Matt

Something told me that Erin hadn’t gone home when she left the house, and the fact that I was calling Jimmy, Johnny and Zack and getting no reply meant she was probably over at their place digging for more answers.

“She’s on the phone with someone,” Brian groaned, sliding his phone into his pocket “I’ll call her
again soon,”

“I think she’s down at the guys’ place,” I said “All of their phones are off, and they’re never off,”

“Well it can’t hurt to go down there and find out,”

I grabbed my phone again and shrugged into my leather jacket, it would provide some protection from the rain.

We just walked down the street in a comfortable silence and let ourselves into the guys’ house, where we found the three of them sitting around, drinking beer and watching TV and Papa Gates was with them.

“Dad?” Brian asked, removing his jacket “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I came to hang out with the guys, and don’t worry, I talked Erin down,” He smiled at Brian.

“Talked her down?”

“She was all worked up about the secrets and she was interrogating the boys, I calmed her down, she’ll be fine now,”

“So where is she?” I asked “Is she still here or did she go home?”

“She left, dude.” Zack said “Probably went home,”

“Her car wasn’t in the driveway when we left my place,” I said.

“Then she went for a drive to cool off,” Papa Gates said.

“That’s ridiculous, why would she be driving in this storm?” Brian asked as he started to pace “That’s fucking ridiculous,”

“Son, just take a seat, have a beer,”

“Have a beer?!” He asked, raising his voice “My wife is out there, fuck knows where in the middle of this storm, you can’t see the end of the street from here and you want me to have a beer while my entire life is out there?!”

“Brian, just calm down, Erin isn’t stupid, she’ll be fine,” Johnny said.

Brian was about to yell something at him, but was cut off by his cell ringing in his pocket. He hurriedly pulled it out and told us that it was Erin.

“Erin, baby, where are you?!” He asked quickly, completely panicked “What?” His face had fallen, he looked like he’d seen a ghost “This is some sick prank, how did you get my wife’s phone?” He asked “Shit,” Tears started to stream down his face and he collapsed into a heap on the floor and dropped his phone causing it to skid across the floor slightly, I grabbed it while Papa Gates rushed to his son and the guys stood around, not knowing what to do.

“Hello?” I asked, pressing the phone to my ear “Who is this?”

“Hi there, my name is Franklin Winchester, I’m a paramedic and I was called to the scene of an accident involving Mrs Haner and an unknown driver,” My heart stopped and my stomach dropped and I knew I had the same look on my face that Brian had only moments before “She is being taken to hospital right now, the other driver will be moved shortly and we were to alert Mr Haner of his wife’s incident and whereabouts,”

“Thank you,” Was all I said before hanging up the phone and pocketing it.

