Over the Edge Chapter 2: The Faint Heartbeat, a hannah montana fanfic

I received an AWESOME response from the audience yesterday. Thank you all so much for all those reviews, and whosoever who did not review, thanks for reading anyway. This may not be my proudest work, but it sure is my most successful. I would have jumped up and happy-danced if I were a girl. To avoid disappointing everyone (including myself), I hastened to complete chapter two, all mapped out in my head, basically depicting what happened after the first chapter. In I go! To chapter two!

This chapter is more essentially told from Robbie Ray's point of view. I discovered the fun about writing in first-person narrative is that it enables me (and essentially, the reader), to experience the scene through the character's eyes.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hannah Montana.

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Call the cows home, Robbie Ray. You're losing it.

I don't get it! I'm sure nothing happened, but somehow I feel this apprehension, like as if someone just died and I'm feeling it like a psychic sense. I found myself pacing around, a dead weight growing in my stomach. What the heck is going on? Am I sure it wasn't those hot Ee-doggies gone bad? Or is there something going on that I don't know about?

Where the heck IS Jackson?

"Mr Stewart! Mr Stewart!"

I whirled around with a jump, and stared in shock as Lilly descended down the stairs.

Lilly?! Why is she here? When did she come in?

"H-h-how did you..."

I struggled to talk, but so far I only managed to stutter a few unjoined words, my brain still numb with shock.

Apparently, Lilly did not notice my state of silence. She started yelling in a high panicky almost desperate voice.

"Mr Stewart! Look, I know this sounds weird but I think something horrible just happened to Miley and Jackson!"

I was mystified beyond the limits.

"What the heck are you talking about? Miley and Jackson are upstairs! How did..."

"Look, Mr Stewart, I'll explain later. Right now you have to find Miley and Jackson! They're not upstairs, okay?"

Oliver lumbered in the living room, looking like he was about to faint any moment, his feet each with weights tying them down.

Lilly and Oliver are here? This is crazy! Feeling a need for explanation, I snapped at them drily, "Explain."

Lilly and Oliver launched into full confession (with Lilly doing the most talking), recounting how they were hired by Jackson to pose as him and Miley so that they may sneak off to their respective activities. Apparently, Lilly found Miley impossible to imitate, not knowing our native accent nor having her slightly lower-pitched voice. Oliver practically starved to death in there while hiding from me.

If I weren't feeling this edgy, I would have burst into fits of laughter. Instead, I just gave Lilly a hard stare.

"I really don't know what to say."

Lilly looked down for a second before jumping back up again, saying, "I'm sorry, Mr Stewart, I really am! But just now I had a bad ache in the gut and now I think something terrible happened to Miley and Jackson; I heard their voices! They were calling for help! I don't know...I mean...I FEEL SO LOST!"

Her eyes were popping, her gestures wild, and every word from her mouth was punctuated with desperation. She placed heavy emphasis on the last four words to describe her anxiety.

She's not trying to tell me...what the...you mean she felt it too? Or was her bad gut ache caused by hunger?

"You felt it too?"

My voice became significantly softer, almost pleading and sympathetic tone inhibiting it. Lilly gave me a weird look and asked, "Weren't you gonna start yelling or something?"

"Can I PLEASE EAT SOMETHING?!"

"Over there, at the stove. Help yourself." I pointed at the pot of hot Ee-doggies sitting on the stove and vaguely saw Oliver charge forth like a human Speedy Gonzales. My mind was preoccupied by something...did Lilly feel that odd apprehension too? Perhaps something did happen to Miley and Jackson?

"Er...Mr Stewart?" Lilly's voice seemed distant.

Unconsciously, my hand reached for the phone by the couch. If Lilly and I both felt it, it couldn't have been a coincidence, could it? I took it that Oliver must have had his share of hallucinations too, or whatever they were called. If they both ran into trouble, it's probable that they were together at the time.

"I'm gonna give a call to that rascal Jackson." My fingers automatically began dialing Jackson's number.

I stopped when the phone started ringing.

I stared it for a while. Lilly jumped a mile into the air and Oliver turned around to watch, a large piece of the hot Ee-doggies in his ravenous maw. Pulling myself together, I pressed the "receive call" button, hoping it would be either Miley or Jackson.

"Hello?"

It was Jackson.

"D-d-d-dad, pl-please come q-quickly! I-I-I-I-I got us into trouble, and we're kinda l-lost in the fog." His voice was wavering and weak; he sounded like he was both in shock and crying at the same time.

"What kind of trouble?" My ears pricked up high the moment I heard the word "trouble".

"Well...we w-were driving, and we got lost and...we had an accident..." His voice trailed away hopelessly.

Accident?! Sweet niblets, what happened?!

