Zacky’s phone rang on his pocket. He was driving so he only had time to reach for it and hand it to Jess at the passenger seat.

“Who is it, baby? Pick up for me.”

“It’s from Johnny’s place.” Jess answered it. Lacey’s voice appeared on the other line.

“Zack?”

“No, Lacey, it’s Jess, he’s driving now. What’s up?”

“I was wondering if John is there with you.” Jess felt concern on Lacey’s voice.

“No, we are taking the girls to the airport now. Why, he’s not home yet?” she looked at her clock, past midnight already. Weird. It’s been more than three hours since they left the studio. “Did you try his phone already?”

“Yeah, I’ve been trying for the past thirty minutes and nothing, I tried Brian’s too, the same. I’m starting to get worried. And…well I really need him here now cause… I guess I’m having a few contractions. I think it’s time.” Jess faced Zack with raised eyebrows. He was trying to trade looks between the traffic and her worried glance.

“Oh my god, contractions? Really?” Zack grinned with a surprised face. Kim, Mei and Rye smiled to each other as well. Jess was the only one not showing a good face now.

“Yeah, and…shit. I think my water just broke.” Jess jaw fell open.

“God, Lacey, stay where you are, we are coming right now. Don’t worry, everything will be okay. We’re gonna find him.”

“Thank you Jess. Just…bring him to me, okay?”

“Okay, I’ll see you in a few minutes. Hang in there, bye.”

“Find him? What’s going on?” Zack asked, narrowing his eyes as Jess hanged up.

“Her water just broke! Johnny is not home yet and she can’t reach him on his phone, neither Brian.” Jess gulped hard. “I’m having a bad feeling about this, Zack. I’m gonna try Em’s phone, maybe they found her somewhere.”

“But, wait, what are we gonna do now? We have to get them to the airport. Call Matt first and tell him to take Lacey to the hospital, he’s closer than us right now. We’ll find Johnny in the meantime.”

“No, Zack, calm down. We can just postpone our tickets, we won’t leave you guys like that. And I speak for my friends here when I say we won’t be able to get in that plane without knowing everything is fine around here and everyone is safe.” Kim said clearly with assurance from both Mei and Rye. How could they simply leave after all hell broke loose?

Jess looked back at them with concerned eyes and agreed.

“Okay, so let’s head back to Huntington now.” Jess said as Zack was turning around. She was trying Emily’s phone desperately. Then Johnny’s. Then Brian’s.

Nothing.

This is not good.

---

Just a few seconds before and those streets were totally empty. All I wanted to know was where the hell she was going with that madness driving, apparently to take the highway. Then, it happened, right in front of my eyes. The fucking truck was in the wrong way! It was his fault, despite of her high speed and lack of wheel control. It was his fault!

As I watched and listened to that petrifying scene, I forced my foot in the brake pedal in a sudden move and followed Jimmy’s car flipping several times in the ground after the right side being smashed by a tree. Johnny’s side.

God.

My heart skipped a beat before I could finally park my car and get out. The crash noises kept looping inside my head and I hurried forward, where the truck had just stopped abruptly. I tried to run faster but my legs were failing and shaking badly.

“WHAT THE FUCK, MAN! ARE YOU HIGH OR SOMETHING? LOOK WHAT YOU DID! CALL 911 NOW!” I passed by the truck and ran straight to the car, turned upside down on the grass ground that covered the pre-highway streets. I didn’t even stop to take a look at the truck driver.

“Holy shit, I slept, dude, I simply fell asleep on the wheel, I’ve been travelling for eight hours straight. Oh dear lord…” as I was approaching the car, the guy came after me blabbering something I almost didn’t pay attention.

“Call 911!!” I yelled again just as I saw a tattooed hand slipping out from the car window. Red rose tattoo with a few straps of vivid red blood covering the skin. Emily.

I released a deep breath. Unsure if that was for relief or worry.

“Emily! Emily, answer me, are you hurt?” I squatted down the grass and held her warm hand, trying to look for her pulse somewhere. I couldn’t find it. Shit, my hands were trembling like I never felt before. I just couldn’t find it…

Suddenly a muffled and weak mumble came from inside the Impala wreckage. She grabbed my hand strongly. Oh my god, she’s alive!

“Brian…Briaann… Pull me out, I’m okay.” She gave me her other hand and I used all my arm strength to take her out of there. I could see a lot of blood dripping from her forehead. I held her face up to me and looked directly into her eyes. She was uneasy.

“Are you hurt somewhere else, Em?” I checked her arms, her belly, her legs, I didn’t care, I just wanted to make sure she was alright.

