Chapter 23: At Death's Door
******Saturday*******
After dropping Mac off at her house, Dick was at loose ends. He didn't want to go by his fraternity house and deal with Chip or his constant pressure to run for fraternity president. Nor did he want to go home and get in the middle of Veronica and Trina's drama. Dick decided to go by his dad's after grabbing some Chinese take-out. He figured it was close enough to noon to have some lunch. He had left his house without breakfast and never got to eat a bite at the Sinclair's.
Thinking about the Sinclairs still pissed him off. He didn't understand how they couldn't see how perfect Mac was, how lucky they were to have her in their lives. Madison was toxic. He knew that better than anyone. If it hadn't been for both set of parents' idiocy in refusing to switch the daughter's back, he would've grown up knowing Mac. She would've been a part of his and Cassidy's life. Who knows how his brother may have turned out if he'd met Mac earlier? It may have been Cassidy she would've loved and not Dick. If that would've saved his brother, saved all those people he killed, then Dick would've gladly given up Mac's love. Just being a part of her world his whole life and being spared Madison Sinclair as his first may have been enough. Or maybe Mac would've been like a big sister to Cassidy, and Dick would've been her first. Sometimes that thought tormented him.
When Dick spent time thinking about what could've been, it depressed him. But it also made him think of his brother and miss him. Going home was the closest he was going to get to his brother, so he carried the boxes of take-out into the house, looking for his dad. He found his dad in his study.
"Well, this is a nice surprise," Dick Sr. said, closing the file he was working on when his son came in. "What brings you by?"
"Mac and I went to a crappy brunch at the Sinclairs. It didn't go well, and I didn't eat. Mac was bummed and wanted to go home, so I thought I'd come by and see what you were up to," Dick said. He held up his bag of take-out. "Hungry? I bought Chinese."
His dad smiled. "Sure. Let's take it to the kitchen," he said. They went to the kitchen and dug into the boxes.
"So things are good with you and Mac?" his dad asked.
"Really good. We're going to go out later tonight. She didn't want her bad mood to drag me down," Dick said. "She's awesome like that. Always thinking of others."
"A fine quality to have in a woman," he said. Or a future mother of his grandkids. Now that Dick Sr. had begun to see the benefits of his son's alliance with the Mackenzie girl, who was really a Sinclair, he was anxious to see the relationship succeed.
"Things at the beach house have been a little tense. Veronica lost the baby, and she and Trina are having some issues," Dick shared.
"A miscarriage? I'm sorry to hear that," his dad said with sympathy. "Is the wedding still on?"
"They weren't engaged because of the baby, Dad," Dick said in annoyance. "They love each other. Logan's been nuts about her since our junior year of high school."
"Don't get mad! It was a reasonable question," he said. "Sometimes,
tragedies drive couples apart."
"Not them!" Dick said loyally.
"Well, you know you can always stay here anytime things get too tense," his dad offered.
"Yeah, I know," Dick replied.
"In fact, I really wish you'd give serious thought to moving back home," his dad said.
"Dad, we've talked about that," Dick said warily.
"Things are different now. I'm traveling more, and I will be traveling even more next year. So I'll be gone weeks at a time. You'd have the place to yourself a lot of the time," his dad said. "Not to mention after Logan gets married, he and Veronica will need some privacy."
Dick realized his dad had a point. It was getting a bit crowded at the beach house. It might not be such a bad thing. "I'll think about it," Dick said.
"You could get Mac to move in with you. That's the logical next step in your relationship," he said.
"Maybe so, but Mac's not ready. We're happy with the way things are now," Dick said.
"Well, maybe by next fall she'll be ready," his dad said. "Or you could get one of your fraternity brothers to move in if you don't want to be in this big house by yourself. It can get kind of lonely."
Dick looked surprised as his dad's rare confession. "It's time for you to get back out there, Dad. Find yourself another cougar or desperate housewife," Dick teased, lightening the mood.
His dad laughed. "I think I wasted enough time and money on women. Now I don't have enough to waste. Time to make some more!" he said.
