What Happened to Forever?

Chapters 53-54

~*~Chapter 53~*~

Luke and Laura get to the hospital in record time and fly to the reception desk. Unfortunately, no one has been brought in yet from the crash. They go to the waiting room and sit down. A few minutes later, a very flustered Audrey Hardy comes in.

"Oh Luke, Laura! Is there any news?" she asks expectantly.

They shake their heads. "Not yet. No one has been brought in." Luke says angrily.

"Oh, well, I'm sure it takes a while to get to them. Maybe the crash happened far away from here, where there isn't a hospital." She knows she's grasping at straws, but Luke and Laura have been through so much. Liz had just told her about Lucky last night, and she had been so happy. It must be terrible for them to have just gotten him back, only to face the possibility of losing him again.

Before they can answer, the doors fly open and the Quartermaines come bursting in, arguing as usual.

"You!" Edward yells, pointing at Luke. "This has to have something to do with you!"

"What are you blustering about now, Edward? How could this possibly be my fault?"

"Well, it was probably just another attempt to get revenge on you through your son, just like that fire last year!"

Luke is ready to pound him for that, but Laura holds him back. "Look here, Edward. I just got y son back to me yesterday, and the people who were behind his so-called death are now dead themselves, so there's no way this is their fault."

"Well, someone is going to pay for this..." he trails off looking towards the door, which just opened again. "You! This is all your fault!" he yells again, pointing at the new arrival.

Jason rolls his eyes. "Edward, this is not my fault. Can't you just stop trying to place blame for a minute? Have you even bothered to find out if Emily's okay yet?"

Edward's face turns bright red, even though he was right. He looks up and sees Alan and Monica talking to the nurse behind the desk. "For your information, they're finding out right now," he says, pointing at them. “What are you doing here anyway? Who called you?”

“Reginald,” he says simply.

“Why I haven’t fired that man yet is beyond me!” Edward yells as Alan and Monica come back to the group, shaking their heads.

"No one's come in yet from the crash. We just have to wait." Alan says, feeling helpless.

"I knew that Cassidine boy was bad news," Edward continues rambling, worried sick about his granddaughter, but showing it the only way he knows how: by blaming someone else.

Laura has had enough at this point. "All right, Edward, that's enough! Just please sit down and wait quietly with the rest of us and stop blaming everyone else. Neither of my sons had anything to do with this, no more than my husband or Jason did. It was probably just mechanical failure or pilot error. Why must automatically assume that someone is to blame?"

Everyone stares at her in shock. Laura rarely gets angry like this. Edward is silent, unable to think of a comeback.

"Thank you. Now, we all have people we love on that plane. Both of my sons are out there, and I'm worried sick about them. Please just have respect for the rest of us and be quiet!" She sits down and rests her head on Luke's shoulder, trying to block out the tears. He looks at her, thinking that he's never been more proud of her.

He looks around the room at the worried families. Jason is pacing, talking on his cell phone, probably to Sonny, while Carly sits patiently by. 'If this happened because of him...' Luke thinks, then stops. 'Now I'm starting to sound like Edward!'

The Q's are sitting in the corner, still arguing, but at least doing it quietly this time. Alan and Monica are looking distraught, Ned is talking quietly to Alexis, and Edward is ranting to himself. Luckily, they left Lila at home.

The woman behind the desk speaks up to the crowd. “Excuse me, everyone. A call just came in from the paramedics. They just picked up the survivors from a plane crash nearby. Unfortunately, there was one fatality. Out of the rest, one is critical, but the others are fine. They should all be here shortly.”

~*~Chapter 54~*~

Everyone starts talking at once, hoping that their loved one isn’t the one who died. Luke and Laura continue to hold each other, unable to fathom losing a son again so soon. Audrey is shaking, Jason is as pale as a sheet, and is now gripping Carly’s hand so tightly that she looks like she’s in pain. Alan and Monica are yelling at Edward to shut up so they can think. Ned is pacing, while Alexis tries to calm him down. He goes up to the desk.

“How long did they say it would be before they get here?” he asks the nurse.

“About ten minutes or so. I know you’re all worried, but please try to be patient.”

Alexis approaches Luke and Laura. “I hate to bring this up now, Luke, but is there any possibility this could be some kind of retaliation for finding Lucky?”

