WHAT UP!

So Elliot will now be brought into the story, but not under good situations. My moral of this chapter is please watch how much and what you drink. I had this happen to my brother and it scared the hell out of my family.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Austin & Ally

Chapter 11

Hospitals and Confessions

Ally's POV:

The sounds from the monitors just keep replaying in my head as I sat in the hospital waiting room. What I had just witnessed is something no one, especially a pregnant woman, should see.

After we had gotten that call from my dad, Austin and I had gotten into the car and got to the hospital as soon as we could. My parents were both waiting for us, my mother in tears and my father holding onto her for dear life. What they had told me shook me to my core.

The car hadn't even stopped when I threw the car door open and began running to the entrance. However, Austin was quicker and caught up to me before I could.

"Ally, you have to calm down!" He said as he gripped me by the shoulders.

"Austin, something has happened to my brother, I can't calm down!" I yelled as I tried to wriggle out of the hold he had on my shoulders.

"Ally, would you just calm down and listen to me! Think about Aria!" I stopped trying to wriggle when he said Aria's name and I knew what he meant.

I had been so focused on trying to get to Elliot, I didn't realize how much stress and panic I was in. Also, any stress that I was projecting would more than likely also be put on her and stress is the last thing a developing baby needs. I could feel her moving around and she was not happy. Austin moved us to a nearby bench and let me catch my breath and slow myself down raging emotions. He sat beside me as I finally felt Aria stop kicking my ribcage.

"Look," He said. "I know you're worried about Elliot, but that doesn't mean you should put our baby's health above that."

"Well, how did you expect me to act?" I said back, an irritable tone added to it. "I know we cut him out for our lives because of things like this, but he's still my brother. I can't just pretend he doesn't exist when I hear he's in the hospital." I realized a heavy breath as Aria released another kick against my ribs. I placed my hand over my bump and began to rub small circles over it. I took small, deep breaths until I felt Aria and myself finally calm down. I felt Austin place his arm around my shoulders and I leaned my head on his chest.

"I know that." He said. "We may not be speaking, but Elliot is still one of my closest friends and I'm just as worried as you are. However, I'm not the one carrying another human, so let me be the one to worry the most, okay?" I gave a laugh at that, but still nodded my head in agreement. He was right that stress wasn't good for me right now and I knew that if I went in there anxious and fearful, it wouldn't make the situation any better.

After finally calming down, we got off the bench and walked through the entrance of the hospital. We went up to the receptionist, but we didn't have to wait long. My dad ran up to Austin and I and I could already see the dark circles developing under his eyes. I walked to meet him halfway, Austin not far behind me.

"Dad, what happened? Where's Elliot?" I questioned him.

"He's fine, as of now, but the doctor's had to place him under a sedative, so he's pretty much out of it right now." He said. "I don't think I've ever been more afraid for him in my entire life." He gave an exaggerated sigh as he leaned against the nearby wall. It was true that Elliot had done some stupid things before, but whatever he did now must have been really, really bad.

"Mr. Dawson," Austin piped up from behind me. "What exactly happened?"

"It started out as a normal day, Penny and I both went to work and Elliot went off to school. At least, we thought he went off to school. Turns out Elliot had missed most, if not all of his classes, since the anniversary party." He placed his head in his hands as he rubbed his eyes in exasperation. "It would seem as though, your brother had decided to go and spend that time at the bar with some of buddies and it got out of hand really fast. Somewhere along the way, a complete stranger found Elliot passed out in the street in a puddle of his own vomit."

"But, that's not bad, right?" I asked him. "Many people have been found like that and don't end up in the hospital."

"Not when that person was passed out and not breathing." He said back. That wasn't something I wanted to hear my father say about my brother.

"What could he have drank that would have done that?" Austin asked.

"It wasn't what he drank." Dad said. "It's how much he drank and he drank much more than he should have. When the ambulance finally got there and he was brought to the hospital, doctors immediately began running test after test. They finally found that his blood alcohol level was far beyond what it should have been. If that stranger hadn't been there when he was, Elliot could have died." That set me over the bar.

