Chapter 14
Piper stayed with Alex and Sally for the next week, and neither of her parents contacted her. December had already started, they'd be on holidays soon for the winter break, and she was probably about to spend her first Christmas away from her parents.
But Piper would see her mother this particular morning at school, they were having another meeting with Caputo. Piper walked towards Caputo's office and saw her mother waiting with a tired look on her face, "Hi mum."
"Piper, how have you been?"
"Okay.."
Piper was relieved that her mother sounded almost sad, like it was possible that Carol actually missed her.
"When are you coming home?"
"I'm not sure, I feel like you don't even want me there."
"That's not true Piper, of course I want you at home, but we both needed time to think."
Caputo opened the door and invited them into his office before they could say anything else. Piper felt calmer than she had all week, she'd managed to convince herself that Carol hated her. Now she just needed to convince her that Alex wasn't the enemy.
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Nicky had been following Alex for the whole week. She knew Alex didn't like needing to be with someone at all times at school, but Nicky wasn't willing to take any more risks. It was worth annoying the brunette if it meant keeping her safe.
"Are you seriously following me to the bathroom again?"
"Do you have a death wish, Vause? Because that's what it looks like from where I'm standing."
Nicky followed Alex to the bathroom at the end of their lunch break, and was starting to lose her patience with her best friend.
"Tone down the drama Nicholls, it's nearly Christmas break. At least wait until I'm drunk before you berate me."
"Oh don't worry, I will. And speaking of substance abuse, wanna join me for some green?"
It didn't take much to convince Alex to skip class to get high, and the two girls headed to the back of the sports shed near the oval. Nicky lit up the joint first and took a deep breath, then passed it to Alex.
"By the way, I'm blaming you if Sal gives me a hard time about skipping class."
"I can handle your sister, but your girlfriend, now that's another story."
Alex had told Nicky about how fiery things had gotten between Piper and her parents. Part of Nicky felt bad for the blonde, but there was a part deep inside her that was secretly hopeful things wouldn't work out. She didn't like having those feelings, but she couldn't stop it, she didn't know how.
"So are we still all good for Christmas?"
Alex took her time exhaling the smoke, she couldn't wait to get away, "Fuck yes, me and Sal will come with you on Christmas eve. I'm not sure what Piper's plan is, depends on her parents."
"How are things between you two anyway?"
"Fine I guess, I just wish her parents would cut her some slack. I'm basically the whole reason they won't talk to her right now."
"You do tend to have that effect on people."
Alex smiled and took the joint back from Nicky, "Fuck off Nicholls."
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He hated Christmas, he didn't know how to get through it. His dad wouldn't even be home this year, he'd be travelling for some business trip he insisted he couldn't change. He didn't know when his dad would be back in New York, he was all alone. He didn't know what to do with his pain, it was suffocating him. It was almost the worst it had ever been, wasn't grief meant to be easier to deal with over time? Why did his keep getting worse?
His emotions had finally pushed him into an inescapable corner, but he was determined to fight back. He needed to show the world that he was still here, he was still breathing.
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Alex was anxious to see Piper by the end of the day, she wanted to know how things went with her mum and Caputo that morning. She found Piper next to her locker at the end of the day and said hello with a quick kiss.
"So how was this morning?"
Alex was relieved to see her girlfriend give her a tired smile, "It went better than I thought it would, my mum actually spoke to me like a normal person. I think I should go home tonight, I need to talk to her properly without any distractions."
"Do whatever you need Pipes."
That voice put Piper at ease every time.
"But you guys can still take my car tonight. I really need to stay back to catch up on my English work, I just haven't been able to concentrate lately. I'll get my mum to pick me up in a couple hours, then I'll call you later."
"Are you sure about the car?"
Piper kissed Alex on the cheek as she closed her locker, "Yes Al, take it, I'll call you later tonight."
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Everyone kept watching him at school, like he was a criminal, it hurt. But it didn't matter anymore.
He knew which car was hers, he knew the exact route she took every day after school, and where she always ended up.
