Disclaimer: I don't own War of the Worlds….yada yada yada you know the drill…I only own Chris.

A/N: Okay, I was thinking a couple days ago, and I decided this story will be between 15-25 chapters…also, I was thinking about writing a prequel and a sequel. So, I'll post the summaries to both, and tell me what you think!

Prequel: Growing Up With…both of my parents?

This is mainly focusing on Crystal Ferrier before War of the Worlds, it will begin from when Rachel is born, to when she is 16, she is 17 in this fic, I just made a mistake last chapter includes all of Chris' injuries , and involves mostly Ray, Chris, Max, John, Ryan and Tommy, though Robbie, Mary Ann, and Rachel will make an appearance in the first 5-10 chapters.

Sequel: Growing Up With…Mary Ann…

The ending of the Growing Up With trilogy, brings Chris to Mary Ann's house. Why? Because Ray's services are needed in the rebuilding of the country, so Chris is stuck with Mary Ann…sounds like fun huh? This fic will mainly focus on Mary Ann, Chris, Robbie, and Rachel; Tommy, Ryan, and John will appear in the first about 7 chapters, along with Ray, cuz he's cool like that 

I want to thank my new beta…Lexi…or Bob in her words… or Mr. Mama. She's just weird like that…anyway, on with story.

Chapter 4: Broken Glass.

-----------------------------------------Last Time--------------------------------------------

"Tommy, what if something happens to us? You guys are my friends; I can't bear the thought of losing you guys." Chris said in a serene tone.

"You're not gonna Chris, you're stuck with us for life!" Tommy, Ryan, and John said with a grin.

"Thanks guys…" She said she was about to add something more, but was cut off by a piercing whistle.

­­­­­­­­­­­­-------------------------------------End of Last time-----------------------------------

No one said anything for a moment, the only sound coming from the screeching whistle from outside. John, alarmed at what was going on, quickly jumped up from his makeshift bed, Chris, Tommy, and Ryan following suite.

"What the hell is that?" Chris inquired in an alarmed tone.

"Do you honestly think we know?" Tommy asked, slightly annoyed. By now the screeching had gotten louder and Chris could see something moving outside the window. She looked around as she heard Robbie jump up, Ray getting up right behind him. Chris felt movement around her feet, she looked down and there Rachel had gotten up and ran behind the staircase, her frightened face shining with sweat and tears.

"Is the lightning back?" She asked in a fearfully.

"No, this is something else…" Ray whispered.

Suddenly the screeching got louder, louder than she had ever heard, she quickly held her hands up to her ears, and it was beginning to sound like a dying person, screaming in agony, as though being tortured mercilessly for an unknown reason. The screeching only got louder, only now it was accompanied by a thunderous thumping sound, she only had a hunch as to what that meant, but she sincerely hoped it was wrong, for that would mean it came here, and if it did, that meant no one was going to be safe…

Ray, thinking quickly, grabbed Rachel and Robbie and ran down the hall, the other three following him; just as fire burned through the window, causing it to smash loudly. Tommy swore profusely at the site, but kept running. They came into a little room. Just as Ray was about to shut the door, the whistle became louder and louder, and Chris managed to see her father close the door, before falling into darkness.

-­-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chris woke up in the morning to find herself slumped against the chest of her best friend. She gently rose up and looked around, she was confused slightly as to where she was when a flood of memories came rushing back to her. She sighed and looked around again, though this time instead of looking at her surroundings she looked around to make sure everyone was okay. Tommy, John, Ryan, Robbie, and Rachel were there, but when she looked for her father, she couldn't find him. Thinking he may have gone out, but in the back of her mind thinking something worse had happened she stood up fully this time, and opened the door and looked outside, mostly everything was intact, except for anything glass like…She proceeded up the stairs, gripping the railing tightly as though afraid it would collapse at any moment, and opened the basement door. What she saw around her was horrific; looking around she saw debris everywhere, but that wasn't what got to her. No, what got her was the slight fact that there was a plane that had crashed. Parts of the plane were everywhere, wings were broken off, the nose totally disassembled from the tail, it was horrible, parts of the propeller that were still intact were smoking, fire burnt in them, though no blaze, it was there nonetheless. Looking around she saw something moving near the body of the plane. Making her way over there, careful not to step on any parts of the plane as she walked towards it, she saw her father talking to a fairly large man in a loud tone. As she was about to say something, a lady walked up to her father and the man.

"Who're you?" her father asked warily.

"I'm a newscaster." She replied.

"What is he doing?" referring to the man.

