Driven By Love (5 page)

"This really is amazing," Dean told her as they inched past a minivan. "I can see now why you were a stunt driver."

Anne smiled. “Yes, it is amazing. Every car understands me. I have no problem telling them what I need from them.”

"It all makes sense now," he whispered as they reached the back door. It was locked and Anne sighed.

"I should have thought that would happen."

Dean saw that no one was around. Walking to the front of the hospital was not an option, because it would draw in a huge crowd as well as strange headlines that they really didn’t need. He glanced at Anne, seeing her in a different light than before. No longer was she the stuck-up diva that he met a few hours ago. She was now a friend who had a secret that he had to keep.

"Not a problem," Dean told her as he gently moved her aside, and he placed his hand on the lock, closed his eyes and visualized the locking mechanism. A second later the door unlocked and he pulled it open.

"You're not the only one with gifts."

Anne looked at him in shock.

He grinned. He guessed she probably hadn’t met many people with gifts. Dean had met his share.

They moved quickly inside and closed the door behind them and headed back into the hospital to their waiting room.

When they entered, they found that George Tensel, Evan's father, had arrived. He sat next to Ken and spoke in a hushed tone. George and Ken had met during the Vietnam War and they became as close as brothers once they both learned of each other’s powers. When they both returned to the States they decided to move nearby each other;  by being closer they were able to keep their families safer. When George’s wife left him for another man, having the Stevens family close by helped him and his children fill the hole his wife left behind.

He got up when Anne entered the room, and she went over and hugged him.

“Is Christina coming?” she asked.

“She's on her way,” he told her. “She loves her big brother so much it's just tearing her right now.”

“It's hard for all of us,” Kenneth said. “We just have to keep thinking positive. Evan's a strong guy and Missy is, too.”

George sighed and sat back down.

Anne walked over to her mother and Helen looked up at her and extended her hand. Anne grabbed hold of it and knelt in front of her. As she leaned over, she whispered, “Dean knows.”

Her mother looked at her and, for the first time since the whole accident started, she smiled.

There was a knock on the door and then it opened. The doctor entered again and closed the door behind him.

“I have more news about Missy.” He paused as if gathering his thoughts.  “The surgeon was able to repair the bleeding, so they have that under control. They have her now in the recovery room.”

“Does that mean that she's going to be okay?” Helen asked.

He shook his head, “We won't know until we get the results from all the tests and the key will be what happens when she wakes up.”

“When will that be?” Kenneth asked as he held on to his wife’s hand.

“We don't know. Right now, she's still under the anesthesia. Once all the tests are run and we know what we're dealing with then we'll take the next step.”

“What about Evan?” George asked.

“Are you a relation of his?”

“I'm his father.”

“They finished running some tests on him and are waiting on the results. I'll let you know as soon as we have them.”

“But Doctor, can you at least tell us if they're going to be okay?” Helen asked.

“I can't say anything for sure until we have the tests results.”

“How long before you have the results?” Anne chimed in.

“Probably another hour. Is there anything else any of you need right now?”

“Yes, reassurance,” George muttered.

“That I can't give right now.”

Dean felt the tension in the room and he knew that the doctor felt it as well. He knew that there was nothing the doctor could say at the moment to make them all feel better.

“Thank you, Doctor, for the update. Please, let us know any new news right away.”

The doctor nodded and quietly left the room.

Kenneth sighed and rubbed his face. George got up and slowly started to pace around the room.

“Did Daniel or Elle call?” Anne asked no one in particular. Dean heard that Daniel was a computer geek who lived in the city two hours away but he promised them that he would stop by the celebration. Helen and Kenneth’s golden boy…he could never do anything wrong in their eyes. He was always thoughtful and considerate, always there whenever any family member needed it. His job in the city was stable and he was very good at it, so good that he got two promotions the first month he started. Even Daniel’s girlfriend was perfect: grade-A honor roll student, graduated from an Ivy League school, and was well on her way to becoming a successful businesswoman in one of the top 100 companies in the country.

Elle Stevens was their “close as a sister” cousin who lived with them when her mother committed suicide. Living in the next town over, she worked odd jobs to put herself through community college to get her nursing degree. Elle worked hard to pay for her education, and she refused any financial help from Anne saying that she couldn’t accept charity from her.

Her father answered, “Yeah, he was already on the way here when the accident happened so he's coming straight here. We left Elle a message. I think her phone is dead. Hopefully, she will get the message and be here soon.”

When silence filled the room Dean asked, “I'm going to get myself some coffee. Anyone want anything?”

“I'll have some water,” Jeri told him as she held on to Helen's hand. “Helen, would you like something?”

She shook her head. “Not right now, honey. My head's just rolling everywhere.”

“I'll take a coffee--black with sugar,” Kenneth answered.

Dean looked at George Tensel, who paced the floor. “Mr. Tensel, do you want anything?”

“Not now, thanks.”

He looked over at Anne. “Anne?”

She leaped at the opportunity to get away from the coldness of her father and the situation. “I'll go with you. I'm not sure what I want.”

Dean walked to the door and opened it for her. When they were out of earshot, she stopped and turned towards him.

“Promise me you won't tell anyone about my gift.”

“Of course, as long as you do the same.”

