Me: Hey! It's me again! Sorry it's been awhile. I've been writing other
stories and finishing up the school year here. It's been hectic. But, now
it's summer and it's time to party! In my world, partying means sitting in
front of the computer all day and typing up fics for this website and for
all my fans out there. Also, sorry about two cliffhangers in a row. Both
Chapter 2 and 3...hehe....my bad. Anyway, I don't own anything, as you all know
by now. I hope you like this next chapter. Special shout out and thanks to
Kameka for being such an inspiration and helping me out so much on getting
this chapter done! Luv ya!
Zoe paced in the hallway outside the operating room. Sweat poured down her forehead from worrying so much. They had been waiting a few hours at least and it was getting to her. Jeannie, Taylor, and Hannah all sat next to each other as Marcos stood leaning against one of the walls. Dan and Sophia had disappeared to the Cafeteria of the hospital to get some coffee and talk.
"Dan?" Sophia asked quietly while pouring cream into her coffee.
"Yeah?" He asked and repeated her task in his own drink.
Sophia hesitated and started to speak slowly. "Why did Zoe blame it all on you?"
"Because." He stated and tightly sealed the lid on his cup. "I took her hiking and it happened while we were gone."
"But......it's not like you were the one that made him actually fall out of the window or off the rain gutter.....or something...I can't quite remember how that girl described it." She said, referring to Melissa.
"I don't know Sophia. All I wanted to do was talk to her about...stuff.....and it all turned into chaos." He responded with a sigh.
Sophia gave him a pity look as they started to head back to everybody else. "Maybe you should go talk to her." She suggested.
"I was thinking that for a while but then I decided against it. She's in no condition to be talking about it."
"Is that really it? Or do you just not want to bring it up because it'll remind her?"
"Both, I guess." He said and looked at the hot coffee in his hands.
They walked around the corner and then to where everybody was. As they approached several eyes and heads jerked their way in hope that it was one of the doctors working on Cliff. Then there were sighs at the fact that it was only just them. "I'm guessing there hasn't been any update." Sophia noted and took a seat next to Jeannie.
Dan stood against the wall opposite Marcos and sipped his coffee. Once and awhile he would glance up at the man he had been competing with since he got closer to Zoe. Marcos glanced back when he noticed Dan looking at him and his frown turned more into a snarl.
After a few minutes of pure silence, a man in a white lab coat walked out of the operating doors.
"Ms. Busiek?" The doctor called.
Zoe turned around and ran to the man. "Yes?"
"You're son is going to be ok." He said reassuringly.
Zoe breathed a sigh of relief and held back her tears. "He's my nephew." She corrected the doctor. "What happened?"
"The impact of the fall broke two of his ribs that are placed right over his lung. While in motion during coming to the emergency room, the rib moved more and punctured his right lung. We had to do immediate surgery in order to reinstall the lung and hold the rib in place long enough for it to heal." The doctor started explaining.
Everybody was gathering around them as he was talking but Zoe didn't notice. "Oh my god." She said and placed her hand on her forehead. "But he's going to be ok?" She asked.
"Yes. The lung and ribs should eventually heal but he's going to have to stay in the hospital about a week, maybe more depending on his healing process." The doctor stated.
"Oh my god." Zoe repeated her words from earlier as Hannah grabbed on to her Aunts arm. In reaction, she bent down to hug the little girl. "Thank god he's ok." She whispered and still held on tightly to her niece.
"When can we see him?" Taylor asked unexpectedly.
"It's going to be a couple more hours, I'm sorry. And only one person at a time." The doctor responded.
Zoe let go of Hannah and shook the mans hand. "Thank you so much." She said and nodded.
"You're welcome." He said and turned to leave.
Zoe turned back to everybody that was there and smiled. Jeannie approached her and leaned in for a hug. "I told you it wasn't happening again." She whispered into her ear.
Zoe smiled even bigger and repeated her words again. "Thank god."
When she let go of Jeannie, Taylor was next in line for a hug and then Sophia. The two men stood around awkwardly as Zoe talked to the rest of them.
"You guys should head home. There's no need to stay here any longer." She said to the women surrounding her.
"Is there anything else I can do?" Sophia asked.
"No, thank you for everything though." Zoe responded.
"Do you want me to take the girls home and stay with them?" Jeannie asked quickly.
Hannah and Taylor looked at their Aunt, waiting for her answer. Zoe turned to them and looked at her watch. It was already nine o'clock. "It's going to be awhile before we can see him at all girls and you need some rest. It's been a rough day and it's late. You can see Cliff tomorrow, I promise." Zoe said.
