"Sooz," Zac pleaded. "C'mon let's just go."

She just stared at him, "Please." He begged.

Susan Richards looked at him as if he had suggested that she eat a bowl of live cockroaches. "I'm not going anywhere, Zac." She stated stubbornly as she lifted her chin in defiance.

"C'mon, Sooz." Zac said taking her hand in his. "Ike's a mess and miserable without you." He said softly. "He misses you."

Her face softened, and Zac knew he had hit a tender spot. "Come on." He coaxed gently. "Let's just go."

Susan looked away for a second, then back at him. "No, Zac." She answered shakily. "I can't have a boyfriend…" Her voice trailed off as her throat tightened. "It's too hard for me."

Angrily, Zac grabbed the drink out of her hand. The liquid sloshing against the side and spilled down the cup and onto the floor. "But this makes you feel better?!" He questioned harshly. "This makes everything easy and to go away?!"

Susan gritted her teeth. "Yes." She replied sharply, grabbing it back and guzzling the beer quickly. She looked back at him, and saw the hurt that marked his perfect features. "Zac, I can handle a drink." She explained slowly. "I can't handle love."

Zac's face flushed angry red, "No, you can handle it, Sooz." He snapped. "You just don't want to."

They started to stare each other down, and Susan looked away first.

Frustration grew in him, "Give me your keys." Zac demanded, as he held his hand out, palm up.

Susan's head snapped upward. "What?" She raged.

"You heard me." Zac responded coolly. "Give me your keys. You're not driving home like that."

"Oh, give me a break, Zac." She said rolling her eyes. The effects of the alcohol are already hitting her. "I'm not even drunk yet." She denied.

Zac shook his head and shrugged. "I don't care. You drank. That's enough to tell me that you are not driving. Now give me the damn keys!" He yelled.

"No." Susan replied carelessly as she grabbed for another plastic cup full of the fowl smelling liquid.

The smell stung Zac's eyes as he stared long and hard at her. "Okay then." He said shrugging, forcing nonchalance. "Then you have to pass the key test."

Susan glared at him for a moment. "What key test?" She questioned before she hiccuped.

Zac leaned forward and motioned for her to do the same, as if he were going to pass along a secret. "The key test that the cops are doing now." He whispered loudly, his eyes looked around to see if anyone heard.

Susan looked around as well, "How does it go?" She whispered back, giving him her full attention.

Leaning back from the stench of her breath, Zac grimaced at how stupid she was already becoming. "Well here," He said holding out his hand, "Let me see your keys and I'll show you." He sighed impatiently as she stared at outstretched hand.

A little reluctantly, Susan handed him her keys. Wanting to know about the key test that the cops did.

Once Zac closed his fingers around the cool metal keys, he looked sadly up at Susan. "You fail, Sooz." He said softly before leaving her standing alone with the beer in her hand.

It took Susan several moments before she realized that she had just been had by Zac Hanson, a kid four years younger than she was. Anger coiled in her stomach and she started looking around for him.

After a few minutes of searching Susan gave up and asked to borrow her friend's car to get home. Stating that someone took her keys, her friend agreed, being too drunk to notice that Susan was drunk also.

Susan smiled victoriously as she climbed into her friend's truck and turned the key in the ignition. She waved at the figure standing in front of the automobile, realizing that it was Zac himself staring at her with shocked eyes.

She laughed as she peeled out of the driveway and started recklessly down the road. Not even noticing that the truck kept picking up speed on every corner she turned.

Almost immediately she felt her fingers messing with the knobs to the radio. "Damn fucking thing." She grumbled irritably. "It never works." She fumbled with them again, before pounding her fist on the dashboard.

It was then that all of a sudden there was a blaring horn and bright lights blinding her as soon as she looked out the windshield. Holding her arms in front of her face as a form of protection, she heard the screaming panicked voices, the tires crying, and the sound of metal crunching against metal.

The truck wasn't moving anymore when she stumbled out of it numbly. Her steps were wobbly, drunkenly, and she couldn't stop the sounds that were screeching in her ears. She sat down on the side of the road for what seemed like hours before more lights and noises came around the corner. She screamed and slammed her hands against her ears to shut it all out.

Susan felt hands on her laying her down on a small stiff bed. "Sleep." She murmured gratefully. "Just for a few minutes."

A person's voice yelled at her not to sleep. To keep her eyes open.

She remembered the voice, knew it, but ignored is just as well. Susan closed her eyes against the harsh lights and fell into a dream.

A voice screaming brought Susan out of her dark slumber. Reflexively her mouth started moving, "Zac?" She called out as she groggily tried to sit up.

Her actions in vain. She couldn't move.

Looking down at herself she saw her wrists in casts. Along with one of her legs, she felt pain shooting through her head. "Zac, where are you?" She asked panicky, frightened by what was happening and not knowing what.

