Ugh...what had happened?

My head, back, hips and shoulders hurt liked I had never felt before. I recalled hearing a loud noise, and then suddenly the whole world had exploded. I had broken free of my ropes, the bomb telling me I had ten seconds left.

Without thinking, I had begun running up the stairs. I had only made it a few steps out of the house when it went off, throwing me hard against the trunk of a nearby tree and covering me in dirt and debris.

Looking around as best I could, I saw that I was trapped beneath a half of one of the walls of the house that the cellar had been in, and I hurt too bad to try and move it away from me. If someone didn't show up soon, I wasn't sure I could get out of the mess.

Relaxing as best I could, I used every ounce of energy left to keep myself from falling asleep. It couldn't end like this. There were still things I needed to do, and people I needed to see, Theo being the main one.

I felt myself drifting again, and shook my dizzy head to sober up.

Come on, Cassia, live! Do it for Mom and Dad! I screamed at myself. I tried to push the wall away from me, but it creaked and remained unmoved. I didn't want to risk it falling even more down on me, so I stopped and did my best to relax in the uncomfortable position that I had been forced into.

Suddenly, I heard what sounded like sirens in the distance. Cops?

I hoped so, maybe they could get this wall off of me.

There was so much blood everywhere that I was amazed I was still alive. Zinnia had done a number on my side once again, and add that to the list of injuries I had received from the explosion, whatever had sliced me on it's way by and the collision with the tree. I just hoped none of them were fatal.

The sirens had since gone closer, but hard as I tried, I couldn't manage to keep my eyes open any longer. The heaviness in my lids was too strong, and I finally succumbed to the darkness of sleep.

~Theo POV~

I'd forgotten all about my truck, and taken off through the woods toward the location that the cops had been given.

If Cassia really had been in that explosion, then the creature was right: She had won and Cassia was dead. My chest ached with pain. All I could hope for was that she'd made it out.

Why hadn't we stumbled across an old building or something holding that cellar while we were searching? It should have been an easy find, and I could have saved her. Guilt pulsed through me.

I followed the sirens, going deeper into the preserve. A jogger had heard and seen the explosion in the horizon and had alerted the authorites, and Mason had been at the station with Corey. We had told them to stay there in case the creature got lose and went stark raving mad on the town.

And Mason had run out to tell us, in the hopes that we would find her...alive.

My mind raced over a million things a second, and I actually felt tears burn my eyes again. I had swallowed them back approximately fifteen times while running like this. When I stopped running, I didn't know if it would be to the woman I loved, or a dead body.

Finally, the sirens' screams clustered together, and I knew we had arrived at the spot. I burst through the bushes, seeing destruction, debris everywhere and cops bustling about.

"Theo," the sheriff warned, coming over to stand in front of me, but he didn't touch me, "you have to let us handle this. If you get involved and find something you don't like, there is no telling what you will do."

"And if she's really gone," I said, feeling a lump in the back of my throat, "then I need to see it."

Sheriff Stilinski eyed me, a familiar sadness showing in his tired, blue eyes. "Okay, son," he relented, putting a hand on my shoulder that I allowed, and we walked a little farther into the scene of the crime.

The whole cellar was just a giant hole in the ground. Broken off wooden beams protruded from the soil, and pieces of concrete lay in chucks here and there, though most of the floor was intact. Where the bomb must have been was an area of solid black and char, and two or three steps remained of what had been the way up and down.

What was left of the house was bits of wall scattered on the ground several yards away, and one solid piece of half the wall. It was that wall that drew my attention.

It was laid up against a big tree, looking as if at any second, it would collapse. "Sheriff," I spoke, pointing toward the tree. "Hazardous," he replied, "but we'll check it out. Deputy Sanders," he motioned to a man to his left, then nodded toward the wall.

I could smell her.

I had tried hard not to look at that spot on the concrete in the cellar, but I had noticed...and smelled it from up top. It was her blood, I just didn't know if it was old or fresh from so far away.

"Sheriff! Call an ambulance!" One of the deputies screamed.

"What's going on?!" He answered, pulling his radio from his belt.

"There's a girl here! We can't get the wall off of her!"

Cassia.

I ran, breathless, over to the wall and began pulling it away from the tree. Sure enough, Cassia's scent began stronger from behind it. She was trapped behind this huge hunk of garbage.

"Theo! Wait for the fire department!" The sheriff scolded, and I whirled around to face him. "She might not have time to wait!" I yelled, "She could be getting slowly crushed!"

"We...don't even know if she's alive, Theo."

I stormed up to face him directly, and the deputies around held their guns up. "Relax!" The sheriff said to them, then met my eyes. "She's alive," I growled, "I can hear her heartbeat. But it's faltering. You want to lose a civilian by waiting too long?"

