Chapter 12 ~~
“I can’t believe I got in the car with you driving!” Dale Jarrett screamed as he shut his eyes tight. His fists where clenched into the passenger seat.
Kevin Harvick grinned evilly in the driver’s side.
“Sorry DJ but this is how I drive!”
“I know that damn it! It was a moment of weakness! Dear god! Please let me live!”
“Your not gonna kill us are you? Cause I would enjoy saying goodbye to my family before I go! Plus I planned on winning the championship this year!” Tony Stewart questioned from the back seat.
“Oh haha very funny… look if you don’t wanna visit Junior then FINE!”
Steve Park, who kept to himself the whole time but didn’t hide his giggles, finally spoke up.
“We could have driven our OWN cars here Kevin so that’s not a threat.”
Kevin’s eyes disappeared again from his enormous smile.
“Man I know! I was just playin… Geez you guys are no fun!”
“We’ll be more fun when we get outta the car… its unbelievable that you drive in Winston cup.” Jarrett said while occupying himself by holding onto his seat belt.
Kevin continued, ignoring his comment.
“Isn’t this funny? We have a Ford, a Pontiac and two Chevy drivers in one car!”
There was a long drawn out pause before Dale Jarrett spoke up.
“Umm… yeah Kevin… that’s great.”
“Just thought that was cool! All we’re missin is a Dodge!”
“Oh what a loss” Tony added sarcastically from the back seat.
“Hey now!” Steve said laughing. “Lets be nice.”
“Why? Dodges suck ass.” Tony said, sounding so sure of his opinion.
“What? Does that mean you don’t wanna “Just push play”?” Kevin snickered at his little joke about the overplayed Dodge Ram Commercials.
“I’m not gonna answer that… Man… Me and Bobby are gonna kick your asses in New Hampshire this weekend!”
“That’s what you think!” Kevin yelped!
“You know what?” Jarrett, the more mature driver of the bunch, said. “You wouldn’t be talking like that if Lil E was in the car. You two were pretty equal the last test there. That Earnhardt would make you work for it just like his daddy.”
“Yeah I know…” Tony sighed. “Too bad he cant get in that car right now. He’s the best competition there is right now!”
“No arguments there” Steve added
“Would you feel better if I bumped into you a few times during the race Sunday to keep it interesting?” Kevin said laughing.
“NO it wouldn’t!”
“Oh ok… just checking.”
The men all laughed before Steve chimed in.
“Junior will be back... and than we all better watch out. He’s my teammate and he still shows no mercy.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
As the four men got closer to Jr’s house they caught site of flashing red lights.
“What the hell?” Jarrett blurted out as he unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door quickly as Kevin pulled to a stop.
They were about to walk into the opened front door when a whoosh of people practically ran them over.
“Holy Shit…” Steve blurted out as he recognized a gurney in between the horde. He started to run with it and get some answers. He knew who was on it and suddenly became aware of memories flooding into his mind as he caught of glimpse of Junior’s unconscious face. “What’s wrong? What happened?? Dale?” No one spoke to him as they rushed him to the ambulance. Steve stopped and turned to see Teresa run toward him with the two officers who were supposta be watching Jr..
“Teresa! What’s going on here! What happened to him?”
“Steve get back in that car and follow now! I can’t talk!” And with that she jumped into the back of the ambulance before they closed the doors.
Steve stared at the vehicle as it started to swiftly pull away. He was pulled out of his daze when Dale Jarrett grabbed him by the arm.
“Come on! Get in the car!”
The four of them ran to the car. Kevin ran to the passenger side and tossed Tony the keys.
“You can drive anything with wheels and right now I probably couldn’t steer a big wheel! Here!”
“Gottcha” Tony said and slid into the drivers’ side. Steve’s legs were hardly in the car when it burst into motion.
~~~~~~~~~~
They were back here again… back in the same setting. The feeling that came with seeing the waiting room made the drivers want to throw up. They couldn’t’ believe they were back here again for their friend. And again they had no clue what was going on.
“God… I was hoping I wouldn’t have to be back here any time soon. Look… there isn’t even any new magazines.” Jarrett said while picking lint unconsciously off the chair he sat in. “I knew someone should have been with him all the time!”
