Oh God...am I nervous about this chapter or what?! Ok, just please bear in mind that I gave this my best shot and even if you think its shit, it will actually destroy me if you write that in your review :D :D Get your waving hand ready, because someone is about to go bye-bye...

Pete strolled along the pavement behind Poppy, careful not to tread on her as she continuously stopped and started, turning around every now and then to tell him something else he didn't need to know about The Little Mermaid.

"Daddy, what was your favourite film when you were little?"

Pete smirked at her and adjusted the giant cuddly toy where it was resting on his shoulder.

"The Goonies," he told her, laughing out loud as the wrinkled her little button nose in confusion and shook her head, blonde waves flying about her face.

"What's a Goonie?" she asked.

"I'll explain later, sweetheart," he patted her back. "Keep walking, alright?"

"'Ere, Bov," Swill piped up from the back of the group. "What's goin' on with you and Hannah then, eh? You two disappeared outta the Abbey on Christmas Eve and none of us 'ad seen you since,"

"It's private," Bovver replied gruffly, shoving his hands into his pockets and fumbling around for his cigarettes.

"Fine, I'll just use one of my lifelines and ask the yank," Swill grinned. "Come on, son, you must know somethin',"

"They're dating," Matt smirked, catching the evil look Bovver shot at him.

"Are they now?" Pete laughed. "Well I bloody never, Stuart you ain't gone and got yourself a bird, 'ave ya?"

He chuckled as Bovver's face turned red though secretly he was happy for him; Pete had liked Hannah from day one and even though he'd never say it aloud for fear of being thumped, she was just what Bovver needed right now. Someone who would keep him on the straight and narrow, someone who would kick his arse and be there for him without making it too obvious or dramatic.

"Yeah, well we can't all run off and get a Sloaner up the duff, can we?" Bovver snapped, making Pete laugh.

"Whatever," he shook his head. "I know a goner when I see one,"

"I ain't under the thumb or nothin'," he protested. "I'd kill myself if I ever got like you,"

"Uncle Stu, you're being rude again," Poppy sighed, tugging on Pete's hand as the boys promptly burst out laughing.

"Christ, that's two birds I've got bossin' me about now," Bovver grumbled, though Pete could see the smirk pulling on his lips. "Now all I need is the Sloaner tellin' me I need to introduce more pink into my wardrobe and I'll be set,"

They stopped at the crossing and glanced back and forth across the road, gauging that there was way too much traffic to try and make a run for it.

Pressing the button, Pete looked up and saw Benjamin sat in his car with Allie in the passenger seat and what he guessed had to be Lara in the back.

"Hey,"

He looked up and nodded at Harry as he jogged to a stop next to him, ruffling Poppy's hair as he took in a deep lungful of the icy air.

"Did you get it?" Pete asked him quietly.

"Yeah," Harry nodded nervously as he patted his jeans pocket. "I got it,"

"Good man," Pete winked, clapping him on the back of the neck and waving to Allie who was staring out of the window, waving at Poppy.

"Mummy, look!" the blonde cried, pointing to Pete's shoulder.

"She can't hear you baby," Pete laughed. "Its alright, we'll be able to go over in a minute,"

"We can go now," Poppy frowned.

"No, see the lights are still green," Pete pointed up and looked at her seriously. "Don't cross until our one goes green,"

"The little man?" Poppy pointed to it.

"That's the one," Pete winked at her and then turned back to Bovver. "So when you say dating…"

"Aw, fuck it," the dark haired man groaned. "I told you to keep your mouth shut," he pointed at Matt.

"Hey, you didn't say anything about denying what I knew," the American grinned. "They asked, I didn't tell. There's a difference,"

"Mummy!"

Pete looked down and felt his stomach lurch when he realised that Poppy had thrown caution to the wind and was now a few steps into the road.

"Poppy!" he shouted. "Wait!"

The blonde continued trotting along, her mini Ugg boots scuffing the road gently as she giggled and picked up speed.

"Mummy, look what I bou-…."

"Poppy!" Allie screamed so loud that it could be heard clearly even though she was still inside the car.

Not thinking about what would happen, Pete ran forward and grabbed his daughter, snatching her so hard she cried out in pain as he lifted her off of the ground and fell back from the force of it.

The car which had seen them at the last minute slammed its breaks on and jolted to the side, its front tyre catching on a sheet of ice and causing it to spin.

"Pete!" Bovver shouted as he watched the car spinning towards the man on the floor.