The two men chatted amiably until there was very little food left. Dick was happy that they could talk like this without the anger or bitterness crowding in. Dick knew his father had not been good at all to Cassidy. More than anyone, Dick Sr. was responsible for how Cassidy turned out. Then again, he could blame their mother for not noticing what was going on at that cursed bat camp or whatever his brother was doing with the Sharks. Or blame her for basically abandoning them to their father. There was too much blame and guilt to go around. Dick had finally decided that if he was going to forgive himself for Cassidy, he'd have to forgive his dad, too. He found that letting go of his resentment made the memories of his brother less painful. He could remember the good times. After lunch, he spent a few hours there remembering. It was bittersweet.
******Eli******
Eli had spent a miserable two days. He had a terrible hangover Friday from his bender the night before and spent the evening doing a surveillance job, which gave him a lot of time to brood. He got to thinking about what Dick suggested. Maybe Jazmin had been drunk or roofied. Unfortunately, that kind of thing happened too much these days. Thinking about it and picturing different scenarios was making him nuts.
Saturday afternoon, he went into work after running down something for Nico. Nico had noticed Eli's sour mood and finally asked, "What's going on with you? You've been like a bear with a sore tooth the past two days."
"Jazmin and I are over," Eli said flatly.
Nico looked surprised at his announcement. "What? Why?" he asked.
"She cheated on me," Eli shared.
"Bullshit!" Nico said angrily.
"She told me so herself," Eli said, a bit defensively. "She spread her legs for another guy."
Nico got up from behind his desk. "I like you Eli, but if you say something else like that again about my Jazzie-Belle, I'm going to knock your teeth out!" he said angrily.
"Why are you mad at me? You think I like this? You think I like knowing the woman I love is a cheat?" Eli asked.
Nico stepped forward and grabbed Eli by his jacket. "Call her a cheat again, and I will rearrange your face! I mean it! I don't care what she said, she doesn't have it in her to cheat, and if you don't know that, you're a damn fool who doesn't deserve her!" He glared down at Eli and released him with a shove.
"So what am I supposed to think?" Eli asked sourly.
"Start thinking like a detective, Sherlock! Think! Something's not right," Nico said with certainty. "I've known this little girl her entire life. It didn't matter that her father and his friends were criminals or that her first boyfriend was a bad seed. She stayed who she was. She is loyal and kind and honest. This woman is nuts about you. There is no way she would be with another man—at least not willingly."
His words slammed through Eli like a sledgehammer. What if someone had hurt her? What if Dick was right? Why would she not have told him? Why would she have let him think she cheated? It didn't make sense. "I don't like to think that someone hurt her," he said to Nico. "Why wouldn't she tell me if that was the case? Why would she let me think she cheated? I just don't understand."
"Say something like that did happen. What would be the consequences? How would her father react? Or her brother? Or even you? Would she rather suffer in silence or let the men she loved go on the war path?" Nico pointed out.
Eli's mind raced with the possibilities. Then he noticed the time. "I got to go. I promised my grandmother I'd pick up her church clothes at the dry cleaning before it closed," he said.
"Think about what I said," Nico advised.
Eli nodded and left. His mind was busy as he drove to the dry cleaners and picked up his grandmother's clothes. When he arrived at her house, she noticed his distraction and asked him about it. He found himself pouring out the entire story to her. The way Jazmin had been acting the past few weeks, what she finally confessed, and what Dick and Nico had said, all came spilling out.
His grandmother listened with the calm patience she always had. When he had finally finished unburdening himself, she asked, "Do you love this woman?"
"Yes. More than I ever thought I could love anyone," Eli admitted. "That's why this is like a nightmare for me. I thought she loved me the same way."
"With love comes trust, comes faithfulness. If she really loves you, she will be faithful. You must trust that," his grandmother said. "You must talk to her. Find out what's really going on. If you don't, you must give up your plans for the future you want with her. If you don't fight for your future with her, then you don't love her as much as you think you do. Love conquers all. It is patient; it is kind; it is selfless. If your love for her is strong enough, it will withstand anything."
