Reconnected (8 page)

‘’
You know you might wanna take Mr. Fallon up on his acting offer there, Luke. Because your being awfully dramatic”, Krista tells him with a hard glare.

"I'm just worried for you, Kate, alright? You’re in this whirlwind romance now, and he's got the amazing career and all the screaming girls and he's making this movie and all...but all that isn't real. You are though. And what's gonna happen when someone else comes around and he takes his eyes away from you, what then?!"

I just glare at him and Krista looks about ready to explode at him. I close my eyes and make myself take a deep breath, "Do me a favor and just shut up for the drive back to campus, k?"

He runs a frustrated hand through his hair and looks up at me, “I’m sorry, ok? I’m your friend, right?”

I sigh and nod, “Right.”

“
Well, as your friend, I’m allowed to worry about you. And what path he might be leading you down. To be honest…I’m scared one day he’s going to take you away and I’ll only ever get to see you in a picture in a magazine.”

I shake my head, "That's not going to happen, ok? Right now, my life is centered on getting my degree, and going on to do what I love, helping people. If I decide to go on this little...trip with him, I won't be moving into a Hollywood mansion by the end of the week."

Lucas just nods and leans back in the seat deciding to let it go for now.

“
Can we go now?”, Krista asks impatiently.

“
Yes, we can go now.”, I tell her with a small smile.

She pulls out and begins the long drive down the highway and cranks the radio up loud.  After about 30 minutes of driving I notice Krista pick up speed and keep checking the mirror nervously.

"Hey, what's wrong?", I ask curiously looking in the mirror myself.

"Nate and Eric have black cars, right?"

I nod, "Yeah, why?"

"Because there's been a silver SUV following us for the last 10 minutes and they've even kept up with us when I've started going faster and going down the back roads.", she answers nervously and grips the steering wheel tighter.

"What's going on?", I hear Lucas ask from the backseat.

"We're being chased.", I say with a frown and grab for my cell phone. "If it keeps up, I'm going to call that number Nate and Eric gave us before."

Krista nods and checks in the mirror again before focusing on the road and cars ahead of us. When she picks up speed, I hear other cars honking as the silver SUV tries getting between them to keep up with us. Krista suddenly swerves for an exit causing me to squeak and grab onto whatever I can to keep myself righted.

"Call that number, Kate. Now!", Luke yells and I look behind us and gasp seeing the SUV right up on us.

"Oh God...is it paparazzi?", I whisper and fumble for the number in my phone.

"Who cares! They're about to run us off the damn road!", Krista yells and slams her foot on the gas.

The next thing I know the SUV is beside us swerving in and out trying to get us on the side of the road and into the ditch. Krista is screaming and I'm shaking the faster we go and the more of a blur everything around us is.

With shaking hands, I press the number for Nate on my cell and wait nervously.

"Yeah?", I hear his voice and almost feel relief.

"Where are you guys?!"

"Mrs. Warren?", he sounds confused, "We're at set. Aren't you and Ms. Quinn still standing by?"

I feel tears come to my eyes as I shake my head and look over into the windows of the SUV, I can just barely make out the profile of a woman, but I don't see any camera. "No! No, Nate, we're not. We left...and...and now we're being chased. Or just plain ran off the road, God, where are you?!"

I hear the panic as he starts yelling at people and hear something about tracking a GPS and then I scream when the silver SUV slams into our side over and over again.

"She's going to kill us!", Krista screams with tears pouring down her cheek.

I have tears of my own spilling down and feel completely helpless. Whoever this is, is insane, and apparently doesn't care if we come to our deaths or not.

"Girls, look at me.", Lucas says sounding really serious.

I turn to him and he grabs my hand, "We're going to be all right, ok?"

Krista casts him an anxious look through the rearview mirror and just nods her head.

A whimper escapes me as I look over into Krista's terrified eyes and the SUV barrels into the back of our car causing it to fishtail and I squeeze my eyes tight as Krista rights the car again and slams back down on the gas. I have just a minute to look out the window again and see long blonde hair and for just a moment see the face of Alexia Dalton. She gives me a big evil satisfied grin as she slams into us hard enough that Krista can no longer control the car and the next moment we are flipping in the air and I grab for both Krista and Luke's hands as I close my eyes and brace for the impact.

Chapter 13

The next time I open my eyes, everything seems extra bright and my whole body just feels heavy, especially my hand. Once my neck muscles wake up enough, I turn my head slightly and find Liam there, with his head leaning on my hand and I think he's sleeping.

I try licking my lip to be able to talk but it’s hard. Wow, my head is killing me.

"L...Liam.", I whisper softly and try to move my hand.

He startles and his head darts up, as he realizes I'm awake his eyes change from wild with sleep and worry to excitement. "Oh, baby...Oh my God, baby.", he reaches up and kisses my forehead, my cheeks and finally my lips. "I was so scared I'd never see your eyes open again."

I try to reach my hand up to his cheek but he just shakes his head, "Just rest, Katy. Let me get the doctor, ok?"

I just nod and watch him go. Where are Krista and Lucas? Are they ok? Everything hurts....

"Hello Mrs. Warren.", I hear a sweet voice and look to see a blonde haired woman dressed in a doctor's coat. "My name is Dr. Ryder, I've been your doctor for this last week.", she says with a soft smile.

I gasp and turn my eyes to Liam, "Week? It's been a whole week?"

He nods sadly and takes my hand, "It has. An agonizing, torturous week that I was terrified of losing you in."

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, "Krista...and Lucas. They were in the car when that...when we were ran off the road. Where are they?"

