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Author's Chapter Notes:

just a filler, introducing a new character. Tell me what you think please?

  1. SAVE THE DAY

 

8th of January 2006

I haven’t been in New Jersey for two weeks. The little vacation really got me blowing off some steam, as my mom suggested.  Being away helps putting your jumbled thoughts back in place and retrieving some of your sanity again. But I soon figured that January 8th was not the best time to return.

I could dream the way from my hotel room to the hospital. Usually I sang the whole way driving there, belting with the radio on max. It was the only way I still got to sing these days, the only way I could keep a grasp on my fading life as a pop star. The fact that our famous lives are fading wasn’t solely Brian’s fault, I’m aware of that. It’s just a bit hard to accept the natural way of the music industry. You cannot be on top for long, and once you’ve reached it, you can only fall down. And we did fall down, boy did we fall down! But when we decided to get back up again, it was apparently too late. Of course we didn’t know that, still just as naïve as we were all those years back. Cause when we decided to make the comeback of a lifetime, we also decided to take a different turn on new material. You’re not supposed to do that. Not in a time when everybody’s like, boyband? The fuck is a boyband? Oh well, I shouldn’t complain so much, that was one of my resolutions this year after all. Of course it was under ‘solving the mysteries’, but you can go figure.

 

And through it all, she offers me protection

A lot of love and affection

Whether I’m right or wrong

And down the waterfall

Wherever it may take me

I know that life won’t break me

When I come to call

She won’t forsake me

I’m loving angels instead.”

 

I yelled the lyrics as loudly and off-key as I possibly could. Just because for once, there was no one that could hear me, or had to hear me, and I could shamelessly sing in my car, just like all average Americans stuck in traffic. It may sound strange, but if I don’t sing for work purposes, I try to sing as badly and out of tune as I can, just because I can.

I hadn’t heard anything from Harry or from anyone else involved and if something actually did happen, they never bothered telling me about it. I spent the rest of my time off thinking about Peter. I was sure I didn’t know a Peter, or did I? Not a Peter Brian would know too anyway, or would he? The longer I thought about it, the more insecure I became about the whole situation. A gut feeling told me that I should know a Peter, but I couldn’t remember for the life of me who Peter was supposed to be. Harry didn’t know a Peter, Leighanne didn’t know a Peter, Nick had no clue whatsoever, Kevin said he knew a Peter that had been eighty years old and died two years ago and I hadn’t spoken to AJ in the longest time.

Goddarnit, traffic is a bitch!

The radio had switched to some kind of grouchy, metal rock that really did not fit my voice, but I didn’t care, as I kept singing, oblivious to the lyrics that I wouldn’t be able to make out even if I tried.

When I finally reached the hospital, it became clear to me that I had been gone for too long, as I forgot to take the backdoor. I stopped my car in front of the emergency room and looked with wide eyes at the enormous crowd of people packed together in front of the entrance. Holy shit. Get out before they see you!  Years of experience gave me a good clue on who the people were and what they were doing here and I tried to get out of my car as quietly and inconspicuous as I could manage. But it didn’t matter how much expertise I put in my performance as a ninja. I was too close and the crowd had been waiting a long time for an opportunity like this. Before I could turn my back on the multitude, they were in front of me, pushing and pulling to get the best spot, shoving cameras in my face and screaming questions at me that I couldn’t understand. You know what Einstein? Security wouldn’t have been a superfluous luxury, like you thought. Just when I wanted to yell that they were invading my personal space, a huge guy with a microphone collided with me and sent us both falling to the ground. I felt someone pull me up as they wrapped an arm around mine and yanked me to my feet. I couldn’t see my saviour and when I wanted to thank her, cause I was sure it had been a woman, for avoiding my fear of getting trampled coming true, the crowd was once again pulling at my attention. I tried to focus on what they were saying, but they were all screaming at the same time. Assessing my situation, I figured I had two options. I could either force my way to the entrance, go into the hospital and get the hell away. But there was only one of me, and over thousands, it seemed, of them. Plus the fact that I couldn’t even see the entrance anymore made me guess we weren’t at the same spot where we started, so I had no idea where I’d be rampaging into. The other option was creating order out of chaos and the inner control freak in me screamed that I should do just that. Taking control over the situation sounds like the best option, but it also suggests that I was going to try and answer their numerous questions, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do that. The group had stayed silent for so long, and if I spoke up without informing anyone, there would be hell to pay.

Well, it’s not like you’ve got another option…

“Please, silence, please, one at a time.” I tried to calm the overexcited group of people and hoped at least one of them had heard me and would inform his companions that they were finally getting a shot at some information. Meanwhile I was making up my mind about what I would and what I wouldn’t say. They didn’t give me very much time though.

“Sir, sir, can you tell us anything about what happened to your bandmate?” a young man in a simple white t-shirt, which was very gutsy, considering it was January, asked me. Well, at least he’s calling me ‘sir’.

“Not much, we’re still trying to determine what happened.” It was true, wasn’t it?

“Sources say that he has tried to kill himself, Mr Dorough, is that true?”

“I… I… I don’t know,” I stuttered, cause I didn’t know.

“It’s been almost two months, how can you not know?”

Stay polite, Howard…

“Umm, he hasn’t regained consciousness yet. We are as much in the dark as all of you are.”

“He’s in a coma?” a female voice asked, and I recognized it immediately. It belonged to the girl that had saved me from my certain death. I smiled gratefully at her.

