Ethan's P.O.V.-
He was freaking out. He had woke up to an empty cold bed. He had searched the room and realized all Amber's things where gone. He knew he shouldn't have pushed her last night, but they had been so happy. She had acted like she was excited to marry him. She was her normal shy self but they smile hadn't left her face from the time he had asked her in that jewelry store to marry him until he feel asleep with her wrapped in his arms.
Waking up to find her missing and all her stuff gone, he couldn't help but think he had been wrong about her being happy. His heart was breaking. He didn't know what to do if she didn't want to be with him as much as he wanted to be with her.
Not bothering to clean out his room, he had went to Nick's room and woke him up. Told him and Lucca what was going on before waking Jenni and Micca up. When Jenni had suggested calling Evan to see if Amber was there, Ethan could have kissed her. He was so panicked he hadn't thought that she would run to her Dad. She usually ran to him and the boys when something was wrong.
Waiting those two tortuous minutes to get Evan's text had nearly put him in the hospital. He didn't let any of them get their belongs before rushing out to Lucca's car telling them that they either got in or he was leaving them behind.
Nick had other ideas. He had tackled Ethan to the ground and told him he couldn't drive. He fought his brother, but when Micca had sat on both of them, Ethan knew there was no way they were going to let him get behind the wheel and they were just wasting time.
Finally Jenni got behind the wheel and he got in the passenger seat. The rest piled in the back. Ethan was okay with Jenni driving. She drove like a lunatic but they would get there faster with her driving then anyone else.
He gave a passing thought to Micca's motion sickness, but decided if he puked in Lucca's car, Micca could clean it up later. They were not taking the time to stop. At least if he had his way.
An hour later they were already half way home when Nick finally asked, “What's going on Ethan? Amber just wouldn't take off for no reason.”
Jenni glanced over at him with a raised brow when she glanced down at his hand and back to his face before concentrating on the road again. Ethan looked down to realize he was twisting the band that now rested on his left hand. He was proud to wear that band. He wanted to announce to the world that they were married, but how could he do that when his bride ran off in the middle of the night. The night they got married.
With a long breath he said, “We got married last night.” When a hush feel over the car and he started to feel suffocated, he told them what happened last night starting off with when they walked by the jewelry shop.
When finished telling them, he didn't feel any less confused. He told them all of it. He didn't leave anything out. There was no use. Nick already knew that he had slept with Amber. He knew Nick did, he knew Nick felt it. Just like Ethan had felt it the first night Nick had finally slept with Lucca. The thing that had stuck out the most in the emotions Ethan had felt that night was love and he knew Nick had felt the same last night.
There was no point in hiding it from the others, they were all just to close. This was his family he was talking to. He didn't hid anything important from them and this was very important.
He didn't know what went wrong between falling asleep and waking up, but he was headed to the one place he could get those answers. He wanted. no needed those answers. He needed to know how he could fix what went wrong. He needed Amber in his life as much as he needed his next breath.
He glanced over his should at his brother when he realized no one had said a word since he finished talking. Micca and Lucca both looked lost in thought, but Nick was starring right back at him. He had a hard glint in his eyes.
Ethan wondered what that was about. But then thought Nick might know more then he was saying. Like his thoughts yesterday, he knew Amber talked to Nick, she told him more then she had told the rest of them.
Ethan wanted to ask his brother, but if Nick wasn't sharing that information then there had to be a reason. Looking back to the front, he realized he could wait. Jenni was good to her word, she had got them home in just under two hours.
She pulled Lucca's Explorer into their driveway. As soon as she put it in park, Ethan was out the door and heading towards his bike. He was going to Evan's. He would thank Jenni later for having the foresight to not making him and Amber having an audience. He needed to talk to her alone.
Three months later-
He hadn't seen her in three long months. They say the first year of your marriage is supposed to be the best you ever had, but so far it was the worst three months of his life. All the hell he grew up with having cold parents didn't even come close to what he was going thru right now.
