That was quite exciting wasn't it? Well, on to even more thrilling things. Time for the big One-Oh.

Also, I know I promised a few shorter chapters, but I lied. This one's pretty long, which means more great plot for you to cling onto for the next two weeks. Enjoy.

DISCLAIMER: Something about Homestuck being owned by Andrew Hussie

Chapter 10

People were starting to leave the school, tired out from the dancing. Dave, dinky plastic crown on head, turned to a slightly angry Karkat. "Dude, I told you. They aren't gonna give out two Homecoming King crowns. Society obviously isn't ready for that yet." The blond reached his arm out and wrapped it around the smaller boy, who crossed his arms.

"I know, but it doesn't mean the queen had to be Jade… I mean I guess she's nice and all, it's just… Forget it." Karkat huffed.

The boy with shades chuckled. "Karks, are you jealous of Jade?" The redhead avoided his gaze. "Dude, don't worry. I'm not interested in her. Sure, the once or twice I saw her around school in like 8th grade I thought she was cute, but I'm not really into that anymore. She will probably always just be a friend to me. You're all that I want." He hugged Karkat, who made a small chuckle in his throat and smiled.

Soon, Dirk pulled up and rolled down his window, yelling, "Get in lovebirds we're going home!" To which Dave narrowed his eyes, but nonetheless, he got up, took Karkat's hand, and walked to the car. About halfway home, he realized he didn't see Rose or Kanaya for the later half of the dance. He opened his messages and texted Kanaya, asking where they were, since he knew Rose was notoriously bad about answering her messages when it came to him. The three arrived home and Dirk walked to the bathroom before Kanaya had responded.

Kanaya: Sorry For Taking So Long To Respond. Rose Got A Call From The Hospital Saying Her Mom Was In The Hospital After Being In A Car Accident. Roxy Is In A Coma, And The D-Bag She Was With Is Practically Unharmed And Doesn't Seem To Feel Bad About It. Rose Is Going To Live With Me And Porrim Temporarily. I'm Sorry I Did Not Contact You Sooner. I Will Talk With You More In Detail On Monday.

Dave didn't even respond, he just went numb. Roxy had been his step-mom for years, and he still considered her his mother. He didn't know how long he was sitting there in shock, but after what seemed like forever, Karkat tapped him on the shoulder and asked what's wrong.

"Hey Dirk." Dave called, snapping out of his daze but starting to shake. Dirk walked in the room. "I just got a text from Kanaya. Mom… Roxy was in a car accident. She's in a coma." Dave started to cry. Dirk sat down next to him, trying to comfort him, but doing a poor job, since he started crying too. Karkat just put his arm around Dave, trying to make him feel better.

After some time had passed, Dave sat up from his head-in-hands position and turned to Karkat. "Sorry, this probably seems very out of place. So, I know you have known me for long enough to know about Roxy being Dirk's and my stepmom for a few years. We still think of her as our mom, cause she's really the only mom I've ever known. Dirk knew our mom, but I was too young to ever know her. See, when I was about 1, our mom had split with our dad, and when she started dating again, she got in a car accident and died instantly. Just like in this case with Roxy and her boyfriend, my mom's date was left practically unscathed. So, you would imagine that we are both extremely sad and pissed off that this happened to Roxy."

Karkat sat for a minute in shock. "Wow. I didn't realize. I'm so sorry. Now I want to kill the STUPID IDIOT WHO HURT ROXY AND MADE YOU UPSET WHERE IS HE?!"

Dave grabbed ahold of his boyfriend's wrist, pulling him back onto the seat. "No. Not now. We don't know enough for this to be an issue." Dave would have said more, but turned to his brother, who had started screaming and sobbing, throwing his shades across the room. A shattering sound was heard by the three. Dave saw his older siblings' shades land on the floor in many pieces. "Bro…"

Dave extended his arm towards Dirk, who slapped it off. "No. I know you just wanna help little bro, but this is something I've gotta fix. I remember the loss of one mother, I can't stand to see anyone I care about go through something that tragic." Without looking at anyone, Dirk walked to his room, slamming the door behind him. Dave's legs gave out and he fell onto their couch. His body started shaking, though no tears came out. Karkat sat next to him, holding him close and whispering words of comfort.