"I'm here." She heard his soft voice whisper as he stepped out of the shadows by the window in the corner.

She calmed down increasingly, but was put back on edge when she saw his eyes. They looked haunted and worried. Pained by something he couldn't seem to control.

"What's happening, Zac?" She questioned as she struggled to sit up again, a sharp paralyzing pain shot in her chest and stomach. Immediately she lay back down and bit hard on her lower lip.

Zac stared down at her, angry with himself and with her. His head shook with a heavy sadness, "The doctors say you're not going to make it through the night, Sooz." He murmured brokenly.

"Why? What happened?" Susan asked getting scared again.

"Car wreck." Zac said softly as he avoided her gaze. "You were drunk, and you drove, and you got in an accident."

Susan gasped loudly. This couldn't be happening. Not to her. Not good little Susan, who had never even had a drink before. Who did everything she was told to do.

Her thoughts blurred before her, "The other car…" She asked, her voice strained and weakened.

Zac shook his head. "No one made it." He swallowed hard and turned his head away as if slapped hard across the face, "They died in the car before the ambulance got to them." He answered.

Tears started drizzling down her cheeks. "How many?" She asked brokenly.

"Three." Zac choked out, as the tears streaked down his cheeks as well.

Susan felt the pain seizing her chest. "Zac, I know it's happening now. But please…" She started to beg as she fought to stay alive until she said what she needed to.

"Shh, rest." Zac told her, coming forward and resting his hand against her forehead.

"No!" Susan said loudly. She laid one casted hand over her chest to try and ease some of the pain. "Tell them…" She began. "Tell my parents…and Isaac… that I love them." She whimpered, staring up at him with pain and regret.

Zac said nothing, he didn't move.

"Tell them!" Susan forced out. "Promise me." Her voice broke then and it started fading quickly. Her breath coming in short shallow gasps.

But he continued to stare at her. Refusing to talk or move.

Susan looked up at him with tearful eyes, both pleading and accusing.

Short seconds later, her heart rate monitor flat lined. Zac was rushed out of the room and watched through the window as the shock pedals were applied and used, as hands pounded on her chest. He watched for ten minutes. Watched as his friends' life end before him there on the table that they had moved her to.

"Hey." Taylor said softly, dry old tears stained his pale cheeks. "Are you alright?" He asked weakly as he watched the nurses cover the body in the room Zac was looking into.

Zac shook his head 'no' as he continued to watch the room and the now motionless covered body of his friend. "She wanted me to tell her parents and Isaac that she loved them. She wanted me to promise her that I would tell them."

Taylor took in a deep sharp breath. "Did you tell her that they were the ones in the other car?"

"No." Zac whispered, then turned to him. "I couldn't. I wanted her to leave here not knowing she killed the three people who loved her the most in this world.

Taylor nodded and wrapped his arm around his shoulders. "C'mon." He said gently. "Let's go. Mom and dad need us. So do the little ones."

Zac looked up at him; tears in his eyes that slowly and painfully started to run down his cheeks. He nodded his consent and let Taylor walk him down the too clean of a hallway. Wrapping his arm around his brother's waist he leaned into him, asking for some strength. "I should have stopped her." He confessed guiltily.

The sky was dark, the clouds were grey, and it was drizzling so very faintly. Lightening would flash every once in a while and the thunder would roll quietly behind it as if not to interrupt the moment between the two mourners and the gravestone.

"I should have stopped her." The younger one murmured as the tears flowed freely down his cheeks. So used to the tears now. They seemed to be running down his cheeks constantly lately, becoming a main part in his life.

"C'mon, Zac." Taylor said standing behind him. "Let's go say 'hi' to Ike." He said in a strangled voice. "And tell him the news about the record."

Zac stood up from his bended knee position. "I should have stopped you." He stated to the gravestone.

Encircling Zac's shoulders under his arm, Taylor murmured, "C'mon."

Nodding, the two walked down the aisle's of gravestones until they reached another.

This time Taylor kneeled down before it. "Hey, bro." He choked out. "Got some news." He said trying to smile and laugh, failing. "It's about the new record. We had some of the recordings of us practicing the songs and we put those on the new album. Its just us three jamming." He said as fat tears started to spill more quickly.

Then, as if a damn had burst inside him he screamed out painfully, "Hanson's finished, Ike!" Tears racked his body; "We can't do the music without you! You made it complete. It can't work with just two Hanson brothers. It doesn't work! We don't work! We need the third. We need you, Ike!"

Zac quickly dropped to his knees and hugged Taylor tightly to him. Letting him cry on his shoulder as well as crying on his.

I should have stopped her. Zac repeated in his head. I should have stopped her.