Hello again! Finally here's what you've been expecting… Steve finding Annabeth! This promises to be angsty for him right?
Aquababy58: thank you as always for your truthful comments!
Stephanie: I'm liking your reviews more and more each time! Hahaha Thank you so much!
Well, I hope this meets everyone's expectations! Here it goes!
Steve reached the bar a little after 12.30 a.m. and he parked right at the front door. He stormed inside and went straight to the bartender, looking around for Annabeth and assessing everyone else. It was a Tuesday night, so not much activity at that hour. In fact, there were only a couple of men drinking some beer and the bartender who was starting to clean everything up to close the place. When the bartender looked up to see him coming in, he knew he was the man he had spoken with on the phone. The cop.
He looked scary. He was big, muscular and downright angry. He came to stand directly in front of him.
- Where is she? – he barked.
- Bathroom – he answered.
And Steve all but ran inside. What he found left him almost speechless.
Annabeth was on one of the cubicles holding herself half up with her arms on the toilet seat supporting her weight. She was dry heaving and she was trembling.
- Annabeth! – he exclaimed and came closer to her to grab her from behind and help her stand up but as soon as he made contact with her, she gasped and swirled around, almost falling due to the movement and making him put his arms around her preventing her from falling down. She squealed and tried to fight him off – Hey! Hey! It's okay! It's me! It's Steve. I'm here – it took a couple of seconds for her to recognize him and, when she did, she just collapsed into him, letting him hold all her weight.
- Steve… - she whispered – Steve… – she sobbed.
- Anna what happened? – he asked, he was seriously worried now.
- Out… get me out – she was starting to faint and her words came out more slurred than ever – out of here.
- Okay, okay. We're leaving. I'm taking you home – he could tell that she couldn't walk even if she wanted to, so he put an arm under her knees and picked her up, keeping her close to his chest. If he hadn't seen it maybe he wouldn't have believed it. Annabeth did look drunk. She was weak, almost unable to speak, she couldn't stand and she had obviously been vomiting. It worried him to no end thinking that she had gotten herself like that over something he didn't know about. She had never lost control like this before. They were half way out of the bar when she suddenly whispered.
- No. Not home… hospital.
- What? – he asked in disbelief – are you hurt?
- Please, hospital… please.
Something was definitely wrong here, apart from the obvious. Annabeth hated hospitals. She would never voluntarily ask to be taken to one. Then again, she would never voluntarily get herself drunk. Now he was definitely calling Danny.
After getting her on the passenger seat and putting her seatbelt on, Steve walked around the truck while fishing his phone out of his pocket. He dialed his partner's number and waited. Starting the engine and making his way back into town. After a few rings, the call was answered.
- This better be good or I'll… - came the sleepy and angry voice of his partner but he didn't let him finish the threat.
- Danny! I need you to meet me at the hospital. Something happened to Annabeth.
- What!? – came the shocky reply – what happened? What hospital? – he could hear his partner getting out of bed.
- At Queens. I'm not sure what happened. She's not responding very well. I'm 20 minutes out. See you there.
- Okay. See you – responded Danny and he hung up.
Steve glanced at Annabeth and he could see that she had fallen asleep or passed out. Either way, she wasn't responding to him calling her name. He pressed into the accelerator, resisting the urge to switch the sirens on. There wasn't any one on the roads at this hour. It just bugged him that they were too far away. Waimanola was so far away from the hospital that Danny would get there before them. Not for the first time in the last hour did Steve wonder what had Annabeth been doing so far from home.
So? Was it good? Was it what you expected?
I just wanna say that I'm incredibly happy to be writing this story! My muse is totally on fire!
That being said, I promise soon I'll update my other story Unexpected Events, for those of you reading that as well!