"Dave. Look at me." Karkat took his partner's head into his hands and turned his face towards his own. He reached up and started to remove Dave's shades, to which Dave promptly tensed up and grabbed Karkat's wrist. "Dave please. I need you to look me in the eye when I tell you this." Once again, Karkat started to remove Dave's shades, meeting less resistance from the other boy than last attempt. He set them down on the table next to the couch, and turned back around to find that Dave closed his eyes. "Dave this is serious. Open your eyes."

The blond sighed. "Alright, but don't freak out."

Karkat, suddenly concerned his partner had a third eye or something, nodded. "Why would I? Dave, trust me."

Dave sighed and slowly opened his eyes, revealing bright, jolly-rancher red eyes. Karkat gasped. "Yeah yeah I know. Super freaky. I hate my eyes. Why do you think I wear shades all the time?"

Without giving a second thought, Karkat leaned forward and gave a quick peck on Dave's lips. "I think they are wonderful. But we can discuss that later. Dave, I know you want to do something to help out Roxy, but your brother's right. He's the adult here and he should handle it. Believe me, I know it's hard to just sit back and take this in without taking any action against a person who injured someone you love, but for now we just have to make sure Roxy is okay. Then we will worry about everything else. How about we go see her tomorrow. I'll even get my annoying brother to drive us if you want."

Dave gave a small chuckle low in his throat. "Thanks Karks. But maybe Dirk can drive us, since I'm sure he will want to see Roxy too. But thank you for that. You're a pretty great boyfriend." He leaned into Karkat and snuggled with him, falling asleep quickly.

Kanaya woke up in a groggy haze. She looked over to see Rose still sleeping soundly. I'm glad she was finally able to get some rest. After they had arrived home late last night, Rose went into a sense of hysteria, not even making it two steps into the door before she collapsed on the floor crying and clutching her stomach, yelling how she was going to make Jack pay for what he's done. After about an hour of fruitless attempts to get her to calm down, Kanaya decided to just let her do her thing until she calmed down. Another 45 minutes passed before Rose began to calm down, eventually crashing on the floor. Porrim then picked her up and set her in Kanaya's bed, where Rose immediately settled down for the night. Relieved, the other two went to bed.

Kanaya got up, quietly leaving the room, and headed to the bathroom. Looking at herself in the mirror, she was a mess. She ran a comb through her hair just to get it looking half decent, splashed some water in her face, then headed downstairs. She walked into the kitchen to find her sister hunched over her laptop in her bathrobe with some coffee and spirits on the table. "Hey 'Rim, what are you doing? I thought you would still be asleep."

Porrim sighed. "I tried to get to sleep, but couldn't stop thinking about this Jack guy. As you can see, I tried to force myself to sleep with a couple drinks, but knew pretty quickly that wouldn't work, so I decided to research instead. I haven't come up with a whole lot unfortunately."

"Yeah, about that. You can't have the drinks around. At least for a while. Rose is super sensitive around alcohol, and I don't really want her to have easy access to it if at all possible. So, if you must have one, that's fine, but not while Rose is around." Kanaya wanted to protect Rose as much as possible. She knew Porrim hasn't gone on a drinking spree in a while, but anything can happen.

"Of course." Porrim got up, putting the bottle back in the pantry. "So, if Rose is going to be here a while, then we might as well let her sleep in the guest room. We may also not eat out as much, just because I now have to provide for an extra person. Which is obviously not a problem, I'm more than happy to have her here, especially at a time like this, but we just have to make a few minor changes. Then, if Roxy-" Kanaya's eyes widened. Porrim stopped herself. "When Roxy wakes up, then we will take things from there. Now, enough about this for now, should we make breakfast? Then you can go and wake Rose up when it's ready."

Kanaya smiled. "Sounds good."

Rose wanted to spend every day in her mom's hospital room until she got better, but Kanaya and Porrim thought it would be best if she went home with them and visited every day for a few hours. Today, Porrim had dropped her off down the street, since she needed to go the other way to run some errands. Rose walked down the street and into the hospital doors, walking towards her mother's room. There was a swarm of nurses and doctors yelling different things at each other outside her mom's door. Rose panicked and ran towards them. "What's wrong? Let me see my mother."

"I'm sorry sweetie, but your mother is in critical condition. Her heart rate is dangerously low and we have to save her. Wait in the hall please." One of the nurses responded.

Rose wasn't having any of it, and pushed passed all the nurses and doctors into her mom's room. She made it in just as the heart monitor switched from beeping to a static, continuous noise. "Mom?"