Eli realized his grandmother was right. He needed to go talk to Jazmin. He had to find out what exactly went down and if she really loved him enough to have a future with him. Did he love her enough to forgive her if she had simply cheated on him, drunk or not? Did that excuse it? Would he be able to get past it? He didn't know, but he knew that he had to talk to her. He needed to see her.
"Thanks, Grandma," he said, getting up and kissing her cheek. "I will go talk to her now."
He left and headed over to Jazmin's. Mac answered the door. She was getting ready for her date with Dick. "Hey, Weevil. Come on in," she said casually.
"Is Jazmin home?" he asked.
"I think so. I haven't seen her since before lunch. I think she's up in her room," Mac said.
"Will you go get her? I want to talk to her," Weevil said. Normally, he'd just go up to her room, but he didn't feel he had that right anymore.
Mac understood and went up to Jazmin's room. She knocked on the door. There wasn't an answer.
"Jazmin? Are you in there?" she asked as she opened the bedroom door.
Light from the hall showed an outline of her on the bed. Mac turned on the light, but it didn't get a reaction from Jazmin. She was on her side on top of the covers asleep. Since she'd been up there most of the day, Mac didn't see any harm in waking her up. She went over to the side of the bed and gently shook Jazmin's shoulder trying to awaken her. She didn't wake up.
Frowning, Mac said, "Jazmin, wake up. Weevil's here to see you." She didn't stir. Growing concerned, Mac bent down and put her head near her ear. "Jazmin! Wake up!" she said loudly. Jazmin still didn't stir. Very worried, she went to the top of the stairs and yelled down, "Weevil, I can't get her to wake up! Come up here!"
Weevil bounded up the stairs, his heart racing. He saw Jazmin on the bed lying so still. He tried to wake her. When it failed, he checked her pulse. He put his head down to her chest to listen. His eyes widened, "Call 911! She's barely breathing. Something's wrong!" Mac grabbed Jazmin's cell off the dresser and dialed. Weevil's eyes fell on the pill bottle on her nightstand. He picked it up. "Here's a bottle of Xanax. It's empty," he said as Mac was on the phone with the 911 operator. Mac relayed the possibility of an overdose to the operator. "She says you should begin CPR until the paramedics get here."
Weevil stood there frozen as the realization of what had happened set in. She was barely breathing. She swallowed a bottle of pills. The horror of the thought immobilized him. He couldn't think. He could only look at her in dismay, struggling to understand what his eyes were telling him.
"Weevil!" Mac yelled. She disconnected the phone and went to him. She had never seen him like that. He looked crushed and frightened, which was how she felt. She didn't know CPR. She'd never had a reason to learn it, but she'd seen it done on TV. However, she knew that Weevil had CPR training as a P.I. "Weevil, do CPR. She's dying!" Mac yelled, shaking him.
Weevil finally shook off his shock and horror and stepped forward to go to Jazmin. "Call her family," he ordered.
"Oh, God!" Mac exclaimed. How could she call Jason and their dad? The thought terrified her. She picked up Jazmin's phone and searched her contacts. She dialed Jason first. It went to voicemail. Today was the day of the funeral for Daisy's cousin. She left a message, "Jason, you need to come home as soon as possible. Something's happened to Jazmin. I just called 911." She called Daisy and got her voicemail. She left the same message. Finding her courage, she dialed the number that said "Dad".
"How are you, sweetheart?" Sebastian Jaleno said.
"Sir, this isn't Jazmin. This is her roommate Mac. Cindy Mackenzie," Mac said quickly.
Sebastian frowned. Why was his daughter's roommate calling him? "What's wrong?" he asked, not wasting time on pleasantries. She was calling him from his daughter's phone. He knew something was wrong.
"Something has happened to Jazmin. She isn't waking up. I called 911," Mac said. "Jason is in Puerto Rico, so I thought I should call and let you know."
"Jason is in Puerto Rico? Why?" he asked.
Mac hadn't realized it was a secret and cringed. "Oh, uh, well, his girlfriend had to go to a funeral in Puerto Rico, and he went with her. I called him, but I couldn't reach him. I left him a message," she said.
"I will be there as soon as possible. Thank you for calling," he said grimly before disconnecting.
