Spencer slowly stirred into consciousness to a pounding in her head and the sensation of something trickling down her cheek. It took her a moment to get her bearings but when she did, her heart leapt into her throat. There had been a car driving right for them and she'd been forced to jerk the wheel to the left, sending her car rolling down an embankment. She distinctly remembered the odd sensation in her stomach while the car had been rolling, coupled with the sound of screaming. She wasn't sure if that had been her, Hanna, Emily or Aria. Maybe all of them.
Spencer's eyes sprang open and she inhaled sharply when she realized that she was staring right at the windshield. Somehow the car was tilted forward, almost as if they were on the edge of some kind of hill. She couldn't see through the dirt covering the windshield so as far as she knew they could have been on the edge of another steep embankment.
"Aria?" Spencer carefully turned her head to the right. Her stomach sank at the sight of Aria slumped forward in her seat. There was blood on her head but Spencer couldn't see the source of the blood. Spencer tried to reach out, only to cry out in pain when she moved her arm.
"Spencer?"
"Emily?" Spencer's eyes automatically flicked to the rear-view mirror. It was smashed but she could still see Emily staring back at her, her eyes wide with alarm. "Are you hurt?"
"I-I don't think so." Emily answered, experimentally moving her limbs. "No, I think I'm okay."
"Hanna?"
"I don't know, she's still unconscious." Emily's voice was suddenly tainted with panic. She could see from her position that Aria obviously wasn't conscious either. "We have to get out of here, Spencer. Can you get free?"
"We're on some kind of hill." Spencer's voice was shaky with nerves but her mind was already racing to come up with a solution to the problem they were in. "I don't know how steep it is. If I take my seatbelt off I'm going to fall against the dash and the car might roll forward. We could be on the edge of a cliff for all I know."
Emily tried her door but found that it was jammed shut. "Damn it. I can't get out. We have to risk it, nobody's just going to drive along to help us and we don't know how hurt Aria and Hanna are."
"Exactly!" Spencer exclaimed in frustration. "Another reason not to move them. Didn't you see the episode of Grey's Anatomy where the guy moved his son and…?"
"Okay!" Emily interrupted loudly. "But that was a different situation. We don't have a choice right now. What if whoever drove us off the road is still out there? He could do anything to us while we're trapped in here."
Spencer huffed out a sigh but she had to admit that Emily was right. She moved her hand down, ready to unclip her seatbelt and stretched the other out in front of her to brace herself for impact with the dashboard. "Are you ready?"
Emily stretched her arm across to hold Hanna in her seat and she gave a small nod. "Just do it."
Spencer didn't give herself time to think about why the course of action she was taking was a bad idea. She unclipped her seatbelt and as she'd expected, felt forward against the dashboard. The car lurched forward and Spencer tensed, waiting for some kind of impact. It didn't come and the car stopped after seemingly only a meter or so. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, I-I think we're okay."
With a quick glance towards Emily, Spencer carefully shifted herself over to Aria's side of the car.
"Aria?" Spencer gently lifted Aria's head and winced at the sight of the cut stretching across her temple. "Aria, wake up." She gave Aria's shoulder a gentle shake but the smaller brunette still didn't wake up. "Aria!"
"Is she…?" Emily trailed off, unable to voice the thought. She could feel Hanna's chest moving beneath her hand so she knew that Hanna was okay but she wasn't close enough to the front of the car to say the same about Aria.
Spencer placed her ear next to Aria's mouth and listened intently. "She's breathing…it's really shallow, I can't…I can't see what's wrong with her."
"Get her out of the car." Emily ordered hurriedly. "Open her door and get her out."
Spencer tried the door and much to her relief it easily swung open. She unclipped Aria's seatbelt, allowing her fall forward against her. She glanced at Emily in concern. "What about you and Hanna?"
"I've got her." Emily reassured her, her hand already resting on her seatbelt. "Get out."
Spencer hesitated for a moment but her need to get Aria to safety finally won out and she took a deep breath before moving out of the car, dragging Aria with her. It was a painstaking process thanks to her injured arm but she finally managed it. She dragged Aria a few feet away from the car before slumping down on the ground with Aria resting against her chest.
Emily unclipped her seatbelt and fell forward against the driver's seat with a wince. She may not have been seriously hurt but she had her fair share of cuts and bruises from the crash itself. She waited for the car to lurch forward but it didn't move so much as an inch.
