Moment

November 30, 2008

It was the last night of the Compromising of Integrity, Morality, & Principles in Exchange for Money tour and although he had had a blast, Jack was counting down the hours until he was would be back in Maryland and back with the person on the other end of the phone.

He was killing time until Matt rounded them all up to venture into the Electric Factory and get ready by keeping Callie company as she drove home from her last day interning that day. He was telling her about possible antics that would occur, raving about the perfect ending to tour.

“Ugh I hate this intersection,” Callie groaned into the phone and he came back down from his thoughts about tour and focused on her.

“East Ridge and Chantrey?” Jack asked, thinking of her commute from the radio station.

“Mhm, hold on,” she said and faintly, he heard the cyclic ping of her car’s blinker.

Jack could hear “I’m Lost Without You” by Blink playing softly in the background and he sung softly along as he waited for her to be able to talk again. When he reached “Are you afraid of being alone, cause I am, I'm lost without you,” he heard Callie’s scream amid other piercing noises.

“CALLIE?! CALLIE?! CALLIE WHAT HAPPENED?!” Jack yelled into the phone. The guys came running into the bunk area and stared worriedly at him. “CALLIE?!” he yelled. He heard nothing except the slamming of discordant car horns.

Jack stared down at the phone in his hand and looked up at the guys. They were waiting for him to explain, to say something…anything. But as Jack was too focused on the phone in his hand.

“Jack, what happened?” Alex asked shaking his shoulder. Jack swatted his hand away and quickly pressed the send button twice. The line rang five times, “Hey this is…Jack stop!...it’s Callie, leave me some love motherfuckers!”

“No, no, no,” Jack repeated out loud calling again and getting frustrated. After the fifth time of watching him do this, Alex put his hand over the phone.

“Jack?” he asked worriedly. “Jack?” Alex repeated.

“She, she…” Jack replied not able to form cohesive thoughts, “…I don’t know what’s wrong…accident…Callie….”

“WHAT?!” everyone yelled.

Jack could hear Rian on the phone near him and listened as he frantically told Kara what happened to Callie. “Jack, where?” he asked looking hurriedly at him.

“East Ridge and Chantrey,” Jack choked out.

Rian nodded and supplied the information to Kara whose voice was sounding panicky. They hung up a moment later and Rian informed them, “Kara’s calling 911 and going over there. She said she’d call back when she got more info.” He looked somber and helpless, as all the assistance he could give his friend had been and now it was a waiting.

“Jack, I’m sure Callie’s fine,” Zack murmured.

Callie. Something registered in Jack’s mind at her name and he looked up at the wall behind Zack staring wide eyed. Before any of them could react, Jack had flown out of his bunk and was running down towards the front of the bus.

“Jack, wait!” Alex grabbed his wrist before he ran off the bus. Jack turned around and looked at him desperately. “I’m coming with you,” Alex decided after seeing Jack’s face. There was no way Jack was capable of driving in his current state.

They hurried off the bus and found Matt. Alex quickly explained them needing to get home because Callie was in an accident and Matt found a friend of his from Philadelphia to let them borrow his car.

Alex did his best to drive like hell and got 95 South and headed in the direction of Baltimore. On the seemingly never ending highway, Rian gave Alex a call and the singer answered it, listening to what the drummer had to say. Jack squirmed as he waited for Alex to give him some sort of information.

“Okay, I’ll tell him,” Alex said gravely and hung up, dropping the phone on his lap and keeping his eyes on the road. He clenched his jaw and Jack balled his fists in anticipation.

“Bro?” Jack asked, his voice barely a whisper in the sedan.

“Kara got there and there was…it was pretty bad. But Callie had already been taken to Johns Hopkins. She’s waiting there but since she’s not family, they won’t tell her anything.”

This information did not ease Jack in the slightest. All he had was that Callie was indeed in an accident and that he had no information on her condition. Jack was a mess. He couldn’t find a comfortable position and he finally snapped, “Drive faster, will you?”

Alex held back the retort that he was already driving incredibly fast and pressed a little more on the gas pedal praying he didn’t get pulled over.

&&&

Towed be damned, Alex pulled into the first spot he could and Jack bolted from the car, his friend not far behind him. He ran up to the triage nurse and gave Callie’s name. She looked him over skeptically and asked what his relation was to the patient.

“She’s my girlfriend, she was brought her after a car…car accident,” Jack stammered, his fist on the counter, wondering why this woman felt the need to torture him when he needed to know about Callie.

“I’m sorry young man, the new HIPPA privacy laws only allow us to provide patient information to family members.”

“Fuck this,” Jack said and the woman gasped but he didn’t stick around long enough to hear what she had to say. He darted past a gurney that was going into doors that were clearly marked EMPLOYEES ONLY and began searching for Callie’s smiling face.

The antiseptic smell of the hospital made his stomach turn and dread made his heart pound faster as he couldn’t find Callie. Suddenly, he saw Callie’s best friend, Nina, walking idly, a new can of Sprite in her hands.

“Nina!” Jack cried and ran up to her, Alex not far behind, “Where is she?”

“I have no clue, except that she was in surgery. Connor’s here but they haven’t told him anything yet. I’m heading back up there now.”

“Let’s go,” Jack said gruffly and followed her to the elevator.

An instrumental version of R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly” did not ease any anxiety as they rode to the surgical floor. The trio stepped off and heading to the left but Nina stopped short upon seeing Connor standing talking to a doctor. Her can of Sprite dropped to the floor and no one moved—no one made a noise. The doctor touched Connor’s upper arm sympathetically before turning on his heel and leaving.

Instantaneously, Connor broke down and turned towards the hospital wall in tears. Nina went to him and tried to see what the situation was. When Nina put her hands to her mouth in shock, Jack knew.

His feet began to move and he went to them and just as Nina’s knees were about to give out, he caught her and she cried into his chest. He didn’t need to hear the words. The reaction from two of the people that she loved most in this world told him enough.

Callie was gone.