He was patient, he waited, then eventually he saw the car, stopped in the exact same spot it had every day after school for the last two weeks.
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Sally drove herself and Alex home in Piper's car, they were both relieved the school day was over, staying mostly silent on the drive home. They were stopped at a set of lights just around the corner from their home when they were both forced out of their daze. The back door of the car was opened and closed, someone was sitting in the back seat. Alex turned around to see Sam Healy sitting in the back of Piper's car, a gun pressed against the back of Sally's seat.
Everything stopped, all Alex could see was the gun, but she could still feel Sally grab onto her hand. She was speaking but Alex couldn't hear any of it, this was a type of fear the younger girl had never felt before, seeing a gun pointed directly at her sister. After a few moments, all she could hear was shouting. At first she wasn't sure where it was coming from, then she realised it was Sam, he was upset. She was frozen to her seat, with shouting voices from Sam and Sally passing through her mind.
"Where the fuck is Chapman? Where is she! This is her fucking car!"
"She's not here!"
"Just fucking drive, keep driving!"
Alex kept squeezing Sally's hand, she needed something to focus on, she couldn't rationalise any of this, it was getting harder to breathe.
"Drive back to your apartment."
Sally kept driving, she kept trying to think of ways to get Alex out of the car, but she didn't know what to do. This wasn't supposed to happen.
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She was meant to be driving the car! Why wasn't she there! It wasn't meant to be like this...
But he'd already started, he had to keep going. The plans would need to change, Piper wasn't a part of it anymore, but maybe it didn't matter. Maybe he could still get what he wanted, whatever that was...
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Sally parked Piper's car at their apartment building, she turned off the ignition and waited until she heard his ragged voice from the backseat.
"Let's go, take me to your apartment."
Sally gave her sister a reassuring nod and they all got out of the car. She grabbed Alex's hand again as soon as she could and led all three of them up to the apartment. Healy walked behind them, the small hand gun tucked into his jacket pocket.
He forced them to sit on the couch as soon as they were in the apartment and started pacing in front of them, mumbling to himself, swearing under his breath. It was obvious that he'd expected Piper to be in the car, and now that she wasn't, he didn't know what to do. Sally thought maybe she could get through to him.
"What's going on Sam?"
But he ignored her, he kept pacing around the small lounge room. Eventually he stopped, he looked around the apartment, then he looked towards the two girls on the couch and spoke to Sally.
"Why is this place so small?"
"It's all we can afford."
He went quiet, but he kept staring at them. Sally spoke again, she still thought she could get through to him.
"What are you doing Sam?"
Still, he kept staring at them, but this time he walked closer until he was standing right in front of them. Alex could see the gun sitting in his jacket, it was so close, she had to try and reach it. As soon as he stopped moving towards them, Alex stopped thinking and the air in the room became unbearably thick, she felt like she was suffocating, she needed to get out of there. She lunged from the couch and reached for the gun in his front pocket.
Suddenly, everything was moving in slow motion. She was faster than him and felt her hands grip onto the gun, he grabbed onto her waist but she kept moving away from him. He used her own momentum to slam her into the TV cabinet and onto the floor, but she was still gripping onto the gun. Sally was rushing towards them but Alex had already pulled the trigger.
Alex braced herself, but all she heard was a click, the gun wasn't loaded.
"Fuck!"
She panicked as soon as she heard that click, giving him a chance to pull the gun from her hands and use it to hit her hard across the face, forcing her to crash back down into the smashed TV and table underneath her. As soon as the metal hit her face, she felt her glasses crack and dig into her skin.
Sally slammed into him seconds after he hit Alex and pushed him hard into the wall, making him groan in pain. She was trying to pull his hands behind his back when she felt a stinging sensation, he'd picked up a piece of broken glass from the TV and used it to cut her arm. She was about to rush towards him again when she saw him holding the same piece of glass against Alex's throat while she was still lying on the floor.
His voice was shaky, but also surprisingly calm, "Sit down on the fucking couch."
