Hi Cloud 9 fans! My name is daphrose, and usually I hang around the Lab Rats fandom. In fact, this is my very first non-Lab-Rats story, so I'm super excited about it! It's only one chapter long and it's pretty short, but I'm excited anyway.

This one-shot is rated T for injuries, depression, and some suicidal thoughts. If that kind of stuff is a trigger for you, then please don't read.

This story has slight hints of Willayla. As much as the movie has, anyway. For all you suckers for romance out there. ;)

Just as a warning, I know next to nothing (closer to nothing) about snowboarding, so I apologize if I got anything wrong!

I hope you guys will enjoy this! I don't own Cloud 9; Disney does. I do own this story. Enjoy!

* * * Fear * * *

Will didn't rightly know how he had gotten caught up in this. Kayla Morgan, the girl whose father owned the resort, began work at his mother's dog kennel because she crashed his sled. That was how it started. Things got crazier after that.

So Kayla learned that her whole career was a fraud. Frankly, Will was surprised she didn't know it before. I mean, how do you not know something like that? It doesn't take a genius to put the pieces together! The judges' comments were hardly stunning, and Kayla had had her shares of failures. Did she really still think that she was this "epic snowboarder"?

Maybe Will was selling her short. Or at least, he had in the beginning. Because things changed. Things really changed.

Kayla Morgan, that daddy's pampered princess, the spoiled brat of Summit Valley, the popular girl, queen bee, whatever you wanted to call her—Kayla Morgan got him back on the slopes. Him. Will Cloud. Back on the slopes. How the heck did that happen?

Here he stood at the top of the halfpipe. Sam and Dink were there beside him, cheering him on. Kayla was there, smiling at him. He couldn't help but laugh inwardly. Kayla Morgan was a magical creature, surely. Nothing but the strongest magic could've gotten him to strap that board to his feet again.

After all, Kayla had somehow talked him into teaching her. That in itself was a miracle. Will didn't know why he agreed to teach her. In the beginning, he thought she had no talent. No real talent, anyway. But she seemed sure. She seemed willing to try. That was more than a lot of people would do. So Will begrudgingly agreed to teach her.

Lo and behold, they wound up here. Will stared down at the halfpipe. "And hey," Kayla said softly, "no fear."

His own advice, tossed right back at him. In order to snowboard, you needed no fear. You needed confidence. Will stiffened when he realized he didn't have that. Kayla did. She snowboarded down Tyson's Peak to prove it. But Will didn't tackle the peak. He went to rescue her. That was all.

Will slid his goggles over his face and patted his helmet one more time. His breathing quickened as he slid into the halfpipe. He coasted down it smoothly, much smoother than he thought he would. When he came up the other side, his holds were shaky and his arms were flailing. Boy, am I out of practice, he thought.

As Will went along, he felt his fear slowly fade. This wasn't so bad! In fact, it was actually fun! It was the most fun he had had in a long time. Suddenly Will remembered why he enjoyed snowboarding so much. He could hear his friends cheering him on in the background and he grinned.

Snowboarding was his passion. It always had been. As the wind rushed past his helmet, Will reminisced about his snowboarding experiences as a child. His chest tightened as he thought about his dad, the man who had taught him everything he knew. Will would be nothing without his father.

"Son," his dad used to say, "you've got a real gift. Some people say that if you love what you do, you'll never have to work a day in your life. I wholeheartedly believe that. I also wholeheartedly believe that you were meant to be a snowboarder. You love it. You have the talent. Will, you'll do great things. I know you will. Promise me that you'll never stop doing what you love."

"I broke my promise," Will whispered softly as he clutched the edge of his board. A tear made its way to the corner of his eye, but he quickly blinked it away.

Will remembered being at his father's bedside. He wasn't even nine yet. He remembered the moment the heart monitor stopped beeping; he remembered sobbing into his mother's chest as she sobbed into his hair. In that moment his world stopped. Everything he knew faded away. In that moment, snowboarding became the single most important thing in his life.

So he did it. He would snowboard from dawn till dusk. It kept him connected to his father. When Will missed his dad, he would take a ride in the halfpipe. It made him feel closer. It made everything feel better.

Until that day.

Will's head began to spin. What was I thinking? This is crazy! I can't do this! No! I-I can't!

The second time he was in a hospital room was when he was sixteen. Only instead of looking down at someone in a bed, he was the one in the bed. Will remembered much from those weeks of recovery. Too much.

The pain was most of it. Oh, yes, the pain. That would be the obvious part. His ankle was wrapped in soft bandages, as was his knee. He had a tube down his throat. Every breath came out raspy and strained. That was horrifying. Breathing is easy, right? Not will a collapsed lung. Will drew in every gulp of air like it was his last. For a while, he was afraid it was. For a while, he hoped it was.

