Well, good morning, all! I just want to start off by thanking you guys so damn much for leaving me some lovely, constructive reviews, honestly it's so very much appreciated and really makes me want to power on with this story. That being said, this chapter is a little shorter than the others have been, but not by a mile or anything. I'll try to update again later today to make up for it!

As ever, enjoy!

Chapter Six

With a deep inhale, she opened her eyes, screwing them shut again with a groan when a light far too bright for that time of morning assaulted her vision. "Jesus Christ." She grumbled, making to move a hand to cover her face only to find herself unable to do so.

Falling asleep on one of her arms and waking to find it unable to move wasn't an unusual thing, but her voice? God, she sounded hoarse.

"River?" Came a soft sob, surrounded by a strange, monotonous beeping.

"Skylar?" River muttered, wondering what the blonde was doing in her room. "What are you doing here?" She went to sit, but a quick, gentle hand held her back, followed by more crying.

Opening her eyes again, this time trying to ignore the light, she realised that she definitely wasn't in her room. She was in... a white room? As her eyes adjusted, she noticed that she wasn't alone. She had, of course, heard Skylar's voice, but she hadn't actually been sure that she was there until her frame began to distinguish itself from the blinding light, followed by others. Her mom. Her dad. Brooke.

What were they all doing there?

More pressing, where the hell were they?

"Hey guys." River chuckled, feeling an odd rush oh happiness and serenity. "Yo, whose freaking room is this? It's so damn clean." She couldn't help but laugh a little more. After all, who the hell had a room that clean? It was insane. "For real, don't you just want to, like, to just- don't you want to, like, spill something?"

Her mother and father shared a look of concern, but River missed it.

Someone spoke, but she was distracted, looking up at the ceiling. It was so... square? She didn't know anyone with so many square tiles on their ceiling. What did that mean? Was it, maybe, a sign of wealth? Rocking her head quickly back up, clearly shocking the room, she had to ask, "Do rich people live here?"

Slowly, carefully, her father approached from the doorway, smiling sadly with tears in his eyes. "River," He started, placing a hand on her shoulder. She looked down to his hand, noting aloud that she hated whatever horrible fucking shirt she was wearing. "River, you've been in an accident." He told her, ignoring her comment about the shirt.

"Dad," She started, shaking her head. "I don't like this shirt one bit. Who chose it? Was that an accident?" He had said accident, right?

"Dude, she's so high." Brooke laughed, turning away to stop her sister from seeing when it turned to crying.

High? River knew about drugs! "I found pot in Brook's car one time." She told the room, watching each of the faces change, laughing as they did. "Wait, is that what we're here for? Are we smoking together?" She couldn't help but feel giddy. "Oh my god, I've been wait for this day for so long."

For the next few minutes, as a woman in another fuck ugly shirt came into the room, asking a bunch of questions, River began to wonder what was going on. Were they smoking together or not? She was beginning to think that it wasn't going to happen. Why was Brooke talking about being high if she wasn't going to share her weed? River didn't want that though, she didn't want to get high with them. Well, she did, but she knew that she'd prefer someone else.

Paul! She'd get high with Paul!

"Where's Paul?" She asked the lady, getting no answer. The woman, to give her her due, was talking to Dick and Alma, but River didn't care, she wanted to know. So, instead, she turned to Skylar. "Yo, where's Paul?" She whisper-yelled, not seeing the look of pain on the blonde's face as she wondered why her girlfriend's first words to her after a car crash and surgery were about asking where someone else was.

"Paul?" Skylar asked, shaking her head lightly, confused. The only Paul she could think of was that jerk that River punched, wasn't it? So seriously, who was this guy and why was her girlfriend asking after him? "I don't know. I don't know who Paul is." She wasn't crying anymore, but her face was still red and puffy.

Groaning, River let her head fall back against the pillows. Why was she the only one in bed? "I want Paul here." She whined, not noticing the silence fall on the room. "I punched him so good in the face." She then said, picking her head up again, seeing confusion on Skylar's face as it changed, bleeding into hurt. "Don't worry, we made up! We're, like, all good now. He's real hot, too- shit, don't tell my dad!" She couldn't help but giggle, shielding her face from her dad with her left hand, albeit poorly. "I guess... I guess don't tell you, too, you know? You're, like, my girlfriend and shit, right? So, like, don't tell you that I kissed him." She brought her right hand up to make a shushing motion only to see... a cast?

Okay, she completely lost it, laughing, hysterical. What the hell was that thing? She didn't even notice Skylar choke on a sob and all but run from the room, she was too concerned with laughing and waving her cast clad forearm around.

As the day progressed, River began to come down from the high of the pain meds, though she continued to make little sense. The nurses and doctors assured Alma and Dick that, as far as accidents involving head trauma go, she was doing just fine. Later on, she managed to fall asleep. Dick ended up taking Brooke home, but Alma stayed, unable and unwilling to leave her eldest daughter alone in the hospital.

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When River woke again, it was with a headache. There were no giggles this time, just grumbles of pain and discomfort.

She was, to say the least, mortified as she remembered what she'd said to Skylar. She guessed that they were through as far as a relationship was concerned at the very least, but she made a mental note to apologise profusely when she got out of the hospital.

Her mom, through it all, stayed relatively quiet, eventually climbing onto the side of River's bed, gently brushing her fingers over her daughter's hair as she fell back to sleep.

