A/N: Thanks again for all the reviews and to my new readers gleekfinchelover1998 and oliviaemma , I'm glad your enjoying the story :)

Jasmine's P.O.V

Sinead lay limp on the cold wet concreate of the road, her long silky, brunette hair covering her face, which under the circumstances was probably for the best. I didn't want to see the terrified expression that was bound to be on her face.

The man who'd been driving the car, who I didn't recognize, stood a few feet away from her, his feet fixed to the spot.

"I wasn't speeding", he told us for about the tenth time. "She just ran out. She just ran out". He was clearly in shock, his face full of despair at the damage his own veichle had done, and a part of me had empathy towards him - the state Sinead had been in, she probably had just ran out without looking. I doubted it was his fault. However, an urge to protect her had overwhelmed me, I didn't care for his excuses - Sinead was still lying almost lifeless in the road and his words couldn't change that.

As soon as I'd heard the scream from Bart's bedroom I'd rushed outside, Bart grabbing a coat and following me, not seeming to fully understand why I was so concerned. Sinead had left only minutes earlier, and in a village this small, a girl's shriek coming from the direction of her route home had seemed far too coincidental for my liking. As I'd opened the front door, my fears had been confirmed - further up the road, a pale-faced man with dismay all over his face was getting out of his car, not bothering to close the door behind him, his eyes not moving once from the girl spread out only a few inches from his car bonnet. I'd run to her side immideatly, crouching down beside her. I hadn't moved since.

I knew from being forced to watch an unhealthy ammount of Casualty when I was younger - Jem found one of the doctors incredibly attractive and therefore insisted on watching it every week without fail, even though her interest in the storylines was non-existant - that moving her could be fatal. However, hoping it wasn't harmful, I'd taken her hand. I'd checked for a pulse rate on her wrist, so I knew she was still alive and breathing, but that didn't help much. I peeled my eyes away from her for a moment to glance back at Bart, he was stood on the kurb of the pavement, not moving.

"Call the ambulence", I told him, my voice shaky. He nodded, removing his mobile from the pocket of his pale blue jeans. I returned my focus back to Sinead. My mind flashed back to January of 2011, when I'd almost died by being hit by a car myself. Although this brought back bad memories of being at the emotional state where I'd thought the only answer to my problems was suicide, it was also reassuring - I'd pulled through and survived it. There didn't seem to be any logical reason to me why Sinead couldn't do the same. She had a strong personality, she could get through this. Such a strong personality that she was in a state earlier. That's why she got hit by the car, because she was upset and didn't look before crossing the road. Because of you. As much as I tried to push these thoughts away, I knew there was truth in them.

"Are you family?" A paramedic asked me as she climbed out of the ambulence. I'd spent the last fifteen minutes waiting for them to arrive crying and blaming myself for the tragedy. Suddenly, at the question, I realized I should have instead spent the time informing her mother Diane and younger brother Finn of what had happened. They'd be sitting in the flat in ignorant bliss while Sinead was being put in a stretcher and wheeled into the back of an ambulence.

"No", I replied. "I'll go get them".

"We can't wait", I was told. "She's in a critical condition - she needs to be taken to the hospital as quick as possible. Her family will have to meet us there".

I nodded, tears streaming down my cheeks. The ambulence drove away into the night quickly, blue lights flashing and siren on full blast. I ran over to Bart and hugged him, holding on tight. I knew we hadn't finished talking yet, I knew we weren't officially together, but in a time like this I just needed him to hold me and tell me everything was going to be okay. As if he could honestly promise me something like that.

"We need to tell Finn and Dianne".

"Yeah. Great - I'm hardly their favourite person at the moment". I found it hard to grasp how he could be concerned over her family's perception of him when his ex girlfriend was in, as the paramedic had said, critical condition.

"I don't think you'll exactly be their main priority", I told him snappily as we made our way towards her home. We weren't moving fast enough for my liking, I started to run, Bart doing the same.

