Sequel To: Building Castles In The Air

Disclaimer: I don’t own the characters I write about. They belong to JER and NBC’s Passions.

Chapter 1

It had been a month since the fateful night. Sheridan still couldn’t grasp that she had killed her brother and destroyed her father in quick motion. She was still learning to live with the consequences. Between Ethan and her they needed to find away to keep Crane industries alive. The family mansion was being sold, so she lived in a hotel. Luis had been a big help though. He would come over everyday and make sure she was all right. It seemed that thinking of him was the only thing that made her happy. Feeling happy made her feel guilty though. She shouldn’t be happy.

I woke up this morning

Now I understand

What it means to give your life

To just one man

Afraid of feeling nothing

No bees or butterflies

My head is full of voices

And my house is full of lies

This is home

Sheridan sat on the bed in hotel room. Thinking of what to do today. She was feeling claustrophobic in the hotel room, so she decided to go for a walk. She headed towards the park.

Luis was at the station. Working wasn’t keeping his mind off his problems. Sam walked by and noticed that Luis looked troubled.

"Luis, are you alright?"

"Been better, Sam"

"Do you want to talk about it? It might help"

"It’s Sheridan. Lately I can feel her pulling away. I am not sure that she loves me anymore. We haven’t even been out on a date since before the incident"

"Luis, I am sure she is just dealing with a lot right now. Just make sure she knows you are there for her. She’ll come around soon enough"

"I guess your right Sam. Do you mind if I go for a quick walk? I need to get these thoughts out of my head"

"Yeah go ahead. Take your time, I’ll cover for you"

"Thanks Sam"

Sheridan was sitting on a park bench looking out at the sea. The water looked like it would go on forever. How was she going to go on like this forever? She was going to have to tell him soon. She didn’t even notice Luis come up and sit besides her.

"Hi Sheridan" she jumped nearly a mile.

"Oh hi, Luis. I didn’t see you coming"

"I figured that" she could see the hurt in his eyes. She hated not being able to be the same person she was a month ago.

"Luis, I’m really sorry, I don’t mean to hurt you"

"I know" he put his arm around her and gave her a little squeeze. "I love you"

"Don’t say that!" she pulled away from him and stood up.

"Say what? I love you? It’s the truth, I do love you" he was very confused. He stood up with her.

"STOP!" She was now in tears and started walking away. But he wouldn’t let her go. He grabbed her arm.

"Why Sheridan? What is going on?"

2.

"Luis let me GO!"

"Not until you tell me why it is so terrible that I love you"

"Why, WHY? How can you love me? I took my own brothers life. I killed someone! How can you love a person like that? It isn’t possible"

"You SAVED my life! You only did what you had to do"

"No, I didn’t. I could have shot him in the arm. I didn’t have to kill him, I just had to stop him" until this moment he hadn’t realized how much this had affected her.

"Sheridan you are talking crazy"

"Am I??"

"YES! You did what you had to. You are a good person and deserved to be loved"

"No I don’t! I have hurt so many people. Look at how many lives I changed in one night. I don’t want to hurt anyone else"

"You are talking about me now aren’t you?"

"Yes. I can’t do that to you, I love you too much. Please just leave"

"No, I won’t leave you!"

"Then I will" and with that she walked away, tears streaming down her face. She couldn’t even look back. She did what she thought she had to. It was better to break it off with Luis before she could hurt him anymore.

I’m going crazy

A little everyday

And everything I wanted

Is now driving me away

I woke up this morning

To the sound of breaking hearts

Mine is full of questions

And it’s tearing yours apart

Luis had tears in his eyes. He knew she still loved him, but why was she pushing him away? Tears welled up in his eyes, he didn’t want it to be over. There had to be something he could do. But what? He headed back to the station. He walked in and slammed the door. Sam walked out of his office to see what was going on.

"I take it your walk didn’t help"

"Nope" Luis picked up a folder that was on his desk and threw it across the room.

