Chapter
47
I grinned, as Heidi and Nick
walked in. “Hey, Nick!” I greeted. “How are you doing?”
He smiled, but his eyes were
sad. “Oh, you know…” he said with a
shrug.
I nodded, knowing what he
meant. After all, I had been there
before with Josh, not knowing if my loved one would make it or not. Heidi had too, only in her case, the outcome
hadn’t been good, as it had in mine.
“So, did you name the baby
yet?” Nick asked, changing the subject.
I grinned, glancing at
Josh. “Yes, we did,” I said. “Her name is Hallie Samantha Benton.”
“Samantha?” Nick asked. I could have sworn I saw a mist of tears form
in his eyes, but as soon as it appeared, it was gone. “Aw, guys, that’s really nice of you.”
“Nick, it wasn’t to be ‘nice’. It’s because we care about Sammy, and we’re
both praying for her. We wanted to name
our baby in her honor,” I said.
“Thanks, guys,” Nick
said. He leaned over and gave me a
gentle hug. I hugged him back.
“Has there been any change
with her?” I asked hopefully.
Nick shook his head
sadly. “Not that I can tell,” he
said. “Megan and I have been in with her
for hours, and she hasn’t even waken up.”
“How’s Megan doing?” I asked.
“She’s really upset,” he
said. Then his eyes widened. “Oh!” he exclaimed.
“What?” I asked, alarmed.
“I have to tell you guys
something that Megan told me,” he said, and began to tell us the story that
Megan had told him earlier, about her kidnapping.
“Oh, my God,” I gasped when he
was done. “Justin?”
Nick nodded, his eyes growing
cold with hate at the mention of Justin.
“Yeah,” he said. “So then I told
Megan that Justin was her real father.”
My eyes widened. “And how did she take that one?” I asked.
“She cried,” he said. “We talked for awhile though, and I think
she’s okay now. She knows that there’s
nothing any of us can do about that, so there’s no use dwelling on it.”
I nodded. “Still, what a horrible thing to find
out. That your dad is a psychotic killer
who tried to kill your mom, her friends, and her fiancée.”
Nick nodded. “I just hope he won’t succeed,” he said
quietly.
***
Awhile later, Nick left to go
back to be with Sammy, and there was another knock on the door.
Josh went to open the door,
and he gasped when he saw who was there.
He stepped back to let the person enter, and I gasped in delight as
well. It was Brian, sitting in a
wheelchair, being wheeled into the room by Leighanne.
”Hey, guys!” I said, grinning.
“Hey, Jules!” Brian greeted,
grinning back. “I finally complained so
much my doctor had to let me come up to see you.”
I laughed. “So how are you doing?” I asked.
“Me?! How are you doing?” he asked,
laughing.
“I’m fine,” I said. “I’m a mother now though.”
“I know,” he said. “Hallie Samantha, huh? That’s sweet.”
I smiled. “Thanks,” I said. “So, how are you really?”
He shrugged. “Not too bad,” he said. “I have to have surgery on my leg tomorrow
though.” He made a face.
“You’ll get through that fine
and be on your feet again in now time,” I said encouragingly.
“Yeah, I hope so,” he
said. “I’m glad this happened now though
and not fifteen years ago. I don’t know
how I would have been able to get up on stage and dance.”
I laughed. “True,” I said.
“Hey, I have some news for
you,” he said.
“What?” I asked.
“Well, I asked a nurse to find
some information on the person in the other car that hit us,” he said.
“Oh,” I said. “The woman.
Her name’s Jaycee Bass. This is
really coincidental, but I think she’s Lance’s sister or something.”
Brian chuckled. “Uh, not quite,” he said. “But first, let me tell you, she’s dead.”
My mouth dropped open. “Oh, my God,” I breathed.
He nodded. “Yeah, she had too many internal
injuries. The nurse said she died
shortly after she was brought here.”
“Oh, God,” I said again. I suddenly felt horrible guilty. Of course, the crash had been an accident,
but still, it was horrible knowing that a crash I had been involved in had killed
a person.
“Listen, Julie, I felt bad too
when I found out, but there’s something else you need to know,” Brian
continued.
“What?” I asked.
“Well, first of all, when they
were getting her car ready to be towed, they happened to open the trunk because
they were going to get all her possessions out of the car to take to the
hospital. And do you know what they
found in her trunk?”
“What?” I asked.
“A trunk full of guns and
explosives,” Brian said. My mouth
dropped open. “All illegally
purchased. And the most important thing: Jaycee Bass was not Lance Bass’s sister. She was Lance Bass.”
My jaw dropped even
further. “You mean-“
“Lance had a sex change a few
years ago, shortly after he got out of prison,” Brian said, his mouth quivering
as he tried to hold in his laughter.
I couldn’t hold mine in. I burst out laughing, and it felt good. “So, Lance is dead?” I asked between laughs.
Brian nodded. “And it’s a good thing, because the nurse
said the police said he… or she… was probably heading to your house.”
I stopped laughing
suddenly. “Man, it’s a good thing we ran
out of beer then,” I said, and we both chuckled again.
***
Hours passed, and soon it was
mid-morning, the next day. Pretty much
everyone had gone back to their hotels or to our house to sleep in the very
early hours of the night. The only ones
still at the hospital, besides those of us that were patients, were Nick and
Megan, who refused to leave. Both of
them had crashed in the chairs in the waiting room outside the ICU.
It was Nick who woke up first,
after sleeping only a few short hours.
His mind was foggy, but right away, he remembered where he was and why
he was there, and his first concern was Sammy.
He left Megan curled up in one of the chairs, sound asleep, and wandered
down the empty hall to Sammy’s room.
Once he was in Sammy’s room,
Nick took his customary spot in the chair next to her bed and took her hand in
his. But this time, Sammy stirred at his
touch.
“Sammy?” Nick asked hopefully,
his gaze fixed on Sammy’s face. Sure
enough, her eyelids fluttered, and moments later, her hazel eyes opened. “Sammy,” Nick said again, a grin spreading
across his face. “I’m here, baby,” he
said, giving her hand a squeeze.
Sammy looked up at him, and her gaze never left his face. He saw her mouth open around the tube that
was shoved down her throat, and he knew she wanted to talk.
“You can’t talk right now,
sweetie,” Nick said. “You’re on a
respirator, to help you breath.” Sammy’s
brow furrowed as she frowned. “I know
you don’t like it, but you have to be on it, for now,” Nick told her. “But hey, guess what? Julie had her baby,” he said, changing the
subject.
Sammy’s eyes widened in
shock.
“Yeah, I know. She went into early labor. They’ve got the baby in NeoICU right now, and
they’re hoping that she’ll pull though.
She’s awfully premature, but with some prayers, she could make it.”
Sammy’s eyes showed a mix of
sadness and happiness at the same time.
“Anyway, the baby’s a girl, and
do you know what Julie and Josh named it?
Hallie Samantha,” Nick said, smiling widely.
Sammy’s eyes brightened, and
she managed to smile slightly, even with the tube coming out of her mouth. She frowned at the tube once again. Nick saw a familiar stony gaze appear in
Sammy’s eyes, and he couldn’t help but smile.
She could be so stubborn at times.
It annoyed him sometimes, but right then, he was so glad to have her
awake, he didn’t care one bit.
***
