That Summer
Rating: T-M
Disclaimer:
If the characters were mine I'd be getting paid to write TV scripts, now wouldn't I? So…you know the drill.
Reviewers: Kool-Wolf – Stop the hate my friend! Violence is not the answer! ) Glad you liked it enough to hate that I stopped writing…did that make sense outside of my head? Butterfly Dancing – Yeah…but nothing's perfect. Maybe for this story he's pretty close though…You could find Hunter and kill him but then I wouldn't have an ending to my story! Sam – Hellooooo, how ya doing? Glad you liked the hairline fracture subplot. Just FYI, I put it in to show that Joan was really that desperate to save Grace's life that she didn't know how hard to she was doing the CPR. Laura – I'm glad you've stepped out of denial and into reality! Nice accidental pun by the way. What happens now is, you have to read to find out. Yes I will clear that up. I'm trying to slide it in at the right time, that's why it wasn't in the past chapters. peachteach – Don't you love rollercoaster rides? The whole adrenaline rush thing, it's pretty wicked sometimes. I'm glad you want more, because more's coming!
Everyone: Thanks for reading still. We're almost done here! I'm thinking a sequel may be coming but who knows? There's going to be one, two chapters more at most, just FYI.
A/N: As always sorry for the typos, I suck.


Chapter 13 – And You Say…Stay

"So what do you think happens now?" Adam asked. He didn't like sitting in waiting rooms with Luke after the time that Joan had passed out because of Lyme disease. He always expected Luke to get defensive and ask pointed, personal questions regarding Joan and himself. Of course Adam knew that Joan was sitting in between them this time instead of Grace, but still. It gave Adam the willies.

"They'll probably keep her for a couple of days. That way they can observe her to prevent secondary drowning." Luke said plainly. He was staring at his feet, with his elbows resting idly on his knees and his head bent low.

"Secondary drowning?" Joan asked, confused. "She's not even near water."

"She doesn't have to be." Luke turned his head to look at Joan. "Water causes damage to the inside of her lungs. It can collapse the alveoli and cause a hardening of the lungs which will reduce the ability to exchange air." He looked at their confused faces. "It's bad. It's very bad. They have to watch for it or she'll die." He told them.

"But…" Joan met Luke's eyes. "But since she's here…they can, you know stop that right?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah." He said. All three of them looked up silently when Will approached them. He sighed softly and looked at the three teens in front of him. He crouched down to their level, watching their eyes following him.

"What happens now?" Joan spoke up, echoing Adam's question.

"Well," Will began. "They've got an APB out for Hunter. It's all over the news. He's considered dangerous, obviously. When they find him, they'll bring him back here for arraignment."

Joan leaned forward. "What if they don't find him?" She asked. Will reached up and took his daughter's face in his hands.

"They'll find him." He said sternly.

"Where did mom go?" Joan questioned.

"She went to get some food for all of you." Will replied. Joan nodded.

"I need to go for a walk…some…um…you know...air, that kind of thing." She stood.

"I'll go with you." Adam stood as well.

"Stay on the hospital grounds." Will called over his shoulder. He sat next to Luke, who was staring at the ceiling. "Are you, okay?" He asked Luke. Luke didn't move. He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath.

"Where are Grace's parents?" He asked, the underlying anger shining through his calm tone. Will nodded slightly, understanding that Luke was upset.

"Her father said he would be able to make it here tomorrow. And her mother…" Will trailed off.

"Let me guess-passed out?" Luke asked with a nervous, aggravated chuckle as he rolled his head and then sat up. "That's just great. They don't even care that their daughter could have died-she was dead!" Luke was on his feet now, screaming. His voice was getting tight and his eyes had filled. Will stood up, using his hands as he talked calmly.

"I know you feel that way, Luke-,"

"NO! Don't justify it for them!" Luke screamed. "They don't care! She was dead, dad! Dead…not breathing! No heartbeat! She was blue!" He bellowed. He didn't even care that his father saw him crying now. "I thought…"his voice caught, half sobs cutting into them no matter how hard Luke tried to stop them. "I thought she was gone, dad. I…I thought it was over…I was never going to see her eyes again. I was never going to see her laugh when I went off on some stupid, unimportant scientific rant. I thought…" Luke shook his head, closing his eyes tight. "I thought…I-I felt…" He put his hand to his chest, unable to control his emotions at this point after trying to hold them together for so long. He shook his head harder, avoiding his dad's eyes as the tears came. "I felt…helpless…I couldn't breathe, I couldn't…think." He looked at his father. "I felt like I was dying. She was dead. Dad. She was really dead. And…and her parents…they don't even care!" Luke felt like he was going to collapse. His legs felt wobbly.