"Luis, come with me" Sam walked Luis into his office. "What’s wrong?"

"I ran into Sheridan on my walk"

"And… I hope there is more to this story"

"She basically told me it was over in not so many words"

"She did what? I can’t believe that Luis, she loves you"

"That’s why she left, because she loves me. She thinks that she only hurts people she loves. So she is ending it before I get hurt"

"Luis you can’t let her do that. She needs you right now"

"I don’t know how to reach her"

"Don’t give up. She’ll get through this with your help. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off and try and think of something to do"

"Thanks Sam, I think I’ll take you up on that"

Sheridan walked back into her hotel room. She flopped on the bed and buried her head in some pillows. She needed to sleep. Her doctor had given her sleeping pills because she found it difficult to sleep lately. She took a pill, laid down and tried to close her eyes.

Luis didn’t know what he was going to do. He knew if he went over to her hotel right now she wouldn’t let him. He needed to really think this over. He drove down to the beach. He walked out onto the sand and wandered aimlessly. Not knowing what was going to happen next.

3.

The sleeping pill hadn’t worked. She couldn’t sleep. So she lay there thinking, thinking dark thoughts. She didn’t want to cause anyone else any pain. And she had pushed everyone away. Julian’s funeral was the last time she talked to Ethan or Ivy. She had been isolating herself for the past month.

Luis walked down the beach kicking the sand. What was he supposed to do? He needed away to get in her room. He sat down and thought about it. He could go to the hotel and pretend to be room service or try and get the key from the desk clerk. He didn’t think anything was going to work. Suddenly he didn’t feel right. Something wasn’t right, something bad was happening.

Sheridan was having a tough time trying to figure out the reason for waking up in the morning. She didn’t want to live anymore. She felt the darkness closing in around her. She again looked over at the bottle of sleeping pills. If one pill didn’t work maybe the whole bottle would.

By the shadow of the night I go

I move away from the crowded room

That sea of shallow faces masked in warm regret

They don’t know how to feel, they don’t know what is lost

Lost in the darkness of a land

Where all the hope that’s offered is

Memories of being taken by the hand

And we are led into the sun

But I don’t have a hold on what is real

Though we can only try

What is there to give or to believe

I want it all to go away, I want to be alone

Sympathies wasted on my hallow shell

I fell there’s nothing left to fight for

No reason for a cause

And I can’t hear your voice and I can’t feel you near

Sheridan was crying hysterically. Throwing things across the room, anything that could be picked up was fair game. She walked past the mirror and saw her reflection. She didn’t like what she saw. She saw this weak woman and didn’t like it. ‘How had it come to this?’ she thought to herself. Disgusted she grabbed the phone and slammed it into the mirror, shattering it. She couldn’t take it anymore. There wasn’t anyway out of this and she walked over and grabbed the bottle of pills.

Luis ran into his house.

"Is everyone here ok???" he yelled. Theresa, Miguel, and Pilar came running to find him.

"Luis, we are all fine" Pilar reassured him.

"Then it must be Sheridan" he ran out the door as fast as he came.

"What was that all about Mama?" Theresa wondered.

"I am not sure, let’s just hope everything is ok"

4.

Luis ran through the hotel lobby. He hit the elevator button, but it wasn’t coming fast enough for him so he rushed to the stairs. He ran up ten floors and down the hall to her room. He started pounding on the door.

Sheridan went into the bathroom and got a glass of water. She brought her handful of pills to her mouth and swallowed them with the water. Suddenly there was an awful pounding on her door. She jumped and accidentally knocked the remaining pills on the floor of the bathroom.

"Sheridan! Open the door!"

"Luis? What are you doing here?" he continued to pound on the door.

"Sheridan, let me in!" she walked to the door and opened it, leaving the chain hooked on the door.

