First if you were looking for "What Happens Next?" to go up tonight Christlove88 had her wisdom teeth out and she's in too much pain to edit and post. She will post either later tonight or tomorrow morning however.

Now onto this story

Legal: I own nothing but the idea.

This takes place the Saturday after school elections.

It's A/U and somewhat suspenseful, possible trigger warnings also.

This whole chapter is in Drew's pov and this will be a two shot or possibly a 3 shot.

Ch.1 Drawing Blood

(DREW)

It was Saturday night and I was home alone, I'd moved back home and was going back to school, I'd even been elected student council president for next year. Right after results were announced I asked Clare to be my VP because I was sure I was going to need her, besides which she Adam's best friend, well one of them and her ex was the other. But I liked Clare and even Bianca knew Clare was one of the few people that could keep me in line. I would be out with Bianca tonight but she was in Waterloo for some freshman mixer thing, my parents were at a party, Adam was out with Becky and Dallas out with Alli so I was watching movies and gorging on pizza.

Normally we kept the basement door unlocked but there had been some thefts in the neighborhood recently and therefor we'd been keeping it locked lately, so when there was sudden rapid pounding on the glass door it startled me and I jumped. The pounding didn't stop so I got up and went to the other end of the curtain to peak out, pre-dialing 9-1 on my phone just in case. I didn't have the patio light on but from the little bit of light there was I could see it was a girl, a girl I was pretty sure was Clare. I pull back the curtain and open the door, I'm sure she's here for Adam and I'm about to tell her that he's not here but as soon as the door is open she clings to me. Falling into my arms, gripping my shirt like her life depends on it and crying on my chest, she's shaking and sobbing so hard she has to take labored breaths. When she fell into me I dropped my phone to catch her, her body is trembling so much it's shaking mine and I can feel her heart pounding through her chest. Her head is turned into me and with the flickering light of the TV I can't see much. Clare seems to be sort of mumbling something but I can't make it out.

My heart is pounding and I get a knot in my stomach as instinct tells me something is very wrong. Something happened, something that brought her here in the middle of the night in hysterics. I put an arm around her walk to the sofa, guiding her to sit on the arm and turning on a lamp, I need to see her to figure out what's wrong but she's just clinging to me and won't let go. I try to pull her hand away but she sort of screams and just grips onto me tighter. I have never ever seen Clare like this, I've seen her lose her cool a couple of times, seen her upset but not like this. The thing is it reminds me a little of myself after Vince's gang beat me up. Since she won't let go of me I look at the parts of her I can see, she's missing a shoe, she's dirty, her legs are scraped up, she's got leaves and a stick in her hair.

"Clare I need to see you, let me look, I need to make sure you aren't hurt," I tell her in a calm voice but Clare only shakes her head.

I sigh and decide maybe I should just sit on the sofa and let her cry in my lap until she's done or passes out and I can get a look at her. That is until I see drops of blood falling from her elbow to her skirt, it looks like a lot but it's coming from further up her arm. I don't care how hysterical she is I need to see where she's bleeding from.

"Clare you're bleeding, I need to see it, I won't hurt you, I promise you're safe here now let me see," I assert keeping my voice firm and commanding but concerned. She takes a few seconds but she releases my shirt and lets go of me a little, she looks away from me and down but I can see her.

The first thing I notice is that her left arm is nearly red from the blood which is coming from her hand. She has a cut diagonally across her entire palm from the bottom of her index finger down to the opposite corner, it looks pretty deep and I know I need to stop the bleeding. I take off my shirt and rip it into strips, she already soaked my shirt in blood but I would have done it anyway. I tie it tightly around that cut and then notice she has smaller cuts on three of her fingers, right at the top knuckles, she's got a smaller one on her pinky and pretty major one on her thumb. I tie one strip of my shirt around those three fingers and then her thumb but her pinky's ok for the moment, I'll bandage everything with actual bandages soon but for now I just need to stop the bleeding.

