CHAPTER 16

Jill and Ron's place was a nice log cabin styled 2 story building with a small stable and plenty of woods surrounding it. Beth made a point of seeing the horse, even though they had to walk through two feet of snow.

Beth waved bye to her aunt and uncle around 8 as they got into the car. "That was nice, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, a fairly calm dinner with just an aunt who seemed to be trying to get us to date." Carlton shook his head as he started the car.

Beth laughed, "Yeah, sorry about that. I had no idea that she would try and get so involved in my love life."

"She's probably just looking out for you." Carlton said awkwardly.

"My family's always been more concerned about having a good time instead of talking about serious stuff, so I was unprepared."

"That explains a lot," Carlton muttered, barely missing a slap to the shoulder. "Hey! Isn't there a rule about not hitting the driver?"

"Possibly, but I don't always follow the rules." Beth smiled widely.

They lapsed into silence for a few minutes before Beth said, "I don't feel like going home."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. How about bowling? We haven't gone in a few weeks."

"Mainly because you never break 100."

"Hey!" Beth sounded slightly hurt. "I got into the high 90's last time! That's a big improvement when my average score is 53!"

Carlton chuckled as they stopped at an intersection. "Okay, if you really want to. Which way?"

"Well, we need to get on the highway, so I believe we go straight. Then a right onto a curvy road that I think we follow for about 2 miles. There's a church that if we pass, we've gone too far. And then it's another right for a couple minutes before we come across the interstate."

Carlton looked at her stunned for a second before asking, "What is wrong with learning the street names so it'll be easier to direct people?"

Beth sighed as she reached into the back seat and grabbed the map. "Because I'm bad at remembering names. Here, just start heading straight and I'll find it on the map."

"You at least know what city we're in, right?"

"Yes. Well maybe. I know what city my aunt lives in and what street we're on, but we might have crossed into a different city or something by now, I don't know."

"Wouldn't it just be easier for you to drive since you obviously know where we're going?"

"But then I can't tease you as much if I'm driving!" She pouted before tapping the map. "There, I was right."

They came across another stop sign and Carlton leaned over to see where Beth was pointing, including the path that they should take. Shaking his head, he turned the car onto the next street. "Now was that so hard?"

"Yes!" Beth sighed dramatically as she slouched in the seat. "I'm so exhausted, I think that I'm going to take a nap now. Wake me when we get there."

"If you take a nap, then maybe I'll just drive back to your house and we can forget about bowling."

"Fine! I'll stay awake."

"Good. I hope you know that we are not staying for more than 2 hours since you keep waking me up really early, and I need sleep in order to deal with your craziness."

"Okay, first off, I've only woken you up early three time this whole week, and they haven't been that bad." Carlton scoffed. Beth ignored him and continued. "Two, I'm not crazy. A bit eccentric maybe, but not crazy. Next, you should have known what you were getting into before you agreed to this trip. And finally, I hardly ever play more than 2 hours at a time."

Knowing that he couldn't really win an argument involving the first 3, he focused on the last one. "Don't give me that crap. You and O'Hara spent over 4 hours at a bowling alley last month. And by the way, your listing method is inconsistent."

"Dude, I hated English class, so I don't care! Anyways, that time Juliet and I spent at the bowling alley was for one of her nephew's birthday parties, so we spent more time watching and entertaining kids than actually bowling."

"Well then what about that one time you played 5 ½ games?"

"That was still only about 2 hours. The first one was a warm up since we were using the bumpers. For two of them, Shawn and I were just goofing off and wanted to see how quickly we could get through 10 frames. One of them we …LOOK OUT!"

Everything seemed to happen both all at once and really slowly. Carlton jerked the steering wheel in time to avoid hitting a deer but had trouble straightening back out. He could feel the tires sliding on the snow covered roads as he applied the breaks. Beside him, he heard Beth mutter, "Oh no, not again," as he noticed her curl up into a ball. Before he could try and reassure her, the car went off the road and crashed into a tree. He heard a pain filled scream before everything went black.

"Sir? Sir are you okay?"

An insistent knocking made Carlton's head pound as he woke up. Groaning, he slowly lifted his head and squinted to the left where the knocking seemed to be coming from. He saw a man standing outside of the window before a light was shined in his face. As his headache seemed to get worse, Carlton tried to block the light, only to have his left shoulder flair in pain. "Damn it!" Carlton cursed as he held his arm still with his other hand.

"Sir? The police and ambulance should be arriving shortly. Can you unlock the doors so I can check on you and your friend?"