"Luis, please go away. I don’t want to talk now"

"Sheridan, please" he pleaded, "You don’t need to talk, just listen. Please I really need to say some things"

She closed the door and unchained it. She still had some time before the pills would kick in. She could just him to leave when she started feeling tired.

"Come in" she opened the door and he walked in. He looked around confused at everything he saw. There were things everywhere.

"What happened in here?"

"I’ve had a bad day"

"I guess" she sat down on the bed and he sat down next to her. She moved away, but he grabbed her hand.

"Luis don’t…"

"Don’t pull away, please. Just listen. I know you don’t think that you deserved to be loved, but you do. I love you and miss you" she tried to pull away again but he held her close, wrapping his arms around her. "I know you love me too. We can get through this together. There isn’t anything that we can’t get through together. Don’t you give up"

Sheridan was sobbing, but he could hardly make out what she was saying.

"Luis I’m sorry"

"Sorry for what?"

"For pushing you away, things could have been different if I hadn’t" she calmed down.

"Things can still be different. Remember what my mother said, ‘you have to fight for true love, no matter the consequences.’" she got out of his hold, stood up and started pacing the floor.

"Oh god what have I done?" she started sobbing again.

"What are you talking about Sheridan?"

"Luis you have to help me?" she walked over to him and sat next to him again.

"Sheridan I will help you get through this"

"No Luis! I…took…sleeping…pill" she fell into his arms. The sleeping pills had taken affect sooner than she had expected.

Luis couldn’t really make out what she was saying. But she was sleeping soundly in his arms. He laid her on the bed and covered her with some blankets. He sat in a chair and watched her sleep. ‘She must be exhausted from all the crying’ he thought. He was going to wait here until she woke up. He didn’t want her to be alone when she woke up. He sat there and just stared at how beautiful she is.

5.

Sheridan had been sleeping for an hour or so and Luis started to grow impatient as he waited for her to wake up. He started looking around the room again.

"Man she really must have had a bad day. I can’t believe I let her leave alone today"

He really felt guilty, so as a peace offering he tried to straighten up her room. She really did a number on it. He picked up all the glass from the mirror and the vases she had thrown against the walls. And tried to straighten up her clothes, but he just laid most of them on a chair. Finally he felt satisfied with his work. She hadn’t woken up once yet, and he was making a lot of noise. He walked over to her and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek.

He was tired and thirsty from his labors, so he went to get a glass of water from the bathroom. He walked in and saw that she hadn’t forgotten to destroy this room either. He gathered all her make up and set it on the counter. Then he went to pick up some white pills off the floor.

"I wonder what these could be?"

He searched the floor for anything else and found a pill bottle behind the toilet. It was the bottle for the sleeping pills Sheridan had been prescribed last week. He figured that was what the white pills were. Then it hit him. He frantically searched the floor for more pills. He only found seven. There should have been a lot more pills in the bottle.

"DAMMIT!" he ran to where Sheridan slept. "Sheridan wake up!" He shook her trying to get her to wake up. He rushed for the phone and dialed 911. He waited impatiently for the paramedics to arrive.

"Sheridan, don’t leave me. You have to be alright. How can I have been so stupid? This is what you meant when you said you needed help now. You didn’t just take one pill you took the bottle"

The paramedics finally arrived and rushed into the room. They push Luis out of the way and told him to try and stay calm. They had her on the gurney in seconds and out the door. He followed right behind them.

"I want to go with her" Luis pleaded.

"I’m sorry sir, there is a lot of work we need to do on her. We don’t room for you at the moment. Please understand, we want to save her" a paramedic tried to explain.

"I understand" he turned to Sheridan right before they put her in the ambulance. "I love you Sheridan. You’ll be okay" he kissed her hand and ran to find his car. He couldn’t remember where he had parked. He stood in the middle of the street turning in circles.

"Where the hell did I park?!?! I have to get a hold of myself, for Sheridan"

Just then a police car headed his way. He started to jump up and down to catch the officers attention. The car pulled over and Luis jumped. He was relieved to see Sam at the wheel.