“Johnny, Brian! Johnny is passed out in there, I couldn’t wake him up. I guess his…his airbag didn’t…” she was crying and trying to speak fast at the same time, totally out of control.

“Okay, okay, calm down, let’s take him out now!”

I stood up and turned around to try to take Johnny out of there, she came right behind me.

“I called the ambulance, they are coming. Are they all okay in there?” the guy shouted from his truck still parked in the middle of the street.

“Hey, you stay here, you are not going anywhere until the cops get here, understood?” I demanded, even though I knew he wasn’t coming anywhere. He was just a good person trying to fix up the mess he helped make. He was as terrified as we all were.

The smashed car door had the tree round sunken mark at its bodywork. My heart raced even more when we both screamed for Johnny and he wasn’t answering, not even a groan, anything.
Emily tried to open the door but it was totally stuck, we couldn’t even see how he was inside. She threw her own tired and bruised body on the car rear and cried more as I kept doing what she was trying, open the damn ruined door.

“Johnny! Answer me! Fuck, Johnny!” I called more and more and nothing.

“This is all my fault, all my fault...” Emily kept whining those words unstoppably as I was trying to reach for Johnny’s pulse somewhere. I could only fumble his body to check for blood and injuries. “I should’ve been the one to go, god, why am I still here?”

“Fuck, just…please, stop talking shit!” I had to shout, she was driving me insane. I could only hear her sobbing after my order.

The acute ambulance sirens were reaching closer and as the paramedics came in with the stretchers and equipment in hands, they asked us to step aside. Emily didn’t want to get out so I held her arched shoulders and brought her back while we watched them work. I noticed her entire body shuddering on my arms so I pulled her head closer to my chest as I was caressing her hair.

I couldn’t say I wasn’t scared to the bone as she was. But she was obviously worse.

“Shh, Em, they are pulling him out, everything is gonna be okay now. I’m sorry I yelled at you before, it wasn’t your fault, the guy was on the wrong way, you did everything you could to divert, I know that, I saw it. Shh.” I tried to find words to calm her down when I was able to smell her alcoholic breath.

I saw a couple of police officers heading on our way together with the truck driver and I sighed. Shit, I had to quickly think of a good story to tell them. Or she would just end up in jail, and I’m really sure that’s not what she needed then.

“Emily, listen to me, no matter what the officers ask us, you have to agree with everything I say, okay?” she nodded with her eyes still closed against my chest, tears soaking my shirt.
Convincing the guy of my story would be the hardest part, I guess.

“Hey, sir, mrs, I know this is difficult now but I really need to ask you a few questions.” I hugged her harder against me as I felt an huge will to protect her from the world, cause I knew the guilty would fall hard on her shoulders this time. The weight of the world was too much for her to handle, she wasn’t strong enough.

“Sure.” I answered as naturally as I could, trying to make something up. I had to look up at the truck driver, he was as tall as Jimmy but a larger and had a few tattoos spread on his big arms. Intimidating, but just as nervous as we were.

“Can you tell me exactly what happened?” the officer asked me but looked at the guy afterwards.

“Well…I was driving towards the highway entrance when...” I glanced at the guy, he was nodding in disagreement. He’s gonna mess my plan, man. I should’ve discussed this before with him. “…when I got scared by his truck’s huge headlights so I shunted to the right side, we hit that tree and the car just flipped twice. They were both with me inside the car. Right?” Emily’s gaze went straight up to mine with a frown when I finished. The guy was frowning even more. You better stick to this version, sleeping head!

“Hmm, are you sure that…” the tall guy was trying to interrupt but I was faster. I just cleaned his ass, damn it.

“Yes, I’m sure! And you have no blame at all in this, you were just…driving on your own RIGHT PATH, right dude?” I asked with my eyes pointedly at him. My jaw was clenching hard waiting for his answer.

“What? What are you…” Emily murmured in between her sobs. Fuck, Emily, stay quiet!

I pressed her head against my chest again. The guy thought a bit more before finally opening his mouth. Guess he figured out my hints. I saved his ass, he would have to save ours, that’s how it works.

“Yes, that’s right. He’s right.” He agreed, showing even more assurance than I was.

“Okay” the officer wrote something on his notepad and narrowed his eyes at me. “But…you’re not injured at all?” I gulped. I knew that story had serious flaws. Thank god my car was parked a bit far from there, they couldn’t suspect anything.

“No, luckily the airbag protected me. My friend Johnny was at the passenger seat where the airbag didn’t…work. Emily here was at the backseat.” I took a deep breath, counting the seconds for the end of that interrogatory. But the officer didn’t appear to be satisfied by my explanations yet.

“Have you been drinking, sr?”