“What’s going on?” Papa Gates asked, helping his blubbering son to his feet, Brian was trying to form a coherent sentence but was failing miserably “Erin was in an accident with another driver and she’s being taken to the hospital right now, we need to get there and get to her, now,”
~~~~
The next two hours were the longest of my life; once we got to the hospital we had to sit and wait around in the waiting room while they worked on Erin, got her settled and stabilized, then a doctor came out and told us that they had operated to fix a few broken ribs and a punctured lungs, caused by one of the breaks. Then, we were allowed into her room to wait for her wakening up.

“I’m gonna go for a smoke,” Zack yawned, pushing himself off of his chair.

“I’ll join you,” Johnny said, jumping to his feet. He turned to Brian and placed his hand on his shoulder “I’m glad she’s okay, man.” Brian gave him a weak smile and a nod in return.

“I’ll come too, guys.” Jimmy said simply before following them out of the door.

“Anything from Hannah yet?” Brian asked, turning his head to look at me.

“Nothing, I think I’ll go out and try calling her again,” He nodded at me with tear filled eyes and let me leave.

When I got into the corridor I had to jump back as hospital staff rushed past me, pushing a
gurney with a person on it, they were bloody and weren’t moving.

“Early twenties, female, stuck in a wrecked car for over an hour…” The nurse listing off these things disappeared with the rest of the team and I couldn’t help feel sorry for the woman being rushed away. Looks like the storm isn’t safe to be in at all tonight.

I finally got outside and rang Hannah again, only to be met with her voicemail right away.

“Hey, you’ve reached Hannah Sanders! Eeeep!” I chuckled at her adorable squeal, I did every time “I can’t get to the phone right now, but drop me a message if it’s super important and I’ll get right back to you, bye!”

“Hey babe,” I sighed, rubbing my free hand down my face “I’m starting to worry about you over here, so can you call me or one of the guys, we’re at the hospital with Erin and I know she’ll want you here when she wakes up, I love you, bye,”

I hung up the phone and slid it back into my pocket again. There was a part of me that had seriously thought nothing else was going to happen in our lives that was bad and brought us here, we’ve been too many times; Hannah’s stabbing, Erin getting shot with the tranquilizer, after the kidnapping and Erin getting shot by her sister… I really thought that it was all over, that the next time we would be in this hospital would be for the birth of our child.

I stretched my arms above my head and let out a loud groan before turning and walking back inside and making my way up to Erin’s room.

“Hold the elevator!” I called out, jogging to reach it as the doors started to close, but someone stuck their hand between them and they re-opened “Thanks,” I panted as I jumped into the elevator.

“Matt?” Someone asked, I looked to my right to see Chris, Val’s brother “Hey man, what are you doing here?” He asked.

“Fuck, hey man!” I beamed at him, wrapping my arms around him in a ‘man hug’ and then pulling away “Oh, uh, Brian’s wife was in a car crash tonight, it was pretty bad and we’re just waiting on her coming around,”

“Oh shit,” He whispered “That really sucks, I’m sorry, man.” He looked genuinely sorry “Did you hear?” He asked. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at him with a confused look “Val’s missing,” He sighed “She hasn’t been home in months and she no one can get through to her cell, she doesn’t answer e-mails and it looks like she just… vanished off the face of the earth,”

I did feel slightly bad, and I had to show my concern and slight worry to my old friend standing before me. Val was my ex fiancée for Christ’s sake, if I looked like I didn’t care he might think something was up.

“I mean,” He started again “I know it isn’t any of your concern and I know that you recently got married to some girl from Scotland, but do you have any idea where she might have gone?” He asked.

I looked like I was thinking about it for a second, but I was just thinking of what to tell him that could turn his nose away from me and the guys.

“No,” I said, looking thoughtfully at the ground behind him “Did she ever mention anything about a guy?” I asked “I mean, maybe she just took off with someone, to get away from everything, I know your parents didn’t exactly approve of her relationship with Gena,”

“Neither did Michelle,” He laughed “She said the same thing though, that maybe she ran off with a guy,” He tapped his chin “But Gena is missing too,” Then it was like a light bulb turning on above his head “That’s it,” He smiled “They must have ran off together,”

“That would make sense,” I chuckled “Well hey, wherever she ran off to, I’m sure she’s happy,” I clapped him on the shoulder. Was this the longest elevator ride ever or what? “Why are you in here?” I asked.

“Oh!” He exclaimed “I’m an uncle,”

“Congratulations!” I exclaimed with a smile “Michelle, I take it?”

“Yeah, her and her fiancé just had a little boy together, Ashton,” He cringed a little at the name, obviously not liking it “He’s adorable though,”

“Michelle’s engaged?” I asked and he nodded “Well that’s great, my wife, Hannah, she’s actually pregnant,”

“Whoa!” He smiled “Congratulations are in order for you too then, huh?” He gave me another hug “How far along is she?”

“Four months, broke the news to all of us at the wedding,”
Finally, we reached my floor.

“This is me,” I told him, stepping towards the open door “Give me a call sometime,” What? I couldn’t tell the guy to never speak to me again, we were pretty close when I was with his sister
“We can hang out,”

“Sounds good,” He smiled and let me go.

I hurried down the corridor to Erin’s room and saw that she was sitting up, talking to Brian.

“Matt!” She smiled, her voice was week but I could still hear the excitement in it “Is Hannah with you?” She asked.

“Uh…” I moved over to the bed and sat my chair on the opposite side from Brian and sat myself down “She isn’t answering her cell, I think it died or she isn’t getting any signal over there,”

“She’s not there, though,” She frowned and Brian and I shared a confused and worried look
“Yeah, I was heading over there to get her and I called her, but she told me she had already left,”

Her voice was shaking and she brought a hand up to her mouth to cover her quivering lip “She told me she could barely see anything in front of her, what if-“

“Don’t,” I said, cutting her off “She’s fine, okay? If something had happened to her then the hospital would have called me to let me know that she was here,”

“You’re right,” She whispered with a small smile “But she needs to get her ass in here, I need my girlfriend as well as my husband,”

After a few minutes of talking, trying to take Erin’s mind off of the pain she was in, her doctor came in to speak to her and Brian about what happened and to do a few check-ups on her and make sure there would be no long lasting damage, so I left while that went on and took a walk around the floor.

As I was passing one of the rooms, I heard a woman yelling.

“You have to call my husband!” The voice was weak like Erin’s had been, but the anger and worry in it hurt my chest.

“Ma’am, if you would just tell us your name, then you can tell us how to contact your husband,”
A scared nurse said to the woman. I was lingering outside this door a little apparently.

“My name is Hannah Sanders, Matthew Sanders is my husband,”
Before I processed what I was doing, I burst into the room, the nurse jumped and gasped.

“Hannah?” I whispered as I took in the sight before me. My wife was lying in the hospital bed, bruised pretty bad around her head, her hands were wrapped up in blood soaked bandages, her lip was burst and her eyes were black, making it clear she had broken her nose, and her right leg was sticking out of the covers and she had a boot on it.
~~~~
Hannah
I crashed. I knew right away that there had been a crash, and the first thing I wanted to do was check that the other driver was alright, because the last thing I saw through the rain was another car’s headlights, but I couldn’t get out of the car, I was stuck. The bonnet had been compressed and my legs were stuck, one only kind of sore but the other one was agonizingly painful, it was definitely broken.