Liam exchanges a look with the Dr that fills me with dread. "Talk to me, Liam. Where are they?", I demand with as much force as I'm able.

Liam sits on the bed with me and squeezes my hand. "Krista is in a medically induced coma. Her brain had a lot of swelling, they just want her to heal and not try and fight it."

I feel tears streaming down my face. I can't imagine my lively, happy go lucky best friend being strapped down to a bed with machines keeping her going. I have to be able to see her, somehow.

"Let me go see her", I whisper through my tears.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Warren, you can't yet. She's in a sterilized environment and you’re going to be recovering yourself for a while. You need to focus on you for right now.", Dr. Ryder says and comes over towards me to start checking over all my vitals.

Once she's finally done she pats my hand then nods at Liam and walks back out of the room.

"Liam, out with it...where's Luke?"

He runs  his hand through his hair and looks at the  floor, "Both of our parents flew in after the accident, I need to call and tell them your awake now and make some arrangements for physical therapy and stuff because you’re going to need it..."

"Liam Elliott Warren, what the hell is going on?! Your trying to distract me and all you’re doing is making me mad, where is he?!", I yell with all the energy I have left.

The look he gives me tells me it all and I shake my head back and forth over and over again as the tears just continue to fall.

"No, no, no....please, tell me...he's not...not.", I can't even say the word. It's just not possible that he can just be gone. He's supposed to go on and be a great architect and find a woman out there somewhere  that could love him the way he thought he loved me. This is my fault...if I hadn't invited him to come to set with us he wouldn't have been in that car and he would have just been waiting on campus to hang out like always. Not sitting in a morgue drawer, but no. The pain quickly turns to anger; this is Alexia Dalton's fault. All because of some stupid jealousy she has for the man that is sitting next to me and has his arms wrapped around me.

"I'm so so sorry, baby. I didn't want to have to tell you yet. I know...I know that you loved him, and I may not have gotten along with him...but I really am sorry.", he whispers and kisses my head.

"When...when is his funeral?", I whisper when I can breathe again and the tears have stopped.

"I'm not sure, Katy.", He pushes some of my hair out of my eyes, "I haven't had the chance to speak with his parents yet, but I will, I promise."

I just nod and groan at my achy body. I feel so useless. I need to go see Krista, she has to be ok, I can't lose her to. If I ever see Alexia Dalton again, I don't know what I'm going to  do.

Taking a deep breath, I look up into Liam's clear blue eyes, "Alexia...Alexia did this. I saw her just before we lost control of the car, I looked out the window and I saw her driving that SUV...she killed Luke!"

He wraps his arms around me and grips me tightly, "She's missing. After you called Nate, everything kind of went nuts. We had just been lounging around; rewatching some scenes we shot and no one realized that she left when you guys did. And by the way, Nate and Eric have been dealt with for not watching you well enough to know that you had left...anyway, Eric came over to Scott and I and told us what was going on. I've never felt so scared, baby. They had a GPS thing on your car, so they tracked it and by the time we all got there, the car was in shambles and you guys were all trapped. People had to hold me and Scott back. We wanted nothing more than to jump down that ditch and  get to you guys.", he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, "When they put you on that stretcher, you had a huge gash on your head and were totally knocked out. Your right leg has several fractures; you’re going to need to have someone with you for a while. Which is another reason your parents are here, by the way, but I'll get back to that. I was glued to your side when they were working on you before they put you in the ambulance. Then I heard Scott yell.", he shakes his head and I squeeze his hand.

"Krista....she was really bad, wasn't she?", I say softly as I look down at our hands.

He nods as he squeezes back, "She was. She just looked completely broken, Katy. When you were on set, she was so bubbly and full of life and to see her not even an hour later broken and battered, it just about killed Scott. He hasn't left her side. Her family has been here and they haven't asked him to leave or anything, she apparently has talked very highly about him to them.", he smiles sadly, “He really loves her…and I know when…when, not if, she wakes up that he isn’t going to ever let her go, I have a very strong feeling that Krista is going to end up going from being Ms. Quinn to Mrs. Adams.”

I smile at that and try to turn over but wince from the pain, "I'm really sore, Liam."

"I'll get a nurse.", he says and kisses my forehead.

He quickly goes to speak to someone at the nurses’ station and comes back with a nice looking older woman who puts something into my IV and before I know it, I feel numb and really tired. Liam sits beside me and kisses my hand as he holds it and I drift off to sleep

When I wake up again, I can hear people whispering until they notice me stirring around.

"Oh Katelyn...I'm so happy to see you awake.", my mom says with tears in her eyes.

I smile slightly as she comes over to grip my hand, "Hey Mom. I'm ok.", I tell her even though I can feel tears in my eyes the mirror hers.

"Your dad and I have been so scared.", she shakes her head and then rubs her tears away, "Derek calls to check on you, you know your brother has always had a soft spot for you."

I smile a little more and nod, "I just want to get better, and be able to get out of here and back to school, I don't have much longer left before graduation..."

She shares a look with Liam and I frown looking between them.

"What? What now?", I ask irritated.

"Baby, you’re not going to be able to go back to just living in the dorms and going to class like before. Your legs are really bad right now. You’re going to need Physical Therapy and are going to be stuck in bed for a lot of that time so you can heal properly.", Liam tells me as he comes to sit in a chair by the bed.

"So you're telling me, I can't finish my degree."

He sighs and runs a hand through his hair, "You can, but you're going to be able to finish it online, we've already worked it out with all your teachers. And you’re going to be recuperating at home...with your parents, back home.", he tells me with a steely look in his eyes.