The Accident
After a few days with Kristin, building their relationship back to a secure level, JC flew back to California to collect Chelsea and headed back to Los Angeles. He had a few surprise in store for his stepdaughter.
“What is it?” Chelsea demanded impatiently as JC led her to the garage after commanding she keep her eyes closed.
“Something you want,” he assured her.
“A dog?”
He laughed. “You want a dog? Damn, that would have been cheaper.”
“Dad…”
“Open your eyes.”
What greeted Chelsea’s green eyes was a shiny, little red convertible. “Wha?…”
“You said you didn’t like driving the Jeep…”
“You bought me another car? Mom’ll kill you!”
“Technically, it’s my car, but I bought it for you to use when you’re here.”
“You’re crazy!” she announced, then she turned to hug him enthusiastically. “I love it! Mom’ll still ream you.”
“I’ll survive.”
“Yeah, without half your skin!”
JC held the key ring in front of her face. “Take us for a spin?”
Chelsea grinned impishly. “Yeah!”
Chelsea was a good driver, cautious without being nervous. JC had no qualms sitting in the passenger seat with her behind the wheel.
“I love this car!” she exclaimed happily.
“I’m glad, baby boss.”
“Mom’ll kill you,” she repeated.
“No, she won’t. She’ll be pissed, but I have my ways around her.”
“JC!” Someone in a large SUV screamed at the car.
“Chelsea, pull over,” JC commanded as he saw the big vehicle veer dangerously towards the much smaller car.
“It’s JC!”
Another car spotted them before Chelsea could steer the car safely away and they were trapped – nowhere to go. The SUV struck the convertible.
The last thing JC remembered was Chelsea’s scream of terror.
“Dad!”
When the ambulance arrived, JC was kneeling at his stepdaughter’s side. The impact had thrown her from the car and she lay unmoving on the pavement.
“Baby, it’s Dad. Talk to me, Chels,” he pleaded with her. “Chels!”
Wearily, Kristin dropped her bags inside JC’s Los Angeles foyer. After much wheedling and badgering, she convinced Kyle she needed down time with her family – or she would scrap the Orlando-Titusville project. Once Kyle agreed to head for Orlando, Kristin had left for California, hoping to salvage a weekend with her husband and daughter.
“Josh! Chelsea!” she called and received no answer. Maybe they had gone out to lunch.
Just then, her cellphone chimed. “Kristin de Carlo-Chasez.”
“Thank God, Kris!” Came JC’s panicked voice.
“What’s wrong?”
“You need to get here now, Kris. We were in an accident—“
“We?…Oh, my God, Chelsea! Josh, my baby—“
“Get to L.A.—“
“I am in L.A. I’m at your house. I—I was going to surprise you.”
“Get a cab and get to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.”
“Josh—“
“Just get here, Kris.” There was a sob in his voice that scared her.
“Where is she?” Kristin demanded when she spotted JC.
JC looked worse for wear. His shirt was torn, dirty, and bore bloodstains. Scratched covered his arms and face where he had kissed asphalt. A white gauze bandage covered a particularly nasty cut on his forehead. Needing to hold her and be held, he reached out and pressed her close. “I am so sorry, Kris…”
Not in the mood to be soothed, she pushed him away. “I want to see my baby, Josh.”
Instead, he led her to a tall man in a white lab coat. “Doctor Thomsen, this is Chelsea’s mother.”
“Mrs. Chasez.” The doctor nodded. He had kind brown eyes.
“I want to see my daughter,” she demanded.
“Yes, of course, you do. I’d like to discuss her condition.
Calming herself as best she could, Kristin nodded.
“Right now, we are cautiously optimistic. She hasn’t regain consciousness as of yet—“
“She’s in a coma?” Kristin charged abruptly.
JC stood behind her. He massaged her tense shoulders, trying to comfort her.
Her back was broken and her spinal cord has been damaged. Until the swelling subsides, we can’t gauge the extend of damage.”
