissa again before gazing down at his feet. Marissa was like a sister to him, he couldn't imagine what it would be like if she was never able to walk again; he also couldn't imagine how she was feeling right now.
"Anyway, Marissa, the service is out of the question." Julie continued primly and entered the room, the balloon bouncing behind her. "You can go out sometime after you're better." Julie tied the balloon to the back of one of the chairs and smiled at her daughter.
Marissa didn't return the smile, continuing to hold Ryan's hand as she listened to her mother talk about some sort of nonsense involving Caleb. Everything that came out of her mother's mouth lately seemed like nonsense as far as she was concerned.
* * *
When Julie finally left, Marissa couldn't have been more relieved. Immediately, she turned to look at Seth and Ryan, who looked like they were half asleep with boredom after listening to the Amazing Julie Cooper talk for the better part of an hour. "I'm going to Oliver's service." She told them. "And I'm doing it with or without your help." She paused, almost sheepishly. "And since I can't feel my legs, with would be a little easier."
Seth looked at the girl. "You heard your mom, Marissa, you shouldn't be up." He told her. "It could make things worse." Unlike Julie, who only forbad her daughter to go because she could, Seth looked genuinely worried about her condition.
Marissa was touched by his concern but that didn't dissuade her from her 'mission'. She looked instead at Ryan, who only sighed. "So, how are you planning this jail break?" He questioned wearily, already seeming to have made up his mind.
A smile spread across Marissa's face. "Well, I haven't actually worked out the details but we can think of something." She answered.
Seth sighed and shook his head. "I guess I can't convince you two to change your minds, huh?" He muttered. There was no answer, it wasn't required. "First we have to find a way to get Marissa out of the hospital." He pointed out, giving them the first step of their plan.
"Well, that's easy." Marissa chimed in, pleased to have the support of two of her best friends. "There's gotta be a wheelchair around here somewhere."
Ryan looked over at Marissa. "If your parents or Seth's see us, then we'll never make it out. I've snuck out of the house enough times to know how to get around parents."
Seth looked over at him. "Our house? Have you snuck out of our house?" He questioned. Ryan didn't answer, he didn't really see the point. "'Cause every time I try to sneak out I always get caught. Is there some method I don't know about?" He was looking at Ryan intently. "Dude, you've got to teach me this method."
Ryan rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Maybe later. Now we've got to find a wheelchair and the easiest way out of here." He stood and leaned over to kiss Marissa. "We'll be back soon."
Seth followed Ryan out of the room, still attempting to pump him about the Great Escape Method and Marissa watched them go. When she was alone, it was harder for her to put on a brave face, to smile and laugh and pretend that being unable to feel her legs didn't bother her at all. But with no one to witness her act, she didn't feel the need to put it on anymore. Marissa covered her face as she began to cry, something she hadn't allowed herself to do since she arrived at the hospital. Crying didn't solve anything and it didn't even make her feel better but at least she could feel something and she was prepared to take all that she could get at the moment.
* * *
"Do you think it's weird that Summer hasn't come down to visit? Or that she hasn't called lately? Or that-" Seth continued as he and Ryan headed down the hallway, stopping when Ryan whirled to face him.
"Seth, shut up about Summer. Please." He snapped, a little more harshly then he intended. "She'll come when she's ready, she'll call when she's ready. Okay, man?" Seth nodded and they started down the hallway again.
They walked in silence for a moment before Seth looked up from where he had been counting the tiles and said, "I'm just worried about her, you know?"
Ryan sighed and clapped Seth on the back. "Yeah, man, I know." He thought about Marissa and how he tried not to think about her not being able to walk; it broke his heart to see the sorrow in her eyes, the pain that should never have had to be there. If he could go back and do everything over with Oliver, he realized he would have let him be arrested by the cops and go to jail for buying and selling drugs. Things were have turned out much better if he had.
"The operation's going fix Marissa." Seth remarked, wishing he sounded as falsely sure as Julie had sounded earlier. "You'll see."
Ryan didn't answer. He didn't know what to say.
* * *
Ryan and Seth finally returned with a stolen wheelchair, which they had taken from outside on the rooms and so Seth was certain that there was going to be so poor old man who couldn't visit his darling grandchildren because of them, half an hour before Oliver's service was set to begin. Marissa had cried herself out by that time and had managed to resume her chipper face and was throwing balled up pieces of napkin at the Get Well balloon to make it sway. Entertainment was hard to come by when one was stuck in a hospital bed.