It didn't end when he left that cramped hospital room. For months, Will would wake up with sweat pouring from his forehead and his whole body shaking. The nightmares gave him dozens of sleepless nights. He hated going to bed. He hated waking up. He hated breathing. There were times when he wished he had died in that fall. He lost his passion. Will had lost his will to live.

He went on, though. Will continued going to school. He helped his mom with her new kennel. It was her dream, and he wanted to encourage it. His dream might have died, but that didn't mean his mom's had to as well.

Before all that happened, though—before Will was too scared to try again—there was the ride. It was the ride when he finally tried out his new move. It was the ride that was meant to be a showstopper. It was the ride that became a literal showstopper when the ambulance pulled up. It was the ride that he thought would be his final one. It was the ride that ended with him saying, "I'll see you soon, Dad." It was the ride that was just like this one.

Just like this one. This one.

I never should've done this, Will thought tragically. He felt his hands swinging frantically through the air. He knew what would happen next. Maybe he would be lucky this time; maybe he would actually die. I'm sorry, Kayla.

Will's back slammed into the ground and he couldn't help but grunt. Pain flooded through his chest. Oh, no, it's happening again! Oh please, please no!

The pain lessened, but Will was still struggling to breathe. Then he realized that this was nothing like before. This wasn't another collapsed lung. This was . . . this was . . . why, he had just gotten the wind knocked out of him. That was all! He wasn't killed. He wasn't severely injured. In a few minutes—heck, a few seconds!—he would perfectly fine.

A different feeling swelled through Will. This time, though, it was pure elation. It wasn't fear. The fear was gone. Okay, the fear was still there, but it was smaller. It was weaker than before. It wasn't controlling anymore. Will had at least partially conquered it. He had expected this ride to be devastating. He had expected it to end as tragically as the one the year before. But no. It wasn't the best ride ever, that was for certain. But he survived. He was in one piece.

Dad, I'm not ready. I wasn't ready then, and I'm not ready now. I'm sorry for breaking my promise, but I'm going to fix that now. It'll be a long time before I see you again. Dad, I almost made the choice to come to you a lot sooner. I'm sorry. That would've been a horrible mistake. There are people here who need me. And I need them.

Will suddenly realized what had ended his career a year earlier. It wasn't the failed stunt. It wasn't the injuries. Sure, those hindered it, but they didn't end it. Will ended his career. He ended it when he decided that his dreams weren't worth the risk. He ended it when he became a slave to his fear. He ended it when he gave up. Winners never quit and quitters never win: one of his dad's favorite sayings. Why had he ignored that?

Snowboarding was Will's passion. There was no doubt about that. When he was on the slopes, he felt free. Will was bird, free to soar and go wherever he pleased. He was closer to his father. He could do anything when he tried. Wasn't that what Kayla had been saying all along?

Lying there in the cold, wet snow, Will made a decision: he was back. And when he said he was back, he meant he was back for good. He had missed it so much. The past year had been the worst of his life, and he only made it harder on himself. Will wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. He wanted to snowboard. He knew what his mom meant now when she said she missed his smile. Will missed his smile too. He had finally found it again.

"Somebody go get some help!"

Will became aware of someone grasping his arm. He realized that he had been too caught up in his thoughts to pay attention to what was going on around him. Kayla was kneeling beside him, yelling at Sam and Dink. Will grinned.

"Ah!" he shouted, sitting up suddenly. Kayla gasped and groaned.

Will removed his goggles and began to laugh. The joy swelling through him was something he hadn't felt in a long time. It was something he hadn't felt since a year earlier; since he had been snowboarding. "I got ya!" he said giddily.

"Were you playing roadkill on us?" Kayla asked indignantly.

Guess Donald taught me a thing or two. "Yeah," Will told her, "but I'm okay." Will loved the sound of those words. He hadn't said them in a long time. At least, he hadn't said them and meant it. How many times had his told his mom or his friends that he was just fine? Every time it was lie. Not now. Not this time. He said it again, just to hear those sweet words once more, and to assure himself that they were true. "I'm a little sore, but . . . I'm okay."

Will truly was okay. For the first time in a year, he was okay.

Ta-da! How did you guys like that? I found Will's character to be very interesting, and I thought there was a lot to be explored with him. Maybe someday when I'm less busy I could write a multi-chapter story about his past. What do you think?

I only edited this once or twice, so I apologize for any grammar mistakes that slipped through. And again, I know nothing about snowboarding, so I apologize for any mistakes with that too.

Be sure to review/favorite if you liked the story! I love hearing your feedback. Again, this is my first story outside of the Lab Rats fandom, so I'm curious to see how it goes! I hope you liked it!

Well, it's still Christmas where I live, so Merry Christmas everybody! :D Bye!

~ Rosie