“Yes, but he has been doing a hell of a lot better and it’s just a matter of time before he wakes up.”

“So he’s not dead…” a man in a striped jacket stated, he almost looked disappointed, but he couldn’t be, could he? I looked exasperatedly at him.

“I don’t think I’d still be coming to the hospital if that were true,” I commented. The crowd laughed, Striped Jacket looked ashamed, point for me. This wasn’t so bad after all, it would be okay eventually. “Now if you guys would excuse me, I have a sick friend to visit.” I told them and tried to make a move, but a sudden comment from the crowd had me nailed to the ground.

“Are you guys even trying to find out what happened, or don’t you even bother caring?” My blood ran cold, then began boiling ‘til it eventually rushed to my head and all I could see was red.  The huge guy that had ran into me earlier, was standing with a sly smirk marking his face and I knew immediately that he must have been the one to make the remark. I spun on my heels and slammed a solid fist right into that annoying smirk. The guy stumbled for a second but stayed upright, the crowd suddenly went deadly quiet, and my heart was filling with fear, when I saw the man’s face, which looked as angry as I felt. Before I knew what was happening I felt someone pull at my jacket from behind, and suddenly I was out of the crowd.

“Run,” was the only thing she said, and then we took off, before the crowd even realized we were gone.

 

“To the right! In there!” I yelled at her short, but flowing black hair, that was dancing right in front of me as we ran around the hospital, trying to get rid of the multitude that was following us. The only thing that was missing now were some torches and hayforks, I thought bitterly. My saviour was faster than me, but that didn’t say much, considering everyone was faster than me.

We jumped into the backdoor entrance that I had been supposed to take once I arrived at the hospital. The hallway was quiet and there was no one to be seen, except a nurse who was looking strangely at us as we suddenly appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

“We need somewhere to hide!” my saviour spoke in a rushed tone at the nurse, and I realized her Spanish accent for the first time. The nurse didn’t say a word, just kept looking at us with a funny expression and pointed her finger at a door to the left. Not thinking about it further, we both rushed in.

A closet.

Great.

 Make that a narrow closet, I thought helplessly as I was pressed awkwardly against the wall with the girl’s back squeezed against my ribcage.

“Well, at least they won’t be able to find us in here,” my companion stated. She didn’t seem worried about the fact that we were in a very dark, closed off closet, pressed against each other as if we had known one another for years. If someone tries to open the door, they’ll be sure to think we’re doing stuff that we shouldn’t be doing in a public place, I thought and was suddenly reminded by a very dirty scene in Grey’s Anatomy.

“Umm, no offense, but do you have any idea how long we’re supposed to be packed up like this?” I tried to ask, but my voice came out rather muffled.

“Mr Dorough, you surprise me, are you telling me that you have never been in a situation like this, in all your years?”

“Call me Howie,” It was the least I could do, “actually no, I haven’t. You?” She didn’t really look like the type that would jump into a closet with anyone, but then again, I didn’t actually know what type she was.

“Not quite, I was trapped in a closet once, with my ex. It was kinda kinky,’’ she offered and I smiled, releasing the tension I felt. If she didn’t worry about a thing, then why should I?

“Ha! Anyway, thanks for saving my ass today. Twice…”

“Anytime,’’ she laughed, “thanks for punching David in the face, he’s a real pain in the ass and deserved whatever harm you could have put on him.”

“I don’t doubt it,” I replied weakly, wondering how much harm he would have put on me if she hadn’t pulled me away in time, “I’m not sure what kind of damage I could have done to him, though.”

“I’m sorry I pulled you away then,” she said.

“Oh no, don’t be sorry, I meant…” I couldn’t finish what I was about to say, cause suddenly the door was yanked open and we had to do our best to keep from tumbling right out of the closet. My first fear was that the whole crowd had assembled in the small hallway and was standing in front of the door, ready to eat us.

“They are gone,” the elderly nurse informed us. Apparently she had figured out why we had jumped in the closet and felt the need to get us out of there as soon as possible.

“Oh thank God!” I exclaimed a little too loudly, which caused both the nurse and the girl to look at me.

“It’s not that I didn’t like being stuck in a closet with you,” I told the girl, which made her frown, “I mean, I didn’t mind, I mean… oh…” damn smooth.

The girl smiled though and said: “Oh Howie, I know it’s hard to talk when you’ve just come out of the closet.” I heard the nurse laugh out loud at her joke and gave her a pissed off look, cause I still had my pride.

“You’re hilarious,” I stated, “I didn’t catch your name though.”

“Oh, it’s Caroline,” she said, and my heart started hammering, “but I prefer you call me Carry.”

“Carry it is then,” I stammered uncertainly, suddenly afraid, cause she did look like my sister a little.

She must have caught the sudden change in atmosphere, cause she started to turn away from me.

“Ummm, so the crowd’s gone, that means we can do what we have to do now. I guess I should leave.”

“Or you could come with me,” I suggested. I still don’t know why. Maybe because I was sick of hiding everything. I knew she was a reporter, it was her job to get to the bottom of things and I gave her the permission to walk right into a goldmine. I knew that. But honestly, I really didn’t want her to leave.

 

 

 

 

Chapter End Notes:

I apologize for not continuing on the plot line, but it was so much fun to do something different for once. And Carry's destined to play a major part in the story... so I hope you like her somewhat.