When someone you love get hurts, you imagine the worst.

When it's someone older, someone who's more liable to get sick, your mind goes into overdrive. You imagine them in a hospital bed, telling you it's their time to go. That one day you'll watch their coffin be lowered into a grave, and you wish that you'd had time to tell them everything you wanted to say.

Almost as if they couldn't feel what was going on around them, Brian and Lizzy burst into the hospital in a state of numbness, Lizzy clutching Lisa like she was the one who had just had a heart attack, followed by their friends- all of whom were worried sick about their favourite Papa Gates.
"You! Anyone- please tell me where my father is!" Brian grabs a passing nurse and yells at her. The nurse runs away, terrified of the hysterical man in front of her, and a male nurse steps forward.

"Mr and Miss Haner? Right this way. Please leave your entourage in the waiting room" he says curtly, and Lizzy hands Lisa over to Jimmy.

Zacky, Matt, Jimmy and Lacey smile sympathetically at their friends and walk over to the long line of chairs circling the room, Jimmy distracting Lisa by making stupid faces behind Matt. The two Haner siblings follow the nurse down the long corridor, each room making them more nervous than before. Brian grabs Lizzy's hand in comfort, and knowing that he has to put up a brave front as the brother and the eldest sibling, she squeezes it gratefully.

As they're lead into his room, Lizzy almost cries out in sheer shock. Hooked up to a bundle of IV's, something dripping into his arm, and the steady beating of a now working heart- is her daddy. Papa Gates- the man she always believed was invisible growing up, much like Brian.
She didn't think they were capable of getting hurt.
"Daddy..." she whispers, tears spilling out of her eyes, and Brian slowly pulls her into his arms, kissing the top of her head and holding her close.

He can't cry here. Sure he wants to- it's the only way to express the numbness he feels- but he can't, not for his little sister.
He has to be strong for her.
"Mr Haner passed out about a half hour ago. He was conscious for a little while, and he told me to give this to someone named Lizzy" the nurse says, interrupting their moment and holding a piece of scrunched up paper in his hand.

Lizzy takes the piece of paper and unfurls it, her fathers neat print faded on the lines.
'You have to tell him, Liz. He deserves to know about your dreams' is all it says. Her dad knew about her applying to Harvard- but he didn't know that she'd gotten the scholarship, or that she hadn't told anyone else- not even her older brother, the same one who's looking over her shoulder, reading the message.
"What's he talking about? Please don't tell me you're cheating on Zacky. Or that you're pregnant. Please tell me you're not pregnant, because I will rip off Baker's balls and shove them so far up his ass he'll----"

"BRIAN! I'm not pregnant and I'm not cheating on Zacky. It's something else" Lizzy says, slapping her brothers arm in an attempt to get him to shut up. She turns to the male nurse, who's checking her dad's charts.
"Will you come and find us when he wakes up?" she asks and he nods, barely looking up from his chart before Lizzy's dragged her brother out of the room, to a set of two seats a few feet away.

"Liz, you're freaking me out. You're the good Haner- you can't have done something that terrible" Brian says with a grin, taking his sisters hands in his again. He's missed just talking to his sister- but now it feels like he's hiding something from her.
"When you guys were on tour, before this whole situation with Lisa happened, I started applying for college. You know I've always wanted to be a lawyer- and this was my chance to get somewhere" she started and Brian nodded.

"Not only are you the good one, but you're the smart one too. I'm just the fuck up musician of the family" Brian says, ignoring the glares he gets from some passing nurses. Lizzy hangs her head, hating how upbeat her brother seemed when she was about to tell him her news.
"Well, yesterday, I got a call from the dean. At Harvard Law. They offered me a full scholarship starting in the fall" she manages to say again before Brian sweeps her up in a huge hug.
"Lizzy that's amazing! I'm so proud of you little sis, you're making the big time!"
"I have to move to Massachusetts for eight years!" she suddenly confesses and Brian drops his hold on her, the happiness nothing more than a distant memory.
"Eight? Eight years?" Brian stutters, before he falls back into the chair, dumbfounded.
"That's a hell of a long time"
"I know, Brian, but it's Harvard. It's the dream"

"Then you go. Go to Massachusetts, make your dream happen- and then become a big shot lawyer. I will always be proud of you, Liz, and I will support you in whatever you choose to do. And if that includes you going to the East Coast, then so be it. Hey, there's always Skype, and I'll see you when we tour there. I'll fly out and help you find an apartment. Sissy, don't let me stop you from following your heart" Brian says, pulling his sister into his arms again and hugging her tightly.

"Thank you Bri. I'm just scared of what Zacky's going to say when he finds out" Lizzy mumbles, only for a voice above them to say,
"Finds out about what?"
Zacky.
Lizzy stands up, pushing her brother back down onto the seat when he tries to get up and be protective.

"Zacky, I just got accepted into college. Harvard Law in fact" she says, and his face breaks into a relieved smile, but before he can congratulate her, she confesses the worst part.
"But it means me moving to Massachusetts in the fall. And staying there for eight years"
His smile drops and is suddenly replaced with a look of hurt, confusion and slight anger. He looks over at Brian and then at Lizzy, and slams his fist into the side of the wall.

"So you're just going to pack up and leave just like that?" he yells and she flinches. She's always been partial to fighting.
"Good fucking luck with the rest of your life, Lizzy. Just don't expect to see me in it" Zacky spits at her and stalks off down the hallway, seething with anger. Brian jumps up as soon as hears the back door slam against the wall and follows his friend, muttering angry threats under his breath.

But Lizzy just falls back onto the plastic chair, holding her head in her hands.

If she was so smart- how come she couldn't control her own life?