What He Wouldn't Give (Unedited Version)

Chapter Zero...The Calm Before The Storm

To celebrate one of Eli's accomplishments, the Carter family decided to go out to eat. Eli had turned sixteen and his mother, Stacy, took him to the closest Florida DMV where he took his permit test. Accepting an eighteen out of twenty as his passing grade, Eli's mother knew he still had a lot to learn before he would receive his license. His parents made him wait until he was sixteen feeling like he was not ready to hit the road at the age of fifteen.

After driving home with his mother, Eli spent the day in the basement playing his guitar. Stacy had yet to return to work since he had Eli and her husband, Luke, would be at work until around five in the afternoon. The couple met in college and got married a year before they were blessed with Eli. But every couple has their moments where they fight, and for some reason, Eli wasn't as much of a blessing as Luke thought sixteen years ago.

Stacy told her son that around six he should get dressed in his business casual clothes and that they'd leave together as a family around seven for seven thirty reservations at Eli's favorite restaurant. Feeling slightly light-headed, Stacy laid in bed for half an hour with Luke rubbing her back. Glad that he didn't work overtime today and got home around five and helped around the house before dinner.

He went into the master bathroom around six thirty leaving his wife asleep on the bed. Luke believed she was getting another migraine and would wake her when he was done getting ready. Her migraines started last year and she went to doctors for testing, but the test showed nothing that would concern her or the doctors. Luke stepped out of the shower and heard Stacy get up out of bed and continued to get dressed. Stacy felt lightheaded still and she took a step before her vision went and the pain became excruciating for a second. With a razor blade to his neck, Luke heard her body hit the floor without grace. Nicking himself, he grabbed a washcloth before running outside the bathroom.

Unconsciousness rained over her before she hit the floor with a loud sudden thud as Luke ran out of the bathroom. The blood-soaked washcloth fell from his hand as he quickly ran over to his wife yelling for his son to call the paramedics, forgetting that Eli was in the basement playing his electric most likely with noise suppressing headphones plugged into the amp. That was the deal between Eli and his parents that made everyone content. Eli could play his guitar without his parents nagging him to turn it down.

He placed Stacy on their bed carefully before calling those three hopefully lifesaving numbers without checking to see if his wife was breathing. That seemed to slip his mind in the moment. The minutes crawled by so slowly. Each minute turned into an hour and Mr. Carter had already soaked the shirt he was wearing. The sirens rang through the air and grew increasingly louder until they stopped and there was a knock on the Carter's front door. Paramedics rushed into the room. They did the usual procedure before loading her into the back of the ambulance. Sirens came to life once more and Stacy was finally on her way to the hospital, to help. Luke changed into jeans and a shirt before running down to the basement to inform his son of the recent events and that dinner was canceled.

Two quick strums on the fifth and seventh fret of the low E and A string Eli's lips parted and words flowed out of his mouth in a melodic rhythm, "Show me how to lie..." He played along to The Offspring's "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid" getting to the second verse before his father unplugged the amp. Luke explained to Eli that his mother was taken to the hospital before Eli had the chance to protest and get riled up. Eli followed his father up the stairs shortly after and got into the truck. The two left the house in a hurry rushing to the hospital although the medic told Luke that they should wait until they received a call to see her. Eli's mind reeled with questions about what exactly happened, she seemed perfectly fine when Eli and his dad returned from the DMV with his permit and now she's in the hospital. Stacy and Luke never informed their son about her migraines and the testing she had done. Since the doctors figured it wasn't anything life threatening, they didn't want to worry Eli with this information.