Rolling Poppy away from him and towards the pavement, Pete shouted out in pain as the asphalt ripped the skin from his palm, leaving a raw open wound as he watched the car spin again.

"Oh fuck," he whispered.

Like everyone else watching the scene unfold, he knew what was going to happen before it actually did. The telltale screech of the tyres as they fought desperately to gain some leverage on the road surface let him know that the driver had no control over where they were headed.

"Allie!" he shouted as he watched her struggle to open the door. "Allie, no!"

The door of Benjamin's car had barely opened an inch when the silver jeep slammed into the side of it with such force that the small Audi jolted backwards into a bollard, the side of the car on which Allie was sitting screwing up as it rolled onto its side slightly.

The windows smashed, creating a shower of glass along the road as blood exploded on the inside of the windscreen, a scream of utter terror ringing out in the street as the jeep smashed the smaller car unmercifully.

The horn from Benjamin's car began to sound, a sure sign that the engine had been damaged, yet other than that, the street remained deadly silent.

"Allie," Pete whimpered, pulling himself to his feet. "Allie!"

Sprinting over to the car, he could hear Poppy screaming behind him but knew Harry was looking after her.

"Someone call an ambulance!"

A voice shouted from the side of the road and as if on queue sirens began to wail in the distance.

Pete's breathing began to quicken as he neared the wreck and spotted the blood on the floor outside of the car. Squinting he could see that Benjamin was sat back in his seat, a huge cut across his face.

"Step back!"

Pete spun around as someone yanked on his shoulder, prepared to hit them when he saw it was a paramedic. Fuck, how long had he been stood there for?

"There's three passengers," one of them shouted as they surrounded the car. "Get the F.D on the phone and tell them we've got a serious RTA, passenger on the left hand side of the vehicle is unconscious and showing no signs of movement,"

The words soon blended into one as Pete stared at the mangled car in horror; how the hell had this happened?

"Sir, please step back," the same paramedic shook his shoulder again, though more firmly this time. "We need to help them,"

Staring down at the blood and glass on the floor, Pete wanted so badly to step back, to let them do what they needed to do, but instead all he found himself doing was meeting the much older man's eyes and whispering to him brokenly.

"You need to save her," he felt a tear slip out of his eye but was too numb to wipe it away. "Do whatever the fuck you have to but please, just save Allie."

Lara Knight had never before understood the reason some people described their pain as burning. But now as she lay somewhere in between sleep and consciousness, she knew exactly what that meant.

Her stomach felt as though she had swallowed a flame that was now licking mockingly at her innards, her eyes stinging as something dripped into them.

Raising a hand, she wiped at the wetness on her forehead and grimaced seeing it was blood.

"Shit," she whispered as it all came back to her.

Poppy. The car. The crash.

"Oh my God," she whimpered, the panic beginning to set in. "Benjamin? Allie?"

She fought to move her feet but they seemed to be trapped by something, looking down she would have screamed had she had enough air in her lungs.

Allie was draped over the back of the chair, her snapped seat belt still draped uselessly over her unmoving chest, her eyes glazed and open as they stared up at her.

"Allie?" Lara whispered. "Allie-Cat?"

Reaching out a tentative hand to touch her, Lara was stopped only when a horrendous sound of crunching metal rang out in her ears and she turned to see a paramedic staring back at her.

"Hey there," he smiled comfortingly. "My name's Max, what's yours?"

"Lara," she wheezed. "But you need to help my friend…she won't wake up…she won't…" Lara cried out suddenly, clutching her side as she doubled over.

"Right, Lara, someone else is going to help your friends, ok, I'm here to help you," Max told her. "Now you need to tell me if you can move your legs, can you do that?"

"Yes," Lara cried.

"Ok, good girl," Max nodded. "What we're going to do is we're going to open the door in a second and put you right onto a stretcher, what I need you to do is just to let us do the work, try not to move and just keep taking deep breaths, ok?"

"Ok," Lara sobbed. "Ok…ok….ok…."

She looked down at Allie again and sobbed harder seeing her friend's glassy gaze still fixed on her face.

"Why isn't she moving?" she cried, looking at Max who was busy taking her pulse.

He cast a quick look down at the girl on the floor and then back at one of his colleagues.

"It doesn't look good," he told them quietly before turning back to Lara.

It was then that it hit her why they weren't bothering to treat Allie first; she was dying. Whatever had happened to her, her injuries were obviously so bad that she wasn't a priority anymore.

