Taylor started screaming and calling for help. He pulled out your father’s cell phone that he had given him to call when he found you. He called 911 and then called your parents and told them to meet him at the hospital. He rocked you and cried until the ambulance got there. They put you on a stretcher and loaded you into the ambulance and he rode with you.
The paramedics started doing tests and taking blood samples. Taylor couldn’t watch. Instead, he held your hand and squeezed his eyes shut, crying. When they got to the hospital, Taylor followed the paramedics inside. They told him to wait in the waiting room. Five minutes later, a doctor came out. “Taylor Hanson?” he asked.
“Yes sir,” he said.
“I’m Dr. Collins. I’ll be tending to Stacey.”
“Oh yes, uh do you know what’s wrong with her?”
“Not for the moment, we believe that she has been involved in drugs and that she overdosed, do you know anything about this?”
“Uh yes, I …”
“You didn’t give her the drugs did you?” the doctor cut in.
“No! I’m Taylor Hanson, I don’t need my career ruined by that or the viscous rumors.”
“Start at the beginning, please.”
“Yes, it all started when Stacey’s parents told her that she was moving here to New York City. She was crying and wouldn’t let go of me, see she’s my girlfriend, and so I came with them and stayed a week. Two months later, her parents called and we had a long talk. They said that she was staying past her curfew, some times they didn’t know where she was. He grades had started to slip and she ditched school one day. That was when they called me. I took a plane out there and got there around three in the morning. They were so worried because they didn’t know where she was. I volunteered to go look for her. They said she hung out around Times Square a lot. I heard someone say, ‘That’s some heavy shit Stace, you’re gonna owe me for all this weed.’ I heard Stacey’s voice mumble, ‘Yeah, yeah.” I tore into the alley where they were and Stacey had 5 joints in her mouth. She saw me and yelled my name. She tried to stand up but couldn’t and fell. Right before she blacked out she said, ‘Taylor I love you.’”
Taylor’s eyes filled with tears. “Thank you Taylor, I appreciate this,” said Dr. Collins.
“Can I see her?” he asked.
“Sure, her parents are already in there, she’s not conscious yet though.” Taylor walked after the doctor into your room. You had scratches all over your arms. Taylor listened to the constant beeping of the heart monitor and wasn’t sure if he was relieved by the sound or angered by it. Stacey, how could you do this to yourself? How could you do this to me??? Taylor asked you silently. He was about to breakdown into tears and didn’t want your parents to see that, he didn’t want them loosing it too.
He ran out of the hospital and sat down on a curb to think. He cried, his head in his hands. Jennifer came up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. He jumped. When he turned around all your “friends” were standing around him. “Is she OK?” Adrian spoke up.
“What the hell do you care? If I weren’t followed by press people everywhere I go, I would kill you all in a second.” They backed away. Taylor started walking, not too sure where he was going.
You woke up the next morning, weak and barely alive. You were calling for Taylor. Your parents went out to find him. They finally found him at 9 the next morning, sitting on a curb. Your dad jumped out of the car and ran to him. “Taylor! Taylor! Stacey’s awake! She woke up, she’s barely alive but she’s calling for you!” He jerked to his feet and ran to the car. Taylor walked through the door to your room. Your eyes lit up. He walked over to you.
“Taylor,” you said, it came out a whisper. He ran over to you and took your hand. He put his forehead to yours and started crying. You kissed him deeply. When he pulled away, he kept his forehead against yours. “Stacey! Why did you do that to me?! Why did you do that to yourself?! You almost died!!! Why? Why? WHY?!” he yelled.
You started crying, “I don’t know, I’m so sorry, I was so stupid, I’m so sorry I caused you this pain. I guess I couldn’t live without you.” “Stacey, I would have come up any time you asked me if I knew this was going to happen.” He hugged you and kissed you and started to cry. You wrapped your arms around him and his head rested on your shoulder as you both cried.
The doctor came in to check on you. He ushered your parents and Tay out of the room. “Will you wait?” you ask him.
“Forever,” he says, kissing your forehead and leaving the room. The doctor checked your vital signs and unhooked some of the tubes and took them out.
“This is amazing, from when you woke up till the moment your boyfriend came in the door, you were a breath away from death. Your boyfriend saved your life. Had he not found you, you would be in that alley right now, dead.”
“I love him,” you whisper, your eyes filling with tears.
“I can tell and I can tell that he loves you back. I was worried about you at first but now I am sure you’re going to be just fine.”
“Thank you doctor, can you send Tay back in here?”
“Well visiting hours were over a long time ago but I can make some exceptions,” he said generously.
“Thank you so much,” you say.
Five minutes later, Taylor came in the room. When he saw you he smiled. “You look better now, without all those tubes in your nose,” he commented.
“Yeah, Taylor I’m so sorry,” you say for the fifty millionth time that day.
