Every Beat of your Heart Makes a Song in Mine (A Victorious Story)

Chapter Eight

As the group walked down the hallways of the hospital, Tori thought back to the two day "vacation" that they had taken to Festus's home country, Yerba, a few years back. It was kind of strange, to say the least. There was a freaking war going on right outside their window and Jade slept like a baby. She didn't even wake up when a dude crashed through the window and landed on their bed. She only woke up on her own terms, when everyone else was in the lobby of the "hotel" getting ready to leave. If that girl could sleep through a war, Tori wouldn't be surprised if she could take her sweet time waking up from a coma.

Both she and Beck used their walkers to get down to Jade's room. Cat started out with her crutches, but she kept trying to use them to stab at imaginary bad guys, causing her to stumble more than once, since she was technically only using one crutch to balance and standing on one leg. Eventually, they just had Beck stand behind Cat with both of them using his walker, with his hands on hers while Ms. West graciously carried Cat's crutches. This did make the process slower since Beck could use both of his legs while Cat could technically just use one, but it was better than Cat accidentally breaking her other ankle from how much she was stumbling every time she stopped to "defeat an enemy".

Beck seemed to be a bit more antsy and anxious the further down the hallway they went. He seemed to want to go faster, but then change his mind and want to go slower. He was looking every which way, as if to try to find something to focus on so that his worry wouldn't be obvious. There was no doubt that he was thinking about Jade.

"Beck?" Cat asked, turning her head to look at him. "Is everything okay? You're going at weird speeds, this isn't red light/green light." She seemed to be thinking to herself. "Unless we're playing a game of red light/green light that I don't know about. Is Tori 'it'?!" She asked excitedly.

"We're not playing red light/green light, Cat." Tori sighed from in front of them. "I think Beck's just nervous. He wants to see Jade, but he still wrongfully blames himself, and he feels guilty about visiting her cause he thinks that it's his fault that she's unconscious."

Cat looked at the floor, obviously thinking. "Jade wouldn't like you blaming yourself, Beck." She pointed out. But then, she decided to totally switch gears from being nice to just saying the hard truth. "Jade would want you to blame Tori."

"Cat!!!" Tori said, turning around and looking at her friend.

"What?" Cat asked innocently. "Am I wrong?"

"The only person that's to blame was the drunk driver, Beck." Ms. West assured Beck before Tori had more time to argue with Cat. "I feel like you know that. So then why are you blaming yourself?"

"I don't know..." Beck admitted, helping Cat regain her balance once again. "I guess I just like thinking that I was in control of my own car. I was the driver, therefore, I was responsible for everyone in the car."

"You've been hanging around Dad too much." Liam said, shaking his head.

Beck laughed, but you could hear the sadness in his voice. "I don't think it's just your dad." He said. "It's been on my mind ever since I got the news that Jade was unconscious."

It was silent for the rest of the way to Jade's room. Tori couldn't help but feel sorry for Beck. He was one to always reassure his friends  if they were worried about something. Only problem was, he had no faith in himself that he had done everything that he could, at least in this moment.

Ms. West and Liam led the three to a room a few doors down from the room that they had been meeting in. You could hear a heart monitor beeping as soon as you walked in. Tori hadn't had hers for a few days, now. It had been almost a week since the crash...and Jade still hadn't woken up.

They saw her shortly after they walked in the door. Ms. West handed Cat her crutches back, and Cat got out from in front of Beck, so that he had his walker to himself again. Cat walked with her crutches over to where Tori was standing, and they all sort of stood in silence and looked at Jade.

Her dark brown curly hair was resting against her head and neck, her dark indigo-purple highlights spread out among the dark curls. Her pale skin looked a bit paler, if that was even possible, without looking white as the sheets on her hospital bed. Rather than an outfit composed of black, teal, and pretty much a darker version of every color known to man, she was wearing a hospital gown, similar to the one that Tori had been wearing when she woke up. She had an IV in each wrist, and a nasal cannula to help her breathe. Her eyes and mouth were closed, and her right arm was completely wrapped in bandages, although you could clearly see a burn mark on her shoulder that led from the bandages. She had a scar just above her piercing on her left eyebrow, and surprisingly, both her nose ring and eyebrow piercing were still there. You could see that she was breathing, but you could also tell that she wasn't waking up anytime soon.

Beck slowly made his way around to the other side of Jade's bed, and Tori placed her hand on Cat's shoulder. "Let's give them some time." She whispered to her friend, and Cat nodded. As Beck sat down in a chair beside Jade's bed, Tori and Cat stepped back, turning around to leave the room and wait by the door for Beck to have some time with Jade. But as Tori was looking back at Beck before leaving, her heart broke.

Beck was holding Jade's hand, even though he knew that she couldn't respond, or hold his back. And four words escaped his mouth that made Tori want to cry for him. They were said in a raspy whisper voice, so Tori was guessing that Beck thought that no one could hear him. But Tori did.

"What have I done?"