"Why won't she pick up?" a very disgruntled and worried Joe demanded, "She always picks up!"

"Have you thought to consider she might be busy?" Darren asked.

"Busy with what? We were all supposed to get together today! Then all the girls bailed, and I'm just calling to find out why!" his frustration was coming mostly from the fact that he was very worried about Lauren, no one had heard from her in a couple of days.

"Try Meredith," Joey whispered to Brian.

"No use, I've been trying her for a while."

"Julia won't answer either," Darren added.

"I bet they're all just out for manicures, or something," Joe tried to reassure himself, "yeah, manicures, their hands would be occupied, so they can't answer or answer or text back,"

"Joe, no offense, but that's stupid. The girls would tell us what they were doing if that's what they were doing."

"I'm going to call again," he pressed the 2 button to call Lauren. It rang seven times before the voicemail picked it up.

"Did somebody call Lauren Lopez? Sorry, she's busy now; she will probably get back to you soon! Leave a message at the beeeeep!"

"Lo, you guys bailed on us, and we don't know why, give me a call back?" he didn't bother saying who it was, he had already left enough messages to get that across.

"Joe, calm down," Dylan said reassuringly, "I'm sure they're fine."

"Dylan, I wouldn't talk too soon," Joey said, pointing at Darren, his face showed pain and worry.

"What is it?" Joe demanded, Darren waved him away.

"Yeah, thanks Devin, we'll be over soon. Bye." He hung up and looked around at the anxious faces, "We gotta get to the hospital."

Joe was up and out of the restaurant before Dylan was done talking to the waiter and handing over the money. By the time everyone else was coming out, his seat belt was buckled and the engine started. Darren, Joey, Dylan, and Brian piled in, all looking equally worried. "What happened? Why do we have to go to the hospital?" he asked as he pulled out and speeded down the road.

"They got in a wreck. They were going through on a green light and some idiot ran the red light into the traffic, kid hit them, they spun out and hit another car, nasty wreck…"

Joe slowed down, thinking it would be better to get there as visitors and not patients, "They all can't fit in one car, who was in it? Obviously not Devin."

"Ah, Julia," Darren looked pained at this, "Meredith," he look apologetically at Brian, "Jamie-Lyn," a non-committal noise escaped Joey's lips, "and Lauren."

Joe had known it was coming, but it was still a shock.

"Joe!" Dylan yelled.

Blinking to clear his vision, Joe saw the car in front of him had stopped, and he slammed on the brakes, narrowly missing them ending up in the hospital too. He vaguely heard the conversation in which Joey, Darren, and Dylan had.

"So Sango, Denise, Devin, Britney, and All were in the other car, saw the whole thing, but didn't get hurt?"

"Yeah, Britney called 9-1-1 as soon as she saw the other car coming, and Denise stopped the car as well. The whole intersection was blocked for about an hour and a half. The girls who got hurt are all in the hospital, some are doing better than others."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, Jamie-Lyn is doing pretty well, just a couple broken bones, I think. Meredith is beat up pretty bad, still unconscious from what Devin told me."

"How 'bout Lauren?" somebody asked quietly.

"The worst, the first car slammed right into where she was, the doctors think she might have a concussion. She's got some broken ribs, and she is till unconscious too."

Joe groaned, and then pulled into the parking lot. No sooner was the car off, then he was sprinting towards the emergency room. He entered the building, breathless, and demanded to know if he could see the girls.

"They've been transferred to the overnight ward. You'll have to go there."

On his way out, Joe relayed the information to everybody else, and they all ran over. When they finally made it out of the elevator, a ride that seemed like an eternity, they saw the girls who hadn't crashed and rushed over to them. "Can we see them?" Joe asked anxiously.

"No, not yet, we can't even see Julia, who's doing the best." Britney answered.

"I knew something was wrong! What were you guys doing that you couldn't tell us?"

"Well, it's you and Darren's birthdays this week, so we were planning a party. Then that stupid teenager just had to run the red light! I mean, it was obvious!"

An uncomfortable silence fell around the room, everyone waiting to be let in. Finally, after what seemed like hours, a nurse came out. Joe stood up and walked over with Devin to find out what she had to say.

"Ok, everyone is conscious and doing fine, except for Miss Lopez. So you can come now. Room 8, right down the hall, it's a community room, we figured such close friends could handle it."

Joe ran down the hall, wanting to see Lauren, make sure they weren't hurting her any more. He reached the room, took a deep breath and turned the handle and walked in. Most of the girls were sitting up, and Julia pointed to the bed in the corner and said weakly, "over there." Joe crossed the room in a couple strides, and had his heart wrenched from his chest as he looked at Lauren, seeing the obvious pain she was in. She had multiple tubes going into her, and she looked even tinier than normal. Bruises were forming on her arms, legs and face, she had a black eye. Her brown hair was twisted and tangled from the afternoon's events, and Joe wanted nothing more than her to wake up.