The two nieces tried to object but Jeannie stopped them. They all gave Zoe one last smile and headed down the hall of the hospital. The only two left were Dan and Marcos. She looked at the both of them awkwardly.
"I'm glad he's ok." Marcos spoke up. "I should get going." He added and put his hand on Zoe's shoulder. "I'll come visit....Cliff....tomorrow." He stated slowly and semi-smiled before heading off down the hallway like the other people.
Zoe turned to Dan and he gave her a sad look. "I don't want to talk it about." She stated and sat down in one chair. "Just go."
"You shouldn't be here by yourself Zoe. I'm staying." He stated firmly and sat in a different chair across from her.
She hesitated and didn't look at him. "Fine." She finally said and got comfortable in the chair figuring it would be awhile before she would be getting out of it.
--------------------
After an hour and a half of waiting, Zoe got bored and anxious. She couldn't keep still in the chair so she started pacing quickly again. Dan followed her with his eyes.
"Could you keep still a second? I'm getting dizzy." He asked and stated.
"Then don't look at me." She said firmly back to him.
He took in the comment harshly and placed his head in his hand while resting his elbows on his knees.
She noticed his movement and sighed. "I'm going to go get something from the vending machine." She said aloud and started to walk off.
Dan didn't even attempt to ask if she wanted him to join her because he already knew the answer. He sat back and stared at the ceiling instead.
Zoe walked down the hall and around the corner. She was exhausted and still in dirty clothes from hiking all day. 'Hiking...' She thought to herself. 'Hiking...' She ran the words through her head. 'God....it's not his fault. I'm blaming him for Cliff's stupid actions. Why on earth would he climb out of a window for a girl? He must have some of me in him.' She thought and looked threw the vending machine choices. 'Of course I did that for a guy. Shimming down a rain gutter to sneak out of the house just for midnight walk with Jake, the pool boy. He ended up using me.......Stupid boys, we should throw rocks at them. But on the other hand, not all of them are stupid.' Zoe pulled a few clumps of change out of her pocket and found two quarters for the machine. 'Just ones who take you hiking for no apparent reason! I swear, what was going on in his head? Lying about what he really wanted in that mountain and then.....wait...what did he really want in the mountain?' She asked and pushed the correct numbers for the machine's grasp to release the potato chips for her. "Not sex.....he wouldn't do that. Or would he? No, not in the mountain. That's too weird....although there was this one time in Las Vegas when I was doing tours for...well tourists and met this cute sailor guy who asked me to give him a tour of myself...while in the mountains...and of course-....Oh, Zoe shut up.' She thought and shook her head. 'That wasn't like Dan though. He...in the cutest way had been flirting and hitting on me since the day I started work with them. But, I was too involved with the kids, my new job, and......Marcos. It's just like me to have two guys after me at once. Like in Las Vegas when the hotel's bellboy was after me along with the manager. That turned into a sticky situation. Paul, the bellboy, ended up getting fired and then coming after me again while Steve, the manager, didn't know that I was more interesting in Paul. And then crazy Steve rented out one of the suites from the hotel for him and me but I didn't know about until after I had spent the whole day gambling with Paul. And then- Oh god, Zoe you're doing it again!' She stopped herself from continuing the thought and sighed. 'I seem to get into a lot of sticky situations with men. Maybe I'm too picky. Let's see, you have Dan, the sex goddess, and you have Marcos, the wonderful coach and father-like guy to my family......maybe I should just pick one and put my all into it. But who? I really like Dan, even though there was the whole lying thing about the mountain. Marcos is so sweet though and I've just built him up in thinking that we really had something special when the whole time I was thinking about someone else as a possible choice for a boyfriend or husband or I just don't know!' Zoe shook her head and ran her fingers through her head. She walked over to the soda machine and put in a dollar for a Pepsi since she was somewhat craving one from a day full of trail mix and water. 'What am I going to do?' She asked inside her filled of thoughts head. 'Dan thinks I'm so angry with him and now he probably thinks it really is his fault...when it's not. Marcos is still mad because I blew off his proposal and kissed Dan. I did more than just kiss Dan though. We almost.....yeah. Definitely more than just kissing. I bet that felt good to him. After months and months of trying to get me alone, supposedly just to talk, I give in to him and......we almost..yeah. I can't believe all this is happening and to top it all off, we are no where near to finished in the Megan Rict case. Speaking or thinking or work, what would it be like to be in an intimate relationship with a man who is my partner in fraud investigations? Would it be awkward? Or would it just bring us closer together? And what about Taylor, Cliff, and Hannah? What would Dan be like with them? Probably nothing near enough to the way Marcos handle them, but you never know, which is why I should stop pondering it and go talk to him. But I feel to bad and awkward to talk to him right now. When I think about it, he's the only one left here. Waiting with me to see Cliff. Waiting to see if I'll be ok and get through this. What kind of man does that? A good one does that......a really good one. But what kind of man lies about hiking? A man like Dan. God, I'm so confused.' Zoe thought and thought and thought. She stood now leaning against the soda machine and staring down the hallway. 'Maybe I should just give up all together and be single. This is too complicated. It's always been too complicated and I'm just now realizing that I'm the one that makes it that way. I'm the one who's too picky about the men in my life and too stubborn to let one of them in all the way. It's me-'
"Zoe?" A familiar voice called and broke her from thinking. It was Dan, now standing in front of her. "Zoe?" He called again.
