CB does not belong to me [though I wish it did], which is why I write on here instead of publishing my stories in book form.

So sit back and enjoy reading "A Holiday to Remember". Next posting is whenever I finish!

The story is starting to wrap up with just a few more chapters to go! And then I can get back to BK4 and a special project with the initials ATS. ;) Ta-ta for now!

Part Eleven – Save Me From Myself

Pain. Ribs, head, arm, and leg. Hitched breathing. Wet. Cold. So cold and wet. Why? Sloshing sounds filled his ear, his other ear hearing nothing, and a groan left his lips. A taste of blood. Whose blood? His own? He wasn't sure. Where was he?

Wearily, he began to open his eyes, confused. It was so dark. Was he still sleeping? A light sniff to the air brought him to realize that Jewel was beside him. Why was she in his room? Did they do something? He didn't remember her coming to hang out with him. Maybe she snuck in and he forgot?

But why was he so wet and cold?

Moving his right arm around – after finding he couldn't move his left for some reason – he frowned. Water? Where was he? Did he fall asleep in the hot tub or pool or something?

Shifting position, he flinched and wished he hadn't. He felt around with his free arm and let out a startled yelp when a loud sound sounded. He calmed down, though, when he realized it was his car horn. "Oh. I-I-I'm i-in t-t-the c-c-car." Why did his voice shake so much? His teeth were chattering violently.

He attempted to move his legs, flinching as fresh pain shot through them. There was more sloshing, too. But if he was in his car, why was there water? What happened?

He remembered speeding up, trying to counteract the broken pedal with braking... and then losing control. Jewel's fearful scream. His trying to fix things... Flipping. And then nothing.

"C-Crashed... W-we... c-cr-crashed," he chattered. "J-Je-Jewel..." He felt for her, and gave a relieved sigh when his paw found hers. He gave it a squeeze. "J-Jewel?" Was she still alive? Or was he in here with her corpse?

His breathing hitched at the thought. Losing her because of his stupidity would be a curse. What would he do without her? His rock? His love? He'd fall apart without her.

Suddenly, he found himself wishing that if she went, he'd be taken, too.

He lifted his paw, following her arm up to her neck, and felt for a pulse. A choked sob left his throat. There was one. Strong. He gave her a gentle shake, trying to wake her. "J-Jew...el..."

It took some prodding, but finally she opened her eyes, moaning like he had. "H-Hurts..." she whimpered. "S-So cold..."

He wondered where she was hurt. Was it severe? Could she slide over to him and try to warm up? "C-C'mere," he whispered, unbuckling her and carefully pulling her with his one free arm. He knew it hurt, but it didn't matter. He had to get her warm, and by doing that, get himself warm, too. He hoped he wasn't making things worse for her, but feeling her up against him gave him some relief. "H-Hey..."

She breathed deeply for a few moments, her chest hurting badly, and whined softly. "H-Hey..." It did feel good to be free of the water that didn't reach the seat. What had happened?

As if reading her mind, he spoke up. "C-Crashed. M's-sorry." He held her close, feeling her shiver. "M'f-fault."

She whimpered and leaned into him. She wanted to tell him that it wasn't – that he was a good driver – but her voice wouldn't work. She was shaking too badly. Hurt too much.

.~*A Holiday to Remember*~.

"What do you mean Jewel's not here?" Tennessee demanded, eyes narrow as he stared at Henry.

"I guess Beary picked her up before taking off," Henry stated, guilt raking his body. It'd been hours since the fight, and was now almost three in the morning. Wait, no, four, not three. Beside him, wracked with worry, was his wife.

"Your kid took my daughter and just disappeared?!" Tennessee growled, pissed. "Are you serious?! Why didn't you stop him?"

"I was, uh, out of commission." Spotting him looking between him and Helen, Henry shook his head. "Not like that, Tennessee. I meant... I got into a fight with Beary, and he stormed off. A couple hours ago..."

