Heyy guys!!! NEW STORY!! it just popped up outa nowhere!! I just cant leave it there all lonely in mi brain, can it? lol...

this is an alternate universe fic! yet again, mi first!! :D

Before you read, you need to know that: #1 No gay dads in this one...
#2 This is really sad. (well, at least for me. I almost cried writing this.)
#3 Kinda rushed. again. 3am!!
#4 No Beta. (as usual)

P.S. 5th chap of 'beyond these open roads' is completed, but not yet published. ima publish it tomorrow. i think.
3rd chap of 'of thunderstorms and falling' is still in progress (in short, still in mi brain, floating around happily.) lol :P

So yeahh... on with the storyy!! :D

disclaimer: NO POSEO NADA! (yes, looked it up on the internet) lol! it means 'I own nothing' :D clever ayy!

All she remembered is the bright light then the crash shortly after. Then next thing she felt was the pain. Everything hurt. She touched her forehead, and she felt wetness. 'Daddy?' she called out. No answer. She tasted copper on her tongue. Blood. 'Dad?' she tried once again.

Still no answer.

She turned her head to the side, and it really hurt when she did. Everything was hazy and shadowy at first, until her vision cleared up and she saw a figure beside her. It moved a little, and she barely felt it, but she did. His hand wrapped around her own. She gripped it as tight as she could.

'Daddy?'

'Princess…. Hold on. Just hold on.' He gasped out. 'Everything's… gonna be fine… Rachel…' then all of the sudden, his grip loosened (but she still held on), and then he took a deep breath.

She realizes later on that, that was his last. She realizes later on that the last word he uttered was her name. She realizes later on that no matter how hard she tried, she'll never wake up from this nightmare, because this nightmare was her very own reality.

Rachel woke up to white walls. Everything was blurry at first, and then her sight cleared up to see that she was alone. She still didn't know where she was.

Moments later, a nurse came in. A hospital. "Oh honey, you're awake!" she sounded happy, yet sad at the same time. "Are you feeling okay? Can I get you anything?" she asked kindly.

Her throat was dry, so she motioned for the water pitcher on the bedside table. The kind nurse gently poured water into the glass. She hesitantly took it.

She hadn't realized she was that thirsty until the refreshing crystal liquid hit her mouth. She drank it in all but one gulp, and then she turned to the woman. "Thank you, ma'am." Rachel gave her a warm smile.

"You can call me Sarah, sweetheart. I'm going to be your nurse while you're here." She returned the smile.

"Princess, Sarah means princess in Hebrew." Rachel said. "My dad tol-" Her expression suddenly turned sullen. It all came flooding down on her. The accident. "Daddy?!" she suddenly screamed. "Sarah? Is my dad okay? Can I please see him? Please Sarah! He was in a serious condition when I last saw him!

The older woman's face was solemn. "Honey you're da-"

"Sarah! Tell me he's okay! Please!! Tell me he's okay!!" she was completely hysterical at that point. She was sobbing madly. She knew. She knew she was alone. She just didn't want to hear it from somebody else because then, it would all become real.

A pair of arms engulfed her in a tender hug. "Honey, I'm sorry, shhhh… it's gonna be okay."

She was sobbing in Sarah's arms for what seemed like forever. She didn't leave, until she fell asleep.

When Rachel woke up hours late, she was gone. Reality struck her. She was alone in a dark room. She was going to be alone in life.

The silence just pulled her back to her father's last hours, living. The last person she had left in this world.

She took a final look at the house that she had been living in all sixteen years of her life. She's definitely going to miss the house. All the memories she had gathered all those years. The good and the bad.

She lost her mother in that house. That was one of the few bad memories she had.

Her father was all she had left. But she was mad at him for making them move. Someone offered him a job in some town in Ohio, and she was not at all happy about that. That meant a new house, a new school, and new faces. That meant only one thing- Change.

She wasn't really good with change, in fact she despised change. She only had a little of it all her life. One of the major ones was her mom passing away when she was ten, and she did not take that very well at all. She locked herself in her room for three days straight. When she finally went out, she was attacked by her dad in a great, big embrace. He didn't let go for a long time. They were just there sitting, outside her bedroom door, sobbing. Just the two of them.

She was shaken from her reverie when her dad called her. "It's time to leave, Princess." He called out, using the nickname he knew she loved.