Alma had always been a strong woman. She'd had to be, growing up in a small tribe that, admittedly, wasn't as close to what was considered civilised to most people as even the Quiluete tribe was. She had grown up with great bonfires and legends, with a community that bartered and traded more than using money. She hadn't ever cared much for the outside world until her daughters had been born.

It wasn't really until River had been just three years old, playing with a small boy from the nearest town that she had gone home and asked Dick if they were depriving the children of anything by keeping them on the reservation. Tribal lands were sacred and scarcely saw outsiders, but in turn, once she managed to push aside what she felt she owed to her tribe, she knew that she owed her daughter more. She wanted for them to explore the world, to go to grand universities, to find love in the strangest corners of the world, to find jobs that would make no sense at all to her or to Dick. River seemingly having feelings for a local boy with a reputation wasn't exactly what they'd had in mind, but it was her life to live, that was what they'd always strived to ensure.

Alma, above all else, wanted for her daughters to feel safe to explore what had taken her so long to step into. Dick had been different back then, too. He hadn't been so heavy, weighed down with concerns of safety and security. He also hadn't yet experienced the harsh truths of living "the American dream", or at least what he thought it to be. In fact, other than hunting, he hadn't really even had a job before they moved to La Push. He'd worked on and off for his own father, but he'd never had to worry about job security or rent, never had to worry if he couldn't pay a bill. Stepping out into the world together changed that. They had many a hard time, many days where they feared that they'd made the wrong choices.

Both of them, Alma and Dick, had accepted at a young age that they were going to spend their lives on their reservation, so the move had certainly been a shock for them, especially for Alma when Dick started working, but watching how their daughters flourished, they knew that they'd made the right decision.

In that hospital room, watching her daughter breathing, looking at the various casts and bandages that seemed to be all that held her together, Alma swore to stick up for her just a little more. She had always left the discipline to Dick, believing that he was better suited to it, but this? What happened to River, this, in her eyes, was a direct result of a fundamental lack of respect under their roof.

When Dick had first told her that River had snuck out, she'd wanted to roll her eyes and laugh. After all, they were hardly saints in their early years, but upon seeing the mix of anger and fear on his face, she had realised that they had very different thoughts on what was happening. After all, she hadn't wanted to ground River, not at all. So yes, she believed that this whole situation could have been avoided if Dick had simply listened to her and they had come up with a solution together.

With River sleeping peacefully, Alma eventually got up an went to sit in one of the chairs beside the door. She wouldn't take an eye off her baby girl, not until she was awake and seeming like herself again. She also planned to have a few stern words with Dick when they got a moment alone. She was done being passive if this was the result.

Later on, long since Brooke had returned and Dick had gone to work, Alma found herself waking from a small nap to see River's eyes wide open and filled to the brim with tears, looking at her arm in a cast. "It will heal." Alma said softly, watching as River's eyes lifted to meet her own.

Crying, River shook her head. "I can't box again. I've just washed my future down the drain, mom." With each word that left her mouth, both Alma's and River's hearts sank in step.

Alma nodded and sighed. "It will be a long time before you can box again, but you'll do it. My two girls are the strongest in the world."

River didn't seem to hear her though, instead clenching her jaw in a weak attempt to hold back the next wave of tears. "You must be so disappointed." She looked down at herself, breaking.

With a rush of sorrow, her mother shook her head slowly. "Now, honey, why on earth would you say that?" She asked, fearing that she already knew the answer.

"I was so rude." River started, voice cracking as she spoke. "To you, to dad, to Skylar. I punched a guy, I snuck out when you grounded me, I made out with him while I was dating someone else. Take your pick." She laughed humourlessly, clearly feeling like human crap in that moment. "And now I've waffle-stomped my future."

Alma wasn't too sure what that last part meant, but she knew that now wasn't the time to agree and tell her how badly she'd messed up. Her daughter needed a kind, guiding hand, not a smack on the wrist. "You know, the heart is such a fickle little thing. It wants so badly to just be loved that it can trick us. It can tell us time and time again that someone or something will make us happy, but it doesn't know. You went about it badly, yes, but River, I'm proud of you. I'm so very proud of my strong, brave girl for following her heart."

"You don't hate me?" River asked, her voice so very small.

Heartbroken, her mother shook her head, immediately getting up and going to her daughter's bedside, placing a hand on her head, careful to avoid bandages. "I could never, never, hate you." She said honestly, knowing in her heart that it wasn't even possible.

"I'm so sorry, Mom." River cried, her chest shaking with sobs.

"That's okay, my love. You're okay." Alma comforted, love shining through her smile. "So, Paul Lahote." She then added a moment later, raising a brow. It definitely wasn't a question, just a statement of knowing.

Sheepishly, River nodded and smiled a little just at the thought of him. "Paul Lahote."

"Come on, then. Tell me about him." Her voice, as she sat and held her daughter, was soft, a hug, holding the injured girl as close as possible. "All I know so far is that he's sooo hot and that we can't tell your father."

"Oh crap. I was trying to forget that."

"Oh, I'll never let that happen."

So, definitely a filler chapter, but honestly I don't mind fillers. At the end of the day, not every chapter can be about bumping uglies, but we'll get to it eventually!

You know I live for reviews and whatnot, so please leave them, but if you don't then I'd still like to thank you for reading!