She almost panicked when she realized that she couldn't open her eyes. Her mind refused to come to full wakefulness, shying away from the pain that it knew her body was experiencing.

The last thing she remembered was yelling and a searing pain boring through her chest. She tried to focus, but her memories seemed to end there.

So instead she let her mind focus on the one thing that was grounding her at that moment, that was keeping her from slipping back into the darkness – the feel of someone's strong hand wrapped around hers, hanging on for dear life.