“Teresa’s there ALMOST all the time. Luckily she was when what ever the hell this is happened.” Tony pointed out.
“He was fine when I talked to him this morning. Said he was looking forward to us coming. Needed to talk to you DJ… wanted to see Tony… I don’t know what happened but after seeing him so happy again I don’t know how I’m gonna handle this mess.” Kevin’s eyes hit the floor and stayed there.
“Alright… What are we doing huh? We are thinking the worst. Knock it off.” Steve said as he stood up and walked over to a small window.
Suddenly the group was startled by the waiting room door opening. Teresa walked in and sat down without a word.
The drivers stared at her. Looking for some sort of hint in her face. But there was none. It was as blank as a piece of paper. Her fingers rolled over a pill bottle in her hands, causing the objects inside to make noises against the plastic.
“Um… Teresa?” Tony whispered, trying to get something.. ANYTHING!
She held up the bottle slowly to show them what she had… whose it was. She brought it back down and spun it again in her hands.
“These pills… They… They aren’t his prescription…”
The guys didn’t like where this was going. Teresa was strong and right now she didn’t look all there. It sent chills up their spines at what she might say to them.
“Um… What so you mean not his?” Dale added.
“Yeah they have his name on it.” Kevin said while taking an other glance just to make sure.
“I mean… they ARE his… Just not the right ones. He had a different one… “
“Junior took pills?” Kevin half mumbled. “That’s what happened?”
“PLEASE Teresa! How is he?” Steve had had enough... He was sick of waiting.
It had looked like she snapped out of her daze slightly at the loud voice and looked at all of them.
“Oh… you can all go see him… He’s down the hall.”
If there was a candle in the room it would have been blown out by the release of air as the relieved drivers stood up and proceeded to walk out of the waiting room, leaving Teresa back to her thoughts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Junior sat there itching his hand as best he could without bothering the IV. He hated the damn thing and couldn’t’ wait to get it off before. Now he was tempted to rip it out himself. The bed was still extremely uncomfortable and no one had given him the remote to the TV. This sucked. He sat back exasperated and shut his eyes. They had pumped his stomach and it caused him to have a horrible taste in his mouth. He really wanted a Tic tac. Plus his throat was so sore that it felt like it was burning.
“What the hell happened?” he thought out loud
“That’s what WE’D like to know!”
Junior jumped up startled. He wasn’t expecting an answer and didn’t know someone was there.
“Jesus you gave me a heart attack.” He said while continuing his itching.
“WE did? I think that’s wrong.” Tony said with his hands on his hips.
“Yeah you scared the hell out of us… AGAIN” Kevin half shouted.
“Hey hey! I didn’t do it on purpose!”
“Well then what DID happen.” Their eyes turned to the door as Teresa walked in.
“I don’t really know.”
“Think harder then Dale… What’s with these pills?” Teresa held up the bottle and shook it.
Junior stared at them and then back to Teresa. Her face looked accusing and he couldn’t believe what she was thinking.
“You don’t think I took pills on purpose do you?” His face had suddenly gone into a shocked yet pissed off look and none of the drivers wanted to look. The Earnhardt glare was in full effect.
“Look Dale… I don’t want to come to snap judgments but I just needed to know.”
The accusing look was gone and Teresa turned a little red from embarrassment.
“Fine.” Was all he could say. He couldn’t believe that they would actually believe he would do anything to himself.
“Uh… so what DID happen?” Jarrett spoke up… He couldn’t’ stand the tension.
“Well… hmmmm… ok heres what I remember. I called Kerry this morning. I told him I wanted to talk to him and so he came over. I wanted to find out what the hell his problem is. I asked him when he came in to hand me my pills cause they were in the kitchen. We chatted for a while and when he left I stood up and was about to take a shower so I took a pill and all I remember is feeling lightheaded all the sudden.”
“So Kerry had the pills?” Steve asked. He didn’t really mean it to come out but now that it was out he couldn’t’ help but think how awful that sounded.