It was ironic to think that earlier this evening, I'd thought it was going to be hard thinking of how to word things to Bart. That hardly compared to having to explain to some-one that their daughter was currently speeding down the motorway in an ambulence. Diane had given us a frosty look as soon as she'd opened the door, after looking puzzled at my bare feet. I'd kicked off my heels mid-run. My feet had been killing me. Sinead's in hospital and your thinking about the pain in your feet.

However, as we explained, I would have given anything to have Diane just giving us dirty looks again - the obvious distraught she was going through was heartbreaking to watch. Finn had been staying over at the Brady's place having a sleepover with Declan, Brendan's son who was staying with him for a few weeks, and had to be called home. He'd been furious when he first came through the door, yelling at his mother for cutting his fun short, but his expression changed dramaticly as he took a proper look at her, he could clearly see instantly that something was very wrong.

Two hours later, I was sat in the waiting room outside the room Sinead was in, Bart sitting beside me.

"You know, we can always come back in the morning", he told me, taking my hand.

"I'm not leaving until I know she's okay", I replied, taking my hand away from his. He looked confused by my actions. "I'm annoyed with you okay". There was no point beating around the bush, to use one of Dad's ridiculous expressions.

"Why?"

"Because of Sinead".

"Sinead?"

"Yes".

"Okay". His face was blank, he really didn't seem to have any idea. "Would you care to expand on that?"

"Well why aren't you more bothered about the fact that she's in hospital?"

"I am concerned. But like you said, she's in hospital. Which means she's getting treated".

"How can you say that so casually? Hospital isn't good! You two have history - a lot of it. Just because I'm back now you can't ignore that - stuff has happened with you the two of you, you used to be in love for Christ's sakes! And she's in there lying in a hospital bed, Bart, so why don't you care?"

He took a while to respond, his face first displaying a range of emotions.

"It just doesn't feel real", he replied finally. "None of today feels real, like it must be some kind of twisted dream that I'll wake up from to find her lying next to me any minute and you still in America, still Jason".

"Right". I paused, yet again tonight trying to conjure up the right words. "Well it is real. So you'd better start accepting that and show some concern".

Diane and Finn emerged from Sinead's room.

"You still here?" She was back to giving us daggers. "Well I guess you should know that she's woken up. The doctors say she's going to be fine".

I turned to Bart.

"Did you hear that?" He asked me, grinning.

"Yeah", I replied, only smiling a little. "She's still in hospital though".

"Not for long. They let you out pretty soon after deciding you'll survive. You and I both know that first hand. Give it a few days and she'll be back at home".

"Mm-hm". I sighed. "I'll probably see you around tomorrow, Bart", I told him, getting up.

"Are you going home?"

"Yeah. I know she's okay now, and I think this is mostly a time for her to be around family, not girls who just stole her boyfriend".

"Don't say that".

"Why not? It's true. We're the reason she's even here in the first place".

"I know", he replied, his voice quiet. "I know".

I didn't reply, just carried on walking down the corridor until I got to the lifts that would take me to the hospital exit. Part of me was desperate for Bart to follow me, however another part of me was dubious of how sustainable a relationship with him could be - I'd been back less than twenty-four hours and already our love for each other had once again caused pain to people that didn't deserve it.

"God", Mitzee laughed, a cheeky tone in her voice, as I came through the door. "You took your time - what were you doing? Wait, do I want to know?" She smiled and winked at me.

"We were at the hospital". That was definatly a reply they hadn't been expecting. Seth, Mitzee and Riley all stood up from the sofa they'd been sitting on and made their way over to me.

"Oh love, did something happen to Bart?" Mitzee hugged me as she spoke.

"No", I replied as I pulled away. "Sinead".

"Sinead?" Seth looked confused as hell. "You were and Bart were with Sinead? Jesus that must have been awkward".