My head was all over the place, I couldn’t focus on anything, but I could see the blood dripping down onto me from my head and that my hands were bloody too, filled with glass from my windscreen.

The sirens and flashing lights made my head hurt, and trying to listen to what the paramedics were saying was proving to be difficult. But I could hear that they had the other driver out and were taking her to the hospital, but they had to wait for something to get me out.

“Ma’am?” A voice asked from the left side of me, I rolled my head over and looked at the older man who was leaning into the car, he was soaked from the rain but his face was calm and comfortable, like he wasn’t getting a woman out of a wrecked car “Ma’am, you’ve been in a car accident and we can’t pull you out of the car without hurting you, so we’re going to wait for the fire department to get here and cut you out of the vehicle, okay?” I could only groan in response since my words were failing me “I’m going to be with you the whole time, okay?” He asked “My name is George,” He smiled kindly at me “What’s yours?”

“Hannah,” I whispered, as a tear started to roll down my face.

“Okay, Hannah.” He smiled at me “I need you to stay calm with me through all of this, okay? Can you do that for me?” I nodded slightly “I’m going to get you out of this,”

“Promise?” I found myself whispering to him weakly, and raising my pinkie finger and darting my eyes to it so that he noticed.

“I promise,” He smiled again, gently linking his pinkie with mine.

“Hannah?” Matt asked, his eyes filling with tears as he rushed towards me and wrapped his arms around me as lovingly and as carefully as he could “You were the other driver?” He asked.

“Other driver?” I asked, pulling away from him a little “What do you mean?”

