Chapter 26
The group sat in uncomfortable silence while the news sunk in deep. Each one of them pondered on how Jr would react to this but they wouldn’t have to wait too long for their answer.
Turning sideways, Jr put both hands on the pavement, pushing up to try and get his feet to follow the movement. His winces of pain did not go unnoticed.
“Dale!” Chocolate said sternly, grabbing his arms to steady the wobbly man. “Easy! You shouldn’t be getting up! You cant do anything for him… let the professionals take care of him!”
Jr lifted his head to become eye to eye with the gasman. His glare was on strong even though there was a definite hint of fatigue showing through.
“If you guys don’t help me get up… I’m gonna keep trying myself… So either back up and give me room or give me a damn hand.”
Kevin and Tony glanced at each other with a small smile. They knew Jr was going to be ok… he was already showing his Earnhardt temper.
Chocolate blinked slowly and for a moment stared at the hurt young man in front of him. After everything he had went through he supposed he couldn’t deny him this.
“Alright… But we help you the whole way and after you see that there really is nothing you can do your heading to the medical center.”
“Fine…” Jr whispered as he held out a hand to him.
Chocolate grabbed it while Kevin reached over and pulled Jr's right arm over his shoulders to help him walk and let him have some way to support his weight. Tony reached over and took Jr's left hand, placing the gasman's bloody shirt into it.
"Hold this on your stomach."
Jr didn't complain and soon the 5 of them started to limp slowly over to the group of people surrounding a spot on pit road. A massive roar from the crowd erupted at seeing that Dale Jr was up and walking. The news spread quickly amongst the fans in the stands that it was Jr in the car and their relief that he was alright was showing through with their vocalization.
"How ya doin?" Steve asked as they continued to make their way over.
"Harder then... I thought... it would be...” Jr forced out between deep breathes.
"I told you this was a bad idea...” Chocolate added while getting an evil side glare from the injured driver before he went back to concentrating on moving his hurting body. They were half way there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Teresa watched the sight in front of her. There was so much blood. It almost made her sick. How did this happen? They were almost there! They had a shot of ending it clean! But Kerry had to make the first move. She watched it all helplessly as Ron and Kerry struggled for the gun. She watched as Ron won the battle with a kick to Kerry's knee, stunning the older Earnhardt and giving Ron the two seconds he needed to aim at him.
And now her other stepson lay in front of her covered in blood and EMT's.
Karla, Hank, Matt Yocum and now Ty Norris stood with Teresa and a gaggle of crewmembers watching the scene. No one noticed the slow group approaching them.
As they cut through the crowd, Teresa lifted her gaze to the new arrivals. At the realization of who it was her jaw dropped lightly.
Dale Jr stood… although not really under his own power… across from her. His face was not the shade she would have preferred but the fact that he was standing and walking and looked overall ok she was happy. That relief wave crashed over her. Ty was the first one to make a move and Teresa tried to follow.
“No Teresa. Stay here… Jr won’t be here long if I have anything to do with it.”
Teresa went to object but Tony Sr. placed a hand on her shoulder pretty much holding her back. Ty was right… she had to stay with Kerry for now.
Ty made it over to the group of drivers that forced their way through the crowd of onlookers. Noticing Kevin half holding him up, Ty went to relieve the driver and take over the responsibility. Jr and Ty locked eyes for a moment. Ty held in a shiver at the realization of how much pain and sadness lay within his good friends blue eyes.
“You ok?” he asked while shifting Jr’s weight against him so it was more comfortable. He noticed the blood covered shirt on his stomach that Jr clung to. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what was wrong down there.
“I’m not the one laying there Ty.” Jr said while glancing at his still unmoving brother.
“But you aren’t much better. You should be looked after Dale. They are working on Kerry… you cant do a damn thing here.”
“What happened?” He said in a tone like he didn’t even hear Ty.
“Well your brother made the first move… and Ron was prepared.” Ty sighed. Teresa told him if they had only had 2 minutes this wouldn’t have happened.
“Is he…. How… how bad is it?” Junior sort of choked out. He was getting weaker and even talking was a chore. Ty felt him lean harder into him as he kept losing what little strength he had left.
“Junior we should get you to a… Junior?!” Ty yelled as he felt his friend go slack next to him. He moved fast as to not drop the sudden dead weight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tony noticed his friend slump at his spotter’s side and because he was the closest he reached out to grab Jr’s other arm and help Ty hold him up. The bloody gasman’s shirt was still clutched gently in the hand he had grabbed, and Tony winced as he felt it make contact with the blood. He took it in his other hand to bring with them.
“And that was that” Tony whispered to no one in particular. Ty nodded and without even really thinking, started on their journey to the medical center.