My eyes began to fill with water as I thought about the possibility of my brother dying especially if it had happened in that way. I felt myself begin to shake as I felt the tears escape my eyes, but soon felt comforting arms wrap around me. I looked up to see Austin hugging me from behind and my dad around my front. To be honest it felt a little weird, but at that moment I didn't care. My dad soon released me and began moving down the hall.

"Elliot's room is right down this way." He said, moving down the hallway. "Your mother is already there and the doctor should be in there, checking on Elliot. For now, all they've said is that he might wake up in a few hours. They had to heavily sedate him to get his heart rate under control." We shook out heads, Austin and I, and then followed my dad down the hall.

The walk down the short hallway seemed to go forever. Well, for me it did. I held onto Austin's hand for dear life as we neared Elliot's room and I felt Aria give a strong punch to my ribcage as well. When we finally came to the door, it was like the world stopped around me.

And that will about bring you up to speed on what happened and why I'm here at the hospital. I don't think I've ever been more scared of a situation in my life. Not even finding out I was pregnant seemed to match up! Just standing outside that door, I could already hear the sounds of the numerous machines, beeping constantly as if reminding me about the possibility of them suddenly stopping. I remember when I walked into the room and saw Elliot. He had numerous machines hooked up to him, wires and tubes littered his body and his face was covered by an oxygen mask. In that moment, I realized just how vulnerable and helpless he looked. He had bags under his eyes as if he hadn't slept in weeks, maybe even months.

Austin had followed me into the room and sat beside me on the couch as I just continued to stare at my unconscious brother. His doctor had then ushered us out into the waiting room while they performed other tests to check his progress. I didn't want to leave, but Austin had convinced me to wait with him and my parents in the waiting area. Since then, everything seemed to be moving slowly for me. I was slumped in a chair when another thought popped into my already tired brain. Dad had said that Elliot's drinking had gotten worse around the time of the anniversary party, the same party Austin and I had revealed our relationship and my pregnancy. I then remember the voicemail he had left on my phone and then it all seemed to click for me.

"I did it." I said quietly to myself. "I caused him to drink so much that he ended up here in the hospital." I felt the tears once again fill my eyes as I cradled my head in my hands.

"You know that's not true." A voice said. I looked up to see my mother standing there with two Styrofoam cups in her hands. She offered me one cup and I gladly took it. I looked inside it to see it filled with the dark, fragrant smell of warm coffee and I felt a relaxed sigh leave my throat. I was about to drink it when I remembered what my doctor had told me about drinking caffeinated drinks. "Don't worry; I made sure to get you decaf." Mom said as I brought the hot beverage to my lips and swallowed a big gulp.

"Thanks mom, I needed that." I said as she took a seat next to me on the uncomfortable hospital chairs. She held her cup in her hands as she just stared at it. Her eyes were bloodshot and there were dark bags underneath her eyes. I can only imagine how she's been holding up underneath all this.

"Ally," She started, turning towards me and placing her hand over mine. "You did not drive your brother to do what he did. What Elliot did, he did because he didn't know how to handle the situation he was in."

"You mean about me, Austin and the baby?" I said, finally getting that off my chest.

"Yes, he knows that you both are happy and that you want to raise the baby, but you also have to look at it from his point of view. You're his little sister, who dated his best friend behind his back, and now you're moving in together and having a baby. Your father and I may have accepted it, but, for Elliot, it's been very hard."

"What do you expect me to do, mom?" I said as I placed my cup on the table in front of me. "I've tried to talk to Elliot several times, but every time I've tried, he would avoid me like the plague. After that drunken voicemail, I decided to give him that space." I then remembered what I had thought before she had sat down. "If I had realized what it was doing to him, I wouldn't have, I would have run straight back to the house and apologized as many times as I could." I felt the tears rise and break as they fell down my cheeks. I felt my mother wrap her arm around me and rub her hand up and down my back in a soothing motion.

"Sweetie, you didn't cause Elliot to drink the way he did." She said. "That was how he dealt with his aggression, his pain over this. We should be happy that someone came along and called the ambulance. If they didn't, this would be a lot worse than it already is." I guess she did have a point there. Having Elliot in the hospital was better than having him passed out and not breathing on the side of the road. "The best thing we can do now is take slow steps to help him recover."