“It was you who Erin crashed into,”

And then I realised, Erin was coming to get me when we were on the phone to each other, when I told her I was coming home and that I couldn’t see a damn thing through all the rain.

“Oh my God,” I whispered as I started to cry immediately. I registered the nurse telling us that Dr Valentine was on his way up with Brent who had just come on shift “Is she alive?” I asked.

“Yes,” He whispered, a huge grin spreading across his face “She’s awake, too.”

“Can I see her?” I asked.

“I don’t know baby,” He whispered, leaning in and pressing a kiss to my lips “Let’s see what the doctor says, alright?”

A few minutes later, Brent and Doctor Valentine came into the room, pushing the ultrasound machine with them.

“Hannah,” Doctor Valentine smiled softly at me “I’m so glad you’re going to be alright,”

“If I’m going to be alright then what is that for?” I asked, nodding to the machine as Brent set it up.

“There was a lot of blood, Hannah.” He sighed “The blood on the bottom of the dress you were wearing and your legs, it wasn’t so easy for them to tell where it came from, so we have to check to make sure your baby is still alive, okay?” What? My baby could be dead.

“We ran bloods,” Brent said “And obviously the results still tell us that you’re pregnant, but this will let us know if the baby’s heart is still beating,”

I closed my eyes as they adjusted me back into a lounging position and lifted the hospital gown from my stomach and covered my lower half with the bed sheets.

I grabbed Matt’s hand in a vice like grip and wouldn’t let go, but I couldn’t bring myself to look as the transducer was pressed against my abdomen until Valentine whispered to himself that he had found the baby and pressed the Doppler against me, clicked a button and the room was immediately filled with the sound of the baby’s rapid heartbeat.

“The baby is stronger than the last time we looked at it,” Valentine announced and I immediately wrapped myself around Matt and cried into his shoulder with relief.
~~~~
Our baby was okay, she was a fighter already, that much was clear.
I had wondered why the machine was brought to me and I wasn’t taken down to the maternity ward so that they could do it there, but Doctor Valentine said that they hadn’t wanted to move me at all until they knew that the baby was okay. Now that we knew though, I was getting to go and visit Erin. Nobody knew where Matt had vanished to and nobody knew that I was the other driver.

“Ready?” Matt asked as I settled into the wheelchair.

“Ready,” I smiled up at him.
Matt only pushed me a little down the corridor, around one corner and stopped outside a room.

“She’s in there,” He told me.

“Well what are you waiting for?” I whispered “Get me in there,”

He knocked on the door and waited until we heard Erin call ‘come in’ and then he pushed the door open and wheeled me in.

Everyone was in the room with Erin, all of the guys and they all had the same shocked and confused look on their faces.

“It was you!” Erin gasped “You were the car I hit?!” She sounded terrified and tried to get out of the bed but all of the tubes and cables she was hooked up to were stopping her “Matt, get her over here,” She ordered.

Matt wheeled me as close to the bed as he could get me and Erin and I grabbed each other in tight embraces.

“Are you okay?” She asked.

“I’m going to be fine,” I told her confidently “Are you okay?”

“I’m going to be fine too,” She beamed at me, then her face fell “The baby?”

“She’s fine,” I chuckled, rubbing my hand across my stomach “Should be showing any day now, I’m surprised I’m not already,”

“She?” Jimmy asked excitedly “We’re getting a niece?”

“We have a feeling,” Matt chuckled “We don’t know for sure,”

“Are you girls going to be okay to come on tour in a couple of weeks?” Zack asked “I don’t think Larry can move anything else around,”

“Zack, don’t be a dick!” Matt scolded “I don’t give a shit if they aren’t fit to travel, if my wife can’t go because she isn’t fit enough then I’m not fucking going, alright?!”

And just like that, all hell broke loose.

Notes

So Hannah was the other driver! HOLY SHIT!
Luckily, the baby is going to be alright.
Enjoy!

More to come from E! <3

- LMV x