" Ike your cheating!" Zac exclaimed looking down at the game board that was sitting on Tara's lap.
Isaac rolled his eyes and propped his arms up on the metal railing along side of Tara's hospital bed. " It's 'Sorry' Zac... How do you cheat at Sorry?" Tara giggled and looked at her best friend.
" I dont know, you tell me, Mr. I'm going to win by cheating." Zac shot back. He pointed his finger at the last card that Ike had drawn. It read 5. " That card says 5, you moved 6." he pointed looking up at his older brother with a satisfied look.
Taylor reached over from the other side of the hospital bed. He plucked up the culprit game peice and looked at Zac.
" Ike was right here, Now look Zac." Zac watched Taylor's hand as he moved the red peice slowly 5 spaces with an astonished look on his face. " See, that is 5, this is where Ike just was."
Zac gave Taylor a mocked stunned look. " No shit Tay, thats where he just was, because he was back another space and he cheated!" The 13 year old blonde exclaimed. He swept his hair away from his face and sighed. " Fine, I give up, Ike your not cheating."
" We already knew I wasn't cheating Zac." Isaac muttered. Tara laughed and picked up a card.
" Its my turn anyway." She said looking at her card.
" No its not, Its my turn!" Zac exclaimed snatching the card out of Tara's hand. Her jaw dropped open with shock as she looked at her best friend. She snapped it shut then rolled her eyes.
" Ok, whatever, its your turn, go and get it over with." Taylor frowned and looked to his brother along with Ike, who had an almost annoyed look on his face.
All four blonde heads turned as the room door open and a doctor stepped in with a file folder. He pulled the door shut behind them, then turned around to see the group. " Wow its a party! What are we playing kids?" A pleasant smile spread across Tara's face as she watched the much younger and happier doctor pull a chair up and sit on it beside Zac. Zac smiled at the doctor and stuck his hand out exuberantly.
" Im Zac, Tara's best friend." He exclaimed. The doctor took his hand and shook it. " Im Doctor Kitter, You can call me Doctor K." He said polietly.
" Im Ike, and this is Tay, Were Zac's older brother's and Tara's friends. Ike shook the doctor's hand, and then Taylor did the same.
The doctor looked over the three boys. " Well, I just have to say, this is the closest ive ever been to famous people, My 7 year old daughter just loves you guys." He said smileing.
" Cool, tell her we said Hi, maybe we can sign something for her then too." Taylor offered.
The doctor smiled then looked to Tara. " Back on track here, I have some questions to ask you Tara."
Tara smiled. " Ok "
Doctor K looked down at his clipboard and scribbled something down quickly, in his scrawled Doctor handwriting. "Ok, first thing first, Do you have any general pains?" Tara scrunched her face in concentration for a second, then let it back out.
" I guess a little." she replied. Zac smiled reasuringly at her.
" Well, I need more detail that that." Doctor K chuckled then said, " Like where the pain is located, what kind of pain, wether it is sharp, dull, reacuring, You tell me."
" Ok." Tara replied. She sat for a second, mentally scrutinizing all of her injurys. " Well..." She started. " My knee has had a dull pain in it all day, but I guess that is expected right?" she asked glancing down at the cast incased limb.
" Yes that is completely normal after surgery." The brown haired, blue eyed, Doctor responded scribbling something down on his clipboard again.
Zac glanced down at what the Doctor was writing. His eyes traced the rigid lines, which looked to be his handwriting. It was so scrawled he couldnt tell.
" And...My lip stings, and my cheek is numb." Tara observed touching her cheek lightly with her good hand.
After conversing for a little while more, the brothers and doctor left Tara by herself to sleep.
"Tara!" Jessica Hanson exclaimed throwing her arms around the older girls shoulders excitedly. The smaller blonde girl smiled exuberantly glad to see her friend. "I made you something, your going to love it!" Jessica added reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small white wrapped package.
