WARNINGS: CAR CRASH, MILD TO MODERATE DESCRIPTION OF INJURIES, MILD MENTION OF BLOOD

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OCs

Heartbeat

Your life can be one thing one minute and something entirely different the next. It can change in an instant. Jenny knew that. I'd even say she knew that better than almost anyone after the incident with Fear.

However, she never saw this coming. She never wanted to see this coming.

Her parents were out of state on work, and her grandfather was getting yet another award, and after what happened last time they were at his house alone, he was a little worried about leaving them there again. Therefore, the siblings stayed with their aunt. The aunt who disapproved of their relationship.

Aunt Lidia hadn't spoken to them the entire drive to her house the night their parents left, and Jack and Jenny didn't dare speak to fill the silence, afraid it would set their aunt off, and she would start ranting about how brothers and sisters weren't meant to be in romantic relationships and how incest used to be punishable by death so many years ago and that it was disgusted and depraved and yada yada yada.

Aunt Lidia's words had long since stopped affecting them. They only saw her on holidays when the entire family got together, and every holiday was the same prejudiced babble, and their parents were always quick to set Lidia straight, probably why she was being quiet today instead of raving about this and that.

"Now…"

Spoke too soon.

"I don't want any of that… relationship of yours in my house," Lidia sneered in the rearview mirror. "You will be in different rooms on different sides of the house. You will see each other at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and that will be it. Have a problem with it? I have no qualms about making you sleep outside. When you are in my house, you follow my rules."

"I think I'd rather take my chances with the dog house," Jenny muttered, grabbing Jack's hand, if only to spite her.

"Listen here, young lady," Lidia snapped, whirling around and pointing her finger at Jenny for emphasis.

"Aunt Lidia!" Jack suddenly screamed, and Lidia turned around just in time to swerve the avoid the headlights coming directly at them, but it wasn't enough.

They clipped the car they'd nearly crashed into, but that wasn't the end of it. This was far from the close call Jenny hoped it was, and she realized this as they skidded to the side of the road, the tires hitting the edge of the street harshly and causing their car to flip, propelling them down a downhill slope.

They say that time slows down when you're in a crisis, but for Jenny, time sped up. It was like a movie on fast forward, and she wasn't sure if that was how the crash really was or if her mind was blurring the moments together.

Jenny only heard the sound of shattering glass, the crushing and creaking of aluminum as it bent under the force of each collision with the ground. She could feel the sting of glass embedding itself in her skin, and sticky blood was running down her surely bruised form. The only thing she could see was a whirlwind of colors: green, brown, red, auburn, blue, black… it was all going too fast for her to keep up.

Jenny wasn't even entirely aware when the car stopped moving. It was hard to tell because the world was still spinning long after the car had come to rest on the road at the bottom of the slope. When Jenny was sure that the worst was over, she peeled her forehead from the leather seat in front of her and tried to get a grip on her surroundings, a feat that was easier said than done with her head as foggy as it was.

Okay… five senses. That's a good place to start.

Touch… she could feel the leather seat, littered with broken glass, under her as she stretched her fingers out over the smooth texture. She could feel something- blood, she soon realized- sliding down her skin, and pain rocketed through her entire being with each breath, and she didn't even want to think about what it would be like if she moved.

Sound… she couldn't hear much of anything with the high pitched ringing in her ears, but she could pick up on the squeal of the car alarm, the dripping of something, the wet plop as what ever it was hit the pavement. She picked up on the noise of something pattering against what was left of the car. She could hear her own ragged breathing.

Smell… she smelled blood and gasoline. The dripping she heard was probably from the gas tank if it had been punctured during the crash. She smelled… grass and the scent you detect after it rains…

Taste… she tasted metal. She tasted salt and rust and… and fear, such a familiar sensation that always left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth.

Sight… she pried open her eyes, not having even realized that they were closed, and she immediately regretted it. Everything was fuzzy and blurry, like she was seeing it through a long tunnel or through someone else's eyes. She saw the leather seat in front of her, the moonlight glinting off the shards of glass surrounding her, the shards that had been scattered across the entire car from the shattered windows and the cracked wind shield that was missing pieces of glass. She could see the crimson color of her own blood trailing over her pale (too pale, she noted) skin, and her pink sweatshirt was ripped in several places. She'd lost her shoes at some point during the crash, leaving her feet bare, and her blue running shorts did not offer much protection from the glass, so her legs were covered in scrapes and cuts.

