Heartbeat

[Lilone]

Shan!!! Why the Hell do I keep getting this feeling that your going to keep dragging Petes condition out for another 5 chapters lol

Update soon

[Traceve]

Haha Lil, I won't do that, I promise

Thanks Lil, Reo, and Heidikri

[swfc]

Lol, I forgot all about Kit. Poor Maddie... Amanda now has heaps of reasons to hate her...

I hope Pete survives and Shannon, don't leave it too long coz the suspense is really getting to me.

The reporter has no feeling whatsoever.

Anyway, update soon. It was a really excellent chapter. I'm loving the whole Maddie/Mandy thing.

[Stevie]

This is great Only just started reading this, but once I started I couldn't stop

Aww I hope Pete will be ok

The growing friendship between Amanda and Matilda is an interesting one.

Can't wait for more

Update soon

[Lilone]

*cough* no update yet *cough*

[allibaz91]

How much have I missed???

Shan, you might have warned me

Anyway, great 2 chapters - Amanda and Mattie, it so creeps me out

Azza is catching up

Se his reviews will be posted by me cause he's afraid of spoilers:

Chapter 1

Great start. I thought the first chapter was very well written and it really captured the love Amanda has for Ryan. Lol at Belle liking the gameshows, I can’t believe Drew was kissing Matilda

[Traceve]

Amanda and Mattie, it so creeps me out

:)

Thanks Chrissie, Stevie, Lil, Ali and Azza!

[Traceve]

Part Seven

Belle woke up just past 7am. She threw on her night gown and bounced down the stairs for breakfast. She walked into the kitchen, expecting her mother to have cooked breakfast by now. Bt Amanda wasn’t there.

“I wonder where mum is,” Belle said slowly as she walked into the lounge room and checked the phone, there was a message from her. Belle pressed play on the machine and listened.

“Hun, I’m at the hospital, Peter has been in an accident, Dan will be over in the morning to take you to school, and I love you.” Belle sighed and went back upstairs to get ready for school.

Amanda and Matilda walked down the hall following the nurse to see Peter. The door to the conference room was ajar, as they pushed their way through. There were 3 men in surgical gowns and caps waiting around an oval table. Their masks were down around their necks, and Amanda noticed with a shudder, that one of them still had blood on his gown. She prayed that it wasn’t her husbands.

“How is he?” she couldn’t restrain the words, it was all she wanted to know. But the answer was not as simple as the question.

“He’s alive, Mrs Baker. He is a strong man. He sustained a large blow to the head and an ugly injury. Most people wouldn’t have even made it this far. But, he has, and that’s a good sign. There is still a long way to go though. He has two kinds of injuries, both with their own complications.” The surgeon paused,” would you like me to explain about his injuries?” Amanda nodded.

“His first injury occurred the moment of impact, to put it simply his brain was badly shaken around. It may have even been rotated and in the process, nerves may have been stretched. This can cause a large amount of damage.” He paused and took a deep breath.

“His second injury may appear more frightening then the first, but may not be. He has open wound where the skull was cut though, and the bone of the skull had been broken. His brain is actually exposed right now, in that area where he was probably struck by some sharp piece of steel, in the car just after impact.” Amanda made a horrifying little sound as she listened. Without thinking she clutched into Matildas hand. She felt ill listening to what they were saying. She was praying to herself not the throw up or faint. She knew she had to absorb what they were saying.

“He sustained a large blow with could ultimately blind him. We have already done a CT Scan on him, which gave us some valuable information,” the chief surgeon told them. He looked at Amanda; she was staring at him and looked totally dazed.

“Mrs Baker do you understand what I am telling you?”

“I’m not sure, your telling me he has two major injures, and basically a shaking of the brain and open wound which results in a fracture of his skull. And in a result of the damage, he may die, or have permeant brain damage... and he may be blind… is that about it?” she asked him with tears welling up in her eyes, “is that about it?”

“More or less, our next concern is what we call a ‘third’ injury, which is where we look for swelling of the brain, blood clots, that kind of thing. But it could be a serious problem.”

Amanda asked the one thing she wanted to know more then anything, “will he ever be normal again?”

“He could. It is possible, but for him to get this far it’s a miracle.”

“Is it likely?” Amanda knew she was pushing it now.

“No I don’t. But if all goes well his life long effects from this could be slim. I’m not making you promises Mrs Baker, he’s in a lot of trouble and we all now that. You’re asking me for the best case, and I am telling you what is possible.”

“And the worst case?” Amanda couldn’t help herself from asking him that.

“He won’t make it at all, and if he does he could live the rest of his life as a vegetable like state.”

“Meaning what?”

“He could stay in a coma permanently or be very brain damaged if he ever wakes up. Mrs Baker we need a lot of luck and so will your husband. We’d like to operate immediately if you’d sign the papers. Amanda felt a lump in her throat the size of her fist.

“Mrs Baker?”

“Of course,” she croaked. She felt Matilda squeeze her hand gently.

“When will you operate then?”

“In about half an hour,”

“May I sit with him until then?” Amanda asked, she felt panicked. What if she never saw him again? What if this was the last time she ever saw him? Why hadn’t she held him for longer that night before he went out? Why hadn’t she said all those things to him she meant to say? Without even knowing it she found herself crying again, as Matildas leaned in and touched her shoulder gently with her other hand.

“They are going to do everything they can for him,” Matilda told her.

Amanda, Matilda and the chief surgeon left the room and headed down to Peters room. Amanda had gotten quite use to Matilda company, Matilda had been there for her when none else had or could have been. And Amanda had done the same for Matilda.

“He is deeply unconscious Mrs Baker, he has a number of minor injuries as well, it looks worse then it is. A lot of what you see will heal. The brain is another story though.”

But nothing he said to Amanda had prepared her for what she saw when she entered the room where Peter lay.

[Lilone]

OMG Peter :'(

Shan how dare you even write this

*cries*

[allibaz91]

She dare because it's damn good writing!!

We don't have to like it, but we can appreciate talent when we see it - can't we??

Shan, it's fantastic writing (despite being sooo )

Still creeped out by Amanda and Mattie - when they held hands Not impressed!

But all in all, great - more soon!