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Bobbie smiled at her
nephew as he approached her. "Hey Lucky," she said, her voice chipper.
She noticed his expression and her eyes widened. "What's going on?" she
asked cautiously.
"Nothing," Lucky muttered,
and looked down at his feet nervously. He seemed to be avoiding Bobbie's
stare.
She grabbed his chin
and pulled his face up to meet her gaze. "Tell me what's wrong," she said
calmly.
"Nothing, really,"
Lucky stammered, and pulled away from her. "I was just---I'm looking for
Audrey," he finally blurted out. "I need to talk to her."
"About Elizabeth?"
"Yes," Lucky responded
hastily. "It's not about *that* Aunt Bobbie," he assured her. "Don't worry
about it." Bobbie studied his face for a moment, then smiled in bewilderment
and walked away. Lucky breathed a sigh of relief, and leaned against the
counter and closed his eyes. He felt a light vibration at his hip and removed
the pager from his pocket, a frown creasing his brow.
Brenda inhaled sharply.
"It couldn't be *that* bad, Robin. Jason loves you, you know that."
Robin wiped at the
tears that had again begun to roll lazily down her cheeks. "I know that,
Brenda. But Carly complicates things. I'm so used to it being just me and
Jason----and Michael."
"Oh no," Brenda groaned.
"Robin, you've done it."
"Done what?"
"Fallen. Head over
heels. You're in love with Michael Morgan." Robin could not suppress a
small laugh. She and Brenda looked up in surprise at the sound of
frantic pounding on the door. "I wonder who that could be," Brenda said
curiously and crossed over to the door. She hastily unlocked the door and
was confronted by a sopping wet Mac.
"Thanks for letting
me in," he said as he pushed past Brenda into the room, removing his soaked
coat with noticable relief. He saw Robin and the couch and flashed a smile
at her. "Hi Robin."
"Hey Uncle Mac," Robin
said shakily, and turned away in an attempt to hide her tear-streaked face.
"I'll get you something warm to drink," she called and headed into the
kitchen.
"Thanks," Mac said.
"I hope you don't mind if I have a seat," he said to Benda.
"No, go ahead. What
are you doing out in this weather?" Brenda asked, no longer able to hide
her curiosity and worry. A dreadful feeling was beginning to form in the
pit of her stomach.
"Well, I was heading
home, actually," Mac said, rubbing his hands together. He stopped and looked
Brenda in the eye. "I stopped when I thought I recognized Jax's car," he
added carefully.
Brenda's breath caught
in her throat. She saw Robin enter the room out of the corner of her eye,
but could not bring the focus of her attention from Mac. "Where?" she asked
breathlessly.
"It was off the side
of the road," Mac replied. "Off of Summer Drive. It looked like he must've
gotten turned around on the way home." He gauged Brenda's face for a reaction,
but her face was a mask of apprehension. "The car was a wreck, Brenda,"
he said gently. "I couldn't get close enough to see if anyone was in the
car, or even find out for sure it was his. There's a mud slide and I wasn't
going to get in the same boat with him."
Brenda exhaled shakily
and tried to make her voice as even as possible. "Of course not," she said
bravely. "That would be stupid. Did you do anything? At all? Or did you
come straight over here?"
"I got the location
of the accident," Mac replied. "There was another car too, that I didn't
recognize. I called an ambulance and told them where to go, then headed
on over. I thought you would want to know."
"Thank you," Brenda
said quickly. She saw Robin approaching. "Jax-"
"Yeah, I know," Robin
said. "I heard." She looked at her uncle questioningly. "Could you tell
anything?" she asked. "There was nothing? About the other car, I mean-"
"It wasn't Jason,"
Mac said firmly.
Robin's eyes slid
shut in relief. "Oh thank god," she whispered.
Brenda turned and
ran to the front door. She paused only long enough to grab her raincoat
then threw the door open. "Brenda!" Robin called after her. "Where are
you going?"
"I have to find Jax."
Lucky dialed the number
on the pager and waited patiently for someone to pick up on the other
line. At last he heard the familiar sound of the other line clicking on
and waited for someone to speak. He listened to the faint buzz of the static
for a full minute before hitting the wall in frustration, silently cursing
pay phones.
"Lucky?" a voice drifted
to him curiously.
Lucky's eyes widened
in surprise and he looked down at the phone that hung limple from his hand.
He held it to his ear again and spoke hatlingly. "Sonny? Is that you?"
Bobbie walked hastily
through the ER, engrossed in the charts in her hands. "Whoa--" Scott Badlwin
said as she practically careened into him.
"I'm sorry," Bobbie
said quickly, then lifted her eyes to Scoot's face. Her eyes widened. "Oh,"
she faltered. "I'm sorry, I should've been watching where I was going-"
Scott only laughed
and waved her on. "You're as much a busy body as the last time I saw you,
Bobbie. I guess some things never change."
"Well, that doesn't
necessarily have to be bad," Bobbie said with a small laugh.
"I didn't say it was."
Scott looked up in surprise as his daughter barrelled past him. "Hey Karen!"
he yelled after her. "Where's the fire?!"
Bobbie looked past
Scott toward the ambulance entrance, where pandemonium was breaking out.
"We've got some coming in!" the resident cried, and Bobbie was sent into
action. She hurried past Scott to join Karen and the other doctors by the
door.
"What do we have?"
she questioned.
"A traffic accident,"
Karen said, her tone steady and professional. Bobbie could not help but
think she was trying to cover something. "Two cars. They were both ran
off of the road over near the water front. One must've swerved into the
oncoming traffic lane-"
Her voice cut off as the ambulance
sped into tha parking lot. The doctors parted to give way to the paramedics
and gurneys.
Bobbie felt a tightening
in her chest as she remembered the horror of BJ's accident, then her grief
hit her again as she saw the patient rolled in by the paramedics.