Because of the fact the ambulance was tied up at the moment for Kerry and Ron and that the center wasn’t that far from where they were, they decided to sort of carry Jr over. They’d probably be a whole lot faster anyways.
“I had no clue Tony…” Ty said after a little ways. “None at all…”
“What are you talking about?”
“I didn’t know it was him. I should have known! I even tried talking to him before the race… I thought it was Hank! I could have done something before the race… I could have saved him from more pain! And Kerry…”
“Don’t beat yourself up. Even if you knew, he still would have gotten in the car. You know that. And with Kerry… well you don’t know the half of it.”
“I don’t think I wanna know just yet.” Ty replied at the tone the Home Depot driver sported.
There conversation was cut off when workers from the care center ran out to meet them with a stretcher.
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The medic workers swarmed around Jr like bees to honey. Tony and Ty winced together as they watched one nurse jab an Iv into the injured drivers arm. They both knew that if Jr were awake that nurse would have been down on her behind for a jab like that. Next they set in cutting Jr’s blood soaked white t-shirt off. It was then that Ty knew they had stayed too long.
“Umm… uh… should we leave?”
“What’s wrong Norris? Blood bother ya?” Tony said with a slight smirk.
“Well… its not that… its just… I don’t wanna see what that asshole did to him is all. I don’t want that image in my head.”
Tony looked at Ty sympathetically. He wished he’d never seen what he’d seen either… so he understood.
“Ok lets go wait by the door.”
Tony and Ty let the doctors and nurses work on Jr while they went to wait outside the door for the others. As they opened the door a young woman almost ran into them completely out of breath.
“Whoa whoa…” Tony said as he held up his hands to soften a possible impact.
“Sorry… I’m just a bundle of nerves!” The girl replied while catching her breath. “My names Karla. I came with Teresa? She told me to come over here and tell you guys that she’s going with Kerry to the hospital and that she’ll keep in touch.”
“It must be bad if they are taking Kerry straight there…” Ty mumbled. Tony nodded by his side. “Well thank you Karla. I suppose we should all wait together then if you’re with Teresa.”
“Yea… How’s Dale?” Karla asked shyly.
“We don’t know. They are taking care of him now.” Tony said while scanning the crowd still on pit road. He was wondering where Kevin, Steve and Chocolate went.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
His whole body hurt. Every square inch felt bruised beyond words. His head was fuzzy and apparently so was his hearing because he couldn’t quite make out the voices looming around him. He felt cold hands touch his arm and his arm jerked in surprise, clueing in the people around him that he was somewhat conscious.
“Dale? Can you hear me?”
Before he could even attempt to answer, his eyelids were lifted up and a bright light blinded him. He winced in protest and let out an aggravated moan.
“Dale your in the infield care center. We’re gonna help you out ok?”
Care center? Help him? His mind was still so fuzzy he forgot what happened. Did he wreck? What track where they at? As his mind tried to straighten out what the hell was going on he felt a sudden stabbing pain in his stomach. His back arched off the bed and his hands grabbed for his stomach in a desperate need to get rid of the pain and whatever was causing it. His hands never made it to his stomach as they were grabbed by people around him and held tightly.
“Ok Dale… Easy… We’re just stitching you up. It’s all right. We’ll give you something for the pain.”
Jr felt a needle go in his right arm and the darkness came back once again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next time his eyes opened things were a lot different. The room seemed darker, no one was holding him down and he was a lot more comfortable pain wise. There was a dull ache but nothing he wasn’t use to for the past month. As his eyes slowly got use to the darkness he let his mind try to run through what was going on. He was at the track in the care center… Ah… now he remembered… Ron… that bastard. He drove long and hard… won the race although he was sure they wouldn’t let him keep it. He wasn’t even supposed to be in the car. He had crashed, held at gunpoint. What an eventful day. But what else was there? Something else in the deep caverns of his mind yelled at him to remember it. And suddenly he did.
“Kerry…” He said out loud.
“Hmmm huh??”
Jr jumped in shock at the fact that someone was in the room with him and he didn’t even realize it. He eased himself up the pillow and tried to make out the figure sitting next to him.
“Hello?”
“Mmm yea... wha…”
He saw the dark figure slowly lift his head and rub his eyes. Finally the person’s slow movements got a little quicker and he saw a hand reach for a light next to the bed.
A small blinding light held up progress for the two men till their eyes adjusted.
“How you feelin Jr?”
“Tony? What are you still doing here?” Jr said confused with rapidly blinking eyes that were finally getting use to the light.
