Author's Note: I know, I know. I haven't updated in forever. But I hope this one's worth it; it's longer, and it has the best quote. Ever. :)

No Words Here

Chapter Nine: The End Of An Era

"I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something."

—Samwise Gamgee, 'Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

"Jack! Sam!" Lucy shouted, fighting back hyperventilation and tears of joy as her eyes found the truck trudging on through the wastelands. Snowflakes twirled in the light breeze, falling on the fires all around and allowing more smoke to rise as Lucy dashed to the automobile. She grabbed Jack and Sam, trying not to her hurt her only child, and pulled them into a tight squeeze, similar to the one she gave when she first saw them get off the helicopter a few weeks ago. "Oh my God… I thought you two were dead…" The trio seemed to share the same reaction, not letting go for a while.

"Is everyone okay? Where are they?" Sam asked, reluctantly pulling away from his parents.

"J.D., Elsa, Michelle, and Laura are up in Texas. They're sending some more helicopters so that we can get everybody up there, too." Lucy answered breathlessly.

Sam's voice became more earnest as he spoke the next few words. "I need to get up there… Laura's really hurt and—"

"Don't worry, Sam, the helicopter's coming… she'll be alright."

Laura gasped for short breaths of air, her eyes searching desperately for absolutely nothing from behind their lids. She was strapped to her bed, for the consistent spasms that shuddered violently through her body could further damage her frail condition if she was to impact something. The concussion in her cranium was enormous, as was her badly fractured spinal cord, and the various bruises, slashes, and smashed bones. The doctors at the military facility had theorized that she had been struck with a girder or some other large object emitting from the blast.

Doctor Cassandra Thurman sighed as she surveyed Laura struggle and squirm in her bed. Her associate, Doctor Jackie Minora, came loping into the room. "The girl's mother is here, should I send her in?" Jackie inquired through panting.

Cassandra released another elongated sigh. "Yes. Tell them."

Meanwhile, Elsa, J.D., and Brian were gathered in what served as a waiting room. The trio simultaneously rose from their seats as Michelle, red-eyed and completely absorbed in her tears and sorrow, entered the area. Elsa wrapped her arms around Laura's mother, and Michelle accepted the bug, burying her face into the teen's shoulder. The woman pulled away aversely after a few seconds. "She's going to be alright, isn't she?"

Elsa fingered her stitched forehead as she frowned a bit. "They don't know. She's got a lot of broken bones… and she's lost a lot of blood… and she's got a major concussion, but that's all they're telling us. We can't even go to see her."

Brian tried to avoid eye contact with Michelle. He'd known this poor, strong woman for a while now, and he despised seeing her so sad after the many things she didn't deserve occurring all at once. J.D. collectively comforted Michelle, whispering promises of hope.

Jackie Minora crossed the threshold into the room. As a medical doctor fresh out of school, she had yet to come to terms with telling patients' families what she was about to say.

"Miss Chapman?"

Michelle sniffled. "It's Vreeland now… but yes?"

"Miss Vreeland, a word w-with you?" Jackie requested anxiously. The two ventured into a nearby hallway, and Michelle's blood pounded into her ears.

"Yes?"

"Your daughter… she n-needs to be induced into a coma. She has b-brain damage," Jackie gulped. "That could turn severe… and cause something more permanent. And… she's got a fractured spine, along with sev-several other ruptured bones, and we need to operate… but we aren't s-sure if…"

"If what?" Michelle interjected tearfully.

"If she's strong enough for the surgical procedure." Jackie's eyes fell downcast. "That—" she cut herself off. "We think there's a sixty percent chance of survival if her body can take the operation… and… a t-ten percent chance… if she can't get the operations. Either way, if she does live, it's likely that she'll have temporary paralysis for a few years, below her waist…"

Michelle couldn't handle this. It was just too much. "Are you implying that after all that's happened, all I've been through, that I'm going to lose another daughter!" she shouted, her cries in hysterics as she fell to the floor, still sobbing.

Elsa fell back into her chair, hearing Laura's mother's cries.

Sam, where the hell are you?

"Where the hell is that helicopter?" Sam mumbled irritably, finding himself pacing on the same landing pad that he leaped onto when he first arrived. Lucy glanced at Jack, looking for some sort of inspiration in his eyes for what to advise to their son.

"Sam, be patient," Lucy put a hand on her teenager's shoulder, almost adding, It isn't like we're never going to see her again.

And the slight patience coursing through Sam's system paid off. Not even thirty seconds had passed when the buzz of the helicopter's blades sounded through the air, but all Sam could hear was the hallelujah chorus. It hovered above their heads for a few moments, whistling the air into rippling gusts before landing in close proximity.