"He's getting food…He isn't responding because he can't hear you, he went deaf, one of those things went off right beside him."

"What things?"

"Those tripod things…"

Ray sighed as the lady walked over to her van, a van he had just noticed was there. She motioned for him to follow; he did and stepped inside the van.

"See this? Those tripod things came out of the ground, every time we're about to get something on tape, the cameras just stop…"

"Wait, there's more than one?" He asked looking through all the footage.

"Yeah…"

"Oh my god…" Ray whispered, mostly to himself.

The man loaded the things into the car as they heard a quiet horn somewhere afar, the same horn that sounded whenever a tripod was around. Ray stepped out of the van, and just as the lady was about to close the door, she asked Ray one last thing:

"Were you on that plane?"

"No…"

"Oh, 'cuz that would've made a great story…" She said closing the van door and driving off.

Ray shook his head and was about to walk back inside when he heard a familiar voice call out "dad."

He turned around and saw Chris running over to him.

"What are you doing up?"

"I woke up and couldn't find you, so I came up to investigate."

"Well, come on, we have to leave, those things might be coming closer…"

Chris nodded silently, she was about to say something, but decided against it, mainly because she wasn't even sure if what would come out of her mouth would make much sense, that and it was too early to rile up her father.

The two proceeded back inside what was left of her mother's house and went down into the room where they had spent the night. Ray silently shook Rachel awake as Chris woke up her friends.

She bent down next to Tommy.

"Tommy, come on dude, wake up…we gotta go."

Tommy silently stirred as Chris turned to Ryan,

"Ryan, come on, let's go, we gotta go…now."

Ryan sat up and rubbed his eyes groggily, leaving Chris left with a sleeping John.

She hit John over the head and yelled "wake-up" in his ears as quietly as she could causing him to bolt-up out of his slumber and collide heads with Chris.

"Dude? What the hell?" Chris questioned in an annoyed tone.

John, not a morning person, glared at her angrily and rubbed his head.

"Why? In all of your supposed brilliance, as all of our teacher's compliment, would you hit a sleeping person on the side of the head when you know they aren't a morning person?" John asked irritably.

"Because it's so much fun." She said with a grin. "Come on, we gotta go." She added getting up and helping John to his feet. She bent down to pick up her bag and looked around her. Checking to make sure her pocket knife was still with her, she sighed and leaned her arm on John's shoulder. They always did that, so John didn't take it wrongly, and he knew that Chris liked Tommy anyway, courtesy of Max. At the thought of Max, Chris bent her head down in sorrow, never letting any tears spill, but rubbing her face to keep them at bay.

Tommy had already awoken Robbie and now the seven of them stood in this little cramped room. He heard a bit of Ray's conversation with Rachel.

"…wanna look around, but you're not going to are you?" he whispered.

Rachel shook her head and whispered no as Ray picked her up.

"Keep your eyes on me, okay?"

The other 5 followed them up the stairs, Chris and Robbie trailing behind.

"What is going on up there Chris?"

"I honestly don't know Robbie, it's not like this stuff happens every day."

"And what's the deal with you and Tommy?" he asked with a sly grin, the two of them opening up the basement door.

"Nothing…" Chris mumbled trying her best to keep her blushing cheeks hidden.

"I knew you liked him, it's kinda obvious."

"Is it?" She asked in an alarmed tone.

"I think he likes you too." Robbie continued ignoring her question.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I saw you two in the car, you seem to, I dunno, you're just like, more interactive with him and stuff." Robbie said with a slight laugh.

Chris just glared. Robbie looked around the house; he gasped in horror and began to walk around as Ray put Rachel in the car.

Tommy, John, and Ryan had all gotten in, still not over the shock of the scene around them, but knowing that compared to what had happened the day before, this really wasn't much…

Robbie turned and looked around again, before getting into the front seat. Chris got in beside Rachel and Ray started the engine, they drove off, continuing on their path to Boston.

They had been driving for a while, at sometime which Rachel had nodded off, this time on Tommy, and the four friends had gotten back to talking again.

"So…How has your day been?" Chris asked in a mock cheery tone.

"Well, aside from the fact that there was a plane wreck right outside the place we were staying, I'd say it was pretty good..." Ryan said from the back with a slight laugh, his hazel eyes shining in amusement.

Chris, Tommy, and John laughed half-heartedly, you really just couldn't joke at a time like this…

Robbie, sensing the tension began to strike up a conversation.

"So, Tommy, Ryan, John, how long have you guys known Chris?"

"Since about a month after her and Ray moved in…" Tommy said silently remembering the day.

