A/N: Inspector Cabanela, Detective Jowd and Lynne belong to CAPCOM; the plot and subsequent characters, however, are mine and Midnight-hunter's.
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A horrific accident takes the lives of a family, except for one and, for the lone survivor, life will never be the same again...
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This is a writing collaboration between myself and my best friend and fellow author, Midnight-hunter. It's an alternate universe story of how Cabanela and Jowd meet Lynne alongside a story of Cabanela and Jowd themselves and how their lives, and relationship, changes when the very traumatized ten-year-old arrives. We hope that you enjoy! :)
Thanks to our readers!
Any and all comments will be appreciated and are enthusiastically welcomed! :)
Rated Teen, male/male relationships, Family/Comfort/Hurt/Tragedy, CabanOwd
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April 17th
Route 6
2 A.M.
The road was slick with rain, a narrow sliver of moon barely peeking out from behind a heavy cloud cover with thin, watery rays of moonlight that flickered down on the highway and on the car that was making its way through the early morning darkness.
There were four occupants in the vehicle: a father, mother and two children, one boy and one girl and, of the four, only one was awake while the others were sleeping peacefully. As the car made its way through the night, the father looked back briefly upon his sleeping children, his mouth spreading into a wide smile as he looked upon them.
How proud he was of them! They were wonderfully behaved-most of the time, anyway he thought to himself wryly-and each had their own distinct personalities.
He yawned, shaking his head violently. He was tired; it had been a long day at the amusement park and he was plumb tuckered out. The kids had had fun, though, and it was a pleasure to hear their happy, excited voices echoing through the park as they raced from one attraction to another with his harried wife doing her level best to keep up with them and keep them in sight.
She'd had a hard time of it recently and he had noted that she was tired, more often than not, and that made her irritable and cranky. He wondered if they might be expecting another child; she hadn't said so but they had talked about it a few months earlier so he couldn't help but to ponder the possibility that she might be expecting. If so, that would go a long way to explaining her recent mood swings and her lack of energy for the past few weeks.
He remembered that he had laughed at the time-to him it was quite amusing seeing her try to keep up with two very active children-and she'd given him one of her patented, frosty glares that said she wasn't amused. Faced with her very real anger, he'd choked down the laughter as best he could and had hastily apologized. To his relief, although she still looked a little miffed, she also appeared satisfied and tucked into her ice cream cone with great relish.
He smiled as he glanced over briefly at his wife, sleeping soundly in the seat beside him. He'd been in love with her since they were children and always considered himself to be the most blessed man in the world when she told him that she felt the same as he did. They began dating in high school and had married shortly after they had graduated from college. Some years, and two children later, he still felt the same as he had all those years ago and looked forward to the future and watching his family grow.
His eyes flickered upward as he looked in the rearview mirror at the soundly sleeping children, a proud smile spreading across his face before coming back down to the road. Of the two, Lynne had always been his favorite and he couldn't suppress a rush of pride when he thought of her. They'd been close for years although his son tended to gravitate toward his mother, more so than him, but he didn't mind for he loved them both dearly. As the miles passed, he found that his thoughts wandered more often to the future as he wondered where the future would take them and what both would ultimately end up doing.
Lynne was a good girl, he thought proudly, and, although she had her faults, she also had a big heart, deep loyalty and a generous spirit that endeared her to all who met her. She was ten years old now and growing up; he found himself, more often than not in the past few months, wishing that there was a way to turn back time since it was passing far more quickly than he felt comfortable with or even wanted to admit.
Soon she'll be a teenager, he thought with a twinge of sadness, and I can't help but wonder what will change in our relationship. He sighed, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter as they raced on through the night. I know that every parent goes through this at some point; I just wish that time would pass a little more slowly than it is right now since it's going much too quickly for my liking. He chuckled ruefully, yawning a little as he leaned forward slightly, squinting out into the rainy night and shifting in his seat until he felt comfortable, settling in for the long drive ahead. Still, I wonder what changes will happen once the children reach adolescence...
Little did he know, as the car went around the corner, that this would be the last drive he and his family would ever take... and, for the lone survivor, life would never be the same again.
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2:45 A.M.
When Lynne was aware of the world again, she found herself huddled in an untidy heap on the edge of the road, uncertain of what had happened. She was cold and, when she put her hand up to her face, gingerly touching her cheek, she was surprised to see a crimson smudge on her pale, white skin.
