Topic: Broken Steele

Jade Ravenlock

Date: 2011-10-02 00:14 EST
Set around 4 months ago

Dakota had just gotten off work from a small bar near East End. He stopped working for a month after Shilah was born to help Jade. After that, he would go to work every now and then at odd and end gigs at local bars or clubs. He'd work an hour or two as a bouncer or bartender, and then he'd get to play with his band. Already they had started getting a local cult underground following for their down home southern rock sound.

It was midnight, and Dakota was in a hurry to get back home. He was exhausted, a good exhausted. They played a great show, and the manager even asked then to come back this weekend for a big event. It helped that he knew most of the managers where he'd go to. But the night before he hadn't had much sleep because Shilah had been fussy all night. Like a good husband, he would take turns with Jade. Neither got much rest.

Dakota yawned and shook his head to keep him awake. He had to tell Jade about the event. Maybe they could get Rhy and Dean to watch the kids, and she could and see him play again. Ah, wishful thinking. Jade wouldn't let the baby out of her sight. Hell, neither of them did. He just felt it was the man's place to go back to work. Oh, but what a beautiful baby they had made.

He had tossed his cell phone into his old truck's passenger seat. No one bothered him at this time now with the baby, unless it was an emergency. So when his phone started to ring, it startled and surprised him greatly.

Trying to keep his eyes on the road, he reached around the seat for it. He finally felt it, then his big hand knocked it off into the floor.

"God bless!" he grumbled.

Dakota checked around, then reached out and leaned. "Come on, come on." With his fingertips, he locked onto it. He yanked it up and sat up straight.

Just then, a car slammed on its horn. Dakota had drifted into the other lane.

"Sh--!"

He yanked the wheel to the right hard and stomped on the brakes. His little red truck's back end was light. So as he swerved and tried to stop, his back end kept going. He was sent into the guard rail and bounced back into traffic. Another car t-boned him and spun him around. The force of the spin made the light truck flip onto its side.

Dakota slowly opened his eyes, splitting pain coursing through his head. He panned to the left, then panned to the right. Glass was everywhere. The windsheild was half busted out, and the left window was crushed under the weight of the truck.

"Dammit," he croaked out. His body was hanging to the left, strapped in only by the seatbelt. "Jade's gunna freak."

He patted himself and blinked a few times. He felt his head and felt the warm wettness of blood. Dakota swore, but then started to pick up some screaming and yelling. He guessed what few people that had been out on the road had gotten out of their cars. He sighed and pushed the release button on the seat belt. It was stuck.

"Well, sh--," he muttered.

The screaming grew louder. He looked up to see someone trying to flag down a quickly approaching log truck. It wasn't slowing down. He finally picked up on what the screaming was saying: "Get out of the truck! Someone get him out!"

The logging truck finally spotted the accident. But with the weight of its load and the speed he was going, it was going to be too late.

"No, no no!" Dakota shouted. "Come on! Let go of me! Come on!"

"Get out! Hurry!" Someone screamed.

"I can't! The seatbelt!" He screamed back. Unknowingly, fearful tears had started running down his face.

The truck's wheels were smoking at the force they were being made to stop. That wasn't stopping it. An object in motion stays in motion. His chocolate eyes grew wide and he knew how this was going to end. It was inches from him. Dakota set his head back and thought, "Shilah will never know." And everything went black.

Jade Ravenlock

Date: 2011-10-02 01:54 EST
The phone ringing startled Jade awake. She glanced to the clock with a yawn - 1:45 am. "I must have fallen asleep waiting for Kota," She thought. She set the book in her lap aside on the couch and reached for the phone.

"Hello?" Jade said as she rubbed her eyes.

"Jade, you need to come down to the hospital," said Jade's RN friend Joel on the other end of the line.

"Joel, do you realize what time it is? I'm waiting for Kota to get home. I'm not bringing you anymore o' Claira's bake sale cookies," Jade laughed.

Jade stood and stretched. Where was Dakota anyway?

"No, Jade. This is serious. It's... Dakota..."

Her jade hues widenned as the phone fell from her hand.

"Jade?! Are you there? Jade!"

