"Do you mind?" Taylor smacked Zac's hand and pushed number 5 on the radio in the car. "I'm driving, I get to pick what we listen to."
Zac sighed. "That's just not fair."
"Yeah, neither is life."
"Ok mom." Zac laughed.
"So how's Melissa?"
"She's fine. 10 stitches in her hand and 3 more in her wrist. She has to keep her arm in a wrap for a while. She's being a total bitch about it too. Sitting on her ass, making Carter be her slave."
"It wasn't Carter's fault."
Zac shrugged. "Doesn't matter to Mel. She gets to be queen for a week. She's in heaven."
"She bugs the hell out of me."
"Who?"
"Meli."
"Then why were you all nice guy to her when she fell off the bookshelf?"
Taylor shrugged and made a left hand turn toward the entrance of the mall. It was dark already, but Zac insisted that Taylor drive him to the mall so he could buy him a birthday present. Taylor was instructed to sit in the car while Zac went in. "She was hurt and I felt bad."
"Oh. You get mushy when people cry. Especially girls." Zac pushed number 3 on the radio and grinned.
"Dammit Zac!" Without looked away from the parking lot, he pushed number 5 again. Taylor was a great driver, never took his eyes off the road. A very good thing. If he had taken his eyes off the road, he wouldn't have seen the little girl. Her mother reached out from beside her car and grabbed her. The rest was hazy, a squeal of tires, and a bright flashing light.
Red.... white.... red.... white.... blue.... white.... red. He heard sounds, but they were very faint. He thought he heard Zac's voice, and a voice of a woman, a crying child, and somewhere on top of that there were sirens.
__________________________________
Carter waited 5 rings before she finally reached next to her and picked up the cordless phone. She was taking a well deserved break from being Melissa's maid.
"Yo." She answered the phone with a yawn.
"Hey." Zac's voice was just a whisper.
"Hey what's wrong?"
"Uhm, I'm at the hospital with my family."
Carter's eyes widened and she sat up straight. "What's wrong? Are you sick? What happened?"
"No, I'm ok. Taylor and I were in an accident."
Carter chuckled. "Ah, so perfect driver isn't so perfect after all?"
"Carter, don't laugh." Zac sounded like he was going to cry. "Taylor's hurt really bad."
Somewhere during the conversation, Carter dropped the phone, grabbed Melissa by her good arm, and drove to the hospital. If she was watching the clock, she would have known she made it there in 3 minutes.
Zac was sitting in the lobby by himself, sitting in a chair, hugging his knees. Carter walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders when he stood up. "Hey." She whispered in his ear. "Is he ok? Where is everybody?"
"Mom and Dad are talking to doctors, and we don't know where Ike is."
Carter let go of him and looked into his eyes. "What happened?"
Zac shook his head. "I don't even know. It was really fast. We got to the mall and we were fighting over the radio. This little girl ran out in front of the van, her mom grabbed her, Taylor panicked and swerved really fast. Van tipped over, and somewhere around that time, another car his the van and pushed us back out into traffic. Then another car hit us."
Melissa sat down on a chair, holding her arm. "Holy fuck."
"So where is Taylor? Is he ok? What do they know?" Carter felt like she was going to cry. She hadn't been this scared since her mother was in the hospital. She'd suffered for so long before she finally let go. Carter couldn't imagine Taylor being in that kind of pain.
Zac put his hand over her mouth and made her sit down. "I don't know yet. We have to wait."
And they did wait. Three hours until Diana and Walker came into the lobby, with white faces, glazed eyes. Diana hugged Zac. "They think he's going to be ok."
Carter jumped up with tears in her eyes. "THINK?! How can they just THINK he's going to be ok? That's not enough! They're doctors. They're supposed to know everything."
Zac laughed. "Doctor's don't know shit. If they did, I wouldn't be taking 12 pills a day, with none of them working." He put his arm around her waist.
Diana sighed, not really caring that Zac had just cursed right in front of her. "So we've already been in there with him. He isn't really talking, but he's awake. You three can go in and see him for a little bit if you want. But then, only one of us can sit with him at a time."
Zac walked in front of the girls. Melissa had her arm around Carter's shoulder, showing her the first hint of being a loving sister in a long time. She didn't understand why Carter was so upset. She probably never would understand it.
Zac walked and Melissa walked into Taylor's hospital room and stood next to his bed. Carter stood in the doorway. She couldn't push herself to see him in pain.