"Oh, yeah, I remember that day…" Chris said with a dreamy look in her eye.

"How could you forget?" Ryan asked with a grin.

"What happened?" Robbie asked with an amused grin.

"Well, it was a Saturday and…

-----------------------------------Flashback--------------------------------------------

"Chris wake up! It's 10:30!" Ray shouted from downstairs.

A mess of brown hair fell out of the bed. This mess just happened to be Crystal Ferrier, just waking-up…she wasn't a morning person.

She sighed and grabbed some clothes and headed to the bathroom. Five minutes later she came out, fully dressed in jeans and a red Independent t-shirt, wringing out her hair.

Grabbing her shoes, skateboard, and helmet she walked down the stairs to eat a bowl of cereal. She left her stuff by the door and began to brush her hair out.

"Dad, can I go to the skate-park today? It's right down the street…" the eleven year-old questioned her father.

"I guess, do you want a ride?"

"Dad, it's called a skate-park for a reason…"

Her father just laughed at this and took another spoonful of cereal as Chris poured her own.

"I'll be back by 4:30." She said before starting to eat her breakfast.

Ten minutes later she was out the door, she walked down the stairs and got on her skateboard, doing just random tricks and grinding on the curb every now and then. Five minutes later she was looking at the Vans skate-park.

"So, this is New York's good side?" She muttered with a sigh before proceeding in with her skateboard in hand.

She started off on the half-pipe, doing some normal tricks, but she got bored of it eventually, and went around, just doing lines, nothing special, just a grind here and there, and some cool 360 turns, but that was it.

About 5 hours later when Chris was just about to go home, 3 guys walked up to her, they were about a foot taller than her, and she was 5'2", she would've kept walking, but they got in her way.

"You're a pretty bad-ass skateboarder." The one in the middle said, he had blonde-hair, blue eyes, and tanned skin.

"Thanks, I'm Chris." She said to the blonde.

"I'm Jason." He replied.

"Well, I gotta go." She said making her way to the door.

"Not so fast. We thought, maybe you'd want to hang out with us." Jason said blocking her path again.

"That's alright thanks, I make it a point not to hang out with creeps." Chris said. She knew it was incredibly rude, but she needed to go, before she got in trouble, as she told her father she would be back by 4:30, it was already 4:25.

"I should teach you how to talk to your superiors." Jason said angrily.

"I already know how to talk to my superiors, that's the exact reason I'm talking to you this way…"

Jason pushed her back slightly and began to crack his knuckles, Chris after four years of taking Tae Kwon Do, discreetly went into fighting stance, she would've kicked the crap out of this guy, but was interrupted by three guys from behind the three creeps.

"Is there a problem here Jason?" the middle one with dark-hair asked. He had pale skin, freckles and dark eyes.

"Great, more creeps." Chris muttered mostly to herself, but apparently the dark-haired boy noticed because he laughed.

"Yeah, I was just about to teach this girl a lesson." Jason said cracking his knuckles still.

"That's no way to treat a lady." The dark-haired boy said again.

"What do you know Tommy? You're just a stupid 11-year-old, I might as well beat you to the ground." He said rounding on the boy.

Chris, taking this moment as a sign of distraction, quickly side-kicked him in the back causing him to lunge forward, his two companions rounded on her as the boy named Tommy punched one in the face. She punched the other in the gut, just as Jason was about to get up, seeing that this girl could hurt him, he ran away screaming, his two companions running after them clutching their soon to be bruises.

Chris took-up a fighting stance again, ready to take on the other three, just incase.

"Relax dude, we're not like them." A boy with blonde-hair said. He had blonde-hair and green eyes.

Chris dropped her arms but remained tense, she looked down at her watch and saw that it was 4:35. She swore loudly; that had taken longer than she thought.

"What's wrong?" Tommy asked.

"I'm supposed to be home."

"Want us to walk you?"

"Sure…I'm Chris by the way. I guess in all the confusion, you never got my name."

"I'm Tommy, and this is John," he said pointing to the blonde, "and Ryan." He said pointing to the other boy who had red hair and hazel eyes.

"Nice to meet you guys." The four got on their skateboards and rode slowly to her house.

"You guys look familiar, do I know you?" she asked.

"Yeah, well, sort of, you go to our school don't you? Rivers Elementary?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah, I'm in the 5th grade."

"Us too." The four stopped as they reached her house.

"It was nice to meet you guys, thanks for sticking up for me…But I could've taken them on by myself." She said with a grin.

"Yeah, but you didn't need to." Tommy said cocking his head a little.

"I guess I'll see you guys on Monday." She said opening up the door.

