"You're not listening to me. I want to see my girlfriend."

In any other situation, the young nurse would have happily stood in front of three tall, attractive males, but right now she felt rather intimidated.

"I want to see my girlfriend," the panicked boy repeated. "Let me through!" His brow was creased with worry and he was shaking violently.

One of the other boys laid his hand on the first boy's shoulder. His voice was much softer, obviously intended to calm down his friend. "Charlie, let's go to the waiting room. There's nothing they can do to help Aylin if you're in the way."

The third boy turned around and led the other two toward the waiting room, allowing the nurse to exhale loudly and wipe away the beads of sweat that had formed on her forehead.

"Abraham? Tyler? What are you doing here?" asked Michael as he walked into the waiting room with Charlie and Blake. Charlie slumped into a chair in the corner of the room, and Blake sat next to him. Across the room, an Asian teen and a shorter, nerdy-looking boy watched them sorrowfully.

"We heard what happened. We were at Nellie's house, just down the road from the hospital so we came straight here when we got a call from the hospital." The Asian boy spoke slowly with tears forming in his eyes. Michael nodded slowly.

"Do you know what happened?" Blake asked. "We were told something about a car crash."

"Well, we all knew that the girls were going out," Tyler began, "but Ali couldn't get there with her chair and everything, and then Nellie… Well, she didn't feel like going out. So the other girls all got in one car, and they were slightly intoxicated and—"

"Okay," Charlie snapped, looking straight at the ground. Michael felt sorry for Charlie. For years, he and Aylin had been flirting non-stop but had refused to admit their true feelings to each other. Only last week had they finally admitted their mutual love for each other, and sparks flew from there. Michael's mind continued to drift until he thought about Nellie.

"Where's Nellie? Why didn't she want to go out this evening? Is she okay? What's wrong?" Michael stopped talking and noticed that the whole group in front of him were looking at him, each with a small smile on their face. Even Charlie.

Tyler was the first to speak. "Someone's in loooove!" he teased.

"No, I just—"

"Just ask her out, dude!" Blake winked.

"Blake, I—"

"Don't wait till it's too late, man," Charlie spoke. "I would feel ten times worse right now if I hadn't told Aylin how I felt about her." Usually Charlie was such a funny, jokey guy, but Michael could hear the utter seriousness in his voice.

"She's gone to see Shanna. She feels guilty that she didn't give her a lift home from the party," Abraham said softly. "I'm sure she'd appreciate it if you went to see her."

Michael nodded silently and left the room. Behind him, he could hear his friends sniggering at how obvious it was that he liked Nellie. That wasn't the case. At all. Nellie was just the only one that really knew Michael. The two told each other everything. They had shared everything since they were young, from toys to their deepest secrets. If only all the others realised that.

Nellie was sitting in a dark room. There was a small lamp overhead that lit the top of Shanna's head. The nurse told Nellie that she'd be fine and just needed to rest. Nellie hated their optimism. The word fine was so useless. Shanna could wake up and never walk again, or she could completely lose every memory of her friends. Was that fine?

"Shanna, I know that you can't hear me, but I just need to talk to someone." Nellie felt slightly stupid talking to her unconscious friend, but at lease she wouldn't be judged. "I usually talk to Michael about things like this, but I know he'll take it the wrong way and people will get hurt. Physically and emotionally." Nellie paused and looked toward the door cautiously. "It's Maxfield." Even the name brought a sting to her throat. Her eyes were glistening, threatening to release tears. "He—He hit me. Shanna, I'm scared. I love him so much, and I can't imagine life without him, but I'm scared. I know that if you were awake, you'd help me, but I can't tell anyone else. They'd resort to violence. Shanna, I miss you. Can you—Can you tell me what to do?" Nellie noticed a small patch of tears forming on the blanket of the bed below her face. "I miss you," Nellie whispered before slowly leaning forward and kissing Shanna on her forehead.

Nellie sat back down and held Shanna's weak hand, her lip still quivering with sadness. She turned to the door as a stream of light flooded the room. Michael appeared in the doorway, nervously looking at Shanna's body. "Can I come in?" he asked. He waited for Nellie's approval and then walked to a spare chair by the bed. "Is Shanna okay?"

"Okay? She's fine," Nellie snapped. She noticed Michael jerk back a little, "Sorry, the nurse said she was fine but could still have no memory of us, Michael. What if she doesn't remember us? That's not fine."

Nellie felt tears flow down her face again before Michael stood up and hugged her tightly.

"Nellie, she will be more than fine. You know our Shanna. She'll be back to perfect in no time at all." Michael struggled to believe his own words, but it seemed to help Nellie. "Everything will be better than fine."

Author's Note:

Woo! Depressing chapters! There will be a little break from the dullness next chapter, so don't fret!

So I haven't completely decided on what ships I want for everyone yet. Any ideas are welcome.

I don't really know what else to say here, so yeh...

Til' next time,

~Marcalus