Gabriella laid in the hospital bed looking up at the TV when the door opened. Johnny walked in with flowers in his hands. "Hey." She whispered. "You keep bringing those I am going to have my own garden in here."
"I just want to be here for you."
"Thank you, I appreciate it." She turned back to the TV. "I am watching some stupid soap opera, you want to watch it with me?"
"Where's the clan?"
"Well they are super pissed at me. Now that they know I am not going to die, I haven't really heard from them. They come by and we sit in silence then they leave and repeat day after day."
"I can't really blame them."
She nodded her head without responding. "I know you are tired of hearing it but what the hell were you thinking?"
"I have been racing for over a year now. I haven't lost at all. Hector was the first to find out that I was racing, then Leon looked at my car and he knew. So I promised him I would quit…"
"And?"
"I got a phone call saying this race was for ten thousand dollars. How can you pass something like that up?"
"Those kinds of races come with a lot of risks."
"I see that now. I never thought I would be put into a wall."
"Do you have any idea of who it was or why?"
Gabriella looked up at him. "Vince is looking into it as we speak."
"Did you get a glimpse of him?"
"Yes." She turned her head back to the TV.
"So that's all that I get?"
Gabriella took a deep breath. "I have a concussion, a broken leg, and a broken pelvis bone. My face looks like someone took a baseball bat to it. My car is destroyed. Someone did this one purpose Johnny, someone knew I was going to be there and got into the race. Why?"
"I don't know, I really honestly don't know."
"I saw him when I turned my head. We were neck and neck almost to the finish line before my car started spinning…"
"Who was it?"
"I can't believe it right now, it just doesn't seem real."
Johnny nodded his head. "Do I want to know the answer to this?"
She looked at him with so much sorrow in her eyes. "Jake." She whispered. "It was Jake."
Johnny was out of the chair in a heartbeat. "I don't believe it either John-"
"He threatened me Gab, he called me and told me I would be sorry."
"It's okay Johnny, it's okay."
"No!" He yelled. "It's not okay."
"Hey!" Vince yelled as he walked into the room. "What is going on here?"
"Vince it's nothing, I just told him about Jake." Gabriella defended. She moved sideways trying to get comfortable.
"Look…" He pointed his finger. "I understand that it's been a few days since you woke up and you are antsy, but you don't need this kind of excitement right now. He will leave and be asked to not come back if I hear yelling like that again."
"I'm sorry." She whispered.
"Johnny, we will deal with Jake if it was him. We will deal with him but right now I am more worried about keeping her alive. I don't give a shit about anything else. Now you are with me on that or you can get the hell out."
Johnny looked over at Gabriella who just leaned her head back. "I'm with you." He replied.
"I know how much you care for her, so this will be resolved."
"I am going to go, I will see you later Gab."
"Stop!" Gabriella raised her voice as Vince glared at her. She held out her hand to him as he slowly walked over to her. She pulled him closer and softly kissing him on the lips. "Thank you for my flowers." He smiled down at her before walking away. "Can we talk?" She asked looking at the door.
"Sure." Vince sat down on the side of the bed. She slowly turned her head towards him. "What can I do for you?"
She bowed her head as she grabbed his hand. "I'm really sorry Vince, I didn't mean for any of this to happen."
"Shhh, what did I just say about getting worked up?" He squeezed her hand. "You are okay, that's all that matters to me right now."
"I just was doing so good, I didn't think anything could go wrong."
"I love you so much and I almost lost something very important to me. That is the worst feeling in the world especially not even knowing what was going on in the first place. Leon was there, did you know that?"
"I knew I saw him." She smirked. "How mad is Dom?"
"Well he punched a cop, tried to leave, so I am sure they are going to keep him longer if they were going to let him have parole next year."
Gabriella took in a deep breath. "Will you stay with me?"
"I'll stay as long as you want me to."
"Just stay forever okay, I am just really scared." She bowed her head as the tears streamed down her face. He nodded his he ad as he laid down next to her wrapping his arm around her waist.
"Just don't do anything stupid like that again or I will kill you myself."
"I won't."
Two weeks had passed since the accident and Gabriella was beyond ready to go home. She laid in the bed looking through a magazine as Mia watched TV. The phone in the room began to go off.
"Answer it." Mia pointed to it.
"You answer it."
"It's for you." Mia smirked. Gabriella eyed her sister as she slowly picked up the phone.
"Hello…" Gabriella's eyes welled up with tears.
"Oh speaker." Mia laughed cutting the speaker on the phone.
"How is this possible?" Gabriella asked.
"You scared the shit out of me." Dom exclaimed. "And you better be so glad that I am in another county in a prison cell surrounded by armed guards. What were you thinking Gabriella?"
"Hey!" Mia yelled. "She is not allowed to get worked up so keep the volume down Dom, I warned you about that."
"I don't have an excuse Dom." Gabriella replied softly. "I was good, so I continued to do it."
"Do you even know how much you mean to me?"
There was silence. "I can't even get to you, I can't even come to you to make sure that you are okay."
"I know." She cried.
"Vince told me and I went crazy. All I kept thinking about was dad."
"I thought about him too."
"How much trouble are you in?"
Mia began to laugh. "That hasn't been discussed yet. I think they are afraid I might go into shock or something." Gabriella looked at her sister.
"Well I hope it's the worst punishment known to man."