“Oh, my God! She’s a dancer! If she…Oh, God!” She turned to bury her face in JC’s chest as she sobbed.
JC had no assurances for her, just the comfort of his arms. “Shh...We’ll get through this somehow, Krissie…”
Suddenly, her vulnerability vanished and the steely strength that had served her well her entire life returned. She pulled away from JC and turned back to the doctor. “I want to see my daughter. She needs to know I’m here.”
It broke her heart to see her lively baby girl lying so still with the machines beeping and humming around her. When was the last time she recalled Chelsea being still? Even in her sleep the girl was a restless one. She touched the bruised forehead tenderly. “Baby, it’s Momma. I’m here, Chelsea – and things will be fine now that we’re together.” Tears welled up and spilled onto the flowered hospital gown the girl wore. “I promise, I’ll never let work take me away so long again. I should never have left you…”
JC slipped into the room. His chest ached, seeing Kristin crying and Chelsea not responding. Oh, God, if he could just turn back time…Going up behind Kristin, he put his hands at her waist, rubbing his face in her hair. “I’m so sorry about this, Kris…”
She leaned back into him, absorbing his heat into her chilled body. “I’m sorry, Josh. I got so wrapped up…How are you?”
“I understand. I’m okay, just got a little banged up.”
She turned to nuzzle his scraped cheek. “I’m glad you’re okay, at least.” She rested against him for a moment, taking comfort in his solid presence. “Some surprise homecoming.”
“I’m glad you were closer than Orlando. I’m afraid you would have flipped out, having to wait hours to get here.”
“You may be right.”
Kristin leaned over her daughter and kissed one pale cheek. “Baby, Dad and I are going to step just outside,” she said quietly. Se remembered reading that coma patients could hear, just not respond. “I’ll be right back. I am going to be right here until you wake up. I promise.”
The couple stepped outside the room, then Kristin rounded on JC. “Just how did this happen?”
“It’s my fault. I—I bought her that car—“
“What car? She didn’t bring her car all the way from Santa Clara—“
“No…no…she complained about the Jeep being too bulky to drive in L.A. I bought a convertible—
“You got her another car?” she demanded incredulously. “You let her drive in L.A.? You knew how I felt—“
“She drives very well, Kris. If it hadn’t been for those fans—“
“What!”
“Some fans spotted us. They clipped the car getting too close. That’s when Chels lost control—“
“You had my daughter driving in L.A. in a car she never should have been driving – and your fans nearly killed her?” she demanded harshly. “Guess what, Chasez? This is your fault!”
“I hate myself—“
“Not nearly as much as I hate you,” she assured him with great venom. “My ballerina daughter has a broken back and may never wake up. And it is your fault.”
When JC tried to touch her, she jerked away. “Get out,” she growled. “I hate you and I never what to see you again. Just look at what you’ve done!”
“Kris…baby, I—“
“Get out!” she screamed.
“But—“ He reached for her again and she pushed at him.
“Get out, you fucking popstar!” With that, Kristin left him standing alone as she went back to Chelsea’s side.
With tears streaming down his cheeks, JC turned and left.
JC huddled in the corner of the sofa, his knees drawn beneath his chin, weeping for all he had lost. It was his fault Chelsea was in a coma and if she did survive, she may never walk again, much less dance. He knew Kristin would never forgive him. He had decided he could bend the Boss Lady’s rules with disastrous results. He thought he could circumvent her authority, that her rules were too restrictive for the teenager – and now his little Baby Boss was paying the ultimate price with perhaps her very life. Chelsea’s life was in the balance…Kristin hated him…JC had never been so alone.
Martha Carpenter had come to sit with Kristin during her vigil. She watched as her niece talked incessantly to her comatose daughter. Her love. Her assurances. Her promises. Kristin poured out her guilty heart to her little girl until she was hoarse.
“Kristin, you need to rest,” her aunt told her. “What good will you be to Chelsea when she wakes up and you’re too exhausted to smile?”