Marissa smiled when they entered. "Ta-da!" Seth proclaimed with a flourish as Ryan pushed the wheelchair into the room. Ryan smiled at his girlfriend as he wheeled the chair over to the right side of the bed, where the metal guards could be raised and lowered.
"Sorry it took so long, we had to go to each floor to try and find the wheelchair and every time we stopped Seth had to call Summer." Ryan said by way of explanation and, judging by the sheepish look on Seth's face, what Ryan said was true.
Marissa smiled slightly at Seth before asking, "Where is Summer?" She wanted to ask something else, wanted to know why her best friend hadn't come to visit her. Had she really hurt her that bad by blowing her off all those times?
Ryan and Seth looked at each other before both looking back at Marissa. "Err, she wasn't home." Seth answered. "I kept trying but she never picked up the phone. She said earlier that she was probably going to come visit you today, though, so maybe she's on her way." He didn't think that was the case however. Something told him that Summer was home, she just hadn't been in the mood to answer the phone.
"Oh." Marissa mumbled but she knew that what Seth said wasn't true. It was too late for Summer to come visit her now but she wasn't ready to admit it to herself or verbally. Instead, she decided to concentrate on what was going on at the moment and getting to Oliver's service.
Ryan lowered the metal grates on the side of the bed. "All right, Marissa, let's get you out of here." He muttered and paused as he studied the IV tube attached to her arm. "I guess we'll just have to take that with us." He motioned to the metal pole that was standing beside the bed.
Marissa untangled the clear tubing from around her arm and straightened it out in preparation for moving into the wheelchair. She pulled herself into a sitting position and tried to turn in the direction of the chair but found her legs almost impossibly heavy to move.
"Do you want some help?" Ryan questioned, face creased with worry. He leaned forward to give her a hand but she shook her head dismissively.
"No." Marissa said firmly. "I got it." She tried again to pull herself forward, dragging her now useless legs along after her. She hated the way she felt right now, the helplessness of being unable to even pull herself out of bed. Marissa leaned forward too far and nearly fell out of the bed and would have if Ryan hadn't caught her by the shoulders. Sharp pain sliced through her body but she bit her tongue to keep from crying out.
"Jeez Marissa." Seth muttered, running his fingers through his hair, as he exhaled. "I knew this was a bad idea." He headed over to where they were standing, praying that there wouldn't be any more near misses.
Ryan didn't say anything as he scooped Marissa out of bed, being careful of the IV tubing and gently lowered her into the wheelchair. She liked being in his arms, it made her feel safe, and for that brief moment, she had no doubt that things would turn out all right.
But the moment was over too soon and reality came crashing back down on her; the reality that she was in a wheelchair because she couldn't move her legs and that she was heading to the service for the person that she had once considered her friend and had almost killed her. Sometimes life was just too crazy for her to make sense out of.
"Are we ready?" Seth questioned. "No more falls or trips or tangles or anything? No more injuries or-" Marissa cut him off.
"No. We're ready." She said, though she really appreciated the big-brother concern he was showing for her.
Seth headed toward the door and then stopped. "Well, I'm glad because here come your parents Marissa." He remarked and Marissa's face got a little paler.
"Okay, we can't let them see us." Marissa said and a smile spread across her face. "It's like a jail break!" She exclaimed happily and her cheeks reddened when Ryan looked down at her. "Sorry, way too many made-for-cable movies."
Seth shut the door and locked it, much to the surprise of the others in the room. "What? Marissa's not the only one that watches the cable movies." He muttered by way of explanation. "Now we have to use one of the spoons from lunch to tunnel through the floor down to the bottom level."
"Or," Ryan started, rolling his eyes. "We could just explain to your parents that you really need to go to the service and-"
"No." Seth interjected. "No, that's boring. That's not The Great Escape, that's not even The Rock. Where's the spice Ryan? Where's the excitement?"
Ryan rolled his eyes for the second time in so many minutes. "I've had enough excitement to last me a life time, thank you." He muttered. He was going to say more but the door handle rattled and Julie started pounding on the door.
"Marissa! You unlock this door right now!" She shouted and Marissa narrowed her eyes.
"Oh sure, Mom, I'll just walk right over there and do it." She muttered to herself, her words drowned out by the pounding on the door.
Ryan looked over at Seth. "Open the door man." He said, trying to ignore the disappointed look on Seth's face and the hurt one on Marissa's. Seth unlocked the door and opened it, just as he had been asked and had to step back immediately to avoid getting slammed in the face as Julie stormed in.