"Emily…"
Emily glanced towards Hanna and found her staring back at her through heavily lidded eyes. She moved over to her as quickly as possible. She wanted to ask if Hanna was okay but the need to get out of the car was becoming more and more urgent with every passing second. Her hands moved to Hanna's seatbelt but she couldn't unclip it. The button refused to push in. She cursed under her breath.
"Where are Spencer and Aria?!" Hanna was seemingly fully awake now, her eyes wide with panic.
"They got out, don't worry." Emily tugged frantically at Hanna's seatbelt, trying to free it. "I-I can't get it free."
Hanna tried not to look as scared as she felt. "You should get out."
Emily stared at Hanna like she'd lost her mind. She was about to say as much when she remembered something. "We're in Spencer's car. She keeps a switchblade in the glove compartment. Don't move."
"I don't think I can." Hanna muttered, letting her head fall back against her seat. "I can barely breathe, let alone move."
She watched as Emily leaned forward between the front seat and the passenger seat and reached for the glove compartment. A moment later Emily was clambering back towards her and Hanna allowed herself to relax. That is until Emily let go of the seat she was holding onto and fell back between the passenger's seat and the driver's seat. She fell against the dashboard and the car lurched forward.
"EMILY!" Spencer's voice yelled.
"I-I'm fine!" Emily called back when the car came to a stop. Her eyes were locked with Hanna's. "We're okay!" she took a breath before carefully easing herself up, trying not to jostle the car anymore that she already had.
"You need to hurry up!" Spencer insisted, her voice panicked. "Emily, what are you doing in there?! I smell gas!"
Hanna noticed that Emily was struggling a bit and reached out, offering her hand. Emily hesitated for a moment before taking it. Bracing her hand on the passenger seat, she easily pushed herself into the back, with Hanna's help.
"Did you get it?" Hanna asked anxiously. If she'd been scared before she was terrified now that Spencer had announced that the car might be leaking gas. "Emily, come on!"
Emily nodded and grabbed the seatbelt. She flicked the knife out and grabbed the belt, quickly beginning to saw through it.
"Emily!" Hanna exclaimed agitatedly when it became apparent that the process was going to be slow. The belt was barely being cut.
"I'm trying, Hanna!" Emily began to move her arm faster, gritting her teeth in pain. She almost had it, she just had to pull a little bit harder. With a final drag of the blade, the belt sprang free. Emily pulled it away from Hanna and hurriedly moved to open the door.
"Go!" She exclaimed, pushing Hanna towards the door. "Get out!"
Hanna painstakingly dragged herself out of the car, holding her ribs. Emily was right behind her, gripping her shirt to make sure that she didn't stumble. They moved away from the car and Hanna felt her heart clench in her chest at the sight of Aria.
"What's wrong with her?" she stumbled away from Emily, dropping to her knees next to Aria.
"I don't know." Spencer's cheeks were streaked with tears. "I can't wake her up. Her head is bleeding."
Emily stared down at Aria in concern. She didn't know what to do. Spencer had already pulled her jacket off to apply pressure to the wound on Aria's head but still Aria wasn't waking up. She heard a familiar sound and looked up quickly. "Do you hear that?"
Spencer wasn't listening at all because she was too focused on Aria but Hanna looked like she was trying to concentrate. "Sirens!"
"Sirens." Emily nodded, moving to crouch next to Spencer. She wasn't sure how anyone knew there had been an accident or how the ambulance had gotten there so fast but she wasn't about to question it. She placed her hand on Spencer's shaking shoulder. "Help is coming, Spence."
Spencer merely held onto Aria tighter.
XXX
Spencer swallowed heavily against the lump in her throat as she gently brushed Aria's hair from her face. A coma. That's what the doctor had said. They'd decided to put Aria into medically induced coma until the swelling on her brain decreased. If it decreased.
She moved to perch on the end of the bed, taking Aria's hand in both of her own.
"Hey." She whispered, her eyes fixed on Aria's face. She gently rubbed her thumbs over the back of Aria's hand, trying to ignore how limp it was. "You have to get better, okay? You've been asleep for hours and I know how much you hate messing up your sleep schedule."
There was no response.
Spencer cleared her throat, tears bubbling up in her eyes. "Your mom is on the way back. Your dad called her but he left a while ago. She's getting on the next plane out here so you have to wake up to see her. I know you've missed her."
Bribery obviously wasn't going to tempt Aria awake. Spencer knew it was impossible for Aria to wake up of her own volition but she still hoped.