Will reached out and grabbed Luke by his upper arms. Will was visibly shaken by the distraught state his son was in. His own eyes were filling up. He was thinking about how he would have reacted if someone had called to tell him that his daughter who was three and a half hours away, had drowned and was revived and in a hospital. It would have taken him an hour to get to where she was because he would have driven so fast.

"I don't know why some people react the way they do in times like these, son." Will said calmly. "I don't want to pretend I know what this felt like for you." He said after a moment of thought as Luke stared at him. He put his hand on the side of Luke's face, by his neck. "But I want you to know I got here as soon as I could. And that I will never, ever be far away from you when you need me." He said sternly. Luke wavered a moment, and then his legs mostly gave out. He collapsed into his father who was prepared for it, and caught him, hugging Luke closely to him.


"Your brother's taking this surprisingly well." Adam said once he and Joan has taken up residence on a bench that was close to the entrance of the hospital. Joan had her right foot pulled up, sitting on it with her left leg and turned so she was facing Adam. He was slouched, facing forward, turning his head to look at her with his hands in his pockets. Joan put her left elbow on the top of the bench and rested her head against her hand.

"I know…he'll explode sooner or later." She sighed. "He does that…bottle it up, blow a gasket thing."

"Ah…" He nodded. "Are you okay?"

Joan took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm…waiting for you know, my adrenaline to shut off. After that…I'm thinking I might just pass out from exhaustion." She looked at the thoughtful look on Adam's face. Joan reached out with her right hand and touched Adam's arm. "You were really scared too, huh?"

Adam nodded, staring off at the moon hanging low in the sky. "I was thinking, earlier. About everything Grace did for me. You know, when my mom…" Adam let the sentence end itself. Joan squeezed his arm a little tighter as Adam looked down, kicking and toeing a crack in front of him on the ground. He scoffed slightly. "How could we have been dumb enough to think he was finished with us?"

Joan looked at Adam. "He who? The big guy orrrr…Ryan?"

"Both. Mostly Ryan." He turned his head and looked at Joan. "I figured there wasn't an end to the God part." He smiled slightly. "As long as you don't go dancing with him anymore."

Joan smiled slightly. "Can I ask you something?"

"Cha, you know you can, Jane." He replied.

"When I told you…in the hospital, that I talked to God. You didn't believe me." Joan began. Adam nodded, guilty as charged. "When…and what, exactly, changed your mind?"

Adam thought about this for a moment. His mouth hung open a little tiny bit, moving a few times like he was about to form some words and then he thought twice about them. A small chuckle came to his throat and a tiny grin appeared on his face.

"Come to think of it, it was Grace actually." He said. Joan looked at him, confused.

"Grace?" She asked, unsure. "How could it have been Grace? She still thinks I'm looney, even if she does believe me."

"She said that it wasn't possible for all of the crazy antics that you did, all the stuff that led to good ripples or whatever, without some kind of higher power knowing that your actions would lead to go things." Adam said quickly.

"I'm sorry, was that in English?" Joan asked. Adam chuckled slightly.

"Grace felt that there was no way voices and illusions from someone's brain could influence them to do all the good things you were doing." He tried again. "She said she talked to Luke about it. And they both came to the conclusion that if you no longer had Lyme disease, then there was no way that you could have been delusional. So they started taking turns watching you. They eavesdropped on all those conversations you had with strange people they didn't know." Adam looked at her. "And they were pretty much convinced. And that's when the little girl with the bug glasses," He looked at her to see if she knew who he meant. Joan nodded. "Yeah, she talked to them. Just before last Christmas." He chuckled almost. "Remember…when you couldn't figure out why we agreed so readily to help you convince the diner waitress that Lilly knew to go back to school?"

Joan nodded. It was after that, that Grace, Luke and even Adam, had confronted her, in an almost reverse intervention. They'd setup a movie night when Will and Helen were going out to dinner. Luke and Joan had just gotten the pizza they'd ordered. They were just settling in in the living room when Adam and Grace showed up at the door. They sat around the living room coffee table, eating pizza, popcorn, M&M's and drinking too much soda. All at once the three of them had exchanged glances and then started confessing to her that they believed her and they were sorry-which was a lot coming from Grace particularly-and that they would always be there to help her so that she could rest easier and not have so many people going against her all the time. Joan smiled, almost laughed at the memory. She shook her head.

"How come you never asked before?" Adam questioned. Joan blushed slightly, hitching her shoulders up in a long shrug.

"I was afraid if I questioned the motif behind it, that it would cause a chain reaction where I wound up losing your support. I figured it would be better just not to question it and be thankful that you all were at least pretending to believe me." She said. "And then God started talking to me in front of you, and Luke and Grace. You guys didn't always recognize at first but after awhile it became as usual to you as it is to me."