"Huh? What?" She said and looked at him.
He noticed she was some what dazed but shrugged it off. "The doctor said you can see Cliff now." He said and smiled at her.
Zoe smiled at the fact that she could finally see her nephew and headed off down the hall with Dan trailing behind her.
--------------------
Zoe entered the hospital room to see Cliff barely conscious. She noticed how pale he was and how helpless and hurt he looked.
"Clifford?" She called quietly while leaning over the bed and rubbing her hand on his face. "Cliff?"
"Aunt Zoe?" He called back, also quietly. His eyes focused straight above him and then he slowly turned his head to look at her. Cliff's face was bruised along with his arms.
"How do you feel?" She asked sweetly.
"Like I fell out the window." He stated sarcastically.
Zoe chuckled and realized that he didn't lose his sense of humor. "You gave us quite a scare there."
"I'm sorry."
"I know. Me to."
"For what?" He asked.
"Leaving you today. If I had been there-"
"I would have still climbed out the window." He stated interrupting her.
"Really?"
"Probably. I don't know why I did. I just wanted to talk to her." He said.
"Well, it was a pretty stupid thing to do Cliff."
"To bad I didn't realize that behind I did it." He said and laughed at himself. The vibration in his stomach from it made pain shoot through his body but he could hardly feel it with all the medication he was on.
"Yes, to bad." She agreed and slipped her hand threw his. "You're going to be ok." She added and smiled down at him. "I love you."
"I love you to Aunt Zoe." He responded and closed his eyes in exhaustion.
"Go on. Go back to sleep. I'll see you tomorrow." She said as he left his eyes closed. "Good night sweetie."
Me: Hey, I know it's short but oh well. There will be more to come... "So just sit tight and don't touch that dial" Or wait patiently for the next chapter and don't forget the website stuff to get back to this story! Hehe....hope you liked it! Review my peeps!! Special is outtie!
Zoe paced in the hallway outside the operating room. Sweat poured down her forehead from worrying so much. They had been waiting a few hours at least and it was getting to her. Jeannie, Taylor, and Hannah all sat next to each other as Marcos stood leaning against one of the walls. Dan and Sophia had disappeared to the Cafeteria of the hospital to get some coffee and talk.
"Dan?" Sophia asked quietly while pouring cream into her coffee.
"Yeah?" He asked and repeated her task in his own drink.
Sophia hesitated and started to speak slowly. "Why did Zoe blame it all on you?"
"Because." He stated and tightly sealed the lid on his cup. "I took her hiking and it happened while we were gone."
"But......it's not like you were the one that made him actually fall out of the window or off the rain gutter.....or something...I can't quite remember how that girl described it." She said, referring to Melissa.
"I don't know Sophia. All I wanted to do was talk to her about...stuff.....and it all turned into chaos." He responded with a sigh.
Sophia gave him a pity look as they started to head back to everybody else. "Maybe you should go talk to her." She suggested.
"I was thinking that for a while but then I decided against it. She's in no condition to be talking about it."
"Is that really it? Or do you just not want to bring it up because it'll remind her?"
"Both, I guess." He said and looked at the hot coffee in his hands.
They walked around the corner and then to where everybody was. As they approached several eyes and heads jerked their way in hope that it was one of the doctors working on Cliff. Then there were sighs at the fact that it was only just them. "I'm guessing there hasn't been any update." Sophia noted and took a seat next to Jeannie.
Dan stood against the wall opposite Marcos and sipped his coffee. Once and awhile he would glance up at the man he had been competing with since he got closer to Zoe. Marcos glanced back when he noticed Dan looking at him and his frown turned more into a snarl.
After a few minutes of pure silence, a man in a white lab coat walked out of the operating doors.
"Ms. Busiek?" The doctor called.
Zoe turned around and ran to the man. "Yes?"
"You're son is going to be ok." He said reassuringly.
Zoe breathed a sigh of relief and held back her tears. "He's my nephew." She corrected the doctor. "What happened?"