Now I look at her, really look at her and find her covered in blood, practically soaked in it. She looks like Carrie, from the movie Carrie, at the prom only there's no blood on her head but it's covering her shirt and jacket, spattered on parts of her skirt. I may not be too bright but it's easy enough to determine most of the blood isn't hers, some is from her hand but most has to be someone else's. Clare has no injuries on her torso, just the one to her left hand and a few scrapes on her legs. She looks like she's been to hell and back, my mind is racing, why is she covered in blood? Whose blood is it and what the hell happened tonight? I take a quick look at her bare foot, it's very dirty and a little scraped up but that's about it. I do see that she's very pale though so I set her on the sofa. She curls into the fetal position and just keeps crying hysterically, she's going to get blood all over the sofa but when Mom finds out I don't think she'll mind.

"Stay right here, I'm going to get some bandages and water, I will be right back okay?"

She nods a little, I'm reluctant to leave her but I'll be quick and I need to know what the hell happened. Going over to close the basement door and retrieve my phone from where I dropped it before I get her a bottle of water from the fridge. I open it, set it on the coffee table and tell her I'm just going upstairs for bandages, she doesn't respond or acknowledge what I said but I'm sure she heard me. As soon as I'm on the first floor I call Owen; Adam went to a movie and his phone is off and I'm sure Dallas won't answer but I know Owen was home tonight because of some family birthday.

"Hey," he says answering the phone.

"Hey I need a favor, can you go over to Clare's house?" I request going into mine and Adam's washroom and digging under the sink for the first-aid kit so I can bandage Clare's hand and clean her scrapes.

"Uh why? Where's she even live?" Owen questions.

"Because she showed up here hysterical and covered in blood and I want to know what the hell happened. Just go by and see if everything looks okay at her house or if anyone is even home but don't tell them she's here yet, not until we know what's going on. Come here after I think I'm going to need help with her and I don't know when Adam's getting home," I instruct grabbing the first-aid kit and heading back downstairs.

Owen says okay so I tell him her address and that there's a spare key to the back door hidden under a drain pipe, all of which I know because of Adam. I run back downstairs and find Clare still curled on the sofa, she's not crying anymore but she's still shaking and has her head buried so I can't see her face. I'm able to get her hurt hand however, even the three smaller cuts are pretty deep and I know she needs to have it looked at. I'm certain she needs stitches but I'm not so sure I can convince her to go to the hospital. I grab a bottle of alcohol to clean them, getting a towel and pouring the alcohol over her hand. It must sting horribly but Clare doesn't react at all, just keeps shaking. I just wrap her entire hand in gauze because I really don't know what else to do right now, I just drop the blood soaked strips of my shirt to the floor.

I clean up some of the scrapes on her legs, she still doesn't react to the sting of the alcohol, most of the scrapes aren't bad enough for bandages but a couple of them are and I just put regular band-aids on them. Last I decide I better clean her foot but I do that with a warm washcloth and soap. She has one cut on her foot that I think needs a bandage; it's not big or deep like her hand though. I go into Dallas' room and take the blanket off his bed covering Clare with it, even though I'm sure she isn't shaking because she's cold but I believe she's in shock. She's not moving and I don't know how to help her, I'm hoping she'll talk but I need her to sit up so I grab her gently and sit her up. She curls her knees to her chest backing up to the arm of the sofa and puts her head down.

"Clare talk to me, whose blood is that?" I ask her and she just starts shaking more violently.

"Didn't…not…he…" she mumbles with shaky breaths unable to even get two words out at a time. Given her hand and the state of shock she's in I decide it's best to call 911, I grab my phone and start to dial but she suddenly rips the phone away. "NO NO NO NO NO NO YOU CAN'T NO NO NO NO!" She screams rocking back and forth with her arms wrapped around her legs.

I just stare at her, shocked by this reaction and more worried now, it's like she's totally lost it. I can see her face now though, it's streaked by tears and spattered by blood, some blood is smeared on her face. It's the look in her eye that really gets me, her eyes are full of fear, no fear isn't right, her eyes are full of a deep terror. I also see sorrow and regret in her eyes, so deep that it's chilling. She needs to go to a hospital but she freaked out when I tried to call 911, I'm thinking about calling Dad when the basement door opens and Owen comes in. He looks at Clare shaking and rocking then looks at me.

"Her house was all in order but no one was home," Owen tells me.

