Author's note: I know last chapter was short so I hope this one will be better for you. Five pages, longest chapter I've even written:)
Chapter Nine
Never Letting Go
Caroline sighed again as she slumped in her seat, the blindfold over her eyes was driving her crazy and her stomach was beginning to do flip flops, like it did when she was on water. Why she had no idea. She turned in the general direction she thought Ally was, "Ally where are we going?"
Ally laughed, "I told you Caroline-,"
"I know, I know, it's a surprise, but are we almost there? This blindfold is starting to make me sick," Caroline said with a grimace.
Ally bit her lip, trying not to laugh, "As a matter of fact, we are."
Right after she said that Caroline jolted a little in her seat, she caught herself as she fell forward. "What in the world was that?"
"That was just us getting to where we are going, now come on," Ally said taking Caroline's arm and leading her. They walked about two minutes before Ally stopped making Caroline trip on her own feet, "Well, I can see you get your balance from your brother."
Caroline smiled through the blind fold, she had to admit that Ally was right; she did have Tyler's lack of balance. "Can I take this off now?" she asked pointing to the blindfold.
"Alright, hold still, I'll take it off for you," Ally said laughing as she reached up behind Caroline's head and untied the blue and black striped bandanna.
Once it was off, Caroline slowly opened her eyes and sucked in a breath at what she saw. In front of her was the entrance to the Statue of Liberty. Tyler had promised her that they would come here for her birthday, the day she came home with half her hair chopped off, two days before he was killed. She turned to Ally, "How-how did you know?"
Ally smiled, "Tyler told me about his promise the night before-. Well, since he couldn't make good on his promise, I thought I would-is that okay?"
Caroline didn't know what to say, she just simply nodded but then added, "I thought that after-what happened-," she paused and sighed, "I thought they were closing off the statue to the public."
Ally laughed, "Caroline-have you met my father?"
Caroline smiled and looked around, they were alone, it was just them and the statue on the small island, "So-it's all ours, all to ourselves all day long?"
"Yes, as long as you want," Ally said with a smile as she watched Caroline make a B-line for the door.
Caroline sighed as she looked out across the water from the crown of the statue; it was one of her favorite places in the whole world. Besides the Alice in Wonderland statue in the park. After Michael died these were the two places that Tyler had taken her, the Statue of Liberty was at least a once a year stop for them. The Wonderland statue he had tried to do on a daily basis. They were their places, their spots, the two places that they had called their own.
"Penny for your thoughts," Ally said pulling her hair out of her face as the wind picked up.
"This was one of our spots," Caroline said pulling the sweatshirt up around her neck, her now short hair not enough to keep it warm, "Tyler tried to take me here as often as he could, once a year for sure, on one of our birthdays."
Ally looked surprised, "He didn't tell me that, I thought he was just going to bring you here to try to cheer you up."
Caroline nodded, "That too, he knew how much I loved it up here. But I have to admit I've never been able to hear the wind up here, it's always be drowned out by people talking," she turned to Ally, even though her eyes were full of tears she was smiling, "Thank you Ally, thank you for giving me this part of Tyler back."
Ally smiled a few tears of her own falling down her cheeks, "I'm glad I could Caroline."
Caroline turned back to the open crown and looked out on the water again, "You know, without all the people and noise, it's quite peaceful up here. I could get used to it."
Ally nodded, "Me too."
"The first time we came here, it was about a week after Michael died, I was five, Tyler was almost sixteen. It was my first time to the statue; Tyler had surprised me with it. He carried me piggy back up all those stairs just so I could see the sunset, we really weren't suppose to be up here after dark but Tyler didn't care, he wanted me to see the sunset. I did, we almost got locked in the statue for the night but I saw the sunset, it was amazing." Caroline said not taking her eyes off the water as she spoke, "Have you seen the sunset from here Ally?"
Ally nodded, "Yeah, when I was ten with my mom that was one of the few times I've been up here."
Caroline smiled, "Good, Tyler always told me, you haven't lived until you've seen the sunset from the Statue of Liberty."
Ally smiled and then looked at her watch and her eyes widened, "Wow, Care, we've been up here for four hours."
Caroline's eyes widened too, "Really?" she looked at her watched too and saw that it was nearly four in the afternoon, "Wow, I guess we better start heading back, my mom wanted me home for dinner."
Ally nodded, "It will take us a while to go down the stairs, but we should be fine."
Caroline nodded, "Okay, but I have to do one more thing,"
Sighing Caroline pulled out the tie from the hood of her brother's sweatshirt and hooked it to several of the many hooks on the crown tying it down as best she could then she pulled out some drawing paper that she always carried with her and wrote something on it. Then she gently pulled the holes of the paper through the hood tie so that it was lying against the crown. Ally glanced at what the twelve year old had written and couldn't help but smile. The paper read:
Tyler Jacob Hawkins,
July 22nd 1979-September 11th 2001.
World's best brother was here,
He Will Be Remembered, Now and Forever
Standing up Caroline sighed and took one last look out towards the water and whispered, "I'll still come here Tyler, always."
It took them a grand total of fifteen minutes to make it down the stairs which impressed even them. The boat was still there, waiting for them. Just as they reached it Caroline turned to Ally.
