Howie was pretty tired after their first concert in almost a week and then Laura's and Lisa's birthday party that he couldn't wait to get back and go to sleep. He kept thinking about how great it was to see Laura on stage, singing with Kevin. The love they had in their eyes for each other was so intense, Howie couldn't help but smile when he thought of it. His pleasant thoughts were interrupted by an obstruction ahead of him in the road. "Wow, must have been an accident of some sorts. I hope everything and everyone's OK," Howie thought outloud as he slowed down to yield. There was 3 police cars and 2 ambulances there, and 2 officers were directing traffic by. Howie waited his turn to drive by the scene. Human curiosity got the better of him, and he had to look the way of the accident as he drove by. Needless to say he was stunned to recognize someone on the scene. Howie pulled over and an officer tried stopping him as he tried to walk up.
"Lisa!" he shouted as he was being held back by an officer. Lisa saw him promptly and alerted the officer that he was OK and he was a close friend. As soon as the officer let him by, Lisa ran into his arms.
"Howie! She's dead, she's dead... she's gone," Lisa repeated over and over again. "Hon, what do you mean? Lisa, tell me what happened. What's going on? Who's dead??" Howie was getting frightened by the fear in Lisa's voice. Howie's questions were soon answered as he saw a gurney with Laura lying on it being wheeled to one of the ambulances.
"Oh my God! Laura!!" Howie yelled. He couldn't believe what he saw. "Lisa, what happened?! You've got to tell me!" Howie demanded, but Lisa was just crying too much as she watch her twin sister, her only sister, being transferred into an ambulance. "I gotta go with her, let me go with her!" she yelled as they shut the doors. An EMT and an officer came up. "Miss Mitchell, it would be best if you didn't ride with your sister, but you will be in the ambulance right behind her and you can stay with her in the hospital. We promise we'll take good care of her." The EMT was a woman, about Lisa's and Laura's age, and she had a tone in her voice that seemed to calm Lisa down, even if just for a few moments. Howie insisted that he ride with Lisa to the hospital, and the EMT said that if Lisa wanted to ride with him in his car that it would be OK since she only had some minor cuts and bruises, but she had to go straight to the hospital to be checked out to know for sure. Howie guaranteed that they would go nowhere but the hospital. He led Lisa to his car, got her in and drove off, following the ambulances.
Kevin glanced at the clock for what seemed to be the thousandth time in an hour. It was almost 3:30 am, and he had been back at the hotel for almost two and a half hours now, plus he expected Laura to have been there already when he got back. When she wasn't, he just dismissed it, thinking that she and Lisa got stuck in traffic. But Kevin couldn't deny it anymore. He was starting to get very worried about Laura. Kevin picked up the phone and dialed the front desk.
"No, I'm sorry, Mr. Richardson. There are no messages from Ms. Mitchell. If she calls we will definitely transfer them to your room immediately. I'm so sorry I can't be of any more help to you," the man working the front desk said. "No, it's ok. You've been great. Thank you very much," Kevin said and he hung up the phone. Not so much as a few seconds later, the phone rang. Kevin practically fell over racing back to the phone. He picked it up frantically and spoke.
"Laura? Is that you beautiful?" Kevin said with hope in his voice. "No, Kevin, it's me--Howie. Kevin, you've got to come to St. Elizabeth's Hospital immediately." Kevin could hear the fear in Howie's trembling voice. He could tell that something was indeed very wrong. "Why? What's going on, Howie? Tell me!" Howie sighed as he answered, "Kevin--just come down here. All your questions will be--"
Kevin interrupted Howie. "NO! D, please tell me what's going on, I've got to know!!" Howie sighed heavily, and Kevin could hear that he was sobbing quietly as he answered. "Kevin, there's been an accident..."
Kevin was stunned. He hung up the phone, not even answering Howie. He raced around the hotel room, looking for his shoes, coat and keys. He ran out of the room and pressed the elevator button, but it was taking too long to reach his floor, so Kevin ran down the stairwell to the front lobby. Stopping at the desk, he spoke to the man working there. "I need a driver to take me to St. Elizabeth's immediately. Please help me!" he said hysterically. The man immediately picked up the phone and dialed for a driver. Kevin waited for only about 2 minutes for the driver, but to him it seemed like the longest 2 minutes of his life.
The driver led Kevin out to one of the hotel's cars and drove off towards the hospital. Again the time it took to get to the hospital was only 10 minutes, but it seemed like an eternity. The car had barely stopped moving when Kevin opened the door and ran into the emergency entrance of the hospital. He looked around to see Howie pacing in the waiting area. A few minutes after he called Kevin, he called AJ, Brian and Nick as well. Between waiting for someone to tell him what was wrong with Laura, waiting to hear confirmation that Lisa was OK, and waiting for Kevin and the guys, he was quite anxious. Kevin spoke up, getting Howie's attention.
"Howie! What's going on? Tell me!" Kevin was terrified not knowing what had happened, except that there was an accident. Howie's face wasn't his usual smiling face, but tear-stained and very tired looking. He looked up at Kevin and sighed. "You better sit down, Kevin," he said as they both sat down and he told Kevin about what he knew, which wasn't much.
