The poll on my page is down now everything will get at least one more chapter. I will begin plotting them over Christmas break and schedule them beginning in April. Taken Some Bad Times will be the first to get a follow up chapter as it got an astounding 98 votes! Thank you everyone for voting and I'm glad everyone enjoyed one shot month.
Please note that My Boys, My Girls, My Lovers Four may not go up tomorrow. See A/N at the end of this chapter.
Ch. 13 Time Keeps Dragging On & On
(FITZ)
I walk away from Clare headed for the boiler room and home so that I can have dinner. I'm a few feet into the boiler room and nearing the door to the belly when I freeze, Clare is nervous and it quickly turns to fear. I turn around and run back to get to her and then I can't feel her anymore, my heart stops but I realize she must be unconscious and I begin running again. I get through the front doors just in time to see Eli driving away with Clare slumped over in his passenger seat. I run after them, racing as fast as I can to catch up with the car. After a moment Clare awakens and I feel her fear. The terror that grips her when she wakes up and realizes Eli has taken her captive is nearly paralyzing to me. I feel her panic, her horror and the slim amount of hope that are all broiling in her.
I can't see the car anymore but I keep running, as fast and as hard as I can. Filled with adrenaline because of Clare's fear and mine I run following the car. I know the direction the car went because I can feel Clare. The more she begins to panic the faster I run and then I hear a sound that will haunt me. The sound of Clare's scream and a sound like an explosion and I can no longer feel Clare! My heart pounds so hard I can feel it rattling my rib cage and now it's the only sound I hear, the world is silent except for the sounds of my heart. I don't even stop running when I see Eli's antique hearse sticking halfway out of a building. As I run toward the crash I hope to the very pit of my soul that the irony of him having a hearse doesn't mean it holds two dead bodies now.
I race to the car but I can't see anything the front is in the building and a cascade of bricks on top of it. I run to the back and break open the door, there's no barrier between where the coffins would be and the seats. I scramble to Clare, I can hardly see her in the near pitch black but when I feel for a pulse she has one, it's thin and weak but it's there and I also feel blood on her arm. She needs help or she's going to die, she doesn't have her purse so I feel around in Eli's pockets and find his cell phone. He groans when I pull it out so I know he's alive too, I press emergency call and wait for the operator.
"911 what's your emergency?"
"There's been a car crash at DeGrassi Street and Dundas a car went into a building and two people are badly hurt. Please you have to help her," I beg.
"Emergency vehicles are on the way are they both breathing?"
"Yes but they're badly hurt and I smell gas, shit I smell gas!" No sooner have I said it than I see a flame in the engine. "It's on fire the car's on fire," I tell the operator in immense panic.
"Okay rescue crews are three minutes out if you can do so stabilize their head and neck and get them out of the car," the operator tells me.
"Okay but I have to put the phone down," I respond and hang up.
I use the phone to light my surroundings so I can see. I find textbooks in the back of the car and a shirt of Eli's that I quickly cut into strips with my knife. Working as rapidly as I can I immobilize Clare's neck and head by setting one of the textbooks behind her head. I use two strips of the cut up shirt and bind one end at her forehead and the other at her shoulders. It's not perfect but it should keep her head and neck from moving too much. The flames are getting closer and bigger, for a moment they become all that I see, for a moment I'm back in my house, trapped by flame and thinking I might die, every scar on my body that came from that fire begins to hurt.
"Mark?" Clare whispers weakly. Her voice, her weak and desperate but angelic voice pulls me from my nightmarish memory and my only thought is once again to save her.
"I'm here your safe," I tell her looking at her door. It's not blocked but it's bent and doesn't want to open. I kick it open and get out making sure not to hurt Clare. I carefully lift her up getting her out of the car and set her down to unlock and open the door. I set Clare on the sidewalk and look back at the car.