"The impact of the fall broke two of his ribs that are placed right over his lung. While in motion during coming to the emergency room, the rib moved more and punctured his right lung. We had to do immediate surgery in order to reinstall the lung and hold the rib in place long enough for it to heal." The doctor started explaining.
Everybody was gathering around them as he was talking but Zoe didn't notice. "Oh my god." She said and placed her hand on her forehead. "But he's going to be ok?" She asked.
"Yes. The lung and ribs should eventually heal but he's going to have to stay in the hospital about a week, maybe more depending on his healing process." The doctor stated.
"Oh my god." Zoe repeated her words from earlier as Hannah grabbed on to her Aunts arm. In reaction, she bent down to hug the little girl. "Thank god he's ok." She whispered and still held on tightly to her niece.
"When can we see him?" Taylor asked unexpectedly.
"It's going to be a couple more hours, I'm sorry. And only one person at a time." The doctor responded.
Zoe let go of Hannah and shook the mans hand. "Thank you so much." She said and nodded.
"You're welcome." He said and turned to leave.
Zoe turned back to everybody that was there and smiled. Jeannie approached her and leaned in for a hug. "I told you it wasn't happening again." She whispered into her ear.
Zoe smiled even bigger and repeated her words again. "Thank god."
When she let go of Jeannie, Taylor was next in line for a hug and then Sophia. The two men stood around awkwardly as Zoe talked to the rest of them.
"You guys should head home. There's no need to stay here any longer." She said to the women surrounding her.
"Is there anything else I can do?" Sophia asked.
"No, thank you for everything though." Zoe responded.
"Do you want me to take the girls home and stay with them?" Jeannie asked quickly.
Hannah and Taylor looked at their Aunt, waiting for her answer. Zoe turned to them and looked at her watch. It was already nine o'clock. "It's going to be awhile before we can see him at all girls and you need some rest. It's been a rough day and it's late. You can see Cliff tomorrow, I promise." Zoe said.
The two nieces tried to object but Jeannie stopped them. They all gave Zoe one last smile and headed down the hall of the hospital. The only two left were Dan and Marcos. She looked at the both of them awkwardly.
"I'm glad he's ok." Marcos spoke up. "I should get going." He added and put his hand on Zoe's shoulder. "I'll come visit....Cliff....tomorrow." He stated slowly and semi-smiled before heading off down the hallway like the other people.
Zoe turned to Dan and he gave her a sad look. "I don't want to talk it about." She stated and sat down in one chair. "Just go."
"You shouldn't be here by yourself Zoe. I'm staying." He stated firmly and sat in a different chair across from her.
She hesitated and didn't look at him. "Fine." She finally said and got comfortable in the chair figuring it would be awhile before she would be getting out of it.
--------------------
After an hour and a half of waiting, Zoe got bored and anxious. She couldn't keep still in the chair so she started pacing quickly again. Dan followed her with his eyes.
"Could you keep still a second? I'm getting dizzy." He asked and stated.
"Then don't look at me." She said firmly back to him.
He took in the comment harshly and placed his head in his hand while resting his elbows on his knees.
She noticed his movement and sighed. "I'm going to go get something from the vending machine." She said aloud and started to walk off.
Dan didn't even attempt to ask if she wanted him to join her because he already knew the answer. He sat back and stared at the ceiling instead.
