Speechless and Redundant

The next day Mike, Tre, and Billie's mom were arriving in Connectitcut. Mike had called some people and finally got them all a flight out there. Now, they were going to see Billie Joe.

The rescue team still hadn't found Anna.

When they got to the hospital that Billie was at, Mike and Tre insisted that Ollie get to see him first. She was his mother, after all. She agreed and made her way into the room that they had placed her son in. When she came back out quite some time later, she was crying. The other two attempted to comfort her before they went in to see Billie Joe themselves. Finally, Ollie calmed down a bit, so they walked into the hospital room.

Billie was laying there with all kinds of tubes hooked into him, and a heart monitor beside him. It killed Mike and Tre to see their best friend like that.

Once they made it to his bed, Billie looked up at them and grinned.

"Nice mess I got myself into, ain't it?"

"You doing okay?" Mike asked.

"I feel like shit, but I'm doing all right considering, I guess."

Mike nodded. "We came as soon as we heard. It was tough to get a flight up here."

"I know, Ma told me. You didn't have to come, you know," Billie said.

"We know," Tre told him, finally speaking up. "But we wanted to."

"I told you a long time ago that I'd be here for you if you needed me, man. I think this is one of those times," Mike said. He smiled a little.

"I remember," Billie said. "I'd do the same thing."

"You'd better, because if I'm ever laying in a hospital bed and your ass isn't there, there's going to be hell to pay, Armstrong."

Billie laughed and Tre's cell phone rang.

"I'll be right back, guys," he said as he stepped out of the room to take the call.

"Have you heard anything about Anna?" Billie asked Mike.

Mike shook his head. "No. They, um...they said that there's not really that great of a chance that they're going to find anyone else alive. You're lucky you made it out."

Billie pondered this for about half of a second before he suddenly announced, "She told me she loved me."

"What?"

"Just before we crashed, she told me that she loved me and I kissed her. That's the last thing I remember before I woke up here."

"Aw man, Beej."

"Yeah."

Billie had told Mike long ago about his feelings for Anna. He had never told Anna though, and he swore Mike to secrecy. He was sure that she just liked him as a friend. He was just...Billie. Nothing else. He didn't want to ruin what he already had with her. Too bad he'd been wrong about everything. Now it could be too late. If he would have just told her, instead of being a chickenshit, they could have already been together. Maybe it wouldn't hurt so bad now.

++

Several miles away, a pair of icy blue eyes opened as pain shot through a frail and broken female's body.

"Ugnh," she groaned, unable to make any kind of intelligent noise. She coughed and blood came out.

"H-he...help," she whispered gruffly. "Help!"

Outside, two firemen were searching the grounds around the destroyed plane, more to find bodies for the families' own comfort rather than to search for any survivors, when they heard something coming from inside of it.

"Hey Jack, did ya hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"That noise. It sounded like it was coming from the plane."

"There ain't no way there's anybody left in there. We searched it 'least twenty times already."

"Jus' shut up an' listen."

Jack the fireman closed his mouth and listened carefully. He heard the same noise that the other firefighter had.

"I heard it!"

"C'mon, let's go."