I don't like Eli but he is still trapped and if I don't do something he'll get swallowed by flame. I hear the sirens approaching and I run back to the car pulling open Eli's door. I reach back grabbing another textbook and a strip of Eli's shirt but the flames are getting bigger and the car might explode soon. I tie a piece of the shirt around his forehead and the textbook. I don't have time to secure it again. I begin to pull him out of the car and get licked by a flame. I growl at the pain and yank Eli from the car as hard as I can to get him out. When I'm holding him I run back to the sidewalk. The sirens are close now and the flames are beginning to engulf the car.
"Hold on Clare, help is on the way, hang on I will be with you and I will come see you later," I tell her kneeling next to her I move the hair out of her face but now I can see her injuries. A bump on the head, her face, chest and arms severely lacerated by glass, her right eye is swollen and it looks very strange, I want to look at all her injuries and see how bad it is but the sirens are here, emergency vehicles have stopped and I don't want them to catch me here. So I take off running, the closest tunnel is in the park and I run there but I stop before I get to the tunnel taking out the cell phone once again I look through contacts.
"What is it Eli?" Adam asks when he answers the phone.
"It's Fitz. Eli took Clare from the dance and he crashed his car into a building. An ambulance is there but they are both badly hurt. She's…she's so hurt Adam, I don't know how bad it is."
"I'll get Drew, Owen and Bianca we'll leave now. Where are you? Are you okay?"
"I'm going home, I'll try to get to the hospital tonight I have Eli's phone because I used it to call 911. I have to go," I tell him and hang up.
I walk through the tunnels to get home, the pain from the burn is growing and the more painful it becomes the more I remember being trapped in the fire. The searing pain, the fear and the thought that I was going to die it all comes rushing back until it's overwhelming. I stop walking, all I can see is flames, I feel as if I'm breathing smoke and my body is burning. I sink down against the wall struggling to breathe and all I feel is pain.
"Fitz? Fitz what's wrong?" Ren asks.
"Quickly let's get him back to Doc," I hear Nox say and he picks me up because I cannot move.
"Doc we think he's hurt," Ren says as they carry me into Doc's room. Nox sets me down and Doc looks at me.
"Fitz your arm how did you burn it?" Doc asks me and then looks back at Ren. "Help me get the sweatshirt off and be careful of the burn."
"Clare is hurt, Eli crashed his car I think he was trying to kill them both. The car caught on fire," I reply as they take my sweatshirt off. "She called me Mark," I tell Doc with a smile, "It was beautiful."
"Let me look at your arm Fitz you're lucky that most of what was burned was already scar tissue," Doc says.
He treats my arm and wraps it in a fresh bandage, Sophie takes my sweatshirt to be repaired and Doc brings me something to eat. I still have Eli's cell phone but of course there's no signal down here so I can't call Adam to check on Clare. After I eat I fall asleep, I don't mean to, I wanted to go check on Clare, but after all that's happened tonight I'm tired and my body needs rest so I fall asleep. I dream about Clare being hurt and in the hospital near death and wake up after only a couple of hours. My hoodie has been patched and I put it back on, I don't feel the pain of the burn as much now and my only thought is to get to the hospital and see Clare. It's easy to get into the hospital and no one pays too much attention to me since I'm not hurt. I am skulking around the halls a bit but no one seems to notice or they don't think I'm a threat. After looking at the directory and walking down the hall a ways I find Clare's room, it's dark and she's not awake but I knew she wasn't awake because I would have felt her. Clare's not alone in the room because Adam is her but he's the only one; he's asleep in one of the chairs at her bedside. I open the door carefully and go into the room; I sit on the bed and look at Clare my heart sinking slightly at the sight of her.
She's hooked up to three monitors and two or three machines, there are so many wires and tubes she looks as if she were in a mad scientist workshop. Her left arm is on a splint and in a sling, her neck has a brace on it and her right leg is elevated with a cast on it. Her face is covered by bandages and she has a tube in her mouth to breathe for her. In many ways it reminds me of being in the hospital after the fire. I remember waking up in the hospital covered in bandages, hooked up to wires and monitors and an oxygen mask on.