She forced herself to turn her head to the side, and she nearly vomited as the world swam around her with the movement, and all she could see was a thick tree, the brown bark, the green grass, the way the shallow beams of moonlight made the rain drops shine. It had been raining all day, she remembered, rather dumbly.

She had started to pass out again before her head suddenly jerked up as she realized something, and she couldn't even bring herself to care about the sharp bolt of dizziness and pain it sent through her cranium.

The seat next to her was empty.

Jack's seat was empty.

Jenny was wide awake now as she glanced around, noticing that she was the only one in the car. With how quickly the car had been moving, Aunt Lidia and Jack had probably fallen out.

She had to find Aunt Lidia. She had to find Jack.

They were at a weird, side ways angle. There were trees on the right side of the car, wedging the doors closed, and on the left side of the car, she could only see grass. The ground. Great, she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Or more accurately, a tree and a hard place.

There was only one other way out.

The sun roof had somehow remained intact during the crash, and Jenny ripped her seat belt from the buckle and allowed it to lash back into place with a shink before she pulled herself out of her seat using the two seats in front of her, crying out as pain seared in her left arm. Yep. That limb was definitely broken.

Jenny ignored the fire that had consumed her arm (not literally, thankfully, but if there was gasoline dripping on the ground… let's just hope there wasn't a spark to ignite it), and she sat on the leather central console, prying at the glass separating her from her escape route.

It didn't budge.

Jenny growled in frustration, and she picked up a good sized rock from the floor (she was willing to bet that was the culprit that had delivered the cut to her forehead and the concussion that came with it) before she turned her face away and slammed it into the window as hard as she could.

Glass rained down on her with a mighty shatter, and the pieces barely grazed her arm, which was covering her head, stinging more than anything else, as she moved the rock around to break any jagged shards that had stubbornly stayed connected to the window.

Jenny dropped the rock, and she forced herself to stand, ignoring the exhaustion that had settled deep in her bones and the bruises that flared up, begging her to stop moving, but she didn't give into the pleads of her injuries. She forged ahead. For Jack.

Jenny stood on the center console and placed her hands on the top of the car on either side of her before she used what little strength she had left to heave herself out of the space.

The opening was a tight fit, but it was relatively easy for Jenny to slip out of it… until she started to pull her legs out of the car.

Jenny yelped as a sharp piece of glass she had missed sliced deep into her leg, and she focused on the night sky, refusing to look at what was surely a disgusting and bloody injury as she maneuvered her way around the shard of glass and out of the car, sitting on the top of the wrecked vehicle.

Jenny swung her legs around, and she slid herself off of the car, groaning as she hit the road. The pavement scraped her legs, biting into her knees with a sudden pain that was nothing compared to the agony the rest of her body was in, and she used her hands to propel herself further along the road.

The rain soaked her body, dampening her clothes and drenching her brown hair, as she crawled (probably looking rather pitiful in doing so, but she was determined to find her brother… the love of her life) along the street, ignoring the slashes it left on her knees as the rough ground ripped the skin off of her legs and hands.

Jenny blinked the rain out of her eyes, and she noticed something… a brown and auburn lump. She hurriedly rushed towards it… well, as hurriedly as she could when her only way to get there was by crawling since she didn't think she could stand without falling over.

It was Aunt Lidia. Her plain beige skirt was torn, and her matching jacket was lying open, the buttons having been ripped off during the crash, to expose her white shirt, which was dotted with blood. Her auburn hair had come out of its neat bun, hanging around her face like snakes.

Jenny checked her pulse…

It was there. Strong and even, and a quick glance to the blood (a relatively small amount compared to the blood that was streaming down Jenny's face) caking in her hair proved her aunt had gotten off easy with only a head injury and a few shallow cuts. Jenny wasn't a doctor, but she knew her aunt likely had a concussion and was unconscious, but she would be fine.

Meanwhile, she had no idea where Jack was.

Jenny looked up, swiping her bloody and wet hair our of her eyes, squinting against the downpour as she searched for even a glimpse of her boyfriend.

Her eyes scanned the road, and… she found him.

A small form was laying several feet away, and Jenny half crawled, half stumbled towards him, collapsing at his side, and she rolled her brother over to get a better look at him.

Jack looked just as bad as her, if not worse. Blood covered half of his face, reminding her of war paint, and his left leg was bent at an odd angle. Blood was seeping out of a large cut on his stomach, and bruises lined his entire body; Jenny couldn't tell if there was any internal bleeding, and even if there was, she didn't know how to help him.

Desperation gripping her, she placed her ear on his chest, listening for the sound she could recognize from a million miles away.