Jade dashed up the stairs and burst into her daughter's room. Claira was already sitting up in bed.

"Claira. Claira, baby," she knelt at her daughter's bed. Jade set her hands at both sides of Claira's little face, "Tell me what you're feeling."

"I... I feel like... before you left and came back new. Only, it's not you. It's daddy," her own jade hues wide as she looked deep into her mother's eyes.

Jade gasped and recoiled back. "Claira, you stay here with your brother. I'll be right back. Rhy will be here too, kay?"

As Jade stood, Claira nodded, "Yes, mommy. But what about daddy...?"

Tears welled up, but she ran back out of her daughter's room. Down the stairs, she scooped the phone up from the floor. The phone had went off the hook, so she turned it back on and dialed the one number she knew by heart above all the other's. Rhy's.

She picked up in three rings, "Jade, the baby is fine. Just change his diaper or feed him."

"Rhy, it's not Shilah. It's Dakota. How quickly can you get here?" Jade's voice was fleeting as she looked for her car keys.

"What's wrong? Give me a few minutes. Jadey?"
"I don't have a few minutes! I have to go to the hospital now! I'm leaving Claira with the baby. You know where the spare key is. Just please hurry. I have to go."

She found her keys, hung up the phone, and ran out of the front door - locking it after her. Jade's 'Stang was in the driveway, and the SUV was in the garage. She filtered through the keys on the ring and found her's. Jade hopped in the car, not even realizing she was still in her night clothes and no shoes.

Jade didn't even think the whole time she sped to the hospital. She couldn't think. She couldn't think of what was happening, what could happen, what was going to happen. She had too much in her head to think straight even if she had wanted to.

She pulled up beside the hospital and parked. Jade didn't care if it was a parking spot or not. She sprinted out of the car and went into the ER at full speed.

"Dakota? Dakota!" Jade screamed as she entered. She rounded the help desk, dodged the chairs filled with people, and went right for the double doors that led into the rooms holding patients. "Dakota?"

"Ma'am! Ma'am, you can't go back there!" A receptionist shouted.

"Where's my husband?! Dakota!"
"Ma'am! Someone send security. You're going to have to wait, miss."
"I don't have time to wait, you cow! Dakota!"

Two security guards gripped her shoulders as she banged against the locked double doors. They pulled her back, and she started to fight against them.

"My husband is dying!" Jade exclaimed as bare feet kicked into the air and silent tears streamed down her rosie hot cheeks, "I have to get to Dakota!"

"But you have to wait to get clearence!" the receptionist rose her voice again, "We want to help you find him."

"You don't understand! My daughter felt his life leaving him!" She thrashed against the guards, raven locks whipping in the air.

"Guys, guys! I know her! Her husband is in ICU. She has to see him now," Joel said as he rushed through an employee only door.

The guards let Jade go, and she went to Joel.

"Joel, where is he? Take me to him!" She said quickly.

"Here, follow me. And hurry, you'll need to keep up," he nodded as they went through the double doors.

They both ran through the sets of rooms, diving deeper and in more cluttered areas where patients were in more and more serious conditions.

"His lungs were punctured. Don't make him talk too much. Just enough. I won't go into everything. You need not know. Seeing him will be enough," he muttered to her on their way to Dakota's room.

"Oh god," She whispered.

"He's been through a slight surgery, but there's nothing else we can do for him. We can only pump enough pain killers in him so he won't feel anything until..."

"Don't say it..." she bit her lower lip.

"I wasn't planning on it," he muttered and stopped in front of a small ICU room. A hand clung to her wrist so she could not look into the glass windows looking into the room just yet. "Jade, look at me."

She pulled against him, but his grip was firm. Jade struggled to look into the room. Finally, her fearful jade hues found Joel's blues, "Yes?"

"Pull yourself together. For him," he searched her eyes and released her wrist upon her slow nod.

She took one last sniffle as she wiped away stray tears. Jade mustered up her strength. She closed her eyes and stepped in front of the large windows into the room. Slowly, they openned to see her husband hooked up to what seemed to be every machine the hospital could find. Jade sucked in a quick breath and headed to the door to pull it open. She went right to her husband's side and set her hand as lightly as she could to one of his cut up cheeks.