“Just makin sure you were ok. Everyone else either left or went to sleep.” Tony Stewart informed his friend before sitting up more in his chair and finally let himself take a good look at his injured friend.
“Oh. What time is it?”
Tony stretched and groaned before he moved his wrist to check the time.
“Its six in the morning… Sun should be up soon.”
“Wow… I slept a long time.”
“Well they pretty much knocked you out with some good stuff. Said you were struggling a little bit. Plus you needed it. You were exhausted. How do you feel now?”
"Groggy. Really sore... But I think I’ll live." Jr flashed a bit of a smile.
"Well you better. We’ve already invested so much time and worry into ya already." Tony smiled at his friend and slowly stood up and stretched.
"Hey Tony...? How's Kerry?"
Tony rubbed the bridge of his nose before sitting down on the end of Jr's bed. He let out a soft sigh.
"The Bullet punctured his lung. But Teresa called and they said he was gonna be fine."
"Oh good...” Jr said while staring into space.
Tony smiled again and patted his friend on the foot before getting back up to his feet.
"Well Bud, I’m gonna go wake up the others and find a doctor to check ya out. We're gonna get you home today… we just don't know how."
"Don’t' know how?"
"Yea... we're leaving it up to you really. You want the Jet you got it. You want my helicopter you got that as well. Hell if you would rather have an other road trip but this time with sane people... well slightly sane... haha... we can do that to. It all depends on how you feel."
"Oh... Shit I don't care. Any way is fine. One more question before you walk out."
"Fire away..."
"Why am I in the care center and not at the hospital?"
"Oh... yeah that’s a good question! Well it’s mostly for security reasons. It was bad enough Kerry was in the hospital but the fans would have mobbed the place if we could even get THROUGH the crowd to get there. Plus you weren't too bad off. Little dehydrated, exhausted, bruised up a bit and needed new stitches in your stomach but otherwise ya weren't too bad. So we left you here to rest up. You aren’t complaining about not being in the hospital are you?" Tony asked with a sideways look and a smirk plastered on his lips.
"Oh HELL no! I was just wondering."
"Mmmm hmmm! Well I’ll be right back. And probably with a few people so be prepared. Everyone was worried."
"Great I’m going to be mauled." Jr leaned back against the pillow again and sighed.
"Yep you probably will be. Rest up a little more Junior.... I'm glad your ok. You worried me a lot yesterday." And before Jr could say anything about the last comment, Tony was out of the room.
After Tony walked out, Jr leaned his head back against the pillow. Hopefully all this hell would be over now that Ron was gone. Kerry was going to be ok and apparently so was he.
He ran his hands through his hair and sighed deeply. It felt so good to just lie there. Surprisingly he wasn’t in that much pain and even felt somewhat refreshed. After driving a full race yesterday, crashing and even half flipping his truck not two days ago he would have expected to be completely worn out and bed ridden for at least a week. It’s amazing what a good nights sleep can do and some good drugs.
He chuckled at that thought and sat back up again slowly. At examining the room Jr noticed clothes on the bed next to him. His or not it would be better then wearing this gown. He didn’t even know they even HAD gowns at the infield care center!
His body responded as he lifted himself off the side of the bed and padded over to the pile of clothes. They were his alright. He didn’t even care how they got there… Just thankful he had something to change into.
It took him a few minutes to get the wind pants on and by the time he pulled the hoodie over his head he felt a tad wiped out. Slowly he sat back down on the bed, thankful that who ever brought him his clothes grabbed something that wouldn’t’ be tight on his stomach. After a few minutes to catch his breath, Jr pushed himself back up and slowly headed for the door. He needed air and to at least move around a little bit.
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Tony Stewart weaved back through the motor coaches en route back to the care center. He had woken up Ty and sent him on a mission to wake the others and tell them the news and head over. He didn’t want to leave Jr by himself for too long. He didn’t know why exactly but after seeing his friend hurt so bad a part of him wanted to play security guard.
He was almost there when he heard someone call his name. Turning around he saw Mike Helton on his way over.
“Hey Mike.”
“Hey Tony… How’s Junior doing? I was just going to see him.”
“Good actually. He woke up about 10 minutes ago. Seems ok.”
“Oh good…” Mike whispered looking away.
“I was just on my way back. I went over to wake the others. They should be haulin ass in there soon so if you want to get a word in before that I suggest now is the time!” Tony said with a laugh.
Mike laughed along with him, extremely relieved to hear that Jr was ok. The action made the larger mans eyes disappear in laugh wrinkles.
“Well I guess I better hurry then! I had something I wanted to tell him that I hope will make him feel just a little better.”
“So tell me…”
Both men jumped and spun around at the new voice behind them seeing someone they did not expect.
