Chapter 1

The Night The Sky Fell Down

She was late. She was supposed to drop Brent by Laura's by 4:45, and it was almost 5:00 now. Laura would be pissed. Come on, freakin' light! Change!

Staring intensely at the red light in front of her, she tried to will it green. When that didn't work, she resorted to glaring in random directions. When her gaze fell on her son, asleep in the backseat, her expression softened slightly. His head was tilted at an uncomforable angle, and his bottom lip was stuck out comically, moving in and out with each even breath. She paused for a moment, then smiled and look back to the light. It was green.

Smile widening, she let off the brake and pressed the accelerator, looking at her side mirror to see if she could switch lanes. She never saw the car as it sped through the red light toward her.

……………

The phone rang and Jacob and I exchanged looks. We stared each other down as the phone rang again. Jacob crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head.

"No way, man. Tell her I'm not here."

I pursed my lips and looked pointedly at the phone. "You gotta talk to her someday." Jacob shook his head. "Well I'm not answering it."

"Fine," Jacob growled, reaching for the phone on its fifth ring. "What?" he snapped into the receiver. His eyes darted in my direction and he made a face. "Uh, yeah, sorry. Yeah, here he is."

I took the phone he'd stabbed in my direction, looking at him questioningly. He shrugged to tell me that he didn't know who it was.

"Hello?"

An unfamiliar male voice was on the other end. "Yes, is this Ashley Parker Angel?"

"Yes it is. Who's this?"

"This is Officer Hayes, calling from Redding, California." My breath caught in my throat. This can't be good. "I'm afraid I have some bad news." Bad news, check. "I believe know a Katherine Williams?" He paused, and I guessed he was waiting for me to answer.

"Yeah, I do." Hell, yeah I knew her.

"You and she have a two-year-old son, Brent Caleb Parker, is that correct?"

I felt the blood drain from my face, and I swear my heart almost stopped. Oh God, don't let anything happen to Brent. "Yes," I said out loud, hardly recognizing my own voice.

"I'm really sorry to tell you this, but there's been an accident."

No, no, Dear Lord. My lower lip started to tremble, and I saw the world in front of me start to swim. I desperately blinked back tears. "I-I-what happened?" My breath caught in my throat, making it difficult to get the words out.

"The vehicle driven by Katherine Williams was hit when another driver went through the intersection." He sounded like he was reading it off a damn paper. How could he be so freaking uncompassionate? What the hell?

"The accident occurred around five o'clock this evening, Pacific Time. Ms. Williams died in the hospital at five fifty." I blinked again and swallowed the lump in my throat. "Brent is currently in critical condition at Redding Medical Center. Uh, you are now his sole legal guardian, because Ms. Williams had no immediate family listed. We'll need you to deal with some legal details soon, or to appoint someone else legal guardian in your stead." I closed my eyes and tried to stop myself from shaking. My son was laying in some damn hospital and he was worried about legal guardianship! The rational part of my brain was trying to explain to me that it was his job, and to listen to the man because he was telling me stuff I might want to know, like the phone number of the hospital and Brent's room number and what did I want to do about the legal guardianship and should he call back at a better time?

"Um, yeah, sorry." I choked out. " 'Bye." I guess the rational part of my brain lost out. I pressed the power button the phone and it fell to my lap. Pulling my knees up to my chest and leaning back against the couch, I tried to stifle a sob. No, that's not right. It's not fair. This isn't happening. No no nononono…

Chapter 2

What Was I Thinking

……………

"Ash!" Jacob said, shaking me. "Ash!"

I shook my head and leaned away from him. "Just leave me 'lone," I mumbled to my knees. I just wanted to be left alone.

"No," Jacob insisted. "Tell me what's wrong."

I shook my head again. Hell no. I couldn't tell them. What could I say? That my friend, also the mother of my son, just died, and my baby was in the hospital? Shit. This could be complicated.

Momma. I wanted my Momma.

Wiping my face on my sleeve, I fumbled with the phone in my lap, dialing the familiar numbers. After a few rings, there was a muffled "Hello?" on the other end.

"Hey," I said to Taylor, voice thick, "can I talk to Mom?"

"Yeah, just a sec." There was a moment of static, in which I assumed Tay was covering the mouthpiece, then a loud yell which told me he hadn't. "MOM, IT'S ASH! GET THE PHONE!"

Wincing, I chose to hold the phone away from my ear rather than comment on my damaged hearing. After more sounds of shuffling, my mom picked up the phone.

"Hey!"

At the sound of her voice, I totally lost it. "Momma," I choked, "there's an accident." The tears started again, and as I reached up to wipe them away, I realized that Jacob was still standing beside me, hand on my shoulder supportively.

"Oh, baby, are you alright? What happened?"

I shook my head even though she couldn't see me. "No," I blurted in between sniffles, "it was Katie." A sob escaped and I quickly bit my lip, tasting salt from the tears. "She's dead. Momma!" The sobs returned with a vengeance.

"Oh Ashley. I'm so, so sorry." I could tell she was trying to be strong, but she knew Katie, too. "What—what about Brent?"