He shakes his head. “No, Helena and Faison are dead, and Stefan’s behind bars. Anyway, Lucky and Elizabeth didn’t decide to go until the last minute. Originally, it was just supposed to be Nikolas and Emily on that plane. If there was any kind of foul play, it would have been aimed at them.”

She sighs in relief, knowing that there wasn’t much of a chance that anyone would try to kill either of them, unless it was against Jason, like Edward said before, but Jason had stayed as clean as possible since Michael was born, so that was also doubtful.

“Luke, what if...” Laura starts, unable to complete the thought.

“Shhh, don’t think that way, babe. Our boys will be fine,” Luke caresses her face as he tries to calm her down. He prays that the fatality wasn’t Lucky or Nikolas, because he’s afraid she won’t be able to handle it this time. For that matter, he doesn’t think HE can handle it this time!

At the other end of the waiting room, Monica has already started to blame herself. “I shouldn’t have let her go without knowing where he was taking her.”

Alan tries to reason with her. “Monica, even if she had known they were flying to New York, you would still have let her go. You’ve seen how happy she’s been lately. We trusted Nikolas to take care of her, and I’m sure he has. This was beyond anyone’s control. Anyway, haven’t you heard the statistics that say air travel is safer than any other form of transportation?”

She nods, still trying to make sense of it all. She looks at her watch for the hundredth time. “Where are they?”

“I shouldn’t have taken my guards off of her,” Jason says.

“Jase, even if you did have a guard on her, what good would it have done? Would he have been on the plane, too? You can’t control everything. Some things just happen, and now all we can do is hope for the best. It sounded like most of them were okay, so there’s a good chance that Emily is one of those people,” Carly says, squeezing his hand. She may have gotten off to a bad start with Emily, but once the truth came out about her plan, and AJ fell off the wagon, they managed to smooth over their differences a little. Emily still had her opinions about the way Carly handled the whole thing, but she was happy that Michael was where he belonged now, and agreed to be more friendly towards Carly, for Jason’s sake.

Not only is she worried about Emily, but she had just found out that Lucky was alive. She was so happy at having a second chance to get to know her cousin, and she prays that he was okay. She knows that Luke & Laura wouldn’t be able to deal with losing him again. She looks over at Luke, wishing she could say something to comfort him, but knowing there is nothing she can do.

Alexis is worried about Nikolas. With Stefan in jail, she was the only family he had left, except for Laura. He may not acknowledge her as his aunt anymore, but that didn’t stop her from loving him. She looks across the room at Laura, who is still sobbing on Luke’s shoulder. It’s bad enough to have this happen to a loved one, but she can’t imagine how horrible it must be to have both of your sons in it.

Luke leans over to Audrey. “I’m sure Liz is going to be fine. She had Lucky with her, and my boy would do anything to keep her safe.”

Audrey nods sadly. “I know, but there are some things that no one can prevent, not even Lucky. Oh, what will I tell her parents if it’s her?”

~*~

At the crash site, a group of investigators are digging around in the wreckage, looking for the voice recorder or black box, anything to help them figure out the cause of the crash.

“What did the pilot say when he called it in?”

“There was a lot of static, but something about the engine. Maybe it was just mechanical failure."

“Terrible thing, them being kids and all. I’d hate to be their parents.”

“It was a private jet, too. It’s so rare for there to be a problem like this, especially for such a short trip. Those rich folk usually keep their planes spotless and in perfect condition. I sure hope it wasn’t rigged to crash.”

“Who would want to kill a bunch of teenagers?”

“I heard one of ‘em has a brother in the mob.”

“Yeah, so did I. And I think the family that owns the plane is involved in a lot of bad stuff, too.”

“Man, what is this world coming to, when people start taking things out on each other’s kids?”

“I hear ya. Wait! I think I found something....bingo! Got the recorder here!”

“I think the box is over here. Looks like we’re done.”

“Hey, guys, come over here. I think I found what caused this mess!”

~*~

One of the doctors comes out into the waiting room and looks around. “Is there a family member here for an Elizabeth Webber?”

Audrey gasps. “I’m her grandmother,” she says weakly.

The nurse nods gravely. “Can you come with me, please?”

Audrey looks at Luke and Laura in shock, unable to move. Luke stands up and helps her out of her seat. He walks with her to the door, letting her lean on him, praying that this isn’t the news they all feared.