He pulled his bike into the first empty slot he found in the hospital parking lot. His hand shook had he pulled the key out and slowly got off the bike. He pulled his helmet off, and had to take a deep breath to calm his shaking nerves. Slowly he walked to the hospitals double doors.
His feet wanted to race thru those doors as fast as his heart was beating, but he made himself take slow steps. She hadn't contacted him in those three months she had been gone and now he wasn't so sure she wanted to see him now. She wasn't the one that called him.
He had just gotten to work when his cell phone rang. It was a nurse from the hospital, she said Amber had been in an accident and he needed to come. Before getting on his bike he had called Nick to let him know what was going on. Also to ask Nick if he could call and get more information on Amber's condition.
Ignoring the reception desk lady that was trying to get his attention he headed for the elevators. The nurse told him to come to the forth floor nurse desk when he got there. Punching the right button for the floor he needed, he stepped back and leaned against the mirrored wall.
He didn't know what he was going to find when he walked out of these elevator doors and he was scared. He just wanted to walk into her room and hold her in his arms and never let her go, but he had a gut feeling that he wasn't going to be able to do that and that scared him even more.
If he would have been paying attention when the doors whisked open, he would have realized what floor he was on, but he only had eyes for the nurse's desk that sat in the middle of the floor. Walking straight for it, it only took him about fifteen steps before he was at the side and had to stop. An older female sat behind the desk typing away at a computer. She looked up when he cleared his throat to get her attention.
“How may I help you?” She asked kindly.
“Names Ethan Duster, I was told my wife, Amber was here.”
“Oh yes, Mr. Duster, I was the one that called you.” She stood up and pointed to a set of chairs against one wall that he only noticed when she gestured towards it. “Please have a seat, there's a few things about your wife’s condition before you see her.”
Ethan really didn't give a flip about her condition at the moment, he just wanted to see her, but this nurse had taken her time to call him, so he thought it best to listen first.
Ethan followed her to the bank of chairs and took a seat. He watched her folded her hard worked hands into her lap before she started talking.
“It was by luck that I found you. When Amber came in she didn't have any I.D. On her. So we didn't know who she was.”
“Wait what do you mean?”
“Amber had been hit by a car, hit and run, when she came in, she has been in a coma ever since.”
When he found out who did this to Amber, he was going to kill them. Ethan took a deep breath. He couldn't think about that right now. Amber was in a coma. This couldn't be possible. “How long has she been here?”
He felt like he was going to be sick, because he knew, he knew before she could answer. “It will be three months tomorrow.”
He stood up and began pacing in front of the chairs. He couldn't sit still. “Go on.” He prompt.
She sat back in her chair. “We had a new class of nurse's come in today to do a round of clinical's and one of them recognized her. Apparently she took a class with Amber last year.” She waved her hand, “Anyways. She was friends with some girl named Jenni, that is friends with Amber?”
Ethan nodded, “Yes their best-friends.”
The nurse nodded, “She called Jenni and that's how I got your number.”
That's all and good, but Ethan really wanted to know what was wrong with Amber. He didn't really care right now how they found him. But he would definitely want to find this student nurse later and thank her.
“What's wrong with my wife other then she's in a coma?”
The nurse smiled. “Nothing. All of her injuries have healed. She had a broken arm, but it has healed.”
That gave Ethan a pause. Amber was an artist, “Did it heal properly?”
The nurse gave him an odd look, so he explained. “She's an artist. She paints.”
In a soothing voice the nurse said, “Oh, well yes, if no one told her she would never know it was broke.”
That made Ethan feel better, but if she was healed, why wasn't she waking up? So he asked.
“We don't know. She should have woken up with in the first couple of days of being here.”
Ethan had enough, he wanted to see her now. “Take me to her.”
“Mr. Duster, there's one more thing.”
