Chapter 3

"I don't believe this!" Erica Kane exclaimed as she stormed through the living room for the umpteenth time.

Jackson Montgomery, her fiancé, sighed and tried to peer around her to watch the news. She had been like this ever since returning home from work, letting him know that her daughter, his niece, Bianca Montgomery, had not called her mother from London upon her arrival as promised.

"Honey, why don't you sit and calm down some? I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for all of this. Maybe she was just tired when she got in, it is a long flight after all," Jackson tried to reason, but Erica would have none of it.

"Jack, I've already called the hotel and they told me she never checked in. Now why would she do that?" Erica asked, though finally sitting down next to him on the sofa.

"Maybe the plane was delayed," he shrugged his shoulders and turned his attention to the anchorwoman on TV, who explained they had just gotten in a special news bulletin.

"At 4:30 PM US Airways Flight 2133 crashed, just three hours into its seven hour trip. The plane, on its way from Pennsylvania to London-Heathrow Airport was carrying 30 passengers and six crewmembers. At this point in time rescue crews are working to recover the wreckage, but they're not optimistic about finding any survivors. US Airways will make a statement later tonight, after notifying the families of the victims."

Jackson felt a tight knot in his throat, but as he looked at his fiancée and saw her looking rather unconcerned he relaxed slightly, "That wasn't Bianca's flight?"

"What? Oh no, she was on Flight 28, I booked it myself. Horrible though, about that crash. Those poor people," she responded and got up as the phone started ringing.

"Hello?…Yes, this is she…what?…no…no, you must be mistaken…I don't have to listen to this!…I can assure you that if you don't…what?…she did?…oh god…no…no…yes, thank you."

Jack turned around as Erica's voice faltered and got up just in time to catch her before she fell to the floor. His fiancee's face was ashen and her whole body was shaking, leaving him perplexed as to who was on the other line.

"Sweetie, what is it? Who was that on the phone?" he asked, trying to lead her over to the sofa.

"Oh Jack," she whispered, gripping onto his arms tightly, "Bianca…she…she was on that plane in the news. She missed her flight a-and switched planes…oh god, Jack."

And as Jackson Montgomery wrapped his arms around his shaking fiancée, the realization of her words finally sunk in.

The rain was beating heavily against the makeshift tent's wall. A storm was raging outside, leaving the occupants of the tent glad they had managed to create cover. Darkness hung over the island like a heavy blanket, making it nearly impossible to see anything in the night.

Greenlee awoke with the worst hangover in the history of hangovers, her head felt as if it had been split open with a sledgehammer. She took deep, calming breaths to try and get the blinding pain under control and calm her queasy stomach. After a few seconds the pain lessened enough for her to at least assess her situation. It was then that Greenlee realized she was dressed in only her underwear, covered with a rough blanket and, most importantly, lying next to a warm, also undressed, body.

She opened her eyes, but was only greeted with more blackness. It was so dark she could barely see her hand before her eyes and Greenlee started to worry. Slowly and anxiously she reached a hand over to the body next to hers, wincing as she touched warm skin and ran her fingers across what she assumed to be the person's stomach. The skin was soft, too soft she realized and when her fingers brushed against a part of anatomy men definitely didn't possess, Greenlee pulled her hand back as if it'd been burned.

"Oh my god," she thought, "did I get completely wasted and have sex with a chick?"

But before she could really start to panic, a voice ripped her from her thoughts, "Greenlee? Are you awake?"

"Bianca?!" Greenlee managed to choke out and narrowed her eyes, cursing at the blinding pain that ran along her face at the action.

"Hey, don't move, okay?" Bianca said softly and the older girl felt a soft hand on her shoulder. She could feel the other girl move around for a few seconds and then a soft light came on, shining into her face, blinding her. As she opened her eyes again the flashlight was illuminating Bianca's bruised face and Greenlee almost narrowed her eyes at what she saw, but remembering the pain it had caused earlier she decided against it.

"Bianca, what the hell is going on? Why am I naked and in bed with you? And what happened to your face?" the dark-haired girl shot out a string of questions, watching as Bianca rolled her eyes.

"You don't remember? The plane crashed and we're stranded on a deserted island."

"The plane crashed?" Bianca nodded softly and Greenlee scoffed at her, "I told you so!"

"Ugh, well either way, we're stranded here. And no, I didn't take advantage of you, don't worry. Peter was worried we'd all get hypothermia so he suggested we'd take the wet clothes off and let them dry outside. Of course now it's raining so…what?" Bianca asked as she saw the older girl giving her a weird look.

"Who's Peter?"

"That'd be me," a deep voice answered from her left and Greenlee looked into a set of sky blue eyes that belonged to a very handsome face. Greenlee frowned as he reached out his hand and tilted her head, inspecting something on her face.

"What?" she growled, miserable enough not to care that a very handsome guy was touching her.

"You've got a pretty nasty cut on your face a-and Peter thinks you might have a concussion or something, since you were out for so long," Bianca answered, knowing that if anything about this ordeal were to upset Greenlee, it would be having her face messed up.