Only silence greeted her.

"No," she sobbed, her voice loud in a world where the only sounds were the car alarm blaring and the rain slapping against the pavement like bullets. "No!"

Jenny wouldn't accept it. The love of her life could not be dead.

Jenny had never taken a CPR class, but she had seen it done on TV and one of her friend's had a CPR instructions magnet on the fridge (her older sister was a baby sitter). She had never truly paid enough attention to it, but… she hoped she knew enough.

She laid her hand on his chest before placing the other on top of the first, and she pressed down as hard as she could multiple times.

She prayed his ribs weren't broken. The last thing he needed was to receive a punctured lung because of her ministrations.

She pounded on his chest multiple times before she pinched his nose, parted his lips, and breathed into his mouth.

Nothing.

"Come on, Jack!" she wailed, feeling her heart breaking inside of her chest. "I can't do this without you. I can't live with you! Please!" she begged as she continued to press on his chest, new tears mixing with the old as they fell like diamonds to the pavement, dripping onto Jack's face as she breathed into his mouth once again.

This time, he breathed.

Jack coughed, leaning his head to the side as he spit some blood out, and while that may have worried Jenny, she was still unbelievably relieved because at least Jack was breathing.

"Jack!" she exclaimed, her smile appearing on her face. Her smile was the sunlight after a rainstorm.

Jack turned to her, managing the smallest grin. "Jenny," he murmured, voice so weak and yet so strong.

"Jack," she repeated. Tears of unadulterated relief streamed down her face to join the tears of her sorrows on the pavement.

Around them, the rain slowed to a stop.

Jack didn't remember much when he woke up, which alarmed him. He recalled being in the car with Jenny and Aunt Lidia, a lot of loud noises that made him want to cover his ears, a tsunami of pain, and then… Jenny's smile. And that was it.

"Jack!"

Jack swallowed, eyes blinking hard against the harsh hospital lights. He wanted to turn his head, but he couldn't.

"Mom?" he murmured, voice so brittle and fearful.

His mother appeared in his line of vision, and she took his hand, whispering to him soothingly:

"It's okay, Jackie. I'm here, and your father's with Jenny. You have a moderate concussion. You have a neck brace on, but it's just to make sure you don't move your head too much."

"Where's Jenny?" That was practically the only word Jack had registered. Was she okay? He remembered her leaning over him, remembered her smile, but he couldn't recall anything after that or anything about her condition.

"She's okay," his mother answered. "She's in the room down the hall."

Before Jack could ask how she was doing and if he could see her, the door was opened by a nurse with short black hair that reached her shoulders, warm brown eyes, and a name tag that read Maria St. Clare.

"Oh, hello," she smiled, looking up from her clipboard. "I'm your nurse, Maria. I'm glad to see you're awake," she stated in a high pitched, cheerful voice, but it wasn't annoying. On the contrary, it was comforting. Her voice was like a light at the end of a long tunnel. Sweet, happy, and bright. It was calming for the injured boy.

She clicked her pen as she came to stand at the end of his bed.

"How are you feeling?" she wondered.

Jack shrugged. "Thoughts are a little jumbled, but no pain."

"That's normal with a concussion," Maria responded as she jotted down some notes on her clipboard. "Overall, your injuries are healing quite nicely. Your left leg is broken, so no soccer for a few weeks," she giggled, and he laughed with her. "You had a few cuts that required stitches. You also had a lot of bruises, but those will heal up on their own. You had a deep cut on your stomach from some shrapnel, but it didn't hit any organs. You did lose a lot of blood, and you will have to be careful about what you eat since the injury was so close to your stomach and intestines, but if you stay away from strenuous activity, watch your diet, and follow the instructions to take care of the injury, I estimate healing time to be five to six weeks at the longest. You did have some internal bleeding on your back and shoulders, but the doctor fixed you right up," she said.

Jack wondered if all nurses talked like this. When he was younger and fell out of a tree and hit his head, his nurse had been all business, stiff, and he felt like she would tell him he was dying any minute. This nurse, however, made even his worst injuries seem like a skinned knee, and Jack found that comforting.

"We can probably take that off now," Maria stated as she gently removed the neck brace, allowing Jack to move his neck, wincing at the pops he heard.

"Can I see my sister?" Jack questioned, immediately.

Maria and his mom chuckled.

"As long as you don't mind going there in a wheelchair," Maria responded.

Jenny awakened to pain. That was it. Pain.