The pale sliver of moon in the velvety black sky illuminated the ghastly scene below as Lynne struggled painfully to her feet, brushing little slivers of glass from her jacket, wincing as she slowly stood upright, turning her head from right to left trying to see in the foggy darkness.
She had a distant memory of a loud banging noise, a teeth rattling bump that shook the vehicle like a terrier shaking a rag doll and the sound of screeching metal and breaking glass that had been replaced by an eerie silence.
She still wasn't sure what had happened or even where she was; all she knew was that she was alone out here and she was cold with no idea where her family was or what had happened to them. Her head hurt, too, and she couldn't understand why.
She looked down the steaming road as far as she could into the distance, tears running down her grimy face.
"Daddy?" she called out in a quavering voice, taking one lurching step down the road, stumbling a little before she righted herself again, looking from side to side and then into the pitch black darkness that was ahead of her. "Daddy? Mommy? Andy? Where are you?"
She had taken a dozen steps when she saw something glinting in the darkness where the dim light of the moon fell on it and she was surprised to see large shards of glass scattered in a wide arc near the side of the road along with glittering, torn shreds of metal and fiberglass intermixed inbetween.
Her eyes widened as she forced herself to move faster despite the throbbing pain in her legs and head, her heart pounding in her chest, drawing in hissing gasps of breath. She had no idea what had happened but it didn't look good; somewhere, in the back of her mind as she half ran and half stumbled toward the steaming morass that lay close by, she thought she saw a flickering orange light.
"Daddy?" She couldn't focus her eyes properly-they weren't working right and that frightened her even more than the twisted hulks of wreckage that loomed up at her from the smoky gloom. She stopped in horror, her eyes widening as she screamed, a high pitched wail of fear and loss torn from deep within her as she saw what remained of the car... and her family.
"Daddy!" she cried, running forward, ignoring the pain in her leg as she raced toward the car, seeing her father's arm hanging out of the shattered window on the driver's side, crimson streaks on the warped door.
The mangled car lay on its back, its wheels slowly rotating when the rain pelted against it. Leaning forward, she could see into the dim interior of the wreckage and she could see, to her horror, that no one was moving. They lay at such awkward angles, their clothing torn, limbs shattered, splashes of crimson everywhere; she didn't know the reason why but, somehow, in her child's mind, she knew that this wasn't good. Something was very wrong...
She stopped by the driver's side where her father's body lay half in and half out, his broken, bloodied arm resting on the road below amidst a wide arc of broken windshield.
"Daddy?" she said again, her voice strained with tears as she dropped to her knees and started crawling toward him. Surely her Daddy was okay, wasn't he? He'd said that he'd always protect her, didn't he? He had to be okay!
"Daddy? Daddy are-" She stopped cold as she saw the shattered ruin of what had once been her father's head, her hand flying to her mouth as she screamed, her pitiful wails rendering the silent night.
After what seemed like an eternity, she'd stopped screaming and knelt beside the driver's side door in a daze, gravel digging painfully into her scraped and bloodied knees. She looked at the horrific sight before her once again, her cold fingers creeping up to her mouth.
"Daddy?" she repeated, her voice quavering and her throat raw from her cries. "Daddy? Daddy? Daddy?" She hoped, in vain, for a reply but none came and she knelt there for some time, wondering what to do. She shivered slightly as a chill wind blew up, swirling through the remains of the car and sounding like a chorus of lost souls before clambering unsteadily to her feet, standing there uncertainly.
"Daddy?" she asked plaintively, wrapping her arms around herself as she shivered with cold, staring at his broken, lifeless body. He wasn't moving. "I'm afraid and all alone! What do I do?" She shivered again, wrapping her arms around herself and stamping her feet. "I'm so cold..."
She felt her legs trembling and she quickly knelt again before they gave out on her. She waited only a moment until she slowly began to crawl forward, her eyes focused on the white arm directly in front of her. She closed her eyes, swallowed hard and made her way to the crevice that her father's lifeless body made, curling up beside his arm in a small, tight ball, tucking her legs in underneath her and leaning over until she felt his cold skin next to hers.
She lay her head on his torn and bloodied side, her thumb creeping into her mouth and sucking it, tears streaming down her face as she did so. She knew that she was acting like a baby but, strangely enough, it comforted her as she waited long into the night for the coming of dawn... and, she fervently hoped, an end to this nightmare.
Daddy... she thought one more time, shivering once before dropping off into a fitful slumber, her father's dead body providing her temporary shelter from the newly breaking storm, fat drops of rain hitting the pavement with a loud splatter.