Crash Epilogue
A/N: I put spaces in the first few lines so you aren't tempted to take peeks at the story while you read the title. Believe me, you'll want all of your attention devoted to that when you get down there. Catch up with you at the end. Enjoy!
-Yours truly, Randy Taylor
"A Dream So Real"
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Jill's POV
'Oh my God, Tim! He just moved. Randy just moved!' I shout when I see Randy's previously motionless hand twitch.
'Are you sure weren't just seeing things Jill?' Tim asks.
'Yes, I'm positive' I say.
After I speak again, I can see Randy's eyelids twitching. Tim comes running over to stand on the other side of Randy's bed, as well as Mark and Brad.
Then, the movement that I've been waiting for throughout the past three weeks. For the first time since Randy was in the wreck, he opens his eyes.
Randy's POV
What's going on? What does mom mean I moved? Why wouldn't I be moving? I mean, that surgery was a success.
I try to open my eyes, but am unable to on the first attempt. On the second try, I'm successful.
I open my eyes and without moving my head (which would require much more energy than what I currently have), take in my current surroundings. It looks like I'm in a hospital. I can see mom standing over me, then eventually dad, Brad, and Mark.
Then it hits me. It was a dream. Maybe not in the traditional sense, but everything I imagined, being engaged to Lauren, the surgery, the morgue, my dream about my grandfathers, the airport being bombed, Lauren's plane being hijacked, all of it is just a figment of my imagination. But it seemed so real. It seemed so believable.
That would mean that...That would mean that I'm still recovering from the wreck. How long have I been out of it?
In the process of thinking, my eyes have closed again. I lie there for a few moments, just trying to muster up enough strength to open my eyes, one last time. Enough strength to open them up and get one, final look at the four most important people to me in the whole world.
I open my eyes for what I know is the final time. Don't ask me how, I just know.
I see mom peering over me, dad is standing right next to her. On the other side, Brad, Mark, and Lauren hold each other up.
'I...love you...all' I manage to whisper somehow. Mom burst into tears, and practically falls into dad's arms. One lone tear slips out of my eye and runs down my cheek before I close my eyes.
Suddenly, I realize that I'm being lifted up, though not physically. I can faintly hear two things. One is the shrill continuous beep of some sort of hospital machine. The other, a song that sounds so familiar, but so fresh and new at the same time.
It's kind of funny actually. Once I'm done being "lifted", I swear I can see Wilson saying "welcome home". Then I hear that song start up again.
Come in from the cold for a while
Everything will be alright
Then we'll all leave for the time
It's all just a wave goodbye
Go in from the noise for a while
Rest your weary head my good friend
No need to worry yourself a while
The world will do without you for a night
Lay down now
A dream take it home
A dream that'll take you home
A dream that'll take you on home
It's been a little while now
Oh for now, its goodbye
For now goodbye
Y'all stay alright
Till we meet again, goodbye
Y'all goodnight
See, love its your night
Oh its a pleasure for us tonight
For now, goodbye
Goodbye
A/N: Just to sum everything in this chapter up, basically everything that happened from chapter 2 (by my count, chapter 3 by Fanfiction's count) on was this dream Randy was having in Detroit Memorial's ICU.
Next I want to get the thank yous out of the way. I'm sorry if I leave anyone off the list, but I'm just doing this off the top of my head. Anyways, here goes:
Thank you to Lee Sinins for helping me out several times during this story and giving me several excellent ideas.
I need to give credit to Dave Matthews Band for pretty much this entire story. I've used one of their song names as titles for all of the chapters, and named the story after one of their albums. I also have to give them credit for the little "poem" at the end of this chapter. I actually combined the lyrics from a couple of their songs, then added a few touches of my own to get that.
As always, I need to thank two of my biggest supporters and helpers, and definitely my two most loyal readers, Baxxie and Colin Creevey. I seriously couldn't write without these two.
Lastly, I want to thank everyone who read and reviewed.
Now I want to explain a little bit about this chapter.
I hope that at least one person out there felt a little sad, if not a major rush of emotions reading this chapter. I felt like I was losing a family member when I wrote the part where Randy dies. I was on the verge of an emotional meltdown when I was putting together that poem at the end.
I have to be honest. I have no idea how the story plays out as I'm writing this. I like that. I like to surprise myself. Right now, I'm working on the chapter after Randy has his surgery done to correct his spinal cord, and I got stuck, so I decided to just write this while I had the idea floating around in my head.
I hope everyone enjoyed this story as much I'm sure I will. I need to try to make the next epilogue not so sad sounding. Yet again, I have the same bittersweet feeling as I did when I finished Meet Me in St. Louie.
-Yours truly, Randy Taylor on August 30, 2008
A/N: Wow. A lot sure has changed since I wrote that last author's note.
In all honesty, I never intended for Crash to end this way, or this quickly. I thought that I'd have another three or four chapters in between the last chapter and the epilogue, but unfortunately, when I sat down to write, I discovered that I had a grand total of zero ideas. I suppose I could sit around another two or three months and hope that one day, something just magically falls out of the sky and pops in my head, but then I'd wind up trying to finish this thing in June or July. I suppose that waiting for ideas is a good modus operandi for writing of any type, but it obviously has failed me here.
Look forward to more stories in time. (I'm going to post the next one May 25, but it probably won't get any new chapters for a couple of weeks, or at least until I finish Burned Bridges).
Thanks once again to everybody I mentioned before.
And, lastly, I'd just like to dedicate this entire story to my grandma, who passed away only a couple weeks after I started writing this story. Today would've been her 88th birthday, which is why I chose to end this one today.
-For the final time here, yours truly, Randy Taylor on May 18, 2009