“Dale Earnhardt Jr! For the love of Dega! I’m not a cat! I don’t’ have nine lives!” Tony choked out recovering from his scare.
“You are supposed to be a race car driver Smoke. I hope you aren’t this scared in a race car... dude I gotta drive with you.” Jr said with a smirk.
“Ha ha…” Tony said sarcastically with a smirk.
“Hey Mike…”
The large man stood their looking over the son of his good friend. His hands were plunged deep into his hoodie pocket. The hair on his head was unruly and he just looked like he woke up from a long weeks nap. He hadn’t seen him since before the stabbing and he couldn’t have been happier at his appearance after everything he’d gone through. All the reports he was getting from the other drivers that had seen him weren’t wrong.
“How are you feeling Jr? I was just on my way to see you. Wasn’t expecting you up yet.”
“Yea well I had the energy so I thought I’d get some air. By the way… who do I thank for bringing me clothes?”
“Oh…” Tony chimed in. “That would be your darling sister Kelley. She’s with Teresa at the hospital right now but she stopped in around midnight.”
“Ahh… I see. She’s a frickin saint. And just for the record… when did infield care centers give out gowns?”
Mike and Tony had a good laugh before Mike spoke up and answered the question.
“Dale Jr… Every track has them… your just not in them long enough to know this fact.”
“Oh… well I hope I never am again…” He mumbled.
“Us too…” Tony added.
“Well anyways Mike I overheard you say you had something to tell me?”
“Oh yea!! Well since you’re up… How about you follow me instead? You ok for a walk?”
“Yea sure…”
Mike led the two drivers back through the gates that led to the racetrack. Once near pit road the man took a right and headed in the direction of victory lane.
“Where are we going?” Tony asked while keeping an eye on Jr. Jr’s eyes never strayed from the racetrack. He didn’t speak or even show any emotion on his face but Tony knew that he was remembering all that happened yesterday. He would never tell them this but Tony knew better. It was going to be a while if ever before Dale Jr talked about the traumatic time’s he’d encountered with Ron.
Finally the three men stopped and Mike turned around and faced Jr.
“I talked it over with Darby and the officials. We went over the rules with a fine toothcomb and we came to the same conclusion.”
Mike turned around and continued walking a few more steps till they entered the most important spot at the whole racetrack. What Jr saw in front of him was not what he expected. Sitting on the checked flag-painted ground was his Bud car. Not the one he drove yesterday but a back up in perfect condition. On the side of it sitting on a white stone table was a large gold trophy.
“Dale Jr… congratulations for winning in Loudon.” Mike said with a big smile that was almost missing in his mustache as he motioned over to the trophy.
Jr stood there… his eyebrows fused together. He wasn’t expecting this by any means.
“Umm… Wow… I thought… that … well… Since I wasn’t supposed to drive that it wouldn’t count.”
“Its your car Jr. Your name is still on it.” Mike said.
“But… I didn’t qualify it. I didn’t practice it. I wasn’t on the list for this week.”
“Jr you started from the back. So it’s fair. You had absolutely no advantage.” Tony chimed in.
“That’s right. The car passed inspection… from what we COULD go over on it anyways and you deserve it. That first lap out there you didn’t know what the hell it was going to do. You were in immense pain and you still finished the race in the spot that means the most. This wins yours.”
“I… I don’t know what to say.”
“Ahh Hell Earnhardt! Don’t say anything! Spray a beer or something!” Tony laughed out while patting him on the back. “You passed me for that win… and if I’m saying it was fair then it was!”
“Thanks Tony…” Jr said while developing a wide smile. He slowly walked over to the trophy looking it up and down.
After giving Jr a few minutes to soak in the new information, Tony and Mike decided it was best to bring Jr back to the care center since people would be looking for him soon. As they walked to the door it swung open spilling out a gaggle of people including Ty, Kelley Chocolate and Kevin.
“WHERE in the hell were you!”
“You shouldn’t be up yet!”
“Damn it Earnhardt!”
“Wait till I tell mom!”
“You had us frickin worried to death!”
Jr couldn’t’ help but smile at the flood of concern and stern lecturing he got and turned to Tony.
“Not exactly the welcome I was expecting.”
Tony let out a soft chuckle and stepped aside as people started coming towards them to see Jr. They were all so happy to see him up and ok after everything he endured. The scene in front of him made his eyes glisten and he blinked back the wetness before anyone could notice. He was Tony Stewart after all!
His sister grabbed him by the chin and looked into his eyes with a look of determination… like she was looking for something. Apparently satisfied, her facial expression softened up and she threw her arms around her little brothers neck; sniffing lightly. She then whispered something to him that he wasn’t expecting.