It was just a few short minutes before the paramedics arrived and took over for Weevil. "What the hell happened, Mac?" he asked as they followed the paramedics downstairs.
Mac was sick with guilt. She had been so caught up in her own family drama that she hadn't grown concerned when Jazmin was in her room all afternoon. "I don't know," she said. Mac grabbed her purse and keys to follow the ambulance.
Dick was pulling up as they were coming outside. He had gone home to change clothes, but things were still tense at the house, so he'd decided to just head over to Mac's. His heart filled with fear when he saw the flashing ambulance in front of Mac's place. However, he saw her and Weevil on the porch and relaxed slightly. He parked the truck and left the engine on. "What's going on?" he yelled.
"It's Jazmin," Mac said. She went to him and hugged him. They watched the paramedics load her into the ambulance. "Weevil, let's ride with Dick. You shouldn't be driving."
Dick agreed and they got into his truck. "You should call everyone," Dick suggested.
Mac agreed and began making calls.
For his part, Eli couldn't believe this was happening. Jazmin was so miserable that she swallowed a bottle of pills. "What have I done?" he whispered from the backseat.
"What?" Dick asked, not hearing Weevil.
"She swallowed a bottle of Xanax, Dick. Why did she even have a bottle of Xanax? She is so unhappy that she tried to kill herself!" he said bitterly. "How did this happen?"
Dick was not the person to answer such a question. He was just coming to terms with his brother's suicide and was not prepared to lose a friend to the same horror. Jazmin was sweet and beautiful. Everyone liked her. He couldn't imagine what would cause her to do such a thing. He looked at Mac, who was trying not to cry. She shook her head, not understanding either. Dick reached over and squeezed her hand.
It wasn't long before they were in the ER waiting room. They had told the nurse about the pill bottle. Weevil had the foresight to hold on to it and give it to the nurse. Now they were waiting.
Veronica and Logan arrived.
"What happened? Is she okay?" Veronica asked, holding on to Logan's hand.
Since Weevil looked like he wanted to hit someone, she directed her question to Mac.
"We don't know anything yet," Mac said.
"So what happened?" Logan asked.
Duncan arrived before they could answer. "Is she okay? What happened?" he asked them.
"Mac was just about to explain," Logan said.
However, before she could, Wallace and Thea arrived. "What's going on? Is Jazmin alright?" Wallace asked in concern.
Veronica let out a sigh. "Where's Parker? We should wait for her," Veronica said.
"I called her. She won't be here right away. She's in the middle of something, but she says she'll be here within the hour," Mac said.
"So what's going on? Is Jazmin okay?" Wallace asked again.
"No, she's not! She's in the damn hospital!" Weevil exclaimed angrily.
Wallace held up his hands. "Hey, I'm sorry. I'm just concerned," Wallace said.
"We all are. She's going to be fine," Veronica said confidently.
When Mac didn't say anything but looked at Weevil, Veronica grew worried. "She will, right?" she asked.
"She was barely breathing, Veronica. We don't know. There was an empty bottle of Xanax on her nightstand. The prescription wasn't very old, but the bottle was empty," Mac revealed. "We think she tried to commit suicide."
"What?" Veronica asked in disbelief. She looked at Weevil, who looked equally devastated and enraged.
"I don't understand," Duncan said with a frown. "Why would she want to commit suicide? What's wrong?"
The group was silent. No one wanted to say it out loud. Finally, Mac said, "She and Weevil broke up. That's the only thing I know of."
"So this is my fault? I drove her to suicide?" Weevil asked in outrage. He had been thinking that but to hear someone else voice it was like a knife in his gut.
"No! That's not what I'm saying!" Mac said, upset. They were all upset. "I'm her roommate. I didn't even bother to see why she hadn't left her room for hours."
"Suicide is never about one thing. It's always a combination of many things," Thea said soothingly. Wallace had told her about Jazmin's infidelity, and she'd had a hard time believing it. Now she wondered, "Maybe her guilt was too much."
"Guilt?" Dick asked.
"If she cheated on Weevil and felt sick over it, maybe it was too much," Thea said.
"I thought you said it was never about one thing," Dick said.