"It was. So awkward that it ended in her being so upset that she ran out into the road and got hit by a car".

"Shit". Seth's previously amused expression turned serious. He and Sinead had always been distantly friends, and in the last year since I'd been gone they'd aparantly gotten quite close.

"Does Diane know?" That was Riley. Since becoming a parent himself he tended to look at things from more of a family perspecitve than the rest of us.

I nodded.

"I think I'm just going to go up to my room if that's okay", I told them. Mitzee and Riley nodded in response and I made my way up the stairs, the events of today replaying over and over in my mind.

I hadn't been in my room for long before there was a knock at the door.

"Can I come in?" Seth asked, as he came in the door.

"What was the point in even asking?"

He shrugged, sitting down next to me on the bed.

"Make yourself comfortable", I snapped sarcasticly.

"Thanks, I plan to", he replied, deliberatly ignoring the sarcasm. "Are you okay?"

"What do you think?" I instantly regretted being so bitchy towards him. "I'm sorry Seth".

"It's okay. You've had one hell of a day".

"I thought the biggest drama would be coming back as Jasmine." I agreed.

"Well at least the village won't just be talking about you".

I smiled weekly at his attempt to lighten the situation. It had been the completly wrong thing to say, but I appreciated the thought behind it. Reminding myself that words were not on the very short list of things my twin was good with, I instead just leaned my head against his sholder. One thing he was reasonably alright at was hugs. And I was in desperate need of one.

Bart's P.O.V

I loved American Dad. It was hillarious, but the thing that I secretly loved most about it was that no matter how huge a problem was, it never lasted longer than five minutes of an episode. Whether it was the world ending or the teenage daughter starting a relationship with an obnoxious Koala bear, there was nothing that couldn't be sorted out with ease. I'd give anything for real life to be like that. I watched it on repeat from when I got back from the hospital right through to sunrise.

Seth's P.O.V

Jasmine had been back for mere hours and already the whole family's minds were soley on her. I loved her, she was my twin sister and annoying as she could be nothing could change that, and I really did feel for her after the day she'd had. However, I had secretly, selfishly enjoyed the past year, actually getting a second of attention occasionally. It had made a change. It had always been Jasmine Mum Dad and Riley had worried about, splashed out on, congratulated at the slightest accomplishment. It had been the same as Jason, although Mum had started to treat us more equally. When Dad cheated on Mum with Riley's fiancee Mercedes, he'd made me keep quiet. There was no way he would have done that to Jas. When he made the decision to bugger off to America, Jason was the first he'd asked. He'd only really pretended to care when I'd refused to join them.

My mobile began to ring. I looked at it - it was Ruby. After deliberating for such a length of time I was suprised it was still ringing, I finally decided to answer.

"What do you want?"

"Is it true Jasmine's back? Like, as Jasmine? Frankie reckons she saw her outside Drive'n'buy and the whole village is talking about it".

"Yeah, she's back. What's it to you?"

"Oh my God! That's amazing!"

"Yeah", I smiled. "It is. I've missed her". Crap. Ten seconds into the call and I'd already let my guard down, something I'd sworn I'd never do again around Ruby Button.

"I can't believe I get to be the one to confirm it to everyone at school", she gushed excitedly. "They're all going to love me! So, like, it didn't have the sex change then?"

"No, she didn't. Bye Ruby". As hypocrital as it may sound, judging by my recent thoughts towards Jasmine, I didn't want anyone slating her. If Ruby had been a guy, and our conversation had been face-to-face, she would have a seriously sore jaw by now. How dare she talk about my sister like that?

"Seth wait-"

"What?"

"Do you want to maybe go out for lunch some time?"

For a moment I was flattered, until I realised what her angle was. There was always an angle with Ruby.