"We need to get her to a hospital, she sliced her hand open somehow," I inform Owen.

"No hospital no no no no no," Clare rants hysterically.

"Clare…" Owen starts.

"NO HOSPITAL!" She screams cutting him off.

"No you have to go to the hospital," I assert moving forward to pick her up over my shoulder and take her anyway.

"NO NO NO!" She screams and jerks her leg kicking me in the stomach. I barely have time to brace for it and double over as I cough. Now she looks ashamed and hides her head again.

"So what do we do?" Owen questions sitting next to me and really looks at Clare, he can barely see her with her head down and her knees brought up to her chest but he can see enough that I see the astonished and bewildered look on his face.

"I have no idea," I shrug and then my phone rings but Clare's only reaction is to lay down and curl into a ball again. "Hey B," I answer happy to hear from my fiancé.

"Hey it was pretty boring, I left early and drove back, just getting into Toronto, you want to go to a late movie or something?" She asks.

"I can't but come over, a woman's presence might be helpful right now," I reply.

"For what?" She inquires.

"I'll explain when you get here and hurry," I respond and hang up. "B's on her way over," I comment and Owen nods.

"Did Clare say anything?" Owen asks.

"Nothing I could understand," I reply.

"I think her family's out of town, should we call them?" Owen queries.

"No she doesn't really get along with her mom and I don't think Jake really pays attention to anything anymore. I'd call Adam but he took Becky to the movies," I'm telling Owen and suddenly Clare's body goes limp.

We look over and Owen jumps up, picking her up and turning her over, she's completely pale, she looks almost like a ghost!

"She's still breathing she just passed out," Owen says picking up her bandaged hand; the bandage has become red with blood, "I'm guessing from loss of blood, we have to take her to the hospital, I don't care what she says," Owen tells me.

"Hang on I'm going to get a shirt, actually two take off her blood soaked one and I'll put her in one of my shirts so she's not going to the hospital soaked in someone else's blood," I remark.

"What if some else is hurt, where was she tonight?" Owen questions.

"I have no idea but let's focus on helping Clare before she dies," I reply and run upstairs. I put a shirt on and grab another for Clare then run down to the basement again. Clare is still unconscious, Owen got her shirt off and you can see blood smears on her skin where it soaked through her top. "Here get this on her," I tell him handing him the shirt.

He starts to sit her up and put the shirt on, I take Clare's shoe off so she's not going with just one shoe. I start getting my shoes on and the basement door opens again, Bianca walks in, looks at Owen on the sofa with Clare and glares at us.

"What the hell is going on? Why is Clare half naked and passed out on your sofa?" She demands.

"Hey I'm trying to get her dressed not undressed and we have no idea what happened," Owen says.

"She showed up here hysterical and covered in blood, she's got a really bad cut on her hand and she just passed out probably from losing all that blood. We're taking her to the hospital," I tell Bianca.

"Owen carry her and give me your keys I'll drive," Bianca orders taking charge.

Owen finishes getting the shirt on Clare, stands up and hands Bianca his keys. I get my shoes on and grab my wallet and Owen picks up Clare, I leave the lights on and the basement door unlocked, but I know my family would rather we save Clare's life than worry about someone stealing our stuff. Owen gets in the back of his SUV and just keeps Clare on his lap. I look back and see Owen putting pressure on her hand, it just won't stop bleeding and I'm seriously worried about how pale she is. Not to mention she was in shock after whatever happened and she ran all the way to my house. Bianca speeds to the hospital and it's not very far from my house so we reach it in a few minutes. We pull up to emergency and all hop out just leaving Owen's SUV, one of us will move it when Clare's being taken care of.

"What happened?" The nurse questions getting up from the desk when we run in with an unconscious Clare, her bandaged bleeding hand hanging limp at her side.

"We have no idea but her hand is cut real bad," I tell her.

"Marissa grab Dr. Stratton and a gurney," the nurse commands and another nurse runs back. A second later the other nurse appears pushing a gurney and with a doctor, Owen lays Clare down and they rush her back.

"I'll go park," Owen says after a few seconds.

Bianca hands him his keys while she and I sit down, the registration nurse walks over to us with a clipboard.