"You saved her life," Adam says and I look over at him as he sits up.
"Is she okay? She's going to live isn't she?"
"The accident was pretty bad but it could have been a lot worse. If she hadn't been pulled from the car she would have burned to death. She had a head injury and her face was cut up from the glass when the windshield shattered, so were her arms and chest. She has some internal injuries too, broken ribs and internal bleeding. She was in surgery for several hours and she needs more surgeries for various injuries but she wasn't stable enough. They put Clare in a medically induced coma so she could heal a little and stabilize so they can do more surgeries. Everyone else will be back tomorrow morning but I knew you'd come and I didn't want to leave her. They're saying Clare and Eli were pulled from the car by an anonymous hero."
"Good let them think that. I should have stayed with her or walked her back to the dance."
"This is not your fault Fitz, Eli kept away from Clare but he's been spying on her all week he probably saw you two together. I think…I think he was trying to kill them both so that Clare could never be with anyone else. He was more dangerous than any of us knew," Adam says with a sad voice and regretful sigh.
I want to hold Clare's hand, I want to hold her but with all the wires and tubes it's impossible. All I can do is sit on the edge of the bed and watch her and that's what I do, sit and watch her all night. Adam falls asleep again but I stay in the room watching Clare until the first rays of dawn begin to peak over the horizon. I can't kiss her but I lean down to whisper in her ear.
"Stay strong Clare you have to stay strong and get better. I'll come back tonight and remember that I am always with you."
I get off her bed carefully, pulling my hood up all the way and leave the hospital. Returning home I fall asleep again as soon as my head hits the pillow.
(CLARE)
"Fitz?" I whisper but my voice cracks, my throat is dry and the whisper is lost. I want to open my eyes but something covers them and they won't open. My heart begins to race as I remember the car wreck, I feel alone and cold and trapped in the dark. I want to scream, I want to move but I can't seem to do either and the harder I try the more frustrated I become and tears begin to pour from my eyes. Little saltwater beads of frustration and anger and fear flowing from my eyes and down my cheeks then getting absorbed with whatever covers my eyes.
"I'm here you're safe," Fitz tells me taking my hand and I instantly calm down.
The very second his hand touches mine my heart rate slows down. I no longer feel cold, alone or trapped in the dark but warm and enveloped with love and light. I release a breath and squeeze his hand as much as I can. I try to move my other hand but I can't, I want Fitz told hold me but when I try to speak the whispers become lost.
"It's okay you'll be okay but you're in the hospital. You were hurt very badly when Eli crashed his car. You shouldn't move you need to heal. Your face is covered in bandages you were cut by the glass but I'm here. I'm here every night, all night with you. You're not alone Clare. Audra is here with you during the day and usually Adam or Drew too."
I relax and sink into the bed a little; I become overwhelmed by exhaustion despite only being awake a few moments. I hold tight to Fitz's hand as I begin to drift to sleep again.
"Rest now I'm here," Fitz assures me and I fall asleep once again.
I have no idea how long I was asleep but when I wake up Fitz is gone. I know he's gone before the voices in the room speak.
"It's alright Clare we're here," Audra says.
"You're alright Clare, your oxygen mask is gone but you probably won't be able to speak right away," Adam tells me taking my hand.
"How…" my voice cracks and I choke on the word but it doesn't get lost. "How long…" it's all I can get out in a strangled voice but Adam understands.
"It's been ten days since the crash, they put you in a medically induced coma for most of it so you could heal, you're badly hurt," Adam says and I start to cry. Some of the tears are for the terrifying memory of the crash, some for how I'm hurt and others for the pure relief that I'm even alive.