"What do you mean by "accident", Jackson Rod Stewart?!" I growled into the phone. I could almost picture him backing away from the phone in fear upon hearing the penetrating fierceness in my voice. "How are the two of you? Where is Miley?"

"She...she...Miley...she..." Jackson was breathless.

"WHAT HAPPENED!!?? YOU DON'T SAY! YOU MEAN SOMETHING HAPPENED TO YOU TWO??!!" My voice box nearly tore itself asunder. Lilly gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. Oliver drop his food onto the marbled floor tiles.

"DANG'NAMMIT! I THOUGHT I FELT SOMETHING WEIRD TONIGHT! WHAT IN THE NAME OF UNCLE EARL'S FLUFFY SLIPPERS HAPPENED?!"

Jackson reached breaking point.

"LOOK, MAN! JUST COME AND FIND US! I DON'T KNOW WHERE WE ARE! HURRY!"

That only served to make me more agitated. But I had a feeling that this was not the time to be hollering into a phone reprimanding anyone. Trying to stabilise my voice, I breathed into the mouthpiece, "Did you get the cops?"

"YES DAD! JUST ASK THEM FOR JACKSON ROD STEWART AND THEY'LL TAKE YOU THERE! HURRY!" Jackson's coarse voice rang through the room from the ear piece.

"I'll be right on it!" I yelled into the phone one last time and slammed it back into its holder. Now only one thing stayed in my mind as I marched towards the door; get to police station and ask for Jackson. All I need now are the car keys, house keys and a whole lot of nerve.

"Sweet niblets! C'mon, kids! We're going to the police station!"

Lilly and Oliver hastened to obey.

Lilly's POV:

What's going on?! Accident? This sounds worse than I thought! So those cries for help WERE from them! They were injured! Why did I ever let Miley talk me into her scheme? This should not have happened!

Wait! What about that dying voice I heard just now? And that pain in the gut that bowled me over? Did Miley die? I shudder thinking about it.

"...please God, let Miley be safe..."

The ride to the police station felt like an eternity. All the while I sat silent, praying hard, hoping against hope that Miley might still be alive.

Oliver's voice sounded distant, echoing like ripples through my mind.

"Lilly, are you crying?"

"Huh?" I just noticed the small stream of tears descending neatly from my eyes down my cheeks. Hastily, I wiped them off with my sleeve before Mr Stewart noticed. Hardly likely that he would though. He kept his eyes on the road the whole time, and in them I could see a fire I have never witnessed before in my life. Could he have thought the same thing?

"I hope Miley's still alive or something, if something bad really happened." He said morosely, all at once looking very emaciated and tired.

The next moment was a blur. We were at the police station, then the next moment we were following the police cars to Jackson's location. In no time at all I found myself alighting to face the scene.

Robbie Ray's POV:

"Mr Stewart, I believe this is your son?"

I reeled back in shock for a moment. Did that look like Jackson? Is that shaking crying stuttering beady-eyed staring-straight young man sitting on the ground over there my son? I did not expect him to look like this!

"Jackson!" The kids and I yelled in unison. Lilly and Oliver probably snapped out of their own reveries moments ago.

Jackson jumped a foot into the air before greeting us, his whole body shaking like a wind chime.

"...Dad..."

The policemen told me they were unable to get a word out of him all the while after he called them in. They were on the verge of giving up, in fact.

"If you ask me, I think this boy looks a tad deranged."

With a wave of my hand I silenced the officer, my natural intimidating instinct shining through. All the cops in the vicinity fell silent. Resolutely, I marched over to Jackson, steeling myself up for come-what-may. In a firm but not unfriendly voice, I asked him, "Where's Miley?"

Lilly and Oliver waited for his answer in bated breath. I myself kept my eyes staring right into Jackson's blank-looking ones. Jackson made no attempt to talk, but instead pointed to the dark shadows under the cliff.

Lilly screamed in horror and brought her hands to her mouth in a snap. Oliver blanched tenfold, nearly collapsing.

My stomach felt like it fell off the cliff too. All the hope I had held on to all this time drained away. There was no escaping the fact that Miley could not possibly be alive anymore. It has probably been over an hour since the "accident".

Trying desperately to stabilise my breathing, I made a motion for the cops in the area to move out.

"Search down there, salvage what you can."

Jackson was utterly shocked about my response.

"Dad! You're taking it so lightly? I thought you were gonna hit me, or yell at me, or something. Please! Just scold me! At least that's better than silence!"

Jackson did look like he was ready for a lashing from me. Truth be told, I would have killed him on the spot, apoplectic with rage while berating him for being such a horrible driver to have driven them off a cliff. But now, all I wanted to do was to go to the bottom of the cliff and find Miley, however she may look like.

