A.N. Hi, everyone! Sorry it's been a little while! Things have been a little hectic recently, so that's why my writing has been kind of sporadic. Before I proceed with this chapter, I wanted to explain a little bit about my writing. I'm sure most of you have noticed that I use quotation marks even when a character is signing something and not speaking it aloud. This is for a couple of reasons: a) I read a novel about deaf culture and it used quotation marks in there, even for when people were signing and b) because I don't see any reason not to. I mean, people say "She said to me in her email to me," or sentences like that, even though in an email, people aren't actually speaking aloud…so why should it differ here? "Saying" is not necessarily only for speaking aloud, which is why I use the term "said" in my story, too, when people are signing. I won't use the term speaking aloud unless the person is speaking aloud, but I will use said and responded and other words such as those for ASL and speaking aloud. ASL is a language in itself; the people who use it are saying things, too! I just wanted to explain that because most of the other writers on this site who have written fanfiction for SAB tend to differentiate with italics, bold, etc. This is my personal preference, and I think generally, you're probably able to glean who's saying what in what form without too much trouble.

And now, without further ado, here is Chapter 6!

She punched him gently on the shoulder, laughing. "Let's go, Romeo."

Emmett followed her, but not before glancing back triumphantly at Ty, who had been able to observe the whole interaction through the open door.

"I win, you lose," he mouthed and signed at Ty, and then smirking victoriously, he followed Bay out of the hospital.

Things had been pretty good in Emmett's life since he had gone with Bay to visit Ty in the hospital. He felt very confident that Ty had gotten the message he was trying to convey. For the next week and a half, things were back to normal, just like they'd been before Ty had shown up at Bay's garage door. Life was good.

That fateful Thursday started out normally enough. Emmett texted Bay in the morning, telling her he'd pick her up from school later, and Bay texted back "gr8."

Emmett went to school, took notes, did all the things he was supposed to do, hung out with friends during lunch, and then went back to classes.

He and Daphne performed their end of the day ritual, where they'd walk together to his motorcycle, and she'd wait for Wilke, who somehow almost always managed to sneak away from school early. Emmett never questioned him, but he always wondered how that was done on such a consistent basis.

The day was bright and sunny, a clear blue sky above as he drove to Buckner. He should've know that things were too good to be true.

He and Bay decided to head to their favorite park, since it was such a beautiful day. Emmett took out his camera and started taking shots of Bay posing in different positions.

He stopped after a few minutes for a make-out break. It was like the perfect day…until they left the park.

When they got back to the Kennishes', there was an unfamiliar car in the driveway.

"Do you know whose car that is?" Emmett asked Bay.

She shrugged. "Beats me." She grabbed his hand, leading him to her garage.

He tapped her on the shoulder once they got in there, to get her attention. "You know, as strange as it was at the beginning, I'm starting to get kind of attached to this garage."

She laughed at him. "I know. Girls in Buckner used to talk about their three different vacation homes, obviously located in different parts of the world, and I used to talk about my garage. It was only one of many differences between me and my peers."

Emmett quirked an eyebrow at her. "What do you mean?" he signed, curious.

"Well, the girls in my classes were all into shopping and clothes and spending money and caught up with the latest fashions in everything. I, on the other hand, went around spraypainting a girl with tools on various surfaces in town." She looked at him. "See the difference?"

"Yes," he said, coming closer to her. "And I, personally, am happy that you're different. If you were like the other girls, you wouldn't be my girlfriend," and he pecked her on the cheek.

The moment was disturbed by a knock on the door. "Come in!" shouted Bay, but then she realized that it might be Daphne, so she went to open the door. Just as she reached it, though, the door opened, admitting Emmett's least favorite person.

Emmett let out a silent groan when Ty stepped into the garage. Bay, who knew the way that Emmett thought without even seeing the expression on his face, turned to him and gave him a look.

"What's it going to take for this guy to realize he's not wanted and that he should stay away? A fight? Cuz I will totally fight him," Emmett signed at her, starting to push up his sleeves. Bay shook her head while rolling her eyes.

"Let's just see what he wants, ok?" she signed to him.

He glared at the ceiling and then waved his hand at her in a "let's get on with it" motion. She smiled at him briefly before turning back to Ty. Emmett moved closer so he could see what they were saying.

"Sorry about that," Bay apologized.

"It's fine," Ty said, ignoring Emmett.