"I know you, Ruby", I told her. "I know what you're like. You think over lunch you can get me talking, to tell you all about Jas so you can twist it all into one of your pathetic lies and spread it around school". She made a noise of disgust and ended the phonecall. I was half tempted to throw my phone at the wall in anger after Ruby's comments, but decided that reminded me too much of something Bart would do. I'd seen him do it a lot over the past year. He'd seemed to be constantly angry over the past year. Whatever, so maybe he'd been hurting from Jason leaving along with any reminders of Jasmine, but that didn't excuse the way he'd treated her. Jasmine aside I got on fairly well with the guy, the week in Greece had been fun, but now Jasmine was back so was my role of being her brother. And I was planning on stepping into that role by keeping her away from anybody likely to hurt her. Namely Bart McQueen.

Sinead's P.O.V

The hospital bed was uncomfortable as hell. I almost wished I could be unconsious for a little longer just so I couldn't feel the springs jutting into my already tender back. Every touch felt amplified just now, my whole body was so fragile. I couldn't remember much about the actual accident, but I could remember the events running up to it clearly. All too clearly. I tried so hard to push them to the back of my mind but it the tast was impossible.

Every time I closed my eyes, even for a split second to blink, I saw her. Him. The way he was looking at her, in that caring way that made me want to lock myself in my room in utter darkness and never come out. That could actually be quite dramatic and artistic, like the old lady in some play or book or something by Shakesphere of Dickens or some-one. We'd learnt about it in English class in school, a girl who got stood up by her fiancee for somebody else at the alter and spent the rest of her life locked away in her room, never going out, still wearing her wedding dress forty years later. I'd only learnt the gist of it, I hadn't been listening for most of the lesson - I'd been too busy at the back of the class with Bart.

Bart. No matter what trivial things I tried to focus on to get him out of my brain, everything always eventually came back to him. Him and Jasmine. Jason. Jasmine.

The driver of the car that had hit me had turned up at the hospital with flowers. Mum had yelled at him and he'd left. It hadn't really been his fault. Not at all. After running out of the McQueen's, I'd leant up against their house for a few minutes in a failed attempt to compose myself before setting off to Maddie's house. I'd been in no mental state to return home.

Practicly running, desperate to get as far away from that house and whatever was happening between Bart and Jasmine inside it, I hadn't looked where I was going. I'd darted out into the road, seeing the headlights, hearing the screech of the breaks blurring with the sound of my scream, all too late. By the time all this information had properly sunk in, I'd been lying in the road. I'd tried to speak but my mouth didn't seem to form the words in my head. I'd felt the touch of some-one else's hand in mine, and although I knew it wouldn't be, I'd used up all my willpower hoping it was Bart. It wasn't.

Ever since I'd seen Jasmine clearing tables out in California, I'd known that I'd lost Bart. But last night, him showing me the reminders he'd kept of Jasmine - just how much he'd loved her the whole time he'd claimed I was The One - that was something I hadn't prepared myself for.

Typically Jasmine had to be really nice and sensitive to my feelings. As Jason he'd at least acted as unlikeable to me as I had to him. But being sympathetic towards me? Holding my hand as I lay near the gutter? Coming to the hospital? That was a real kick in the teeth. As much as I wanted to despise her, I couldn't. Though judging by what Maddie had said in her visit to the hospital earlier, I didn't have to worry about that - she was going to do more than the fair share of loathing and trouble-making on my behalf.

Theresa's P.O.V

Bart was still sat on the sofa when I came down to get some SMA milk for Kathleen Angel in the morning, watching that cartoon he enjoyed involving a talking fish, an acne-ridden adolesent, a pyschopathic alien and a man with an un-naturally large jaw. I was pretty sure he'd been watching it the whole night through. I was the only one in the family to notice that he only ever did that when he was upset.

"Jasmine?" I asked, sitting down next to him. Kathleen Angel's milk could wait. Or even better Michaela could get it. She hardly did anything to help any-one around the house.

"Huh?"

"Jasmine. Is she the one upsetting you?"

"Who says I'm upset? Theresa I'm trying to watch something here".