Some of the doctors looked at each other solemnly, then looked at Rose. One of the doctors spoke. "I'm so sorry. We did everything we could." One of the other people there pulled her mom's bed sheet over her face.

"No. No No No NO NO NO NO NO! Mom! Wake up!" Rose screamed. She ran to her mom's bedside, clutching her quickly chilling body. She kept calling out to her mom, obviously getting no reply. She heard a man chuckling in the background. She turned around, and the room was empty except for the man who the voice belonged to. The man stepped under one of the lights, and Rose could see his features more clearly. Rugged, tall, and with a scar on his one eye. Rose narrowed her eyes. She knew who it was. "Jack."

"Hey dollface. It's a pity your old hag didn't make it." He smirked, obviously not being sincere.

Rose started crying again, choking out her words. "But why. Why would you do this to my mother? My only family?"

"Well, If I told you that, I would have to kill you, sweetie." Jack gave a creepy smile, starting to advance towards her. "I suppose I could skip the talking part and get straight to the killing."

Rose jolted awake, sweat covering her body. Only a dream. That's all it was. You're fine. Rose sighed and calmed herself down before attempting to get out of bed. After a few minutes, she got up and walked downstairs, smelling pancakes and eggs and coffee. "Morning."

"Good morning Rose dear. We were almost done with breakfast. Just sit at the table and I will bring it there in a few minutes." Porrim said. Rose always thought she was so kind, even though she hadn't known her for very long.

She walked to the table, sitting in one of the nice but simple dining chairs. Kanaya sat down shortly after, handing her coffee and keeping one for herself. "So, did you sleep alright Rose?"

Not wanting her friend to know about her dream just yet, she just responded with a simple nod and drank some coffee. "Yeah thanks. Can we go by my house today so I can pick up my cats and such?"

"Of course Rose. We don't really have much planned for today, so we can take our time and do that after breakfast if you want." The raven smiled, taking another sip of her own hot drink.

Porrim walked up with plates full of pancakes, eggs, and toast, setting two of the plates in front of the two girls, then walking back to the kitchen to get her own before sitting down at the table. "Well, I hope everything tastes alright. Sorry that there's no bacon. I have to run out and get more."

Rose smiled. She loved pancakes and hadn't eaten them in so long. "It's not a problem Porrim. This looks delicious." The three girls chatted for a while about different topics while indulging in their food. It didn't take much for Rose to clear her plate and get seconds.

"Wow Rose. You must have a high metabolism. I wish I could eat as much as you and not worry about the consequences." Kanaya laughed, giving her friend a little shove. "Well, as soon as you're done, we can grab stuff from your house if you want."

The blond nodded. "Sounds like a plan." Then gave a small smile before eating some more food.

After a little more conversation and eating, the three had finished. Porrim stood up and cleared all the plates. "Well, why don't you two go get dressed, then we can go grab Rose's stuff and hang out at the park for a bit."

The girls nodded. "Rose, you can borrow some of my clothes for now. The pants may be a bit long for you, but I'm sure I can find something you can borrow for the day." Kanaya smiled, and the two walked up to Kanaya's room. Closing the door behind her, Kanaya immediately started for the closet, pulling out a lavender shirt and some jean shorts, throwing them at Rose. "Here, try these on. They should fit."

Rose grabbed them mid-air and started to change, dumping the dress she was still in from last night on the floor. She pulled the soft shirt over her head, and pulled on the high-waisted jean shorts. She walked over to the full-length mirror, checking out how she looked. The shirt was a little long, but other than that, it worked pretty well for a borrowed outfit. Damn, I look good in her clothes. I should steal them more often. It's a little chilly out, I wonder if I can steal one of her hoodies. She smiled slightly at the thought.

"That suits you well. I like that color on you. It brings out your eyes." Kanaya walked into the mirror's view behind her, admiring the two of them together.

Rose grinned. "Thanks. Hey, since it's a little cold out, do you mind lending me a hoodie too?"

Kanaya nodded and walked into her closet again, emerging a few seconds later holding a Black hoodie with a simple swirl design on it. "Here, you can borrow this. I don't get cold as easily, so I don't need anything major. I'll probably take my zip up jacket though."

The blond took the jacket from Kanaya, slipping it on. It was very comfortable, slightly big, and smelled like the perfume Kanaya wore often. It smells like… Is that rosemary? Hm. It's nice. One of my favorite herbs. "Alright. I think I'm ready. Shall we go?"