"In this blizzard?!" All Tennessee had known was Jewel going to answer the door and then not coming back. "Henry! That kid is unstable, and for him to be out driving in this weather could be fatal!"

"You don't think I know that?" The elder bear rested his head against his paw and sighed deeply. "This is all my fault. I knew that Beary had issues, yet I did nothing that could have helped him. I let things get out of hand, and now... now it's too late."

Tennessee stomped his foot. "It is not too late. We're going out to find them. I'll go get the others. Get dressed, and you better pray we find them alive or so help me I'll kill him myself!" He slammed the door behind him.

Helen's ears lowered, and she turned her head to her beloved. "Hendri? B-Beary okay, r-right?"

He straightened and looked at her. "I'm sure he is, Helena. And if he's not, I'll help him get better. I'll fix things between us. This time for sure." He reached back and squeezed her paw. "I'm going with them. Let me go wake Jacob and Kavik. The more with us the better."

She nodded. "B-Bring him home."

He turned, wincing as his back flared up again, and gripped her fingers with his paws and kissed them. "I promise. I will make this right. We were both hotheaded. Perhaps now we've both cooled down enough. I will bring him home, Helena, mark my words." He gave her a gentle nuzzle and a kiss. "Don't you fret. I'm going to fix this."

.~*A Holiday to Remember*~.

Slosh, slosh, slosh.

Beary held back a cry as he moved his legs the best he could, each one going slower, trying to keep the blood circulating and unfreezing. He wished he could be like Jewel and sit up on the bench seat out of the water, but his leg was pinned under the steering wheel, making it impossible. Not to mention how little room they had, with the ceiling partially caved in, and his left arm broken.

Perhaps he should try to shift over and have her lay on top of him? Wait, no. Leg still trapped. They had tried that already. Gah, what was wrong with him? Why couldn't he think straight? He didn't want to put her back in the water so that he could move, but if he couldn't get free soon, he'd probably lose his legs. As it were, he had barely any feel in them at all! Not to mention his butt, where the water kept sloshing up.

The shivers had stopped a little bit ago. Was he getting used to the temperature? Or was it something else? If only there was something else he could sit on, or some way to get free. Unless...

"J-Jewel... C-Can you m-move to... the back... and release the c-ca-catch?"

She frowned, but did so, happy to be moving again, and could just barely clear getting between the back of the seat and the semi-crushed roof without screaming in pain. She reached into the water, releasing the catch that allowed the front bench seat's back to fall backwards with a mighty splash. She let out a pained yelp as it fell on her arm, but there was thankfully no permanent damage.

Sitting on the back seat, she reached forward and began pulling him back with her good arm out of the water. "G-Gotcha," she whispered, climbing onto the back of the seat with him, holding him close. Her body screamed at her for the movements, her ribs aching from where the seatbelt crushed them. However, her being a bear meant that she could move better in such situations, and not end up completely paralyzed with pain like humans did. She could muscle through it. Barely. Ha! Bear-ly. Ha, ha, ha!

He whined and whimpered at being moved, the pressure of his leg finally being freed from the imprisonment of the steering wheel crushing it was startling. He couldn't help the scream.

"Shh..." she whispered, gently stroking his head. Her body hurt just as much as his, and she wondered what it was like to have hot blood suddenly rushing to an area that had been very cold. No wonder he'd screamed.

Happy to have him free of the water, she lay beside him, flinching as her ribs protested all the movements, and got in close. Carefully, she rubbed his legs, trying to get feeling back into them again. Blood circulating.

"S'hawd," he slurred while she gave him an odd look.

She knew she had to get him out of the wet clothes – she hadn't had to take hers off, as they had barely gotten wet – but why was he complaining about being too hot? "B-Be-Beary, it's f-fr-freezing..." What was he talking about? Had he been in the water too long? Was that what was going on? When had he stopped shivering, too? Slurring?

A thought entered the back of her mind. Hypothermia? Could that be it?

She sat up when she felt him moving, and realized that he was trying to pull his clothes off. "B-Beary!"