Still trying to breath through the pain, the only words that made sense to Carlton were 'ambulance' and 'friend.' Carlton quickly looked over to the passenger side of the car, only to pause and shut his eyes tight when he was overwhelmed by dizziness and nausea. Trying again more slowly, Carlton looked over to find Beth clutching her one leg to her chest as she rocked back and forth. It took him a moment to realize that her eyes were closed, tears silently falling down her cheeks, and she was muttering, "no, no, no, not again, this isn't happening, I'm just imaging it. No, no, no, not again…."

Having a bad feeling about what was running through her head, Carlton reached a hand out to her. "Beth? Can you look at me?" She shied away from his touch and seemed to become more agitated. Before he could try again, there was more knocking on the window. Sighing, Carlton turned around slowly to find a police officer and paramedic outside the car.

"Sir? Can you please unlock the door?"

Grimacing, Carlton unlocked the door before turning his attention back to Beth. He watched as a paramedic tried unsuccessfully to get Beth's attention. When one of them touched her arm, Beth protested strongly, yelling, "No! Leave me alone! You have to help my grandma first! She's really bad off, she hasn't even woken up yet."

Carlton cringed at her words as the paramedic tried to reassure her. "Miss, you need to settle down so that we can examine you."

"No! Stay the hell away from me!" She yelled as the paramedic grabbed her arms.

"I need a sedative, quick!" The paramedic said as someone joined him.

Carlton was about to protest when he felt someone touch his own arm and his shoulder flared up in pain again. "Damn it! What the hell is wrong with you?" Carlton snapped at the paramedic at his side.

The paramedic, who barely looked old enough to be out of high school, flinched, "I'm sorry sir, but I couldn't get your attention."

"Then you should have tried harder without the risk of bothering injuries." Carlton snapped back.

She swallowed before saying, "Sir, I'm going to need you to calm down so I can check your injuries."

"Are you even qualified to be out here?"

"Sir, I am more than qualified."

"Then what is this? Your first day or something?"

"First week, sir." She shakily took a breath. "Now if you don't mind, I need to check you over."

Glaring, Carlton nodded, only for his headache to worsen. "Why don't I just tell you what I know so far? I've hurt my shoulder, most likely a dislocation. My chest hurts from the seatbelt doing it's job. I banged my head when the airbag failed to deploy…."

"You hit your head?"

Carlton growled, "Yes. Can't you tell by this nasty bump on my forehead?"

"Sir, please don't make me tell you again. You need to calm down."

"Instead of trying to get me to calm down, you should be asking me questions. I guess I'll have to start them for you. Name: Carlton Lassiter. Date: Sunday, March…something, 2011. I'll get back to that. Location: We were in Chardon headed towards the interstate, so I'm not sure what city right now. I'm visiting from California, so I haven't memorized all the cities. Mother's maiden name…."

"Sir? Are you a doctor?" The paramedic asked hesitantly.

"No, I'm a detective, head detective actually, and I've been to plenty of accident scenes to know the procedure. Now if you would be so kind as to get the person in charge of the scene over here, I would really appreciate it."

Not waiting for a response, Carlton looked back over at Beth in time to see them loading her onto the stretcher. They had already sedated her and her breathing looked normal. He couldn't really make out if she had any injuries in the dark, but he did notice that they immobilized her right leg.

Before they took her out of his sight, he called out, "Wait! I want to go with her."

One of the paramedics looked down through the open door and said, "I'm sorry sir, but it's against procedure to have two injured parties in the same ambulance. She'll be out for a couple hours, so she won't even know if you were there."

"But I would!" Carlton protested.

"I'm sorry sir." The guy gave him a sympathetic smile because standing up and taking Beth away.

Sighing, Carlton turned back towards his door as a police officer and a different paramedic come over. "What seems to be the problem, sir?" The officer asked.

Carlton tried to reach into his pocket and grab his badge but the seatbelt was in the way. Sighing, he said, "I'm a detective from California and I need you to take my weapon before it gets lost. It's in the glove compartment. I would show you my badge, but I can't seem to reach it."

"Okay sir, I'll make sure to make a note in the report. In the meantime, we need to get you to the hospital before you get frostbite or hypothermia. So, are you going to cooperate with the paramedic this time?"

Carlton looked at the new paramedic. He looked to be in his early 30's and seemed to know his stuff. Sighing, Carlton mumbled, "I guess."

"Good. Dennis, he's all yours."

"Thanks Mike." Dennis replied as he knelt down by Carlton. "The first thing that I'm going to do is put a C-collar on you. I know that you have been moving your neck just fine, but this is just a precaution we take with all car accident victims, especially when the airbag fails to deploy."

Carlton half listened as Dennis went through the steps and explained everything. The adrenaline that he had when he woke up was quickly fading and all he wanted to do was sleep.