The trip seemed like forever times ten thousand. It was the most elongated, most anxious time in his entire life. They group was only in transit for two hours, but time appeared to stand still.

When they arrived at the military facility, Sam dashed to the building faster than he could ever recall running. Faster than track tryouts, faster than the championship soccer game when he was six. His wounds may have been cleaned, but his broken arm wasn't helping matters at all. He didn't even really know where he was going, although surprisingly he was going the right way. Sam had burst into a pair of swinging doors, sanitized for optimum protection, stumbling into the waiting room, and its surprised occupants.

The group, consisting of the younger portion of the library gang and Michelle, looked as if Sam were a ghost. A silence accumulated in the room, only to be slightly tainted by Sam's weak pants for breath. "Where… is… she?" They all knew which she he was speaking of, but no one brave enough answered his question. Michelle shot a look as he accumulated frustration. "I said… where… is she?"

"You want to know where she is?" Michelle rephrased thickly. "I'll show you." She slapped Sam across the face. "She's going to die because of you!" she repeated the smack several times, saying, "If you hadn't taken her—" SMACK. "Out there—" SMACK. "She'd be—" SMACK. "Fine!"

He simply took the hits, tears pricking his eyes and pain pricking his face.

Lucy and Jack burst into the room a few seconds later, as Sam and Michelle neared another pair of doors on the opposite side of the room, where Jackie stood.

"I'm sorry, Miss Vreeland. I can't let him in. He isn't intermediate family, is he?" Jackie questioned, eyeing Sam briefly.

"I'm her fiancé," Sam answered breathlessly, realizing that the whole room had heard his words.

"Fiancé?" Jack repeated skeptically.

"I'll explain later," he answered quickly, as an equally surprised Michelle swept off into the next corridor.

"Fianc" Jack said once more, seating himself. "He's only… eighteen." He completed the sentence with uncertainty. "Wasn't it his birthday yesterday?"

"Yes," Lucy answered, with a surprised tone. She was astonished that Jack would remember, especially considering the recent circumstances. "He's eighteen, so legally, he can make his own decisions, Jack." she clarified. "But I still don't know why he'd propose…"

"Me either." Jack paused for a while, and silence accumulated in the room again.

"Er… I uh… have to go the bathroom." Elsa announced.

"Yeah. Me too." J.D. added.

Brian was a little late with his addition, so J.D. nudged him a little. "Oh, uh. Yeah."

The trio exited, and Lucy raised a scarred eyebrow. "What was that about?"

"I have no clue."

Sam heart felt like to was about to burst out of his chest from the heavy beats it had been pounding within his body. He searched every room they passed, wishing each one was Laura's, but they either contained no one, or someone else who just wasn't Laura.

It was when he had grown tired of searching when the two had halted at the room near the end of the hall, Dr. Thurman stopping Michelle.

"Oh, Miss Chapman—Vreeland," she corrected herself. "We've got good news?"

Michelle's eyes seemed to glitter at this. "Is she operable?"

"Yes."

"Operable?" Sam didn't understand.

"Oh, are you her brother?"

"Yeah." He didn't want to waste time explaining himself.

"She needs to be operated on, but we're inducing her into a coma, because she is having pretty vigorous spasms." Cassandra summarized.

"I need to go in there—"

"Not yet." Dr. Thurman warned. "After the operations. She's going to be alright."

But somehow, those words and a sixty percent chance attached of survival wasn't enough for Michelle.

"How are we supposed to do something like this?"

J.D. and Brian lifted their heads warily from staring at their footsteps as they wandered the halls.

"What?" Brian mumbled, meeting Elsa's saddened gaze.

"This is just so fucked up," Elsa began. "How do we deal with sort of thing? I mean, as if the world wasn't messed up enough already; there was people killing each other out of pure, meaningless hatred, there were people without homes, without families, starving to death out in countries that barely have anything. And now this? You guys, I don't have a mother anymore… Laura doesn't have her sister… so many people have lost everything, but everyone has lost someone…

"And here we are, waiting for Laura to be alright. For Sam to have his honeybuns," she smiled a little at those words. "For the world to return to the way it should be, to wake up from this freaking nightmare. But I can't just stand here and watch this just pass us by. I want to do something about this," Elsa had tears in her eyes. "I want to have something I can control for once in my life."

Brian did something very bold for once; he patted her back, comforting her. "But we can't. And there's nothing to do… but maybe…

"Maybe there's hope."

Next Chapter: The happy ending! YAY!