Shattered on the Ground

The bipolarity that had been flowing between the waiting room and Reese’s hospital bed was getting to everyone, even the nurses were getting unusually short tempered and annoyed.

So everyone was more than happy when the day came that Reese Lynn Hanley could go home. Nurses sighed a breath of relief and Tim half expected the doctor to yell ‘don’t let the door hit you on the way out!’ as they left. But they didn’t and Chris wheeled Reese down the hospital corridors in silence. Reese was confined to a wheelchair for the next couple of days as a precaution to her injuries. The doctors told her that she needed rest more than anything else and to not walk around unless necessary. Her ribs were still broken and the doctors were sure the internal bleeding would not start up again but the doctors had taken an extra step just to be sure.
She was going home today and miraculously her parent’s plane was to touch down in Tennessee in three hours with a majority of the Vest family beside them. It wasn’t uncommon for Mr. and Mrs. Hanley to go on vacations at any given time but it was uncommon for the Vest’s to tag along. Reese’s parent’s had invited them because their only child, Chris, had been away for two weeks on tour and her parent’s thought they could use a vacation.
The only thing Reese wanted to do when she got home was sleep in her own bed, something that felt like a life time ago for her. So Chris had gently picked her up bridal style and carried her up the flight of stairs while Luke carried the wheelchair behind them. All of Framing Hanley had gone with Reese in Chris, and they followed them through the Hanley household in muted silence.

“Stop.” Reese’s hand flew out and caught the doorframe of the room Chris had nearly passed. “Put me down,” She ordered and when Chris complied she leaned against the doorframe of the open room. Everyone with the exception of Reese and Chris looked anywhere but within the depths of the room. Everyone with the exception of Reese was frozen in the hall. Reese took a shaky breath and hobbled her way into the bedroom. “Everything is right where she left it,” She murmured softly and it the scene before her almost disproved what doctors had been telling her all week—that Ashley was dead. But everything within in this room seemed to contradict that. Her beloved expensive camera rested atop her vanity table, her favorite locket—a gift from Chris on her sixteenth birthday—dangled within the depths of their grandmother’s jewelry box, her favorite stuffed animal-eeyore—lay quietly atop the turquoise comforter that hugged her bed. And all at once the breath left Reese’s lungs and she was falling but strong comforting hands caught her. Reese turned into Chris and allowed him to pick her up once more.

“C’mon on Reese,” He muttered, his voice strained as he carried her from the room and toward her own designated bedroom, complete with her name scripted across the door. Chris laid her down silently onto her bed and Reese didn’t move again, she didn’t talk again. He sighed and moved from the room, “I can’t stay.” He stated brushing hair from her eyes but her figure remained unchanged. “I have to go pick up your parents.” Reese didn’t react to this news and Chris sighed in disappointment. “You-you rest, Reese. Just rest.” He told her quietly before moving from the room to join his friends in the hall. “I have to get to the airport.” He told them as his eyes landed on Tim and Luke. “You’re coming right? I don’t have enough room in my car for both our parents and all their crap.” Tim & Luke nodded somberly,

“Yeah we’re coming.”

“My car is parked out front.” Luke added as the group moved toward the stairs. Chris’s eyes landed on Nixon,

“Remember what I told you.” He said cryptically as they descended the stairs.

“Wait--What?” Nixon questioned in confusion as Luke and Tim piled into Luke’s car.

“I told you,” Chris stated. “I don’t trust her alone.” With that he closed the front door behind him, locking Nixon inside its depths with no one but Reese for company.

“Have you lost it?” Tim questioned as Chris made his way toward his car. “You’re seriously going to leave Nixon and Reese alone? Together?”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Luke added uneasy, “I mean the last time they were alone together was what? Like—“

“Like a year ago,” Chris sighed putting the key in the ignition. “yeah I know.”

Nixon stood silently in the doorway of Reese’s bedroom. She was broken and sad and Nixon wanted to protect her. But Reese didn’t need a protector, she didn’t want a superman and she definitely wasn’t Louise Lane. If Nixon was sure of anything it was of how much Reese didn’t want him there.
She was staring at the ceiling and the twenty five glow in the dark stars placed there. But Reese wasn’t seeing stars; she was seeing flashes of her sister; her smile, her eyes, her laugh. She’d been told half a dozen times that her sister was gone but her mind refused to comprehend the truth being told.

“Why are you here, Nixon?” Her voice was tired and emotionless; she didn’t want to fight him.

“Umm..I don’t know,” Nixon sighed. “You see-it’s like-“

“Chris told you to stay didn’t he? He’s afraid of what I might do? Isn’t he?” A bitter laugh slipped through her lips, “As though I could even move to do anything.”

“Do you need anything?” Nixon questioned fidgeting slightly. He didn’t want to be here, he didn’t want to be alone with Reese.

“My sister, a million dollars, my parents to stop making excuses, the past five days to not be real.” Her eyes fell away from the ceiling and landed on Nixon’s uncomfortable form. She was making this hard for him, she knew, and as much as she tried to ignore it she regretted making it worst for him. She bit her lip and a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding escaped her as though someone had knocked the air of her. “Sing to me?” It was a whisper and vulnerability laced her every word, fear of rejection made her fidget. Nixon stood uneasily in the door before he slowly made his way to the old rocking chair in the corner. It had been in Reese’s room since she was born, it was the rocking chair her mother rocked her in for months.

“What do you want me to sing?” He questioned softly and she shrugged foolishly; she honestly didn’t care what he sang. Nixon gazed out the window, his mind drifting back to a memory that nagged at his mind every time he was around her.
“I don't know why I act the way I do
Like I ain't got a single thing to lose
Sometimes I'm my own worst enemy
I guess that's just the cowboy in me

I got a life that most would love to have
But sometimes I still wake up fightin' mad
At where this road I'm heading down might lead
I guess that's just the cowboy in me

The urge to run, the restlessness
The heart of stone I sometimes get
The things I've done for foolish pride
The me that's never satisfied
The face that's in the mirror when I don't like what I see
I guess that's just the cowboy in me

Girl I know there's times you must have thought
There ain't a line you've drawn I haven't crossed” Nixon peered over at Reese hesitantly and wasn’t sure whether he was relieved or not to find her sleeping. Her face, which had been so filled with sadness it tore at his heartstrings, still shown through in sleep. It made Nixon uneasy to know that he still had that effect on her, that after everything he could still sing her to sleep no matter what plagued her mind. Nixon sighed, his gaze turned to the window once more.
It was common knowledge that the Hanley’s had money. But there was a difference between rich and spoiled and Reese had made sure he’d known it. The house, while project warmth and comfort, always felt cold and empty to Nixon—a feeling Reese shared. Her parents gave her anything she asked for aside from their presence. The house was huge and unnecessary as was the backyard that Nixon gaze at. It was immaculate and green like a golf court and just as untouched. There weren’t any family pets to go parading across it and there was nothing within the yard that ever drew Reese’s interest so the yard stayed clipped and neat and untouched.

Reese didn’t want the world but she’d gotten it and Nixon was just beginning to realize that even though she had the world and everything she could possibly want she was also one of the most deprived people he had ever met.
Nixon’s head snapped toward the open doorway as the sound of cars pulling up a long driveway met his ears.

Mr. and Mrs. Hanley were home.