"So how are you? When'd you get out the hospital?"

"I'm doing ok. I was discharged on Monday, but had to stay laid up in bed for a few days." Ty explained. "This is my first day of freedom!" he smiled.

"Free at last, huh?" Bay said, giving him a small smile.

"Yeah, and I really wanted to see you because, well," and Ty glanced at Emmett, for the first time acknowledging the other boy's existence. A mischievous glint was visible in his eyes. "I need to talk to you about something important."

Bay turned her head very slightly to the left, confused. "You have something important to talk to me about?" she parroted.

"Yeah, but I was hoping to do it in private," Ty said, shooting a significant look in Emmett's direction.

"Um…" Bay hesitated.

Emmett waved his hands furiously to get her attention. Once she looked at him, he signed furiously, "No way!"

For some strange and extremely frustrating reason, that seemed to spur Bay to say to Ty, "Ok, hold on." Then she turned to Emmett and signed, "Just two minutes, ok?"

Emmett's face started to heat up. "Two minutes? I'm not leaving you alone with this loser for two minutes! I'm not leaving you alone with him for even one minute! Actually, I think he should leave now, before he ends up leaving in a bodybag!"

"Emmett, if this is going to work out between us, you need to trust me a little more, ok?" Bay said, reassuringly but firmly. "I know this is not the best, most ideal situation, but let me just handle it, ok? Clearly Ty has something important to say to me."

Emmett rolled his eyes. "Yeah, he's got something important to say to you, I bet. All about how you and he belong together and how you should give him another chance." He saw Bay staring at him, though, and he conceded. "Fine, two minutes, but I'm going to start timing on my watch from the second I leave this room, and I'm going to be waiting right outside the door."

Bay came closer to him, cupped her hand behind his head, and pulled him down for a passionate kiss.

" You're the best," she signed when they broke apart.

"Yeah, yeah. Two minutes and not a second more, ok?" Emmett signed, and glared at Ty as he left.

"If looks could kill…" Ty said lightly.

Bay smiled at him and said, "Yeah, well, Emmett isn't exactly your biggest fan. So, what's up?"

Ty smiled slyly. "It's actually about Emmett."

Bay took a step back. "Listen, Ty, if you're here to try to talk me into breaking up with him, it's not going to happen."

Ty held up his hands in front of him defensively. "It's not that, I swear. Ok, I'm going to talk fast because I'm sure as soon as our two minutes are up, Emmett's going to barge in here and kick me out."

Bay nodded, agreeing with his assessment of the situation.

"Now, I know that you and Emmett have been together for a while, like 6 ½ months or so, right?"

Bay nodded again.

"When was the first time you were in his room?" Ty questioned.

"I don't know, like a month after we started dating or something," Bay said, not sure where this was heading.

"So you weren't in there before you and he were official?"

"Right…"

"So he had time to take it down, maybe." Ty muttered to himself.

"Ty, what are you talking about?" Bay was getting impatient.

"Did you know that Emmett was in love with Daphne?" Ty blurted out, and then looked slightly sheepish. "Darn, I didn't mean to say it like that." He looked at Bay.

Bay's mouth was agape. "What?" Then she shook her head vigorously. "No, no. You're wrong. Emmett was never in love with Daphne."

"I was in Emmett's room shortly before I left," Ty said. "I think I had stopped by to pick up a book to give you to give Daphne or something. When I stepped into his room, his walls had pictures of Daphne plastered all over. It was like a shrine or something. He had pictures and pictures of her at all ages. It was bordering on obsessive, I think."

"No, no," Bay was shaking her head. "He would've told me at some point. I mean, he knows about me and Liam, me and you….He would've told me if he had a thing for Daphne. He would've told me, Ty." She was in denial now, but something in her was telling her that maybe Ty wasn't lying.

There was twenty seconds left to their two minutes, but Bay ran to the garage door, wrenched it open, and pulled Emmett by the sleeve back into the garage.

"You were in love with Daphne?" Bay shrieked, forgetting to sign. "You were in love with Daphne and you never told me?"

Emmett eyes opened wide, his face going pale, and his freckles more pronounced. Unsure what to say to Bay, he turned to Ty and punched him in the face. Ty fell back, clutching his nose.

"What the-?" Ty said thickly, blood pouring from between his fingers. Emmett went to punch him again, but Bay grabbed him before he could.

"Stop it!" she shouted, but this time she remembered to sign it, too.

