A/N**** Sorry for not updating my kids and I both had a four day weekend so we sent it together.

I also want to thank everyone who have reviewed and follow!

Chapter 6
Friends and Lovers

The days blurred together for Jade. Every day, Tori had an MRI confirming that the blood clot was shrinking. She spent about equal amount of time in her room, recovering from her injuries as she did in Tori's. Mr. and Mrs. Vega and Trina were coming and going every day, usually together, but sometimes separately as work and school schedules conflicted. Tori, Cat, and even Jade got a lot of cards from the students of Hollywood Arts. Balloons and flowers filled their rooms. Cat remained on pain killers for a while longer, much to everyone's amusement and annoyance, but less than a week after the accident, Cat was released to go home. Her brother and mother came and took her.

Jade saw her brother a few times, but he was so busy, he often couldn't make it up there. Jade read, watched TV, and talked to Tori. Most times, Tori was not awake, but that let her say what she wanted, and it made her feel better.

A week and a half had passed since the wreck. Jade was paging listlessly through a Hollywood gossip magazine when her doctor came in. "Good morning, Ms. West. How are you feeling today?" he asked, stopping at the foot of her bed.

She frowned a little. "I'm feeling ok, I suppose. The headaches haven't been bothering me much, and my back stopped hurting yesterday." She sat up in bed to show just how good it felt. The doctor nodded and dropped his gaze to his tablet computer, which he scribbled on with the stylus momentarily before looking back up at Jade.

"I don't see much reason to keep you here anymore. You seem to be progressing well. Your injuries are well on the way to being fully healed. Would you like to go home?" The doctor was writing on his tablet again, and Jade nodded enthusiastically.

"I've been ready for a while. Would you mind telling Tori's mom and dad? I'm going home with them." The doctor smiled and nodded, then walked out of Jade's room. Jade slid out of bed, standing up. The crippling pain that had sat her in a wheel chair the last week was faded to a mild twitch in her back. She walked into the bathroom, and took off her hospital gown. A quick shake of her hips slid her hospital pajama pants down, and she walked into the shower.

Jade pulled the curtain behind her, sat down on the bench, and cranked the water to hot. After a brief blast of cold water, the heat wrapped around her. Jade sighed in pleasure. While her back had been hurting, she had had to endure sponge baths. She was so happy to get under the shower again.

She let the water pound her for five long minutes before she grabbed the soap that had been provided and the washcloth. She scrubbed herself vigorously, peeling off the sensor leads. She scrubbed harder at her chest, trying to get the sticky residue off herself.

Twenty minutes and one detachable showerhead induced orgasm later, she dried herself off and got dressed in the clothes her brother had brought from home. They weren't her usual stylish goth clothes, but an oversized sweatshirt and sleep pants. She'd change later, right now she just wanted to get out of there. Mrs. Vega was finishing paperwork with the nurse. Jade smiled at Holly, and walked over to the nurse. A few home care instructions, several signatures, and Jade was free. Jade and Holly returned to Tori's room. The doctor was just finishing up checking Tori's vitals, and smiled at them. "She's doing well, about a week more until the clot is gone." Holly thanked the doctor and Jade walked over to the bed. She took Tori's hand and squeezed it. "I'm going home today. Thought you'd like to know." Tori didn't react, but that wasn't new. After a few minutes with Tori, Jade and Holly left.

Traffic wasn't bad, and they soon arrived at the Vegas' house. Trina met them at the door. "Hi mom, hi Jade. Good to see you up and about." Trina took Jade's personal belongings bag to Tori's room, where Jade would be sleeping until Tori came home at least.

Jade followed Trina up the stairs to Tori's room. She looked around, curious. In the three years that she and Tori had known each other, she had never once been up here. The room was done in an odd style. Between posters from classic movies were mixed hand drawn pictures of her friends. Tori drew better than Jade would have believed. Random knick knacks were scattered on top of her dresser. There was a Yellow Kitty mini figure standing next to a cracked first generation Pearphone.

Four odd shaped dice were standing next to each other, and Jade looked at each one. The first had twelve sides, and the number two was up. The next one was twenty sided, and nineteen was displayed. The third one was also twenty sided, and again, nineteen was up. The last one appeared to have one hundred sides, the number ninety three was showing. Jade pursed her lips as she looked at the numbers. "Two, nineteen, nineteen, ninety three?" she said aloud, then laughed softly. "It's her birthday. Wow, where did she get these dice?"

She ran her gaze over the small bookshelf in the corner. Aside from those popular sparkly vampire books, Jade saw many titles that caught her interest, which she knew that she would have plenty of time to look through them. A small TV set sat atop her bookcase. Jade flipped it on, trying to see what Tori was watching. It came on, and the local news was on. Nothing seemed close to destroying the world, so she flipped it off again.

Jade wandered downstairs a short while later. Trina and Mrs. Vega were playing tennis on a video game system, talking trash and leaping around in front of the TV. Mr. Vega was puttering around in the kitchen, making something that smelled pretty damn good. Jade came down past the tennis players, and sat at the dinner table. Sitting on the ledge near the table was Jade's backpack. She pulled it close, and took out her homework. With almost two weeks to catch up on, she thought it would be smart to get on it as soon as possible.

A few minutes later, Jade jumped when Mr. Vega parked a plate of something hot, greasy, and smelling of garlic next to her, along with a glass of milk. Jade didn't really know how to act. These people were her friend's family. She had hurt their youngest, accidently of course, but still, Tori was lying in the hospital and they were treating her like Vega Girl #3.

She finally looked up from her plate and smiled. "Thank you, Mr. Vega. I…" she said. There was supposed to be more, but tears welled up in her eyes. David looked surprised, then clumsily patted her shoulder.

"It's ok, Jade. We could be mad at you, at fate, at the rain, for anything. But what would that accomplish? Tori's getting better, and you weren't at fault. We're pissed at the drunk that almost killed you and Cat and Tori. That is where the blame lies."

Jade nodded, relieved. The phone rang in the other room. Jade turned back to her homework, puzzling through a tricky calculus problem. She was finally starting to understand it, and she felt sort of dirty for it. She wished Sikowitz had included a random acting challenge that she could do to break up the boredom of math when Mrs. Vega came rushing back into the kitchen.

"David, get the car. We got to go now!" she cried.

Mr. Vega leapt to his feet, hurrying toward the garage and called over his shoulder, "What?"

Jade went cold as ice as Mrs. Vega croaked, "Tori flatlined! They got her breathing again, but we got to go!" Trina and Jade rushed after the adults, slamming the garage door behind them.