Oh, man! The end of the week is becoming the WORST time for me, I swear. But it has been 3 days since my last update and I get antsy when that much time goes by. And yesterday and this morning were pretty rough, so some reviews from you awesome people always pick me up.

I know I mentioned this last chapter but I saw that nobody has checked it out so I will tell you all again. Read "ENEMIES" by KatieBlack129. I follow her on Twitter and she always has something cool to say.

Here's the link:

s/9160382/1/Enemies

I recommend it highly.

Enough product placement, hee hee.

Hope you enjoy this chapter; tried to make it long and interesting.

;-)

"Jade?"

The black-haired girl didn't acknowledge her mother's voice. She sat up in her bed, back to the door so that she wouldn't see her crying.

"Are you alright?" her mom asked, touching her shoulder.

"I'm fine," she sniffed quickly wiping her eyes and turning around. It was futile.

"You were crying, weren't you?" she asked, smiling.

"Yeah, so what?"

"I guess you heard the news."

Jade blinked and looked up. "What?"

"Nobody called you?"

Jade stared at her phone and saw that it was still off. She turned it on and her inbox flooded with missed calls and messages.

"Whoa," she whispered at the amount of what she missed in one day. She clicked on one of the more recent texts and it says something about Tori and Trina in the hospital.

She stood up and grabbed her mom.

"What happened!" her face was wrought with panic.

Jade's mother sighed, "There was an accident. Pretty bad…"

Before she could say anything further, Jade was already out the door and putting her key in the ignition.

The Goth must have pushed about two dozen people down when she charged through the hospital like a tidal wave. She cursed herself when she would go one way and the room numbers on the plaques would indicate she was walking the wrong direction. In happened quite a few times. Jade doesn't think straight when she's upset or worried.

She breathed a small sigh of relief when eye caught a familiar face: Cat's wide but sad eyes. She was being consoled by Robbie and Andre.

"Cat," Jade called out. The three of them all looked up at her.

"Jade!"

Cat got up and ran to her best friend and latched herself to her. Normally, Jade was irritated by these ambushes of affection but this time she allowed it to come and run its course.

"Cat," Jade managed to say once she caught her breath. "Where is she?"

"Right there," she pointed indicating the first open door to the left. Jade took a deep breath and proceeded through it.

Her heart stopped when she saw Tori hooked up to a vitals monitor, breathing apparatus, and various tubes giving her blood and clear things she couldn't identify. Holly and David Vega both looked up in unison, morose faces.

"Hello, Jade" Holly softly spoke. She walked up slowly and gave her a hug. Ever since the two of them announced their going out, Tori's parents have been very agreeable. Too often David in his job has seen runaways that would fall into petty crime that would eventually escalate; all because their parents couldn't accept what they were. Holly told Jade that they may not be perfect parents, but they believe that a parent's life is unconditional.

"Oh god," Jade cried when she got a better look at Tori's peaceful-looking face. "How is she?"

"Well," David stood up. "She hasn't regained consciousness since the accident. Trina woke up but she's in pretty bad shape."

Jade nodded as she walked over and rubbed Tori's forehead.

"Can I see her?" Jade asked.

"She's over here," a voice groaned from across the room.

Jade peered over and there was the elder Vega bandaged up with her leg elevated. The raven-haired girl ran over to her.

"Tell me what happened," she demanded. Jade knew that Tori still didn't have her license so it was her that was doing the driving. Trina sipped some juice through an extremely long straw from a container that was sitting on the little dining table in front of her. It was a special thing you could buy in the gift shop for patients in traction that couldn't move their arms.

"Nothing," Trina shrugged her one shoulder. "We stopped at a light, it turned green; next thing I knew, some asshole plowed right into us."

"A car?" Jade asked.

"More of a bus," Holly chimed in.

"And I'll deal with him tomorrow," David added.

Jade grinned but it vanished when she looked back and saw Tori laid up.

"The doctor," David began. "Told us that Tori succumbed to a head injury. Chances are, she might be like this for a little while." He emphasized the "little while" to make it sound more hopeful.

"You mean like a coma?" Jade asked.

"They say a lot of people snap out of such things within hours," Holly nodded.

"And when they don't?" Jade's voice cracked.

The whole room fell silent. Jade walked solemnly over to Tori and sat by her side, taking her hand in hers.

"I'm sorry, Tori. I didn't want to fight earlier. Maybe if I wasn't so stupid you wouldn't be here."

"Hey," Holly put her hand on Jade's shoulder. "Don't start talking like that. You don't want to go down that road."

"What can I do?" Jade asked. "I wish there was something I could do to help. I want to be able to get in there and snap her out of it."