She felt strange, like she was floating above everything, and while the sensation dulled the pain, it didn't vanish it entirely, so she could still feel the dull throb in her broken arm, the sting of multiple cuts, the ache in countless bruises. A sharp pain originated in her leg, rising and falling in levels on what she had dubbed the 'pain scale'. That spot on her leg alone was around a nine.

She remembered the accident- in fact, she remembered it a little too clearly for her liking. She remembered the cold rain that drenched her to the bone, remembered the agony that tore through her leg when she sliced it on that piece of glass, remembered the rough pavement under as knees as she crawled along the road.

Jack. She remembered Jack.

"Jack!" Jenny exclaimed, trying to sit up, but she failed miserably as pain shot through her entire being and tubes restricted her movement, leading her to grab the closest object (the IV) to keep herself from falling back to the bed… or falling off of the bed.

"Woah!" a voice chuckled, although it sounded a little panicked at first. "Easy there, tiger."

A hand reached for her, gently lowering her back to the bed, and her dad appeared in her line of view.

"Jack," Jenny repeated. "Is he okay? Dad, he wasn't breathing, and I couldn't hear his heartbeat-"

"I know," her dad whispered, trying at a soothing tone of voice, but it had no effect on his hyperventilating daughter. "But he's okay, Jenny-Bear. You saved him. The doctors said he wouldn't have made it if not for you. You saved him."

"Where is he? I need to see him. I need to know he's okay!"

It wasn't that Jenny didn't believe her father, but she needed to see for herself that Jack was breathing and alive.

She got her wish.

"I'm right here, Jenny."

Jenny turned around to see her brother standing in the doorway, being pushed in a wheelchair by a dark haired nurse with their mother following close behind.

Overall, he didn't look too bad. He had a cast on his left leg, spanning from his foot all the way to half way up his thigh. There were a few small bandages on the cuts on his face and arms, and one cut on his elbow had stitches, but any other injuries must've been covered by the hospital gown.

And he was smiling.

The nurse rolled the wheelchair over to the bed, and Jack and Jenny immediately embraced each other.

For several moments, they stayed locked in the embrace, finding solace in each other's arms, before they turned the hug into a kiss that had Jenny seeing stars. Their parents grinned, and the nurse respectfully looked away, but she didn't frown or scowl, despite knowing they were siblings. If anything, she smiled wider.

Jenny pulled back only slightly to lay her head on Jack's chest.

"I thought I lost you," Jenny sobbed.

"You're never going to lose me, Jenny," Jack promised, running his hand over her hair.

Jenny didn't respond. She was too busy listening to the sound of her one true love's heartbeat.

Later that evening…

"Lidia, I know you don't approve of their relationship, but the fact that you were too busy criticizing them about it to watch the road is… is something else," Jack and Jenny's dad, Steven, stated, disgust evident in his eyes at the actions of his sister.

"You think I wanted this to happen?" Lidia demanded. "I'm lying in a hospital bed. Do you really think I wanted this?"

"Lidia," Lauren, Jack and Jenny's mom, said, voice disturbingly quiet and eyes cold and blank, like ice. "You have a few cuts and a concussion. Jack had internal bleeding and a stab wound in his stomach. Jenny had to get ten stitches for a cut on her leg that she got climbing out of the car you crashed to find her brother."

"Her boyfriend," Lidia sneered.

"Yes," Steven replied without missing a beat. "The love of her life. Her brother. Her boyfriend. Her best friend. Your nephew. Do you even care that they got hurt because of your mistakes?"

"No, Steven. I don't care. It would be better if people like them were gone from the face of the earth."

Silence descended over them like a heavy cloud following Lidia's cruel words.

"People like them?" Steven murmured, voice so quiet, it could barely be heard, yet it made Lidia shrink back ever so slightly. "If you mean good people with more kindness in their little finger than you have in your whole body, then, yes. People like them don't deserve to be victims of hate, but because of people like you, people like them are dying breed."

Steven stormed out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

"Lidia," Lauren said, turning back to the woman. "I don't believe you hate Jack and Jenny, but I think you've fooled yourself into believing it. You can't accept them, so you tell yourself you hate them, and you don't even try to understand them. You simply tell yourself that they're not your family, and one day, you will regret pushing your entire family away because of your own pride and your refusal to change."

The door clicked shut behind Lauren Randell, neé Handel, leaving Lidia Randell alone in a too big and too silent hospital room with only the beeping of the machines around her and her own thoughts for company.

That year, Lidia Samantha Randell spent Christmas alone, as she spent every holiday from thereafter.

Thank you!