**A special thanks to Tashia for helping me out with the series!**
Donovan Powers drove around with no destination in mind. His mind was focused on what had just happened between Linden and him. How could she have done that? How could he have responded to her that way? Why had he?
Sure, it was just a kiss, but it came on the back of his best friend dying. She had been Jett's girl, not his. He was never that type of guy who could just so easily take up where others left off. He never would take another man's woman. It was wrong. Jett may not have been alive anymore, but to Donovan it was still his girl.
Before he knew it, his car pulled into the cemetery seemingly on its own accord. He followed the dirt drive to the plot where Jett was buried. He turned off the car, took a deep breath and got out. He paused by the car for a moment, unsure of why he had gone there. He walked over to the place where his friend lay.
The cemetery keeper had draped a rectangle swatch of AstroTurf over the brown patch of fresh dirt. It was much too cold for the grass to grow. It made it seem like Jett had been gone much longer than a a week.
Donovan stared at the headstone. He bit his lip, and rubbed his hands slowly together. Part of him wanted to talk aloud, as if Jett were there. Part of him thought it would be foolish to think that. After fighting within himself, he sank to the ground and began to talk.
"I'm sorry." He said quietly. He felt awkward, like he was talking to himself. "Linden kissed me, and I let her."
Donovan sat silently thinking about the scene right before he had run off. He was scared, not of her, but of betraying his friend. Sure, he wasn't alive, but the grass hadn't even grown over the grave yet. He had only been gone a week.
A lump wedged itself into his throat.
Jett had been medevac'd to the hospital once the rescue crew had him down off the mountain. The hospital immediately sprung in to action, doing all they could. The doctors had not allowed Donovan, Linden, or even his family in to see him.
Jett's mother, Martha, sat anxiously in the waiting area. She gasped every time the swinging door to the Intensive Care Unit swung open. She would only breathe again when she saw it was not about her son.
Hours later the door opened once again and a balding man in pale blue scrubs walked over to them. He ushered Jett's parents to sit. Everyone present didn't dare breathe in case they missed something the doctor said.
"Mr. and Mrs. Landon?"
They nodded.
"I'm Dr. Shillings, your son was in the snowboarding accident?" He sat down in front of them on a leather ottoman.
"Yes, how is he?" Martha sobbed. "Can we see him? Is he okay?"
"We have to run some more tests, but I'm afraid it looks like there is nothing we can do further." He told the group quietly.
"What does that mean?" Jeff, Jett's father, questioned.
"His body can no longer function on its own, there is no brain activity. We have to wait for another doctor to run a few tests to confirm my diagnosis first, but we believe he sustained so much damage to his brain stem that he will never recover." His grey eyes saddened as he looked at the heartbroken couple in front of him.
"No!" Martha burst out crying. "That's my baby! He's my son, he can't die! I didn't say I loved him before he went up to the lodge!"
Jeff grabbed her and held her tight, tears streaming down his own face. He gently rocked her back and forth as sobs wracked her body. His own shoulders seemed slumped in defeat.
Dr. Shillings politely excused himself giving them his condolences. Donovan watched in disbelief of the scene around him. Linden was staring at the door and sniffling quietly. He reached over and wrapped an arm around her.
They sat like that for what seemed like an eternity, until the nurses chased the two out after visiting hours were over. Donovan had taken Linden to her parent's and he headed home. He was numb over the news, and didn't know what to think.
A short week later, Jett's family had decided, along with the doctors, that it was time to say their goodbyes and take the young man off of life support. He hadn't really moved since the accident. A few times he had twitched a muscle or two, the doctors quickly dashed any hope it was a sign of life by saying it was not brain-related activity.
Donovan signed himself in to the ICU, stuck the 'Visitor' sticker on his shirt, and went to the room his friend was in. Jett lay on a bed in the middle of the room, with what seemed like a million machines beeping and squealing around him.