"You'll need to fill these out; we'll need to call her parents so I'll need their numbers. Are any of you family?" The nurse inquires.

"Yeah she's my sister, our parents are at a party they can't be reached but I'm 18," I lie. The nurse just nods and returns to her station.

"She's your sister? Clare looks nothing like you," Bianca comments in a low voice.

"I know but she looks kind of like Adam, anyway they won't release her to us or give us any information if we're not family," I point out as I look at the form.

Thank goodness Clare is Adam's best friend because I actually know things like her birthday and the fact that she has no allergies to medication. Of course I write down that her last name is Torres and put our home address for hers. Owen comes back in just as I take the form to the nurse and as soon as Owen sits down with us the doctor comes over to us.

"How long ago did she cut her hand and on what?" He asks.

"We have no idea, she was hysterical and I could barely bandage her hand, she didn't want to come to the hospital but then she went unconscious. She was shaking and sort of mumbling but she screamed when we said she was coming to the hospital, I think she was in shock and her hand wouldn't stop bleeding. Is she going to be okay?" I ask the doctor.

"She has a severe laceration on her left hand, it cut through several layers of muscle, nerves and tendons, I've called in an orthopedic surgeon to operate but the damage may be irreversible, she will have limited use of that hand if she has any at all. She nearly took her thumb off and barely missed the artery which is lucky for her or she could have easily bled out. She cut to the bone on the tops of her three fingers, as I said it will be a miracle if she can use it again. We found one sliver of glass while cleaning it, so we assume she somehow cut it on glass but you don't know what happened?" He asks and we shake our heads. "Well we're giving her blood and plasma now and prepping her for surgery, she'll be taken up to orthopedics for that I can show you there. The surgery is very delicate and will last several hours; you may want to go home. The rest of her abrasions are minor and will heal but we'll give her a course of antibiotics to be safe. Come I'll take you to orthopedics," Dr. Stratton says and we stand up.

We follow him upstairs and he shows us where Clare's room is, she's being monitored and prepped for surgery now but it's where she'll be taken after surgery as well. The doctor takes us to a waiting room and we sit down, for a few minutes we're just silent, I don't know about Owen and Bianca but I'm kind of reeling from everything and wondering what happened. I saw Clare yesterday, she was happy to be vice president, sad about Eli and not wanting to talk to him but she was happy to be VP and we were even talking about some things for next year. Tonight she was hysterical, more like a child after a brutal nightmare than the well-spoken, intelligent Clare Edwards I know. She was covered in blood, may never be able to use her left hand again and I think whatever happened may have quite possibly driven her crazy, I mean like nut house kind of crazy.

While my mind races over terrible possibilities that could have caused Clare to end up in the state she was in it occurs to me to check the time so I ask Owen for his phone since I left mine at the house. It's after eleven now, I should call Dallas, I have no clue what to tell Mom and Dad and especially not Adam but I need to talk to Dallas because if we do go home I think Owen, Bianca and I will be crashing in the basement. If we don't go home then I'll need Dallas to cover for me.

"Owen dude I had the best date with Alli she…" Dallas answers and I cut him off.

"Actually it's Drew are you home?" I ask.

"Driving there now why?" He questions.

"Sleep in my room tonight we need the basement," I reply.

"Who's we and why?" He queries.

"Me, Owen and Bianca and we just do. Also don't let Adam into the basement when he gets home," I request thinking about the torn strips of my blood soaked shirt, Clare's blood soaked shirt and Clare's shoe which if Adam sees will freak him out because he will now they are Clare's.

"Okay what the fuck is going on and where the hell are you?" Dallas inquires.

"We're at the hospital and I would tell you what was going on if I knew," I respond and hang up before he asks more questions. I give Owen his phone but it rings a minute later, Owen pulls it from his pocket and hands it to me after seeing who was calling.

"It's Dallas," he says.

I take the phone and hit accept, "Yeah?"

"Why the fuck is your shirt all ripped up and parts of it covered in blood? Why is there blood on the sofa and the carpet? Why is there one girls dirty shoe and why is there a girls shirt covered in blood? Dude what the hell happened here tonight?" Dallas demands with agitation in his voice.