" Awe, you shouldnt have Jessie." Tara remarked slinging her good arm around her shoulders.
" Yes she should of and you know it." Zac shot as he walked past Tara with the big teddy bear that the brothers had bought her. Tara rolled her eyes and smiled as Jessica handed her the small wrapped presant.
" Do you want me to open it now or later?" Tara asked holding the dollar bill sized presant. Jessica shrugged her shoulders.
" It doesn't matter." she answered watching Taylor carry a bouquet of flowers into the house.
" Ok, I think im going to open it later then, so I can help them carry things inside ok?" Tara said polietly smiling.
" Thats fine." Jessica answered grinning.
" Tara your not allowed to carry anything." Mrs. Richards reminded her walking into the door of the Hanson house with Mr. and Mrs. Hanson. They had all planned a small picnic for Tara's homecoming.
Tara sighed and nodded, it was going to take a while for her to get used to her temporary catered lifestyle. "Do you want to go outside with your brothers'?" Tara asked Jessica who was standing beside her.
Jessica looked up at Tara and nodded. " Sure lets go." Forgetting about her leg, Tara tried to step forward, like she would of any other time.
"Ooh." she muttered looking around for her crutches. She had only stayed in the hospital for 3 days before she was sent back home, But it had seemed like forever to the normally active 14 year old. Tara glanced around the small hallway. She spotted her crutches leaning against the wall near the door. She smiled sheepishly at Jessica. " Can you do me a favor?" she asked glancing towards her crutches.
This is really going to take alot of getting used to." So can you still feel your leg?" Zac questioned loudly with a mouthfull of macaroni salad. Tara nodded and motioned towards her foot with her braced wrist.
" See, I can wiggle my toes now." she said proudly taking a sip of her iced tea and wiggling her toes. She was so glad that it was summer, She would of hated to have been cooped up in school like this.
" Good Job Tara!" Taylor exclaimed watching her wiggle her toes for Zac.
" Now that Is some real talent!" Ike joked along. The four were sitting together underneath the big oak tree in the hanson's back yard eating there picnic lunch in honor of Tara.
" Well, actually it is like, big time progress from the other day." She remarked looking thoughtfully at her leg. The cast came the whole way up to the edge of her short cut off's now. She knew she probably looked odd with stitches in her face, her leg in a huge cast, and her wrist in a brace. I guess that's the price to pay for doing something stupid. Something inside her whispered.
After they had finished eating, Tara's mom and Mr. and Mrs. Hanson were sitting in the living room drinking coffee and talking, Tara hobbled in with Zac, Tay, and Ike to go up to their bedroom.
Mrs. Richard's eyes followed her daughter up the steps slowly as she removed her lips from her coffee cup to watch her. " Honey can you make it ok?" She called worridley. Tara nodded as Ike took her arm and helped her up the stairs.
" I have her Mrs.Richards, dont worry." He replied as they disapeered at the top of the stairs.
Tara hobbled past the girls room and looked in to see them playing Barbies. She smiled, wishing that she had younger sisters. The younger Hanson's had always been like sisters and brothers to her. As she hobbled clumsly on her crutches into the older brothers' room, she watched Zac looking at her with worried eyes. She sighed. Tara knew that he felt guilty for what happened. Tara had managed to convince herself that it was nobody's fault. No one knew that the car was going to come around the corner at the same second Tara walked out into the road. As Andi's face came into her mind she frowned. She was still mad at her, But somehow she had forgiven her friend. She was embarrased to talk to her though, because of the way she acted towards her when she came to visit.
Tara sat down on Taylor's bed and proped her encased leg up on the footstool Zac had put there for her.
She layed back and sighed as Ike picked up his guitar and strummed on it quietly.
" What do you guys want to do? " Zac said excitedly picking up a stuffed soccer ball and bouncing it off his head.
