Hey guys! First of all, just call me Taz, cause all my friends say I'm hyper than the Tasmanian Devil and- why am I explaining myself? Whatever. And secondly (and lastly), I'll try to get one more chapter in after this before I go to Tennessee cause internet's not so great down there, but I'll try my best!

TearsOfaClown: Is Lauren okay? Of course! I'm not killing off my favorite StarKid ever! Especially when LaurWalk is my OTP. The attack ties into the plot, so that answers your second question. The attack will definitely be referred back to when they all go on the vacation and the two super secret StarKid members disappear.

Disclaimer: I don't own StarKid or the members of this wonderfully awesome group. I just borrow them and use them like puppets for your entertainment.

Julia Albain was sitting on Darren Criss' couch wrapped in a blanket, shivering from the cold Chicago weather outside the apartment. Darren was sitting next to her with his arm wrapped around her shoulders, and they were watching the movie 'Tangled'. She was completely enraptured in the movie on the flat screen while Darren was immersed in the beautiful view sitting next to him.

"Dare, don't forget to tell the others about the camping trip you planned for all of us." Julia's voice brought Darren out of his thoughts and he nodded, twirling a lock of her chestnut colored hair around his finger. "I think it's cool that you're taking us to Colorado for the summer. I also think the others are gonna like a vacation like that, especially with Holy Musical Batman out of the way." She turned to him and gave him a wide smile, and he smiled back.

"Yeah, I'll have to tell them tomorrow at the StarKid meeting." He replied, and he stood up, untangling himself from her reluctantly. "You want some popcorn? It's Movie Theatre, just how you like it." Darren coaxed her, and she sighed dramatically, nodding.

"Sure, that sounds good!" She giggled as Darren bowed low and he stood up quickly, which proved to not be a good things as he got dizzy.

"As you wish, milady." He put on an overly-dramatic British accent and walked into the kitchen to pop the two of them her favorite popcorn. Julia watched him and smiled to herself, letting her eyes trail down his figure. She blushed red and turned back to the tv, trying to make herself forget that she just checked out her best friend (best GUY friend, Lauren would get mad if she used the 'best friend' title for Darren and not her).

Julia heard the opening chords of Gotta Get Back to Hogwarts as she waited for Darren to come back from the kitchen with the buttered popcorn and she pulled her phone out of her pocket to answer the call, wondering who would be calling her so late in the night (or was it now early in the morning?).

"Hello?" Julia held the iPhone up to her ear cautiously after checking the caller ID to see that one of the fellow StarKids was calling her, and she wasn't quite sure why he would be calling her at a time like that.

"Julia, it's Joe Walker. You need to get to the hospital soon. It's Lauren." Julia heard those words and she paled, standing up and shoving the phone into her pocket after Joe had hung up on her. Darren chose that moment to come back into the living room, and after seeing the look on Julia's face, he knew something was wrong.

"Oh dead wizard God, what happened Juls?" Darren set the popcorn bowl on the coffee table and placed his hands carefully on her shoulders, trying to get a panicking Julia to calm down.

"Joe just called and said Lauren's in the hospital!" Julia managed to blurt out as she practically shoved Darren out of the way to get her shoes and coat on. "He didn't say why, but from the tone of his voice it sounded pretty serious!" Darren nodded and pulled his own shoes on before grabbing his coat on the way out.

"I'll drive us." He called back to Julia as she pulled on her coat and followed behind them, and the pair ran out to his car and drove to the hospital as fast as the late night traffic would let them. "Call Meredith and spread the news. From what I know about Joe, he's not in the right state of mind to call anybody else." Julia nodded and pulled out her phone to start making the calls. "And I'll send an email to Jaime. I know for a fact she's on the phone with our crooked jaw friend right now and texting won't work."

Meredith Stepien was driving her car to the StarKid manor by her apartment to pick Brian Holden up so they could go to the midnight premiere of 'Man of Steel'. She smiled as he ran out of the manor and hopped into the passenger seat of the Subaru.

"All right, first we're going to the gas station." Brian counted off his fingers as Meredith headed towards the gas station. "Then we'll go to the movies, then we'll come back to the manor and pass out on my bed." Meredith giggled at his reasoning and he leaned back in the passenger seat. "How does that sound, Mere?" She smiled at him and shook her head, turning into the gas station.

"You know what I want. Go in and get it!" Meredith parked and Brian hopped out of the car, running into the small gas station. Meredith watched him and turned up the radio to listen to the song playing. Apparently it was America's Top 45 from television, and it was currently on number one, which was the song 'Reach For Me' by Krysta Rodriguez from the hit TV show on Fox, Smash. She turned up the volume and listened closely to the words, being able to relate to them.

Meredith hadn't told Brian about her feelings for him, but they were strong. She didn't think she was so obvious about her feelings, but apparently she was, because every person in StarKid (except for Brian of course) knew about her feelings.