"It wouldn't be," Thea said. "Veronica lost a baby recently. Maybe it brought back too many bad memories. Maybe she wasn't trying to die, just feel better. A lot of overdoses are done accidental. Normally those that really want to die do so in a dramatic fashion that they can't come back from."
"Like taking a nosedive off an extremely high building," Dick supplied grimly. Once Cassidy had jumped, there had been no chance to save him, no chance for him to change his mind.
Thea nodded.
"We shouldn't speculate until we talk to her," Mac said.
"If we get a chance to," Weevil said bitterly.
"Where's Jason?" Duncan asked, looking around.
"He's in Puerto Rico with Daisy. Her cousin died," Veronica said. "Did you call him?"
"Yes. I didn't reach him or Daisy. I left messages," Mac said. "I got a hold of her dad, though. He's on his way."
"Their dad is coming here?" Dick asked in alarm. The man totally intimidated him. He couldn't imagine the man would handle the news well.
"Yes, of course. She's his daughter," Mac said.
"We should keep calling Jason until we reach him," Wallace suggested. "If he sees enough missed calls, he's bound to check in." They all pulled out their phones to call. It gave them something to do when they felt so helpless.
Veronica, however, went over to Weevil. She reached out and touched his arm. "Are you okay?" she asked quietly.
"It was awful, V. She was so still. We couldn't get her to wake up," Weevil said, his eyes filled with pain. "Mac called 911, and I was frozen. I couldn't move. I just couldn't believe it was happening."
"I can imagine," Veronica said. She knew all too well how he must've felt.
"I finally started doing CPR on her. Her pulse was so slow. When I found the bottle of pills, I couldn't believe it. This is my fault! I was angry when she told me she slept with someone else. I said cruel things. She was crying and begged me to forgive her. I couldn't even look at her," Weevil said bitterly, his own eyes moist as he recalled his last painful conversation with her.
Veronica had to fight back her own tears as she felt Weevil's pain. "We are not responsible for someone else's choices," she said with conviction. Although she felt a pang of guilt, too, for what Jazmin did, she believed too strongly that people were responsible for their own choices.
"You know when I told Dick about what she did, he didn't believe it. When I told Nico, he almost hit me for suggesting she was a cheat. Yet I didn't question it at all when she told me," Weevil admitted. "What if they're right? What if she was roofied or something? What if she had sex with someone she can't even remember clearly?"
Veronica's face reflected her surprise at the thought. She had thought there was something off about the whole thing, but she'd not taken time to dive into it. If she found out it was something like that, she'd be really upset with herself. After what had happened to her and to Parker and the other girls on campus, that should've been the first thing that she thought of. She had been so caught up in her own life and then losing the baby that she hadn't taken time to look closely. "Whatever the case, we'll find out. We'll help her," Veronica said. She gave Weevil a hug.
Weevil couldn't believe this was happening. Had it been guilt that drove her to this? Or maybe pain. Maybe she had been hurt and none of them noticed or did anything. But he had noticed. He had tried to help her, but it hadn't been enough. Anger at Jason rose up inside of him. Jason had completely dismissed his concern, and now look at what happened.
After an hour of waiting and pacing, the doctor came in. "Is Jazmin Jaleno's family here?" he asked looking around.
"I'm her roommate. Her dad is in Chicago. He's on his way. Her family is all out of state," Mac supplied.
"Is she okay?" Weevil asked.
"We pumped her stomach. She had a seizure and went into respiratory depression. We gave her Flumazenil to treat the effects of the Xanax overdose. However, she is unresponsive," the doctor said.
"What the hell does that mean?" Weevil asked, clenching his fist.
"She never regained consciousness. She slipped into a coma," the doctor said grimly.
"Coma?" Weevil repeated in disbelief as the word reverberated through him. This was like a nightmare. How did he get to this place? Was he going to lose her for good?
"Oh God!" Mac exclaimed. She turned to Dick, who pulled her against his chest.
Dick felt sick and once again helpless. First, Ronnie lost her baby, and now Jazmin may die. He feared his mother may be right. What would be the third tragedy?
******To Be Continued******