He didn't respond much, other than some mumbling, and she wondered just how long they had been in the car. It had to have been more than a few hours, right? Days, perhaps? No, that seemed unlikely. She'd only had to pee maybe twice? So a few hours at least. Enough that the blizzard had covered their car in snow – why else would it be so dark? If the windows hadn't been covered, they still would have been able to see at least a little. Sure, she'd tried pushing the doors open, but they were stuck fast. No way to get free.

That thought, accompanied with the worry that Beary had hypothermia, added to her fear of how they would be found... and in time.

.~*A Holiday to Remember*~.

Dex yawned as he stretched in the cold. He and Roxi had stayed with Roadie instead of heading back to Tennessee with his parents who had to get back to work. Giving his butt one last scratch, he shivered and looked at the others in their assembled group. "So what has my doofus brother gone and done this time?"

Roxi shot him a look, while the others mimicked Dex's question, all turning to Tennessee and Henry.

It was mainly the males in the group, but Jade was there as well, and Ray had left his wife to keep an eye on Helen and to keep her calm. The other females who were pregnant or had cubs to take care of stayed behind – and a certain golden bear was not keen on the idea and had actually gotten into a verbal match with her husband, but Tennessee had eventually won out.

Jacob sighed, shaking his head. He hadn't been happy hearing that his brother wasn't back yet, and that he was causing his family so much grief yet again. Beside him, Kavik looked worried. Unlike Jacob, Kavik was a bit more caring about the well-being of the cub, and had been watching and talking to him for a while. He knew more about Beary than Jacob and Trista, as he had allowed the teen to get things off his chest through his words.

"Jacob, don't act like you actually know what's going through his head," the other bear murmured. "Kid's pretty complex."

"Oh, do tell," Ray said sarcastically. "It's obvious he's a spoiled brat."

This time, Dex was the one shooting glares. "You don't know the first thing about him."

"I know enough, and this running off in the middle of a blizzard seals the deal. He's spoiled rotten."

"Dad, knock it off. Dex is right. You don't know anything about Beary. Does he have hella issues? Yup," Jade replied, while her brother snorted and laughed. "But he's a good kid. He just needs people to help him work through things instead of ignoring him." She crossed her arms and pointedly looked at Henry.

His ears flattened. Perhaps he had been ignoring Beary a little too much. It wasn't intentional, but with him being so mood-shifty and whatnot, Henry had no idea what to do with him. How to communicate with his own child. Had Beary freaked out earlier because he was still running scared from that avalanche and Henry's own accusations? Is that why things had gone so bad so fast?

"So is ANYONE going to say what happened?" Zeb asked, yawning again.

"There was a fight and the kid took off," Jacob responded simply. "That was hours ago. Haven't heard from either of them since."

Tennessee let out a growl. "Can we just get moving to try and find them already?!"

Ray nodded. "I assume you tried their phones?"

"Jewel left hers behind, and we haven't been able to reach Beary," Tennessee responded.

"Well, that's just great... So how are we doing this? Driving and walking? Contacting the police?" Ted asked.

Ray frowned. "We could just be searching for nothing. They could be long gone."

Henry shook his head. "That could be, or perhaps not. But he wouldn't have taken Jewel out like this."

"How do you know?"

Henry didn't have an answer.

Dex scratched the back of his head and glanced at Roadie. "I'm just appalled that he was stupid enough to go out in a blizzard with a malfunctioning gas pedal, let alone drive it all the way out here."

Roadie blinked and stared. "You mean it's still not fixed?"

"Not the last time he told me. Though, given that there hasn't been any problems with it, maybe he did get it fixed..."

Henry looked over. "What do you mean, 'malfunctioning gas pedal', Dex?"

"What, he didn't tell you? His gas pedal's been all sorts of screwed up for a while. It gets stuck and speeds the car up." Dex scratched the back of his head. "It was the wrong size or something? I don't know. He's been saving up to fix it."

