Fallen Down Under (Down Under #2) (17 page)

MAX

Luke turns up with his van right on time. I started to think that maybe he’d got lost or disappeared back to Jens without me. I run down the stairs to let him in, mainly to prevent the mass interrogation that he’ll face from Jess’ mum. Fortunately it seems that she’s took herself out for a while. Good fucking riddance I say, all I’ve heard from her today is
“Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that?”
It’s fucking draining as hell.

“What’s taken you so long?” I ask as he rushes through the door to get out of the down pour outside.

“There’s been some kind of accident I think. All the roads are backed up. I was at a standstill for an hour at one point mate.”

“Well you’re here now. Did you get everything that I needed?” He nods at me and points to the van. “Fucking perfect. How about we get started then, hey?”

Suddenly realising the time, I quickly dig out my phone and give Jess a call to make sure she’s okay. I’ve not heard from her all day. As usual it takes her a while to answer. How far away from the phone does she need to be?

“Hi.” She smiles down the line.

“Hey angel. Listen I’m sorry that I’ve ditched you all day, I’ve just had some stuff that needed sorting. I shouldn’t be too long now though.”

“Cool. I did wonder what had happened to you.”  As she talks, I slowly look around me and hope that I haven’t done the wrong thing.

“I bet you’ve been having fun though?”

“Yep. I’m all caught up on my home and away now, Jen’s just fed and watered me and you can’t go wrong with a bit of gossip thrown in.” She sounds so happy to be back with her friends. The look on her face when she is with them is priceless and I can see why she would never want to leave them.  This six monthly plan of Mal’s is looking more promising, now more than ever.

“Well I’m just finishing up here and then I’ll be coming to get you.”

“I can’t wait. See you soon.”

“What the fucks happened to you man?” Luke walks into the room as I finish my call. “I never thought I would see the day when you’d be getting all soft over a woman. I need to record this shit so I can make sure it’s real.”

“Piss off.” I spit back at him and throw the rag his way. “What’s going down with you and Jen? You’re normally onto your next victim by now.”

“Ah mate I wish I could tell you, really I do but I don’t know myself. What I do know is that she’s smoking hot and she’s fun to be around. There’s never a dull moment between us.

“Just make sure you don’t fuck her over Luke. If you’re only being casual, make sure as hell that she’s fully aware of it before she becomes attached to you. You know me mate. Normally I wouldn’t get involved but it’s Jess’ best mate and if Jen gets hurt then Jess gets hurt and I won’t be able to sit back and watch that shit. She means too much to me. “

“Chill out man. There’s no need to get deep on me, we’re
both
juts having some fun and enjoying each other’s company. Why throw in some added pressure when you don’t need to? Plus, you know I’m not the type of guy to fuck her over. One thing about me is that I’m always upfront. You of all people should know that.”

Jess

One bottle has turned into three by the time Max and Luke have finally arrived back to Jen’s. We’re currently in the middle of a game of monopoly and shit is getting pretty heated between me and Jen because I am winning her hands down and she doesn’t like it one little bit.

“So this is what girls really get up to when they’re left alone.” Max says as he crouches down beside me.

“You’ve not seen anything until you’ve witness one of us officially lose. It’s not a pretty sight.”

“It’s true. I’m nothing but a sore loser.” I giggle while looking at Max sat beside me. “I kind of missed you while you were gone.” I whisper to him.

“I missed you too angel. Any time away from you is too long, but I’m here now. I’ll always be here, no matter what.” He leans in and kisses the top of my head and I let out a sigh of contentment. “Just let me know when you want to go home angel.”

All the lights are off when we pull up outside my house. “Guess my mum must have gone to bed early again.”

“I meant to say, I called before and she wasn’t here.”

“Shit. I told her to stay here so I could keep an eye on her.  I knew she’d bloody do this eventually.” She couldn’t even last a couple of days could she?

“Maybe she’s popped in to see one of her friends or something. I’m sure she’s old enough to look after herself Jess.”

To someone who doesn’t know my mum or her history, I can see why they would think I am overreacting but I know her and I know this is the start of another spiral. “She hasn’t got any friends Max, at least not if you don’t count the bottle. She’s not here by choice, she’s here because she had nowhere else to go. Looks like she’s just blown that final chance with me anyway.”  I pull my keys out of my bag unsure of what I am supposed to do now.

