A/N: I just wanted to thank you all for the reviews and reading this. After 5 stories I have FINALLY figured out how to reply, so expect some of that now. Anyway, I don't think there is really anything you need to know for this chapter. I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.
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Chapter 3: Waiting
Ryan woke up with a jolt. Everything was all hazy and blurry, and for a moment, he thought it was all a bad dream. That is until he tried to move his arm and felt the pull of tape.
An IV.
It was then he realized it hadn't been a dream. It had been in fact all too real. So that meant...
Taylor
He didn't take the time to realize where he was, although he knew it was obviously the hospital. He swung his arm around so he could get out of bed and was answered back with a sharp pain centered at the side of his back. Now irritated and fairly groggy, he reached to pull the IV out. Before he could, a hand wrapped tightly around his wrist.
"Hey, man. Ryan. Take it easy."
"Seth, let me go." To him, his voice sounded so far away, like it wasn't even his own.
Seth held on a little tighter as Ryan tried to push him off. "Ryan, just stop. OK? Stop." It took all he had to hold Ryan's normally stronger hand down. "Come on. If you keep this up, they'll come in and sedate you again."
The sound of the word "again" made him finally stop and really concentrate on his brother. "What do you mean 'again'? How many times have I been out?"
"Well, you know, it's complicated. Depending on whether you mean naturally out or helped with drugs out--" Seth stammered.
"Seth--"
"Three times. But man, you just wouldn't lay still and they were worried you were gonna split something open or worse – they had to keep you sedated."
Stunned, Ryan laid his head back against the pillow and really focused on where he was. He was in a single room. Not an ER room. Bright sunlight was streaming from the window and seeing as it had been dark when the earthquake hit, he reasoned that he had been out for some time.
"Three times?" He repeated.
"Yeah," Seth released his hands, fairly satisfied that Ryan wasn't going to flee. He paced back to the chair which he had called home for the last 12 hours. "The first time you passed out on your own while you walked into the hospital. Freaked Summer out. It was kinda cool. She started shrieking and yelling that you were dead--"
"Summer?"
"See, she was holding you up, helping you walk, and when you collapsed she started--" Ryan shot him a look that Seth took to mean either "I'm going to kill you if you don't hurry up with this." OR "I'm going to kill you if you don't hurry up with this." "Yeah, OK" Seth went on. "So Summer was helping you in, and I had Taylor."
The sound of that name, Taylor, caused him to sit up quickly again. Seth, for once, was quicker than his injured friend and ran up to hold him back again. "Whoa, buddy. Again I say, calm down or they will be back with the magic juice and make you go bye-bye for the 4th time."
Ryan didn't have the time or patience to speak Seth at that moment, so he just cut to the chase. "Help me get to Taylor."
"I can't."
"Please." Ryan's plea caused Seth to flinch. He hated seeing his normally emotionally reserved friend begging. It wasn't the way of the universe.
Seth let go of Ryan's hand, and instead patted him on the shoulder. "Taylor is fine, Ryan, OK. But you're not. That 'tiny little stake'," he used air quotes, "nearly killed you, and believe it or not, you can die."
Ryan rubbed his hands on his face with frustration. "I have to see her, Seth."
"I know. But you have to take it easy. You haven't had it so easy, man. Oh, and for the record, we are officially brothers now. Blood brothers."
Blood brothers instantly made Ryan look at his dark headed counterpart and raise an eyebrow. "You gave me blood?"
"That I did."
"You hate needles."
"That I do. So that's why I'm asking you this one tiny favor... Ryan, know that I love you, you are very important to me, kinda like a good well-fitting shoe or a mole you get very attached too, but please, for the love of God, please don't get out of bed, rupture your stitches, start bleeding again, and waste the blood I have shed for you."
Ryan thought for a moment. "That's very Biblical."
"Don't tell Dad." Seth shrugged, an amused smile beginning to form on his lips.
Finally, Ryan relented and laid back on the bed, making Seth sigh in victory. Seth looked at Ryan. Ryan looked at Seth. After a beat, Ryan finally raised his eyebrow and said, "Taylor?" Reminding Seth that he hadn't told him squat about her.