Ethan stopped pacing and faced her. That had been said in a dead serious voice, “What?”
“You wife is pregnant.” Ethan felt his heart feel with joy, for just a moment. He was going to be a dad. Amber was going to be a mom. They were going to have there very only family. He felt the smile fill his face.
“The baby is okay?”
The nurse chuckled, “Well the babies are okay.”
Ethan's heart skipped a beat. Babies, she said babies. “How many?”
“Two.” Ethan let out a breath.
“Can I see her now?”
Just as the nurse stood up, they heard a huge commotion behind them. Ethan spun to see the rest of his family. Nick and Lucca was first in line, with Micca holding Jenni back so she didn't run them over, followed by Evan, Cage, and Lacy.
Ethan turned back to the nurse, “What's her room number?”
She told him, “But only family can see her.”
Ethan smiled. “They are family. Please explain to them what's going on.”
“I'm sorry Mr. Duster, I just can't take your word there family.”
Ethan was about to lose patients. He wanted to see Amber now. “Nick, is my brother, Amber's brother-in-law, and Evan is Amber's dad. The rest are extended family.” Ethan glanced at the group of impatient people behind him. “And your not going to be able to stop them from seeing her.”
With that he walked off in the direction the nurse had told him Amber's room was.
Amber's P.O.V.-
She was tired of walking around in this gray foggy bog. She didn't know how long she had been here. She was past the point of being scared, she had been there so long she was used to it now.
Every once in a while she would hear voices but she figured out after chasing them at first that she wasn't going to find the person that voice belonged to.
And really they never were talking to her, they never called her name, not like she could now hear her name being called. She felt her heart speed up. Just when she thought, call my name again so I can find you, that voice did.
When they did she started running. She knew that voice. She wanted to reach him. She had missed him so much. She was tired of running away, she wanted to run to him and that's what she did chanting his name.
Ethan's P.O.V.-
He slowly opened the door to her room. The drapes were closed on the window and the only light was the soft lamp coming from the corner of her room. She laid on her back in the middle of the bed. Walking to her, he grabbed one of her hands. She looked so pale, but still beautiful.
Bending down he whispered in her ear, “Amber, baby come back to me.” Her heart monitor started beeping at a faster pace. He gave it a passing glance, before going back to whisper in her ear, “Amber, wake up for me. I need you. Please wake up.”
He pulled back when he heard the voice of angel croak out, “Ethan.”
“Amber open your eye's baby, I want to see those beauties.”
Standing up, so he didn't scare her with being in her face, he watched her lashes flutter. He squeezed her hand a little tighter. He knew his heart was racing to match the beat of her heart monitor.
“Amber, you can do it. Open your eye's.”
“Ethan,” Then her eye's popped open. He felt a tear roll down his face but didn't bother to wipe it away.
“Hey baby.”
A slow smile crept across her face. “Where am I?”
Ethan sat down on the side of her bed and explained to her what happened. Or the version of what happened that the nurse told him. He had a feeling there was more to it. He would be looking into it himself.
Nick's P.O.V.-
The nurse was in the middle of explaining to them what had happened to Amber when he interrupted her. “She's awake.”
The nurse gave him a startled look, then her eye's got huge, when the rest of the gang started yelling excitedly.
The nurse frowned. “How do you know that?”
Nick smiled at her, “Go check.”
The disbelieving nurse, walked over to her desk and checked a screen. Then hurried off in the same direction Ethan had went.
Nick turned back to the group. “Alright guys quiet down. It's late, and we don't want to get kicked out.” He pointed to the chairs, “Let's sit down. It might be a while before we get to see her.”
They all sat down as a group, except him and Evan. Evan walked to him. “She's really awake?”
Nick smiled at him, “Yea.” He had felt the sorrow, pain, and urgency Ethan had been throwing off. But then he had been hit by a huge wave of relief and then joy. The only thing that could make Ethan feel that way was Amber waking up.