She sighed dramatically. "Must we really?" she said with a pout.

He rolled his eyes at her feeble attempt to persuade him to not move. Again. For what seemed like the millionth time.

She huffed, really aggravated, and got in the car and slammed the door shut.

"Princess, you know we have to do this. I thought you'd be ready by now. You've known for a while you know."

"But daddy! All my friends are here. I don't want to move to some town and start over again! You know I hate it when something changes." She whined.

"I'm sorry darling, but we have to." He leaned over and kissed her forehead.

She once again, huffed and didn't speak to him for the rest of the trip.

It was already dawn when they finally saw the 'welcome to LIMA, OH' sign. She sighed loudly at the sight.

They were at a stoplight and her dad turned to her and was halfway through saying "welcome home" when crash, went her world.

She was sobbing when she came back from the memory.

She didn't even get the chance to say I love you one last time. Or even goodbye for that matter. she loathed herself for it.

She's never going to hear his voice again. She's never going to hear him sing her lullabies like he usually did when she was feeling sad. She's never going to feel his embrace ever again. Never going to hear him laugh. Never going to be there on her graduation day. Her wedding day. He's just never going to be there. And then she thought, graduating or getting married didn't matter anymore. Her dreams didn't really matter like they did before. Nothing really mattered anymore.

She was just left with this unfathomable loneliness, a void deep within her soul. And at that moment, she realized that the vacancy would be empty for the rest of her life. She had nothing left. Except unhappiness, grief, sorrow, despair, desolation.

Once again, she cried herself to sleep.

Sarah came back the next day, with a vase of flowers, and placed it on the side table.

She gave Rachel a small smile. She just stared back, expressionlessly.

"I'm sorry again, dear. My deepest condolences." She said sadly.

She just nodded in response.

"You know, you were out for a week and a half? You were in a coma. Let's just thank God he woke you up from it. The doctor said you could get out in two weeks or so. Your injury wasn't really that bad, they just wanted to make sure that the concussion doesn't get worse than it is. Plus, you have some broken bones. Again, not that serious, but you still need to recover."

Rachel just stared at the wall in front of her, impassively.

"Do you have any relatives here in Lima, Sweetheart?" she asked softly.

"My dad is.. was the only family I hav… had." She said, it was like someone was stabbing her heart over and over and over again when she talked. So she didn't for a while.

"Oh. I'm really sorry, honey."

It has been a week since Rachel had last spoken. Sarah has been there every day.

She talked to her even though she knew she won't get an answer. She talked about her father passing away too, and the pain that she felt when it happened. Her dad died of old age (lucky her, Rachel thought miserably.), when he was at the ripe age of eighty-five. She was the youngest and she cried like a baby. It only happened last year, and it was still fresh in her memory.

She also mentioned her two children. The other one, a year older than Rachel, the other one much younger. She talked about her husband leaving her and her kids to fend for themselves, just about the time her dad died. She said she was really proud of her older child for being the strong one for all of them

Sarah almost completely told her all of her life story when the day before she was released came. She hasn't spoken nor cried since the night she learned that he had died. She felt broken. Like shattered glass on the floor.

She heard the doctor and Sarah talk from the outside of her door the night before she could finally go hom… somewhere.

"Doc, she has nowhere else to go." Sarah begged.

The doctor sighed. "But this is a huge burden Sarah; you already have two kids to think about."

"She has no one Doc, no one. The least I can do is take her in." she could hear Sarah's voice waver a bit.

"Fine, come to my office, and sign the release forms."

"Thank you so much, John!" she could hear the smile in her voice.

The next day, she was being pushed in a wheelchair, and was aided into a little sedan.

They were driving for a while when she finally spoke. "Are you sure about this, Sarah?"

Sarah was completely stunned for a moment then she suddenly squealed. "You talked!! And of course I'm sure about this, sweetheart! Don't worry about it." she smiled lovingly at her.

Rachel tried to reciprocate the smile. She really did. But she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She didn't deserve to smile or be happy. The pain was still very much there.

She wondered if it would ever go away.

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!!! PLEASE!!!

What do you guys think?! tell me!! :D lol

I APOLOGIZE FOR THE MISTAKES!!

BTW, to all of mi reviewers, to this story or to the other two, THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOO MUCHOS!! LOVE YOU ALL!! :D

GOD BLESS!!

-Angel