Title: The Blind Leading the Blond
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, so please don't sue!
Author's Note: For those of you who are interested, I'm Jamsangel from the Jesse McCartney Boards, and I've decided to rewrite and put up my Summerland fic here, instead of at my site..... I'm hardly on my site anyway... ANYWAY, this story I've been thinking of before Summerland even aired, but I didn't know how to get the characters down until it premiered so that's why I rewrote it and everything..... Enjoy! Please R&R!
Branson, Missouri, 3 Months Before the Westerly Invasion
Burn. The world burned in her eyes and she cried out in pain, feeling every bit of reality prickling the nerves in her eyeballs. She didn't know where she was at first, bombarded with sounds from everywhere, with only few of them making sense to her in the least bit. Little by little, the sounds of a hospital filtered in; she heard the words 'mother', 'boyfriend', 'car' and 'accident' but none of it was making sense to her at the moment; none of it seemed real.
She could feel the blood pouring out of her eyes right then, rivers of crimson tears running down her face, and she tried to cry them away but the pain was so intense....
Eventually, everything was sent into a tunnel of black, and she could feel no more.
When she opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed were the bandages over them. Weakly, she tried pawing at them but they were stuck tight, snug against her skull like a second skin. Her ears prickled up with a more acute sense of hearing, listening as the faint tapping of shoes hit the floor, and a man's voice cleared his throat.
"Ms. Durant," he said, in a tone that she could tell was trying to be sincere, "You're a very lucky girl."
The stomach in her abdomen groaned and she felt nauseous, suddenly recalling what she had been doing before landing herself here. Oh God, Becca, what the hell did you do? Sickened, her tummy threatened to dispense of the bottle of vodka she had managed to swallow almost four hours ago, in the shotgun seat of Bobby "Blaze" Hoskins's '94 Mustang. Vague flashes of memory burst through her brain, and she groaned at the memories, "I feel like I've been hit by a truck."
The man in the room chuckled with dry humor, "Ironically, Ms. Durant, that's exactly what happened. If you wouldn't mind me asking a few questions and gaining some explanations...."
Tensing, she inquired, "Are you a cop?"
"A policeman, yes."
"Oh hell, I'm going to jail, aren't I? I'm going to be on the other side of the bars, with the pinstripe suit and a bunk to sleep in."
"Actually, Ms. Durant, I want to ask you some questions about your wreck, not anything else."
Becca groaned, "The wreck? He crashed the 'Stang?"
"Who is 'he', Ms. Durant?"
Surprised, she yelped, 'You don't know who drove the car?"
The policeman sighed, "Ms. Durant, this is an extremely delicate situation you managed to get yourself into. This is all confusing and probably very difficult for you to--"
"Difficult? No, what's difficult is trying to talk to someone when you can't even see their face!" Furiously, her nails started digging at the bandages, trying to dislodge them before a pair of bigger hands clapped her own against her head, "What the--"
"Becca, please!" This time, it was a voice she remembered, one that she loved and enjoyed for the past sixteen years growing up: Nana, her mother's mother; her voice was urgent, but gentle and soft, "Becca, please! Stop clawing at those bandages this instant!"
Immediately, she stopped, but Becca complained, "Nana, why? Why do I even have these on in the first place?!?! And where's Mom?"
Silence filled the room for many moments before a shaky reply answered her, "Honey, your mother is not coming to see you. Becca dear, your mother... she's dead."
Tears welled in the young lady's eyes as the policeman confirmed it, "It's true, Ms. Durant. Your mother was involved in an accident with a drunk driver. Coincidentally, you yourself were in an accident ALSO with a drunk driver. Can you please tell me how these things happened at the same time?"
Becca cried, first one tear, then another as she began to piece things together, "Oh my god, she must have been worried enough..... it was raining and I..... she didn't know...... oh my god...."
"Becca, please slow down."
"She.... she... she....... Mom.... she...... she must have been....... been worried about me she.... she didn't know where I was...." Crying she burst out with it, the guilt bearing down on her like a two ton weight, "I was drinking with Bobby and we were in his car and we....... we pitched forward..."
