FICTION: A DREAM?
I haven't given up on Represent & Defend. I just want to get a few chapters finished before I start posting. *promises*. In the meantime, I have something new to throw out. Hope it doesn't suck......too bad.
Title: A Dream?
Author: Eerytecal
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, never have been, never will. I'm just borrowing them to play.
Summary: The last six months, did they really even happen?
She had gotten the phone call from Frank just as she was getting into bed. An accident. Coop had been in a bad car accident. She changed into her clothes, grabbed her keys and ran out of the apartment. All the way to the hospital she had prayed. She prayed for a second chance, another day with him, for an opportunity to makes things right, and more importantly for Coop’s life to be spared.
Now she was sitting in the emergency room with the rest of the Cooper family and Doris, awaiting word on his condition. It had been 2 hours since he was rushed into surgery. Her hands were entertwined tightly in her lap. She kept repeating the same phrases over and over in her head. Please let him be okay. Please don’t take him yet. I need him. I need to tell him I still love him.
She looked up as she heard a door swing open. A physician in scrubs tearing off the mask from around his neck approached them. She stood up along with everyone else. The doctor walked slowly over to Buzz and softly placed his hand on Buzz’s arm. “I’m sorry Mr. Cooper”. Before the doctor could say anything further, Buzz started to sink to the floor. Frank reached out to grab him, pulling him into his arms, as his father fell apart.
Doris turned to Ashlee and took her in her arms as Ashlee sobbed. “No, mom this has to be a mistake, it has to be. Coop can’t be gone, he can’t be. Please mom do something, make them do something to help him”. She continued to sob as Doris tried to comfort her devastated daughter.
Ashlee closed her eyes and sobbed on her mother’s shoulder. She wanted to close her eyes and never open them again. She didn’t want to be in a world where there was no Coop. This wasn’t her world anymore. This was an alternate universe where substandard writers wrote scripts that made no sense. She wanted her script to make sense. She wanted her world back. The world where Coop sat typing on his keyboard writing stories that touched people. A world where his strong arms, brilliant smile and beautiful blue green eyes was all she needed to survive.
Her mother was talking to her, but Ashlee wasn’t hearing anything. She was in a fog. A fog that warped her sense of gravity, her hearing and her ability to comprehend anything. She could barely feel herself walk as her mother led her to an exam room.
She saw a doctor speaking with her mother, but couldn’t distinguish their conversation. All she could comprehend was that Coop was gone. No matter how long she lived or how far she traveled, she would never see him again. Never hear his laugh, never feel his hug, never see the love in his eyes he once had for her.
Ashlee felt the needle penetrate her hip and she winced. Almost immediately her eyelids became heavy and she was grateful for the drug that was pulling her under and away from the pain and the world she now hated.
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When she awoke, she could hear birds chirping and a soft warm breeze blow across her face. As she opened her eyes, reality hit her like a freight train. It all came back to her at once. The phone call, the emergency room, the surgeon. Coop. He was gone. She started to cry as she looked around at her surroundings. Wait a minute……..where was she? It soon became clear, she was in Coop’s room. Coop’s room? He didn’t have this room anymore and they weren’t together. How did she get here? What was going on? She turned over on the bed and noticed an envelope with her name lying on the pillow next to her. She picked up the envelope looking at the words inside: Ashlee, went for a walk. Be back soon. Love, Coop.
What was going on? Someone was playing a cruel joke on her or that shot they gave her had really doped her up. Somehow, this all seemed to have happened before. She got up out of bed and stood in front of the mirror. As she was adjusting the belt on her old blue fuzzy bathrobe, she gasped as she realized she was heavier than she was yesterday. As she ran her fingers through her hair, the door to the room opened.
She looked up as she saw Coop walk into the room. He smiled at her “Hey, you’re awake, how are you”? he said as he walked towards her carrying a bag of take-out food.
Totally shaken, but not wanting to do anything to break this spell, she smiled at him and replied “Good, I got your note”.
“Well, I’m glad” Coop murmered as he crawled across the bed on his knees to give her a tender kiss. “So, I went for a little walk today and I realized my legs were pretty wobbly”.
She grinned at him “I guess I”m doing something right”?
With a devilish smile he replied “You’re doing a lot of things right”.
She smiled “Mmm Hmmm”.
He returned her smile “Mmm Hmm”.
“So what’s in the bag” Ashlee asked as she looked down at his hands.
“Egg whites and juice, sound good?”.
“Yeah, sounds perfect”.
He looked closer at her and then touched her face “Are you okay Ashlee”?
“Yeah, I’m fine”.
“You don’t look fine. Actually, you look kind of like you seen a ghost”, he looked at her questioningly, “What’s wrong”?
She climbed off the bed and walked over to the window. Looking outside she saw joggers in shorts and people walking dogs. She turned and looked at him “What’s the date today”?
Coop looked at her strangely and replied “It’s June 10, Ashlee. Are you sure you’re okay?” He walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulder turning her towards him. “Ashlee, what’s going on here”?
She took a deep breath trying to find the words to explain to him. “Coop, when I went to sleep yesterday, it was January. January 2009.
“What are you talking about Ashlee”? He wasn’t sure what was happening, but he was worried about her.
“Coop, I broke up with you.”
“Don’t be silly Ashlee, I would remember if you broke up with me. That hasn’t happened. That won’t happen”.
“How can you be so sure” she retorted. Things haven’t been exactly perfect recently”.
“I know that, but I also know that whatever comes along we’ll get through it as long as we’re together. Right?”
She nodded her head. She wanted to believe him. She wanted to believe it was June and they were still together. She wanted to believe he was really alive and they still had a chance.
She sit down on the edge of the bed and put her head in her hands. He sit down beside her and tilted her chin so he could look into her eyes. “Ashlee, I don’t know what’s going on here, but I think you must have had a nightmare.
“Yeah, a really scary one”, she replied. We were broke up and hardly saw each other; you were dating Beth, and Alan caused an accident to have you killed.”
“Look at me Ashlee” as he tilted her chin back towards him. “I’m not dead, I’m here and you’re here and we’re both alive and whatever obstacles either of us have to deal with, we’ll do it togther. Okay?”
She nodded “Yeah, okay”. He leaned over and kissed her deeply wrapping his hands around her waist and drawing her closer to him. She moaned at he slipped his tongue between her lips and swept the soft cavern of her mouth.
As he pulled back he looked into her eyes “I love you Ashlee Wolfe and I will never let you leave me, not without a fight”.
“Thank you, that’s exactly what I needed to hear”. He kissed her lightly on the forehead and then pulled back “By the way, that must have been some dream alright, me dating Beth Spaulding? I could do a lot better than that, and I already have.
“Hmmm. You always know the right thing to say Coop Cooper. I think I’ll keep you.”
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That night as she lay curled up into Coop’s side her head resting on his chest and his arms around her, she decided he was right. It had just been a dream. The last six months had all been a dream. A bad one. She got her second chance. Her prayer had been answered.
So what do you think?