Auto Pilot by Laura Castellano

First posted 15 Oct 2006

Matt/Emily pairing

Summary:  Matt's bizarre way of driving while half asleep 
gets him into an accident, and a lot of trouble with both 
his partner and his boss.

These characters don't belong to me, and I don't get paid 
for this stuff.  I just do it for the love of the show.

A/N:  I reworked a couple of sentences in chapter 1 to reflect
what we learned in "Life Support" about how Matt's mother
died.  This story is set before the Mustang got torched
in "Partners in Crime."


-----------------

"I gotta go."

"Not yet," Emily muttered, pulling him closer in her 
half-sleep.

Matt kissed her again and extricated himself.  "I'll see you 
at the office," he whispered.

As his weight left the bed beside her, Emily awakened more 
fully.  "Why do you have to leave?"

"Because I'm out of clean clothes here."

She sighed.

"Hey, I'm gonna go home, take a quick shower and change, and 
I'll meet up with you at the coffee machine."

"You didn't get much sleep last night," she reminded him, 
glancing at the clock on the wall.

Matt grinned.  "Neither did you."

Emily couldn't help smiling at the reminder.  "I mean," she 
explained, giving him a soft punch in the belly, "that you 
really shouldn't be driving.  You're not awake.  Hang on and 
I'll make us some coffee."

"Nah, I'm okay.  I'll just put the car on auto-pilot."

Emily raised her eyebrows.  "Auto-pilot?  Matt, I know your 
Mustang is tricked out, but auto-pilot?"

"Yeah.  I just put on the cruise control, lean back against 
the head rest, and close one eye.  I can halfway sleep all 
the way home."

She sat up in bed at this.  "Are you crazy?  I don't want 
you splattering yourself all over the side of the road!"

"Aww, relax.  It'll be fine.  I do it all the time."

"How come I never saw you do that before?"

"Because I'm always wide awake when we're together."  He 
kissed her once more for good measure, and Emily took the 
opportunity to run her fingers through his silky hair.

"I think you should stay and have some coffee, at least.  Or 
shower here.  That'll help wake you up."

"I'm fine.  I'll see you later."

Matt slipped out the door before she could argue further, 
and Emily fell back to the bed.  If she was lucky, she could 
still catch a half hour of sleep.  She snuggled into Matt's 
pillow, inhaling the scent of him, but sleep refused to 
return.  The thought of him driving in the way he had 
described made her more than a little uneasy, but she was 
aware of the futility of arguing with her partner.  Finally 
giving up on sleep, she threw back the covers and headed for 
the shower.

-----------------

Matt grumbled under his breath when he stepped out into the 
drizzle.  He hadn't realized, snuggled into bed with Emily, 
that it had begun to rain.  He almost went back inside, but 
then convinced himself he was being silly.  He was tired, 
but the roads between his place and Emily's were all but 
deserted at this hour of the morning, so he knew it was 
safe.  He wasn't an idiot.  It wasn't as though he was going 
to take his sleepy self onto the freeway.  It was back roads 
all the way, and he'd be home in ten minutes.

Later on he couldn't have said whether the object that 
suddenly darted across the road in front of him had two legs 
or four. It could have been a child, or a large dog.  The 
only thing he knew for certain was that if he hadn't slammed 
on the Mustang's brakes when he did, he'd have killed 
something.

The car's bright blue paint glittered in the streetlight as 
the Mustang swerved, spun, and came to rest, slamming 
sideways into the light's pole.  In that split second before 
the airbags deployed, Matt felt his head slam into the 
window, a crushing pain in his left shoulder, and saw his 
mother's face as she lay dying in her hospital bed.  Then, 
nothing.

