Author's Note: Hey. I don't got much to say. Thank you to everyone who's reviewed, it is greatly appreciated. I hope that you guys continue to like this. Just remember, this story is already done, I've written the ending, so there's nothing I can do if you guys don't like how things go from here on in. Please tell me what you think. Enjoy.
--OTH--
"Finally, they're here."
Just like the operator had told her, the ambulance took about half an hour to get to the cabin they were staying it. Luckily for them, the people that owned the place hadn't come by, they would certainly have a lot of explaining to do. Peyton had followed all the instructions she was given; get Haley into dry clothes, get her into a warm bed, keep constant body contact and do anything to keep her awake. After a while, the last thing was proving to be harder than she thought it would be, for both of them. Peyton had tried her best to talk about anything that she could possibly think of, from the drama between Jake and Nikki to what went down on the newest episode of Will & Grace, anything that would keep Haley's eyes open. Eventually, it seemed that nothing was going to keep Haley awake; she was too tired and too cold. It seemed that no matter how close she got to Haley or how many blankets she put on them; Haley was still stone cold.
"Hales, baby, they're here," Peyton whispered into deaf ears. Haley had long since been knocked out and no matter how much screaming Peyton did; she was going to stay that way. "It's time to wake up now."
"Hello!" came a loud shoat from outside followed by a very loud banging. "Is anyone in there? We received a call about hypothermia!"
"In here!" Peyton screamed, despite the sharp pain at the sudden change in volume of her voice. She'd been doing nothing but whispering for the past hour. She heard the door burst open and at least two sets of footsteps scurrying towards the bedroom they were in.
"Which room?"
"First one," she called back, knowing they'd be able to follow her voice anyway without having to give the directions. No more than a few seconds later, the door to the bedroom burst open with the same strength as the front door and two men entered all decked out in full paramedic gear.
"Hello, Ma'am," the older one greeter Peyton as the other guy quickly made his way over to the bed in the middle of the room. He moved over to Haley's side to get a better look at her. "Sorry it took us so long, we got here as soon as we could."
"I was beginning to think you guys forgot about us." He shook his head before going to join his buddy. Peyton watched as the started looking Haley over. They were holding her eyes open to see her pupils, feeling for a pulse, listening to her heartbeat. Peyton watched them do their jobs in awe. Everything seemed so surreal to her, she couldn't believe they were doing all of this to her best friend.
"How long was she out there for?" the younger guy, Neil, asked as he looked up at Peyton with concerned eyes. A bad feeling washed over Peyton as she took in the panicked look on his face. She knew that things couldn't be that good if the paramedic was that scared.
"I don't know," she answered, shaking her head. She thought about how long they were out there, but she couldn't remember exactly, everything was really starting to blend together now. "Um, four hours, I think. Maybe a little longer."
"What was she wearing?" He lifted up the blanket slightly to make sure that she was in dry clothes now. "Not this." Peyton shook her head, making sure to keep an eye on the other guy as he continued to work on her friend.
"Just shorts and a shirt," Peyton answered, nudging her head in the direction their fallen clothes were in. Neil followed where she was indicating and nodded when he saw the pile of wet clothes on the floor. "Is she going to be okay?"
"We don't know yet," the other guy, Chris, answered. "If she was out there for that long, I'm surprised she's lasted as long as she did." Peyton let his words wash over her and had to practically smoother the sob that threatened to spill out. Just knowing that Haley should be dead right now was enough to kill her.
"Why don't you know?" she demanded, her fear overriding her commonsense at the moment. "You're supposed to be doctors, damn it! Tell me my best friend is going to be okay!" Neil and Chris looked at her sympathetically.
"I can't tell you that," Chris restated. Without giving her time to snap at them again, he quickly stood up, removing the blanket that was keeping Peyton and Haley warm.
"What we can tell you is that we're going to do everything in our power to make sure that your friend gets through this with as little damage as possible." She looked at him like he was crazy. Was that really supposed to comfort her right now? Honestly, did he think that was going to make her feel any better about this entire situation?
"But to do that," Chris started again, stopping his movements for getting Haley out of bed to look at Peyton. "We're going to have to get her to the hospital. Which means, you have to let go of your death grip on her." Peyton looked at him in confusion for a moment, before following his gaze to where her arms were tightly wrapped around Haley's body, her hands squeezing her so hard that her almost blue skin was starting to turn purple.
"Oh," was all she said. She looked down at Haley's pale face as she finally let her hands go, letting them take her away. She tried not to think about the fact that she basically just put her best friend's life in two stranger's hands.
"Thank you," one of them said, but Peyton wasn't sure which one. She watched in a daze as they scooped up Haley's limp body on their arms and started towards the door. It took her a moment, but she soon realized that they had left her alone in the room.
"Wait," she called, jumping out of the bed and running out of the room. When she saw them just loading Haley into the back of the huge vehicle, Peyton ran to the front door. "Hey! Hey!" It took them an extra moment because of the volume of the rain, but they eventually heard her. Peyton sighed before running back out into the rain and joining them at the back of the ambulance.
