The house was rapidly crumbling into ash and flames. Fumes and heat lashed at Ann's face as she called out to Bobby and Christopher. One of the beams supporting the ceiling in the kitchen had fallen before she arrived. Noticing something caught under the beam, Ann pushed her way through the falling timber. To her horror, she saw Bobby and Christopher lying motionless under the beam. In vain, she struggled against the might of the inanimate chunk of wood, feeling every vertebrae in her spine sweat with strain. "Mrs Ewing!" "STOP CALLING ME THAT AND HELP ME LIFT THIS!" she screamed at the driver, who arrived at her side like a schoolboy who had lost his place as teacher's pet. Together they heaved the beam a little, but it was no use. Ann fought for breath as she staggered back, unable to keep trying. The cacophony of noise around her was deafening. Crackling wood, hissing flames, spitting fumes. "Ann!" The second falling beam narrowly missed her head. She felt her legs shift from under her, but not from fainting as she had expected. Her eyes refused to open under the intensity of the heat as she seemed to glide out of the house.

Outside, she felt the gravel of the driveway under her body. Sirens roared, drowning out the crackling. Even the ground remained hot from surrounding flames. Her eyelids felt like they were caked with mascara that had been worn for too long. Opening them her eyes were dry and scratchy. Ann turned her head towards the voices she could hear to her right. A team of uniformed medics were scrambling around, moving from her to someone she couldn't see on the ground a few feet away. "Bobby?" she called out in alarm, reaching in the direction of the scrum. "No, Mrs Ewing, it's not your husband" a medic replied, who was kneeling behind her head. "Who…" Ann started and gasped as the crew of medics moved off the ground lifting Sue Ellen on a stretcher with them. Ann's shoulders and head began to shake violently as she erupted in tears "Is she going to be ok?" she wailed. "It's too early to tell, she's not responding and has been unconscious for some time. We found an empty bourbon bottle in her hand." Ann wept uncontrollably as the guilt of leaving Sue Ellen to go visit Harris returned to her mind. "Where is Bobby? Is he ok? And Christopher?" she tried to move her head to see, only to be calmly told to stay in the position she was in. She repeated the questions angrily this time. "Your husband is unconscious too, we've just taken him out of the house and your son is being brought out now." Ann lay with the medics hands holding her head in a neutral position. Her energy had been zapped to the point that she couldn't even manage to tell the medic she wasn't Christopher's mother. "You're fortunate Mrs Ewing…" the medic started before trailing off as Ann felt everything fade away.

Judith reefed the covers back as she gurgled and gasped for air. That one felt real she thought. Mother Ryland had a tremendous knack for pushing things aside when they were not of grave concern. Nightmares were a common occurrence in the Ryland household, especially when Harris was a child. After he met Ann, they seemed to subside, but Emma's birth brought them back with a bang. Had Harris known about these night terrors he might have had some sympathy. All he knew were the screams in the night that went unexplained. The tears and sheets soaked in sweat were par for the course and they were Judith's own private hell.

When Ann came to, she found herself in a sterile looking white room with nothing in it, but the bed she was lying on and an IV drip clinging to her arm. Panicked by the silence surrounding her, she pressed the call button for a nurse. Nothing. No sound from the buzzer. No response. Attempting to sit up, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and immediately regretted it as she felt herself dragged onto the floor by the deadweight of her limbs. Ann pulled the IV drip alongside her as she slowly forced her feet to move in baby steps. Opening the door to her room, she expected to hear the bustling of a busy hospital that had just taken in a family found in a burning house. Silence greeted her. Silence and bright white lights. Stunned, she moved along the lengthy corridor at a snail's pace. How was there no one here? There was another room beside hers, if she could only get to it and ask where everybody was.

Gradually the door to the room came into view and peering in through the window, Ann felt a pang in her stomach that could only be fear and shock as the empty room stared back at her. Pushing the door open she gazed around to find confirmation that she was alone on the corridor. She began a long trek towards some double doors that she hadn't noticed moments before and finding them easier to open than the last door, she made her way through. Five doors. She counted five doors and no one around outside them. Anyone who tells you that fear is only to be conquered is a fool. Fear and confusion mixed, particularly in isolation, is a dangerous combination. Ann found herself at the first door closest to her. Inside, among stark white linen and hospital blue blankets, lay Christopher. Bruised and battered, he looked paler and more wan than Ann had ever seen him. "Christopher!" she cried, pushing and pulling the door. Locked. "How can…?" Realising she was speaking to no one who could hear her, Ann banged on the glass in the door. Her arms gave way as she slid against the door in exhaustion. What was in that drip? Detaching the thin vein of fluid from her arm, Ann stumbled across the hall to the next door.

There was a woman in the bed, but Ann didn't recognize her scarred face and burnt hair. A man sat beside her holding, no seemingly rubbing her hand. Ann cried out to them and hit the door in anger. The woman was unconscious, but the man seemed plain oblivious. Ann stared at him in confusion. Suddenly, he moved. Ann placed her hands on the glass, silently pleading for him to see her. Turning his head over his shoulder, he tipped his hat. Ann's mouth dropped open as she watched him rise from his seat. The door opened and Ann felt her body shake with dread and sadness. "Hello darlin', it's been a while." Ann slipped backwards, but managed to steady herself. "Come on in, you'll have to excuse the smell. Poor woman's been back on the bottle and god knows it's like a distillery in here." Ann paused as the colour fled from her face. "I know you're scared, honey. It takes brains to know when to be scared. And since that's something in short supply in this family as of late, I'm gonna help you. Now is the time to be scared."