Permanent Vacation // 5SOS

04. Cody

Fuck. It's my fault.

Tessa's been in that room for an hour now with all those doctors. She'll make it through though. She has to. She wasn't hurt that badly. And she promised she'd stay. She promised she wouldn't be like... Like them.

The doctors haven't left that room yet either, and we haven't been told anything. We figured out what happened in the bus though so that's a plus I guess; she hit her head pretty hard on the floor of the bus, which gave her a concussion, and her elbow hit the corner of a metal table, cutting her arm open and possibly damaging the bones in her arm. She lost a lot of blood on the way to the hospital, and I guess the conussion'll mess with her head for a while too.

Mikey was carrying her into the ER when she puked all over herself and passed out. He hasn't changed his shirt yet, which means that all we've been able to smell for the past hour is a nasty combination of puke and blood. At least her head wasn't bleeding too.

Luke's sitting on my right and Calum's on my left, with Ashton pacing impatiently in front of us and Michael sitting on the floor a few meters away. Earl stayed in the bus to make sure the cat was okay; it totally flipped out when Tessa got hurt. It's like they have this weird emotional connection... Or just similar personalities.

Tapping. My fingers are tapping. Tess always says that's what makes me a good drummer; I fidget all the time. I think it's just because it's what I like doing, so I'm good at it.

"Family of Therese Weller?" A nurse calls suddenly. The boys all look at me as I get up and head over to the woman who spoke.

"Yeah?" I ask nervously.

"Sweetie, what relation are you?" She asks gently. Obviously she knows I'm struggling to keep in my tears, but I don't get how she doesn't see the similarities between me and Tess.

"Twin sister." I say simply. She nods once and looks down at her clipboard.

"Therese's concussion wasn't too bad and luckily she only passed out once you were already here. That's completely treatable, so we'll prescribe some medication for that. Her arm, however, was damaged quite badly. Obviously there was a deep gash along the side of her arm, but the bones were pushed in such a way that her wrist was completely destroyed. The impact must've been pretty forceful for something like that to happen." The woman explains, attempting to make a joke at the end of her little monologue.

"Well the push was pretty hard so that would make sense." I say bitterly. She frowns, then seems to realise what I'm implying.

"You'll be able to see her as soon as she wakes up." She says quickly before turning and walking away, leaving me to just stand there and stare after her.

"Cody?" Ashton's voice is soft, and I'm reminded once again that I've met my idols and we're friends. "Everything okay?" I nod numbly.

"Head's fine. Wrist's shattered." That's all I can say. Images of all her blood fill my mind. Red. So much red. And her eyes. When her eyes rolled back and she passed out, Mikey freaked out and started yelling for someone to help, and I couldn't even walk. Luke literally had to carry me to a chair.

Red. So much red.

"She'll be fine." Calum says, and I feel a hand on my shoulder. I nod once.

"I know." I mutter. Then the tears come. I need to stop crying. I think I haven't until now because I've been too shocked to react properly, but now I'm functioning relatively normally and tears are pouring down my face. Calum hugs me and I sob into his shirt. This is not what I had in mind when I imagined spending time with these four amazing boys.

* * *

"I'm so glad you're okay!" I gush as soon as the door to Tessa's room is opened for me. She smiles slightly.

"You thought I wouldn't be?" She asks. I don't say anything and she gives me a small smile as I take her hand. "Together forever, right?" She reminds me.

"Right." I agree. We stare at each other for a while. "Lucifer flipped out." I say quietly. She smiles and her face forms an expression that she only uses for our cat; the 'aw that's adorable' face, AKA Lucifer's Expression.

"Poor thing. He must be worried sick." She says. "They'll let me out after another check so I can go see him soon." The doctor told me that too. He also said that she'll take about six weeks to get back to her usual self after the concussion she has.

"Earl's looking after him, I think. They seem to be getting along well now that Lucifer's calmed down a bit and Earl's not so scared of him." I tell her, trying not to think about the guilt welling up inside me. She chuckles quietly.

"I like Earl. He's nice. I think he's a little scared of me to be honest." She says. I chuckle too, but again I'm wondering about the strange connection my sister has with her cat.

"Hey, I was able to call Tony and Mel. I told them about getting stuck and the whole situation with the boys and they were sworn into secrecy. They're cool with it all, but obviously worried about you." I tell her. She smiles, but I can tell her head's starting to hurt.

"Sorry Cody. I'm not..." She pauses and squeezes her eyes shut. "My head's killing me." Tears start to slowly roll down her cheeks. "I don't wanna black out again. Cody it was horrible. All the colours mixed together until it was just black." I can hear the panic in her voice, even though her words are barely audible now. I gently wipe away her tears, then head for the doors to her room to get a nurse. Just as I try to open the door, someone pushes it open from the other side. The doctor.

"Her heads hurting." I say straight away. I can imagine Tess swearing at me for sounding so whiny and insecure, but I'm worried about her so I don't care what she thinks right now.

"It's okay; I expected as much. Her painkillers are wearing off. I've prescribed her some medication that'll help with both her arm and her head." The doctor says.

"Thank you." I mutter, watching helplessly as he goes over to my sister and starts an examination. "I'll, uh, I'll wait outside." I walk out of the room and straight away, the boys get to their feet and come over to me.

"How is she?" Luke asks softly. I fold my arms over my chest in stress and sadness, shrugging silently.

"When does she get out?" Ashton asks. I take a deep breath to steady my voice.

"In a few minutes. The doctor's in there now to do a final check." I tell them. Calum cheers loudly, then remembers where he is and apologises to the people that're staring at him. What a cutie.

"Cody?" My sister's voice makes us all turn to face her. "Let's get the fuck outta here."