"Most of the blood is Clare's; she's being prepped for surgery. I don't know what happened just don't let Adam see all of that," I request.

"He just got home, I'll keep him from coming to the basement but you better tell me what the fuck is going on," Dallas says and hangs up.

I give Owen back his phone and slump back against the chair, the whole night just seems surreal. I was just fine sitting at home vegging on the sofa with TV and pizza and then Clare showed up and it's like I stepped out of my life and into a movie. The door to the waiting room opens and a nurse comes in, she's wearing a sympathetic smile, something she's probably used to doing when talking to families.

"You all came in with Clare Torres right?" The woman asks and I nod. Owen gives me a look when the nurse says Clare Torres but he doesn't say anything. "She's in surgery now, the doctor is estimating 10 hours because of the delicate nature. He wants to repair as much of the muscle, ligaments and nerves as he can. You should go home and get some rest, we have your number if we need to get a hold of you."

We nod and get up, go out to Owen's car and he starts driving us back to my place.

"You don't think Eli did something do you?" Owen asks.

"I doubt it, he's on meds now anyway I don't think Eli'd ever hurt Clare," I reply.

We're silent until we get home, my Dad's car is here and the house is dark, Dallas must have turned off the lights in the basement and everyone is in bed or at least in their rooms. We go in through the basement and sit in the dark on the sofa.

"Did Clare say where she was tonight?" Bianca questions.

"No she didn't say much of anything and what little she did say didn't make sense," I reply.

"I still want to know what the fuck happened," Owen says.

"We all do," I sigh.

"Did Clare have her phone when she showed up?" Bianca queries.

"No she didn't have anything, she was even missing a shoe," I respond.

"We can track her phone, you have her number right?" Bianca asks.

"Yeah," I nod getting up and grabbing my phone, Bianca gets Dallas' laptop and we all just avoid looking at all the blood…everywhere.

Bianca turns on the laptop and I give her the number, "Okay it's not exact but I have an area where her phone is. It's somewhere in Withrow Park."

"Which is why she came here, Withrow Park is just one street over. Come on I'm not going to be able to sleep until I have any idea what happened," I comment getting up.

"Me either," Bianca nods and Owen follows us.

I grab three flashlights from the garage and bring my phone, we get back into Owen's SUV and he makes the short drive to the park. He parks and we get out, we are at one side of the big park and the plan is just to walk down to the other end and back. There are some streetlights over here but I don't think much of the park is lit especially since it's after midnight. We follow the path past the playground and use our flashlights to scan the area for Clare's phone, or shoe, or anything at all that would be a clue to what happened. And then I see a trail of blood, large drops showing a path, we all see them, all our flashlights illuminating the dark red drops of blood on the pavement. We slowly move our flashlights along them, showing where they came from. It goes into the grass and becomes kind of hard to see but we can follow the trail of blood. The trail leads to some trees near a big patch of barren dirt, there's leaves, rocks and sticks on the ground. Along with the smell of beer, it's not heavy but someone was drinking back here. We're combing the area with our flashlights, every so often we see more blood but there isn't a trail any longer.

"Guys," Bianca says suddenly as she stops and we look at where her flashlight is pointing to see a motionless body.

Owen goes over and we see a huge pool of blood around the guy lying face down in the dirt! Owen leans down to take the guys pulse but when he shines his light on the guy's neck Owen freezes and then jumps back.

"That guy is dead, very dead, he's got a deep stab wound in his neck," Owen informs us, his voice shaking a little.

Bianca and I step back too; we've never been around a dead body before, not like this. My Grandpa died when I was ten but seeing a dead person who's old and been dressed up, in a casket and made to look all peaceful is much different. This time it's a young person, probably about our age, lying face down in the dirt in a pool of his own blood. I move my flashlight around fast hoping Clare had nothing to do with this, then my flashlight shines on something that glints and I go back to it. First thing I see is Clare's other shoe, second thing I see is a large shard of glass covered in blood, thinking of the injuries on Clare's hand it looks like she was holding the shard of glass and stabbed the guy!

"Fuck guys I think Clare killed him!"

Oh I know cruel me leaving it there, chapter 2 will be posted Friday September 26th starting here and probably in Owen pov this time.