-----------------

According to the clock on the dash, which perversely still 
glowed the time even though the car itself was a mess, less 
than fifteen minutes had passed since he'd crawled out of 
Emily's warm bed.  Matt took a few moments to collect 
himself, and during that time realized that he was in a 
world of hurt.  His left shoulder screamed in protest if he 
tried to move the arm, so he reached up with his right to 
wipe away the trickle of sweat running down his forehead.  
When he pulled his hand away and glanced down at it, he saw 
that it wasn't sweat, it was blood.  Both legs hurt, 
although not as badly as his shoulder.  

With his good right arm (which was just about the only body 
part that wasn't killing him at the moment), he fumbled in 
his pocket for his cell phone.  With a grimace, he realized 
the seatbelt was still fastened.  He managed to get free of 
it, and pulled out the phone.  It slipped, and for a second 
he thought he was going to lose it between the seats.  If 
that happened, he knew he'd never be able to fish it out 
again in his current condition, but with a breath of relief 
he caught it.  

Somewhere in the back of his mind, that little voice of 
self-preservation that had been with him since he was a wee 
child yelled at him to dial 911, but his fingers weren't 
listening at the moment.  He had Emily on speed dial.  
Calling her required less effort and no brain power at all.

He cursed weakly when there was no answer, and tried her 
number again.  Still nothing.  She either had her phone 
turned off, or she was in the shower.  Matt rested for a 
moment, trying to think through the pounding in his head and 
the throbbing in his shoulder.  He'd give Emily one more 
chance, and then it would have to be Cheryl. He groaned a 
little at the thought of alerting his boss to what had 
happened.  She would have some choice words to say to him, 
of that he was sure.  Still...

He pressed the number to dial Emily once more, and when 
there was still no answer, he decided to leave a message.  
"Em...I need help, I--"  The muscle spasm that suddenly 
gripped his shoulder was worse than any pain he'd felt 
before, and his yell was gutsy and heartfelt.  Desperately 
he groped for the button to disconnect, hoping he'd managed 
it before the voice mail picked up his cry.  

Breathing carefully, Matt rode out the pain until the spasm 
passed.  Then, with trepidation but knowing he had no 
choice, he dialed Cheryl's number.  To his relief, she 
answered on the second ring.

"What is it?" she asked curtly into the phone, and Matt 
wondered if she'd been awake already.  It wasn't like Cheryl 
to be up and about before six a.m.  At least, he didn't 
think so.

"Cheryl," he gasped, feeling his shoulder beginning to cramp 
again.  "Help, I need help..."

"Matt?"  Her tone changed to one of concern.  "What's 
happened?  Where are you?"

"Somewhere--on the road between--my place and Emily's," he 
managed, gritting his teeth to bite back the scream that 
wanted to escape.  Matt had never been shot in the line of 
duty, but he couldn't believe that could hurt worse than 
this.  Whatever he had done to his left shoulder and arm, 
he'd bet the resulting agony was far worse than childbirth. 
He'd have to discuss that with someone who would
know.  Eventually.

"What happened?" 

"Car skidded.  Just me, nobody else--involved."

"Did you call an ambulance?"  

Matt was silent.

"Call 911," Cheryl instructed crisply.  "They can locate 
your position.  I'll try to get in touch with Emily."

"Called her.  No--no answer."  

"Well I'll call again," Cheryl snapped.  "Surely she's at 
home.  You just left her there, didn't you?"

Matt didn't stop to wonder what his boss was thinking.  
"Yeah."

"Then call an ambulance.  I'll see what I can do from my 
end."

Cheryl disconnected, and Matt shakily obeyed her.  He was 
freezing, and he knew he shouldn't be, which meant shock was 
setting in, and who knew what else.  He was worried about 
the pain in his legs, but more occupied with the pain in his 
arm.  The trickle of blood down his face was becoming more 
of a rivulet, and the pounding in his head was beginning to 
fight with that in his shoulder for supremacy.

He gave all the information he could to the 911 operator, 
then tried Emily again.  There was still no answer, and he 
fought to keep the irrational anger that wanted to emerge at 
bay.

Where could she be?

-----------------