"Just let me make sure she's okay."
Healy kept standing over Alex. He dropped the jagged piece of glass and pulled two bullets from his pocket, he loaded them into the gun and stepped back.
"No, just sit on the fucking couch."
Sally sat on the couch and kept her eyes on Alex the whole time. She was lying on top of the broken pieces of plastic and smashed glass of the TV. She looked like she was in a daze, and had a deep cut across her cheek from where the gun handle had hit her.
Sally felt helpless, she felt sick watching him stand over Alex. He stuffed the gun into the front of his jeans and pulled the younger girl up, slamming her against the closest wall. His face was inches away from hers.
"You tried to shoot me, what the fuck is wrong with you?"
Alex didn't answer him, she could barely focus on his face. The only thing she could focus on was the slight sensation of blood trickling down her face.
"I wanted to try and reason with you!"
Alex didn't want any part in his sick games, she was trying to will herself to focus, she needed to focus. She saw Sally's face in the background, she tried to anchor herself to it, she needed something familiar to focus on. Not only to try and stay focused, but to remind her to keep going.
Healy was still rambling in the background, but she didn't want to hear it. Sally's face, her brown eyes, the way her brows were furrowed with worry, her hair, Alex needed to focus.
"You took away my mothers life, now you try to shoot me. It wasn't meant to go like this.."
He took the gun and pressed it into her stomach, but she kept her eyes on Sally.
"I hate you so much sometimes Alex. It wasn't all her fault...if you just spoke to her, you'd know it wasn't her fault."
Healy was done talking and pushed Alex onto the couch, and Sally released a breath she didn't even know she was holding. He kept pacing in front of them, but all Sally cared about was Alex. She wrapped her arms around the younger girl and pulled her in close. For a moment Sally could close her eyes and almost pretend they were kids again, pretend she was babysitting Alex while Diane worked. If Alex ever got upset, all she had to do was pull her in tight.
She could feel the shards of glass that were still stuck to Alex's t-shirt, leaving small cuts all over her back. Sally tried to brush them off without hurting her.
She whispered into her sister's ear, she needed her to stay calm.
'No more fucking heroics okay, I need you to stay in one piece."
"I really thought the gun was loaded..."
"Don't think about it now, I just need you to try and stay awake kid. Try not to fall asleep."
"You're bleeding." Alex's voice started to trail off and she gently touched the cut across Sally's arm.
"It's just a scratch, I'm okay. Hey, c'mon Lex, keep focusing on me."
"I'm fine Sal, I'm fine."
Healy stood in front of them again, but this time he was focusing all his attention on Alex.
"All I wanted was for you to stay away from Piper. She doesn't deserve to end up like you. But now...I only had the gun to scare you, that's why it wasn't loaded."
He stopped talking and they all kept sitting there in silence, Healy with his head in his hands and Sally with an arm around Alex, trying to wipe the blood from her face with her own t-shirt.
After a few more moments, Sally decided to take a chance and try talking to him again.
"We don't blame you for the accident. What happened was horrible, and it fucked up all of our lives. But there's nothing we can do to change it."
"You still don't get it! You don't know what it's like to have the person you love most right there, constantly in pain, and all you can do is watch!"
Healy grabbed Sally by the arm and pulled her away from Alex, pointing the gun at her. Alex was still struggling to focus, but she knew exactly what was happening in that moment.
"This is what it's like Alex. You love her, she's right in front of you, but she's in pain. She's in pain and you can't help her."
Healy was speaking through angry tears by this point, he was completely overwhelmed by his emotions. It had been so long since he'd let himself feel anything but anger, and now he couldn't stop it.
He let go of Sally and let her sit back on the couch, she immediately put an arm back around her little sister.
'Why the fuck did I let her drive!"
Alex looked to Sally, he was becoming completely unstable.
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They sat like that for another hour, Sally and Alex on the couch with Healy pacing the floor in front of them. Occasionally he'd speak, but his voice was always so quiet. Alex's face was throbbing, both from where the gun had hit her and from where her glasses had cut into her face when they broke. She leaned her head against Sally's shoulder and tried to think of something else, anything to get rid of that aching.