Allie Dunham was dead.

The thought caused Lara more pain and she sobbed again, the force of it turning into a painful cough that earned her a concerned glance from Max.

"Right, we're going to open the door now, ok, Lara?" he asked her gently. "I need you to look at me ok?"

He pulled her chin towards him and saw the tears on her face as she fought not to look back down at the unmoving blonde.

"Just keep looking at me,"

Nodding more to herself than to him, Lara used what little strength she had to brace herself on the back of the seat, tasting bile when her hand came away wet with Allie's blood.

"On the count of three, ok?" Max told her, his voice getting fainter as the shock began to hit her.

"I can't…please, I need to stay with her…"

Her pleas fell on deaf ears as the doors were yanked open anyway, the sudden loss of stability causing her stomach to scream out in pain, her arm which she had only now realised was broken falling limp at her side.

She coughed painfully again, this time bringing up vomit and managed to cast one last look down at the glassy eyed girl before her world went black.

"Why the fuck has no one come out yet?"

Dave looked up at Harry as he paced back and forth in the small hallway whilst Pete stood looking through the small, misty window which led through to the main theatre.

Allie, Lara and Benjamin had been taken in there over an hour ago and as of yet not one doctor had come out to speak to them.

Dave knew that Allie was the worst one; the paramedics had brought her out last, having to extract her from the wreckage carefully given where she'd ended up.

Amidst the mutterings about spinal injuries and lack of responses, it had been the amount of blood that had shocked them all as her limp body was finally extracted from the back of the car. From what they had heard briefly, Allie's seat belt had snapped on impact and the force of the crash had propelled her backwards.

Pete stood with his back against the wall, his hands which were covered in blood from when he had managed to quickly hold Allie's hand on the way in were shaking at his sides, his jaw twitching as he fought the urge to break down.

He couldn't…not with Poppy here.

"They must know something by now," Harry growled, pacing faster.

"Hey, no news is good news, right?" Matt asked him quietly, trying to think of a nice way of telling him to shut the hell up.

They could all see that Pete was struggling to keep it together; so where the rest of them.

It seemed almost funny that these men who had made it their business for years to stare death in the face, to play with their own mortality as though it were nothing were suddenly reduced to a childlike mentality as they waited for even the smallest scrap of information.

Glancing over at Pete, Matt could see small drops of blood in his hands and realised it was from squeezing his fists so tightly. His blue eyes had darkened considerably as they remained trained on the window, the rest of his body unmoving as he studied the walls with manic attention.

A door opened next to them and they all looked up to see Natalie standing there with Alex in her arms, her face pale as she rubbed the sleeping infants back comfortingly.

"Poppy's asleep," she told them, her voice low. "She needed two stitches in her knee but other than that I think she's just in shock,"

She looked at Pete as she spoke but he refused to turn and face her. She could see the tension in his shoulders lessen slightly at the news and approached him warily as though sneaking up on a sleeping predator.

"Hey," she nudged him. "Any news?"

Pete turned to her and she very nearly gasped; Natalie had seen Pete angry before, she had seen him upset, devastated even, but the most chilling thing about Pete Dunham right then was that he had no expression whatsoever.

His eyes were clouded as though he didn't understand or recognise her, his skin pale and grey looking.

"Poppy's ok?" he asked her.

"Yeah," Natalie nodded. "She's asleep right now," biting her lip, she shifted the baby in her arms and smiled lightly when he gurgled. "I think he wants you,"

Pete looked at his son numbly, the taste of bile still strong in his mouth as he caught Alex's eyes and saw so much of Allie in them that it physically hurt.

"I can't," he told her harshly, looking back towards the window.

"Pete…"

"Nat, seriously," he pleaded with her, another tear falling down his cheek. "Right now I just…I can't."

Dr. Spencer Murphy had been hoping for an easy day. One where the worst thing he would have to do would be to plaster a little finger or something.

But as he was ushered through to the ICU ward of St. Marks hospital, he knew that every hope he had had just flown out of the window.

"Female, 29 years old, RTA victim brought in about 30 minutes ago. Assessment in triage showed extensive head injuries, small controlled internal bleeding and a possible collapsed lung. We intubated and have successfully opened the air ways, BP is 140 over 90 and motor skills are visual…pulse is strong and rising."

"Jesus," Spencer shook his head as he yanked on a pair of gloves and stared at the young woman on the table. Her hair was plastered to her face with blood, the red locks making her skin look even paler, her chest rising and falling lightly yet steadily as she breathed.

