Sara opened her eyes slowly, only to have them be invited by the blinding sunlight, Sara brought her hand up to her eyes and used her hand as a shield against the sunlight. Sara shifted in the hospital bed, but once she did so she felt a pain shoot up her left leg, she looked down and saw it was in a cast. Sara closed her eyes as she remembered what happened, she had been dancing in the play and Federicko had tripped over the black cord that had been carelessly laid out in the middle of the stage, they had both fallen down, but she had fallen down the wrong way on her foot, she had felt it snap and then she had screamed at the raging pain.

"You're awake." Roy said quietly, as he made his way over to Sara.

Sara nodded, opening her eyes back up, she forced a smile, despite what her body was feeling. "It's broken isn't it?"

Roy nodded sadly, the doctors had told him that the foot was indeed broken, and even when it healed that Sara's dancing would never be the same, there would always be a bit of pain in that foot of Sara's. "I'm so sorry."

Sara felt hot tears prick at her eyes, no this couldn't be happening... she had worked so hard to get where she was and she was back where she was last year in Chicago, nowhere. "Will I be able to dance again?" Sara asked.

Roy stared back at his daughter, not wanting to tell her the news that her dancing would never be the same, that there would always be pain in that foot of hers, that her dreams were being destroyed because of one damn cord. "The doctors said when your broken foot is healed that it won't be able to function the way it used to be, your dancing won't be the same."

Sara nodded slowly, trying her hardest not to cry; your dancing won't be the same. Those words had felt like a deliberate slap to the face, her dream of becoming a dancer were being destroyed because some jerk had left the cord in the middle of the stage and Federicko had tripped on it. "No..." Sara whimpered as the tears escaped out of her eyes.

Dancing was what she wanted to do ever since she was a little girl, dancing was what her mother had supported her in no matter what, dancing was her link to her mom, and to herself, and now she could never dance the same way. What did that mean anyways? They might as well say that she could never dance again, instead of trying to sugarcoat what was happening to her.

"I am so sorry baby, I know how much you wanted to be a dancer..." Roy hugged Sara and surprisingly she let him, he held her body tight to his as she cried.

This wasn't fair, Sara wanted to scream, but she couldn't get past the crying, this wasn't fair kept repeating in her brain, why was this happening to her? She had everything she wanted, she had her dream and Derek and now she had nothing...

Derek.

Sara cried even harder thinking what his reaction would be when she told him about the injury and how she couldn't dance again, Sara didn't want to hear the sorrow in his voice, she wouldn't be able to stand it, she would break down. Sara tightened her grip on Roy, not feeling this sort of warmth since her mom died, Sara had tried to deny Roy, to deny that she loved him, but she did. They had gotten close after she left Chicago, she had given him a chance to be a dad and he had excelled at it, he even came to Julliard to see her first play, Sara cried some more as she thought of the play. That was supposed to be her popular debut but instead it had been the end of her career, what would she do now? She couldn't possibly stay at Julliard and not dance, where would she go?

Chicago.

Sara knew that was where she was going to go back to, it was the only place to go, the only place she could call home now. Sara had learned to call Chicago home, she had friends there... IE: Chenille, Snooky... but she also had enemies ... IE: Nikki. But right now Sara didn't care about Nikki, she didn't care about the small apartment she would be greeted with in a few days, all she cared about was that she had lost something, something that had meant the world to her, and now she felt like a lost little girl. She felt like a little girl that wanted her mommy, except her mommy was nowhere to be found, so Sara would take the next best thing, she would take her dad. She no longer called him Roy, well she occasionally did, but she mostly called him dad, it sounded good calling him that, it had taken a while but now she was used to it.

"Can we go home?" Sara said softy, shocked that she could find her voice through all the tears.

Roy pulled away and stared at Sara, he finally nodded. "Yeah we can." Roy said as he grabbed the bag Carol had given him on the way to the hospital. "Yeah we can." Roy repeated himself.

Roy knew that Sara was hurting, but he didn't know what else to say, he was still learning how to be a dad, he was just glad that she wanted to come home, to come home with him, that she would call his apartment, Chicago, home. Roy helped Sara out of the hospital bed, and cast another apolgetic look to his daughter.

"Don't." Sara snapped. "Stop staring at me like I'm glass, I'm not going to break." Sara said holding onto Roy.

