Chapter 16
Justin stared inside the window with a blank expression on his face. He didnt even notice that Alyssa had opened the door and go inside the room until he saw her run over and hug the 'unknown' guy.
"Travis! You made it!"
"I got here as soon as I could Lyss..I was out of town on buisness and I just got home a couple days ago."
"Travis?..Who's Travis??" Justin thought to himself as he slowly made himself in the room.
"Justin, Have you met Travis before?"
"Umm..No I havent."
"You mean Dani never told you about me?" Travis said while walking over to shake Justin's hand. Justin quickly shook his hand and then crossed his arms while staring at the guy standing in front of him.
"No. She hasnt..Is there a reason why she should have?"
Travis laughed to himself at the jealously written all over Justin's face. "Because Im her Brother."
"Oh...youre her..brother..Ok." Justin choked out as he secretly wished that the floor would open up and swallow him right then and there.
"Its ok." Travis said, laughing again while patting Justin's shoulder. "She told me about your jealous streak."
Justin just smiled and nodded his head in silence as he thought back to the petty argument he and Chris had gotten into over her. It now seemed like ages since that had happened.
"So...sis never mentioned me?"
"Umm..no, she never talked about her family. I always wondered why but I didnt wanna ask, you know? I figured there was a reason why."
Travis and Alyssa gave each other concerned looks and then looked back at Justin who was standing beside Dani's bed, holding her hand and staring down at her.
"She never told you about our parents."
"Nope. I dont think so."
"You didnt tell him Lyss?"
"Travis..I couldnt...I've been trying not to think about it myself."
Justin then looked up when he heard Alyssa's voice begin to crack as she started to cry while she was talking.
"Did I miss something?"
"Yeah.." Travis said while taking a deep breath and getting up from the chair he was sitting in. "Justin maybe we should go talk somewhere."
"Okay..." Justin said slowly. "Lets go outside on the balcony."
"Allright. We'll be back Lyss." Travis said as he started to follow Justin outside.
"Good luck....You're gonna need it." she whispered as the guys left the room.
Justin and Travis went outside to the balcony to talk, Justin noticed that Travis was acting very nervous, as if he had something bad to tell him. His mind began racing as he wondered what was going on.
"I really don't know where to begin with this..So I guess I'll start with our parents. She never told you anything about them?" Travis asked again.
"Nope. Never mentioned them."
"I guess it was just too hard for her. Well, about two years ago..before Dani moved to Orlando to go to school, Our parents had went out to dinner, as they were driving home..it began raining pretty bad..."
"Oh man..." Justin said to himself..he already knew what Travis was going to say. "The same thing happened..didnt it?"
Travis nodded his head and stared at the ground..he tried to talk but he couldnt do anything for crying.
"Yeah." He finally continued. "But the accident was more crucial. Dad lost control of the car, it flipped twice before it finally stopped. They were rushed to the hospital and..they were.." He stopped and wiped his eyes dry. "They were in the same condition that Dani is in right now, depending on a machine to live."
Justin stood there in shock. He could'nt imagine losing his parents the way that Dani and Travis had. No wonder she never mentioned them...It probably hurt her too much to even think of them. How much he wished he knew her then...how he wished he could've been there for her. Everything seemed to make sense to him now. Why she never mentioned her family to him or the others..why she hated driving in the rain...Why she left the guys in Vegas. It was so clear now, she was afraid of falling in love with him because she had already lost the two people she loved the most.
"Travis..Man Im so sorry.."
"Don't apologize yet Justin...Thats not what I need to talk to you about."
"Mom and Dad had signed in their living wills that if they were ever put on life support, then they wanted to stay on it as long as they could. Well they were on it for a two months before they had to be taken off, Mom passed away first..Dad did a few days later. Dani and I were at the hospital every single day for those two months, Mom and Dad couldnt talk, they never opened thier eyes..it was like they werent even there, Yet they were still suffering..they were still in pain the whole time.
After they passed away, Dani and I made a promise to each other...we promised that if anything like that happened to one of us, we wouldnt let the other lay there for months like a vegtable and suffer for that long. We made each other promise we wouldnt let each other depend on machines like Mom and Dad did. So I told the doctor..and they're going to take her off of it tomorrow."
"WHAT?!?" Justin shouted. "Are you crazy? You can't!"
"Look, She's my sister..Do you seriously think I WANT to do this? Justin I dont have a choice!"
"Yes you do! Travis..she is depending on that machine to breathe...You're going to just cut off her oxygen supply?"
"Don't tell me about that machine..I already know all about it..Now I made a promise to her. One that she expects me to keep! You don't understand what we went through those two months, You never had to go through something like that. So don't try to tell me what to do." Travis walked back inside the hospital while slamming the door behind him. Justin, once again in shock, couldnt believe what he had just heard! How dare this guy come in and try to take over everything! Who cares if he's her brother? He has no right to do something like that!
Justin angrily wiped the tears from his eyes as he stormed back inside the hospital. He didnt go back to Dani's room, instead he went up to the guest room, got his keys, and left without telling anyone.
He drove to Johnny's mansion where the other guys where at. They had been going over some material for the new album while they were on vacation. Of course the others werent doing anything without Justin, They postponed all the recording that they had left to do until later. Right now they were just going through some demos and lyrics that they had gotten.
Justin pulled his Benz into the huge parking garage and walked into the downstairs den where Lance, JC, Joey and Chris were sitting around, going through the new mateirial. He barged in the room and everyone looked up and began to get worried, especially when they noticed that he had been crying.
"J?" JC said while getting up and walking over to him. "Justin, what is it? what's wrong?"
"Everything!!" Justin yelled. "Did you all know Dani has a brother??"
The others silently shook thier heads 'no'.
"Yeah..well she does! I don't know what kinda brother he thinks he is..Sounds like Cain and Abel to me."
"Cain and Abel?" Chris said as he walked over to Justin and JC. He placed his hand on Justin's shoulder and it felt like his whole body was shaking.
"Whoa..Justin calm down..come over here and sit down a second..."
"I dont wanna sit down Chris!"
"Well Good Lord man..at least calm down! Breathe! Do something..youre scaring me."
"Allright." he said, taking a deep breath.
"Now, what is going on?"
"Dani's brother came to the hospital today...He told the doctor to take her off the life support."
"What??" the others said in unusion.
"Yeah..My thoughts exactly."
"He can't do that."
"Yes Chris..he can. He's her only living relative." Justin sighed and sank down in one of the recliners.
"He is?"
"Yeah..thier parents, they were in a car accident a few years ago, pretty similar to Dani's. Anyway they were on life support for a couple months and Dani made Travis, her brother, promise her that he would never let her stay on it because they had to watch thier parents suffer on it for months.
"Well Justin..If that's what she wants.."
"No JC! No!! It can't happen! I can't loose her like this!"
"But Justin, just because she's being took off of life support..doesnt mean...somethings gonna happen to her." Lance said.
"But she's totally dependant on that right now..As soon as they unplug that machine then what? She's not gonna instantly start breathing on her own!"
"Justin."
"What?"
"Remember the first night at the hospital when we went to the cafeteria...Remember how you were confused...you were wanting to find the answer."
"Yeah."
"Do you remember the advice I gave you?"
Justin looked over at Lance and faintly smiled. "To pray about it."
"Ok then." Lance smiled back at him.
"You got me that time Lansten." Justin said as he stared down at the table in front of him, covered with stacks and stacks of lyrics to various songs. He glanced over some of the words that were on the paper lying in front of him. The more he read of it, the more his heart began to ache.
Chapter 17