"What are you doing out here?" Neil yelled over the rain, trying to shield his eyes as the water rapidly hit his face. Chris continued to set Haley up on the stretcher.
"I'm going with her," Peyton stated, her voice telling him that there would be no arguing with her on this. She moved to get into the back, but he held his arm out, blocking her way.
"You can't come unless you're family…"
"She is my family and I'm not leaving her," she hissed, staring him directly in the eyes. "I may look skinny and weak, but I should warn you that I turn tiger when someone I love is in trouble." She smiled internally at the genuine fear she could see in his eyes. She didn't think she could be that scary because it never seemed to work on Brooke before. "Now move or I will move you."
"Okay." He stepped to the side and let her slip into the back. When he say that Chris was going to stay in the back, he shut both doors and ran up to the front of the ambulance and jumped in. Once everyone was set, set belts all in tack and the windshield was cleared off, Neil pulled out of the driveway and onto the main road.
Luckily, the distance between the cabin and the hospital was closer so it didn't take them half the time to get there than it had for them to arrive at the cabin. As soon as they pulled up, Chris and Neil immediately went to work. They had Haley out of the ambulance before Peyton even realized what was going on. She quickly jumped out and ran to catch up with them as they wheeled Haley's stretcher into the hospital. Once she was inside, she couldn't see Haley, Chris or Neil anywhere, it was as if they had disappeared. After doing a couple more quick sweeps of the area, Peyton moved over to nurses' station.
"Hello," the lady greeted. Peyton wiped the wet hair out of her face so she could read the lady's nametag. It read Nurse Abby Chapel. "What can I do for you?" Peyton disliked her already; she was way too perky to be working at a hospital. She was a walking oxymoron.
"I'm looking for a friend, Haley James," Peyton explained, making sure to keep the anger and frustration out of her voice. Peyton motioned towards the hall she thinks they would have taken Haley in. "She was just brought in, like literally a minute ago."
"What does she have?"
"Hypothermia," Peyton answered and watched as Abby typed the name and diagnostic into the computer that was in front of her. "She was just rolled in here by two of the paramedics." Abby nodded, reading the information on the screen and listening to the blonde at the same time.
"They'll be working on her for the next little while," Abby explained to her in a sympathetic voice. As good as if felt to help people, nothing felt worse than when she had to see that broken look on a family member's face. "Are you here by yourself?"
"Yeah," Peyton answered, completely distracted by the images of what 'working on her' meant. She wasn't sure what she was referring to, but none of the possibilities in her head were good things, all of them included Haley being in some sort of pain.
"Why don't you call someone to stay with you while you wait?" she suggested. It always seemed that the person waiting alone always got the most tears for obvious reasons.
"Okay," Peyton nodded, already reaching into her pocket for her cell phone. Before she had a chance to even get it out and turned on, the nurse shook her head and held out her hand.
"I'm sorry," she told her regretfully. "There's no cell phones allowed in the hospital, it messes with the machines sometimes." Peyton nodded and slipped it back into her pocket as if nothing had happened.
"That's fine," she answered, her voice flat with almost no emotions at all. Her heart just wasn't in it, it was in Haley's room with her. She tried not to think about all the different possible outcomes of this whole thing could be, and most of them were bad. She wasn't stupid enough to think that Haley would come out of this with nothing wrong with her, but she hoped there were no lasting effects.
"There's pay phones just around the corner," Abby informed her, pointing in the directions the phones were in. "Or you can feel free to use this phone." She held up the hospital phone that was on her desk that was reserved for special calls only. She didn't know what it was, but there was just something about the pain in Peyton's eyes that told her that this was a special case.
"I'll go use the pay phones," Peyton decided, her voice sounding distracted as she slowly turned around. She glanced over her shoulder to give Abby a sad smile and a wave goodbye. "Thanks."
"No problem," Peyton heard Abby call lamely. Peyton slowly made her way over to where she was told the phones were. She didn't know what she was going to say. Just thinking about it made her stomach contrast; she couldn't even imagine how she was supposed to tell everyone. Haley was like the center of the whole group. She was the one person they all had in common; they all loved her to death. If she wasn't okay, everyone would fall apart.
Peyton closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she reached for the phone. She grabbed it and put it to her ear. An unsteady hand began dialing the familiar numbers of Brooke's cell phone.
--OTH--
"I must be hearing things," Brooke stated, her voice full of astonishment. There was no possible way that she had just heard what she thinks she just heard. Tim and Lacy were married? No way. "Cause I could have sworn that Tim just said you guys got married."
"I heard it too," Lucas added in, always trying to be helpful. He, just like everyone else in the room, thought it was a stupid idea for them to have gotten married at such a young age, but they could do whatever they wanted to do.
"Same here," Jake called, raising his hand, but never taking his eyes off the happy couple. As shocked as he was to hear about the weeding, he was still trying to get over the fact that his daughter was now related to Tim. That was just something that nobody wanted to hear.
"Well, yeah," Tim said as if they were crazy for reacting the way they were. "I did say that." Nicki looked at Tim for a moment, not believing that her sister would marry such an idiot before looking at Lacy.