"Hey Lex, you still awake?"
"Yeah, I'm awake."
Healy was looking out the lounge room window, he hadn't spoken in a while. Alex was about to talk to him when her phone started ringing in her jeans pocket. She quickly slipped the phone out of her pocket to look at the screen. Her heart started racing as soon as she saw the name on the screen, it was Piper, ringing just like she said she would.
Sam's gaze locked onto Alex, straight away he assumed the phone call was from the blonde, it was the only option in his mind. The realisation that he could still salvage something from his original idea seemed to wake him up.
He shouted at Alex after the first ring, "Answer it, tell her to come over!"
But Alex didn't move, she was not willing to pick up that phone and tell Piper to walk into this situation. So she sat there in silence, she ignored him and slipped the phone back in her pocket.
"What the fuck is wrong with you, answer it!"
Alex kept staring at him, saying nothing, but it wouldn't be that easy.
Still with the gun stuffed into his jeans, he rushed towards her and pulled her up in front of him, fighting against her to pull the phone from her jeans pocket. He saw Sally standing in the corner of his vision.
"Sit down or I shoot her!"
Sally reluctantly sat back down on the couch. She needed to think of something, she couldn't let him keep control of the whole situation because of that fucking gun. She couldn't let anything happen to Alex.
Alex managed to stop him getting his hands on the phone and it stopped ringing, but he kept a tight grip on her t-shirt. Alex had never seen him look like that before. This went well beyond anger, she couldn't see anything when she looked in his eyes, he wasn't there anymore.
He took the gun out of his jeans and used it to hit her hard across the face again, but this time he kept his grip on her, forcing her to stay standing. Alex felt the hot, piercing feeling rip through her face, she couldn't see anything anymore.
Before Sally could even react her own phone started ringing, it was Piper again. Healy was still holding onto Alex when Sally ran into the kitchen and answered the call, "Sam's here, call the police to our apartment now!"
Healy dropped Alex in a heap on the floor and ran towards Sally, but she'd already hung up the phone and pulled out a knife from the kitchen drawers.
"Put it down or I will hurt her..." That's all he could say, there was nothing left. The only control he had was the threat of hurting Alex.
"You've already fucking hurt her! And I'm pretty sure you don't actually want to shoot me.
"Don't fucking tell me what I want!"
He was starting to panic, he knew Piper would call the police, he needed to get out of there. But it was all a failure, he hadn't achieved anything. He was still a failure...
He threw the gun to the floor and ran out of the apartment, he only had one place left to go.
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Sally knelt over Alex, ignoring the blood that kept dripping down her own arm. So many images were flashing through her mind, it was the accident, all the bad dreams Alex had over the last two years, Julie trying to split them up. She'd told Julie she could look after Alex, and now all she could feel was agony rushing through her body.
She'd done a shitty job of taking care of her sister and it broke her, especially when she thought about Diane.
Sally gently ran her fingers over Alex's face, checking if the younger girl would wake up. She was whispering under her breath without even realising.
"Please kid..."
She felt responsible for all of it, and she had no idea how to tell Julie. The last time Healy put Alex in the hospital she yelled at the mere suggestion of Alex not living with her. She insisted that the younger girl stayed with her, that she could look after her. But maybe she couldn't, maybe she wasn't enough. Maybe this wouldn't have happened if Alex lived with Julie, she would't be lying here if someone else was taking care of her.
It wasn't much longer before the police arrived and Sally lost control of the entire situation. She was pulled away from Alex so they could assess her, they wanted to get a statement from her, she couldn't take it all in. She needed Alex, all she needed was Alex.
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Sally was glued to Alex's bed in the emergency room, they were still waiting to get a proper room. Sally insisted on riding in the ambulance, she felt like she never wanted to leave Alex's side again. The younger girl wouldn't need to stay at the hospital for too long, at least overnight. She had a concussion, cuts to her face and back, and a fractured cheek bone. She'd definitely be taking some time off school.