"I don't really know why they called your mom." Spencer said, shuffling closer to Aria on the bed. "I mean you're going to be fine, you just need some sleep, right? For your brain to heal. I read into it and apparently doctors only do this in cases of extreme trauma so I don't understand what happened. You had your seatbelt on and there's nothing in the car that could have hurt you, this shouldn't happening to you. I got away from the accident with a broken wrist! It's not fair that…" she realized her voice was rising and quickly quietened down. "I'm sorry. I don't want you to worry. The doctors are going to wake you up really soon. As soon as the swelling goes down, okay? And I'm going to be right here the whole time. They already tried to kick me out once but I convinced your dad to tell them I could stay. At least he's good for something, right?"
Spencer stopped for a moment, almost waiting for a response. Of course there wasn't one. She sighed and thoughtlessly pressed her lips to Aria's knuckles. "I have to tell you something when you wake up. I-I don't know if you can hear me right now but…maybe you can. I hope you can. But this thing I have to tell you…it's pretty important and I need you to know. This whole thing has just been a wakeup call and…" she sighed, trailing off. "I just need you to get better so I can tell you, okay?" she closed her eyes, allowing unshed tears to spill down her cheeks. "Please get better."
XXX
"Are you okay?" Emily asked shakily as she watched Hanna staring at the bedspread. After spending hours in the waiting room of the hospital Emily had decided that they should go back to her house to get some rest and return to the hospital tomorrow morning.
"Am I okay?" Hanna looked up, her eyes red rimmed from crying. Emily winced, realizing her error. "One of our best friends is in a coma, of course I'm not okay. I'm the furthest thing from okay right now, Emily."
"I'm sorry." Emily looked apologetic and Hanna immediately softened.
"No, I'm sorry." Hanna reached out and took Emily's hand, gripping it tightly. "I didn't mean to snap at you, I'm just scared. What if…what if she doesn't wake up?"
"I don't know." Emily whispered, her eyes glued to their hands. "I'm scared too."
Hanna exhaled slowly, trying to distract herself from thinking about Aria. "I meant to thank you…for not leaving me today. You could have. Spencer told you she could smell gas and you stayed anyway. You risked your life for me."
"Of course I did, you're my best friend." Emily said softly.
"Is that it?" Hanna replied smoothly. Emily's eyes flicked to hers in confusion and she continued quietly. "I thought that we might die in that car today, Em. I thought it was going to blow up. But I just wanted you to get out of the car. I wanted you safe."
Emily blinked in surprise. "I don't understand. What are you trying to say, Hanna?"
"I don't know, I guess…I mean…" Hanna gave up and leaned forward, pressing her lips firmly against Emily's. Emily's eyes widened in surprise for a moment before she melted into the kiss, her hand squeezing Hanna's. The blonde pulled back after only a couple of seconds to look into Emily's eyes. "Do you understand?"
"I-I think so." Emily stuttered out, still shocked from the kiss. She noticed the worried look on Hanna's face and rushed to reassure her. "It's okay…me too." She leaned forward and reclaimed Hanna's lips with her own, kissing her deeply.
Hanna sighed into the kiss, her hands slipping down to grip the bottom of Emily's shirt. She began to pull it up only for Emily to stop her with gentle hands.
"Hanna."
"Please." Hanna pleaded between frantic kisses. "I need you, Em. Please."
Emily wavered unsurely for a moment before releasing her grip on Hanna's hands, allowing her to pull the shirt up and over her head. A moment later Hanna moved and Emily found herself on her back. She blinked up at the blonde in surprise.
Hanna was smirking despite her aching ribs at Emily's surprised expression but it quickly slipped. She leaned down and pressed her lips gently to Emily's.
"I love you." She whispered, pulling back by a fraction to stare into Emily's dark eyes. "Okay?" she began to move back but stopped when Emily's hands gripped her face.
"I love you too." Emily leaned up, kissing Hanna softly. "Okay?"
"Okay." Hanna breathed out, her eyes damp with tears. Emily lay back, pulling Hanna down with her and lightly rubbed her back.
Hanna tucked her face into Emily's neck, a sharp sob escaping her throat as her thoughts inevitably turned back to Aria, fighting for her life back at the hospital.
"It's okay." Emily whispered, struggling to keep her own tears at bay. She trailed her fingers through Hanna's hair, soft shushing sounds passing her lips. She turned her head and pressed her lips briefly to the top of Hanna's head, her eyes sliding closed. "It's going to be okay."
THE END.