"Bianca will come after school I'm sure, she usually does, and Drew and Owen will come after football practice, but we've asked your other friends to wait until you heal some more before they come see you. Your room is filled with flowers from people that want you to get better. I'm not sure I should tell you this just yet but I think it would be good for you to hear it might help. Your father has signed away custody and Omar and I have petitioned to adopt you," Audra tells me and I smile.
"Tired," I whisper overcome with exhaustion yet again.
"Good the more you rest the faster you'll get better," Adam says squeezing my hand.
I smile again but quickly succumb to sleep once more. It's a heavy dreamless sleep but I don't feel any pain.
"Adam?" I whisper as soon as I wake up.
"Right here, Mom went downstairs to get us some lunch and Bianca should be here in a couple of hours."
"Eli?" I ask. I don't want him to be dead but I want to know that something's being done about the fact that he kidnapped me and tried to kill us.
"He's alive," Adam tells me but there's something in his voice, a sort of pain. "He's in worse shape than you. He hit his head pretty hard during the crash and had some swelling in his brain. That's not the worst of it, either during the crash or when Fitz took Eli out of the car it broke Eli's spine," Adam tells me. I gasp biting my lip just slightly as I become saddened at the thought of Fitz having caused such an injury. "If it was Fitz that caused it he saved Eli's life. Only a few of us know it was Fitz but Eli's parents know that the mysterious hero that got both you out of the car kept you from burning alive in the car. Just like you Eli was cut up by the glass, and he also has a broken leg and some broken ribs. He'll live but he's still in a coma and they don't know how functional he'll be when he does wake up."
My breath trembles as more tears come, I feel pain for Eli and yet he brought it on himself. I shed a few tears of pain because I may never know Eli's reasons for taking me that night and trying to kill us, and I might never know why Eli had so much darkness inside of him.
"You should try to rest some more you'll have a lot more visitors this afternoon and they will be really happy to know you're awake," Adam tells me.
I nod as much as I can and try to take a deep breath but then hiss when that causes me pain. Adam presses a button and then I'm no longer in pain and I fall asleep once again. I wake up sometime later to the sound of more voices I'm able to pick out Drew's voice first but I know there are other people in the room.
"Drew," I call for him in a hoarse whisper.
"Right here, so are Adam, Owen and Bianca," Drew says and I feel him take my hand.
"Hey Clare it's good to have you awake finally," Bianca tells me.
"Yeah we've had over a week of listening to Drew griping about how he knew Eli was dangerous, and how Drew thinks he should have been watching you closer," Owen comments and I squeeze Drew's hand.
"How do you feel?" Adam asks.
"Tired, my head feels big, can't see, but nothing hurts," I tell them not a very eloquent sentence but my voice is getting stronger and my voice doesn't crack very much this time.
"That's because they have you hooked to morphine if you're in pain you just have to click the little button by your hand," Bianca informs me.
"I want the bandages off," I complain and stop for a breath, "I can't see."
"They need to stay on for a few more days and you'll need some more surgeries," Adam tells me.
I stay awake for about an hour so as they tell me what's been going on at school although they leave out any mention of Eli. I drift to sleep while Owen and Drew are telling me about the football game a few nights ago. I wake up briefly when Omar comes to see me after work and he tells me the adoption petition has been approved and is being fast tracked so that by the time I'm out of the hospital I will be a Torres. I fall asleep again while they all eat dinner and wake up later that night.
"Fitz," I smile knowing he's in the room.
"I'm here," he replies squeezing my hand.
"You'll stay all night won't you?"
"Until the dawn," he replies.
"I want you to lie with me and hold me."
"I want to hold you too but I can't you're hooked up to too many machines. I brought one of your favorite books I can read to you," he offers and I nod with a smile.
