Beautiful Tradgedy

Chapter 2

Brent gently pushed open the door into the spare room, all her belongings were still in boxes. Brent opened one of the boxes and lifted out a photo frame, inside the frame was a picture of him with a blonde haired woman. She had green eyes and a smile that pulled in your attention instantly.

Brent allowed his fingers to brush across the glass in the frame...she is so beautiful he thought to himself before setting the frame down on he side. His hands reached back inside the box and pulled out a small white envelope, as his fingers lifted the flap open it was the he almost lost it. Pulling out the small black photos with white images on, there was 6 in total.

One the back of each photo was a date and 'weeks' indication 8 weeks, 12 weeks, 16 weeks...They were scan pictures of a baby. Brent closed his eyes and opened them again gently in a sort of prolonged blink.

He heard footsteps behind him and as he turned he saw Zach "He would have been two now" Brent said softly as he put the scan picture down on top of the frame "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about her, about him"

"I know" Zach could see Brent was struggling to control his emotions.

"I really wish things were different" Brent looked at Zach with tears in his eyes "It's not fair"

"I'm sorry dude, I wish I knew what to say to make it better" Zach felt useless.

"If there was something, I would have said it a million times over by now" Brent sighed "Fact of the matter is, it was an accident and I can't change it or fix it...I just wish living with it was a little easier"

"I don't think things like this do get easier" Zach replied without thinking.

"No you're right, it's been almost three years now and I can still remember that phone call" Brent replied "Seeing her in that bed, and then the doctor telling me..." Brent sniffed away his tears but it was no use "I can still see her lying there"

Zach placed his hand on Brent's shoulder for a few moments and waited for him to gather his thoughts "It doesn't matter how many times you tell him it's not his fault, Ryan will always blame himself for what happened to Callie"

Brent didn't speak again he just nodded, before putting the frame and scan photos back inside the box.

×××××××××

Ryan had finally been allowed to wait in the room with the mystery woman and up until now the child services seemed satisfied the baby was in the right place too. She seemed to settle with Ryan and obviously liked to be close to her Mom "Okay Mr Tedder as long as you're aware that if everything changes then we will have to reconsider things" Ryan nodded and then turned his attention to a nurse who had been sitting with him for a while.

"Can I ask you something?" The nurse smiled cautiously and waited for Ryan to reply before continuing "This is going to sound very bold, but I get he feeling this isn't the first time you have been in a position like this? An accident I mean?"

"You're right it isn't" Ryan sighed and tried not to think about what had happened before "About three years ago I was involved in a car accident with a woman called Callie...she died"

"Who was she? Was she your wife?" The nurse asked and Ryan was just about to open his mouth to answer.

"Mr Tedder" A doctor spoke urgently, stopping Ryan from continuing. He looked up hopefully "It seems she has made alot of progress today, so we have decided to wean her off the sedation gradually. Hopefully she should be awake within a few hours or so"

"That's great" Ryan smiled he looked around and was a little saddened he hadn't had the chance to tell the nurse about Callie. She had rushed off to deal with a patient who was ringing their buzzer "Thank you for keeping me informed, I know you didn't have to"

"You're welcome" The doctor left he room and Ryan turned back to face the woman in the bed, she looked so peaceful.

××××××××××

Brent sat back in his arm chair and hit play on the remote. A video of a young blonde haired woman came on she was stood waiting for something, a gentle song started to play and the woman started dancing gracefully across the floor.

Brent sipped some bourbon out of his glass and closed his eyes as the music took hin back in time.

×××××××

Ryan sat with his ipod earphones in and continued to write some lyrics on a notebook. As he looked up he noticed the woman's hand was flickering. He quickly put the pen and paper down and rushed closer to the bed, her eyes were also flickering "Nurse" Ryan called out into the corridor and the rushed back to the bed again. The woman's eyes were half opened and she started to panic when she felt a tube in her throat "It's okay, just relax" Ryan tried to calm her down but she started to choke.

"It alright" A Nurse rushed in "Try not to panic" she said before removing the tube "There, take a sip of this" the woman looked at the nurse and then at Ryan "That's better?" The woman nodded.

"Where am I?" The woman's voice was hoarse and weak "Oh my god where's Molly, where's my baby?" The woman got very stressed, very quickly.

"It's okay she's here" Ryan carried the little girl over to the woman's bed.

"Who are you? Why do you have my baby?" The woman frowned.

"We were in an accident, you were unconcious and I didn't want the child services to take her, I thought she'd settle better if she was near you. I'm sorry if I overstepped the mark" Ryan was quick to explain himself to the beautiful stranger.

"No you didn't" The woman half smiled "Thank you for not letting them take her" she added gratefully "My names Natasha, Natasha Kennedy"

"I'm Ryan" Ryan gently shook Natasha's extended hand. There was something about this woman that pulled him in, even though he now knew her name, she was still a mystery.