Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, I really appreciate it. Hopefully this chapter is as good as the first one, though it did take me a while to get it going, and I actually wrote this one in the space of around four hours (it wasn't constant writing). Anyway, on with the story...

Save Me

Chapter 2

Doc sipped his coffee as he studied the x-rays. He'd suspected the girl had a couple of breaks, and his suspicions seemed to be confirmed. Her left arm was fractured, along with a few ribs. He noticed some older breaks in places, ones that looked like they had healed only recently. He'd found a number of small cuts on one of her arms, and many bruises too. If the girl had been running from something it would explain why she had crashed, but until he got all the facts he didn't want to jump to conclusions, they hadn't made him the town judge for nothing.

The doors behind him opened quietly as someone entered the room.

"Hey, I just brought you some food from Flo." Sally placed a large package on the desk and joined Doc. "Wow, she's been in the wars."

"Mm." Doc sipped his coffee again.

"You don't think it's natural do you?" Sally picked up on his thoughts straight away.

"It's not normal for a person to have so many injuries, old and new, even after they've been in a crash."

"Wouldn't that depend on the crash?"

"It would, but her's wasn't that bad, certainly not bad enough for all these injuries. I think she had some of them before she crashed."

"Where is she?"

"Over there." Doc nodded to the far side of the room. "She's still out of it." He went with Sally to the girl's bed. "I should get a cast on that arm, though I don't really want to with those cuts on her arm."

Sally leaned against the end of the bed. The girl looked so young. A large plaster covered a cut above her eye, and her light brown hair had been swept back off her forehead.

"Did you get a name?"

"She told us she was called Aiyana yesterday, before she passed out. Her driver's licence says she's Aiyana Kerin. She can't have been driving long either, she's not long turned sixteen."

Sally back away slightly. The girl was a little familiar, but surely it wasn't…the girl she had known had sworn she would never leave the city.

"Sally?" Doc was looking concerned.

"I have to go." She said quickly, and hurried from the building.

"Well that was odd." Doc muttered, reaching for the paper bag Sally had brought with her.

It was getting late when Doc finally emerged from his clinic. He had decided it would be all right to leave the girl for a couple of hours, and knew his friends would be wanting to know more about the stranger. He spotted Lightning sitting with Sheriff in a corner of the café, without Sally. He found that a little odd. It was unusual to find Lightning without Sally, or the other way around, when they were gathered at the café in the evenings.

"Hey, Doc." Sheriff greeted the doctor as he joined them. "How's the kid?"

"She'll be ok. No lasting damage."

Sheriff seemed to notice something different in Doc's voice, for he raised an eyebrow slightly but said nothing.

"Have you seen Sally?" Lightning asked rather suddenly.

"Not since this morning, why?"

"We were supposed to meeting up tonight and going to watch a film, but she never showed. I checked at the theatre and everything."

"Leave it to me, kid, I'll find her." Doc replied, all ready with some idea of where to start looking.

Doc opened the door of his car quietly. Sally's Porsche was parked in front of the Wheel Well Motel, but there was no sign of the woman nearby. He quickly checked the small reception, but she wasn't there. He couldn't see her in any of the rooms either. Walking back to where her car sat at the top of the cliff he silently looked into it. He'd known she wouldn't be in it the moment he'd seen it. Her jacket had been tossed onto the back seat. He tested the door and found it was unlocked. He picked up the coat, shut the door again, and walked a short way along the top of the cliff.

There was a small break in the cliff, just wide enough for a car to fit down. There was a small channel off it around half way along that had at one time held a stream. The stream had long been diverted by the rocks, leaving the dry gorge behind. Doc walked into the gap in the cliffs, skirting the bushes where snakes might be hiding, and slipped into the narrow gorge. The sunlight didn't penetrate this far, and the sky above was starting to get dark. He shoved a hand in his pocket, checking he had the torch with him. It tended to live in the car, just in case it broke down where there wasn't sufficient lighting. He picked his way over the boulder-strewn ground, emerging nearly an hour later on a lonely hilltop. A figure could be seen against the darkening sky.

"Sally?" He walked up to her, holding the coat out.

She took it slowly. "Thanks."

"Lightning's worried."

"Oh dear, I forgot I was supposed to meeting him." She fiddled with the zip on her jacket.

"Why did you come way out here?"

"I needed to do some thinking." Sally looked down into the valley. The lights from the town could just be seen.

Doc eyed her for a moment. "You all ready know Aiyana."

Sally nodded. "It was just after I'd started working for dad, while I was still studying. His secretary came up to me one lunch break. She said she needed someone to take care of her kid when she went out in the evening, asked if I'd care for her for a couple of hours each night." She sighed softly. "Aiyana swore she'd never leave the city, that nothing could make her do that. I wasn't sure if I recognised the car when it first appeared. Her uncle bought it for her, gave it to her the Christmas before she turned sixteen. She was really excited, wanted to drive it straight away."

"I've not had a chance to look at the car yet, but I don't think it was a problem with the car that caused the crash." Doc hesitated. "Was there ever any sign of any trouble in her family?"

"What are you saying?" Sally gasped, turning to face him.

"I'm not sure yet." Doc too looked down at the valley. He'd seen it before, when he was a racer. It had been at one of his earlier races. A rookie the year after him had been constantly nervous. There had been a permanent fear in his eyes, and it hadn't been until after the rookie had disappeared that he'd worked it out. There was no way he would let something like that happen again.

Author's Note: Some of you might be able to work out what I'm getting at with this chapter, but I didn't want to make it blaringly obvious. I'm not sure when the next chapter will be online, as I've not even started it yet, and I have to go out in a few minutes. I might get a chance to work on it tomorrow, all being well. I'll try to get the next one up during the next week, but I am not making any promises that it'll happen.