For the first time, she looked at him, really looked at him. His eyes were hazel with speckles of green. His lips were full and seemed soft and his chin was perfectly chiseled. With his surprisingly good looks, he would have been a great actor or even model.

She snapped herself back to reality and smiled at him. “It's a promise then.”

A flash broke through their moment and Dean whipped around to see where it came from. A young kid grinned as he took another photo and then ran off. Dean was about to bolt after him but Anne grabbed his arm.

“Don't. It's not worth it.”

“I just can't stand people like that,” he mumbled through clenched teeth.

“Just let it go.” She led him away in the opposite direction. The sign in the corridor pointed right towards the vending area. Anne pulled out her change purse and Dean stopped her.

“Let me.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet.

“Your dad wanted black with sugar, right?”

“Yeah, he usually likes his coffee strong.”

He pushed a few buttons and waited for the vending machine to make the coffee.

“Thanks for staying with us.”

Dean looked at her surprised by her comment. “It’s my job to stay with you and protect you.”

“I know, but you could have turned down the offer,”

“Your parents did a lot for Jeri when she just moved in. She considers you family and we don't turn our backs on family.”

“I never really got a chance to talk to your sister much. All I know is that Mom thinks of her as another daughter,”

“I hope you're not jealous.”

Anne couldn’t hide the slight twinge of regret in her voice. “Mom had a very hard time when Missy and I left. Having Jeri move into town was just what she needed to move on with her life. In a way, it made us feel less guilty about leaving home.” She relaxed her body against the vending machine and remembered the sorrow on her mother’s face when she told her she was moving to Los Angeles and then how happy her mother sounded when Jeri moved into town. “I really want to get to know your sister. She sounds like a great person.”

The coffee was finished and he punched in another order. “She is. She's the best sister I've ever had. Eric and I are lucky.”

“Eric?”

“Oh, he's our other brother, the oldest. He's a Marine now in the Middle East.”

"Aren't you guys scared?"

"Of what?"

"Of losing him. Or afraid you’d die when you were serving We always hear on the news reports of some soldiers killed or severely injured."

"It's a risk that we take."

He grabbed the second coffee, which he made for himself and placed it on the counter next to the machine. He took two lids from the basket and sealed the coffees. "You take risks like that with your stunt driving."

Anne looked at the choices on the vending machine. Coffee would make her already frayed nerves go haywire, and soda would have just the same effect. "That's different. It's a controlled situation and we always have medical personal on site."

She pushed a button and waited until a bottled water popped out.

"You still put yourself into dangerous situations. I'm sure your parents were thrilled to hear about you doing that."

He took out another bill and added it to the vending machine and pushed the water button.

Anne shrugged her shoulders. "They were able to get over it."
Only after a couple of days of nagging and hours of pleading by them to reconsider.
“Cars wouldn’t hurt me. They were more concerned about the people in Hollywood finding out about what I could do.”

"I'll get that," she said as she reached down for the other water.

“That’s a legitimate concern. How were you able to keep it a secret?” They started to walk down the hallway and out of the corner of her eye Anne saw a woman pointing her cell phone at her, clicking away. She sighed. Were people so bored with their own lives that they had to fixate on hers?

“Cars have become more and more automated. It was easy to explain how the light turned off or the car started by itself. No one ever questioned it.”

If Dean saw the woman, he didn't show it. They both quietly turned a corner and headed down the hallway.

"So how did you get into stunt driving?" he asked her as they moved aside for a patient on a gurney.

"It feels like such a long time ago. I was close to eighteen, I guess, and I usually would go to the race track here in town to let Hawk stretch his wheels, so to speak." They turned down another corner.

"Well, one day my manager came out on vacation and he knew the owner of the track. Jim, the owner, told him about my excellent driving and he had to come out himself to see."

"And that's how you ended up doing stunt driving."

"Yup, pretty much."

They stopped at the door to their personal waiting room and lowered his voice. "But who was really driving, you or your car?"

"Combination of both. He taught me what I needed to do in order to stay on the road and based on that I learned how to control him. Plus the other stunt cars were just as helpful."

She pushed open the door, walked over to Jeri and as she handed her the water she asked, "Anything?"

"No, not a peep," she told her as she graciously took the water and began to drink it.

"I'm so worried," Helen murmured as she slowly rocked back and forth. Kenneth leaned over to her and took her face in his hands.

"Missy's a fighter, Helen. We taught all our kids to be fighters. She'll pull through for us and so will Evan. We all just have to stick together, honey
."

Tears welled up in her eyes and Kenneth leaned over and kissed her gently. Jeri got up and gestured for Anne to sit next to her mother. She then walked over to Dean and leaned against him as he wrapped his arm around her. He knew what she was thinking. That kind of love reminded her of their own parents before they died in a plane crash. They both adored each other and never said any harsh or demeaning words to each other. They were soul mates and their children only hoped that they were both together in a wonderful place. Jeri always told him that she wished that all of them would find that kind of love because that's what makes life worth living.

A knock at the door startled them and the door cracked open. Daniel poked his head in. "Oh, good, I found you guys. There's a mob out there! I thought that I wouldn’t be able to find you!"

"What mob?' Dean asked as he looked behind him.

"They're not in the hospital. They are outside by the entrance. There are reporters from every single TV station out there. I had to show them my ID to get in."