"Sam, get to the hospital. Sheridan’s in trouble"

"Right away Luis" Sam turned on the sirens and cruised to the hospital. "What happened Luis?"

"She decided to take a whole bottle of sleeping pills"

"It’s a good thing you found her"

"No, if she dies it will be my fault!"

Back in the ambulance the paramedics scrambled to try and save Sheridan.

"Her pulse is dropping!"

"SHIT! She’s flat lined!!!"

Let me be empty and weightless and maybe

I’ll find some peace tonight

In the arms of the angel

Fly away from here

from this dark cold hotel room

And the endlessness that you fear

You are pulled from the reckage

Of your silent reverie.

You’re in the arms of the angel

May you find some comfort here

6.

"Luis, what do you mean it would be your fault? You can’t blame yourself. You didn’t giver those pills"

"No Sam I didn’t but she tried to tell me and I let her sleep with those things in her for over an hour!"

"Luis you couldn’t have known. It’s not your fault" They pulled into the hospital and before Sam could stop the car Luis jumped out. He thanked Sam for the ride as he dashed into the hospital lobby.

The ambulance had arrived with Sheridan minutes earlier. Dr. Russell greeted the paramedics.

"What happened?" She asked as they whisked Sheridan away to the E.R.

"She ingested a high number of sleeping pills. She flat lined once on the way but she is stable for now"

"We need to get her stomach pumped and her system flushed right away" Dr. Russell ordered.

Luis paced the room waiting for news. He just realized he hadn’t called anyone to tell them what had happened. But just as that thought crossed his mind the cavalry arrived. Pilar, Theresa, Miguel, and Sam all walked in and gave him a hug.

"Thanks Sam" Luis said realizing what Sam did for him.

"No problem Luis, how is she?"

"I don’t know they haven’t told me yet" with that sentence barely out of his mouth Eve walked into the room.

"Luis, you can go see Sheridan now"

"Is she all right Eve?" but Eve didn’t say anything and just took Luis by the arm and led him into Sheridan’s room.

"Hi" Sheridan said to him with a huge smile. Luis kept his distance, still feeling guilty about the earlier events. But he was happy she looked okay.

"How do you feel?"

"Well…I had my stomach pumped, have some much water going through me that I have to use the restroom every five minutes, and I am in a hospital" Luis had a faint smile. She was finally coming back to him. Tears came back into his eyes.

"Luis?" he inched his way over to her bed, finally sitting next to her.

"I’m sorry Sheridan"

"For what? You didn’t do anything wrong"

He reached for her hand. "I thought you were just sleeping. I let you lie there dying"

"Luis stop, it’s not your fault. You had no idea that I took those pills" Luis turned his face from hers. "Look at me. I did this to MYSELF. It is in NO way your fault. I should have talked to someone…you…before it got this far"

"I should have seen it coming. I shouldn’t have let you leave this morning"

"Luis, you couldn’t have seen it, I didn’t let you. I hid everything inside"

"Why didn’t you talk to me?"

"I didn’t want to ruin your image of me. I didn’t want you to think I wasn’t prefect"

"Perfect? I already knew you weren’t perfect, that’s what makes you special" They both smiled at each other. "Promise me, you’ll never keep things from me again"

"I promise. I love you Luis"

"I love you too" he kissed her cheek. They sat there, arms intertwined, resting their heads together.

Never seen a sky so blue

I’ve never been happy with anyone

Like I am when I’m with you

Look at the sun shining up in the sky

I fell a little closer to heaven, baby

When I’m looking into your eyes

Last night I lay in the dark

Tryin’ to figure it out

Tryin’ to talk to my heart

But now it’s morning and I still don’t know why

All I know is that you got me feeling so good

All I know is that it feels the way that true love should

Ain’t no one luckier than you and I

THE END