Just then there was a knocking on her window and Meredith jumped. She turned to see what the noise was and it was a freezing Brian holding her soda and gum. She unlocked the car and he ran around the car as fast as he could to escape the cold. He was laughing at scaring her as he climbed into the car, and Meredith turned the heater up full blast as he closed the door.

"Here's your sugar free gum and here's your Cherry Coca-Cola." Brian made a face at both items and she laughed at him, taking them out of his hands to not inconvenience him anymore.

"Sorry for having different tastes than you do, Holden." He laughed with her and his smile sent shivers running through her body, but she didn't let that show. Her phone blared out the lyrics to Kick It Up a Notch and she pulled it out of her pocket, throwing it into Brian's lap.

"Answer it for me?" She gave him puppy dog eyes and he nodded, holding the phone up to his ear to hear what Julia had to say. The connection was awful, and Brian could only hear little snippets of what she was trying to say, but when he heard Lauren and hospital, he said a quick goodbye to Julia and hung up the phone.

"Movie's off Mere, we gotta get to the hospital." Brian's face lost all of its earlier happiness, and Meredith didn't even bother questioning him as she drove past the movie theatre.

The white walls of the waiting room in the local hospital reflected light, making the room brighter than it needed to be at three in the morning. Brian was sitting in an orange plastic chair, his knuckles white from gripping the arms of the chair hard while his right arm was wrapped around a now sleeping Meredith, who had made herself comfortable in his lap. Julia was sitting with her back against the wall on the ground with Darren's head in her lap, and she was absentmindedly playing with his unruly curly hair while he slept as well. Denise and Dylan were out getting snacks to help keep everybody awake while they waited for Lauren's condition, and Jaime was calling Joey Richter with the payphone. Brosenthal and Joe Moses were at Nick Lang's house cleaning up the mess the party made and Nick was passed out in his bedroom, so he didn't know about the accident yet.

Joe was the worst looking out of all of them. He was sitting in a green plastic chair, gripping the arms of the chair like Brian was doing, and his face was pale white as he stared at the matching white wall across from him. He was still covered in Lauren's blood and with the state he was in at the time, nobody wanted to make him go home to change out of the dirty clothing. Nobody was crying for Lauren, although the girls had definitely done so a few hours earlier, but Joe looked like he was about to burst into tears, which was surprising, considering Joe Walker never cried for real. Ever.

"Mr. Walker?" A soft voice came from the doorway into the waiting room and he shot up, walking over to the doctor to speak with him quietly, seeing how Meredith and Darren were sleeping the day away. "I have news about Ms. Lopez's surgery, so if you'll come with me..." The man trailed off and Joe nodded, looking completely lost as he followed the doctor to the door to Lauren's room, Jaime following behind him since she was done with the phone call to Joey.

"How is she doctor?" Jaime whispered, seeing as Joe was in no state of mind to speak at the moment, and the doctor sighed, shaking his head and looking down at the clipboard.

"Well, when she was brought here, she was on the brink of death." Joe made a strangled noise and Jaime lightly placed a hand on his arm to calm him down before he did anything stupid for Lauren. "But Mr. Walker found her quickly enough that we managed to pull her through, and she just underwent some surgery for the internal bleeding, since the knife just barely grazed her right lung." Joe's fists were curled in white balls now, but he forced himself to stay strong for Lauren.

"And then what?" Jaime continued to speak for Joe, knowing that he couldn't manage to get any words coming out unlike earlier with the mysterious woman.

"Well, we also saw that she got hit in the head hard with what we believe was a baseball bat or something of the sort, and she got a concussion from that." The doctor stopped and looked down at his chart, both Jaime and Joe waiting for some sliver of good news to pop up. "We're supposed to wake the patients up with a concussion to make sure there's no brain damage, but Ms. Lopez has been rendered into a coma." The doctor turned to leave, but then he turned back. "We're not sure when she will wake up." And with that final word, the nice doctor left the hallway, and Jaime could only stare forward, deep in her thoughts.

SLAM!

Jaime jumped from the sound and she turned to face Joe to see he had punched the wall hard with his fist, which was now bleeding. Jaime looked up to see Julia, Darren, Meredith, Brian, Denise, and Dylan standing behind him, and before anyone of them could do anything to comfort Joe or stop the bleeding, she heard the same strangled sob from earlier come out of his mouth.

"Why did it have to be her?" Joe's soft and shaken voice whispered in the dead silent air, and the StarKids could only watch on sadly. "Why did the one person I care about most have to be stuck in the hospital like this?" And before any of the StarKids could do or say anything to make him feel better, a strangled sob came out of his mouth and Jaime backed up, her hand over her mouth.

Joe Walker was crying for the first time ever.

Not much of a cliffhanger, but oh well! I hope you all like it and PLEASE REVIEW cause I need the criticism.

~ELBFAL