A/N: Ok, so this is the next chapter. Thank you for your patience, I know it took awhile to get this chapter up, but I'm back from holiday until further notice lol. I don't start my course until late Feb so until then there's the chance that I may get dragged on unexpected roadtrips with my friends. Anyway, this chapter is short, I warn you now so you won't be TOO disappointed. There's not alot that can happen at the moment and I felt that the events in this chapter were needed - you'll get it as you read...

Tristan opened his eyes. Slowly at first and then wide in panic. Murky water was pressing in all around him, narrowing his vision to almost nothing. Disorientated, he had no idea which way was up and the silence caused by the water was eerie. Tristan looked around frantically. He couldn't afford to panic but the longer he remained underwater, the closer he could feel himself slipping. Squeezing his eyes closed, Tristan kicked, hoping that he was heading in the right direction. When he finally broke the surface, relief flowed through Tristan's body, only to be quickly replaced with the realization that he was still a long way from safe. The river was flowing swiftly and Tristan watched as the shore passed by. The van was no where in sight, nor were his friends. As far as Tristan could tell he was all alone…until he heard her voice.

"Tristan!" Rory's voice was horse from screaming. "Tristan! Over here!"

Treading water, Tristan turned and saw her clinging to a branch just upstream from himself. Tristan didn't know how long he had been in the water, but it was long enough to rob him of the strength to fight the current. All he could do was kick back towards Rory, making no progress and wait for her to reach him. As she floated past, Rory reached out and latched onto Tristan's outstretched arm. With great difficulty she pulled the larger boy up so that the upper half of his body was draped across the branch.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"Ok would be an overstatement, but I'm breathing."

"You'll be fine." Tristan smiled; surprised he'd expected her to give a simple answer.

"Are you?" Rory turned her head to look at him.

"I'll survive."

"You hope." Rory muttered darkly. Exhausted, the teenagers collapsed onto the wood and let the river choose where they were to go.

-

When Rory opened her eyes again, she found that she couldn't move. In a flash of panic, she sat up and pushed the heavy weight off her stomach. Tristan groaned and woke up. Rory had rolled him off the branch and into the shallow water at the river's edge. Coughing, he dragged his lethargic body into a sitting position and looked around. Rory was sitting less than a metre away, examining her arms and legs, presumably checking for injuries.

"Are you ok?" Tristan asked. Rory fixed him with a look and he immediately felt stupid, "You know what I mean...relatively speaking."

"I'm ok." She nodded, "Are you?"

"I think so." He tentatively tried to stand. Sharp pains shot through his knee, but after a moment it took his weight and the pain eased slightly.

"Good. So where are we?" Rory showed no desire to get out of her water-logged position so Tristan craned his neck to look back upstream.

"I have no idea. I can't even see the bridge from here."

"Great." Rory sighed, "So we're lost, we have no van, our friends are-Oh God! Where are our friends?"

"They probably just floated further down the river than us." Tristan had spent the majority of the ride along the current thinking about that very question. Deciding that optimism was the best course he smiled down at the girl by his feet, "They'll be fine. You know Jake, he's going to live forever just to spite everyone and Paris isn't likely to let Jake beat her is she?"

Forcing herself to smile, Rory allowed Tristan to haul her to her feet.

"If we stick to the water's edge, then we'll probably run into them." He suggested. Rory didn't speak as she followed him through the long grass. Neither teen had the energy it took to walk for miles, but both knew they would never sleep unless they had tried to find their friends.

--

Night fell with no sign of life on the river banks.

"Tristan…I need to sit down." Rory all but collapsed onto the grass before she'd finished speaking. With nothing but the clothes on their backs, they hadn't eaten all day and their exhaustion was starting to take its toll. Lying beside her, Tristan gazed at the sky.

"How the hell did we get here?"

"Physical ormetaphorical here?" Rory raised an eyebrow.

"Both." Tristan sighed, "This isn't meant to happen. Not to us. We're not in a movie…are we?"

"Well, if it's The Truman Show, then we may never know."

"It always comes out in the end."

"Yeah…something like that." Rory shrugged tiredly, "Do you honestly think they're ok?"

"Paris and Jake? Yeah I think they are. I meant it when I said they won't lose, and I'm pretty sure they'll see death as losing."

"I hope so."

"I know so."

"You know, you're actually decent when you're not being an ass." Rory looked thoughtfully down at him.

"Thank you…I think."

"It's a compliment."

"Well then thank you."

"You're welcome." Rory shivered as a cold gust of wind blew across the water.

"Here." Tristan sat up and shrugging his jacket off, wrapped it around her shoulders, "It's still kind of wet but it'll be better than nothing."

"But then you'll be cold."

"I'm tough."

"Here." Rory pulled the jacket off and lay next to him. The clothing was just big enough to stretch across both of them. Tristan could feel Rory shivering, pressed so closely to his own body as she drifted towards sleep.

"Up." He whispered and when Rory obediently leaned forward, slipped his arm behind her neck. Lying together under the stars, the two sworn enemies found peace and slumber as they prayed for the lives of their friends.