"She's fine, like I said. A few bumps and bruises. Lost a lot of blood, but Cruella de Townsend showed up and donated so she's stable now."
"Veronica is here?"
"Yeah, imagine waking up to that."
"I'd rather not." Ryan gave a small chuckle; he was beginning to feel a little better about everything. Taylor was fine, according to Seth, so that's what mattered. "So, when did she wake up?"
"Who?" Seth answered in his 'I really don't want to answer that' voice.
"Mother Teresa. Who do you think?"
"Taylor? Well, she's not exactly awake yet."
Ryan's brow furrowed meaning an angry What the Hell? You have just been lying to me this entire time!
Seth held up his hands in protest. "Now, Ryan. I haven't been lying." he answered as if he could read Ryan's thoughts... and by now, he probably could. "She is stable. She is fine. She's just not awake."
When Ryan tried to rise up for the third time, Seth just raised his finger. "Do I have to call the nurse?"
"Taylor needs me. You said it yourself. She will be scarred forever waking up to Veronica Townsend."
"Your family needs you too." a very familiar female voice interrupted from the doorway. Both boys turned to see Kirsten and Sandy standing there.
Seth forgot about his drama with Ryan and focused on his mother. He knew she had been hurt in the quake, and he had been told a few hours earlier that the baby probably wouldn't make it. He wasn't exactly sure how to address his parents, as was his normal issue with speaking, but this was important and he didn't want to upset his mother any more than she might already be.
"Mom, how is-- how are you?"
Instinctively, she raised her hands to her stomach and began caressing the small bump that had seemed to shoot up over night. "Everything's fine Seth. The baby made it."
As Seth smiled brightly, very happy with the way the night had turned out, sans the needle.
It was Ryan's turn to speak. "Was there a doubt? Was the baby in trouble?"
"There was some cramping, some blood, but she's OK." Kirsten smiled at Sandy.
Seth caught that little slip of the lip. "She."
Sandy placed his arms around his wife. "That's right. Sorry boys, but you're getting a sister."
"Cool." Seth answered.
"Yeah, you guys. That's really great. Congratulations." Ryan said. He was happy for Kirsten and Sandy and Seth, and himself too for getting a little sister, but he really needed to see Taylor. He had lain in that bed long enough. "Well," he said before getting up quickly before Seth could catch him. When his feet his feet hit the floor and the room began to look more like a merry-go-round spinning than a hospital, he thought maybe he had made a bad mistake. "Whoa, whoa." Sandy called, running to catch him before he fell back down, possibly busting his stitches. He gently sat Ryan back on the side of the bed.
Once he had himself balanced, he held his hands up to shrew off the throws of concerned family members. "Hang on, OK. Just back off. Please. I'm not 12."
"No." Kirsten replied calmly, sitting herself next to him. "No, you're not 12, but you are still my child, and I almost lost one of you today." She rubbed her pregnant belly. "And I almost lost you." She gently reached up and rubbed the stray hairs off of his forehead. "I'm not going though that again."
"Kirsten, I appreciate it. But it was just a scratch."
"Which required a blood transfusion." She corrected.
He knew he wasn't going to win any argument with Kirsten Cohen, much less a pregnant Kirsten Cohen. He dropped his head. "I have to see her, Kirsten."
She smiled. "Of course you do. But you have to do this the right way. You are hurt too you know. Seth, go get the doctor please."
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Truth be told, the wheelchair probably hurt his back more than just walking. The chair rode bumpy and rubbed viciously at the spot where the gauze was stuck down. Seth had told him that he had twenty-four stitches, and the doctor who came in before they allowed him to leave his bed told him that he was very lucky to be alive. But Ryan didn't care what Seth, Dr. Whats-his-name, Kirsten, Sandy or anybody said. He simply nodded when appropriate and didn't argue with all of the insane guidelines they gave him. He just wanted to hurry up and get to Taylor.
Kirsten, Seth, and even a very nice nurse named Tibby offered to push him to Taylor's room, but he declined. It was something he wanted to do himself. Thankfully, the doctor agreed but only with the stipulation that he had to call someone immediately if he began hurting in any way and that he had a forty-five minute limit. Again, Ryan nodded and didn't fight. He would see later if they could drag him out if he didn't want to go.