An alarm sounded and he looked through to the next room where another girl was lying on the table, the team working on her quickly pushing her flat and began shocking her with the defibrillators.

"What's going on in there?" he demanded.

"Another victim of the same RTA," one of the nurses told him. "Same age, there's was a guy too but he's down in Albury ward. Minor head injuries and a shattered wrist,"

"Right," Spencer pulled his stethoscope away from the girl's chest. "Lungs are clear but I want her down in theatre now, she's bleeding into her stomach and I don't want it getting worse, let's move,"

"Pete…Pete answer the phone you git! I need you to get my dress out of the tumble dryer and oh…could you do me one last thing and make sure you give Poppy some more Calpol, I know she's got a cold so…ok, right listen I'm about to get in the car but I'll see you tonight, ok? I love you,"

Pete sighed shakily and pressed the phone against his forehead, holding onto those last few words with everything he had in him. The sick part of his brain was taunting him, telling him that he had to hold onto them because he might not ever hear them again.

The thought had already caused him to lose his breakfast yet his stomach clenched again and he closed his eye tightly, willing the feeling to pass.

"Pete?"

He looked up and bashfully wiped his face with was wet with tears, squinting up at Natalie as she stood above him, shrouded in the harsh light coming from the fluorescent bulbs lining the hallway.

"Yeah?" his voice was croaky.

"I uh…" she laughed. "I can't get Alex to eat," she held up the bottle as proof and gestured to the somewhat disgruntled looking baby in her arms. "He's hungry but he won't…"

"'Ere," Pete pushed himself up straighter and held out his arms.

Natalie lowered the baby down to him before taking a seat next to him and handing him the warm bottle.

"Come on mate," Pete took Alex's hand and kissed it lightly. "You know your mum would be goin' off 'er rocker if she heard you wasn't eatin',"

The baby fidgeted and then grabbed hold of Pete's sweater, opening his mouth and eagerly accepting the bottle, gulping down the liquid contently.

"Jesus, who'd 'ave thought you'd 'ave the magic touch?" Natalie chuckled and tickled Alex's foot.

Pete didn't answer her, he just kept staring down at his son, his arms trembling slightly.

"Nat…" his voice broke and she looked up at him in horror, not having ever seen him like this. "What if…" he shook his head. "I can't do this without her,"

He looked down at his son and marvelled not for the first time that he was responsible for the creation of this perfect little thing; his button nose scrunched up, his brow furrowed in a distinctly Dunham type manner as he sucked the bottle relentlessly, determined to get more food from it.

"Nat, she's everything…" Pete trembled. "Allie's been the only constant thing in my life and if I lose her…if something goes wrong in there and they can't do anything…"

"Pete, she'll be ok," Natalie lied. They both knew it, they'd seen Allie get wheeled into that room, seen her blood dripping onto the floor as the doctors inserted various wires and tubes into her body.

"But what if she's not?" Pete demanded. "Nat, if I lose her…fuck, I can't lose her…"

"Shhhh," Natalie rubbed his back. "Its ok, you won't. I promise,"

She cringed as the words came out of her mouth, furious with herself for making a promise that she knew she couldn't keep.

Because the only thing that could save Allie Dunham was a miracle and Natalie had been through enough in her 27 years to know that those definitely did not exist.

"You look like shit,"

Pete opened his eyes and saw Dave standing over him, holding out a cup of coffee.

"Kick a brother while he's down, why don't you?" he muttered, sitting up straight in the half broken chair and gratefully accepting the coffee. "How're Alex and Poppy?"

"Pop's is still asleep," Dave rubbed the back of his neck. "And Nat's taken Alex for a walk to settle 'im down, she reckons bein' in 'ere was upsetting 'im,"

Pete nodded but didn't say anything back for fear of breaking down. What the hell was he supposed to say right now? Was he supposed to just start joking about, telling everyone not to worry because he was sure everything would be ok?

"Where's Harry?" he asked after a moment.

"Gone outside to call his dad," Dave coughed and leant back against the coolness of the wall for a moment. "I think he just needed some time to…get 'is 'ead together, y'know?"

"I've got a fair idea, yeah," Pete snorted, sipping the coffee and grimacing at the taste. "Shit me, that's awful,"

"I know," Dave laughed. "Its like warm rats piss, ain't it?"

