A/N: Well, here's a one-shot that had been stewing in my head for a while. When I wrote Anti-Birth, I thought it'd be the last time I'd write a fic like this. But no, it seems I've got Mia on the brain pretty much all the time now. There's just no getting her out of my head, especially not when it seems like the stars aligned so we could meet... wait, did I just say that out loud? Uh... anyway, enjoy.
After several hours of feeling as though he'd been displaced in a void of pure chaos, Ben finally woke up from his deep slumber. The first thing he noticed straight away was that he appeared to be in a hospital room, surrounded by Danny and Riley and the rest of the gang. The walls were an oddly soothing mint green that seemed to radiate nothing but kindness and optimism. As for the checkered tile floor, it brought him just a vague sense of nostalgia to when he was just a young child being escorted to the doctor. His neck was in a brace, his ribs were wrapped snuggly in bandages, and he had stitches on practically every part of his body.
"Oh, good, he's awake," he could hear Riley say. "Do you think we should tell him now?"
Ben was immediately confused by this. Tell him what? Just what the hell had happened between the time of the car accident and now? Stay calm. It could be nothing. He didn't want to ask. Something was stopping him from just speaking out to them, but whatever it was, he didn't want to know.
"Ben, we're so glad you made it," Danny began to speak. "Unfortunately, we've got some not-so-great news..."
Uh oh... something was up. The only other person who'd been with him when the car collided with a semi-truck was his daughter Emma, but she was nowhere to be seen. This could only mean...
Danny choked up a bit before speaking again. "Emma didn't make it. We're so sorry."
Didn't... make it? No... she couldn't. There was no way. This had to be some morbid prank they were pulling on him.
He started laughing uncontrollably. "Good one, you guys," Ben remarked with a pained smile. "You must've been thinking about it for a long time, huh?"
"Ben, we're not trying to be funny!" Riley snapped. "Your daughter is dead! She's dead and she's never coming back, you understand?!"
The laughter died down and now made way for the most subdued sobs of anguish he'd ever made from his throat. The sobs started off, barely above a whisper before gradually moving upwards to what may as well have been shrieks powerful enough to wreck his vocal cords for a week straight. Once he stopped, everything was quiet and he drifted back to sleep.
When he finally woke up again, all his friends were gone. For the first time ever, he felt truly alone. Without Emma, he had no more reason to live. None at all. There was only one place left to go and that was down, down, down... With as much strength and willpower as he could muster, he slowly climbed out of his hospital bed and trudged his way towards the window. Then, without any doubts on his mind, he fidgeted with the locks before breaking them apart and pushing the window open. He managed to glance down to the parking lot where he would be making his final destination and then shut his eyes tightly. With a sharp inhale through the nose, he ran and ran towards the empty space and leaped through the air to his certain doom. His body came tumbling down, down, down to the ground until he landed with a loud and disgusting splat. He held on just a bit longer to see Emma hovering over him... and then he was gone.