Fitz begins reading to me and after a couple of chapters and his soothing voice I fall asleep again. For the next few days I drift in and out of sleep, when I awaken during the day Audra is here and Adam is usually with her but sometimes Drew and even Bianca once. When the darkness comes and the parents have gone home Fitz comes. He stays all night with me, reading to me and holding my hand. On Friday morning Adam, Audra, Drew and Omar come to see me before I go back into surgery. I've already had four surgeries mostly for internal injuries. Today they have to do surgery on arm and my leg as well as some reconstructive surgeries of my face.
"Mom will be here all day and I'll come after school," Adam tells me.
"Owen, Bianca and I will come as soon as the football game is over," Drew says.
"You don't have to come I'll probably be sleeping," I reply.
"We want to be here and see you after surgery," Drew insists and I smile.
"Alright Clare time for surgery," the nurse says wheeling my gurney down the hall.
I'm taken to the surgery suite and a mask is put on me, they tell me to count backwards and I'm soon asleep because of the anesthesia. When I wake up again it's evening, I know by the sounds and the people in my hospital room. My eyes flutter but they're still covered by bandages. I move my fingers and make a groan then Adam takes my hand.
"We're here, all of us are here you've been out for hours," Adam tells me.
"Everything feels big," I whisper.
"That's because you had three simultaneous surgeries today and your body has been through a lot," Drew says.
"You should rest Honey don't talk too much," Audra says.
"Bandages," I complain trying to reach up and pull off the bandages.
"They have to stay on the doctor says they can come off on Sunday or Monday and that you should be able to go home Monday or Tuesday probably," Adam informs me. I try to nod but my head seems to be immobilized.
"How was the game?" I ask in a drowsy voice.
"Great we won," Drew tells me and I hear him smile, "now you should rest."
I've been asleep most of the day but I'm still quite tired and I drift to sleep while they talk. I wake up a few hours later it's late now the hospital is quieter and there's only one person in my room with me.
"Fitz," I whisper with a smile.
"Right here, how do you feel?" He says squeezing my hand a little.
"Sleepy and big. My head feels big. My arm and leg feel big."
"I'm sure they won't feel big for too long but you've got casts and bandages and medicine. Do you want me to read to you?" Fitz asks.
"Yes please."
Fitz begins reading to me and I visualize everything he says painting a world in my head. As much as I enjoy his reading and even though I slept most of the day unconscious or asleep I become tired after a couple of chapters and fall asleep to his reading. The weekend seems to drag on even though I have lots of visitors; all my regular visitors come to see during the weekend plus Alli, Jenna, Dave, Wes, K.C. and Connor all come to see me. Despite having plenty of company and being awake for most of it the weekend just seemed to take forever, I think because the doctor said I could get my bandages off today which is what I've been waiting for all day. Adam and Audra have been here all day and now everyone is here, well almost everyone. Bianca came after school, Drew and Owen after football practice and Omar after work. The doctor had them all leave the room so he could take my bandages off though.
"Alright Clare I'm going to start taking the bandages off. I've dimmed the lights in the room because your eyes haven't taken in light for a long time and they will be sensitive. The bandages over your eyes will be the last ones off," the doctor tells me and then I feel him begin unrolling the bandages from my face. "Alright Clare the other bandages are off now your eyes," he says and I feel another layer coming off. "Okay Clare last step I'm going to take the pads off your eyes. I want you to keep your eyes closed and when you're ready open then slowly and let them adjust to light around you. Your eyes weren't injured so they should readjust to the light fairly quickly but you had severe lacerations and some fractured bones around your eyes which is why they've been bandaged."
I nod and he takes off the very last layer, I keep my eyes closed and open them slowly. For a second all I see is shadows and then I begin to see my surroundings.
"Things are a little fuzzy but I can see," I inform the doctor.
"Good that's very good, your vision will get sharper but you haven't used your ocular muscles for a while."
"I need a mirror I want to see before everyone comes back in," I request.
