Disclaimer: I disclaim all but my original characters, including any references to songs or movies.

The plane ride had sucked, just as I knew it would. I'd felt air sick the entire time, the in-flight movie was some awful flick about some surfer and her love life. The flight attendant was pushy and obnoxious, and the seats were the most god awful uncomfortable things she'd ever set her fragile skeleton into, and, oh! I'd broken myself again.

"Rickie," I said at the baggage claim as he hefted both of our suitcases up off of the spinning device. I was in a wheelchair provided by the airport as soon as we had landed, "Next time you go to Italy alone."

"Come on Lucy," he whined a little, trying to lighten the mood, "It wasn't that bad! Did you see the way that stewardess was eyein' me? I prolly coulda joined the mil-"

I stopped that sentence with a glare that meant death. "If we hadn't been on this 'tour' of yours, I would have been sitting in first class, and comfortable."

"Hey! Don't be hatin'! This is our first trip on a plane at all. There's no reason to get picky about where we sit on the plane." He grinned at me childishly, blinding me with the white of his teeth against his dark skin. But he looked sad again.

I neglected to answer him in favor thinking back on the ride we'd had.

Rickie was lucky that I'd already prepared our passports months ago, when he'd started getting stir-crazy. I knew he'd want to do something big and extravagant. Having millions at our disposal had really gone to Rickie's head.

Thinking about that made me remember when he bought the Bow-flex... and built a swimming pool... and the huge HD TV and Blue-ray player he'd installed to watch sports on in his room. ...And to think, that was only a handful of the things he'd wasted my money on.

I smiled fondly. Even if he had no good financial sense, he kept me from getting lonely. I looked up from the window and caught the gaze of our tour guide, and the smile fell from my face. My blood ran cold every time I looked at that woman. She was beautiful, as Rickie had told me, but there was more to it than that. Her face, her body, the way she moved... it was all somehow, unnatural... otherworldly... terrifying.

The woman looked back at me with a smile that I assumed was supposed to be friendly. I shivered and looked back at the rest of the group. There were quite a few of the tour group on the plane, ranging from young to old; families, couples, and single parties.

Quite a few bore the southern twang in their speech patterns. That was certainly a pain in the ass, but nothing I wasn't used to. There was one man in particular who annoyed me more than the others. He was young, and he wore a ratty old cap and vulgar tee-shirt over an otherwise all right body. But his teeth were crap, and the glances he kept sneaking were really starting to bother me.

"Rickie," I whispered to catch the attention of my otherwise distracted companion, "The one in the crude shirt. Go intimidate him; he's bothering me." Rickie's eyebrow raised a bit, and he looked back, away from the scary woman he'd been admiring, and towards the man who'd been pissing me off.

"I don't know if he's staring because he's a pervert or because I look weird to him, but I don't like being stared at. And he looks trashy." We both frowned; him because I was making judgements again, and me because I felt the judgements were deserved. Nevertheless, Rickie got up and walked over to solve my problem. I had to stand up to let him out into the aisle, and he very gently sidled past me, ever careful of my fragile body.

It was an easy fix. Rickie was huge, the other guy was a bit scrawny, and apparently a coward. When Rickie got back, I moved again to let him back in, when a wave of turbulence hit. And, just like every time, it happened in slow motion. I could see Rickie reaching for me, but even then I knew he wouldn't be fast enough.

I fell and tumbled into the aisle, but not without knocking into an armrest on the way down. The loud cracking noises of my fall shocked the other passengers into silence. I looked up at Rickie's face; he was horrified and worried of course. The rest of the group started reacting a split second later.

"Is she okay-"

"What happened-"

"Clumsy much?"

"Mama! She fell-"

"Are you bleeding?" The last voice, sweet as honey, shocked me and I flinched, "No," The beautiful tour guide said, without even seeming to check, "Are you hurt?"

I stared up at that perfect face for a second, enraptured. Then I nodded yes to her, reaching my left arm back towards Rickie. Ow. Shit. Rickie gasped behind me, and I closed my eyes to bear the pain. My head started spinning and I felt like throwing up. I didn't need to see to know. My left arm had only partially moved. The bones in my forearm had snapped in the fall. But, judging by the pain I was beginning to feel elsewhere, that was not the only casualty of the day.

"Rickie, help me up so I can check for more breaks," I said steadily, but my breathing was rough. In and out, in and out. It helped somewhat to keep me from focusing on the pain, but I'm pretty sure I was going into shock. Rick gingerly wrapped his big hands around my waist and lifted me until my feet touched the ground. Then, finally, I was out of his shadow so that others could see the damage. A stewardess belatedly made it onto the scene, just in time to gasp and shriek. How helpful.

I heard more gasps and cries all around, and I even heard one passenger go for the air bag. Poor fellow. I took another deep breath to keep from shouting out my pain, then let it out in a low moan. Rickie looked like he wanted to cry, just like he did every time I fell. And the frightening woman looked on with an unreadable gaze. Rickie kept holding me up, reminding me that my ribs hurt, so I decided to get on with the inspection.

My right arm was fine. Good, writing was still an option. Left was gone, of course. I was sure a rib or two was broken, but my spine was fine, so was my head, thank God for small miracles, right? My left leg was fine all the way down, but I sensed that I probably had fractures in my other leg below the knee. The biggest problem was the unnatural position of my broken arm.

"Right leg, ribs and left arm," I said to Rickie, and he quickly put me in the seat to ease the pressure on my ribs from his grip. "My kit's in the overhead, remember?"

I turned to the crowd around us. The scary guide watched intently. "It's alright, go about your business. I have brittle bones and I'll be fine."

A few people were discouraged, but the majority continued to hover as Rickie ripped my sleeve off to start wrapping my arm. All of them whispered. Rickie had several pieces of wood I kept in the case for splints, and an ace bandage for wrapping. Man I was hurting...

"Can you see Lu," he asked quietly, "Your eyes are glazed over."

"Nn," I intoned back. Actually, he was right, my vision was fuzzy. I needed sugar. Or drugs. Or to not be broken again.

"You will need to go to the hospital when we arrive to check for internal bleeding, among other things," Said the tour-guide politely, "we'll wait for you before we get started." It was Rickie who responded

"Thank you Heidi," Ah, so that was the bitch's name. I wasn't in the mood to like the weirdo, "But we don't want to hold everybody up."

"Nonsense," she replied, laying the charm on so heavily I began to feel suspicious again, "We won't leave anybody behind." Why did I feel like it would be a very good thing to be left behind?

I still wished that they'd leave us when the ambulance arrived. Everyone stared and whispered, and in a different language no less. The EMT, or whatever they call them in Italy, started speaking to me in Italian.

"English, please," I said, and he quickly switched over to a nicely accented English as they got me into the van. I wasn't really listening to what he was saying, especially after they shot me up with painkillers, so Rickie answered as best he could.

"She's got brittle bones. Her left arm and right leg and her ribs are what's hurtin' her. Can I ride with you?" Ah. My lovely chocolate bar. I was in the mood to take a large chunk out of that wonderfully sculpted brown bicep in front of my face. ...Must have been some really trippy painkillers.

As they were closing the ambulance doors, I spotted Heidi watching us, and I shivered. They closed the doors and I passed out from the effects of shock and drugs in my system.

Thanks to my reviewer! I was going to draw this out and add more Marcus, but if I had, I would have been scrambling around a block, so I went ahead and updated with what I have to let you know I'm still writing, and appreciate the feedback! :D The story should match up with Marcus's perspective in the first chapter in my next update.