“Yeah Steve… He handed them to me… that’s it…”
“Are you sure? Were they the right pills?” Kevin couldn’t leave it alone.
“ALRIGHT! KERRY had NOTHING to do with what happened! Could you guys DROP the PILL TALK for Christ sake!”
Everyone in the room took a step back at the outburst.
“Sorry man… We just don’t know anymore…” Tony crossed his arms and looked out the window.
“Jesus… First you think I took pills deliberately and then you blame Kerry.”
Teresa felt awful. She wanted to smack her self for thinking such things. She was stressed out and tired and ideas and theories just popped into her head. The doctor told her what happened but she still didn’t understand why the pills were different or even why he was back here. Thoughts whizzed through her head. Instead of standing there feeling like an idiot she decided to talk to hide her embarrassment.
“Dale the doctor said you had a reaction to the pills your taking. But these aren’t what you should be taking…” Teresa questioned.
“Oh I had them change it the other day.”
“Why?”
“Cause the other ones were giving me stomach aches… and I don’t’ need my stomach to hurt any more then it already does.”
“Oh…”
The room was silent for what seemed like hours and Junior got fed up.
“So when can I get outta here?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Teresa stood in the hallway waiting for Junior. The nurse was taking out the IV now and soon they would be able to take him home.
“Excuse me… Mrs. Earnhardt?” a voice said behind her.
She spun around to see Junior’s doctor walk up.
“Yes?”
“I was wondering if I could take these pills for a little while.”
“Why?”
“Well I can’t get over the fact that this happened with this prescription. It just doesn’t seem right to me. It shouldn’t have happened.”
Teresa let her eyes go to slits as the mind she was trying to control a few minutes ago with crazy thoughts started back up again full force.
“What are you saying?”
“I think someone gave Dale the wrong pills. It could have been a mix up at the pharmacy even though it’s an extremely bad one. I wouldn’t’ worry about it. It could be nothing.”
He held his hand out to her and she lightly set the pill bottle in it.
“Thanks. I’ll get back to you tomorrow after I analyze these to find out if they are the right pills or not.”
“Uh… thanks”
The doctor gave her a reassuring smile and walked away just as the door behind her opened and Junior walked out dressed in what he came in. a pair of baggy blue jeans and a red T-shirt.
“Where are the guys?” He said to her, trying not to look into her eyes. He was still hurt at her accusation earlier.
“Oh they went to wait near the elevator.”
“Oh ok…” He started to walk toward the doors when she realized something wrong.
“Hey Junior? Aren’t they gonna wheel you out?”
Finally she got that trademark smirkie grin. But only for a split second.
“I worked my magic.” He proudly announced and continued walking away.
“I don’t’ wanna know” She muttered. She wasn’t going to tell him about the pills till the doctor called. He didn’t need to worry about anything right now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Junior walked up behind his friends.
“Can we go now?”
The group jumped and spun around.
“Whoa man! Don’t sneak up! Kevin scolded, as he leaned against the wall to catch his breath.
“Sorry…”
“So you’re released?” Tony said
“Yeah can we please go?”
“What about Teresa?” Steve asked
“Damn it! Forget it… I’ll get my own ride!”
Junior reached over and punched the Elevator down button.
“Calm down Dale! Were going! Don’t hurt yourself!” Jarrett said.
“Look guys… I feel fine, I don’t want to talk about Teresa, or what happened today. I just want to go home… Talk about anything else that I didn’t mention and we’ll all get along… alright?”
The group all nodded their heads in understanding as the elevator door opened up. The drivers got on the elevator, followed by Junior’s two “Bodyguard” police officers that no on noticed till they stepped in.
Junior had been through a lot and the other guys knew it. They wished there was something they could do but was aware that this was his fight. They tried not to look at him as he stood in front of them with his arms crossed.
They all got back into Kevin’s car. Kevin was back to driving and Junior now sat in the front seat. The Backseat was quite a funny sight. Tony, Steve, and Jarrett were squished so tightly in that it looked like they were half on each other’s laps. The car sprung into motion and it didn’t take long for Junior to realize his mistake.
“Oh Jesus…!” He spat as he grabbed onto the seat like Jarrett did earlier.
