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Mike POV

As I stood with all the kids around me, with the ambulance- with Tracy in it leaving around the corner of the street, I could hope that at least Gina had led them all into the house.

But this of course wasn't the time to make fast and important decisions…

"Okay, come on kids. " Instead of feeling all of their eyes in my neck I turned towards them. "I'll go call Jenny or Sarah or Serjay. Then I will have to go with Tracy."

"Shouldn't you do that now, right away?" Tee asked- kind as always. "I mean… Tracy could really need you more than us right now."

Never would I be able to tell how much I agreed with her, and how I wanted to just run after the ambulance not to be still. Sometimes I hated this job and how I needed to be there more for the children more than myself…

I wasn't surprised in the slightest when Toby sat down by the computer, his eyes soon glued to the screen and shining in fear.

"Maybe it's a brain tumour, maybe she cracked her head or had a concussion…"

I had tried to put the kids to bed. Starting with Harry of course, and then tried to call up social workers….

Perhaps Gina had some way to do all of this even though she had first went to see the girls who were- like all the kids stressed up and worried.

"Maybe it's stress…." I said to interrupt Toby but heard myself how rude my tone sounded. "Sorry… Tobes, I know you're worried. I am too. That was really scary and now we're all worrying. But I'm hoping now that we've seen it maybe there's just some way for us to help her. But for it to be…" I lost my words when I saw the look on Toby's face. "Look! If there is something like that going on with Tracy then we'll probably find it out already by tonight… And then we can help her. For you to worry will do no good. Okay?"

I must have been so naïve knowing what Toby was like…

"At last." Sarah didn't arrive until about an hour until after Tracy had went away. "Sorry, sorry… The youngest have already gone to bed. And with everything… all of the girls are in Carmen's room…"

"It's fine Mike. You already told me on the phone and Gina's here. I can put together one and one. Now, go to the hospital."

"Thank you." I more or less ran through the hallway, completely forgetting my own cell phone in the office, threw myself in the driver's seat- and then had to run back to the office where I had forgotten my car keys. The cell phone still laid forgotten on the desk when I ran back to the car and, as far as I could followed in the same tracks as the ambulance.

Why must I move so slowly?

It felt as I was moving the speed of a snail.

Then it happened…

"Oh come on!"

Pottiswood was a small town, lines of cars happened in big towns happened in big towns where there were thousands and thousands of people travelling by every day.

I guess with some exceptions. And one exception was now, somewhere in between Elm Tree House and the hospital of Pottiswood. As if that could help I leaned forward and hit my head towards the wheel. With a deep sigh I also turned the radio on so I'd be able to hear if there were any news about what was going on further down the road.

As if it could help, just as I turned it on it beeped and some news about what was going on came on.

An accident has occurred at the crossroad in between Pottiswood's main street and Ashland Avenue. As of now there hasn't been any reports of anyone getting hurt badly. But two people have been taken to hospital with minor injuries and the traffic will be standing still for hours to come.

And for each of those hours Tracy was on my mind. Every second I could see her alone on the insides of my eyelids.

How she had collapsed, how I had caught her, how she had told me about that Cam was going to go to New York and leave her alone for a few weeks. At least this time Tracy wouldn't use up all Cam's money or have appendicitis…

But in Tracy's eyes wasn't the same look as she was trying to make me believe and I knew it.

Something had gone awfully wrong, already before tonight and how could I have missed it?

This had never happened before….

At last there was nothing for me to do but then to lean back in my seat and be ready to drive whenever I could. At least one little inch at the time… Me stressing wouldn't help Tracy and it was then I realized and noticed I'd forgotten my phone.

I really should call Cam. Shelley and Duke had called her right away. But now Tracy was an adult, anyway. Adult or not Tracy needed Cam and Cam would always want to know if something was going on.

But it was when I searched through my pockets that I realized my phone still laid on the desk in the office.

But that was fine. I could call it and…

Could I even be so stupid? I could call Gina or Sarah or Elm Tree House down the street as little as I could call Cam on the other side of the world.

And on the insides of my eyelids Tracy was falling and shaking over and over. What if Toby was right? It might have been a strange thing to call him a bad-luck-boy but he had a point and what if those things was going on with Tracy? Brain tumour? Crushed skull?

What if Tracy had gotten hurt- badly and for some reason decided not to tell me?

A seizure just because of stress?

My mind was spinning, but that moving faster than outside where traffic was standing still…

It took almost two hours to get about a hundred yards and I could finally pull over by the emergency room. Everything I'd have to do now was to find a person that I could ask…

"Tracy?" At last I was shown into a room with only one bed, Tracy looked so tiny and fragile underneath the blanket. "It's okay…" I tried to find something at all to say. "It's okay." I stroke over her forehead and hair, then decided that there wouldn't be a point with telling Tracy now what had taken me so long. "It's okay. I'm here now."

If I hadn't known any better I would have expected that Tracy was asleep. That before her eyes fluttered open only slightly and she looked up at me.

"Mike?" She questioned- barely more than a whisper. "You came."

"Of course I did." I stroke her head one more time. "You'd never have to doubt that."

Something twisted in my stomach about how long it had taken me so long to get to the hospital today. About the accident at the main road that Tracy really didn't need to know about now. And about the fact about what was going on with Tracy? What if she was sick? Really sick and more sick than for me to ever be able to help her?

Tracy closed her eyes- if I hadn't known any better I would have thought she fell asleep and I could leave. Instead I stayed there, by her side and stroking her hair.

If I could only help somehow…
"You can sleep now, if you want." I ran my hand over her forehead for the billionth time, she was really warm. "Should I call Cam?"

Tears suddenly filled up in Tracy's eyes, there was something about Cam.

"It's really late now… but because of the time zones it will be day at hers, in New York. And of course she always wants to know if something happens to you… what was it? That time? You had appendicitis and she rushed back half across the world? So what do you think."

"Don't call her." Tracy whimpered tiredly. "It's just…. Let's wait. At least until in the morning. She might still be a bit jet lagged from the time zones. I just want to have some answers before we call her. So she isn't on an airplane- impossible to reach when we do actually get answers."

"Well…" I hesitated. "…I suppose we can do that…"

One lonely tear rolled down Tracy's cheek and ending up in the pillow underneath her head. I carefully stroke away another one with my thumb.

For just a second, I saw ten-year-old Tracy Beaker in front of me… This adult was so different…

I knew really which one of those Tracy's would worry me more.

Random fact

I was working on three chapters, this is the second I finish. I keep eating all of my chocolate without writing. I usually eat one piece every 250 words.