"Ally, thank you, for today, for everything, you didn't have to do it," Caroline said, she was smiling but the faint tear marks on her face told Ally that the day had not made her forget everything but at least so she was smiling, that had to say something.
"I had fun Caroline, I'm glad we could do it," Ally said smiling.
"Me too, I'm glad you surprised me, it made me feel-well happy for the first time in a long time when you took that blindfold off," Caroline admitted with a small smile.
"You see was that so hard to admit?" Ally said with a small laugh as she led the way onto the boat.
"Can we still stop at Ground Zero on the way home?" Caroline asked, as much as that place reminded her of her loss, she always felt closer to Tyler when she was there, even though she couldn't get anywhere near the building site since the air was still bad around it.
"Sure," Ally said as they sat down and she took her phone out of her purse, "Oh, wow, I have a few messages." She played the messages one by one, the first one was from her dad telling her to be safe at the statue, the second was her dad again telling her to be safe in general, the third was her dad yet again just "checking in" as it were. She was about to erase the rest of the messages when the next message clicked on. She sucked in her breath as she put her hand on Caroline's shoulder as she listened to the message, her grip on the young girl got stronger when she heard the next message, and the next.
"Ally what is it, what's wrong?" Caroline asked, wincing a little when the grip became even stronger.
Ally didn't answer her; instead she jumped up and ran up to the man who was driving the boat, "We need to get off somewhere else, how close can you get us to Saint Mark's hospital?"
"That's pretty close to a port, I can get you as close as five blocks," the man said with a small nod.
Ally nodded, "That would be great, thank you." she walked back to Caroline who looked really confused, "I thought we were going to go to Ground Zero."
"That was your mom who left a message for me, she said we need to get to Saint Mark's hospital as fast as possible," Ally said sitting down once again.
Caroline was just as confused as she was a moment before, "Why?"
"She didn't say, just that we needed to get there, and fast," Ally said, she was worried, what if it was Caroline's dad, she couldn't take loosing someone else, she just couldn't.
It was four forty five by the time they reached the hospital. Ally gripped Caroline's hand in her own as they matched up to the information desk in the front of the room.
"Excuse me?" Ally said as she stood in front of the desk, the older woman behind looked up from the paper she was reading, "Can I help you young ladies?"
"I hope so, I got a call from Diane Harper she told me to get here as soon as possible," Ally said, she had no idea where to go, or what was going on so she hoped there was a way this lady could help them.
"Is she a patient miss?" the lady asked eying both Ally and Caroline almost at once.
"You see I don't know for sure, I don't think so," Ally said, she was silently crossing her fingers behind her back.
"I'll page her for you," the lady said and she picked up the phone and sent out the page that was most likely heard throughout the whole hospital. It was only a matter of minutes before Diane turned the corner to see them.
"Mom!" Caroline yelled and ran to her and hugged her, "Mom what's going on, is dad okay?"
"Shh, Caroline sweetie, it's okay, yes your dad is fine," Diane said pulling her daughter away from her.
"Well then, I don't get it, why are we here if everyone is fine?" Caroline asked wiping away some of the tears that had automatically fallen.
Instead of answering Diane motioned for Ally to follow them and took Caroline's hand and led her to the elevators. They got off on the third floor, Caroline looked at the section of the hospital they were in as they passed the map. They were in the ICU. Caroline looked behind her, Ally was a good foot behind them, she smiled trying to reassure her but even she had no idea what they were about to see.
When they reached a door Diane stopped and looked to Caroline, "Sweetie, I think you should go in first, we'll give you a few minutes and then come in alright."
"But-," Caroline said not sure if she wanted to go in alone.
"It's okay, your dad is in there, go ahead sweetie," Diane said with a smile. She was smiling, this was a good sign.
Sighing Caroline looked to Ally who shrugged and then nodded. She turned back to the door and opened it. When she first walked in all she saw was her dad sitting in a chair beside the bed, he looked up and smiled when he saw her, but instead of saying anything he reached over and gently shook whoever was in the bed. Charles motioned to her to come over and as she did she was not prepared for what she saw.
"Are you just going to stare at me or do I get a hug?" Tyler asked with a weak smile.
Caroline didn't say anything; she couldn't, for a second it looked like she wasn't going to move, like she was rooted to the spot. She looked at him, he was beaten up that was for sure his leg was broken, his arm was in plaster and it even looked like his cheek bone might be broken, but he was alive! It was only a matter of seconds until she dove for Tyler's open arms, tears streaming down her face.
"You're alive, you're alive!" she whispered into his chest.
Tyler winced as Caroline's grip pulled at some of his stitches, but he didn't care he held her as best he could with his good arm, "I'm here Caroline, I'm right here," he whispered into her hair.
"I'm never letting you go again," Caroline said tears still flowing freely down her cheeks, "Never, never again."
Tyler gave into a small laugh, trying to avoid a coughing fit, "That would be fine by me Caroline," he gripped her even harder and added in a whisper, "By the way kiddo, happy birthday."
Caroline smiled not lifting her head, "It is now, best birthday present in the whole world," she said as she stayed lying on her brother's chest, listening to the ever present heartbeat, the thing that told her that her birthday wish really had come true.