".........Right into a semi truck," finished the man, taking the time to write all this down, "Ms. Durant, you said this boy was named Bobby?"
"R-R-Robert Hoskins Junior."
"Mrs. Durant, maybe you should tell your granddaughter everything that has to be explained to her right now, alone." Becca could hear him flip his notebook closed, one that he must have had out before she had awoken, and the springs in his seat groaned as he got out of it, his brown leather Oxfords striking the cold hospital tile floor as he got up and left, the door creaking and swinging shut behind him.
"My God, it's all my fault..." cried Becca, wailing, "If I didn't go out there and if I had just told Mom....."
"There, there, don't cry, sweetie," Nana cooed, sitting down in the bed with her and letting the young girl's head rest against her shoulder, with the elder's arms wrapped around her, "Don't cry. Becca, there's two other things I must tell you, but you will not like them one bit. I wish I didn't, but I have to tell you. When you were found at the accident, you didn't have any broken bones or anything, but when you hit the semi, you weren't wearing your seatbelt. Luckily, the air bag engaged and sent your body backwards, but the impact bounced you in your seat, and your head..... it bounced over the bag and into the windshield. The glass shattered and..... honey, I'm not that good at explaining things. The glass, it flew into your eyes and.... Honey, you're blind." She let the news sink in before she continued, "Also, your mother's will gives your custody to your uncle, my Johnny, in California."
"Uncle Johnny?" the girl asked, dumbstruck at everything, images flashed in her brain of her favorite relative, "Wait, isn't he still living with his old girlfriend? Ava Gregory? Awkward..."
Nana nodded, although the younger person could only feel the movement instead of see it, "Which is why, until we make the arrangements, you'll be living with me and your grandfather. Don't worry, everything will be alright, and as soon as we straighten things out, you'll go on the first plane to California."
Words caught in her throat, but Becca held on, tears slipping down, "What am I going to do now...."
Halfway across the country in a small, split level California home, the cordless phone rang amongst a pile of paperwork, buried like a forgotten treasure on Johnny Durant's desk, the owner of said phone barely able to look up from his laptop computer for five minutes. He had been focused on this case since day one, vigorously trying to entice someone to buy from his real estate agency, so much so that he'd blocked out almost everything else. In fact, he was so engrossed in his work, he failed to realize the phone was even ringing until one of his three housemates answered the phone.
"Hello?" he could hear Ava's sweet, song-like voice from the kitchen, and he unconsciously smiled, savoring her tone. "Yes, this is the house of Johnny Durant... No, no, I'm not his wife..." Sometimes I wish you were, he thought absently, before shaking his head, No, J-Man, you got to focus. Focus on the prize, not on Ava... you two are through with each other... You're just good friends... Suddenly, he wasn't so sure. Blinking, his brown eyes returned to his work, his thoughts exactly where they were supposed to be...
However, fate had screwed with him again. His bedroom door burst open, and there she was in her Kansas-turned-California glory, but with something that crushed his heart: her eyes, those beautiful eyes or hers, red, tears threatening to form. "Ava!?" he half-shouted, immediately concerned, "Ava, what's...?"
She held the phone out to him, "It's your sister... Johnny... she's gone..."
Ice coated his stomach, the shock striking him dumbfounded, "Wha-what?" He snatched the phone away from her, and placed it to his ear, "Hello?!? What about my sister!??! What happened?"
The next few minutes were torture. Carefully, his mother relayed everything that had happened since the accident had taken the life of his sister, and even he was in tears. God, how he loved Maria, his sister, and they had always been so close, ever since they were kids... A knife twisted in his gut with every word spoken, still not believing his sister was gone,
"Mom, what's... what's going to happen with Becca? How is she?" His niece was the only person he could think of who would be suffering more than he was at this very moment. If he loved his sister, his niece was the second woman he'd grown close to, especially after the ordeal with her father when she was born. The damned drunk, he cursed, thinking about it, too smashed to even consider raising a child with the woman he slept with... It was no secret in the Durant family that Maria Durant had made a mistake in having a child by Becca's father, whoever he was. They were drunk, he was flighty and abusive... it was only luck that Johnny himself had gotten there in time, protecting his older sister, and later his niece like a little brother would. That was just who he was, something he never regretted to this day.
