Andi woke slowly.
Her head felt like it was stuffed with cotton; she couldn't think fast, or straight. She knew her legs were there, but she couldn't feel them. She opened her eyes to see if they were still there, and to figure out where she was. And the first thing she saw was her Mom's head lying on the bed over her hand; and across the room, Remy was stretched out on the couch snoring like a buzz saw. She gave a weak giggle at the sounds he was making, and the bed's slight vibration woke Ororo up.
She sat up, rubbed her eyes, then saw Andi's eyes open, and almost cried with relief. Her eyes followed Andi's gaze across the room and saw her looking at Remy's somnolent form, and she gave a soft laugh. When she looked back at Andi her eyes weren't quite dry. "He does snore a bit," she said. "Andi, how are you feeling?"
Andi closed her eyes, took stock of her body. Everything below her waist was floating; she couldn't feel anything. Above the waist, everything was fine. "Nothing hurts," she said. "But Mom…I can't feel my legs…what happened…" she started to struggle to sit upright as memory returned. "The accident…oh God, Mom, the accident…what happened…Mom, where's Ryan? And Rose?"
Ororo tugged the covers back. "You can't feel your legs because of the casts they put on them. Your legs were broken in several places, and your hips were broken--"
Andi brushed that aside impatiently. "What about Ryan, Mom? And Rose?" She looked at Ororo, and her heart dropped into her stomach. "Oh, no. Oh, Mom, please, no…"
Ororo gripped Andi's hand. "Rose died, Andi," she said quietly. "Ryan is in a coma. He is doing all right, but they are not sure when he is going to wake up. Rose's friend Devon died also. And the man driving the car that struck you died too."
Andi's eyes filled with tears. "No! Oh, God, no, no, no…"and she dissolved into tears. Ororo sat down on the bed and leaned over Andi, doing what she could to let the girl cry on her shoulder. "Ryan, oh, no, Ryan, Rose, Devon…Ryan…"
Andi's heartbreak was so overwhelmingly plain Ororo felt like crying too. Andi was a quiet girl; she didn't talk about herself much. In the months since she'd started going to Julliard, Ororo had only had a chance to talk to her several times, and Andi had gone on about her friends, her schoolwork, and her dancing. Ororo hadn't known things had gotten this far between Andi and Ryan. The diamonds on Andi's finger had been a shock; Linda Harper had said that Ryan was going to propose, and Andi must have accepted if she was wearing the ring.
Andi cried until she was exhausted, and then Ororo helped her lie back on the bed, still sniffling. "Oh Mom," she sobbed. "Ryan and Rose and Devon and I were coming back from the Kiss Café from an engagement dinner. Ryan proposed…and he gave me this ring--" she held out her hand and examined it, "and we were going down the road when I saw this big black SUV coming up the other side of the road. It was weaving all over the road, but it was going really slow, and I thought we would be okay, I thought we'd have enough time to get out of the way. And then all of a sudden when it was about two car lengths in front of us the driver stepped on the gas pedal, and the car just shot forward. I tried to warn Ryan…he was driving…but the other car was coming too fast. I heard Devon scream as the car slammed into Ryan's car where he was sitting, and then the impact pushed our car's tail into the foot of a telephone pole or something. I heard Rose scream, Mom, and then she went quiet, and Devon too, but I was trying to get to Ryan and I didn't know they were dead. And then I heard this really loud crack, and then there was this terrible awful pain in my legs, and everything went black." She looked at Ororo. "What happened?"
Ororo told her what the police had learned in the four days since the accident. "About ten minutes before the accident happened, a motorist driving by saw the car that hit you weaving all over the road. They called 911 and told the police that an intoxicated driver was going down the road. The dispatcher sent a patrol officer down to pick up the drunk driver. He came up just moments after the accident. A passing motorist saw the wreckage, and was worried that the cars might burst into flames, so they pulled Ryan out while the officer called for an ambulance. Two ambulances came, one for you, and one for Ryan. You were both brought here. Ryan sustained severe trauma to his abdomen, but the doctor says he'll recover fully as soon as he wakes up." She paused, knowing what Andi was going to ask next.
"Did the doctor say when I could go back to dancing?"
Ororo swallowed hard. "Your legs were broken in three places, and your hips are broken as well. The doctor says you will be in the cast for two weeks."