“I can’t leave her, Aunt Marti. I promised I’d never leave her,” Kristin answered dully.
“That’s not even realistic.”
“I will never leave her in the care of others. I left her with Josh and see what happened?”
“It was an accident.”
“She never should have been behind the wheel.”
“Maybe…”
“He bought her a car and he knew how I felt about her driving in so much traffic.”
“Okay, so he went against your better judgment…Chelsea knew how you felt, too. She could have said no.”
“She’s a child. He was—“
“She is the same age you were when you got pregnant with her. Were you a child?”
“I was different.”
“Because you had a husband you hero-worshipped? I’d venture to say Chelsea is more worldly than you were at that age, pregnant or not.”
Kristin frowned.
“You’re husband needs to be here.”
“It doesn’t matter. I sent him away.”
Chelsea climbed up out of the black cotton wool of her coma. First thing she heard was her mother’s sad voice. Sent whom away? The girl wondered. “Mom?” she croaked, her throat dry.
Kristin’s cool hand rested on her daughter’s cheek. “Momma’s here, baby.”
Momma? Chelsea only called her mother that when she was feeling scared. It was the name she used for her mother when she was little…”My head hurts,” she complained. The accident came back to her in a rush. “Dad! Where’s Dad?”
“Josh is fine, sweetie,” Kristin assured her. “He’s just got some scrapes.”
“Then why isn’t her here? Dad wouldn’t leave me!” Chelsea struggled to find her feet – only to discover her legs would respond to her commands to move. “My legs!” she cried. “I can’t feel my legs!”
Kristin calmed her as best she could. “Hush, baby…”
“I lost Dad and my legs? I killed Dad, didn’t I? I wasn’t a good enough driver and I killed Dad!” the girl sobbed hysterically.
“Chelsea, Josh is fine. He was just banged up a little—“
“I don’t believe you! Dad would never leave me.”
“Chelsea—“ Kristin was helpless. Her daughter simply would not listen. “Josh isn’t dead. He—he just stepped out. He’ll be back soon, “ she lied.
“Promise?”
“Promise.” And now, Kristin had to find a way to keep that promise.
No one could contact JC – not even on his cellphone.
Finally, Martha placed a call to Chicago in a last ditch attempt to reach him. If anyone could get him to respond, it would be Karen Chasez.
JC answered his mother’s call listlessly. “Yeah.”
“Why aren’t you at the hospital with your wife and child?” Karen Chasez demanded.
“Kristin hates me.”
“Perhaps for the moment…So you turn your back on Chelsea?”
“I was told to go away and never come back,” he pointed out. “It was all my fault. I don’t blame Kristin one bit for feeling that way.
“They both need you there, Josh.”
“Kristin de Carlo needs no one,” he told his mother bitterly. “I bet she hatched fully grown.”
“Oh, Josh, you know that’s not true," Karen scolded gently. “You forget I’ve seen you two together.”
“How’s Chelsea?” JC didn’t want to talk about Kristin anymore. It hurt too much.
“She has come out of the coma, but she seems to be drifting in and out. She thinks you’re dead. She keeps saying she killed you.”
“What?”
“From what Martha says, she thinks you’re dead because you aren’t there. Chelsea believes you just wouldn’t up and leave her if you were still alive. She is convinced you died in the crash and everyone is lying to her.”
“Kristin can handle it.”
“It’s been days. Kristin is frayed to the bone. You have a family and they need you. It’s not like you to take the coward's way out, Joshua,” Karen reminded her son. “So what if Kristin yelled a little because she was scared and upset?”
“She called me a fucking popstar again, like that’s all I am.”
“So? Is your pride worth that child’s peace of mind? Is it more important than the family you’ve made?”
“Mom—“
“Do what a man would do.”