"Yeah, bye!" The three of them said before making their way down the street to the skate-park.

------------------------------------End Flashback--------------------------------------

"…dad was livid when I got home, seeing as how I was, like, 15 minutes late." She finished looking at the guys affectionately.

"Yeah, well, we had just moved in, I thought maybe you were lost…" Ray said from the front with an amused glint in his eyes.

"He grounded me for two weeks." Chris continued ignoring her father.

"Didn't you tell him what happened?" Robbie questioned looking between Ray and Chris.

"Yeah, only after I finished my two weeks though." Chris said with a grin.

"You're smart." Robbie said sarcastically.

"Thank-you." Chris said mockingly.

They continued driving in silence for a while, Tommy, John, Ryan and Chris talking about little things every now and then, like best skateboarders, or best skate gear, or skate brands…normal stuff.

About 2 hours later Rachel stirred awake. She saw that she was lying on Tommy and quickly jumped off, and apologizing profusely.

"It's okay…" Tommy said.

"Dad, I have to go to the bathroom." Rachel said as they came up near a barn.

"Me too." Robbie, Tommy, and John muttered.

Ray stopped the car as the seven loaded out, running in different directions.

"Rachel, don't wander!" Ray shouted.

"Don't look!"

"Stay where I can see you!"

"WHAT!" Rachel screamed running into the woods.

"No, not like…that." Ray said, his voice dropping at the end.

Ray looked at Chris, who was busy polishing her pocket knife, expectantly. Chris sensing her father's gaze, looked up to meet his expectant eyes.

She cocked and eyebrow and questioned:

"Yes?"

He pointedly looked at where Rachel had gone and looked back to her.

"Awww, come on dad, the kid's like, what 9, 10, 11, something like that…just let her go, she's not exactly stupid."

As her father glared at her she sighed and ran off, glaring back at her father every now and then.

Rachel had gone near a river that was well obscured by trees; she turned to admire the scenery when she saw something in the water. Stepping closer and pushing branches out of the way to investigate, she saw it was a dead body, she suppressed a scream as more came, flowing downstream, just floating there, belly-up, they just flooded in. She was about to scream when she felt a hand around her mouth.

"Didn't dad tell you not to wander?" Chris said sighing as they made their way out.

Chris gasped as Robbie was out in the middle of the dirt road, trying to get the people in the army trucks to take them with him.

"Please! Take me with you! Please!" Robbie practically begged.

Ray came down from his spot in the trees and ran over to Robbie.

"Robbie, what are you doing?" Ray shouted.

"I need to go with them."

"You don't need to. THERE IS NOTHING LIVING IN THAT DIRECTION!" Ray shouted the last part…

Five minutes later the seven of them loaded into the car, and began their journey again.

After about 2 hours driving, Tommy brought up a random conversation.

"Did I tell you that I broke my electric guitar?"

"Good job…" Chris said in an annoyed sarcastic tone.

"I doubt it matters, seeing as how our entire town is like, dead." Ryan said from the back. At this Rachel burst into the tears that had become familiar to them the past day.

"How'd you break it?" Chris asked.

"Oh…well, it was during a storm last week, you remember, the power went out on like the entire block, well, I was stupid, and didn't listen to your advice, and I left the amp and guitar completely plugged in, and since lightning hit the power wires, my guitar and amp got fried, it's gonna cost like $500 bucks to replace 'em"

"Sucks for you, my bass and amp are still in perfect condition," Chris said with a grin, but it faltered as she added, "save for the tiny fact that our house is like, demolished."

"Yeah, that's gonna ruin it…" John said with a slight grin.

"What about you Johnny?" Chris said using her teasing name for him, "How are your drums?"

"They are perfectly fine thanks…"

"And your guitar Ryan?"

"My B string is still broken, but everything else is in perfect condition…well, mostly." Ryan said referring to the fact that his house was probably in ruins.

The conversation slowly diminished as Tommy, then Chris, then Ryan, and finally John nodded off to sleep.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Chris woke up a little while later to see that it was dark out, and that Robbie was in the drivers seat, she could hear voices outside, looking around she saw a huge crowd around the car…Robbie had driven right into a town…

"Ray?" Robbie said trying to get him to wake up.

"Dad?" Chris asked as loudly as she could without waking the others.

Ray stirred and woke-up, looking around he saw what was going on, and quickly instructed Robbie.

"Okay, switch seats, Robbie, keep your foot on the pedal, okay, okay, got it, let go." Ray said as they crossed seats.

