A Fire That Burns (13 page)

“She’s coming to,” Tom spoke up as the EMTs worked on stabilizing her
enough to move her. He hadn’t moved far, he had wanted to stay close and use
his medical knowledge to his best advantage right at that moment. “Aussie,
we’re here. We’re all here for you,” he spoke to her, hoping she could hear him
so that she would have faith. “You’re going to okay. You just have to fight.”

Opening her eyes, Austin found
herself
staring
up at the starry sky, flashing lights to one side of her peripheral, a
flickering orange to her other. She realized that she had made it but, she was unable
to keep a hold of this gifted reality. Between the lights and disorientation,
nothing else mattered. It was still impossibly hard to breathe and she heard
commotion all around her. All the voices were muffled and muddled, all speaking
in slow motion as they moved in equal speed. Her agitation only escalated
between all of the engulfing stimuli and as she finally heard her name, heard
Tom talking to her, she found herself admitting defeat. She gave in and closed
her eyes again. Letting all of the
colors
disappear
completely.

“That’s a good sign right?” Tyler asked as he never tore his eyes off of
Austin. He hated that she hadn’t responded to anyone calling her name but, he
had to believe that her even coming too was a piece of hope.

Tom nodded as he found himself pushed aside as the EMTs readied Austin
to be moved and he drug Tyler back with him. If he couldn’t be close then no
one else could. They looked like one of the crowd now, looking in on the
gruesome end of this horror scene.

As they started to move, Tom went with them. He had been the one that
had stuck by Austin’s side through everything since she was back. His brothers
and sister might be there for her now, but he was the one that had helped bring
her back and he was going to be the one that kept by her side.

“Someone needs to stay here and find out what the cause is,” Tom said as
he stopped following the EMTs for a moment. He felt out of sorts, like he
wasn’t a part of this reality completely. “I’ll keep you all up to date.”

“Tom, we’ll be there as soon as we can,” Dean called out, “One of us
will wait on the report and then will be with you. I don’t know about the
others but I can’t stay away. I need to be there for her.”

Sienna went towards Tom, “Keep us updated,
Bro
until we get there.” She called out as Tom nodded an affirmative and jumped
into the ambulance and disappeared as the doors were closed.

They all watched the ambulance’s lights glare on and the siren come to
life as it left in haste. Everyone was just left to look around and watch as
the burning building turned into a
smoldering
one.

No one spoke, no one moved.

Point Arena had become truly silent for once. There
was no arguing; no whispers and the gossiping stopped for the first time in
years.

Chapter Twenty-Three

NATASHA
stood shaking as she
watched the chaos that was breaking out. She had watched how her fiancé had ran
into a burning building for a woman she had tried to make him hate and she
realized that whatever she did it wasn’t going to work.

Tyler would always
bound
to Austin in some way
regardless of external factors. There would be a part of them that would
forever be bound and even she couldn’t stop that. Nothing broke their love. Not
even a six year separation or trying to frame Austin as a murderer. Whatever happened,
Tyler would always put Austin first and that was final.

Slowly she began to back away,
maneuvering
through the crowds, making the burning shell of the house become more and more
distant. Then, when the crowd was in front of her she turned and began to run,
fleeing the scene. She ran away from the heat, from the noise, from the fears
and she ran because she knew she had caused everything that most of the town
had come to a standstill to watch.

It was all her fault. She was the resident monster, not Austin.

Without knocking, she ran into the house she had grown up in and ran to
find her mother. Finding her in the kitchen she spoke without thought, she
didn’t hesitate because she just needed to unburden her insanity and wrong
doing onto someone. “I did it,” Natasha sobbed to her mother, her head falling
in shame.

Diane stopped cooking and turned to face her daughter, worried for what
was going on. “Did what, Darling?” Diane asked as she watched her daughter grab
a hold of the kitchen counter to steady
herself
completely. “Natasha, what is it?”

Natasha looked at her mother and gulped. She could still see Austin’s
lifeless form, Tyler’s devastated expression, and everyone looking on scared at
the predicament Austin was now in. “I turned a heater up this morning before
Tyler and Austin got there and I put a cloth over it. I knew they were done
with that room, Tyler said so himself an-and, oh
God
,” Natasha sobbed as
she realized the extent of her actions and her rambling became a constant lull
of sobs and guilt riddled cries.

Feeling lost, all of Natasha’s faults came at her with high velocity and
she felt grief stricken that her high school jealousy had led her to this. That
she had allowed jealousy to transcend into insanity. She had made everyone
believe that Austin was the murderer in town when in actual fact she was. She
was the monster for blaming Austin for things that had happened, for taking
away Austin’s chance at happiness years before and now she was the monster that
sabotaged the house enough for it to catch on fire, trapping Austin within in
the process.