Dealing with the school was another thing Sally didn't want to think about, she was sure Caputo would want to talk to her. The police called her after they got to the hospital, Sam hadn't gone far when he left the Vause apartment. The police found him at the psychiatric hospital him mum was kept in, trying to get in to see her. He'd already been arrested, he'd have to be expelled now.
Alex would need surgery on her fractured cheekbone later that night, so the doctors had given her a good dose of painkillers to help with the pain and stop her from moving around and making the fracture worse. She was drifting somewhere in between asleep and awake, but she never stayed awake for long. Alex sleeping was the only reason the doctors managed to get Sally to let them clean and stitch up the cut on her arm.
She'd already called Piper and Nicky to tell them which hospital they were at, but she still hadn't called Julie. She couldn't bring herself to do it, she just needed a little bit longer of living in a world where Alex still lived with her.
Sally was scratching at the stitches in her arm when she looked up and saw Piper practically jogging towards them, with Carol following behind her. Sally still had Piper's car parked at the apartment, so Carol had driven her daughter to the hospital. Sally gave Piper fair warning that even though Alex's face looked bad, she'd be fine and probably out of hospital the next day.
Sally stood up from the crappy plastic hospital chair and let Piper wrap her up in a tight hug. She appreciated the fact that Piper didn't say anything for a moment and just held her tight. It felt so good, Sally didn't realise how much she actually needed that hug.
Piper eventually pulled back from the hug and looked at her friend, "Are you okay?"
"Not really..."
Piper hugged Sally again and gently rubbed her back, trying to keep her calm. She eventually walked around to the other side of the hospital bed and looked at Alex, who was still sleeping. The younger girl looked horrible, bruises covering most of her face.
Sally could see Piper trying to hold back her tears, she needed to reassure her that everyone would be fine, physically at least.
"I promise it looks worse than it is Pipes, she could be home by tomorrow night."
Piper gripped onto the bed railing until her knuckles were white, she hated hospitals, and she hated seeing her friends here. She was surprised when she felt a hand on her shoulder, it was her mother. Everything had happened so quickly, Piper had no idea what had really happened. All she'd been able to tell her mother was that they needed to call the police and get to the hospital.
"What happened?"
The nurses brought over an extra two chairs for Piper and Carol. They both sat down and listened to Sally tell them everything. It seemed so insane, like it couldn't possibly be true.
"I was so freaked out when you answered your phone and told me to call the cops. Especially because Alex didn't answer her phone..."
Sally wanted to make sure Carol heard this next part, she wanted the older woman to know that Piper didn't need protecting from Alex.
"When he heard Alex's phone ring, he...he wanted her to pick up and tell you to come over. That's why she didn't answer, fuck..." Sally rubbed her eyes hard, her body was finally starting to come down from it all. But she still made sure to look at Carol.
"What...he wanted me there?"
"Yeah..."
Sally watched Piper wipe the tears from her eyes before they could fall properly.
"What happened when she wouldn't answer?"
"He kept trying to get the phone out of her pocket, but she wouldn't let him. He hit her...and then you called me."
Sally was surprised when she heard Carol's voice break the tension, "I'm so sorry Sally..."
Sally nodded, she didn't know how to talk to Carol, so she chose to stay silent. But she still kept looking at the older woman, who was carefully watching her daughter. Carol sat there and watched every movement as Piper sat there, holding Alex's hand, being so careful when she ran her fingers through her hair, even when she pressed her lips against Alex's fingers. Carol sat there and watched it all without saying a word.
A/N
Hey folks :)
Well, that was a bit heavy. A few things here - I don't expect people to truly sympathise with Healy, but I did want to bring out his own emotions, however messed up they might be. I also wanted to show that Carol does have a heart, maybe not a huge one, but it's there.
I'm keen to hear your thoughts on how this chapter played out.
The next chapter will start showing the fall out from this chapter, as well as Christmas.
Cheers.