“I’ll have a drive around and see if I can see her about. “

“Thank you Max. Are you sure you don’t mind?” He shakes his head at me and I lean over to thank him with a kiss. “I don’t know what I have done to deserve you, but whatever it is I’m grateful.” I’m pulled in tighter into his embrace and the feel of his warm hard body sends tingles of pleasure to course through my body.

“It’s me that doesn’t deserve you angel. Always remember that.”

I reluctantly pull myself away from him and unfasten my seatbelt. “You might be out there looking for her for some time. I don’t even know if she’s familiar with the places around here to be honest and she doesn’t even have a phone.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll try and find her. You head inside and get warm, if she turns up while I’m out just call me okay?”

I wait until Max drives off before opening my door. I’m going to fucking strangle that so called mother of mine. I told her I wasn’t going to put up with any of this funny business and what does she do? She drives me fucking crazy.

As I make my way through the house I think how dramatically my life has changed for the better since I caught Josh doing the dirty on me. It’s crazy how much my life has taken a huge turn for the better and every now and then it completely blows me away. I’ve seen so many beautiful places in a few short weeks that only people get to dream of.

I wander into the kitchen and stop dead as I see my mum slumped over the side of the sofa out of the corner of my eye. I look next to her and see an empty bottle of vodka with a few pills lying on the table.

“Oh fuck.” I scream. “Mum, mum can you hear me?” Oh shit, no. What has she done? I try to shake her gently but I get no response from her. “Mum, fucking answer me.” Finally my brain registers that I need to get help. Grabbing the phone from the side I try to call emergency services, but as my hands are too clammy, the phone falls to the phone. When I eventually get a grip on the goddamn thing I wait for someone to help me.

“I need an ambulance now. It’s my mum, she’s took an overdose.” The words barely get passed the lump that has formed in my throat. I do my best to answer the questions that the operator asks me, but I struggle to concentrate as I see my mum lying before me all limp and lifeless.  “Yes, she’s breathing but barely. No, she’s not responding to me at all. I need someone to get here as soon as they can before it’s too late.”

The ambulance turns up within five minutes of me ending the call and my mum is still unconscious. She seemed perfectly fine when I left her this morning. We even managed to have a proper conversation, something that we haven’t done in a long time. Why would she do something like this? I’ll always be the first to admit that we rarely see eye to eye but surely she could have tried to talk to me before doing something so bloody stupid?

“Miss Townsend we need to get your mother to hospital.”

“I’m coming with you.” There is no way that I am leaving her side until I know that she is going to be alright.

On the way up to the hospital it suddenly dawns on me that Max is still out there somewhere looking for her.

“Max it’s me. “ I stutter through my tears. No matter what I do or how hard I try to stop them, they continue to fall.

“What’s happened?” he asks, his voice urgent down the line.

“It’s… it’s my mum. She was in the house when I got in.”

“Where are you? I can hear sirens.”

“We’re in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Max I’m scared.” I whimper. I can’t lose her.

“Which one? I’m coming to you.”

I have to think for a moment unsure of which one is closest. “The University college hospital.” I reply and all of a sudden the line goes flat.

No sooner have we pulled up outside the hospital and the back doors swing open. It all feels like everything is happening in slow motion as my mum is wheeled away from the ambulance and rushed through the doors to the hospital. I’m told to wait in the waiting room and I have no idea where they are taking her or how long they will be. All I can do is wait.

“Please be okay, please be okay.”
is all that runs through my head and I pray that the more I say it, then the more likely someone will hear it and answer me.

I don’t even know how long she was lay there for. I dread to think how much worse it could have been if I had have stayed at Jens much longer. What if I went with Max to look for her? We could have been gone for hours trying to track her down. Just when everything in my life was righting itself again in the blink of an eye something happens to make it all come crashing down again.

“Jess.” I hear my name being called out in the distance and I slowly lift my head up and turn in that direction. Max comes rushing to my side and takes my tear stained face into his hands. “Hey, shhh. Please don’t cry angel.”

“What am I going to do? I could have stopped this from happening.” I whimper into his chest as he holds me close. “This is all my fault. She tried to take her own life for fucks sake. How did I not see this coming?”

MAX

“Has anyone been to tell you what’s happening? You’ve been sat here for ages.” She shakes her head against my chest unable to form words through her pain. I feel her shudder beneath me and there’s not a fucking thing I can do about it apart from hold her for as long as she will allow me to do so.