"Where is your pack, Theo? They could help you. If you do it alone, you could accidentally kill her yourself." He said, his withered face tightening sternly.

"I have no damned pack," I hissed, "what I do have is Cassia. Now, stay out of my way."

I tromped back to the wall and starting pulling again, letting anger fuel my strength. The wall crackled and complained, but I kept a hold on it. I dug my feet into the ground, giving myself a little extra brace.

After a minute, the wall gave way and came falling toward me. I dashed out of the way, letting it hit the ground, and turned to look at Cassia. For the first time ever, my heart broke.

She looked so small and helpless, and on death's doorstep. Blood ran down one side of her face from an open wound somewhere on her scalp, her shirt was torn and soaked in red. I couldn't gather every bit of damage that she'd taken, but I could tell it was a lot.

"Cassia?" I asked softly, bending down and removing leftover debris from her legs and feet. She was completely unconscious. She didn't make a single move as I spoke to her, not even the flutter of her eyes. "Don't move her," The sheriff said, "The EMTs will be here in two minutes."

I reached out and touched her cheek, feeling the warmth of her skin underneath my fingers. "I promise, when we get out of this, I will take care of you." I murmured to her. I gently took one of her cold hands and pressed it to my mouth, inhaling her scent.

Finally, the wails of the ambulance bounced off of the trees and they appeared behind the cop cars. Within seconds, three people were out, opening the back doors and retrieving a stretcher.

A man from the fire department assessed her, and made sure she was okay to be moved. When he gave the signal, two men came over and gently picked her up, placing her on the stretcher. As they moved her, she woke enough to give a pained groan, but went back to sleep as they steadied her.

I walked after them, watching them place her in the back. As one backed out, I climbed inside. "Whoa, whoa," he said to me, "only family can ride with her."

"I'm her boyfriend, and I'm all she's got. If that isn't good enough, deal with it or run back to the hospital outside of the vehicle." I growled. He didn't seem pleased, but I could also tell that he didn't want to try me on it.

The ride back was short enough, and both the EMT and I kept a steady watch on her. As they opened the doors to the hospital entrance, she stirred again, this time finding me almost immediately with her eyes.

"Theo." She softly croaked. "I'm here," I said, taking her hand.

Tears welled up in her eyes and fled from the corners. Softly, I wiped them away, and gripped her hand to take some of her pain. "Don't," she whispered, sharply inhaling when she attempted to squeeze my hand, "If...if you take it, I...will fall back to sleep."

"You need to," I said, "You've got a lot of injuries."

"Need...to tell...you." She whispered groggily, but I began taking her pain anyway. She could talk later, right now, she needed to sleep and heal.

Once inside, Melissa met us by the front desk. "Thank God, you found her." She sighed in relief.

"Luckily. Your damn husband almost cost her life." I said darkly.

"Chris did what he had to," she said, "and we don't have to worry anymore that she'll hurt anyone else. Now, let's get her into a room."

I followed them into a vacant room and watched as they moved her onto the bed. Once they left and the room was less crowded, I sat in the chair beside her. Melissa started an IV in her hand and clipped a monitor onto her index finger.

"I will come back in a few minutes with a wheelchair. She needs to get an X-ray and a CT to make sure there's no head trauma or broken bones. I'm going to stitch her up real quick and wrap her wrists before that." She told me. I nodded, then leaned forward against her bed.

Just like at her house, her breathing soothed me. It was a miracle just to hear it, considering she had almost died.

A few minutes later, Melissa came back, rolling a wheel chair into the corner of the room. She sat down and stitched up Cassia's side once again, then a place that ran along her hairline. It hadn't been as drastic as it had looked, but it had been deep.

"Okay, you can't come along for her other procedures, but as soon as they are done, I will return her to this room for your watchful eye." She said, light teasing in her tone. I nodded, but I didn't feel like the teasing. What had happened had been too close a call for my liking.

It took a while for the other things to happen, as she was returned to her room two hours later.

"Okay," Melissa said, sighing heavily after restoring Cassia to her bed, "Good news is that she doesn't have any internal bleeding anywhere, which by itself is a blessing. Bad news is that she has a fractured clavicle, and is more than likely concussed."

I sighed in relief myself. "What can you do for her?" "Well, normally, sleeping wouldn't be ideal for a patient with a concussion, but seeing as there is no additional head trauma and she's been sleeping anyway, I don't see the point in waking her. As for her clavicle, the doctor is going to splint her arm and put it in a sling so it can heal back. She's going to need constant looking after for a while. She has got some serious rope burn on her wrists, and she doesn't even need to think about popping another stitch."

"Don't worry," I told her, "she is never going to leave my sight again."

**Cassia is going to make it and the creature is dead! Beacon Hills is safe again! Will update again soon! Thanks for reading!**