I motioned Jackson and the others to get in the car. Jackson told me everything on our way downhill hesitantly, like speaking to a psychiatrist. In my dazed state, however, I only managed to catch bits of his explanation.

"We were suspended by only a branch, and every now and then we would tip...she got stuck...she pushed me off..."

Lilly broke down completely into her hands and Oliver, no matter how steadfast he tried to be, couldn't help fidgeting and tearing up a little.

All the while I whispered to myself as much as to the Lord, "Let Miley be alive. Please."

(This part was actually the part I planned out first so I'm going to write it in Third-Person Omniscient, which means third person but from one character's eyes, savvy?):

The wreckage was a miserable pile of scrap metal. From where the cops stood it just looked like a miniature plane crash site. Robbie Ray and the kids knew that there was no hope of Miley being alive by the time they arrived at the scene.

Policemen were already there, calling the ambulance to sort out the chaos. Some men were trying to pry into the metal looking for the body before help came.

One of the officers exclaimed in apparent surprise, "I found her! She's still alive! It's...blimey! It's Hannah Montana!"

All the officers yelped in shock at once. There was a huge ripple of denial moving through the men.

Robbie's heart stopped pumping for five seconds. Miley's alive?

"Hannah Montana? You're kidding!"

"Be serious man! Are you sure?"

"It is her! It's Hannah Montana!"

"Coming through!"

Robbie Ray strode right through the crowd of bickering officers. With sheer brutal force and relentless determination, ripped the metal away from the body trapped within. Within seconds, Robbie drew out the bloodied figure from the wreck. Lilly and Oliver collapsed into each other's arms upon laying eyes on the figure in my hands, and Jackson knelt down, beginning to cry.

Gingerly, Robbie Ray laid the figure's legs on the ground, her torso in his lap. She looked a complete mess. Her torso was bloody, her abdomen and legs dangling helplessly. Her arms appeared to be unhurt apart from some scratches, and her Hannah wig was askew. That was how Miley looked like.

And yet, for such a bloody mess, she looked oddly peaceful, almost as if she was on the verge of falling asleep. Apart from horrendous wounds on her body, she bore no other signs of injury. Robbie bent low to hear her breath while feeling her wrist.

There it was! A faint heartbeat of life! The soft breathing indicates survival, however weak it may be. There was no mistake; Miley was still alive.

Instantly, Robbie's heart warmed up, and hope renewed itself in all of their hearts as Lilly, Oliver and Jackson all knelt down on all sides of the figure.

"Mile...Mile..." Robbie tried to shake her awake, holding on tight to her right hand, the way he did to her many mornings.

To everybody's amazement, Miley half-opened her beautiful grey eyes. Robbie's gaze met hers, and they engaged in the deepest father-daughter moment to be recorded in history.

Robbie's voice was coarse with relief and at the same time, sorrow.

"Miley...what in the name of sweet-smelling bilgerats happened to you?"

Miley's reply was soft and breathless, as if every word required a dangerous amount of labor.

"I'm sorry, Daddy. Jackson tried to save me, but it was hopeless. I pushed him off the truck so that one of us would stay alive. I'm sorry for sneaking off like this; otherwise this would have never happened."

"Such an act of sacrifice is not worthy for a person like me!" Jackson wept with bitter earnest. "Why, Miley? Why did you let go? Why did you abandon hope?"

"I made that choice myself; I have no regrets."

"But I do!" Jackson was angry at her. "You shouldn't have let go! We were so close to getting out of there!"

Robbie's first tears descended. After carefully removing the Hannah wig, he handed it to a sobbing Lilly and began stroking her natural brown hair.

"Oh sweet pea..."

Miley twitched suddenly, as if in great pain. Robbie hastened to comfort her with his soft crooning voice.

"Save your breath now, you'll need it on the way to hospital."

Miley squeezed his hand harder, however, and began to whisper her truly last words.

"I told Jackson everything I should have just now. I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused, all my misdeeds and sins, and I hope you forgive them. Jackson, I'm sorry for being such a horrible sister to you..."

Despite her weakening state, Miley began to sob in my arms, shifting her gaze to Jackson.

"Jackson, I'm so sorry about fighting you all this time..."

Jackson practically yelled at her, "Stop saying that! It's not entirely your fault! I'm to blame for being such a horrible brother too! Didn't you hear anything just now?"

Miley ignored that last statement. Turning her eyes on Robbie, she began to give him her parting words.

"Dad, I'm sorry for causing whatever trouble to you in my life. You are the greatest Dad anyone can dream about. The only reason I struggled to stay awake all this time was to thank you for all you've done for me..."

Miley was slipping away. Hastily, Robbie gathered her closer into his arms. Her head, no longer supported by the neck muscles that it was joined to, rested on his chest. Her breathing began to short out...