She took one look at her daughter in the wheelchair and looked up at Ryan, the look on her face clearly blaming him for everything that was happening. "What is going on here?" Julie snapped, still looking at Ryan. "What do you think you're doing with my daughter?"
"I know I should have asked you first, Ms. Cooper, but I really wanted to show Marissa around the hospital, you know, give her a change of scenery." Ryan explained and Marissa had to bite the insides to her lips to keep from laughing. "She's been cooped up in her for a while."
Jimmy saw the look on his daughter's face and smiled as well, stepping into the room. "I don't see the harm, Julie." He remarked. "Change of scenery never hurt anyone."
"Thanks Dad." Marissa said and Ryan took that as his cue to start wheeling her out of the room before Julie could realize what was really going on and cause a scene. Seth followed after them and smiled as he disappeared out of the room.
Julie narrowed her eyes as she watched the teenagers disappear. Though no one had ever accused her of being the smartest girl in New Port, she had also never been accused of being the stupidest and it didn't take her long to put two and two together. "They're going to Oliver's service after all." She snapped. "Those little brats." Jimmy looked over at her. "With the exception of Marissa, of course."
"What are you talking about?" Jimmy questioned, staring at his ex-wife with the same sort of confusion that he often regarded her with.
Julie sighed. "I didn't think that going to Oliver's service would be very helpful to Marissa." She explained, almost as though she was talking to a dimwitted child. "Since she still hasn't recovered from the accident-" Jimmy cut her off.
"Maybe you should be a little bit more concerned about your daughter's health." He snapped, tired of hearing her recite some strange physiological bullshit. "There's a reason that's on bed rest." He pushed past Julie and headed out the door and into the hallway. He could see Ryan and Seth heading down the hallway with Marissa in tow, the IV pole tagging alongside the chair and Sandy and Kirsten, who were heading toward the room with another bouquet of flowers and a stuffed teddy bear.
"Marissa!" Jimmy shouted and everyone in the hallway turned in his direction, with the exception of the teenagers in question. "Marissa, wait!" If anything, Ryan sped up a little.
Sandy approached Jimmy with an interested look on his face. "What's going on?" He questioned, looking down the hallway and seeing the kids trying to make a getaway.
"Your son and Ryan are basically kidnapped my daughter and taking her to Oliver's service." Julie answered, seeming only happy to be the parent only when it allowed her to snap at people and puff around like a flustered hen.
Kirsten and Sandy took a closer look down the hallway. "I'm sure that's not exactly what's going on." Sandy remarked. "We'll just ask them. Seth!" His son winced and turned around.
"Great, now my parents are going to catch us, flog us and put us in isolation." Seth remarked and Ryan looked over at him. "All right, too many prison movies."
Marissa turned her head to peer behind her and couldn't help but smile. "Just keep going." She remarked. "We'll be back before they...notice we're gone." She trailed off, realizing she didn't make much sense. "I need to get out of here for a while."
With a sigh, Ryan did as she asked, continuing to push her toward the elevator. "See, that is what I call kidnapping!" Julie huffed and gestured toward the teenagers. "I suggest you do something about this."
Sandy tried not to roll his eyes as he looked over at Jimmy, who looked more concerned then Julie did. "The doctors said that Marissa shouldn't move too much before the accident, because she could further damage the injury. Then the operation much not be as effective."
At his words, Sandy called out his son's name again and started down the hallway; Jimmy followed suit and Kirsten after him. With a sigh, Julie headed down the hallway as well, simply because she wasn't sure what else to do.
Ryan, Marissa and Seth entered the elevator and the doors began to slide shut just as Sandy and Jimmy arrived. "Marissa, wait!" Jimmy implored as he tried to reach the doors before they closed all the way shut.
"We'll be back soon Dad." Marissa promised as the doors slid shut and separated parent and daughter once again.
Jimmy slammed his fist against the closed doors. "Damn!" He snapped.
The elevator cart was grinding toward the bottom level and the occupants of the cart didn't hear Jimmy's shout as they started their decent. Ryan sighed and leaned against the wall, wondering if he had really done the right thing; what if getting out wasn't the best thing for Marissa at the moment? And even if it was, was going to Oliver's service the best place to go?
"I feel like Al Capone." Seth remarked and Marissa rolled her eyes.
Even though she had wanted to get out of the hospital, Marissa found that she had a sinking feeling in her heart. Was she really doing the right thing? She'd have to find out.
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So, here's another chapter, I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what parts from the show you'd want to see in this story; I already have some ideas but I'm trying to figure out if I want to include the Luke and Julie thing and all that. Just let me know!