Mother Issues

Chapter 9

The entire ride to the hospital had been silent – Danielle not really knowing what to say, Madison just trying to focus on getting to the hospital to find out the condition of her father. It didn't help that the evening traffic was out in full force, making everything take twice as long and leading Madison to just groan and curse away to herself as the she sped fast several cars on the freeway as she raced to the hospital. The amount of countless questions and little theories in her head were giving her a headache – wondering what exactly had happened, wondering if her father was okay or if she would ever see him again. Winding herself up about the situation wasn't helping her at all, it was making her feel sick.

After the longest nearly twenty minute journey of Madison's life, she finally whirled her car into a parking spot before she and Danielle got out, both of them racing towards the emergency room entrance. She turned, seeing Michelle, Jessica and Alexandria there, along with Michelle's father, Enrique Gonzalez, had been one of the officers on the scene.

"Have you guys heard anything? What happened?" Madison asked, racing over to them.

"He collided with with the guard wall on the freeway, apparently he was on his way here..." Enrique explained before standing up and leaning closer to Madison, "Madison, is your father okay? He seemed very strange. I was on the freeway anyway heading back to the station when he shot past me, so I turned the lights on to pull him over but he just carried on driving, weaving in and out of traffic until he collided with the guard wall. Then when I got to him and called for back up, he just gazed up at me with some strange look on his face, like he seemed out of it – almost disoriented, like he didn't really know what was happening. Then he began sweating a lot, and his words were very much jumbled up, then he just fainted."

Madison stared at Enrique with wide eyes, her ears and brain absorbing this new information like a sponge. Her father...disoriented, sweating, jumbled speech then fainting? This was definitely something new, something that wasn't like her dad at all. Now she wanted to know what was happening, because this was definitely something strange.

"Well that's news to me as well; I don't really know what's going on with him. Thank you Mr. Gonzalez, I'll talk to him when I can – if he's okay." she explained. She then looked around, noticing that her mother was nowhere in sight.

"Where is Julianna? Surely the man she's in love with is in the hospital, she should be here no?" Madison asked, rolling her eyes, the upset being quite clear in her voice.

"I'm here, you can stop talking about me behind my back."

Madison whirled around, frowning as she saw her mother wandering in, a slight smirk on her glossy lips as she stared at her daughter. Madison didn't know whether to just stick with her because James was hurt, or just to slap her because she wanted to – either way she was completely annoyed that her mother just casually walked in without a care in the world.

"Dad is hurt if you must know." she snapped.

"You think I don't know that? I got the call. How is he?" she asked, chomping on her gum.

"I don't know, we haven't heard yet.." Madison replied before stepping closer to her, "Officer Gonzalez said dad was proper driving eratically, weaving in and out of traffic and such, then once he crashed, he just gave Mr. Gonzalez some strange look, like he was out of it, then he started sweating like crazy and he passed out. Do you know what might be wrong with him?"

"No, now can you step aside so I can find a doctor to ask." Julianna flippantly answered before looking around, trying to see if she could find a doctor. Madison just stared at her for a second, feeling herself starting to shake with anger as she stared at the back of her mother's head. She turned around and shook her head, plonking herself down beside Danielle. Danielle smiled sadly, patting her knee.