Hey, look! I did write another chapter. Surprise!!! A Thanks goes out to all who reviewed. THANK YOU! Anyway...I hope you enjoy. R&R

Losing My Ground

Spencer rolled over in her bed banging on her alarm clock. When it didn't stop she reluctantly opened her eyes and saw that her clock wasn't going off but that her cell phone was glowing in the dark. She took one more look at her clock and snagged her phone off the side table.

It's 3:45 in the morning. Who the hell calls at 3:45 in the morning?! Spencer sighed with relief when it stopped ringing. Not even bothering to see who it was she replaced her phone to its rightful, quiet place on the dresser and tried to get back to sleep. What kinda idiot disrupts my Ashley dream? A selfish loser, that's who. She grumbled a sleepy profanity and closed her eyes.

Her cell went off again. She looked at the name 'Aiden' on the top of her screen and a picture of him trying to pose WAY too hard. "Ssshooollllllaaaaaaaa…?"

"Uh, Spencer?"

"Mmrrrrrr-hm."

"It's me, Aiden." It was obvious he was trying not to cry.

Spencer sat up when she took in the tone of his voice. Finally waking up she was able to speak clearly and not like a drugged lunatic. "Aiden are you ok? You sound upset." When she didn't get a response she asked again. He spoke and she was troubled to hear him choking back sobs.

"Spence, there's been an accident. Ashley's in the hospital and they say she's hurt real bad. They want to notify her family and friends incase she doesn't make it through the night. Mrs. Davies and Kyla are already—" Aiden rushed to get all the details out before he was shutdown by tears but he was cut off.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"They say that there's head trauma. She's lucky to be alive but the next few hours are critical. She might not— sh--she might d--" Aiden stopped unable to say that final word. He was just repeating things he had been told over the last hour but it didn't make sense. He couldn't understand why his best friend was about to die.

"You're lying. They've got the wrong person. It's not Ashley. It can't be MY Ashley. There's no possible way in hell something like that could happen. Not to her. Not to me." Spencer was fighting back tears of anger and disbelief. I've got to prove them wrong. I've got to see it for myself and then they'll see it's not her.

Aiden heard the phone thud to the floor and footsteps muffled by crying. "Spencer, are you there? Spence please answer me."

Spencer went down the halls peeking into every bedroom, finding that none of the other occupants were asleep. Down stairs she found her parents and her brothers already awake with looks of sorrow not too different from her own. They heard too. When did they find out?

As if to answer her unspoken thought Glen said, "Madison called me a few minutes ago and told me the news. We wanted to be ready when you came down." Her brothers and father all had on pajama bottoms, jackets and flip-flops. Ready to go.

Clay had tears in his eyes and wrapped his arms around his sister. "We're here for you. No matter what."

She closed her eyes tight, trying to stop the seemingly endless flow of tears. With anger she kept repeating the same question over and over again in her head. Why am I crying? It's not Ashley, so why am I crying?

Arthur stood in front of his family. "Are you ready to go?" The teenagers nodded. "Ok. Let's hurry."

"Arthur wait." He turned to his wife.

Not today please, Paula not right now.

"I don't think—"

"Kids go wait in the car. We will be there in a minute." When his children left the house he backed Paula into a dark hallway. "What now Paula?"

"I was just going to say maybe we shouldn't go right now. It's very late and they have school in the morning."

"So they'll miss one day of school."

"I'm worried about Spencer. She shouldn't go. I've never liked that girl anyway. This will just make things worse."

"That GIRL is on her deathbed Paula, and all you can think of is yourself. Your daughter, OUR one and only daughter might loose her best friend and all you can think of is yourself."

"They are more than friends, you know that."

"So what if they are? Huh? It's not the end of the world. She is our daughter. I will always love her. Can you say the same thing?"

"Arthur I—I…."

"THAT see that right there, it was hesitation. That's my answer." She looked away incapable of facing her husband's gaze. "You have always been afraid of anything different from you!" He got this sudden look of disgust on his face. "Even Clay."

"Clay?! What about Clay? He is my son and I loved him from the moment I met him!"

"It didn't start out that way and you know it. When I brought his case home and told you about him and his life, the first thing you said was, 'I don't want that kind of kid in my house. Imagine the influence he'll have on our children. He might be trouble that we can't handle.' You weren't even willing to give that boy a chance." He clenched his fist at the difficult memory. "That's the first time I looked at you with true resentment. I had to bring him home without you knowing so you could at least meet him."

Paula had tears in her eyes now. She was angry that Arthur would bring that up but even angrier because it was the truth.

At that moment Clay entered the house. "Dad, are you guys coming soon? 'Cause Spencer is threatening to drive the car herself and leave you here."

"Just another minute son." Clay nodded and walked out the house.

Paula stared at Arthur. "How dare you make me out to be the bad guy?! I just want what's best for our kids, for Spencer, but you're too worried about being the cool parent to care. I don't want Spencer to go to Hell."

Arthur scoffed at his wife's last statement. "Sometimes I wish YOU would." She was left speechless. With that he left his home to go join his kids.

Once inside the car Glen asked, "Where's Mom?"

Arthur backed out of the driveway. "She's not coming." Driving down the street he just wanted to be as far away from his wife as possible.

Inside the Carlin home Paula sat on her couch speed dialing a number on her phone, no longer trying to hide her tears. "Hello?... Ben, I need to see you."

XxXxXxXxXx

When the Carlin family arrived at the hospital, they were met by Madison, Kyla, Mrs. Davies and Aiden.

Mrs. Davies was whispering random things about Ashley being just like her father. "Music, girls, clubs. I'm fine with that. But she can't die like he did. Anything but that."

Aiden was crying being held by Kyla and Madison ran into Glen's arms as soon as she saw him.

Madison squeezed him and said, "Even though she's a total bitch and I say I want her to die….. I don't want her to die!"

Glen sat down with her. "I know. I feel the same way too."

Spencer didn't appear ready to enter the room so the men of the Carlin family went in first. It was a horrible sight. She was covered in cuts, scrapes, bandages and bruises. There were monitors and wires that were beeping and blinking. Her head was wrapped up which seemed to be the most serious injury and her breathing was shallow and restless.

Arthur Carlin took her hand and spoke for the other two in the room. "Ashley, we need you to make it out of this. For Spencer. You're the person that she relies on the most, whether you realize it or not. You were the only one keeping her sane and losing you would be like Spencer loosing her world. Loosing the very ground that she stands on." He touched her cool cheek. "We need you to make it through this. So she can make it through this world."

Spencer walked in the room followed by Aiden. She saw Ashley lying there so close to death and her eyes widened in shock. It's her. It really is her. Abruptly everything Spencer was seeing became askew. It was like she was standing on the wall, looking at the ceiling, and then the floor came rushing to her face. Right before it made contact she felt her body being held by strong arms. Aiden caught her.

He lifted her up and left the room followed by her brothers and father. She clung to his neck and wept into his shoulder. They walked down the hall towards the others in the waiting room to sit in silence and wait for news, while contemplating their friend's fate.

There you go! The end of my 2nd chapter. I hope it was good and I didn't let y'all down. Tell me what you think and I'm not afraid of Flames! They keep you warm and make marshmallows gooey! Review Please!

L8R