At the small touch, his eyes fluttered for a few moments. The drugs in his system and pain coursing through him made it hard for anything to work, but finally his eyes openned.
"Jade," he gasped out in a whispy voice, "Are you taking me home now?"

She gulped, "Yes, sweetheart, I'll see you home."

"I told them," he croaked and shivered, "That you'd come and take me. To see our beautiful children."
He tried to move his right arm, but found that one too painful. Instead, he moved his left as little as he could to find her arm and stroke it with his thumb. This action caused him great pain his face revealed. He swallowed and took it.

Jade whimpered. She could do nothing but nod. If she was still a vampire, she could heal him depending on the severity of his wounds and ailments. Hospitals shied away from vampire blood because it can be tricky, addictive, and sometimes turned people. Oh how she wished she was vampire again. Just for the moment.

"Where's Shilah? And Claira?" He shuttered more, "When can we go home?"

"Soon, baby," she forced down a sob, "Soon."

"Good," he breathed small breathes, "I have to prepare for our performance this weekend." Dakota weezed, "It's a big show. You'll be proud... come.. and... see."

His eyes were fluttering again and his words were stalling beyond their pace. She shook her head. Maybe this wasn't real. Just her biggest nightmare. Maybe she would wake up.
She wasn't waking up.

"I am proud of you, baby. So proud of everything. I love you more than anything, Dakota," She looked deep into his hazed over chocolate eyes. "Please don't go away from me," Jade whispered, "Please."

"I'll always be right here. You'll see, Jade. Dakota Steele ain't goin' no where, sweetheart," he was talking about something completely different, she could tell. More along the lines of the many conversations about their marriage.

She managed a 'mmhm'.

"Jade?" He mused.

"Yes... baby?" she asked back.

"We're going home now... okay?" His breathing started to slow rapidly. Alarms started to sound left and right.

"Dakota!" His eyes started to shut. "Joel... Joel! Do something! Joel!"

"Jade..." Dakota murmurred, "I love you..."
Now there was only the constant sound of a flatline.

She clung to him closely. This was all a sick joke. A nightmare. Time seemed to stop as she squeezed her eyes shut. He was still warm. He was still alive. He was still there. He was still her's. Her's.

"Jade! Move!" Joel shouted as a rush of people flooded the small room.

A man shouted, "Get her out of here!"

She kept her eyes shut. Wasn't real. Jade felt clawing hands take over her and pull her from her husband. She forced her eyes open then. There was no sound. Just imagery. She would never get the image of people working around her quickly fading husband out of her head. It was already burned in a place in her mind. Every few moments a blurp of a heart beat pulsed onto the EKG, teasing all of them with life.

She clawwed back at the hands all over her. But they were winning. They pushed her out into the hallway and shut the door. Jade banged and kicked at the door until finally she crumbled down onto the floor.

Her head lulled against the door as she stared off unseeing. Time passed for what seemed like hours. It was mere moments. The door finally openned behind her, and the people inside stepped out around her.

The sound of life had not come back to her. Joel stepped in front of her, kneeling down to her level on the floor, "Jade. Jade? I'm so sorry. But he's gone." He paused to see if she was taking it in, "he is in a better place." But she didn't hear him. Only saw his lips moving. She allowed him to help her up. When she wouldn't respond, he left her to stare off into the window at her dead husband.

As Joel stepped away from her, Rhy rounded a corner and dashed to Jade.

"Jade! How is he? Will he be okay?" She turned to follow her friend's gaze. The sight of Dakota's covered up body met her eyes. "Oh God," Rhy gasped.

"He's gone home, Rhy," Jade muttered as Rhy clutched her. "He's gone." Hearing herself, everything became all too real. It wasn't a nightmare. It was real. Real, real, real.

She wrapped her arms around Rhy's shoulders as her knees buckled and her legs gave. Her face buried itself into Rhy's midsection as she slid into the floor. Rhy bent down so Jade wouldn't take her with her. Suddenly, Jade began to scream. A blood curtling, heartbroken scream. Over and over again. Her voice tried to give many times, but she just screamed more and more. Rhy held her friend as everything stopped around them.