CHAPTER TWO: DON'T SPEAK

It was five thirty when he got the call from Shane. He'd been pacing for an hour, anxious for Lauren's return. Three o'clock had come and gone without a sign or a word. By four thirty, Jack was no longer anxious. He was worried. Lauren was never late, never had been the whole time he'd known her. She always set aside time to be early, that way if she did get caught in traffic, she was on time. Never late. So he paced to calm his nerves, his music not helping like it usually did. And so, after an hour of pacing, his phone rang. He dove over the couch to retrieve the screaming handset that lay on the floor. With his body half on the couch and half off, he breathlessly answered.

"Lauren?" Jack demanded, ignoring the sick feeling that was eating at the lining of his stomach.

"Jack! Oh my God, Jack!" Shane screeched.

The dread that had been looming over him settled comfortably over his head. Shane was hysterical; very unlike her. "Woah, Shane. Where are you guys? Lauren and I are going out in like two hours," Jack stated, ignoring his panic.

Shane tried to hide the mounting hysteria in her voice, but she had always been a lousy actor. "Jack she's...we were leaving the restaurant, head for your place and..."

"Where the fuck are you?" Jack demanded, the panic rising in the back of his throat in the form of hot bile. "What happened to her?"

"The car didn't stop! The fucking light was red and it just kept going!" Shane screamed. "It hit her so hard I thought for sure she was dead. Please get down here Jack!"

He had already hung up the phone by the time she'd finished her sentence. His mind raced, almost faster than he was driving, with terrible thoughts about his fiancée. Was she going to die? Had she died already, while he was talking to Shane? The tears poured from his eyes as he thought of every possible worst case scenario the he'd face at the hospital.. He hadn't bothered to ask Shane which hospital, so he drove to the closest one, too frantic to deal with reason or logic. Luck was on his side as he barged through the sliding doors to see Shane in the waiting room, chewing on her lower lip.

"Where is she? Is she alive? Is she going to be OK?" Jack questioned, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her.

"Jack stop shaking me! They won't tell me what's going on because I'm not family. They'll tell you! You're her fiancé," Shane breathed, pushing him back.

Jack whirled around, searching for a nurse. "HEY! Ma'am! I need to know where Lauren Jansmen is."

"Are you her family?" she asked, peering at him through beady brown eyes.

"I'm her Goddamn fiancé and I need to know if she's going to fucking live to make it to our wedding!" Jack shouted. "I'm sorry. I'm just-can you please tell me what's going?"

The petite redhead placed a hand on his shoulder. "She's in surgery right now. As soon as she's out, I'll have Dr. Wylde come down and speak with you."

"Woah! Why is she in surgery? Is she going to die?" Jack demanded, shaking her by the shoulders as well.

"There's a lot of internal damage to your fiancée Mr..." She trailed off, removing his hands from his shoulders and waiting for him to finish her sentence.

"Mercer. Jack Mercer. Is she going to die?" he repeated.

"I don't know the details at the moment Mr. Mercer. The internal bleeding has to be stopped before anything else and then they have to reverse the damage and keep her under close watch for the next twenty four hours after surgery," she explained.

Jack turned to Shane. "Where is the son of a bitch who hit her?"

She looked down at her feet. "He...Jack he ran."

"Fuck! This is bullshit!" Jack screamed. "She might die and he just gets to walk free?"

"This isn't Detroit, Jack. The police will find the guy. He couldn't have gone far," Shane stated.

"What will I do if she dies? I'm not ready to be alone Shane," Jack whispered.

"Don't talk like that. She's not going to die. Come on, let's sit and wait," Shane urged, guiding him to one of the stiff plastic chairs.

Jack said nothing as they waited. He was afraid he'd lose control over the cascading wave of tears he was struggling to contain. Shane sat across from him, wringing her hands while she chewed her lower lip. The anxious buzz of the waiting room pounded against Jack's temples, despite his best efforts to keep it out. Finally, he jumped up and marched over to Shane. He thrust his hand out, palm up, silently demanding the use of her cell phone. There was only one person who could help him now, even if she was thousands of miles away. Shane said nothing about the prohibited use of cell phones in the hospital, just handed him the phone. He punched in the ten most important digits he'd ever have to dial and waited.

"Hello?" Her voice greeted him after six rings.

Jack took a deap breath and steadied himself against the wall. "Hi Ma. It's Jack."

"Jackie! Did you get Mrs. Jansmen's ring yet?" Evelyn asked.

"Yeah Ma, I got it. But I need you to sit down now, because I have some really bad news," Jack sighed, brushing a stray tear from his cheek.

"Jack honey? Is everyone OK?"

"No, Ma, they aren't. It's Lauren. She's been...she's been in an accident and the doctors down't know if she's going to make it," he replied, squeezing the tears behind his eyelids. It was a vain attempt, since they began to pour down his cheeks as his mother cried into the phone.