They laughed to themselves for a moment, a semi manic laugh with which they distracted themselves from the reality of what was really happening if only for a couple of seconds.

They stopped only when the doors behind them creaked open and a doctor appeared, his glasses barely hanging onto the bridge of his nose as he whipped off his bloodied gloves and tossed them into a nearby bin.

"Pete," Dave nudged him and quickly they got to their feet, staring at the man in front of them with a mixture of hope and terror.

"What's going on?" Pete asked in a hurry. "Where are they?"

Names, numbers and medical terms that Pete would never in a million years know the meaning of where tossed about, assaulting his brain as he fought the urge to turn and slam his fist into the wall, knowing that the pain would lessen his frustration.

"…her injuries were much greater than we first assessed…"

Dave's hand gripped his shoulder tightly as the air in the hallway seemed to get colder, making it harder for Pete to stand straight.

"…extent of internal injuries was too severe…"

The floor was moving; Pete looked down at it and saw it was blurry, the sting of tears in his eyes making itself known as he focused on the blue linoleum squares.

"…we're making her comfortable but she won't regain consciousness."

And there it was. After an hour of being informed that they were doing their best, here they were admitting that their best wasn't good enough.

Pete went numb, staring out of the window as a fresh flurry of snow began to fall against the window. Images from earlier in the day began assaulting his already exhausted mind making him want to shout, to scream, to ram is fist into the wall behind him until his flesh was torn and he could focus on the pain.

"I'm sorry," the doctor told him quietly. "I really am,"

Spencer looked at the young man as he nodded mutely, looking so lost, so vulnerable as he struggled not to give into the grief that was so obviously taking over him.

"You can go and sit with her," he told the blonde. "I'll take you down there if you want,"

Pete looked at Dave who was struggling to keep it together, tears falling down his paling face as he stared through Pete as opposed to at him.

"Go on, mate," he whispered. "I'll go out and tell Harry,"

Pete stumbled down the hall after the doctor, his breath coming out in harsh pants as he neared the room at the end of the hall.

The room itself was small and dark, the body lying on the bed still wired up to the machines surrounding her, the symphony of beeps and sirens coming from it breaking up the eerie silence around them.

Pete lowered himself onto the edge of the mattress making sure not to jar her; the bruises scattered about her skin, the gashes in her skin and the blood seeping through the covers where they had operated on her belying the peaceful slumber in which she appeared to be.

"I don't…I don't know what I'm supposed to say," Pete whispered, picking up her hand and feeling sick when he saw the hole in it where her IV line had been.

She was cold, her skin clammy as her fingers lay limp in his hand.

"This isn't happening," he whispered to himself. "There's no way this is happening,"

He wanted her to open her eyes and grin up at him, to wiggle her fingers out of his, pull him into a huge hug and tell him he was being an idiot, just like she always did.

But the eerily still body lying on the bed next to him was a far cry from the girl he knew and loved.

"You weren't even meant to be in the fucking car…none of you were. If I hadn't asked Benjamin to get it…" Pete sobbed and brought her hand to his mouth. "I'm so sorry, please just hold on, ok? How am I supposed to tell Harry that…"

Her chest stopped moving for a moment and then she seemed to shudder, making him panic as he clutched her hand tighter.

"I'm so sorry," Pete shook his head, leaning over and brushing his lips over her forehead. "I love you, I love you so much…."

For a long moment, the sound of his sobs were all that could be heard as the machines began to beep faster, the sound of her breath becoming shallower.

Pete stared down at her for a moment longer until he couldn't stand it anymore and glanced out of the window where the last of the early morning snow was falling, brushing the glass teasingly on its descent.

And it was in that moment as Pete followed that single snowflake to the ground that Lara Knight shuddered and took her last breath.

So it wasn't Poppy...It wasn't Allie. It was Lara. :( Who though you might not love her, was probably my favourite OC after Benjamin so saying goodbye to her was pretty damn hard for me.

Oh and did you pick up on the hints that it was her all along? Like when they were in the car wreck and the paramedic said 'it doesn't look good', he was actually talking about Lara and not Allie. And then when the doctor is working on the healthier patient and he talks about her red hair...its Allie's who is really blonde but obviously covered in blood. I tried to be clever and mislead you all but I don't know if it paid off! :D :D Anyway, I've posted it even though I felt sick with nerves over it so if you could now be so kind as to leave me a nice review, I'll be eternally grateful.

Now, just get ready for the fallout... ;)