" How 'bout we watch you act stupid?" Taylor asked looking at his younger brother. Zac caught the stuffed soccer ball and lobbed it at Taylor's head. " Think fast!" He exclaimed. The ball bounced off Tay's face. He sat there stunned for a few seconds before tossing the ball aside and jumping up to grab his younger brother. Tara giggled, happy to be...well happy for once in the past few days.
Ike heard her laugh and looked up from his guitar. Tara caught him smile in relief. She realized that everyone was really worried about her.
" Isaac, Taylor, Can you come down for a minute." Came Mr. Hanson's voice. " I need you to carry this picnic table back onto the porch." Walker added from the bottom from the stair case.
Taylor glanced to Ike and made a annoyed face. Ike layed his guitar down on the bed and stood up pulling Taylor out the door behind him. " Its just a picnic table Tay, not the Titanic." Tara and Zac laughed. She watched Zac look down and study the light blue carpet for a minute. He then sat down on the bottom bunk and looked across to her where she sat on Tay's bed.
" I want to make a promise to you Tara." Zac said clasping his hands together on his lap and looking at her solemly.
" Um, ok." She responded scratching her forehead and brushing her blonde hair out of her blue eyes.
" I promise that when you get better, I wont let anything ever happen to you again." He explained sincerly. Tara's jaw fell open and she quickly snapped it back shut again.
" Isin't that going to be a little bit hard to keep? I mean you cant stop everything from happening." She mummered looking at her best friend.
Zac frowned and looked at his hands. " Yeah I guess so, let me revise it, I promise that when you get better, I will try my hardest to not let anything happen to you again." he commented.
Tara smiled. " Ok... And my promise is that I will try my hardest to let you make sure that nothing happens to me again." She replied.
" Ok that sounds like a deal to me." Zac said reaching out to shake her hand. Tara took his hand and shook.
" Deal "
" Tara, why dont you ask your mother if you can spend the night?" Mrs.Hanson suggested as Tara hobbled past on her crutches. Tara looked up and smiled.
" Thanks, but I think I would be better off at home for my first night back." She replied polietly.
Mrs.Hanson put her hand on her forehead as she set her coffee cup down on the white fomica counter top. " That's right. Im so busy these days, I seem to forget about everything and anything." She laughed picking up her coffee cup back up and walking into the living room. " Well whenever you feel up to it, feel free to come over dear."
" Do you want me to help you get into your pajama's?" Mrs. Richards asked peeking into Tara's room. Tara stood with her shirt halfway over her head. Her right arm was sticking out akwardly in its brace, and her left arm was straight up in the air. Tara giggled.
" Yeah if you could Mom." She replied glancing at her from the top of her tee shirt. Mrs. Richards walked in and pulled the shirt over both of her daughters arms, then over her head. She glanced down at the bottom half of Tara. She had already managed to get her boxers on.
She smiled. " Wow and that was the hard part too." Tara laughed at her mom and backed up towards her bed. She sat down slowley and carefully as she propped her leg up on some bulging pillows. She set her arm down carefully beside her under her moms gaze. After she was settled, her mother bent down and kissed her forehead lightly. " Make sure you dont thrash around too much." she warned with a smile.
Tara smiled back. "I'll try."
" Good night hon." her mom said before walking to the door.
After the light was off and Tara's eyes got used to the dark of the room. She focused her gaze of the Hanson poster on her roof. Every night before she went to bed, she would look at it and smile, so the brother's were the first thing she thought of when she woke up. Tara ran her eyes over Zac's darkend face. The life size poster of the brothers loomed ahead of her, as Zac's caramel colored eyes seemed to burn into hers. The fuzzy black outline on everything gave his face a babyish look. But that just makes him all the cuter. Tara squeezed her eyes shut, But all she could think of was Zac, and his promise. She could hear the sincerity in his voice when he made it. She knew that he would never break it. Maybe this accident was for the best, and I know that I probably should never say that. But I think it may have opened a brand new door to my relationship with Zac
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