His mother gave a long sigh over the phone, "Johnny, Becca was in a car accident as well."
He gasped, "She's ok right? Becca's ok?" Almost jumping, Johnny flinched at a warm hand on his shoulder, Ava's touch trying to soothe him, "She better be..."
"She's as well as anyone could be... Johnny, the car she was riding in, it's windshield shattered, and some of the glass worked its way up into her eyes. She's blind..."
"It's correctable, right? She's not going to be blind for the rest of her life, is she?" Thoughts of his niece, with her medium length brown hair and laughing blue eyes, appeared in his mind, memories of last summer when she'd made her bi-yearly visits to Summerland. She'll never see the surf again...
"It may be permanent, I don't know. Listen Johnny, the funeral for Maria will be a week from today."
"Next Saturday?" Horrified, he looked at his calendar, and sputtered, "I-I-I can't, Mom. Oh God, I can't be there at her funeral..." Quickly, an explanation formed, "I've got a major deal going on here, and if I leave now, my friends and I... We're barely floating on my income, Mom. Ava and Susannah have to get their fashion line together, and Jay's surf shop gig only pays for the groceries... If I'm not there for this deal on a house, we're not going to pay the bills, and we're already months behind! We'll get evicted! I've got the notice right here on my desk!"
His mother sighed again, and he could practically see her rub the bridge of her nose in her classic manner, "Johnny, I want you here with me next Saturday. I need someone there with me... Becca needs someone."
"Pop's going to be there, isn't he?"
"You know your father... Stoic, that's who I married."
Johnny groaned, "That's what an army man will do to you... Mom, is there anything I can do?"
"When this is all settled, you can agree to your sister's last wishes."
Now he lived up to his sister's nickname for him: Adamant Durant, "How? Name it, I won't rest until I've done it."
"She left Becca in your care."
"What?" Confused, he looked at Ava with wide eyes, "Becca's in my care? What, as in I'm her guardian? I'm the one Maria left in charge of her?"
"Yes, Johnny. She wanted you, and you've had experience with raising kids before, right?"
"Mom, that was in high school, when Maria couldn't babysit the Maret's twins."
"Please, Johnny, I know that Maria wouldn't leave you Becca if she didn't think you could handle her. And plus, the legal issues won't be solved for a couple more months anyway, and by that time, she'll be more likely to get around on her own. You wouldn't have to watch her all the time."
He shook his head, "Mom, I don't know a thing about raising a blind person!"
"Don't worry! You won't need to teach her anything: she'll teach you. Please, do this for your sister!"
Anything, anything for his sister... "Alright..." They spoke for a few more minutes before he switched off and set the phone down, collapsing in his desk chair while his ex-girlfriend kneeled right next to him, "Ava, what am I going to do?"
"Although I wish you had spoken to us first," she began, "I know how close you and Maria were. That reminds me of me and my sister..." Her hand wrapped in his for a moment, and she squeezed, "But I know you'll get through this. You were always there for me, right? Whenever I needed anything?"
"Yeah, but having a teenager in the house and helping you are two different things."
She smiled, "Yeah, but you forget: I know Becca. She's a good kid, and she knows how to look after herself. Even if she is blind, and things will be different because of that, but I know you'll be the best guardian she could ever have. Besides," a light punch was aimed at his shoulder, "You're the closest thing she's had to a dad since she was born."
Even he couldn't argue with her knowledge. He returned the squeeze and smiled, his heart flittering for just a tiny bit, "I hate it when you're right, Ava."
Grinning, her legs began to boost her up, "I know. Maybe that's why I'm here: to point you in the right direction."
Watching her leave, he breathed in a bit, and Johnny Durant let it out slowly, feeling slightly uneasy but no less than satisfied, "I guess there's going to have to be a few changes in this house... Just wait 'til I tell Jay and Susannah about our newest recruit..."