JC wondered if she was unconscious or merely asleep when he approached Chelsea’s bedside. He’d been surprised to see the girl alone. He went to her and began stroking the girl’s long wavy hair tenderly. He had to smile. She could be his child with hair like that. It was very nearly the same color, too. Maybe when he and Kristin had children…Well, that was a big ‘if’ now. “Hey, baby,” he called softly. “Dad’s here.”
Hazy green eyes fluttered open. “Dad?” Chelsea rasped on a dry note.
JC saw ice chips on the stand beside the bed and fed her several to cool her arid vocal chords. “Better?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
He went back to stroking her hair. “How’s my girl?”
“I thought you were dead.”
“I’m not dead,” he assured her.
She reached up to touch the bandage on his forehead. “Messed you up some.”
“I’ll live.”
“Scarred that pretty face,” she teased drowsily.
“It’ll give my face character,” he quipped.
“I’m glad I didn’t kill you. Replacement dads are hard to find.” She sighed unhappily. “I can’t move my legs. I can’t be a dancer…”
“I’m sorry, Chels. This is my fault. The car…the fans…the accident.”
“No, it just happened. You were spoiling me and I was letting you. I knew I shouldn’t have been driving. Mom told me I couldn’t…”
JC hadn’t known that the girl had been told driving was expressly forbidden…
“Yeah, I didn’t tell you, so it’s really my fault.”
“There’s enough blame to go around, Chels.”
“Where’s Mom?”
“I don’t know. She wasn’t here when I arrived.”
“You need to see her, Dad.”
“Soon enough.” He leaned close to buss her forehead. “I love you.” His voice was tight with tears. He dug a bracelet out of his pocket. “I was gonna give this to you when we got back from our drive.”
The slender chain bracelet held three stones. Chelsea recognized them as birthstones – one for JC , one for Kristin and one for Chelsea.
“They don’t make daughter rings,” he told her. ‘’And I was gonna tell you that my lawyer was filing the adoption papers.”
“Oh, Dad…” Chelsea began to sob softly. “I’ll never be a dancer.”
“You think that matters to me? You can still be whatever you want to be – whatever school…”
“I was gonna grow up and be your back-up dancer.”
He chuckled. “Guess you’ll just have to grow up and be the graphic artist on my website.”
The girl smiled through her tears. “I’d like that.”
“You see, my daughter is a multi-talented young lady.”
Tears streamed down Kristin’s cheeks. She had come into the room as JC presented Chelsea with the bracelet. He was so very sweet and tender with her daughter – their daughter. She had forgotten about the paper he’d asked her to sign in Orlando. He had said he fully claimed both de Carlo females as his own. She was so very glad he hadn’t let the words spoken in shock and anger keep him from Chelsea.
“Can I join this love fest?” she asked softly.
JC straightened to find Kristin looking worn and beautiful just out of reach. He opened his arms and was rewarded with her sweet body against his.
“I’m so sorry, Josh,” she whispered tearfully. “I was so hateful…”
“It’s okay, Kris. I know you were scared and upset…”
“You two go take your mushy stuff somewhere else,” Chelsea told them teasingly. “I need a nap.”
“Okay, baby boss,” JC retorted.
After careful hugs and assurances they would be back soon, JC and Kristin left the room.
Taking JC’s hand, Kristin led him to a deserted waiting room. She turned to him and slid her arms around his waist. “I’m sorry, Josh.”
“You already said that and I already said it was okay.” His arms closed about her. “We’re okay, Kris – as long as we’re together. That’s the way we’ll see this through – together. We’re family.”
She touched the bandage on his forehead much the way Chelsea had. “Are you really okay?”
“I’m fine. I was damn lucky.”
“I’m the lucky one. I have a spirited child and a wonderful husband.”
“I have one tough daughter and an even tougher wife,” he mused. “If they can’t keep me on the straight and narrow, no one can.”
“Josh…” She reached her hands behind his head to urge his face closer. “I love you.”
“And I love you, boss lady.”
And it was sealed with a kiss.