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Chapter 13

It was loud. Metal collapsing, crunching and straining. Horns wailing, people screaming. Silence. Darkness. Peace. Sirens, yellow and red flashes. Darkness. Talking fast, metal churning, the stench of fuel and smoke, "Can you tell me your name madam?" "Does anyone know her name?" "Did anyone witness the crash?" Silence. Darkness. Lonely.

Movement, rolling downhill, metal banging on metal. Voices, patterns of light, intense pain. Darkness. "Hi Ashley, I'm Dr West, I'll be looking after you." Silence. "You're in Cedar Sinai, you were in a nasty car crash but you're in safe hands now." Dated curtains, blue blurs, hot white light burning one retina. Darkness. Hot white light burning another retina. Darkness. "You've had quite a bump on the head and a few cuts and bruises, so we are going to patch you up. We'll get you something for the pain and then make you sleep for a little while." Darkness. Fear.

Mutterings. Quick words. "Head injury", "Sedation", "Intubate". Silence. Darkness. Alone.

Stale air. Silence. Stale air. Darkness. Whispered voices. Creaking metal, darkness. Light footsteps, daylight. Stale air, fresh air, breeze. Click, quite voices, hushed tones. Touch, warmth, texture, squeeze. Not alone. Not lonely. Calm. Safe.


Pain, warmth, comfort. Daylight, moving images, still forms, blonde hair.

Gagging. Choking. Panic. Alarms pinging. "Aiden get a nurse, now!" Gagging. Bright lights. Warm hand, comforting strokes. Choking. "Excuse me miss, you need to leave the room for a moment." Warmth leaving. Panic. Rough hands. Pain. Lonely. Fear.

Ashley's eyes flickered as she started to regain consciousness. Spencer moved away from the bed to stand with Chelsea on the other side of the door as the beeps of the machine alerted everyone within a 5-mile radius that Ashley's heart rate had rocketed and she was not happy. The trio watched through the slated blinds and with baited breath, as the nurse battled with the injured brunette.

The nurse put something down Ashley's mouth, then gently started to pull out the long breathing tube as the brunette coughed and spluttered at the sensation. They watched as she brought her right hand from under her sheets and held it to her neck. The friends inhaled sharply. The nurse turned off the beeping machine and tidied up momentarily before picking up a small cup of water with a straw in it and placing it gently to dry lips. More coughing. More spluttering.

"Would you like me to shut the blinds, Ashley? Your visitors have been here all afternoon and evening, but I can ask them to leave if you want some time alone."

Pain. Darkness. Fear. Silence. Alone.

"..N…" The brunette coughed again and clutched at her throat, another sip of water was provided. Ashley turned her head to the room's window and instantly saw bright blue eyes, filled with fear, stare back at her.

Calm. Comfort. Warmth. Safe.

She slowly shook brown ringlets and turned away from the visitors, facing her nurse directly. The brunette pointed to her face with her left hand and circled it. Then did a thumbs up, followed by a thumbs down, her face questioning.

The nurse chuckled at the young woman's antics as she stood up. "I'm sure he's seen you looking worse, he is your brother after all," the brunette turned her head to follow the older woman across the room, eyebrows furrowing as much as the pain would allow… brother? "How about," she continued, "we get them to go for a coffee for five minutes, while I get you cleaned up?" The blinds turned down, hiding blue eyes from brown.

"She's doing well, no need to look so panicked you three! She's a little disorientated at the moment, and the breathing tube can be a shock when you wake up, plus it leaves you with dry lips and a sore throat, so why don't you go grab a coffee and maybe some chapstick for the patient from the shop, while I help her come round?" None of them move. "Go one, I promise she's fine. Just let her wake up a bit and you can see her when you come back."


"Knock knock?" The door gently opens and three familiar faces appear along the top, middle and bottom of the hospital bedroom doorframe, "we come bearing gifts."

"Not great gifts…"

"But the finest gifts the gift shop has to offer." The brunette smiles at her three newest friends. Their kindness warming her heart and stilling her fears. They smile back and walk into the now brighter room to greet the now fully awake, slightly less bed haired and all round more 'Ashley looking' patient, taking back their original seats. Brown eyes fall upon blue ones, fear still evident, but they sparkle at her, crinkling at the edges as they seek to express all emotions with one gesture.

"So, how've you been?" Aiden asks wryly, earning a frustrated slap to the bicep from Chelsea.

"Been better actually," The patient struggles out, her voice improved with the nurses help, but still raspier than usual. A brown eyebrow quirks in humour as she raises her right hand and spins it around to show off the big plastic casing around her middle and ring fingers, "love me a broken finger." Aiden sniggers, hundreds of lude lesbian jokes rattling through his head.

"Has the nurse told you what happened? Do you remember anything?" Chelsea asked, as she opened the plastic shopping bag and took out a small bottle of water.

"Not much," she rasped, coughing a little, "I was driving and then I was squashed like a sardine." She watched as Chelsea put the straw in the bottle and held it out for her to take in her good, left hand, "thank you." She took a small sip, enjoying the soothing sensation and reduced itch, "I must have been half awake when I came in," another sip, "I have flashes of memories. It's weird."