The doctor gives me a hand mirror and I hold it up, a breath catches in my throat when I see my face. On the right side of my face the bone of my eye socket was fractured, it's been corrected by surgery but the sutures look awful and the way the bones were reconstructed doesn't look quite right. There's a healing cut from my temple down to my cheekbone. Other smaller cuts are on my forehead but a rather large one over my right eye that cuts through part of my eyebrow and just misses my eyelid cutting down the side of my nose. There's also a large cut along my left cheek just under my eye, my nose was broken in the crash and another cut goes down my left check onto the earlobe. I gasp at the sight I see in the mirror, it looks grotesque; I look like a Halloween mask, something you'd see in a haunted house. I shudder and grip onto the mirror handle. Tears crowd my eyes but I don't cry I hold the tears back.
"You can send everyone in but can you dim the lights a little more please?" I request with a trembling voice.
"I know it looks bad Clare but after you heal a little more you can have more surgeries to minimize the scarring. We still need further reconstruction of the zygomatic bone so that your eye socket is straighter. What you see in the mirror is only temporary it will heal like your other injuries," the doctor assures me and I nod. "I'll let your family and friends in now," he says and walks toward the door. Before he opens the door to tell everyone they can come in he dims the lights in the rooms quite a bit more. I lean back on the bed and wish I could cover my face in bandages again as everyone comes back in my room.
"Yiii," Drew gasps when he sees me and Bianca hits his stomach.
"It's not that bad," Adam tries to assure me.
"You're lucky to be alive Clare and the cuts will heal, you'll have one or two more reconstructive surgeries. In a couple of months you won't even be able to tell," Audra says in a reassuring tone.
"Yeah it's not that bad really," Owen agrees.
Everyone stays for about an hour before Audra tells them that I need to rest and they need to make the house ready for me to come home tomorrow. They all leave and I sink back into my bed, now the tears come breaking free and flooding my eyes. I cry for a long time and no one says anything to me. The nurse comes in once to check my vitals and turn out my lights but she says nothing.
"Why do you cry?" Fitz's voice asks in the darkness and my eyes open.
"Don't you see how hideous I am? How I'm so cut up and scarred, my bones haven been broken and misshapen. I wanted my bandages off and now I wish to cover my face with them again."
"What do you always tell me?" Fitz asks sitting on my bed and taking my hand. "You always tell me that the scarring on my face and the burns don't matter."
"Yet you always stay hidden under your hood even when we're alone sometimes," I remind him.
"I won't hide around you any longer," he says taking down his hood. "Am I hideous?" Fitz asks and I shake my head. "And neither are you. You're still beautiful Clare, gorgeous to me and your cuts will heal you won't look this way for long," he assuages me and I nod although I still shed a few tears.
"Hold me, please. Most of the tubes and wires are gone I'm just hooked to one IV and the heart monitor now," I plead with him. I've wanted to be in his arms for days but right now I want him to hold me so badly, more than that I need him to hold me.
"All night, I'll hold you all night long," he says. He releases my hand and goes around to the other side of the bed. He carefully gets under the covers and lies on his side with his arm around me.
"Promise me something," I request after a few silent moments.
"Anything Clare," he replies.
"Promise me that when I'm healed, when I no longer need to walk with a crutch and no longer have a cast on my arm that you'll take me to your home. I want to spend the night with you in your bed. Blindfold me if you have to, sneak me in but I want to stay the night in your arms and in your bed."
"I promise Clare; as soon as you're healed I promise that I will bring you to my home, I will show you my home and you will stay the night in my arms and my bed."
The update on Saturday the 19th will either pick up from Clare going home or Clare returning to school.
Tomorrow night there may or may not be a chapter of My Boys, My Girls, My Lovers Four. Tomorrow we move into our new office which means unpacking the boxes and getting everything set up again. On top of all of that I have quite the list of things to get done. I will try to get out at least a short chapter but it might not be possible. Keep an eye on my page of the DeGrassi Saviors website where the daily clue goes. Check it a few times throughout the day for updates as to whether or not there will be a chapter.