Alice Merrick walked into the main office at Horizon. She looked around and didn't see anyone right away but she wasn't expecting to either for it was almost midnight by the time she arrived. Alice walked around slowly, still looking for someone and tripped over a binder that was on the floor. She fell and a grunting sound left her mouth.
Peter came running out to where the sound was and saw Alice. Despite the fact that he thought very little of her right now, he helped her up off of the floor.
"Ms. Merrick," Peter said. "If I may ask, what are you doing here?"
"I'm here to see my daughter, what do you think I'm doing here?" She snapped back. Alice took a deep breath, let it out slowly and said, "I'm sorry. I've just had a bad few days as you can probably tell."
"Which daughter are you here to see?"
"What do you mean?" Alice asked and sounded confused for she had no idea that Jess was at Horizon.
"I tried calling you when she arrived but you must have already been gone. Jess is here, too."
"Oh. She is!" Alice sounded relieved. "I had no idea where she was and I was so worried and...where is she? Can I see her?"
"In the morning. She's asleep right now." Peter said calmly.
"And then me and her could go visit Shelby." Alice sounded sad again.
"Well, Jess saw Shelby earlier and she had some trouble seeing her so I don't know if she'll want to go again so soon."
"Oh. How is Shelby doing?"
"No better, I'm afraid. Ms. Merrick, if you don't me asking, if you're here to see Shelby and you're worried about her then why did you sound like you didn't care when I spoke to you on the phone?"
Alice looked down and remembered exactly what Peter was talking about.
"I'm not a very good Mother, Mr. Scarbrow," She said. "I'm afraid I've been blaming Shelby for a lot of things lately. I'm not sure what was going through my mind that night."
"It's okay. Parents are allowed to make a few mistakes," Peter responded.
"I've been making more than I should be allowed to though."
"You're here now. That's all that matters. Do you have a place to stay?"
"I'll go to a motel. I'm sorry I even came here, I didn't realize it was this late."
"It's no problem, Ms. Merrick. Do you know where the closest motel is?" Peter asked.
"No, I don't actually. Do you think you could give me directions?" Alice asked.
"How about I just call you a cab?"
"That would be good. Thank you."
Peter smiled and picked up the phone. He dialed the number to the local cab company and asked for a cab. After a few minutes, the cab pulled up and Alice got in the back seat. Peter told the driver to take her to the closest, nice motel and they were gone.
Peter shook his head and blinked a few times. He walked back into the office and was greeted by Sophie.
"What was that all about?" She asked.
"That was Jess' and Shelby's Mother. She came here to see Shelby." Peter responded and sounded tired.
"I thought she didn't care?"
"That's what I thought, too but I guess I was wrong."
"You sound tired. How about we go home and go to bed. We have to get up in..." Sophie looked down at her watch and then back up to Peter. "6 hours, 5 if you want to get a good run and shower in. So come on, Mountain Man. You sound tired anyway."
"Bed sounds nice."
"I thought you'd like that idea." Sophie said and kissed Peter.
Jess was walking around the grounds around sunrise the next morning. She couldn't sleep and didn't feel like just sitting in bed doing nothing so she decided to walk around before she had to go meet everyone for breakfast.
"You're up early." Peter said from behind her.
"I never fell asleep." Jess corrected.
"I was just coming to get you anyway. Come on, I need you in my office."
"I'm not even a student here, what'd I do?"
"What makes you think you're getting in trouble?" Peter asked.
"If I'm not getting in trouble than why am I being taken to your office?" Jess asked back.
"You'll find out."
"You know I hate surprises, right?"
"You get that from Shelby. Now come on."
Jess followed Peter into his office and saw her mom. She went wide-eyed and couldn't bring words to come from her mouth. Alice rushed over to Jess and pulled her into a hug. Jess lightly hugged back but pulled away when she could talk.
"Mom, what are you doing here?" Jess asked.
"I'm here to see Shelby and then Peter told me you were here when I arrived." Alice responded and pulled Jess into her arms again. "Oh my little girl."
Jess let her Mother hug her and hugged back but this time like she meant it. The hug was interrupted by Scott and Daisy coming into Peter's office early like they've been doing since Shelby was in the hospital. They came to his office early and would go to see Shelby.
"Whoa." Scott said for that was all he could think to say.
"Hello. I'm Alice Merrick." Alice said.
"I know who you are." Scott said and sounded almost rude.
Alice looked sort of taken aback but then Scott relaxed and apologized.
"It's okay. I guess I deserved that." Alice said.
"Hi. I'm Daisy." Daisy said trying to break up the tension.
"Hello Daisy. And you are?" She asked Scott.
"Oh. I'm Scott Barringer."
"Shelby's talked about you two a lot."
"Right. So I take it you're coming with us to visit Shelby?" Scott asked.
"Yes," Alice said. "I am. That is of course, if it's okay with Mr. Scarbrow."
"Yes, of course. Visiting hours start in about 10 minutes so let's get going." Peter said and motioned everyone for the door. "Are you coming Jess?"
"I don't know. I had a hard enough time doing it yesterday, Peter." Jess replied.
"Well, no one's forcing you."
"I know that. but I think I should be there for my mom."
Alice smiled and Jess walked over to her mom. They walked out of the office and to the truck together.
Scott and Daisy gave Peter confused looks but he just shook his head clearly saying 'never mind'. The two shook their heads and walked to the truck behind Peter. Everyone piled into the truck and Peter drove to the hospital.
Alice walked into Shelby's hospital room and saw her on the bed. A couple of tears left her eyes and she raised her hand to cover her mouth in order to stop a scream. Jess, Scott, Daisy and Peter followed Alice in the door and Jess walked over to her Mother to comfort her.
Scott felt bad for Alice but couldn't help practically ignoring her and walking over to Shelby. He sat on the edge of her bed and held her hand like he always did when he went to see her. Scott brushed a piece of her blonde hair off of her face and smiled at the familiar movement.
Alice sat down on the bed next to Shelby and gripped her other hand. Scott finally brought his attention to Alice as she started to speak.
"I'm so sorry, Shelby. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have blamed you. I should've been here before. I'm so sorry, so sorry." Alice kept repeating the words to Shelby.
Alice kept her grip on Shelby left hand as Scott kept his on her right hand. They were both thinking the exact same think: wake up! As if on cue, Shelby's right hand moved. Scott let go of her hand and stood from the bed. Alice mirrored Scott's movements as Shelby's left hand twitched.
"I think she's waking up." Scott said softly and smiled.
Shelby's head turned towards Scott and she opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was Scott with a huge smile on his face. He had unshed, happy tears in his eyes.
"Doctor!" Peter screamed out the door.
"Oh Shelby!" Scott said and leaned down to hug her but she inched away.
Scott stood up again and looked down at Shelby confused.
"Who are you?" Shelby asked, looking directly at Scott.
(A/N)- First off, thanks for all the reviews. I had several telling me that I should wake Shelby up already and as I would read them I would sit there and say, "I'm doing that in the next chapter!" for I already knew I was going to.
I know this chapter in pretty short. I was going to have this one and the next one just be one chapter but I felt that it had to be separate ones.
Also, for any of my readers who care, the next "The Truth Comes Out" chapter will be written next so I should have it up semi-shortly.
As always, please review whether it be good or bad.