She leaned over to her left to place the water down and started to bring her hand back to the bed, within milliseconds a thousand thoughts ran through the brunette's mind. Spencer's hand is just there. Hold it. Touch it. IT was her hand you felt earlier. She won't pull away. You might freak her out. No you won't, don't be daft, she held yours first. Yeah, out of comfort and fear. Oh fuck it Davis, blame the head injury. She stopped her ramble and gently dropped her hand on top of the blonde's.

Calm. Peace. Comfort.

"I'm so sorry I missed your exhibition." Spencer was staring at the hand on top of her own, she'd held it before, for hours earlier, but the gesture was being reciprocated and she couldn't help the warmth that rushed through her entire being. She lifted her eyes to Ashley's and smiled, grasping the hand more firmly and squeezing in understanding.

A cleared throat brought the two woman back to the room "…and yours, Chelsea. I'm sorry" Ashley acknowledged.

Deep brown eyes lifted at the edges, "I think you were a little busy totalling your car babes!" The room laughed and on cue, coughing started again. Spencer reached for the water bottle and held the straw out for Ashley to drink from. She swallowed a few times, then thanked the blonde.

"You guys don't need to be here; the nurse says you've been here ages waiting on me."

"Eh, well we kind of owed you one – seeing as you poured our sorry, drunk asses into the flat a little over a week ago!"

Spencer laughed at her oldest friend's comment. She was struggling to organise her thoughts or find her words for the umpteenth time when she realised she hadn't successfully said a single word to the girl in the bed yet. "I was worried about you." Is what she successfully managed to claw out of her brain. And at the hushed quiet which fell on the room, she instantly felt exposed. Shit, too personal, too much, too soon, too..too… TOO EVERYTHING!

"We all were." Have I ever told you how much I adore you Aiden Dennison! "Me mostly though, I even drove like a fiend through LA's Sunday traffic… 'to get to youuuu'!" He braced himself for girly punches as he re-enacted their earlier sing-along, but was rewarded with three strong laughs and a cough for good measure. The tension dissipated.

As Ashley's eyes scan over Aiden making himself more comfortable on the floor, she has a thought. Keeping her left hand attached to the blonde, she shimmies herself over to the right hand side as carefully as possible, aware that even though she hasn't looked, her body is battered and bruised. "If you're staying, at least make yourself more comfortable, Aiden" the blonde feels a tug on her hand and watches as Ashley smiles down at the space on the bed next to her. Reluctance, and fear, keeps Spencer in her seat while Aiden looks on confused. "Please, Spencer." Another tug, at a heartstring as well as a hand, and the blonde finds her legs moving to sit her on the hospital bed, above the blankets, with her back against the pillows. Ashley smiles in triumph and feels her heart skip a beat. "Anyway, I can't have my 'brother' sit on the floor now, can I!"

Laughter fills the room and again the tension leaves. Aiden lifts up of the floor and catwalks over to the now vacant chair.

"Yeah about that, so I may have bent the truth a little," he lowers himself in to the seat and prepares to explain the situation. Ashley, for her part, moves down the bed a bit and rests her head on her new companions' shoulder. Careful, not to nudge the bandage above her eye, "but, that is only because you yourself are a big, fat liar – Ashley 'ooohh I'm a Knight in shining armour and I work at a coffee shop and oh by the way I'm Raife-Davis'-Daughter'" He threw in some dramatics while he mimicked the raspy notes with varying degrees of success.

"It didn't come up," she shrugged "I'd have told you if you asked." She answered with a smile.

"Well, it came up on the News, so I asked the next best thing – Google."

She threw her right hand up to her face in embarrassment, wincing slightly as her broken fingers made contact with her nose. "I can't believe you Googled me! That's so awful, like actual top end level of LA celeb life awful!" She hid her face against the warm shoulder and rejoiced when the other body didn't flinch away.

Chelsea chuckled as she rummaged around in the bag her Diet Coke. Successfully touching the cool metal, she gave a fist pump and a 'yes' under her breath. Eyes all fell on her. "Oh I totally wasn't agreeing with Little Miss American Dream over there," she lifted her Coke out and gave it a wiggle in explanation, "but, he's right, Kyle Woods over there was a necessary find!"

"Kyle Woods?"

"Yes, meet your newest sibling, or potentially only sibling courtesy of gender re-assignment, Kyle Woods!" He flung his arms out to the sides by way of elaborate introduction.

"Oh my God, who knew Kyla could be so useful."

"Well, she was very useful and teamed with my insane ability to charm my way into anyone's bedroom," he waved an arm at Ashley's bed, "here we are. Family only!" He gave a big cheesy grin at his audience.

"I hope you don't mind," Spencer said quietly, eyes expressing every possible level of confusion, happiness and relief, "we wanted to make sure you were ok, that you were alive!" She released a deep breath and heard her friends utter agreements as their attention was drawn to the tv programme. "We didn't want you to be alone."

Warmth surged through the brunette, a feeling of contentment and affection that she hadn't known in so long. She was not alone. These people cared. Spencer, cared. She had so many words. Too many. Too many and not enough. She had no single way to express everything she was feeling. A small, tubed, sore hand, squeezed the slightly sweaty one it was holding. Brown eyes met blue and they smiled. "Thank you."

Calm. Peace. Comfort. Darkness. Silence. Sleep.


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