I sighed, knowing he wasn't planning on talking any time soon, and grabbed the remote control, turning the TV onto standby.

"What did you do that for?"

"To get you to talk. Spill".

Suprisingly he relented almost straight away.

"Fine", he sighed. "It is Jasmine. But it's also Sinead. She got hit by a car last night".

I had to admit, that was a twist I had most definatly not been expecting.

"Is she okay?"

"Yeah. The doctors said she'll be fine - Jas and I were at the hospital last night". He looked like he was about to cry, something he didn't tend to do whilst in company. "The last time she was in hospital, it was from drinking too much before going in the sea, when we went to Abersoch". I nodded, not entirely sure where he was going with this. "She only drank so much because she was jealous of the attention I was giving Maddie and not her". I still wasn't sure what his reasoning behind this story was, however judging my his unusually sincere expression I let him continue without interruption. "And this time it's because of the attention I'm giving Jasmine. Because I never stopped loving her, the whole time I was dating Sinead".

I was pretty shocked by this statement - not because of what he'd said so much as the fact he'd been so open with me, that he even had a deep side to him. All I'd seen before was him joking around, being a pain in the ass.

"But what about wretch 32?" I asked him.

"What?"

"When you crashed the gig, told her you loved her, sang Don't go to the whole crowd. You must have loved her to do that".

"I did. Just not as much as - not as much as Jas. The whole reason I was there in the first place was because Jasmine - Jason - forced me into it. Hours before telling the crowd I loved Sinead I was crying over missing Jasmine, deleting the texts to each other".

"Right". Although I wasn't quite sure what was meant by the deleting texts thing, everything was slowly starting to make more sense.

"I never treated Sinead right, not once", he revealed. "That girl loved me - I mean, really, really loved me - still does - and I threw it all in her face. On multiple occasions. She's in that hospital all because of me. Jasmine reckons it's because of us, but it's not - not really. She's only a small part of the equation. What really got her in that state was discovering just how in love I'd been with Jasmine the whole time. I was pretty harsh about it. Really harsh. And when I saw her in the road - I just - I don't know. Completly closed up, shut myself out of it, trying to pretend it wasn't real. I just couldn't - can't - face the fact that it's really happening, because then I have to accept that it's my fault. And I'm not ready for that".

Still shocked by how honest he was being, I hugged him, and weirdly for him he returned it.

"It'll all be okay", I promised him.

"How do you know that? Have you ever had some-one nearly die because of you?"

My mind shot back to May 2010 - Calvin's expression as the bullet I'd just fired hit him, causing him to stagger to the ground.

Back to real time, I hugged Bart harder.

"Jesus Christ", he laughed. "I mean, I like a girl on top as much as the next guy but legal or not, your my cousin and it's weird". He was back to his normal, jokey, sick-minded self, then.

"Your disgusting", I told him, laughing.

"Shit - today's another day I haven't been in college".

"I'm sure aunty Myra will understand".

"Do you think Jasmine will be back at college on Monday?"

"Well that depends - is she staying for good?"

"I hope so".

"You haven't even asked her yet?"

"There were bigger things to talk about?"

"Like what?"

"Well maybe why she was back to being a girl again?"

"Okay fair enough - stupid question".

"Yeah well you are full of them".

"Hey", I scolded. "Just because your angry with yourself doesn't mean you can take it out on me".

"Sorry", he apologized. He groaned. "Can I not have just a bit of time out from all the drama?"

"Sorry", I told him, "but you're a McQueen. It comes with the territory".

Maddie's P.O.V

According to Seth, who let things slip way too much when talking on MSN, Jasmine was going to be at college on Monday. Also according to him, he wasn't a fan of her and Bart together either. I smiled. I could easily manipulate Seth into helping me. Watch out, Jasmine Costello, I thought, if you thought today was bad - just you wait until Monday. No-one puts one of my best friends in hospital and gets away with it.