Rachel had woken up, along with the other three, and they were now looking around in curiosity. She stared in morbid fascination as everyone looked at her, directly into her eyes.

"Why is everyone around the car?" Rachel asked her father.

"Because everyone wants a ride." Ray said in a calm tone.

"Why can't we give them one?"

"We just can't Rachel." Chris said cutting off her father. Ray continued to attempt to drive through, slowly though, as to not hit anyone. Rachel had a death grip on Chris' arm, her fingernails digging into her skin. Chris winced slightly and attempted to shake her sister off. Tommy, who was watching Chris, gently shook Rachel and whispered something softly into her ear. Chris realized in relief that she had let go, she sighed slightly and gave Tommy a grateful look, he just gave her a small smile in return. Suddenly her father came to a slow stop, looking up, she saw that people had jumped onto the car, and one man had shattered the windshield. Thinking quickly, she shielded Rachel from the glass.

"Rachel, stay in the car." Chris whispered as she saw the crowd punch open the back window, while others opened the doors. She screamed out their names as she saw Ryan and John being dragged out by the crowds. She turned as she felt something grab her collar, she was about to elbow the person, but grunted in pain as she felt a fist collide with her stomach.

"Tommy! Dad! Rob—" She screamed, but was cut off as she received a blow to her mouth. Cursing slightly she brought her hand up to her face and winced as she felt blood seeping onto her fingers.

Distantly she heard her father screaming out her and Robbie's name, along with her sisters and friends; she tried her hardest to keep from crying out in pain as someone brought their foot down onto her back, causing her to fall un-gracefully to the ground, stupidly using her left hand to stop her, she winced as she heard a sickening crack and felt an unbearable pain in her wrist. She managed to punch one guy in the eye, and another in the stomach, before someone slugged her in the stomach again. This went on for another moment or two before a gun shot stopped everyone's movements. Chris gasped, no, this couldn't be, she prayed to whatever god was out there that nothing happened to her father, siblings, or friends. Then she heard him:

"Okay! Where are my kids and their friends?" He screamed, a circle of people forming around him.

Chris felt two people drag her by her shoulders and drag her to the front of the crowd, they pushed her forward causing her to stumble a bit, but her father caught her and steadied her, a moment later Robbie, Tom, John, and Ryan were all there.

While everything was going on with Chris, Ray was desperately trying to get Rachel.

"Rachel!" Ray shouted as he tried to get into the car, but a guy punched him in the stomach, he doubled over in pain, but quickly punched him in the nose, and elbowed another guy in the stomach, but collapsed to his knees as someone hit him in the back with a baseball bat.

"Please, I just want my daughter." He said desperately as he staggered up massaging his back.

"Dad!" Rachel screamed bursting into tears.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Rachel was about to crawl through the van window, but it was flooded by everyone trying to get into the safe haven that was a working car. Rachel stifled a scream and tried desperately to hide her tears as she saw her father fall, but alas, she wasn't able to as she screamed out bursting into tears.

Ray realizing he had a gun, quickly drew it out and pointed it to the sky, before releasing the trigger, causing a resounding bang to go off, ceasing everyone's movements.

"Okay! Where are my kids and their friends!" Ray shouted out, pointing the gun in the different directions of the crowd. Ray watched as people began to drag out his son and daughter, Robbie looked okay, just a bloody nose, Chris, on the other hand, had a fat lip and was cradling her left wrist.

Chris sighed as she saw that Robbie only had a bloody nose. Looking over to her friends she saw that they weren't to badly injured, Tommy was sporting a black eye, John had a cut above his left eye, and Ryan's lip was bleeding. I can't believe I was so stupid as to try and break my fall Chris mentally berated herself as her wrist throbbed in pain, I know better than that, that was the first thing I learned in skateboarding. She went on and on in her mind, each second thinking how stupid she was, though her musings were cut off as she saw a man hold a gun to her father's head…

A/N: Ah, yes, the almighty cliff-hanger…anyway, I'm SOOOOO sorry for the long wait, I hope this chapter was long enough, its about 1:00 a.m. on Sunday, and I'm sleepy, but I had to get this done, now I'm e-mailing it to Lexi, who should have it to me by Monday, so I can have this up Monday night… For my Best of the Best readers, im working on chapter 3 as we speak… I just have SEVERE writers block, and I think I just needa watch Top Gun again…

I was a little disappointed by lack of reviews for last chapter, and I thank all of you for taking the time out to review, if you could please just review, even if it's a simple 'your story is great, update soon' I don't care, you would be surprised as to how much it can lift an authors spirit to know that people are reading their fic…anyway…thanks for reviewing!