"I'm sorry." Adam said, looking at her.

"Oh please, Adam. It's all in the past now. Everything turned out all right-good ripples." She smiled. Adam shook his head.

"I mean for everything." He cleared his throat. "I know it takes a lot for you to trust me all the time…and I know it's my fault because of that."

Joan always felt uncomfortable when the familiar topic. She knew that Adam was sorry for what he'd done. She also knew that she was tired of visiting the subject. She knew that it was way passed time to move on, or else she wouldn't have gotten back together with Adam. Of course it helped that Bonnie had gone 'insane' and was now in a hospital, even if that was all Ryan's doing. Joan looked at Adam. She leaned in and kissed him.

"Stop. It's time to stop visiting this conversation." She told him. Adam only nodded.

"What are you kids doing out here?" Helen crossed from the parking lot with a couple of bags of food from McDonald's in one hand and a tray of soda cups in the other. Joan and Adam climbed to their feet.

"Let us help you with that mom." Joan took some of the bags.

"Yeah Mrs. Girardi, I'll take those." Adam took the two trays of sodas and they headed inside.


Grace couldn't let herself sleep. She listened to the hum of the machines in the dimly lit room. She sighed, looking around the room. She wished that someone would come in and sit with her, but they all thought she was asleep. She really wished Luke, particularly, would come and sit in the empty chair next to her bed, and refuse to leave even when the nurses tried to kick him out after visiting hours. Grace sighed, closely her eyes for a moment. She heard yelling from somewhere out in the hall. Straining her ears Grace listened for what it could be. She heard Luke.

"What the…" she said out loud to herself, cocking her head towards the door.

"NO! Don't justify for them!" She heard Luke screamed. Grace listened intently as Luke bellowed out how he felt. She listened to the emotion in his shouts as he screamed about seeing her lying dead on a beach and in the water. Grace closed her eyes, letting a few solemn tears slide from the corners of them. She shook her head and wiped her eyes when the yelling stopped. It was her fault that he had felt so horrible and shaken.


Grace snapped to attention and put on a forced smirk as the door to her room opened. Helen, Adam and Joan burst in, smiling and carrying fast food.

"Oh, I see how it is, you really are trying to kill me?" Grace joked, positioning herself on the bed to sit up straight and grimacing at the pain in her ribs.

"Ooh…hey, I'm sorry about that by the way." Joan motioned to show she meant the rib fracture. Grace chuckled softly and waved a hand at her.

"Psssh, please," she looked at Joan with a smile. "The pain is much better than being dead, dude."

Helen frowned. "You shouldn't make jokes like that." She said. Without warning she stepped forward and hugged Grace. "It's a miracle you're alive, Grace." She said. Grace had frozen. She knew Joan's mom could be very emotional and caring towards all of them. Grace could honestly say she didn't mind it, though she would never tell Joan, Adam or Luke that.

"Uh…tell me you got cheeseburgers because phew, boy am I starving." Grace interrupted the hug. Helen stood up, knowing Grace just felt awkward. She gathered a few things of food.

"You three divide this up. I'll take this out to Will, and send Luke in." She said, exchanging a glance with Grace before leaving the room.


About an hour later, it was around 6 p.m. and everyone had finished their food. Luke was staring at Grace as she, Joan and Adam exchanged witty banter back and forth, having dropped the heavy topic of what was going to happen to Ryan forty-five minutes ago. It took a few moments for Grace to notice his eyes on her. She glanced at him and then cleared her throat, looking at Adam and Joan.

"Okay, as much as I just love all this company…I'm gonna have to kick you guys out." She said. Joan looked at the expression on Luke's face and took Adam by the hand.

"Oh, of course. We were just about to leave to check on how the manhunt's going." She said.

"We were?" Adam asked. Joan elbowed him lightly. He nodded. "Oh. We were." He smiled, following Joan out.

Grace looked at Luke. He looked like he was at a loss for words. She could see the red in his eyes from when he'd been yelling and obviously crying earlier. They didn't speak at first. They just studied each other.

"Are you going to tell me what's on your mind, or should I ask?" She questioned him. Luke was seated in on f the chairs against the wall at the foot of her bed. His hands were entwined together, his elbows resting on his knees as he sat forward and the knuckles of his thumbs were touching his lips as he leaned his face on his hands. He watched her for a minute, contemplating his response. Then he let his hands fall and his arms lounge around his knees.

