The DuBois

Nick

What Quinn had just said about death scared me. I had escaped one danger nine months ago, just to become part of an even more dangerous one. I decided the mood had become too dark for my liking. "A little dramatic don't you think, Quinn?" I asked.
"Maybe," she said, "but it's true. It's either him or us, and I really hope it's him."
I swallowed thickly. If it came down to that, I sure hoped it was him too. I thought it was best to focus on the now. "She needs a doctor," I said gesturing to Quinn. "I might be good with first aid, but this is a little out of my league."
Zack looked at Quinn who had finally given in to unconsciousness. "You're right. We have to get her to the hospital."
"Exactly."
"There's just one problem," he said.
"And what's that?" I demanded.
"Well, if you haven't noticed, neither one of us can drive, and we can't exactly take her on my bike."
I deflated. He was right. We had absolutely no way of getting her help unless...
"Who's to say we can't drive?"
Zack gave me an incredulous look. "Uh, the law. You know, that thing that if we don't follow it, we'll get arrested."
"Well, I could drive us. My dad used to let me drive the car around the block before he started beating me. And on the off chance we do get pulled over, we have a pretty good excuse. I mean look at her."
Zack gave me one last disbelieving look before agreeing.
It took us awhile, but finally we had maneuvered Quinn into their Uncle Luke's old pickup truck. I slid into the driver's side, while Zack slid into the passenger's seat with Quinn between us. I took a deep breath. Okay, I can do this. I slowly pulled the truck out of the driveway and started down the road in the direction of the hospital.
I thought I was doing well until I saw flashing lights in the rearview mirror. I pulled over to the side of the road, and a police car stopped behind us. I flinched when I heard a car door open and slam. "Please roll down your window."
I did as the officer said. To say he was surprised was an understatement. He must not get a lot of kids driving cars at night with an injured girl and a boy with a broken arm. Go figure. "Yes, Officer?" I heard Zack ask.
That shook him out of his stupor. "What are you doing?"
"Taking his sister to the hospital. Now if you don't mind, we're kind of in a hurry." I knew I was being rude, but Quinn needed medical attention like now.
"Because this seems to be serious, I'll take you kids to the hospital in my car," he said.
"That would be great! Thank you!" Zack exclaimed gratefully.
We got out of the truck, and the police officer picked Quinn up bridal style and placed her in the back seat with Zack. "I'll call another officer to pick up your truck and bring it to the hospital."
I nodded. "Thanks."
He turned to look at me. "You know you look a lot like a boy that had disappeared about nine months ago. You wouldn't happen to be him would you?"
On the outside I remained calm, but on the inside I was panicking. He couldn't possibly now my dad had been lying about my whereabouts. "Shouldn't you keep your eyes on the road?" I asked him.
He turned away. Finally we made it to the hospital. The officer carried Quinn in and asked for a doctor. She was put onto a gurney and whisked away to some room. We started to follow her when another doctor stopped us. "I just need you to answer a few questions before you go see her," she asked.
"What are her and your names?"
"She was Quinn DuBois, that's Zack DuBois, and I'm Nick Mendoza."
"Okay. How did Quinn get those injuries?"
"She, uh, fell off her boyfriend's motorcycle?" I said, but it sounded more like a question.
"Uh-huh," she said. "Mind telling me what really happened?"
"She was walking across the street when a car came out of nowhere and hit her." Thank goodness for Zack and his lying skills.
"Ok," the doctor let it slide, but she still looked doubtful. "Who is an adult we can contact about this?"
"Um..." Shoot. If Zack didn't have a good lie we had a problem.
"We're foster kids. The family looking after us just gave us up, and Quinn was the only one with our social worker's number." Please believe it. Please believe it, I thought.
"Ok, wait here until she comes out of x-Ray. She might have to get surgery though."
The doctor started to walk away but turned around at the last second, "One more question, how did you get the broken arm?"
"I fell out of a tree," Zack responded.
She seemed to accept it. With a shrug she turned around and left the waiting room.