A/N: Hi readers! If you opened this up, I'm glad you're giving this a chance. It's been a brain child of mine for almost a year, but I've finally gotten over a horrible writer's block, and hope to turn this into something substantial and fun. I apologize for the eh-ish summary, but I hope to entertain you all. It'll start off slow, and it'll be very heavy. I love reviews and critiques, but please make sure they're constructive. I already have the second half of the prelude done, and have started chapter one. Happy reading!
May 17th, 1997: Fresh Meadows, Queens
It happened so quickly.
Like lightning in a thunderstorm, the sphere of pure energy had pulsed outward, completely destroying homes in an 10 block radius. It was only after smoke began to engulf Fresh Meadows that the earth-shattering boom could be heard, even out on Roosevelt Island.
The smoke mushroomed, billowing so high that it was visible from Jersey.
Traffic came to a halt across New York parkways, a mix of tremors, and the awe and horror. Fresh Meadows was a mess of smoke and ash.
It would take three days to find survivors under the destroyed eastern sector of Fresh Meadows. However, it was approximately four hours into the initial search that newly recruited firefighter Joey Lucas found a little girl, safely shielded by an overturned, scorched, Honda Civic hatchback, nestled where the trunk was, though the trunk's door was long lost. She had a long cut running straight across her forehead, blood leaking over her entire face, and her knees and palms were cut. Somehow, the little girl had survived, when no other survivors could be found in a two block radius of where she was, which was incredible close to where the blast seemed to come from.
She seemed like a miracle amongst chaos, a messiah at world's end, though her cries told a different story.
"Mommy? Fee?" The little girl babbled, eyes welling with tears that left clean, pale streaks of flesh across her bloody face.
Scooping her into his arms, Lucas tried to sooth her. "Sweetheart, you're okay. We'll find you your family." The firefighter spoke softly, hugging her firmly against him, his heart raced in tandem with hers, his pity of her condition controlling him.
He tried to coax her, but she continued to sob out "Mommy? Fee?" over and over, as she was hauled to an ambulance.
He stayed with her as they rode to North Shore Hospital, her intelligent jade green eyes haunting him as if they were filled with ghosts.
"RORY?"
Lucas' head snapped towards the door, as he sat in the hospital room where the young girl was placed. Caroline Masters, age 5, third grader.
The door opened, revealing a man in his late 30s. He stood in the doorway, staring at the child's unexpectedly stable condition. He breathed for a fraction of a second, and then rushed to her side.
"Oh sweetheart, my girl, my baby girl" he choked back a sob, kneeling next to the young girl, kissing her forehead, running her fingers of her blood-matted blonde bangs.
"Sir," a nurse stood in the doorway, hair askew. She looked like she didn't know whether to glare and snap, or cry.
Lucas stood up, signaling for her to let it go.
The firefighter and the man, Jack Masters, father of Caroline, shared words, before the former gave him a few moments alone with his child.
He held one of her tiny hands in both of his.
He sat contemplatively for hours, clutching his young daughter, whose mouth was clad in an oxygen mask.
"Daddy."
His head snapped toward her face. Her eyes were open.
"I'm sorry," she cried out.
"No, no baby, there's nothing to be sorry about, you're okay. You're okay." He soothed, but she shook her head erratically as her heartbeat picked up.
"I tried to save them daddy, I swear."
"Baby, you can't save anyone from a bomb."
"But it was Fee daddy."
He froze.
"-she got so mad at mommy, and I tried to raise my shield like mommy told me, but Fee made the lights go out. And then everything was burnings and smoky and I was tossed and couldn't find them," she shook as she relayed the recent memory. Jack stilled, a chill creeping up his spine. He realized that his wife and daughter were gone.
And worse than that, one of his babies was now in danger.
"Sweetie. Rory look at me. Sweetie," he whispered with emphasis, and jade green eyes finally met identical ones. "Ror, you can't tell anyone this. Okay? No one can know what you think you saw."
Caroline nodded twice, eyes wide. Unadulterated fear stood in her father's kind eyes. They would haunt her, just as hers would haunt Joey Lucas'.
Because both green sets held hidden knowledge, and fear for the future.