“That was some great driving little brother. Dad would have been proud.”
Jr closed his eyes tightly taking in her words before they each let each other go. Then while looking into her eyes he responded with “He is…”. She looked up at him with a big smile of relief.
After the hugging and questions everyone ushered Jr back into the care center to get looked over by the doctor before they brought him home to rest. The checkup went by fast and he was given pain pills and instructions to just rest up before leaving the center for good and headed over with everyone to a Tahoe to get out of the track.
Happy that her brother was looked over, Kelley said her goodbyes and headed back to the hospital to check on Kerry before heading back home by airplane.
“So how do you want to go home Jr?” Ty asked while driving the select group out of the New Hampshire racetrack.
“Lets keep driving…”
“Huh?!?! But that would take us like 18 hours to get back to NC!” Kevin whined from the back seat.
“Hey you could have taken other means of transportation home Harvick…” Tony added in before going back to his magazine.
“Why do you want to drive Jr? Thought you’d have had enough of that.” Ty asked softly after hinting to the little road trip Ron took him on just a day before.
”Well… I was wondering if we could… maybe… stop somewhere in Pennsylvania on the way. I uh… forgot something.” Jr’s eyes lit up and a wide smirk crossed his face.
“Oh no… he’s got that look” Chocolate warned from the seats farther back.
“Is it too late to get an other ride?”
“Shut it Kev! Who is the hurt one here? Today we go where I wanna go.”
“Well… Pennsylvania it is then.” Ty said with a chuckle while turning out onto the highway.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After a Phone call to Teresa the gang all met in a little town in Pennsylvania. Teresa, Tony Sr. and Jr. Steve and Karla had taken Tony’s helicopter down from the track and met the group there. Jr said on the phone it was urgent and he would need their help.
As the Tahoe pulled up Tony Sr. was the first to the passenger side door and half yanked the door off its hinges to get to his Nephew. His heart lightened at seeing his Earnhardt smirk and pulled the younger man into a hug.
“Don’t you ever pull a stunt like that again! I realize the meaning for it now but… Dale Jr! Your gonna put me in an early grave!”
Jr didn’t respond but patted his uncle on the back before pulling away from the hug and extending his hand to his cousin.
“He usually says that to me…” Tony Jr. had a wide smile at seeing his cousin and couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
“Both of ya are!” Sr. said with his arms crossed. Jr turned back to his uncle.
“You knew I was in the car the whole time didn’t you. From the moment I climbed in.”
“Of course I did! I don’t miss a trick! Plus you’re a hell of a lot shorter then Hank Jr.”
“Oh my god! Hank! Is he ok?”
“Hanks just fine. He is back home now. Said he’d come see you as soon as you were up to it.” Ty said.
Teresa was next in line and pulled Jr into an other hug. He was beginning to get sick of the hugs but didn’t say anything. He was just happy to see everyone and their concern and worry for him showed through.
“Dale… I’m so sorry…” But Teresa was cut off before she could finish.
“None of that sorry shit. Its alright Teresa.”
She smiled warmly up at him before stepping back and letting Steve in.
“Earnhardt….”
“Park…”
“You little bastard” Steve whispered before pulling him into a hug too.
“Ooo more hugging” Jr said with a giggle. “You’re all a bunch of huggers. Tony didn’t hug!”
“I don’t wanna touch your skinny ass Lil E… Sorry. Besides… I’m not a hugger. Got that Bad boy rep thing goin and all.” Tony joked.
The group laughed happily.
“What the hell are we doing here anyway?” Tony said looking at the shop to their right.
“You’ll see.”
Jr turned and started to slowly head toward the direction of the shop with the group in tow. He was still very sore but had good meds and was able to get around pretty good when it was working its best. Suddenly Jr noticed the younger girl walking along side Teresa. The two locked eyes and finally a look of recognition came across his face. He stopped abruptly which caused the girl his eyes were linked with to do the same. The group kept walking a few more feet before realizing what happened and turned in confusion.
Jr walked over to Karla and stopped again before grabbing her into a soft hug as well.
“Thank you” he whispered into her ear before pulling away. “Thank you for telling people you saw me. It helped”
The girl blushed like crazy and looked down to her hands before gaining the courage to speak up.
“I couldn’t NOT say anything. Anyone would have… I’m…I’m just glad you’re alright.”
Jr leaned down more, which wasn’t easy, to catch her gaze again.
“Not anyone would have… Really… Thank you.”
He smiled wide at her before putting an arm around her shoulders and ushering her back in the direction they were heading.
“Alright boys and girls! Lets get my Baby truck back!”