"Thank you Dom."
"I have to go now, please just….stay alive okay. I need you to stay with me or at least wait until I get out so I can kill you myself."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"I love you."
"I love you too." The line went dead. It was always hard after leaving the prison or hearing his voice. It left Gabriella feeling empty. She missed him so much. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. The monitor above her head started to beep loudly.
"Gab…Gabriella!" Mia yelled shaking her leg. Gabriella's eyes shot open as her breathing began to become more unstable. "Shit!" Mia took off running outside the room as Gabriella put her hand to her chest to calm down the breathing.
"Gabriella-"Doctor Hudson came rushing in. "I need you to calm down for me, I need you breathe."
Gabriella's chest jumped as it became harder for her to catch her breath. The machine was still going off as the doctor pressed down on her chest.
"Look at me, this is going to pass, I need you to take deep breaths can you do that for me?"
Gabriella's eyes rolled into the back of her head as she let the darkness take over.
"So you are telling me that she had a massive panic attack?" Vince was pacing back and forth through the room.
"She hasn't been awake long, all this excitement that is going on is not good for her." Doctor Hudson replied.
"Is she okay now?"
"She's sedated. I don't need anything else to happen to her."
"I want her awake. I want her awake right now!" Vince yelled.
"See this is why I will not do that, she needs her rest. She was in a traumatic accident. Her body needs time to recover and with all this excitement it's not going to do that."
"She has been out for three days down. I want to see her eyes, I want…"
"Vince-" Gabriella whispered as she slowly opened her eyes.
"No!" Doctor Hudson pointed at him. "Gabriella, how are you feeling? Is your chest still heavy?"
Gabriella shook her head. "I know you feel a little light headed. It's normal, it's from the medicine that I gave you. I am going to need you calm down okay, I know that you are anxious and ready to get out of here but I can't have you having another episode like that."
Gabriella nodded her head. "Vince," She whispered. "I want to talk to Johnny."
"Okay, I will call him." He sat down next to her. "Are you okay?"
"I guess I just got a little anxious about talking to Dom."
"I'm really sorry."
"Make it go away Vince, please. Just make this all go away."
"This is a consequence of what happened Gab. I can't make that go away." He grabbed her hand. "In a couple of weeks you can start therapy, and then maybe we will be able to go home. They aren't going to let you do anything until you can control your emotions and you stop passing out."
She nodded her head. "Can you call Jesse too?"
"Yes."
She closed her eyes and listened to him as he was on the phone. First with Jesse then with Johnny.
"They are both on their way. Now rest okay, I will let you know when they are here." She nodded her head as he grabbed her hand and kissed it.
Johnny arrived before Jesse did and with a lot of negotiating Vince left them alone. "What's up? Why is acting so crazy?"
"I had a panic attack three days ago and passed out."
Johnny just stood there. "You really need to stop doing that."
"I know, maybe I just like to keep things interesting." She smirked. Her head was still heavy as she kept it leaned back agaibst the pillow. She felt horrible.
"I'm glad you called."
"How are you? You haven't been by lately."
"I've just been thinking a lot."
"What about?"
"Jake." He began playing with the wallpaper on the wall.
"Have you tried to go after him?"
He didn't speak. "I asked you a question." Gabriella raised her voice.
"I looked everywhere for him, he has either left town or someone is protecting him. I have no idea where he is."
"Johnny…"
"No, you don't get to do that. He hurt you because he was trying to hurt me."
"It doesn't make sense to me, it's been a year since all that happened. Why now?"
"Gabby…" Johnny whispered.
"What else aren't you telling me?"
He sighed before walking over to her. He grabbed her hand kissing it repeatedly. "When you broke up with me, I don't know I guess I wanted to make you jealous or something, I really don't know. So I started...Me and Brianna started to hang out more and we started dating…"
Gabriella began to cough. "It wasn't for long because you really didn't seem to care. I didn't care for her at all. So if you have anyone to blame for this, it's on me. I did this to you."
Gabriella was silent. "You have meant so much to me and I just…"
"Stop." She whispered. "I can't get worked up."
"No don't get worked up please."
"I kissed Jesse." She blurted out. "When were dating, I kissed Jesse…twice. It just happened, I don't know either. He was acting really weird. He told me he loved me but I chose you."
The door opened as Jesse walked in. Johnny was glaring at him as he turned around. "What's going on?" Jesse asked.
"You bastard!" Johnny yelled.
Jesse shook his head. "Stop." Gabriella whispered. "This is not going to happen right now. We were both in the wrong Johnny. Let it go."
Johnny still had his fists clenched together as Jesse continued to stare. "He is my best friend. You will not hurt him."
"I am going to go." Johnny replied. "I just need to leave."
Gabriella nodded her head. The door slammed as Gabriella looked over at Jesse with an innocent smile.
"So what did I just walk into?"
"I told him about us kissing."
Jesse nodded his head. "A warning would have been fantastic."
"It just came up. I just wanted you to come hang out with me today."
"Sure." He sat down next to her. "You feeling okay?"
"I'm hurting a little bit but it will pass. Just sit here with me okay…sit here and don't move."
"I'm not going anywhere Gab, I will be here forever."
AN: So I don't know how I feel about this chapter. It was very hard to write because I feel like it was needed but yet it really wasn't. You guys let me know what you think! REVIEW!