*James*

The sound of the ocean is so loud. Almost too loud. It's not a relaxing sound like it usually is. I see the sunrise and remember the time I woke Julia up and took her to this beach. She cried when she saw the colors as the sky lit up. She had never seen a sunrise before.

Aside from the birth of my son, it was the best moment of my entire life. Seeing Julia's eyes light up the way they did. She loved me. She chose me.

The waves crash all around me. I'm alone.

I'm all alone.

******

*Trisha *

"Oh my God!" Both hands fly up to my mouth when I see James.

The nurse wheels me in and reminds me I can only stay here for a few minutes. How am I sitting here with only a concussion and stitches, and James is lying there.... unable to breathe on his own?

The ventilator hisses a rhythmic sound, pumping oxygen in and out of the lungs through the tube attached to his mouth. It's an awful sound. It's the reminder of how fragile our lives really are. It's the sound of death.

I cry about as hard as I cried at my mother's funeral.

How does this even happen? How do the four of us end up in one intersection at that exact moment in time? What kind of God does such a thing?

I hesitantly touch James's hand. It's warm. This is the hand that held the side of my face last night when we kissed. Now, it lies here limp.

"I'm so sorry, James." I whisper into his hand and weep for him. This was all my fault. "I should have been the one to drive. I knew you were tired. I'm so fucking sorry."

"Trish?"

I hear my name being called and look out into the hallway. Nate. He's in a wheelchair with a nurse behind him. It looks like he's leaving the ICU and getting ready to go upstairs to a room like Julia.

I can tell this is also his first time seeing James.

"No..." He has the same exact reaction as I do. His eyes widen and hands fly up to his mouth as he gasps. His monitor that is wheeled next to him starts beating rapidly and a hand drops to his chest. "Oh my God, no."

"I'm sorry. Nate this is all my fault!"

"Wheel her out of there." He looks back at his own nurse. "Wheel her the fuck out of there! Now!" The nurse forrows her brows but does as Nate demands and wheels me out of the ICU room and into the hall, lining my wheelchair up to his. He leans over and grabs both my hands and kisses them.

"None of this is your fault, Trisha. Do you hear me? It was a freak accident. Don't you dare go down that hole. I need you."

"He was tired. Nate, I should have-"

"Stop. Don't you fucking dare finish that sentence." He whispers and blinks away his own tears.

"Nurse. We are all going to need security. This is my personal assistant. It's easier if we are in the same room so you don't have to spread out your staff. We've been here before......" Nate reminds the nurse of a mere few months ago when Him and Julia were both in the hospital at the same time.

"Yes sir. You can be in the same room as Miss Banks. But Miss Moretti is on a different floor."

Nate drops his hold on my hands.

"Well, what the fuck floor is Julia on?? She needs security just as much as I do!"

"Sir. She's in the psychiatric wing. I'm sorry."

"No. That's not acceptable. She needs to be in the same room as me. You don't understand. She's a patient of The Avalon. She's already being treated. Fuck. I'M the one paying for her treatment!" Nate yells out boldly as his monitor goes crazy. "You either get her out of there or I pull all donations I give every. fucking. year. to this shithole."

"Sir."

"I'm so fucking serious right now..." Nate fumes.

He donates a lot of his money to local hospitals, animal shelters, homeless shelters. If these people know what's good for them, they'll do as he says. As much as I rather not have Julia in his room, I think he may have another heart attack if he doesn't get his way.

"Let me go talk to my supervisor." The poor thing rushes off, not sure what to do.

"Yeah, you do that!"

"Nate. Calm down." I whisper as attention is being drawn to us now. "This is not the media attention you want right now." I remind him.

"I couldn't care less about media attention right now. We should all be in the same room. Obviously, he can't...." Nate looks over my shoulder at the man struggling to survive behind me and his bottom lip quivers. He's trying so hard to hold in his emotions. I know Nate and James have never been friends but that doesn't mean Nate doesn't care about the guy. Certainly, doesn't want to see him hurt... Or dead.

"Nate... hey. You know what happened to Malcolm right?" I get down to what needs to be asked.

"Jonah told me."

"Listen, I don't want to sound insensitive here, but do you know if he had a family? Someone that would take legal action against us? Against Ja-" I can't even finish saying his name and break down into tears again.

"Hey. Look at me. Trisha..." Nate grabs my face both hands. "I will do whatever I can to protect him. Ok? I don't care if it fucking drains my bank account. Right now, we need to focus on him staying alive. I'll figure out the rest."

"But Nate, the cops said-"

"I don't fucking CARE what the cops say!" We gain more attention from Nate's outburst. I take a deep breath and hold my throbbing head.

The repercussions of running through this one red light are too much for me to think about right now.

*****

*James *

Carter looks so happy. He's still a toddler. My boy. He's trying to build a sandcastle. The waves are still so loud, but I can hear his laugh.

"Dada!"

Oh my God. I've missed you so much. So much!

Carter sees me and runs into my arms. My son. My baby boy.

"We're right here James. We're all right here with you, ok?

****

*Trisha *

I hear James's monitors start beeping loudly. Not caring about my head or anything, I stand up and wheel my IV pole over to his bed.

"Trisha..sit down."

Tears are streaming down the man's unconscious face. No emotion to be seen. Just tears.

"Hey! He's in pain! Someone come check on him!!" I scream and begin to feel lightheaded. I try to ignore it and hold his hand instead. "We're right here James. We're all right here with you, ok??"

*****