So uhm, I really hesitated about posting this today. Because I'm trying to keep with a new system where I write one chapter and then wait until the following chapter is written to post that chapter (as in, I've had this chapter typed up since the prologue was posted). But anyways, I haven't exactly finished the second chapter yet so, I was hesitant. Because I'm really trying to keep with this system and I really really don't want to break out of it. But I felt bad because I haven't updated in almost three weeks and I figured I owed it to you all. So here you have it. I'm sorry it's short. Enjoy. :)

the first chapter.

"It is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so."

- William Shakespeare

september twenty-third two thousand seven.

six weeks later.

The sky was a brilliant shade of blue. The grass was still green, even with fall a few days in. The birds were still singing. And the warm sun fell onto Cody's face, his eyes lighting up for the first time in weeks.

His mother and brother walked alongside him, him and the nurse that pushed the wheelchair he didn't need but was part of the discharge procedure.

Cody had fallen into a coma almost instantly and had awoken two weeks later in St. Elizabeth's Medical Center with a knee that had had the heck banged out of it and an arm that wasn't much better. Thankfully, his arm had healed and his knee, after the surgery, was going to be as good as new in no time. They'd gotten lucky with his knee. It had been thought, or brought up, that he might have had to replace his entire knee. But it was discovered that it did not have to be, which received a tremendous cheer from the small Martin family.

But, and Cody thought about this as they made their way down the walk, he wasn't near as bad off as his father. Kurt, unfortunately, had been in a coma since the accident with more severe injuries. And Cody thought about how it wasn't fair. Cody had spent hours in his father's room, when he was able to see him, just staring at him and waiting, waiting for him to wake up. But he hadn't.

Cody thought, for the thousandth time, about the guy that had hit them that night. He didn't know anything about him, he didn't even know his name, and yet he felt bad for him. He felt bad that he got to go home and continue living his normal, ordinary life when that guy could be out there somewhere hurt or- or dying or dead. He shivered involuntarily and felt Carey's hand gently squeeze his shoulder. He didn't look up. No one knew anything about that guy (the only thing anyone had ever told the Martins was that the person that had run into the car had been a middle-aged man), and part of Cody didn't want to know; the other was dying to.

He twisted around and watched the hospital slowly get smaller, though only slightly, it wasn't that far of a walk.

"I don't want to leave," He whispered softly. He could feel his family's gentle frowns and stares boring through his head. He didn't look up at them.

Cody felt his mother's hand descend to his shoulder again.

"We'll be back soon," she told him.

"And besides," Zack attempted, "Mom's food is way better than that gross hospital junk they tried to feed you." Cody didn't turn around to see the grin on his brother's face.

Presently, he felt the chair come to a stop, but he still didn't turn. He heard his mother and brother and the nurse all talking to each other about this and that (he didn't pay attention to what). He heard the car door open and shut a few times.

Carey was smiling as she helped Cody out of the wheelchair, though his attention was still focused on the hospital looming behind them.

Cody heard the car door open once more. This sound shook his attention from the hospital and his father and he turned slowly.

And then he saw the car.