This is absolute bollocks. Why has she been sat out here on her own with no one telling her what’s happening? “I’m going to see what I can find out. Will you be okay here for a moment? I stand and lean down to place a kiss on her head before I set off to reception.

“Excuse me. Could you please tell me if there has been an update on Diana Townsend yet?”

“And you are?” The snotty brunette before me asks, while looking down her nose at me. Seriously in a place like this, is it that fucking hard to use some manners?

“I’m her son-in-law and I’d like an update.” I snap but to be honest, I’m beyond pissed off right now.

“The doctors are with her at the moment. As soon as they have an update, they will be out to let you know. “

“Thank you.” I say through gritted teeth.  I fucking hate not being able to do anything. Jess is sat here absolutely heartbroken and there’s nothing that I can do to erase that pain for her, and to make it worse I fucking hate sitting around in hopsitals, fear gripping you every time a door swings open knowing that it could be bad news that waits for you.

“Here you go.” I say to Jess as I pass her a plastic cup filled with cheap and bitter coffee and I get the tiniest smile from her.

“Thank you.” She sips at silently for a while and then says, “I should have put my foot down more with her. Maybe I should have demanded that she needed to see someone the other day when I realised that her drinking was getting out of control.”

“Jess, baby. There is no way you could have predicted that this was going to happen.  Don’t you dare start blaming yourself because that will just make me angry. She’ll be fine, just you wait and see.” I hate myself instantly as soon as those words leave my lips. I have no right promising her something that I have absolutely no control over. I’ll do anything I can to remove that heartbroken look from her face and to ease her pain away.

“Ms Townsend.” A tall doctor approaches us and I’d say he was mid-forties at the most. As he stands before us he removes his glasses and looks at her with a stern expression. Oh shit, this doesn’t look good at all.

“Your mother is very lucky to be alive. I’d say had you found her no more than thirty to forty five minutes later; there is an excessively high chance that things could have taken a severe turn for the worst.”

“Oh my god. Is she going to be okay?”

“We’ve managed to wake her, but she isn’t really in a position to talk at the moment. She’s stable at the moment but we should know more tomorrow once we have run some extra tests to see what kind of damage has been done, but at this moment in time everything looks how we want it to. If you and you’re husband would like to come back in the morning? I think your mother will be more responsive once her body has gotten over the shock.”

“Yes. Of course, thank you.”

“Thank you.” I say to the doctor. I know Jess isn’t going to be happy about leaving her but she needs some rest too.

Jess remains quite on the drive home and I don’t press her. She’ll talk to me when she wants to. I’d be a fucking hypocrite if I started demanding answers from her after I pushed her away with Mal. I’ll show her that I can be here for her no matter what she needs.

As soon as we enter the house, Jess makes her way straight upstairs while I tidy up the mess that her mother left lying round. First of all I clear up the pills that are lying around and discard of the empty vodka bottle. Her mum must be in a really bad place for her to even think of doing such a thing. I just hope that Jess doesn’t close herself off because of this. She blames herself and I don’t understand why. Maybe she’ll open up to me when she’s ready.

“Did you do this?” She asks as I enter the bedroom. She stands in front of me and then spins around in the room. After the events of tonight, I’d completely forgotten about my surprise for her.

“Yes.” I say as I walk over to her. “I hope you don’t mind?”

“Do I hell. I bloody love it.”

“I thought if you were making a fresh start then you’d prefer to be out with the old and in with the new.” Reaching out, I place my hands around her and pull her into me. “Whatever you need, whatever you want I will always make sure you get it.”

“Well what I want right now is curl up with you in my nice new bed.” She smiles at me and it’s bloody hard to resist her. She’s everything and more that I never knew I needed until she came crashing into my life and I’m so glad she did.

“Thank you, for everything.” She whispers as I feel her curl up against me, her soft silky skin pressing against me, completing me and chipping more ice away from my damaged heart.

“I hate you’ve had to suffer so much angel in such a short time, but the more that I think about it, the more I’m thankful that you did. If it hadn’t have been for you finding out about that cheating son of a bitch I don’t think we’d be where we are now. But let me tell you this, I will make sure that I treasure you right up to my dying breath and I will never, ever allow anyone to hurt you or treat you that way again.” As I say it, I have never been so sure of anything in my life. This little angel of mine will never want for anything as long as I am around.