Veronica Townsend was the first person he saw when he wheeled himself around the corner leading to Taylor's room. She looked no worse for wear. You couldn't even tell she had been through an earthquake and her daughter had nearly died. She was leaning on the wall next to Taylor's door, her arms crossed, her eyes shut. She didn't see him at first so he got to take a good look at her. She looked very 'presentable'. Her hair and make-up all in place. She wore dark denim jeans, a pink long-sleeved undershirt with a wine colored vest. Even though Ryan thought of her as a heartless whore, he could see she was, at least on the outside, fairly attractive. But the inside was a totally different story. Taylor had told him stories that made his skin crawl, and that wasn't an easy feat seeing as his own mother had once been a lousy alcoholic.
The look Veronica gave Ryan when she finally noticed him rolling up to her in the hallway would freeze a demon in Hell. "Ryan." she acknowledged him coolly, he was sure it was for the benefit of the onlookers at the nurses station across the hall from where she stood. Her icy glare faded into a polite smile, again, he knew for the benefit of anyone eavesdropping.
He decided to cut the bull and get on with it. "Ms. Townsend. How is she?"
"She just woke up. The doctor is in there with her now."
The tightness surrounding Ryan's heart seemed to ease some when he heard she was awake. She couldn't be that bad if she was awake. "I need to see her."
Veronica looked around to make sure no one was looking then slithered off of the wall and bend down in front of him. "Ryan. I know you think you care about my daughter and thank you for saving her and getting her here. But I'm here now. You aren't wanted, and you aren't needed. You should just go back to your room and focus on getting yourself better. We don't need you."
"No, leaving Taylor when she needs help is your MO, not mine. You can't keep me from her."
"The Hell I can't." She smirked wickedly. "Whether you like it or not, I'm her mother. You are what? Her latest obsession? Her current boy toy? You have no rights here."
They continued fighting like that, their voices getting louder and louder, until finally Taylor's door opened and a doctor, maybe in his early 40s with salt and pepper hair and gold wire-framed glasses, stepped out. "Excuse me." he said to the bickering duo, who, in turn, never looked at him. Just kept at it. He cleared his throat. "Excuse me!" Veronica finally faced him, turning on her signature charm, and Ryan rolled closer.
"Is she OK? Can I see her?" Ryan asked quickly before Veronica could cut him off.
"Actually, I just came out here to tell you both that your arguing was upsetting her and to please tone it down... or knock it off completely. Your choice." Anyone around could tell that the doctor was annoyed.
Veronica cut her eyes to the wheelchair bounded teenager. "It's his fault."
"With all due respect, Ma'am, it is both of your faults. Now, cool it so I can finish my examination." He turned to go back in when Ryan caught him. "Can you -- please-- tell her that I'm out here? That Ryan's here."
The doctor turned and pushed his glasses back up his nose. "And, Ryan, how are you related to Taylor."
"He's not." her mother cut in bitterly.
"I'm her-- we're dating. I was with her when she got hurt. Just tell her, please."
The doctor nodded. "I will let her know. Now you two please wait out here and be.nice." he made sure to emphasize the last two words. "I'll let you know when you can come in and see her."
Veronica hurried passed Ryan and grabbed the doctor by the arm. "That boy is not allowed to see my daughter."
The doctor politely took his arm back. "Taylor is over eighteen, and may see whomever she wishes." with that the doctor disappeared back into her room.
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"Thank you." she said in a very deflated tone when the doctor returned to her room.
"No problem." he smiled sweetly. "You don't have to see anyone until you feel ready."
"Right now, I don't know if I'll ever be ready." she laughed bitterly. "So. Who was out there?"
"Your mom and a boy. Says his name is Ryan."
"Ryan." she repeated, rubbing her fingers across the creases in the bed sheets.
The doctor looked at her with kind eyes and patted her arm. "Ring any bells, Ms. Townsend?"
She looked up at him, her eyes glistening with undropped tears. "No none. I can't seem to remember anything."