"He—" I heard a whimper, then realized it was me. "Momma, he's hurt." I bit my lip once again, this time mixing the saltiness with the coppery taste of blood.

"How? Where is he?" I could hear the panic rising in her voice.

"In the hospital. Hurt bad." A shaky breath came from the other end of the line.

"Redding Medical?"

I sniffed. "Yeah."

"I'll go right there."

"Thanks Mom." The sobs had subsided, and the tears began to slow. "I'm comin'. Tell him I'm comin', kay?"

"Alright. I'm gonna go there now, is that okay?"

"Yeah, that's good. I—I don't know what room…" I sniffed again, wishing that I'd been listening earlier. Dammit.

"That's okay, I got it covered." Dealing swiftly with the shock, she settled back into caring mom mode, reassuring me that it'd all be fine. "I'll call you as soon as I see him."

"Yeah. Thanks Mom," I said again.

"Okay, Ash. Just come as soon as you can."

"Yeah."

"I love you."

"You, too, Mom."

" 'Bye."

" 'Bye." I waited to hear the click on the other side, then hung up. The phone once again dropped to my lap, and I cradled my head in my arms.

Chapter 3

When The World Didn't End

……………

"I'm sorry." My head jerked up at the sound of Jacob's voice. "You okay?" Was I okay? Was he kidding?

I shook my head. No use in pretending.

"Um, who…who i-was she?" Shit. Shit shit shit.

"Uh, she's my little cousin's mom, and a real good friend of mine." Wow, that was quick thinking on my part. Alright, who went and took over my brain while I wasn't looking?

Strange thoughts you have in situations like these, huh?

"You're little cousin's mom? Your aunt?"

"No, not quite. It's kinda complicated." Actually, I did have a cousin whose dad wasn't my uncle, so that wasn't so unbelievable. And it was complicated, just not the way I had him think.

And why am I sitting here explaining this to myself? Shouldn't I be doing something? Calling someone? Crying? Oh, wait. Already did.

"Um, do you need to call Mike and Mike?" I looked at him cluelessly. "Uh, you told your mom that you were coming out there. Right? So, you need to call them to get the schedule fixed." Oh, yeah. That made sense, didn't it?

"Yeah," was all I could think of to say.

"Do you want me to talk to them?"

I looked up at him gratefully. "Yeah. Thanks."

"No problem." He stood there uncertainly for a moment, looking very uncomfortable. I guess he didn't know much about consoling people whose friends have just died. I'd really prefer to be left alone to wallow in self-pity for a little while, thanks. "I'll, uh, go call, now."

I nodded in relief as he went into the kitchen to give me a little privacy. I heard him carrying on a one-sided conversation, but didn't concentrate on it enough to understand what he said. Instead, I let the murmuring lull me into a relaxed, almost euphoric state of half-consciousness. I wondered carelessly if this was a result of shock, and what I must look like sitting on the couch, with my shoes on the cushions and my head on my knees, a phone in my lap, and my mouth hanging open in a stupor. Probably not what you see in your average magazine. Unless it's a National Inquirer article. I could see the headline now, "Boyband Member Forced To Listen To His Singing, Truth About Their Music Revealed."

Once again, strange thoughts you have in situations like these.

I chewed on my lip some more as I thought about anything and everything but Katie. I don't know how long it was that I sat there before I realized that I wasn't hearing Jacob's voice any longer. I looked up, startled, when he cleared his throat from the doorway.

"Hey Ash, Mike wants to know when you want to leave."

Now. Like, right now. What I needed was one of those handy things like they had on Star Trek, where you just stood there and said, 'Beam me up, Scottie,' and *zap* you were there. "Uh, like as soon as I can get to the airport. The next flight out." Wasn't that the name of a song? Next flight out? No. It was…hold on, just a sec. It was…aha! "Last Flight Out," by Plus One. Yeah. And there was that song, "Leaving On A Jetplane."

"He says we have rehearsal tomorrow that you have to be at. Why?" It took me a minute to realize that the last question was directed towards Mike. "But—yeah, I know, but—" He sighed. "Well, it's just—uh." He paused, rolling his eyes heavenward. I wondered if that was where Katie was now. Well, yeah, hopefully. "Ok, fine. Ash, there's some kinda specialist we called out to meet with us tomorrow, and he threw a fit about having to fit us into his busy—" Jacob made mocking quotations with his fingers— "schedule, and we can't change it and you have to be there."

I was already shaking my head. I was going, whether they liked it or not. Screw them. Screw rehearsal, screw the freaking specialist. Screw management. While we're at it, just screw the whole frickin' world. Stop the world, I wanna get off.

"No way. I'm going."

"He says he's going." Jacob listened for a minute, frowning, and I wondered why he was still messenger boy. "Well, no, it's his, uh, cousin?" he looked at me questioningly and I nodded. "Ah, Ash? He says that immediate family emergencies are the only priorities over business. Uh, and he says sorry." Yeah, I bet he's sorry. Sorry my ass.

"Fine," I practically shouted. "Screw him, screw this whole damn thing. I'm going!"