"A cut? Where is it? Wait, is it gonna scar?" she asked, fear showing through her voice for the first time since she'd woken up and Bianca grimaced. Leave it to Greenlee to care more about her looks than the seriousness of this situation, she thought. But looking into the older girl's eyes Bianca understood perfectly well, it wasn't easy living with a mother that accepted nothing but absolute perfection from her daughter. Not to mention the people in Pine Valley liked to talk, everyone intruded into their lives just because they were rich and every little thing one did might be seen as a weakness.

Sighing, Bianca reached over and trailed her finger lightly along the side of the cut to let the other girl know the extent of the injury. The cut was fairly deep, but not deep enough to be dangerous; Peter had guessed that some piece of flying metal had probably hit her while she was unconscious. Bianca's fingers touched Greenlee's forehead where the cut started, about an inch above her left eyebrow. It curved downward in a crescent shape through her eyebrow and across her eye, ending an inch under her eye on her cheekbone.

Bianca's eyes never left Greenlee's the whole time and she smiled softly as she pulled her hand away, hoping to ease the tension some, "We don't really have any First-Aid supplies so there isn't anything we can do about it. I tried to clean it some, though I think the saltwater probably starved of any infection."

She watched as Peter leaned closer again to look at the cut. He'd told them all that he had been a firefighter and therefore knew First-Aid, a skill that had definitely come in handy. Bianca was pulled from her thoughts as she heard Greenlee scoff and looked back down at the older girl.

"This is just so great! First I miss my flight, then we crash and now I'm stranded here all cut up. You know this is all your fault Bianca, right? If you hadn't ran into me at the airport and spilled our luggage," Greenlee ranted in an exasperated voice and Bianca recoiled at the words, shaking her head. Maybe she'd been wrong and Greenlee was the last person on this island she should consider a friend.

She was just about to respond to Greenlee's comment, when the older girl looked her in the eyes, her hand touching Bianca's arm softly, "Hey, I'm just kidding. Thanks for taking care of me and you know, not leaving me to die. I know I can be an unappreciative bitch, so thanks."

Bianca, taken aback at the words, smiled and covered Greenlee's hand with her own, squeezing it gently. She lied back down onto the sand and pulled the blanket tightly across both their bodies. The wind and rain whipped across the tent and Bianca was glad that Blake and Peter had managed to salvage some of the airline blankets they'd found in the water.

It was cold and Bianca unconsciously slid closer to the warm body next to hers. The soft, steady breathing of the other girl finally lulled her into a restless sleep.

The heat engulfed her body in a tight grip, actually making her glad that her clothes were still slightly wet. Bianca heaved a sigh and picked up another branch from the ground for their pile of firewood. The sun was up high in the sky and the brunette girl decided it had been a stupid idea of Peter to send them for firewood in this heat. Wiping a hand across her forehead, Bianca turned to look at the girl behind her.

Greenlee was carrying the wood they'd so far collected, looking no better than Bianca felt herself. She stopped, stretched her aching muscles and sat down on the trunk of a fallen tree.

"I thought we could use a break," she shrugged as Greenlee sat down next to her, breathing deeply.

"Speak for yourself, I could keep going for hours," the older girl exclaimed and smirked at Bianca.

Shaking her head, the younger girl turned her head to look at their surroundings. Tall palm trees were covered with vines, there were thick bushes all around them and plenty of colorful flowers – almost like paradise. Bianca sighed and turned back towards the other girl, who was busy flicking ants off of her legs.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked softly, looking into Greenlee's eyes as she looked up.

"Hmm?"

"Why're you always so mean to me? Do you hate me?" Bianca almost instantly regretted asking the question, fearing she'd ruined the civility that had existed between them recently.

"Bianca," Greenlee sighed, wiping more ants off her legs unconsciously, "I really don't know what to tell you, besides that I'm an insecure bitch and I was jealous of what you and Leo had. I know I can be pretty insensitive at times, just…don't take it too hard, okay? And I don't hate you, you can actually be pretty…cool at times."

Bianca, seeming to ponder this, looked down at the ground, "But what about what you said at Leo's funeral, that you meant all the mean things you said to me?"

"Well, I probably did, but…can't we just kind of forget everything and start over? If I have to trust anyone in this godforsaken place I'd rather it be you, at least we know each other and what we're capable of," the older girl responded, smiling softly at Bianca and got a bright smile in return.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Friends, then?" Bianca asked, shaking hands with the other girl to 'seal the deal'.

"Alright, now let's go back to headquarters and see if anyone's found food, I'm absolutely starved," Greenlee exclaimed as they stood, but then faltered and she probably would've fallen if Bianca hadn't caught her.

"Whoa, you okay?"

Greenlee shook it off, steadying herself by holding onto the taller girl for a few seconds, then bent down to pick up their firewood, "Yeah, just got a little dizzy, you know."

"Maybe you should've stayed back at the tent, like Peter told you," Bianca told her as they started heading back to their 'camp', taking most of the wood from Greenlee so the other girl wouldn't have to carry as much.

"Nah, I would've gone insane from boredom. Plus, I couldn't just let you go traipsing about this forest all alone. Who knows, you might've been kidnapped by an ape or something," Greenlee stated in all seriousness, causing Bianca to burst out laughing.

"Oh yeah, very likely, Greenlee," she grinned, looking at the shorter brunette before they both started laughing and giggling like little girls all the way back to the camp.

TBC