"So when can I get back to dancing?"
Ororo took a deep breath. "You cannot, Andi. The doctor says your legs will not be able to tolerate the stress of dancing."
"You mean…I can't dance again? Ever?"
"It is highly unlikely," Ororo said softly, wishing there was some way of softening the blow for Andi. "You will be in a wheelchair for months, and then it will be braces afterward. The doctor does not think you will recover to the point where you can walk without assistance of some kind."
"No more dancing…oh, no, oh, God," and here came the tears again, falling down her cheeks hard and fast. This time, when Ororo bent over her, Andi turned away, curling in on herself as best she could, and mourned for herself silently, alone. Ororo stood next to her bed, feeling helpless, then felt Remy's hand on her shoulder. She had been so wrapped up in her talk with Andi she'd never heard Remy's buzz saw snoring stop.
"She need to grieve, chere," Remy said quietly into Ororo's ear. "Leave her 'lone now. Later we come back when she ready to talk." He and Ororo left the room silently.
* * *
Emma sat by the boy's bed for a long time in the dark. She normally wouldn't do this; but this boy was important to Andi, and she felt like she had to make the effort. She closed her eyes, rested a hand gently on the boy's forehead, and slipped gently into the upper layers of Ryan's consciousness. There was nothing; all was dark, and blank. She burrowed deeper, searching for that faint spark that was Ryan's consciousness, and finding nothing.
Finally she drew back, let her hand fall to her lap, and sighed, resting her forehead on her folded arm. There was nothing; nothing that she could see. She allowed herself a moment to mourn, privately, for Ryan, then got up and slipped out of the room.
She ran into Ororo and Remy outside in the hall. Oror's eyes were red, as though she had been crying. "Andi woke up," she said quietly to Emma's questioning glance. "She asked about Ryan and Rose. I had to tell her. And then she asked about her dancing, and I had to tell her she will never dance again. And she fell apart."
Emma reached out, feeling for Andi telepathically. She was still crying, but she was exhausted, and she was slipping into sleep. "She's cried herself to sleep," Emma said. "Come on, there's nothing else to be done here."
They turned and started walking back out to the elevators. "So what happens now?" Emma said.
"I have to go pack up Andi's things, and Remy will drive her car back to the mansion. Andi will need all the help she can get after she gets out, because she has a lot of recovery and therapy to go through, and it will be easier for me to help her if she stays at the mansion. Also, with Evan and the other children in residence, maybe having them around will help her get over her grief."
Emma gave a small smile. "Yes, your nephew does have that 'chase the clouds away' personality, doesn't he? Well, if there is anything you need, please tell me, although I can't imagine anything that could come up that Charles or Jean couldn't handle."
"I will," Ororo said as they got out to the parking lot. "Thank you, Emma."
Remy watched Emma's retreating back as the former White Queen got into her car. "She got a good heart, dat one," he said quietly to Ororo. "She don' show it dat often, but she got a good heart." He opened the passenger side door for Ororo, gallantly, then got behind the wheel. "Andi's apartment?" he said.
Ororo nodded, and they drove off.
* * *
That's it for book three.
There will be another book in this series, but I'm not sure when. Andi will recover, completely, though she won't return to dancing. She'll have more important things to do; helping Emma run Frost Enterprises, for one; marrying Ryan, for another. And I haven't decided yet, but maybe a little girl might make an appearance too! Life's done running her through its mill; now see how she finally becomes a settled, happy woman!
The next book you will see up here is 'Fire and Ice.' I don't know when I'll start putting that up; it may not be for a while, as I'm currently in the middle of doing taxes and arranging to move (a one-bedroom apartment really isn't big enough for me, Hubby, and my two kids, especially as my nine month old son is starting to cruise. Another couple of months will see him walking, and there's simply not enough room here to have two toddlers zooming around. (My oldest son is twenty months old.)
I may stop posting for a while until the dust from moving settles, but while I do that, I'm trying to find a site on which to put up the first couple chapters of my novel. If anyone out there has a fanfiction site on which I can post 'Power Squared' (I can't post it on ff.net due to the content and language) let me know via E-mail, and I'll be happy to send what I have so far.
Thanks for reading, and look for me in the future!
Jaenelle