"Hey, Tay." Zac looked down at his older brother. His eyes were bruised, and closed. They fluttered open slowly when he heard Zac.
Taylor gasped and opened his eyes in fear. "Zac. Are you ok? Did you get hurt?"
Zac shook his head. "I'm ok."
"Hi, Taylor." Melissa smiled down at him.
"Hey. How's your arm?"
Melissa smiled. "It's fine."
Taylor looked around. "Isaac isn't here."
"We haven't been able to find him yet. Mom's going to page the library and a few other places."
"And Carter?"
Zac looked up at Carter who was standing in the doorway. Her hand was over her mouth and she was crying lightly. She stepped foreward and sat down in the chair next to Taylor. "Hey." She smiled, letting the tears run down her cheeks.
"Hi." Taylor smiled. "I heard you're stuck being Mel's slave."
Carter laughed through her tears. She was seeing something in Taylor that she'd never seen before. She knew he was in serious pain, but he wasn't showing it. All he was showing was his heart. He was only worried about other people worrying about him.
"Hey. Don't cry. You shouldn't be crying for me." Taylor lifted his arm, i.v. and all, and touched Carter's cheek. "I'm gonna be ok. Remember, I'm a better driver than you." Taylor looked back over at Zac, suddenly aware of something else. "That girl, I didn't hit her did I?"
Zac shook his head. "She's ok."
"I heard her crying."
"She thought you were dead and it scared her." Zac laughed. "Carter thought you were dead too. She hung up on me when I called her."
Taylor looked back at Carter.
"She grabbed me from the chair and threw me into the car. She was really scared." Melissa leaned down to kiss Taylor on the forehead. "I'm gonna go see if I can help find Ike. I'll see you later."
Taylor looked back at Carter. "Why were you so scared?"
Carter shook her head and looked down at the floor.
"Tell me."
Zac put his hand on Carter's shoulder and walked out of the room, leaving the two of them alone.
"You have to tell me. You can't just sit there crying and not tell me."
Carter wiped her face and put her hands in her lap. "When my mom was in the hospital after she got hit by the car, she was in so much pain. I just never want anybody to have to go through that again."
"Why didn't you come in here with Zac and Mel right away?"
"I just remembered going in to see my mom. She was trying so hard to hide her pain and we thought she was going to be ok. The doctors said they thought she'd be fine. They always think people are going to be ok. I was so scared, Tay." Carter couldn't stop the tears from falling down her cheeks.
Taylor reached over and took her hand in his own. "I don't want you to be scared. If you're scared, I won't be able to get better."
"Huh?" Carter's cheeks were hot, and shiny from her crying.
"You... confuse me so much when you're nice to me one minute and pissy the next. When you sit there on my bed and talk to me like I'm Zac. I'm always so jealous of him that when you sit there and talk to me the way you talk to him, I don't know what to do. Now you're sitting here worrying about me and being scared for me. It's just going to confuse me even more and I'll never sleep."
Carter laughed. "I don't mean to confuse you."
"You're a girl. It's your job." Taylor coughed and then winced.
"What? Are you ok?"
"Yeah. My chest just hurt a little. They said I cracked a few ribs."
"Did you hurt anything else?"
"I don't know. I kept falling asleep while they were talking to my parents."
"I don't want you to hurt." Carter wiped her eyes again.
"And I don't want you to cry." Taylor looked down and noticed he was still holding her hand. He wondered if she noticed.
"What?" She asked, noticing the pink that was forming on his cheeks.
"I'm touching you... and you're not freaking out."
Carter laughed. "It only freaks me out when Isaac touches me."
"But I'm the one you hate."
Carter shook her head. "I never hated you. I'm just too stubborn to admit the fact that I...."
Taylor waited a few seconds before he spoke. "That you what?"
"I'm really shy around you. Because I care about you a lot. I always have."
Taylor blinked hard.
"You ok?"
"I'm really tired."
"They gave you a lot of drugs." She laughed and stood up. "I'm gonna let you sleep. But can you do me a favor?"
"Yeah."
"If you're in any pain, please tell me."
"Ok. Why?"
"Because I hate to see another person I love be hurting so much." Carter leaned down and kissed him lightly on the lips before leaving the room.
Taylor thought he felt his lips tingle after she left, but he couldn't be sure. He fell asleep before he could think any more of it.