"I was- I never" Emmett started, but Bay started signing before he got any coherent thoughts out.

"I can't believe that you have nothing to say to me! I can't believe that you were in love with Daphne, with your best friend, with our friend, with the closest thing that I have to a sister, and never even told me about it!" Bay yelled and signed simultaneously.

With that, she ran out the door of the garage, just as the mystery car was started by the driver. Bay, though, was too distracted by her pain and confusion to hear the car starting and see the lights, and she ran in back of the car, soon after it started to back up. It hit her with a sickening thud, heard only by Ty, but seen by both he and Emmett.

The rest of the blood drained from Emmett's face. He ran to Bay, praying that she was still breathing. Ty ran to her, too, but Emmett pushed him away.

"This is your fault!" Emmett signed furiously at Ty.

"If this is anyone's fault, it's your fault!" Ty responded. They were about to break out into another fight when the driver of the car, a lady wearing a black pantsuit, saw Bay's unconscious body and started screaming.

John and Kathryn ran out of the house, saw Bay lying on the ground, and started shouting.

"Kathryn, call 911!"

"My baby!" Kathryn screamed. "MY BABY!"

Seeing that his wife was in no position to be doing anything at the moment, John looked around, saw the mysterious lady in the pantsuit who was clearly in shock, and then saw Ty and Emmett, clearly about to come to blows.

" Ty! Call 911! Now!"

Ty did as told, and only a few minutes later, sirens could be heard approaching the house.

The EMT's quickly sized up the situation and brought out a stretcher for Bay, quickly lifting her onto it, and speeding off with Kathryn in the back, oxygen held to her face.

"You boys should go home," John shouted, as he ran to get into his car.

Is he kidding? Emmett thought. The love of my life is unconscious, and he thinks I'm going home? Not a chance! Not until I know Bay's okay.

With that, Emmett sped off on his motorcycle, disregarding speed limits, and barely stopping at stop signs. Ty apparently had the same idea, because he arrived at the hospital shortly after Emmett.

Emmett wouldn't ever admit this to anyone, but was slightly slightly glad that Ty was there, because Ty was able to speak to the nurse behind at the desk, asking where Bay Kennish was brought. Emmett was ever so slightly grateful that he didn't have to waste precious time asking for paper to write out Bay's name or trying to mime everything.

Emmett ran down the hall after Ty, his stomach located somewhere around his ankles. They found Kathryn and John pacing outside room 232, their faces looking like they'd aged 20 years in the past 25 minutes.

Emmett leaned against the wall, his arms subconsciously folding. When he realized how he was standing, he felt tears begin to well in his eyes.

"Don't give me the sultry James Dean look," he heard Bay say in his head. "What the hell were you thinking, kissing me like that?"

Oh, Bay, Emmett thought. Please wake up. Please be okay.

A few minutes later, a doctor came out. The Kennishes, Daphne & Regina (who had arrived a few minutes after him), Ty, and Emmett all rushed to him.

"Bay is in a coma," the doctor said.

Kathryn's knees buckled and John caught her, holding her up. "Can we see her?" John asked, his voice cracking.

"Yes, but not all at once. One or two at a time," the doctor said before giving them a sympathetic look and hurrying off.

John and Kathryn came out of Bay's room sooner than anyone expected. "Kathryn's not strong enough to be in there yet," John told them quietly. Regina signed what he had said for Emmett and Daphne, but Emmett had already caught the gist of it.

Regina touched him on the shoulder, and pointed in the direction of Bay's room. "You go," she signed emotionally.

He walked slowly to the room, and pushed open the door. He stood at the foot of the bed, just staring at her, so silent, so still, so wrong for someone who usually so full of life. He moved closer to her and took her hand.

Then, for the first time in 8 years, Emmett spoke aloud. "Don't leave me, Bay."

A.N. Ok, this chapter went in such a different direction that I thought it'd go! I started writing, and then it kind of finished writing itself, and by the end, I was like, "Whoa, am I really ending the chapter like that?"

I just want to clarify one thing. I do not believe that speaking is something that Emmett should strive for or that Bay should strive for, which is why I don't have Bay asking Emmett to speak. ASL is its own language and I see no reason that speaking should be a goal for deaf people unless they want it to be. I just wanted to put that out there. That's why I was kind of surprised by my ending, but I think I still kind of like it. What do you think? Thanks for the fabulous reviews!