Henry's ears dropped. "Then it's possible that they're still around here, and in trouble..." he whispered.

Ray nodded, seriousness slipping over his face. "Let's go. Split up into different groups. Search where you can! Ditches, parking lots, roads, creeks, rivers, bridges. Keep your phones on you and travel with someone else! Move out!"

.~*~.

"Alone... so alone... no one... no one wants me. Black sheep..."

Jewel didn't bother with him anymore. She couldn't reach him, and at that point, she didn't want to. She was too cold, and even snuggling didn't warm her. She wasn't as far gone as him, but she could feel darkness creeping in. For one, it was getting harder and harder to breathe. The air was running out. In a fully sealed car with no way to get to air – she didn't have the strength to break the windows any further – they would suffocate in here.

At least they would go together, right?

About an hour ago – at least, she figured it was an hour – the car had shifted and more water had entered, so now their only safety zone was covered in water, too. At least it wasn't rising anymore, though ice bumped into them as they lay in the water.

She shifted position – or at least attempted to before she just gave up and lay there, frozen to the back of the fallen seat. Her own head laying on the water, she, too, began the mumbling as she started to slip away.

.~*~.

"Beary! Jewel!" Dex yelled from the snowmobile he rode, his fiancé riding behind him as the scoured the roads furthest from the village. There were no signs of any tracks on any of the roads, so searching was difficult.

"We should turn back. The snow's too thick, and there's no way they'd be out this far," Roxi yelled over the sounds of the mobile.

Dex sighed, but nodded. "Yeah. Let's go." He turned the vehicle around and began the trek back to the village. About halfway there, though, he paused. "Hey... Rox? Am I mistaken, or is there a lump there in that ditch?" He scratched his neck. "I don't remember there being anything there a few days ago."

She frowned. "You got a hunch, huh?"

He nodded. "Not to mention..." His eyes widened and he got off the mobile, swinging his flashlight around and catching a reflection in the snow. Bending down, he picked up a piece of a broken mirror.

Roxi turned off the machine and helped him, also finding other broken bits, followed by the mirror casing and other debris. Glancing up at Dex, she slid down the tall embankment, at least fifteen feet from the street to the lump, and came to a rest at the object. Judging from the fact that her feet hadn't just gone through snow, she sat up and began brushing away the snow. Finding the metal casing of the car, she called up to him. "Get the others here, now!"

.~*~.

Voices. Soft, loud, mixed.

Jewel didn't open her eyes. Strike that, she couldn't open them, as they had frozen shut. She had woken from her slumber by the thump, and shortly after, she heard voices.

She attempted to wake Beary, but she wasn't sure if her movements were imagined or not. She was too tired to care. Sleep sounded so good right now...

.~*~.

"This much snow and ice, they must've been here almost all night!" Ray growled, hacking away at the ice on a window. "We'll be lucky if they're even alive, given that this POS is stuck in the creek and most likely flooded." He looked up at Henry, who wasn't able to be down at the embankment with them because of his knee, and was instead waving to the rescue personnel who had finally arrived. "About damn time," he grumbled, staring at the flashing lights. Then again, they had all had a hard time getting here, too, so it was understandable that the heavy rescue vehicles had a difficult time.

He backed away, letting the rescuers do their thing, and looked over at the others, all who seemed to be trying to not let their shock be seen. Fools. They should know better. If the boy hadn't run off, he and the girl wouldn't be in such a mess and probably dead. But, lo and behold, the spoiled brat did just that. He had ruined two lives instead of just his own. Ridiculous.

He did, however, keep his opinions to himself. At least for now.

Henry sat as he watched the rescue below him. He felt so utterly hopeless. What had he done? What if Beary didn't make it? Jewel? He'd never be able to look into the eyes of Tennessee and Trixie again if Jewel was lost, or the eyes of Helen if their youngest son left them.

"They're okay," Zeb mumbled, sitting next to him. "They've gotta be, Hen. They're stronger than people think they are."