“I know honey, I know, it’s OK,” he said, trying to comfort you who was crying now.
“Where are my parents?”
“They went home to get some sleep, they’ll come back tonight or tomorrow.” He sat in a chair by your bed and held your hand. You both fell asleep.
You were awakened a few times for blood samples and such but you fell asleep immediately afterward You finally woke up at 10:00pm that night. Taylor was still asleep. You kissed his hand. He woke up five minutes later.
“You know what, I should call my parents, I told them I’d call as soon as I got to New York but then this happened.”
“I’m sorry,” you said again.
“STACEY! Stop saying that, you don’t have to apologize to me. OK?” “Yeah,” you say.
“Good,” Taylor says, kissing you on the lips. He picked up your dad’s cell phone. “Can I use this?”
“Yup.” “Hi Zac, it’s Tay.”
“Tay! Hey what’s up? Where are you, mom and dad are freaked, they kept getting the answering machine at the apartment.”
“I’m in the hospital.” “WHAT? MOM! DAD! TAYLOR’S IN THE HOSPITAL!” Zac yelled.
“NO ZAC! Shhh, it’s not me.”
“Jordan Taylor, what is going on here?” Diana got on the phone.
“Mom I’m in the hospital…”
“WHAT?!”
“…It’s not me it’s Stacey.”
“What happened?”
“You know how when her parents called they were worried about her?”
“Yeah.”
“Well when I got there it was three in the morning and they couldn’t find her and I went looking for her I found her just before she passed out cuz she overdosed on drugs.”
“WHAT?! Taylor I don’t want you hanging around her anymore.”
“Mom, no, the reason she turned to drugs was because she couldn’t stand to be away from me or Tulsa. She realized what she did was wrong.”
“I can’t believe this, poor girl, Taylor is she awake?”
“Yeah.”
“Let me talk to her.”
“OK,” Taylor handed you the phone.
“Hello?” you whispered into the phone.
“Hi sweetie, how are you?”
“Alive thanks to Taylor.”
“My son the hero.”
You start laughing but end up coughing. “Oh dear, I’ll let you go honey.” “OK bye Diana it was nice talking to you.”
“Bye dear.” You hung up the phone.
“Stacey, I want you to go to counseling.”
“No, I’m fine, I can’t I’d be embarrassed.”
“Yes Stacey you’re going,” Taylor argued with you.
“No, I’m not, I know what I did was dumb and I won’t do it again.”
“Stacey that’s not the whole issue. We don’t know why you did it. We need to get to the base of your problem.”
“Taylor, I don’t want to, I can’t.”
“Why can’t you?”
“Because…because I’m scared Taylor! I’m scared! Is that what you wanted to hear?!” You start crying.
He hugged you, “Shhh it’s OK to be scared. We’ll get through this together. Don’t you want to solve your problem though?”
“Yes, but will you go with me, to the meetings and stuff.”
“If you want me to yes, for a while. I just can’t give up on the band.”
“Yeah I know. Thanks Tay.”
“Anytime, kid,” he said. He kissed you softly.
The doctor came in then to do his daily check up on you. Then he said, “Stacey, it looks like you can go home next week,” he said. You were overcome with joy. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” you said. He smiled and left. Not too long after that, your parents came in. They hugged you. “I get to go home next week!” you exclaimed. “And I got her to agree to go to counseling if I go with her,” Taylor told them.
“Taylor, we can’t thank you enough, you saved her life, brought the life back to her, and got her help, if there’s anything, anything you need ever, just ask,” you mom told him.
“Hey maybe you can design mine and Stacey’s house or apartment when we move in together,” he joked.
“You got it!” she exclaimed.
THE NEXT WEEK~ Taylor was pushing you to the car in a wheel chair. Your parents had to go to work. You made them go, telling them Taylor was perfectly capable of driving you home. He helped you into the car. The nurse took the wheelchair back into the hospital. It was about 8 o’ clock in the morning, you were itching to get out of the hospital and were convinced that you had been there way too long. Taylor carried you back up to your apartment. He set you down on the bed in your room. He laid down next to you. “Taylor, thanks for saving me, I love you more than words can explain,” you tell him.
“I love you too Stace,” he said, kissing you. You kissed intensely for a while and things got even hotter. Taylor started to take off your shirt and you were playing with the button on his jeans…
You rolled over and saw Taylor asleep next to you. You quietly got up and walked over to your door and grabbed your robe and put it around your bare body. You picked up all the clothes that were on the floor. You put yours in the hamper and folded Taylor’s neatly and set them on the floor by the bed. You covered his body with a sheet and kissed his neck.
“Where are you going?” he asked, trying to pull you back into bed with him.
“I’m gonna take a shower,” you say.
“Oh alright,” he said. He kissed you and then let go of your hand. You smiled and walked out of the room. Taylor laid in bed and waited for his turn in the shower.