“I wasn’t even pregnant!” Natasha sobbed loudly and looked at her
mother. “I was jealous of Austin and it just happened and now look what I’ve
done mom. I’m going to go to jail for this and I-I ca-can’t! I burnt the house
down with Austin in it, Mom, but I can’t go to jail for it!”

“Natasha, you listen to me right at this moment,” Diane said as she
thought fast. She wasn’t letting her daughter go down when she obviously hadn’t
told anyone else just yet. She was going to nip this in the bud before she got
a chance to let it get out of hand. Her job in life was to protect her daughter
and now was the time to do so properly.

Mother’s prerogative clouded her sane judgment.

“Mom,” Natasha sniffed knowing she had to tell the truth. Only the
guilty run, right?

“You tell no one of this. Not Tyler, not your father, no one,” Diane
said as shook her daughter a little. She watched as Natasha began to break down
again and she shook her again. “Repeat it, Tasha” Her mother said as her hands
gripped her arms tighter to make her daughter comprehend that her actions had
much larger repercussions than she had calculated.

“I tell no one,” Natasha mumbled her words as the tears fell fresh
again.

Natasha now knew she had two secrets to take to the grave with her.

And if Austin didn’t make it, then some would go to the grave sooner
than she thought possible.
 

Chapter Twenty-Four

THE
Pearson siblings
didn’t stop for no one once their feet touched base with the hospital. They ran
towards where their brother had said he was, all with bated breath. They were
fuelled by their sister’s current state of health and by the cause of the house
fire. All of them knew this was dire and the cause of the house fire could
still take her life from them all.

“There he is,” Sienna almost shouted as she saw her brother sitting with
his head in his hands.

Rushing to their brother, he obviously felt their presence as he looked
up, tired and conflicted with thoughts of what his sister was going through. He
was quick to jump to his feet before them, “I don’t know anything.”

“Nothing?”
Sienna questioned, making a quick glance around to see if she could
guess where Austin was in this maze of a hospital.

He shook his head, “She was unstable and they wouldn’t let me help once
I got to the hospital. I know nothing.” He put his hands onto his head, opening
his chest cavity to let out the frustrated breath into the air around him. His
chest was still uncomfortable from the smoke inhalation, but with Austin’s life
hanging on such a fine line, he couldn’t care less.

“You got burnt?” Daniel asked as he saw the white bandage on his
brother’s arm.

“It’s nothing,” he said, deflecting their concern from him immediately.
“One of the nurses I knew cleaned it and dressed it.” He let his arms drop,
“Any news on the fire?”

That one question seemed to suck even more air out of the room.

“They found the cause,” Dean spoke taking it upon himself to be the big brother
for them all, to be the strong leader. “Someone covered one of the heaters that
was
drying the wallpaper in the main bedroom. It
caught fire and spread from there.”

Tom, with a furrowed brow and look of confusion, “Someone covered one of
the heaters?” he saw them nod, “What the fuck?”

“More like who the fuck?”
Daniel muttered with a tone of fury.

“I have an idea already,” Tom bit into the mental image of his culprit
and she was the wicked bitch of Point Arena. If he was right and Natasha had
even an inkling of thought to do this, he would personally kill her.

“We can’t get angry now. Austin needs us to keep a level head and not
get distracted,” Dean calmed the situation instantly, not ready to let them get
into a heated argument in the middle of a hospital. “There is still an ongoing
investigation and as soon as the fire chief knows more, I will know, we all
will.”

“Fine,” Tom attempted to defuse his mood. “What do we do about mom now?”

 
Sienna, near tears, looked to
Tom, “Mom won’t listen and she just locked herself in the house. She won’t
listen to any one of us, Tom.”

He let out another breath of pent up frustration. “We need to call dad
to come back then,” Tom put his head in his hands. “He needs to be back for
this now. Austin will need a parent more than ever and I don’t know how mom
will react and I won’t risk Austin being exposed to mom’s
behavior
if she still doesn’t forgive her.”

“We’ve tried already,” Dean commented, “We called dad. We need him to
keep us grounded too. Regardless of how old we are, we need mom and dad on our
side for this. Austin needs them on her side for once and not arguing about
her.” They knew it was the plain and simple truth and they knew they needed a
plan of action from here on out. “Whatever
happens.
I
want Austin to always have us four,” Dean took it upon
himself
to lead his younger siblings to the right path in this situation. “If Austin is
anything like she used to be, she will push us away and withdraw, but we need
to stick by her.”