"You're being there for her," David said. "It will mean a lot to her when she wakes up."

Jade put her free hand on her hip. "Somehow I don't think that's good enough."

Tori found herself back in the mall but the lights were off. She could scarcely see but when she rounded a corner, it got a little bit better. Faint security lights inside stores created scattered sources of meager light. It was like her vision was bathed in this dark blue filter.

Every step of her boots echoed throughout the spacious building, heel clacking on hardwood floor and reverberating all around.

"Trina," Tori yelled. "Are you here? Hello? Anybody out there?"

"I'm here," a raspy voice came up behind her. It almost sounded like an animal.

Tori turned around and fell to her feet, screaming in horror. The badly-scarred man with the razor-hand was back, standing over her. Tori quickly unzipped her brown boots and threw them at him. She didn't care that she was barefoot. She knew she could run faster than with those boots on.

The faster she ran, the closer he seemed. He didn't look like he was running at all and yet he always appeared to be just inches behind her. Tori was worried she was going to tire out before she could think of something or find help.

Jade was asleep in the chair next to Tori's bed. Normally, visiting regulations prohibit non-family members but frankly, the nurses were all scared of Jade. Whenever one would come up to the room and tell her to leave, she would shoot an "I'm gonna kill you" look.

She was startled awake by a hand jostling her leg. It fell to the floor and her eyes snapped open. Jade looked up, annoyed at the blonde stranger.

"Who the fuck are you?" Jade hissed.

Tracy held up a photo of her, then seventeen, holding a baby Jade. "That's who the fuck I am," she smirked. "Care to guess who the delightful little girl is?"

"Is that baby supposed to be me?" Jade asked, raising an eyebrow.

Tracy nodded.

"And what are you, my birth mother?"

"Hardly, kid" Tracy looked around the room. "Hold on a sec, you knew?"

"That I was adopted? Well, the papers were a dead giveaway. Found them when I was bored one day in my dad's office."

"Did they ever tell you about me?"

Jade pointed "And you are…"

"Unbelievable," Tracy shook her head. "Long story short: I'm your sister."

"You know," Jade rolled her eyes. "First my girlfriend goes into a coma and now a long-lost sister? What is this, Days of Our Lives?"

"No, this not a show" Tracy grabbed a nearby chair and sat across from Jade. "Yes, we're sisters. Well, technically half-sisters; same father."

Jade tilted her head, quietly judging the newcomer.

"The name's Tracy," the blonde extended her hand.

The pale girl remained fixed on this would-be sister.

"Will you say something?" Tracy demanded.

"Why didn't you ever write or something?"

"Truth?" Tracy asked.

"Yeah."

"To be completely honest, I didn't know where you were until sometime yesterday. See, when your parents adopted you, I always went to see you. But, then they moved and they promised they were going to send me an address but it never came. Believe me, Jade; I wanted to be a part of your life. You actually helped me want to be a better person so that I could hang out with you, to teach you, to protect you…"

Jade was intrigued by Tracy's sudden silence.

"How did you know I was here?" Jade asked.

"Your dad's work records had his home address. I went there a couple hours ago and they were plenty surprised to find me on their doorstep."

Jade furrowed her eyebrows, imagining their reactions. "Then what?"

"I told them that if they want to make it up to me, they had better tell me where you were."

Tracy looked over at Tori.

"Who's this, Jade? A friend?"

Jade deftly grabbed Tori's hand and squeezed hard. She then caressed her face with the other hand.

"Oh I see," Tracy smirked. "Like that?"

"Like that," Jade nodded.

"Right on; how's she doing?"

"Not good. She still hasn't woken up since the accident." Jade pointed to Trina. "See that girl over there? That's her sister. She was driving, Tori fell asleep, and next thing that happened, a bus totaled the car."

"Oh, wow" Tracy whispered. "I'm sorry." She indicated to Tori's other arm. "May I?"

Jade nodded.

Tracy took Tori's arm, "This is Jade's big sister telling you that you need to wake up. Don't make me come in there." She glanced over and saw Jade manage a small smile. At least that cheered her up for a second. Tracy was then studying Tori's arm.

"Something wrong?" Jade asked.

"This bruising on her wrist looks pretty bad…and recent" Tracy looked up at Jade. "Her parents never…"

"No way," Jade shook her head. "They would be the last people…"

"Now you look worried," Tracy remarked.

"She…she never had those marks when I got here. And I never left her side, except once to use the bathroom of course."

"Wait," Tracy said. "You said she was asleep before the accident."

"Yeah, Trina said she started nodding off."

"Oh shit," Tracy breathed.