"You got married?"
"Kinda," Lacy answered, not being able to look her big sister in the eyes.
"When did this happen?"
"A couple days ago," Lacy informed them. At first she thought it was a bad idea too, her parents had gotten married when they were young and look how they turned out, but then she thought about how much she loved Tim and how much she wanted her baby to have a real dad that would always be there for him and she was okay again.
"Why would you do something like that?" Brooke questioned. She had to admit, she and Luke had talked about it a few times, but they didn't plan on doing it until sometime in the distant future, when they were at least twenty-five. "You guys are only seventeen."
"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Tim answered with much confidence. He never really pictured himself married, ever, and especially not in his teens, but he had never been more sure of anything in his entire life. The fact that Lacy was carrying his best friend's baby didn't even enter into the equation. He was to love his baby, whether it was biologically his or not.
"But what about the baby?" Brooke asked, motioning to Lacy's stomach. She knew it wasn't her place to be judging, this had nothing to do with her, but she chalked it up to her inner gossip queen. Personally, what Tim and Lacy did with their relationship didn't seem to concern her as much as it would have two weeks ago. At his point, the only relationship she cared about was her own and Haley's.
"I'm going to adopt it," Tim answered with a proud smile plastered on his face. Lacy couldn't help her own smile from coming to her lips as Tim wrapped an arm around her waist. "We're gonna be a family." Everyone in the room looked at them and let the information sink in for a minute.
"Good for you guys," Jake said, being the first one to speak. Next to congratulate was Lucas, followed by Brooke and Nathan. Nicki waited a moment longer before sighing and pulling her sister into a tight hug.
"I'm happy for you," she whispered into Lacy's ear. She wasn't sure if this was the vest decision her sister ever made, but if she was happy, than that was enough for her. They pulled apart when they heard a cell phone ringing. They all checked to see if it was theirs.
"It's mine," Brooke exclaimed, pulling her cell off her belt and flipping it open. She didn't recognize the number, but answered it anyway. "Hello?"
"Brooke?"
"Pey?" Brooke asked in surprise. She wasn't sure if it was the blonde, her voice was so shaky and hallow. After she received no response, she tried again. "Peyton, is that you? Where are you?"
"I'm at the hospital."
"Hospital?" Brooke repeated, the panic starting to rise in her voice. Everyone stopped their conversations when they heard the word. Lucas and Jake both went towards her. Luke laid a hand on her shoulder encase she needed the support, while Jake watched on, waiting for her to say something. All her knew was he heard his girlfriend's name and hospital. That was never good.
"Yeah."
"What's going on?" Brooke questioned. She still hadn't put the pieces together that Peyton had gone out searching for Haley. "Peyton, why are you at the hospital?"
"It's Haley," she stated. With those two words, Brooke felt all the air leave the room. She brought a hand to her stomach; afraid she might throw up and waited for her friend to continue. "I found her a couple hours ago, she was sitting out in the rain. She said she couldn't feel her legs, she was so blue and cold."
"Is she…"
"The doctors are working on her," Peyton answered, trying to remain calm. She couldn't break down, at least not alone. She could do it when Brooke and Jake got there. "She was unconscious the last time I saw her. I think she has hypothermia." Brooke's eyes traveled to the window and she watched the rain beat against the window and blowing the trees. "God, Brooke, please, you have to come down here. It feels like I can't breathe, I'm so scared."
"We're on our way," she answered before hanging up the phone. It wasn't until then that she noticed everyone's eyes on her. She knew they were all expecting answers, but she couldn't find the words. She just needed to get to the hospital and see Haley, to make sure she was alright with her own two eyes.
"What's going on?" Jake asked immediately. Brooke could hear the panic in his voice and it would have broken her heart if it hadn't already been done. Peyton was Jake's life; he would be destroyed if something happened to her. Just like she knew Nathan would be when he found out about Haley. She looked over at Nathan who was looking at her as well, but knew better than to ask her what happened.
"Brooke?" Lucas called once she had gone off into her own little world. She snapped out of her daze.
"Jake and Nathan," she stated, grabbing both their hands and pulling them towards her. "You're coming to the hospital with me." She looked at Lucas and Nicki. "You two stay here with Britney and Kevin."
"But…"
"I'll call when we get there," she said as she moved towards the door. Jake and Nathan quickly grabbed their coats and followed her out into the rain. They all piled into Nathan's car. Before he started, he turned into the back to look at her, expecting an answer.
"What's going on?" he asked. He was trying his hardest not to think about Haley. If he even thought about something happening to her, he would go crazy. This couldn't be about her, because if it was, then it was his entire fault. "Why are we going to the hospital?"
"Just get us there," she answered in a stern voice. Letting him come was against her better judgment for more than one reason. She was certain that Haley didn't want to see him and she certainly didn't want to be around him, but she knew Nathan needed to be there. She knew that despite everything that happened and everything he did, Nathan still loved Haley more than life itself. And that gave her a little hope for the future.
--OTH--
That's all. Hope you enjoyed and are on the edge of your seats for the next chapter, which will come faster if you reply. Thanks.