Roy nodded and guided her into the wheelchair, and rolled her out of her hospital room. "I don't know what to do, what to say, I'm trying but I --- I just keep wanting to say sorry, hoping that maybe if I say sorry enough times, that you'll get better."

Sara would have usually laughed at something that naive, but instead it made her want to cry, to cry forever and never stop, but no more tears right now, she would let the tears create a river once they got home, but right now she wanted to be strong. "Face it Roy, I'm broken, and there is nothing you, or I, can do about it. It doesn't matter how many times you say you're sorry, it doesn't take back the fact that my dream is gone."

Roy nodded sadly and signed Sara out and rolled her out of the hospital. "What should I say then?"

Sara pushed herself up once they stopped in front of Roy's car. "Right now, nothing. I just need silence."

Roy nodded to himself and helped Sara in the car and shut her door, he then walked over to his side of the car and got in, and shut the door too, he started the car up and drove off, in silence. He knew Sara wasn't ready to talk about the injury or actually going home, so right now he would allow Sara that silence.

"So do you still live in that apartment?" Sara asked, looking out the window.

Roy nodded."Yep, and your room is the exact way you left it."

Sara squinted her eyes. "Oh great." Sara said sarcastically.

"Look, I know that you're not happy about coming back, and I wish there was a way for me to rewind time and make this all go away for you, but I can't. All I can do is be here for you and tell you that time will heal that broken foot." Roy said softly.

Sara shook her head. "Time may heal the broken feet, but what about my heart? You can still play jazz, I can't still dance, so until you know how it feels to have your dream yanked away from don't act like you're an expert on how I feel."

Roy nodded and the drive home was in silence, Roy would occasionally look over at Sara, but all he would catch was the side of her face, considering her eyes were glued to the window of the car.

[ Back in Chicago ]

"Okay, we're here." Roy stated as he pulled the car in front of his apartment. "Sara?"

Sara popped her head up. "I heard you." Sara walked out of the car, bringing her bag with her.

"Let me get that." Roy grabbed Sara's bag and walked up the long stairs that led to his apartment.

Sara watched Roy walk up the stairs, she watched him put the bag down and then run back down stairs, he wrapped his arm around and helped her up the stairs

"I didn't have the time to clean up, with having to fly to Julliard to see your play, well anyways, there's your room, just like you left it." Roy said, putting Sara'a bag to the side.

"Thanks." Sara hopped over to her room. "I'm going to get some sleep okay?"

Roy nodded and watched Sara close the sliding doors to her room.

Sara sighed, and sat down on the floor of the room, taking in a deep breath. Roy was right, not a thing had changed since she left this room, well except now there was a phone in the room, Sara leaned over and grabbed the phone.

Derek ran over to the phone, dropping his books. "Hello?"

Sara closed her eyes at the sound of Derek's voice. "Derek?"

Derek smiled instantly. "Hey you, how was the play?" Derek sat down on his bed.

"Not so good..." Sara started but then her voice trailed off, not knowing how to break this to Derek, how she could possibly tell him what happened without breaking down.

Derek frowned. "What happened?"

Sara took in a deep breath. "There was this cord in the middle of the stage, Federicko tripped on it and we both fell."

Derek's eyes widened. "Are you okay?"

Sara sighed. "I broke my foot. The doctors said it will heal with time, but the pain will always be there, and that my dancing will never be the same, they just should say that I can never dance again, they should try to stop sugarcoating it."

Derek's face dropped. "Oh my god Sara, that's awful. Where are you now?"

"Back in Chicago living with my dad. Had nowhere else to go, I obviously couldn't stay at Julliard, so here I am. Look it's not that a big of a deal, how was your tests?" Sara said, trying to change the subject.

Derek shook his head. "Not that big of a deal? You broke your foot Sara, it's a big deal, a real big deal."

Sara took a breath. "What the hell am I supposed to do about it? I can't make the injury go away! I can't just say 'injury go away' and have it be gone! I can't change the fact that I am not going to dance again, I can't make the pain go away!"

Derek sighed. "But ignoring this isn't going to make it go away either. I can come down in two days, can you hold on until then?"

Sara nodded. "Yeah..."

Derek took in a deep breath. "Okay, I'll see you in two days, I love you Sara."

Sara let a soft smile play with her features. "I love you too."