Zoe walked down the hall and around the corner. She was exhausted and still in dirty clothes from hiking all day. 'Hiking...' She thought to herself. 'Hiking...' She ran the words through her head. 'God....it's not his fault. I'm blaming him for Cliff's stupid actions. Why on earth would he climb out of a window for a girl? He must have some of me in him.' She thought and looked threw the vending machine choices. 'Of course I did that for a guy. Shimming down a rain gutter to sneak out of the house just for midnight walk with Jake, the pool boy. He ended up using me.......Stupid boys, we should throw rocks at them. But on the other hand, not all of them are stupid.' Zoe pulled a few clumps of change out of her pocket and found two quarters for the machine. 'Just ones who take you hiking for no apparent reason! I swear, what was going on in his head? Lying about what he really wanted in that mountain and then.....wait...what did he really want in the mountain?' She asked and pushed the correct numbers for the machine's grasp to release the potato chips for her. "Not sex.....he wouldn't do that. Or would he? No, not in the mountain. That's too weird....although there was this one time in Las Vegas when I was doing tours for...well tourists and met this cute sailor guy who asked me to give him a tour of myself...while in the mountains...and of course-....Oh, Zoe shut up.' She thought and shook her head. 'That wasn't like Dan though. He...in the cutest way had been flirting and hitting on me since the day I started work with them. But, I was too involved with the kids, my new job, and......Marcos. It's just like me to have two guys after me at once. Like in Las Vegas when the hotel's bellboy was after me along with the manager. That turned into a sticky situation. Paul, the bellboy, ended up getting fired and then coming after me again while Steve, the manager, didn't know that I was more interesting in Paul. And then crazy Steve rented out one of the suites from the hotel for him and me but I didn't know about until after I had spent the whole day gambling with Paul. And then- Oh god, Zoe you're doing it again!' She stopped herself from continuing the thought and sighed. 'I seem to get into a lot of sticky situations with men. Maybe I'm too picky. Let's see, you have Dan, the sex goddess, and you have Marcos, the wonderful coach and father-like guy to my family......maybe I should just pick one and put my all into it. But who? I really like Dan, even though there was the whole lying thing about the mountain. Marcos is so sweet though and I've just built him up in thinking that we really had something special when the whole time I was thinking about someone else as a possible choice for a boyfriend or husband or I just don't know!' Zoe shook her head and ran her fingers through her head. She walked over to the soda machine and put in a dollar for a Pepsi since she was somewhat craving one from a day full of trail mix and water. 'What am I going to do?' She asked inside her filled of thoughts head. 'Dan thinks I'm so angry with him and now he probably thinks it really is his fault...when it's not. Marcos is still mad because I blew off his proposal and kissed Dan. I did more than just kiss Dan though. We almost.....yeah. Definitely more than just kissing. I bet that felt good to him. After months and months of trying to get me alone, supposedly just to talk, I give in to him and......we almost..yeah. I can't believe all this is happening and to top it all off, we are no where near to finished in the Megan Rict case. Speaking or thinking or work, what would it be like to be in an intimate relationship with a man who is my partner in fraud investigations? Would it be awkward? Or would it just bring us closer together? And what about Taylor, Cliff, and Hannah? What would Dan be like with them? Probably nothing near enough to the way Marcos handle them, but you never know, which is why I should stop pondering it and go talk to him. But I feel to bad and awkward to talk to him right now. When I think about it, he's the only one left here. Waiting with me to see Cliff. Waiting to see if I'll be ok and get through this. What kind of man does that? A good one does that......a really good one. But what kind of man lies about hiking? A man like Dan. God, I'm so confused.' Zoe thought and thought and thought. She stood now leaning against the soda machine and staring down the hallway. 'Maybe I should just give up all together and be single. This is too complicated. It's always been too complicated and I'm just now realizing that I'm the one that makes it that way. I'm the one who's too picky about the men in my life and too stubborn to let one of them in all the way. It's me-'
"Zoe?" A familiar voice called and broke her from thinking. It was Dan, now standing in front of her. "Zoe?" He called again.
"Huh? What?" She said and looked at him.
He noticed she was some what dazed but shrugged it off. "The doctor said you can see Cliff now." He said and smiled at her.
Zoe smiled at the fact that she could finally see her nephew and headed off down the hall with Dan trailing behind her.
--------------------
Zoe entered the hospital room to see Cliff barely conscious. She noticed how pale he was and how helpless and hurt he looked.
"Clifford?" She called quietly while leaning over the bed and rubbing her hand on his face. "Cliff?"
"Aunt Zoe?" He called back, also quietly. His eyes focused straight above him and then he slowly turned his head to look at her. Cliff's face was bruised along with his arms.
"How do you feel?" She asked sweetly.
"Like I fell out the window." He stated sarcastically.
Zoe chuckled and realized that he didn't lose his sense of humor. "You gave us quite a scare there."
"I'm sorry."
"I know. Me to."
"For what?" He asked.
"Leaving you today. If I had been there-"
"I would have still climbed out the window." He stated interrupting her.
"Really?"
"Probably. I don't know why I did. I just wanted to talk to her." He said.
"Well, it was a pretty stupid thing to do Cliff."
"To bad I didn't realize that behind I did it." He said and laughed at himself. The vibration in his stomach from it made pain shoot through his body but he could hardly feel it with all the medication he was on.
"Yes, to bad." She agreed and slipped her hand threw his. "You're going to be ok." She added and smiled down at him. "I love you."
"I love you to Aunt Zoe." He responded and closed his eyes in exhaustion.
"Go on. Go back to sleep. I'll see you tomorrow." She said as he left his eyes closed. "Good night sweetie."
Me: Hey, I know it's short but oh well. There will be more to come... "So just sit tight and don't touch that dial" Or wait patiently for the next chapter and don't forget the website stuff to get back to this story! Hehe....hope you liked it! Review my peeps!! Special is outtie!