"You're parents aren't coming…" He said, knowing she wouldn't want him to tap dance around it. Grace's expression didn't flinch or change much. She had known this was coming. She hadn't actually expected that either one of her parents would show up after they got the report that she was in fact alive and all right. Luke watched her carefully for her reaction. Grace pushed her lips together tightly and nodded.

"Ah well, they've gotta cut the chord sometime, eh?" She responded. Luke shook his head. He didn't know what to say. "Hey…come here…" She moved herself to the side of the bed and patted the empty space on the bed next to her. Luke rose to his feet. He walked over and climbed in next to her, sitting up on the bed. Grace put her head down on his chest as he slipped his right arm around her shoulders. She took a deep breath and inhaled his scent. He smelled salty, like the ocean water. She knew he had rushed into the water in his clothes, Joan had told her.

"I don't care." Grace said quietly. Luke looked down at her. She was staring at his shirt as her hand drew fake lines on it by his stomach. He watched the top of her head. Slowly, Grace turned her head up to meet his eyes.

"I do." He said. "I know you enough to know that you do too." He said, reaching up to brush her hair behind her ear. Grace took a deep breath and winced. Luke felt his heart jump.

"It doesn't matter." She said.

"Grace." Luke protested. Grace lifted her head up and kissed him.

"Just…" she interrupted him before he could speak again. "Just don't leave…okay? Stay…Stay here with me."

Luke nodded. Grace put her head back down, leaving her right arm along his torso, as if draping her arm across him would ensure she would hold him there. Luke tilted his head down and kissed the top of hers, using his left hand to stroke her hair gently and entwining his left fingers in her right, careful not to jostle the IV in the back of her hand. It didn't take long for her to fall into a calm sleep.


"Is there a problem officer?"

"I need your license, registration and proof of insurance, sir." The officer said, chewing his gum. The man at the wheel handed the requested information over. The officer looked at it and started filling out paperwork.

"Why did you pull me over?" He asked.

"Well, Mr. Hunter," The officer said. "It seems that you were doing 85 in a 55 zone."

Ryan sighed. "Whatever. Just, write me a ticket and let me go." He said. He was nervous and edgy. The officer picked up on this. He backed up, unbuttoning his gun holster, and backing up a step.

"Sir, turn off the car, and step out of the vehicle with your hands in the air." The officer said, pulling his gun and aiming it. Ryan sighed and rolled his eyes. He turned the car off and slowly opened the door.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked the officer as she stood next to the open car door, with his hands in the air and his back to the officer.

"Don't talk. Put your hands on your head." The officer ordered. Ryan put his hands on his head. He listened closely. When he knew the officer was close enough, he prepared his attack. The officer was reaching for Ryan's right wrist. Ryan was about to throw his head backwards and head butt the officer when an APB rang out loudly over the officer's walkie-talkie, startling them both. The officer composed himself faster than Ryan did and by the time Ryan reacted he was in handcuffs. The police officer sat him in the back of the cruiser and then called in to the operator for a repeat of the all-points bulletin as he ran Ryan's license through the system.

"Ryan Hunter," the officer said a minute later. "You are under arrest for the attempted murder of Grace Polk. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can, and will be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you-,"

"I know my rights." Ryan said. "Shut up and get on with it." He snapped. The police officer waited. Another cop car pulled up behind them a few minutes later. The officer got out and came to speak to the other officer.

"I'll call the tow for this car, you bring him on in. The detective from Arcadia will be wanting to speak with him as well." The second officer explained. The first one nodded. After they finished a short conversation, the police cruiser was on its way to the station, to book Ryan Hunter on murder charges.

"I warned you, Ryan." The female officer said as she tilted Ryan's left index finger into ink and then rolled it onto a paper. Ryan stared at the woman for a minute. He snickered.

"I guess I didn't get enough water in for my soul." He said. Cop God shook her head.

"You had such promise when you first started to see me." She commented.

"Oh my, where did we go wrong in raising the kids, hon?" Ryan snipped back. "Why don't you do me a favor and go to hell?"


"Good news-," Will said as he entered Grace's room. Luke was still on the bed with Grace using him as a pillow. Both were asleep leaning against each other as if their very lives depended on it. Helen was on the couch that was along the side wall, with Joan leaning on one of her shoulders, asleep and Adam asleep on the other. She had her arms around both of their shoulders, running her hands gingerly through their hair.

"Shhh…" she held her finger up to her lips, cutting Will off. Will stopped. He smiled and then whispered.

"They just picked up Hunter." He said. "I'm going down to meet them now. Tell them, when they wake up, okay?"

Helen nodded. Will kissed her and then left. Helen looked around at the four sleeping teens and let out a sigh of relief. "What am I going to do with you kids?" She asked herself. Then a thought dawned on her. "What am I going to do with you all so far away?" She sighed again.