"We shall." The pair walked downstairs and met Porrim, who was dressed very casually in sweats and a loose T-shirt, her hair in a beautiful messy bun. "We're ready."

Porrim smiled at the two. "Alright. Off to Rose's house." The three walked to the car, and Porrim drove down the street to the Lalonde residence, parking in the driveway.

As the three got out the car, Rose sighed. Even being near this house made her sad. She used her house key and unlocked the door. She stepped inside first, followed by Kanaya, then Porrim. Everything was the way she left it yesterday evening. The couch had a few old throw pillows on it, the kitchen had the same empty cups and plates lying around, and one of her mom's wine glass tumbler. It was like a coffee travel mug, except it had a wine glass in the middle. At the sight of the mug, Rose got an immediate pang deep in her stomach. Everything is going to remind me of her isn't it? "I need to get stuff from my room first, then we can grab the cat's stuff."

"I'll go get some grocery bags out of the car. Sis, why don't you go help Rose?" Porrim suggested, heading out the door back to the car.

Rose led Kanaya up to her room, opening up the door. Her room was obviously still the same, but something about the air felt different. Like this house was no longer her comfortable home. At least without her mom there. "Okay so I mainly need to grab some clothes, but do you mind grabbing my laptop, school bags, and knitting bag? You can just set them on the bed for now." She walked to her closet and started grabbing a ton of clothes. Well, I shouldn't be staying for long, however, I'm not sure what will come up, so might as well have more than less. After grabbing what seemed like half her closet, she turned around and set her things down on her bed, setting it next to the things Kanaya had just collected.

Just as they had finished, Porrim knocked on the door and walked into the room holding several material and reinforced plastic grocery bags. They all helped in stuffing the various items into the bag. After that was done, they walked back out to the car and put the bags in the trunk. Rose then quickly went back inside and grabbed the cats and their carriers, Porrim grabbed their food, and Kanaya grabbed the litter boxes. They packed it in the car, took it all back to the house, and started to help Rose settle in for her temporary stay.

Dirk, Dave, and Karkat were driving to the hospital. They had impatiently waited until around 9:30 to make their way down, since they weren't sure if they were allowed to even visit. Dave had hoped Rose would talk the hospital into letting them be on the family list, but who knows?

They pulled up to the front doors and found a parking spot right next to them. They got out and slowly walked to the front door. Karkat intertwined his fingers with Dave's, and Dave gave a small smile, and the three proceeded to the front desk.

"Hello, we are looking for Roxy Lalonde. She was admitted here last night." Dirk told the lady at the reception desk.

The lady smiled. "Yes, what are your names? We are only letting family in at this time."

Dirk pulled out his ID. "Dirk Strider. And this is my little bro Dave Strider."

The receptionist looked at his ID for a moment, looked at her computer, then back at Dirk. "Alright. You two may go in, however, you," she motioned to Karkat, "must stay here, since your name is not on the list. Unless you can prove you're family."

Dave tightened his grip on Karkat's hand, and Karkat looked at him and shook his head slightly. "That's okay. Can I just wait in the lobby then?"

"Of course. Mr. Strider, Ms. Lalonde is going to be down the hall, first right, second door on your left." The receptionist gestured down a hallway, then returned to her work.

"Thank you so much." Dave said, waving goodbye to Karkat, then heading down the hallway with his brother. Dave was preparing himself for the worst. He had seen enough reality shows to know that crashes were usually pretty severe. They eventually arrived at the door the lady said. The brothers looked at each other, then proceeded to slowly open the door. Immediately Dave's nose was filled with the smell typically associated with hospitals. That really sterile smell. Then, he saw Roxy, wires hooked up to various parts of her arms and chest, different machines beeping and dripping liquids into her body. He looked at Roxy's face, which was pretty pale apart from the bruises and cuts that sprinkled her skin. He couldn't believe this.

Before he could process anything else, he saw his brother kneeling beside the bed, holding Roxy's hand, sobbing. "Oh god, Roxy. How could this happen? I promise, I will find out why this happened and I will make sure that douche is behind bars at best. I swear to you."

Not knowing what else to really do, Dave kneeled beside his brother, and they just sat there, holding each other close, saying nothing.

I considered breaking this chapter up into two separate chapters, but I figured you guys needed some serious character and plot, so I just made it a single chapter. Hope you guys loved it. Please leave me reviews and stuff if you like it, or if you have any comments or suggestions.

~Jane