"What kind of steps?" I asked.

"First, you, Austin and Elliot are going to sit down and talk about this. It's not going to get better if you keep ignoring him and I know you want him back in your life before this baby is born." She said. She did have a point there. I wanted Elliot to be a part of his niece's life and be there for the things that matter in her life. "Then, Elliot will begin attending AA meetings to help with his drinking and hopefully, speak to his counselor about what can be done with the classes he's missed." We laughed a little and then mom suddenly got a surprised look on her face. I looked down to see her hand had come to rest on my stomach and she was in direct line of where Aria usually likes to kick. I realized that neither mom, nor dad had ever felt her kick or move around before, so I guess…

"You just wanted to make your grandma smile again, huh baby girl?" I said as placed a hand over my mother's. The smile only got bigger when I was rewarded with another firm kick.

"She's certainly part Dawson if she's that assertive!" Mom said.

Austin's POV:

I sat in Elliot's hospital room as I silently watched my best friend sleep off the rest of the sedative. The doctor had said that it would be wearing off soon, so he should be waking up any moment now. They also gave him a little pain medication in his IV as he would probably need it. They had pumped his stomach a few times to get all the alcohol out of his system, so he should be relatively tired and in pain.

I still couldn't wrap my head around what had happened. How and why would Elliot resort to drinking in such high quantities? I mean, even at his most stressed or angry, he's never drank this much. It scared me to death when Ally had said he was in the hospital and to be honest, I had the strong fear that it might be the last time I see him. But, now that he's safe and out of harm's way, I can breathe a little easier. Even if we weren't talking, Elliot is still one of my best friends, my soon to be brother-in-law, and the thought of losing him scares the hell out of me.

I was sitting on the couch in the room when I heard a distressed moan fill the room. I looked up from my phone and saw that Elliot was now awake and he was not happy. He tried to sit up, but it was hard when he was gripping his stomach as well. I got up from the couch to try and help him sit up a little better.

"Here, you don't want to strain yourself too much." I said as I helped him to lie against the raised up hospital mattress. His face, however was not so happy to see me here.

"What are you doing here?!" He yelled. "And more importantly, what am I doing here?!"

"You mean you don't remember what happened?" I asked him. He shook his head in a 'no' and I realized he must have been really drunk to forget what happened.

"The last thing I remember I was at the bar with this really cute, blonde chick who was handing me some really funky tasting shots and then nothing." Elliot said as he ran a hand through his unruly hair.

"Elliot," I said. "You drank so much over the last few weeks, your body gave out and you passed out in the street. You weren't breathing and your blood alcohol level was higher than it ever should be." I thought he would have some kind of snappy comeback, like he usually does, but he remains silent and doesn't say anything. "So you're not even gonna explain what the hell you were thinking drinking so much and missing your classes?"

"I don't need to explain anything to someone like you." He said back as he sunk into the pillow a little.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I said back.

"You want to hear from me about why I did this, and then I want to hear from you." Wait, what? "Tell me why you started dating my little sister after I told you she wasn't allowed to date my friends." That's what he wanted to hear? Why Ally and I started dating?

"Why?" I asked, a little skeptical of why he wanted to know.

"Trust was broken Austin, my trust in you." He said as he pointed an accusing finger in my direction. "Building that trust back up by telling me how you started dating, why your dating and if you really see a future with her."

"Dude, I asked her to marry me, isn't that enough?"

"Nope." He said like a perpetual four year old. I didn't want to do this, but I knew that he was right.

We had broken his trust by dating behind his back and then coming out and telling everyone in a big fashion. Now that I think about it, he did have a right to be angry at me and I guess it's time to come clean.

"It's a long story." I said in an attempt to throw him off, but he just folded his arms and stared me down.

"I've got the time." He said and motioned to a chair for me to pull up to the bed.

Well, here goes nothing, I guess.

We'll get to see how Austin and Ally started dating next chapter! Remember to leave your reviews, favorites and follows!

Thanks and remember, stay ROSSOME!