_Jade_

Am I dead? I don't feel dead…What's happened? Where am I? My body hurts…all over.

I turned my head to the right, splitting pain shooting down my back and I grit my teeth with a groan of effort.

My memories are cloudy…what happened?

I can start to get foggy sounds of things moving by my ears, but the picture wasn't clear to me yet. Things flashed behind my closed eyes and I shifted them back and forth frantically, the lights streaking across the black canvas laid out before me. I began to regain feeling in my outer extremities, my arms and legs. Vision was still down for the count, but the sounds I was hearing began to take the form of a man's voice, frantically spewing noises that i couldn't comprehend. To my dismay, as I began to sense my body once more, pain began to seep into my bones and make me moan with discomfort. Why am I in so much pain? Again came the male's voice, a little clearer...but no words could be discerned amidst the calamity of beeping, whirring, yelling and creaking. I cringed when a sharp scream pierced my right ear, my entire body jolting to the side and i cried out in panic when my body was alit on fire. My skin itched and the throbbing agony of the muscles protesting against me took over all priority in my brain. I blacked out again.

I woke then, to the sharp tang of antiseptics and the scratchy feel of linen against my raw skin. The steady staccato beat of a clock came to my ears, followed by the off-beat clicking of a machine. I still could not see, much to my growing despair, but it seemed as though all of my other senses were up and working as normally as they would any other day of my life. Wait...what life? I don't even know where I am….Just then, a door opened and closed, the sound of light footfalls echoed in the room, aside from the beeping and ticking. I recognized two separate tempos of the steps, and I tilted my head towards the sound.

"You're awake?" Came the unmistakable voice of my best friend and half-brother, John.

"I'll go retrieve the others," A female voice I couldn't place just yet spoke, and the door reopened and closed. John's weight pressed down on the left of my bed just slightly, like he was leaning over me.

"You with us, Jade?" He asked, worry laced in the tone of his voice. He laid a hand on my forehead. "Don't worry, Rose is getting a few of the others, we've been anxious since you last woke up."

My eyebrows drew together as I processed what he said. How long ago was that…? I took in a deep breath, and with a strained effort, managed to push air through my throat to utter the question I thought to myself.

"Well, Jade, um….You've been in a coma for a little over three months, and you woke up for the first time last week! We were all very excited, but you went back under almost as soon as you woke up. The doctors were afraid you'd never actually manage to stay conscious." John relayed all this to me breathlessly, and my heart dropped with every word.

They didn't expect me to wake up? Who all was waiting for me to wake then?

My head started hurting when the door opened for the third time today, and a myriad of voices filled the once-silent room. I distinguished between the voice of a few of my friends, only some of the voices being new to me. I heard Jane and Jake, both distant cousins of mine, as well as Feferi and Eridan, though i honestly don't know why she brought her brother along with her, as well as Sollux and Dave. I tried sitting up once I realized Dave was here, but I only succeeded in hurting myself and getting winded. As I lay there waiting for the throbbing to subside from my sides and lungs, I felt the bed once again dip under the weight of someones' butt.

"Jade, you're actually awake," The soft voice of Dave spoke next to me, and tears began welling in my eyes. I don't understand why I'm reacting like this though, I always see Dave, it's not like anything's happened to him. "Do you remember anything? Anything at all?"

"The doctor'th th'aid that you'd probably lo'th'e a little bit of your memory." Chimed in the heavily lisped voice of Dave's bestie, Sollux.

Lose my memory…? Seriously?! I couldn't ever do that!

Dave's hand grabbed mine, and he held it up to his chest, squeezing it lightly. "Do you remember what happened?" He repeated.

I shook my head side to side, since I doubt I could say it aloud. There was a sharp intake of breath from my friend and his hand loosened its grip on mine. He stood up then, the weight leaving my bed and making the covers cold.

"Alright, everyone out except John and Sollux. Somebody go find Karkat, text me when he's here but don't let him in. Tell the doctors Jade doesn't have any recollection of the car crash and that I will be catching her up on what happened, hopefully to jog her memory. Now out!" Dave ordered, the tone of his voice changing drastically while he commanded the rest of the welcoming party. Shuffling quickly started up and within seconds the room was cleared, and Dave again returned to my side, John on the other and I guess Sollux was standing behind Dave.

There was a long moment of silence, before it was broke by myself. "I can't see you…." I whispered quietly. A hand was placed on my forehead once again, and there was soft sigh before Dave spoke.

"The doctors said if you were to ever wake up, you'd never see again. I couldn't stop you from getting hurt….Because I wasn't good enough you ended up getting shrapnel from your car embedded deep within your eyes. The doctors could remove it, but not without severely damaging your nerves and tissues in your eyes. They said the most you'd ever get to see was light-" His voice choked off the rest of his sentence, and he laid his head down on my chest as a sob clawed its way out of his throat. "I'm so sorry Jade,"

My eyes watered, not from the devastating news that I was blind, but because Dave was actually crying. This boy has never once opened up to someone, never ever trusted them with anything and has especially never EVER cried. This surprised me and scared me beyond the fact I would never see again in my life. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and held him close. "D-Dave, don't cry please….I don't know what happened but at least I'm alive alright?" I ran my hands through his hair, tears leaking out of my damaged eyes and rolling down the sides of my face. My chest tightened in dismay and I continued on. "You saved me, okay? Who cares if I can't see anyways, I'll have Terezi teach me how to smell and taste as well as she does!"

Dave pulled back from me, sniffling. "Alright, fine." He heaved a deep breath. "But let's get down to business okay? How far back do you remember?"

I pondered his question, searching through my memories before I came across the most recent memory I had. It wasn't much really, I hadn't exactly retained a lot of memories as it is after coming to my second time