"So, when I saw Laura being wheeled into the ambulance... I just freaked. I had to come here with Lisa and find out what happened, so the EMT said it was OK if Lisa rode with me to the hospital since she wasn't in any danger. So I asked her in the car if she knew what happened. All she knew is that some guy was following them really close as they were on their way down the highway. She tapped on the brakes to try to get the guy to back off, but that just seemed to aggravate him more, and before she knew it, he had ran them off the road, and drove off himself. She remembers her airbag opening, the car flipping over twice and she heard glass shatter and metal bending and creaking. She says she blacked out for a minute, but when she came to, she said that Laura's airbag had failed, and her head had gone though the windshield, along with half of the rest of her body. Lisa screamed and flagged down the first car she saw, and thankfully it happened to be a state trooper. He radioed more officers and the hospital. About 45 minutes later was when I came upon the scene and saw Lisa standing near the wreckage and saw Laura--" Howie started to cry again. "Well, needless to say, Laura is being examined right now. She doesn't look good, Kevin. She looked very fragile; very broken." Howie stopped to let Kevin soak in all that he had told him. He knew it was going to hit him hard, not just because he loved Laura so much, but also because of Nicole's accident. He knew that this was going to dig up a lot of bad memories for Kevin because of Nicole's death. Howie's heart ached as he looked at his friend's eyes. Kevin was trying to fight back tears, he could tell. Kevin took a deep breath and asked, almost in a whisper, "Where is Laura now? I've got to see her. I've got to know--" Kevin stopped when he saw two doctors walk into the waiting room with Lisa following close behind. She saw Kevin and ran up to him and into his arms and sobbed like a baby. Kevin just held her tightly as the doctor's began speaking.
"Laura has suffered some massive head trauma. She's also bleeding internally. We've put her on several intravenous drugs to help keep the swelling down in her brain and to help clot the bleeding. Unfortunately now it's just a waiting game as to what's going to happen. We wish we could bring you more positive news, or more definite news, but we promise we are going to do everything in our power to make sure she doesn't get worse. We will keep you posted--" The doctor hesitated for a few seconds, and after lacking the ability to say anything else, he and his colleague turned and walked back to the ICU.
Lisa's crying intensified. "I'm losing her, I can feel she's leaving." Laura had said on the way to their Christmas celebration that she and her sister had that psychic twin connection, and Kevin feared that Lisa's feelings about her twin were very real. Just then it hit him like a ton of bricks. "Oh my God--why?!?" he said before breaking down and crying. Just then AJ, Nick and Brian arrived at the hospital and saw Kevin embracing Lisa crying, and Howie with his hands on each of their shoulders, crying also. They didn't ask any questions yet, just joined hands with all of them and Howie led them in a prayer.
Hours had passed. It was already past noon the next day. Kevin was sitting near the window, holding the ring he intended on giving her last night. He closed his eyes as the tears started to flow again. Why? Why Laura? She's so kind, so generous, so beautiful... just like Nicole was. Kevin was stunned by his thoughts. He hadn't thought about Nicole in so long, but just now thinking of her, he realized that this was the same thing that happened to her. He hadn't made that connection until now. Before he could react to that pain of going through the same thing once again and the fear of losing Laura the way he lost Nicole years ago, a nurse walked into the waiting room. Everyone looked up anxiously hoping for good news, but the look on her face was anything but happy.
"I've come bearing good news and bad news. The good news is Laura's internal bleeding has stopped, so she won't need surgery, like we had thought she might. But, her brain swelling has increased and she has slipped into a coma. We are monitoring her constantly and will let you know if there are any changes."
Kevin spoke up. "I've got to see her. I'm her boyfriend, and I've been up all night waiting to see her. Please let me see her." The nurse forced a smile on Kevin's, Lisa's and everyone's behalf. "Yes, of course. You may go see her--any of you may go see her at any time. The more people that are around her that love her, the better her chances are of healing."
The nurse led all of them to Laura's room. The scene was all too familiar to Kevin--the beeping and buzzing of monitors and machines and the sight of Laura hooked up to those very machines. Kevin thought he would die himself right there, but knowing that Laura needed him to be strong and be there for her, he pulled himself together and sat down next to Laura's bed, took her hand and kissed it. Lisa again started crying and ran out of the room, almost running over her parents, who had finally arrived from home after hearing the news of their daughters' accident. Bob ran after Lisa while Julie went in to see Laura. She came up behind Kevin, putting her arms around his neck, hugging him. He reached up with one hand, still holding Laura's hand in the other, and touched Julie's arm. Julie kissed him on the cheek and half-whispered in his ear. "I know my daughter, Kevin. She's a fighter, and she's going to fight to come back to us--to you. She loves you more than I think she even knows. Your love for her will bring her around. I have faith in that. Never give up on that love, and she'll come around before you know it, you'll see." Julie squeezed Kevin a bit before breaking her embrace and leaving the room. Everyone else acknowledged Kevin with nods and looks of empathy as they left the room one by one. Soon Kevin was alone with Laura. He finally broke down and cried, still holding her hand tightly as he spoke to her.
"Laura... oh God, Laura I need you. You've got to come back to me. I love you so much. Please fight for me, for us. I'm here for you, I'll never leave your side." Kevin began to sing the song Anywhere For You to her as he laid his head down gently on her stomach, not letting go of her hand. Again he started to cry. This can't happen again. I won't let it. I won't let her go! he thought as he tried to blink back his tears and continued singing to Laura. Kevin knew that Julie was right. Laura was a fighter, and he knew she'd fight for her love for him. But was it going to be enough? Only time would tell...
Fine. Go back to the first page. Be that way.
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