Chris sat by Emily's bed, listening to her heart rate monitor beep. She had tubes all over her, and bruises kept showing up on her face. A single, solitary tear slipped down his cheek. Noises outside, made him look up, to see Jamie and Lance walk into the room.
"Chris, do you mind if Jamie says hi to her mom?" Lance asked.
Chris got up, and left the room. Lance sat down on the stool beside Emily's bed, and put Jamie on his knee. Emily opened her eyes, and said, "Hey Lance. Hi my baby," she said to Jamie. "Will you give your mommy a kiss?"
Jamie got up on the bed, and kissed Emily's cheek. "Mommy, are you going to get better?"
Emily shook her head yes. "Of course I am, sweetie. Honey, I have something to tell you. You have always wanted to know who your daddy was, right?" Jamie nodded her head. "Well, you've met your daddy."
"I have? Who is he?" she asked.
"He's sitting right here. Your daddy is Lance, precious." Emily sighed. "Jamie, will you do me a favor? Go outside, so I can talk to your dad. Please?"
Jamie got up, and ran outside. Emily looked at Lance. "I know that I'm not going to get to get to live to see her birthday. And her birthday is the day after tomorrow. Please, ake care of her for me. Take her on tour, stuff like that. You wanna know what she told me?"
Lance nodded his head, and Emily continued. "She would love to be on tour with you guys. Seh wants to sing for a living. She's already made up her mind about that. She'll get up on the table's in fast food places, and burst out, into songs."
Lance started to talk. "I'll take care of her for you. She is mine, after all."
"Make sure she gets to meet her grandparents. She's never met them, either. She has letters, and pictures, and they have pictures of her, but she's never actually met them," Emily told him. "Can I say good bye to your friends now?"
Lance got up, and sent in Joey, Justin and J.C..
"Emily, I'm sorry about everything that's happened between us," J.C. apologized.
Emily looked at him. "I guess that it's okay. But you are kind of right. I do have sex a lot, and I really can't say that I don't, you know? But that's the past, and I don't want to talk about it. Justin, you need to hook up with Manda, or else she's gonna go insane."
Justin laughed. "And Joey," Emily continued, "Amy really likes you. And CJ likes J.C.."
"What about Chris and Lance?" Joey asked. "They're getting jipped."
"Well, I know who Chris likes," Emily said, smiling. "And Lance has probbly already asked Megs out. Just my guess. He always liked her, and I knew it. He just never told me."
"Well, we're going to let you say good bye to your friends now," Justin said. "I really enjoyed meeting you."
They waved good bye, and Manda and Megs came into her room. "Hey girl, how are you feeling?" Megs asked.
Manda hit her. ""She was hit by a car. How is she supposed to be feeling?"
"Okay, you guys, shove it. I feel about as good as I'm going to feel," Emily answered. "You guys, Jamie's going to be living with Lance and the guys from now on."
"Why?!" Manda asked.
"Well, because I know that I'm going to die. And I just told Jamie that Lance was her dad, so she knows."
"We know that you told her. Jamie came out in the hall telling us who her dad was," Megs told her. "Dude, I'm going to miss you so much." Tears began falling from her eyes.
"So am I," Manda said. "I can't be in here anymore. I have to leave." Manda gave Emily a final hug, and left the room, before she started crying, too.
"I guess I'll go and send in CJ and Amy, okay?" Megs asked. She gave her a hug, and left. CJ and Amy came in. Amy was crying. CJ's eyes were red-rimmed.
"Emily . . . " CJ whispered.
Emily gave CJ a sad smile. "I gonna miss you guys," she told them.
Amy started crying more. "Don't say that. Please don't say that."
Emily started crying, too. "I love you guys, you two are my best friends. So much more than my friends in New Mexico."
CJ hugged Emily, bawling. "Please, stay . . . I can't see you leave. And . . . what's going to happen to Jamie?"
"Lance is taking her. You guys, let's have a group hug." Emily was crushed by Amy and CJ, and they wouldn't let go. "Okay! You don't want me to die right now, do you?" she joked.
"This isn't a time to joke!" CJ laughing, wiping away a tear. She hugged Emily one last time, and started to leave the hospital room after Amy. She turned and looked back, one last time.
Chris came into the room. "I don't know what to say, Emily. I just met you, but it feels as if I've known you forever."
Emily smiled at him. "I know what you mean. I really, really really, like you a lot. And I'm glad we got to spend at least one day together, before . . . this happened. And I'm going to leave with a, bang if you wanna call it that." She swallowed. "I would do the Beth scene, from Little Women, but I'm not, partly because I don't have the energy, and partly because I can't remember the words. But I'm gonna say the ending part of it."
Before she could go on, Chris leaned over, and kissed her, passionately. He pulled away, and wiped the tears away from her eyes, that were starting to flow.
She started to talk again. "Here I go . . . I love being home, but I don't like being left behind. Now I am the one going ahead. I am not afraid. I can be brave, like you. But I know I shall be homesick for you . . . even in heaven."
Chris started to cry, and kissed Emily's forehead. There was a bang outside the room, and he got up to go see what it was. He opened the door, to see Amanda picking a chair back up. He looked back at Emily, and saw that her eyes were closing, as she drew her last breath.