"Miley! Miley, stay with us! No!"

Lilly reached out for Miley's left hand and shook her desperately. At this, Miley opened her eyes again. Glistening tears resumed their endless flow down her bloodied cheeks.

"Miley, I'm so sorry! If only I refused to help you, this would never happen!" Lilly's voice was choked with tears of sympathy.

Oliver held on to Miley's left hand as well, saying tearfully, "Please don't leave us. We're your best friends."

There was not a dry eye at the scene. Everyone began to weep with bitter earnest, and Robbie Ray, cradling Miley's broken body, kissed her on the forehead. Miley smiled between her tears and spoke in a voice barely a whisper.

"Lilly, Oliver. You've been such great friends. Whenever I needed your support, you were there to help me. Even though we fought many times, you've never abandoned me. You were like my siblings. We've been through all kinds of rain and storm together. It seemed like our friendship could last forever. And yet, here we are. Now we have to part."

"MILEY!" All the others screamed in unison. "Don't say things like that!" Oliver added, unable to hold his tears any longer.

Barely breathing now, Miley whispered, "No. I can feel my energy draining away. I know I won't stay awake much longer. I just want to say this one last time. Lilly, Oliver, thank you. For being the best of true friends. I love you."

Lilly and Oliver nodded wordlessly, still holding Miley's cold dying hand.

"Daddy, I want to thank you for bringing me into the world. Your efforts made my short life worth living. I appreciate all that you've done for me. Thank you for loving me all this time. I love you too." She gasped into his chest, yet everyone heard every word loud and clear. Robbie began sobbing into her hair, his emotions having finally broken the dam.

"Me too, bud. I love you too. Please, don't leave us hanging like this." He pleaded her to stay with them.

But Miley knew her time was running out. She had only a few more breaths left before death claimed her as his own. She whispered her last words to Jackson.

"Jackson, I repeat everything I said to you just now. I know I did the right thing by pushing you off the truck. No brother would risk his life for mine the way you did. Once again, forgive me for being such a selfish annoying sister..."

Jackson replied in kind, "You'll forgive me for ruining your life so many times, too?"

Miley smiled and said, "Yes. I love you Jackson. I love you Daddy, Lilly, Oliver."

Then she fell unconscious. Lilly became frantic.

"No! NO! MILEY! COME BACK TO US!"

Jackson turned away in agony. Robbie Ray, however, did not take it that stoically.

"Bud! Bud! COME BACK! MILEY NO! BUD! STAY AWAKE!"

Final whispers were heard from Miley's unmoving mouth.

"Coming momma...I'm coming..."

"MILEY, DON'T DIE!"

The music of death reached its crescendo. Her final breath was exhausted; her strength left her completely. As her hand fell limp, her head rolled forwards slightly, still rested on Robbie's chest. Her eyes closed again, this time for good. With a final quiet sigh, Miley Stewart passed on. Heaven mourned the death of such an innocent soul with a light shower, distant sounds of thunder rolling.

"MILEY! DON'T GO! YOU PROMISED WE WOULD BE BEST FRIENDS FOREVER!" Lilly screamed in final desperation. But her attempts to revive Miley were futile.

"She's gone, Lilly." Oliver tried to pull the reins on Lilly before she hurt herself, in spite of himself at the moment.

Lilly, unable to control her pain, wailed in grief and tackled Oliver around the midriff, dropping the Hannah wig onto the cold ground. Oliver stroked her hair gently, and in turn began to cry into her hair. Robbie and Jackson took the passing on of their beloved family member in quiet acceptance.

"She saved my life, Dad."

Robbie looked away from the empty shell that was his daughter. The Policemen behind them saluted, each of them looking very morose.

The wail of the ambulance drew close. In no time paramedics appeared and pried the body from Robbie Ray's reluctant hands. After running some tests, a white cloth was placed over Miley, covering her entirely. Robbie knew this would be the last time he would ever see his daughter in the flesh.

"You always had the best of both worlds, Miley." He whispered to the heavens, hoping Miley would hear.

'I know, Dad. I got nerve too."

The ambulance sped off...

I tried to keep Miley alive long enough for the reader to think she might still have a fighting chance, only to kill her again in the end. This chapter was rather disappointing for my standards, but if anybody liked it they could always review and tell me which part they like about it. To be honest I liked the first chapter WAY more than this one. Nevertheless, this was what came into my head, so, yeah, thanks for reading.

If enough people told me they hated the way this chapter ended, I'll rewrite the ending.

The next chapter will basically be mourning and guilt. It seems hard for any of the characters to forget it in a hurry. I might even enjoy writing this; I certainly loved the first chapter. I may also mention something about Hannah. And remember our friend from Romania?

Hold on for another two days. Thank you.

Terrorking Tragedian