Chapter Two: Code Blue
Chad and his girlfriend want to run, but the look on Mr. White's face makes them think better of it, and it's a start – they're suddenly truly afraid of the man they have spent the better part of their high school careers mocking.
"Call 911, you fucking idiots!" Walt barks at them, and the cell phone Chad's girlfriend still holds in her hand, which is buzzing a text – the response to the text she'd been sending while turning the corner on Jesse's street – is suddenly being dialed as Walt's crouching in one fluid moment next to where Jesse is pinned under the car. He can't help but think how fucking ironic it is that after Tuco and Gus, after Mexico, the force to end Jesse's life may be a teenage girl's inability to keep her eyes on the road.
Walt curses 911, and he curses ambulances and phones and the two petulant shits that did this, and he curses them all from the time he moves downward to kneel by Jesse, but he punctures those curses with frantic, desperate pleading – "Jesse? Jesse, are you awake? Can you hear me?" He knows not to touch the young man – couldn't if he wanted to anyway, the way he's pinned, but being forced to keep his hands at his sides and not intervene is killing him, reminding him of another time he – no, no, it wasn't the same, not in any way.
After what seems like a lifetime – or maybe two or three, alternate endings that Walt flips through, most of which end in this moment as he implodes when Jesse dies in front of his eyes – the ambulance arrives, and Walt rambles an explanation of what happened: "I was talking with Mr. Pinkman when suddenly this car came out of nowhere and there was no time to react…" Walt adds to it, trying to explain what the hell he was doing with Jesse before he realizes that the paramedics don't really care why he was with Jesse and are busy shoving him out of the way before lifting up the car slowly, precariously and snipping bits of metal away and extracting him.
The sight of the bolt clippers assaulting the convertible appears to upset Chad and his girlfriend more than the sight of Jesse's crumpled form (only now does Chad's girlfriend begin to sob and grab his hand, force her face against his varsity jersey). Walt wishes he could tap into Heisenberg just long enough to show them what pain actually is, but he manages to keep his focus on Jesse, who's being carted into the ambulance on a stretcher now and Walt leaves behind thoughts of revenge and retribution and follows.
"Are you family?" a paramedic asks.
Without hesitation, Walt answers: "Yes."
"You've reached Walter White. Please state your name, the time and the reason for your call."
"Hi, Walt? It's Skyler. Is getting a hold of you really going to be this impossible? I need to talk to you, sooner rather than later. Call me back."
"You've reached Walter White. Please state your name, the time and the reason for your call."
"Walt. This is Skyler – your wife. Call me? Or pick up? Send up smoke signals? Tap out Morse code even. Whatever is convenient for you."
Skyler hangs up the phone in irritation. What was the point in Walt having a cell phone if he never answered it?
Maybe if I had the number to the second one, I'd have better luck, she thinks wryly.
Irritation washes slowly into worry. She still can't believe her husband, her mild-mannered chemistry teacher husband, has turned out to be this meth dealer going on about how he is "the one who knocks". She doesn't quite buy it, is sure he's still in over his head, but is unwilling to pull the string by turning him in because she doesn't know how much it would pull down, like yanking out a suture and taking out three or four teeth when she just wanted the irritating, maddening feeling to go away.
The feeling eating Skyler's been more than irritating, it's all-consuming and nausea-inducing, and it shows in the bloodied cuticles on each finger, shows in the scratches on the back of her neck when she over-reacted to a simple itch, feeling like something was crawling over her.
She wishes above all that Walt would just let her in a little, just tell her what is going on rather than give her platitudes about how he is safe as houses.
When it comes down to it, after all, this family is all Skyler really has – this screwed-up marriage with Walt and her dysfunctional relationship with Marie. Her son who despite all of her attempts would rather align with the father whose secret would shatter him utterly. The daughter who will likely never know him.
Skyler used to scoff at the friends of her who'd married people who were constantly in one rut or another – but she was supposed to be safe, she had married a chemistry teacher for God's sake!
She picks up the phone, scrolls down her contacts until she arrives at "Walt", and pushes the button again.
She hears the first ring…