“No, officer, I didn’t drink.” It was true. In fact, the beer I had back there was long gone now. It would never accuse on the test.

“So you agree to take the breathalyzer test?”

I was about to answer him when I caught a glimpse of my friend’s unresponsive body being taken out from the remains finally. He had a tube down his throat, neck collar and was being ventilated by one of the paramedics while heading straight to the ambulance in a fast pace. I couldn’t see his face, I couldn’t see his movements if he had any. My legs buckled when it finally came to me. He was in a pretty bad shape.

“Can I do this later? I have to know how my friend is doing in there now, you can find me at the hospital, okay?” the officer nodded. Maybe he sensed I wasn’t planning to run away from my responsibilities, I was being honest.

As I was ready to follow the paramedics’ path to the ambulance, I felt Emily’s body get heavy on me. I tried to pull her face up to me but she wasn’t responding. The officer just helped me lay her body on the grass while I was trying to wake her up insistently with gentle slaps on her cheeks.

“God, Emily, talk to me! EMILY!!” her eyes were shut tight, her injured head was hanging loose in my hands and I did everything to make it stand still on the ground.

Don’t you dare do this to me!

---

When I had my nerves cooled down enough and my share of thoughts figured out, I headed back to the studio. There wasn’t a single soul in there anymore, neither was my car. That was just… perfect!

I had no idea who took my baby but whoever did it, I knew it was safe on one of their garages anyway so I decided to keep ignoring their innumerous calls and went home walking. I wasn’t far.

I thought about reaching out for Emily but what was I supposed to say really? That I was ready to support her while she finds another job as long as she doesn’t get near Brian again? It was the most selfish sentence I ever created in my mind. But, sadly and from the bottom of my heart, I mean it. I meant every part of that. I wanted her inches away from Brian now that I finally realized what kind of friendship they have. The kind that can destroy my relationship with them both.

I wish I could just face Emily and tell her that I got her job back at the band and she will be touring with us. But I didn’t have that sort out yet, did I?

Dumbass…

I picked up my phone, ignored the 20 missing calls and found Brad’s phone. Emily had given to me if I had to find her somewhere, she would definitely be jamming with him – her words. Well, now we can just add Brian on that sentence, can’t we?

“Hey Brad, yeah it’s me.”

“So what’s up? You and Emily, still pissed at me, right?”

“Yeah, definitely. But now it’s the time to fix it up. Look man, I’m going straight to the point here. We need a good underground band as our opening act for the next 3 months tour over the west coast and surroundings and my mind went straight to Darkest Hour.”

“Wow, man. I’m… I don’t even know what to say, I…”

“Wait, let me finish first. So as nothing in this life is that easy, well, I want to ask you for something in repay to this huge deal I’m setting you in. Believe me, it’s a good deal.”

“Hmm…?”

“I want Emily back as your lead guitarist.”

Silence fell over the line for a few seconds. Then I heard a sigh. He better take this!

“Well I… gotta talk to the guys about this and… believe me, Rev, I want her back too, I missed her bad all those months, I had a certain chemistry on the stage with her that I can’t find anywhere else. I know you have your differences with Scott but wouldn’t it be unfair to him?”

“That asshole doesn’t need to know about this. In fact, no one needs to know, neither does Emily. You just give me an answer in a few days, okay? We keep this between us for now.”

“Okay, I’ll figure something out. But… for me it’s already a deal.”

“Ok, so call me when you have an answer. I’ll be waiting.”

I hanged up at the exact same time I arrived at my place with a good sensation despite of that terrible fight we had. My plan would definitely work out this time. She will be back at her band, on the biggest tour of her life, living her dream and by my side all the way. Can I ask better than that? I just wanted to make her happy and I knew I could. But first things first. I had to make it up to her for our fight. Oh, yeah, shit, that stupid fight…

I peered at my huge and empty house. Maybe I should just give her some space. I would talk to her tomorrow.

Yeah, guess it was just me and my sweet stash of dope tonight.

I was ready to go cook my stuff when my doorbell echoed. What the hell? It’s past midnight! Maybe someone had the kind thought of bringing my car back? Or was it Emily?
I looked through the peephole and a startled face was waiting for me in there. Matt.

“Jimmy! Thank god, we were looking for you everywhere. Fuck, you don’t answer your damn phone!! You have to come with me, we need to find Johnny. NOW! I’ll explain everything on our way!”

Notes

HD in hands, finaallyyy!!! My notebook is still down though =/

Anyway...hahaha I hope you guys enjoyed a lil bit of action here! Had to split it in twoo again =p

I appreciate all the waiting, sorry bout that!! I won't make you wait like that anymore, I promise!! ;D