Light drifted in and out of Spencer's eyes, she tried to close them put something wouldn't let her than the pressure was gone and she was in the dark once again. Pain in her shoulder made it impossible to move, her throat was sore and dry.

"Miss. Carlin can you hear me?" A male voice spoke softly. Am I in the nurses office, the car...I saw it, everyone was looking at me.

"Spencer?" Paula whispered in her ear, "Sweetie if you can hear us open your eyes." Her mother's voice was shaking but steady. Slowly Spencer opened her eyes on her own, she was lying in a hospital bed with her mom and dad standing by her side, she could see Glen near the end of the bed over her oxygen mask.

"Oh thank God!" Arthur sighed in relief.

"How are you feeling?" The male doctor asked checking her vital signs.

She tried to talk, force the words from her head to her mouth but no sound came out. Eyes darting back and forth trying to understand what was going on. Swallowing was hard but she managed to wet her throat, the word she meant to say was Ashley but it came out one long hoarse croak.

"You shouldn't try to talk right now, we have you heavily medicated." The doctor assured her parents that she was fine; the bullet hit no major artery in the shoulder and that she only had physical therapy to help regain the movement in her arm but other than that she was great.

"We'll see you later sis." Glen squeezed her toes not wanting to actually go up to her, the IV's and oxygen mask was making him sick to his stomach. She looked pale and small compared to the girl he went to prom with who was lively and tall.

The doctor raised her bed so she was half way up so she could see around her room before leaving her alone. Empty, that was this place. Sterile instruments and clean sheets, silence. Her eyes though tired stared from one part of the room to the next, searching for an answer as to what was going on. When did she get shot, at prom...but that hadn't happened yet or did it and she was dreaming. Was Ashley all right, and where was Clay only Glen was there in the room with her. When her eyes got to the door she saw a figure, a girl taking small steps toward her. Spencer couldn't make her out, her eyes still slightly blurry. Soon the girl was above her, the light from the overhead lamp casting her shadow upon Spencer and it reminded her of the day at the beach, the water crashing over her and Ashley pulling her up. For a minute Spencer thought she could still taste the soda from her girlfriend's lips.

"Spencer..." the teen said, her voice was low and it took a minute for her to figure out who it was, "I thought you had..." she trailed of again, slipping her hand into Spencer's now she knew for sure who it was.

Her lips parted to say the word but still she couldn't speak but her mind screamed it over and over again, Ashley you're alive...I love you...I can't believe you're here. Ashley pushed loose strands of Spencer's hair away from her tired eyes.

"I'm so sorry Spencer, it's all my fault..." Ashley cried, tears streamed down her face. She was no longer wearing the white gown from prom, instead she had on one of Spencer's shirts she left over at Ashley's house and some jeans, "I don't know what to say or how to make this better for you. I froze Spence, when Aiden told me that he still loved me I just froze. It wasn't suppose to happen like this, prom was going to be our night." Her voice shook but Spencer could tell she was trying not to break down.

"Ashley..." Spencer managed to choke out before her voice was lost again.

"I told you I didn't want to hurt you and now look..." she motioned to the bed Spencer was laying in, "God I don't know...I just don't know." Ashley shook her head, she'd been waiting in the hospital for days waiting for her girlfriend to wake up. Paula being the bitch she was told the doctor's not to let her in and it took Arthur days to wear her down but when it came time to go in her stomach bunched up and her brain shut down.

"My f-f-fault." Spencer stuttered.

Ashley shook her head violently, "No...God no, it wasn't your fault. I mean telling Aiden to stay away from me might not have been..." Ashley caught herself and decided not to go down that path, "It's not your fault Spencer and don't ever think that."

Are you breaking up with, this can't be happening...I thought you loved me, it wasn't a hard choice it was me. The blonde kept thinking while staring at her lover and trying her hardest to tell her what she was thinking.

"I spoke with your dad he said Clay will be okay, a bullet hit his arm but mostly a flesh wound and I talked with Aiden..." Ashley turned her gaze from Spencer, she looked so different than Ashley remembered, smaller somehow, "Him and Kyla are okay...I guess, they've decided to take it slow. Be friends first. Will see how long that lasts." She joked, laughing quietly trying to break the silence that Spencer couldn't. She stood up and paced back and forth.

"You asked me to chose back there..." Ashley began talking as she paced, "Now let me explain my answer before you going screaming at me." She smiled knowing Spencer was speechless right now.

Ashley no, I can't live without you...please you can't do this to me! Spencer screamed in her mind. Tears flowed down her face but with her being so tired and medicated she had no control over it.

Ashley saw and rushed over wiping the tears away, "Spencer don't cry." She licked her lips and held her girlfriends hand trying to find a way to tell her, "I love you and that will never change, I actually have been thinking about you and me for a while."

No please, I don't want to hear this, but she was bound to the bed.

"I mean your going to go off to college after next year and me...you know I'm not cut out for that life. So I was thinking...since you can't talk its probably not something I should bring up especially after everything not just the shooting but with your parents and are get away to the hotel..."

If it were possible Spencer thought her heart spilt in half, right down the middle causing pain like she never felt except when she thought her mom could actually keep her away from Ashley. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, she wanted to stop show Ashley it didn't hurt. The brunette turned her back on her for a minute before spinning back around.

"Spencer Carlin I want us to...will you marry me?" She asked slipping a fake plastic ring on to Spencer's finger. Closing her eyes she wondered if this was true, but she still felt the ring, "I know you can't answer but I can't stand the thought of you with some one else and I'll follow you to college, my trust fund and your brains. We'll live near a beach, I know how much you like the waves. You don't have to answer now, obviously and I'll respect any decision you make." Ashley said all in one breath scared to death of the answer and the reaction of Spencer's family.

"Ash..."

"Spencer don't say anything right now..."

"Yes..." Spencer groaned in pain, her chest hurt slightly from all the silent crying to had been doing.

"Yes...really, are you sure because you can take all the time in..." Ashley trailed off when Spencer moved her hand to hers.

"Yes." Her vocabulary was small right now but the word held everything she needed to say at the moment. Ashley no longer able to hold it together any longer began to cry along with her new fiancée.

"I know the ring isn't much, I was going to ask in the summer but when the gun went off...I hope the cracker jack ring will do till I make it to the shop." Ashley said between sobs and Spencer only nodded. Ashley leaned down and kissed her fiancée on the forehead, "So when do we tell the rents?"