"Y-Yeah," he whispered back. So why couldn't he feel any better? The tinkering of glass brought his attention back to the present, and he watched as the front windshield was pulled out and broken. Flashlights were shown in through the side windows, and a man began crawling into the vehicle, and his yelp about the cold water and ice brought to Henry's attention that Ray had been right about the flooding. But how flooded? Had the water going through the car flooded it entirely? No, not possible, because otherwise water would have come out the front windshield.

What was taking so long?

Jade stood on the hill with Ted, watching with baited breath. She was trying to listen to what the rescuers were saying, which was very easy considering how still and quiet it was. She found herself praying that the duo would be all right.

Ted squeezed her paw, letting out a sigh of relief when calls for blankets were made, along with backboards. Neither were dead, but they weren't able to move on their own. At least they were alive.

Fred glanced at his brother and sister-in-law for a moment before going over to Henry and sitting on his other side. "They'll get them out, Henry." He put a paw on his shoulder, then looked up as Kavik came over – Jacob going down to offer his assistance as he was in the rescue department.

"They will. Jacob'll make sure of that," Kavik responded, smiling. "No man left behind." He looked around for a moment, taking note of the crowds starting to gather from early morning travelers. Great. Just what was needed.

The rescue seemed to go very slowly for those watching, but finally, almost a thirty minutes later, Beary was lifted out. His body was stiff and unmoving, and ice coated his body, clumping his fur together in glistening jewels. Jewel followed him, her body just as sparkly in the early morning sun. She, too, made no movement or knowledge of being alive. Both were covered in thick blankets and on backboards, neck braces beneath their heads.

Ted went over, staring at the cubs, and then looked at one of the paramedics. "Are they..."

The paramedic sighed. "There's a saying: 'Not dead until warm and dead'. Right now, they're frozen and dead." He then proceeded to ignore them as he helped load the teens in the ambulance and they left. Just before the door shut, the others could see chest compressions being done on both teens.

.~*A Holiday to Remember*~.

Hours passed, and no news was given to anyone but immediate family since the teens were still minors. The medical staff at the small hospital worked around the clock to keep the duo alive.

Since the hospital lobby was too small to accommodate the large group, all but immediate family were made to stay at the resort, with those able to call or text letting the others know of any reports.

Helen shivered and shook as she thought of her baby boy fighting death. How had things gotten so bad in less than twelve hours? She was torn up and broken inside, confused about what was going on and why it was happening. Thinking of her youngest son sent her into fits, and eventually Rachel and Trista led her to a more private room to calm down and relax.

Henry sat there, watching his wife leave, and felt paws on his shoulders. On either side of him was Jacob and Kavik, both looking as somber as he felt. He kept running through his mind how he could have handled things differently and changed history around to keep his boy safe.

Beside him, Tennessee and Trixie were silent, their tears long since spent. Their paws were clasped in each other's as they tried to understand. Their other cubs were being watched by Fēnglì, who was trying to keep himself busy as the thought of losing his two best friends was really screwing with his mind.

Finally, two different doctors came out of the two different rooms, consulted one another, and then came over to the two families.

"They'll live," one said, a relieved look on his face.

"But the road to recovery will be a lengthy one," the other went on. "Both had frostbite, but not severe enough to lose any limbs or have permanent damage. However, both had injuries from the wreck."

"The girl had four broken ribs, punctured lung, a broken arm, and a severe skull fracture."

"The boy had three broken ribs, punctured lung, broken arm, minor skull fracture, and fractured left femur." Beary's doctor paused a moment, frowning. "However... there is one injury from the frostbite that may have done damage, but it is impossible to tell. He was apparently sitting in the water for a long period of time."

Henry's ears lowered. "Don't tell me..."

"He may have lost the ability to have any cubs," the man finished, grimacing. "The parts are there, but they may not function properly, if at all. Only time will tell."

Please review, as I want to know what you all think! Thanks for reading! See ya next time!