A/N: I know you all want to read and see what happens, so I'll just say that I'm upping the rating because there is PROFANITY ahead. Thanks for the reviews, and to anyone who's reading and enjoying the story!

xx

Chapter 6

Tommy sat down in one of the chairs after Dr. Stevens announced my father's...condition. And, to my complete surprise, I found myself seated in his lap with his arms locked around my waist, holding me steady. Call it a cliche, but Tommy was my rock at the moment, and I'd never been so grateful for him in my life. Despite the past, he was always there for me when it counted. Okay, almost always. But I couldn't hold one instance against him for the rest of his life...could I?

When I said my sister's name, the doctor looked away, and I knew this wasn't going to be good news. I couldn't lose both my father and sister in the same night, though. Life wasn't that cruel--I didn't deserve this! No one did, but especially not me. So why was I sitting in this room right now, learning the fate of the only family I had left?

The doctor returned his steady gaze to me. "Sadie suffered a severe head trauma. Because of how the car was hit, her body was thrown towards the passenger door and her head slammed into the window." He paused here, and I waited for the verdict, wishing he would just plow right through it instead of making me wait. "There was brain hemorrhaging, but we managed to get it under control. She's in a coma as we speak."

My body was rigid as he spoke, but when Dr. Stevens said 'coma' I collapsed back onto Tommy, knowing that if he wasn't holding onto me I would have slithered to the floor in a heap. Coma--that meant she was alive. I wanted to weep with joyful sorrow--joy because she was alive, sorrow because she was in a coma and our father was dead. At least I had my sister. Thank God for small favors. Now if she would only wake up...

Noticing my relief, Dr. Stevens began shaking his head. "There's more."

No. That's impossible. Sadie is in a coma, but she'll wake up. End of story. There can't be more to add to this nightmare. Haven't I been punished enough?

"Although we managed to stop the bleeding, there was still major damage done to her brain from the accident." Again he paused, as though unsure how to phrase the next part. "Sadie's brain is unresponsive; although her body is alive, her mind isn't."

Wait. What?

My sister was brain dead?

Are you fucking kidding me?

"So she's alive, though?" Tommy tentatively asked, obviously slow on the uptake. This couldn't be happening. Not to me, anyway.

"No, Tommy, she's not alive!" I exploded, jumping from the chair and his grasp. "Her heart is pumping, but there's no one home up top, ok! So the answer is a big fat NO, Sadie is not fucking alive. She's dead. D-E-A-D dead!"

Dr. Stevens muttered a quiet "I'm sorry" before exiting the room, leaving us alone to deal with the news. Coward. Doctors, all of them, were just a bunch of fucking cowards.

Okay, that's not true, but rationality had flown out the window a long time ago. My father was dead. My sister was dead. But I was alive. And alone.

I was alone.

Tommy seemed to regret his question, but didn't say a word during my rant. I was breathing hard; it felt like there was no air in the room. No matter where I went I knew there wouldn't be enough air. No matter where I went, reality would still be reality.

They were dead.

Without realizing it, I had begun sobbing. "WHY!" I screamed in the small room, not caring that it made Tommy wince. I had a damn good voice box and I planned to use it. "God dammit, WHY did you take them from me! HUH! Is this some perverted joke? Are they going to walk into this room any minute and tell me it was all a prank, just some fucking prank?" I sunk to the floor, every muscle in my body turned to jelly. "Why..." I muttered weakly.

Tommy came over to me, his eyes bright like mine. He crouched down and tried to wrap his arms around me, but I jumped away from him.

"NO!" I shrieked, running from the room. I was insane, plain and simple. Insane with grief, horror, sadness, regret, pain, everything you could think of. I didn't care that he was trying to help--I was beyond help. Everything was.

I ran blindly from the room, not knowing or caring where I was going. I stumbled into Mitch, who was looking stricken as he stood with an older couple. He caught my arms and tried to get me to look at him.

"Jude? Jude, what's wrong?" He asked anxiously, concern oozing from every pore on his body. His sympathy and understanding only made me sob harder, and I viciously pushed him away before continuing my sprint for anywhere but here.

The doors opened automatically, and I gulped in the cool night air like it was water after I had been stranded in the desert for days.

I'd rather be marooned in the desert with no food, no water, and no clothing than face this.

Being hit by lightning was preferable to reality at the moment.

Hell, I'd listen to Eden sing for the rest of my life if it would bring my sister or father back.

But it couldn't. Nothing could. They were dead. Gone. Forever.

And I was still here.

My footsteps faltered as I moved forward into the parking lot, not paying attention to anything. I clenched my fists until my nails dug into the skin of my palms and drew blood. I clenched my eyes shut until I could feel them being pushed to the back of my head.

I screamed.

As loud and as long as I could.

And then I did it again.

A car alarm went off. The doors to the hospital opened and someone walked out, but I didn't care.

I kept screaming.

Screaming for everything I felt at the moment, for the loss I was experiencing.

I screamed, trying to find a release that would never come.

"Jude." Tommy said gently in between my wails. I ignored him and screamed again. He clamped a hand over my mouth to stop the noise, and I tried pushing him away again. It didn't work, so I bit him--hard.

He yelped in pain as I moved away and continued with my screaming, knowing I was waking everyone within a half mile radius if they weren't awake already and not giving a damn. They hadn't just lost their father and sister. They weren't feeling what I was feeling. So they could all shove it.

"Jude, please." He pleaded again, coming for me again. How could he be like this? So calm, so...together.

Oh, that's right.

It was my sister and my father that had just died, not his.

Fuck him.

I heard the doors open again, but I didn't bother to look at who came out. Their footsteps were drowned out by another deafening scream emanating from my mouth. I knew at this point that I could scream forever, because I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't do anything else. This was all my body knew at the moment.

Suddenly a burly pair of arms wrapped around me from behind, effectively clamping my arms down to my sides. I began kicking and flailing, continuing to scream bloody murder at the stars. In my peripheral vision I could see Tommy standing nearby. It was too dark for me to read his face--I didn't want to know what he was thinking, anyway.

Now who the hell was holding me?

And why wasn't Tommy doing anything to stop him?

Before any of my questions could be answered, I felt a sharp pain in my arm and the world soon became a fuzzy black.

Well, I think I like it better this way, anyway.

A/N: I'm not done yet...evil laugh

But reviews are always nice. D