“I can do that,” Daniel countered and quickly heard his sister and other
brothers agreed with him. He knew that between the four of them, they could
really stick by Austin and stop her from sinking to rock bottom.

“Even if she really fights us?”
Dean asked them. He knew what Austin’s fiery nature
could do to her and he knew that if she wanted to she would close off and make
them despise her. He needed to know they would dig their heels in and stay
rooted.

“We’re all made from Pearson genes, she’ll forget that,” Sienna teased
lightly, remembering her sister’s plight to never let life stop for anyone even
if hers had. Her smile fell as reality sunk back in again and one problematic
area hit her hard. “We have another issue to go on top of this.”

Tom nodded, “What about Tyler?” Tom asked sitting up and looked almost
grief stricken. “He seriously can’t go ahead with the wedding can
he
?”

“We have no idea about him, Tom. He was around, but he disappeared after
he was cleared by the EMTs and Natasha, well she vanished,” Dean spoke with
concern, remembering how he searched every face in the crowd for Tyler, but
failed to spot him. “If tonight knocked any sense into him then he will realise
his priorities.”

“And if he doesn’t, I will be helping him,” Tom almost ground out and
knew that after he received an update on Austin’s condition Austin, he was
going to speak to his mother and then attack Tyler. His darkening thoughts
dispersed as the doctor that had pushed him from the room earlier appeared and
he felt grief stricken. “The docs coming,” he pushed through his siblings and
towards the doctor. It worried him how suddenly the man had gone from looking
fresh on the job to haggard and exhausted. The man that came out looked weary
of the news he was about to deliver and that didn’t sit right with Tom.

“Austin Pearson?” he asked looking to the entire group rather than just
Tom.

“Can I see Austin now?” Tom asked
,
it wasn’t a
new question. He had been begging to be with her, even attempted to use his
status as a doctor in the hospital as a gateway to getting into the room Austin
had been rushed into in the emergency department. Every single attempt had
failed.

He shook his head, “I’m afraid not quite yet.”

“Well is she okay?” Dean questioned, his tone biting free a bit too
fiercely. “At least tell us that.”

The doctor took in a deep breath, “We stabilized her and at the moment
she is on her way up to the burn unit.” He saw each of the four faces before
him become drawn and distraught and he knew that these predicaments were never
good. “We treated her immediately for shock and we started checks to see how
much fluid resuscitation she would need. Alongside this, we treated her for
smoke inhalation and I’m afraid when she first arrived her airways were closing
up and we had to put her on a ventilator immediately.”

“Oh God,” Sienna murmured and she was grateful for Daniel as he kept her
standing beside him and not weakening enough to fall to the floor. She was the
feistiest of the Pearson family, full of tenacity and fight, but right now she
had lost all of that.

The doctor didn’t withhold anything as he continued, “Fortunately, she
is fighting against the vent and I do believe that when the effects of the
smoke inhalation subside a little she will be off the ventilator and breathing
on her own. Her even showing these signs is more than promising at this stage.”

The four of them didn’t quite know what to say. Even Tom, the one that
worked in this hospital had no
clue
what to say now
that he was on the other side of the deliverance of grim news.

The doctor could see how difficult this was for the family having all of
this information thrown at them and not given enough time to absorb it all,
however, he had to continue and get back to work. It was one of the black areas
of his jobs – the feeling of not giving enough passion.

“The reason we worked for so long on her before getting her up to the
burn unit is because with all burn victims we have to watch out for secondary
injuries. With any burns we need to take into account the destruction of red
blood cells. Austin’s left arm and side were the most badly damaged and I’m
afraid she has third degree burns to the affected areas along with second
degree burns.” The news just got grimmer for this family. “I know this is a lot
to take in, but you need to be aware of everything your sister has been
through.”

 
“We need to get up there,” Tom
suddenly sparked to life, ready to get up and get on board with his sister’s
treatment and consequential recovery.

“They’re strict up there,” The doctor warned, stopping their stride.
“The chances are the surgeons upstairs will red line here to the OR to help
make Austin’s wounds as pliable for grafting as possible. She needs to be
watched for infection and any other complications that can arise with burns to
this degree.”

Giving quick instructions, the doctor parted from the small clan and
allowed them to rush up to be by their sister’s side. He hated this part of his
job because he knew what type of fate awaited them and he knew that the next
few months of life would be like none other. The next few months would be tough
and really test them as a family.