Thank you so much for the positive reviews and interest. Once again, potential trigger warning for car accidents. Thank you for reading.

The feeling caught her by surprise. Alone in the hallway, Elizabeth held her hand against her stomach in an attempt to catch her breath. She'd just felt something, a moment of deep anxiety, such that she had not experienced since her first panic attacks after Iran. She shivered involuntarily and pressed her head back against the wall, trying to steady herself. She took a deep breath, two. She reached into her pocket for her phone and read
From Your First Born: Mom, on my way home. The roads are getting bad. Be careful whenever you leave xo"
She typed back to Stevie with shaking hands: "Thanks sweetheart. I love you."

There was no reason to alarm her daughter, her family. The moment had passed, she was fine. She bit down hard on her lip for a moment, her fingertip hovering over the little button labeled "Henry."

"Bess!"
The door to the office down the hall flung open and the President walked out.
"Conrad! You scared me!" she said, taking a deep breath as relief washed over her, reminding her why she was here in the first place. Meeting, Conrad, just do my job...
"You all right, Bess?" he asked, standing before her and taking her in.
"Yes, sir. I'm fine," she said, brushing off her anxiety. "Stevie just texted me. She said the roads in D.C. are getting worse-"
"Thanks for telling me. It'll give them more incentive to hurry this meeting up..." Conrad returned with a smile. "I'll meet you in there," he said quietly, motioning toward the meeting room. Elizabeth nodded and Conrad must have sensed something, because before he stepped toward the Men's room he patted her forearm gently with his hand.

"Charlie, what's wrong? Come inside, you crazy boy! It's too cold out here for you!" The beagle continued to howl into the blackness. The woman sighed zipping up her coat as she walked out into her yard. "What's the matter, baby?" she asked, bending down to pet the dog's head. The night was dark, the snow coming down in a near silent hush. Still, she thought, looking at the little dog who kept sniffing the snow and growling. There's something...

"Mary!" the silence was shattered. "Somebody crashed!" she heard her husband yell from inside the house. "What?" she cried, running back through the deep snow with Charlie at her heels. "A car! Maybe an SUV! Down the road! I think they hit a tree! I'm calling 911!"
"Oh my God, I'm going down there!" she exclaimed, grabbing her first aid bag from the floor. She had only just unpacked her work supplies, it had been a long day at the hospital.
"Mom! What happened? There's smoke!" Her son ran down the stairs at that moment, pulling a sweatshirt over his head.
"Rob, grab that blanket," she cried, "Come with me! Hurry!"

She couldn't see.

Allison's first thought upon opening her eyes was that something must have happened, all the lights had gone out. She tried to sit up but found she couldn't budge. A heavy weight lay across her and pinned her to the seat. She shook her head slightly not understanding. She tried to move her arm and discovered that she could. She reached for her face, trying to brush away whatever was obscuring her vision. She lifted her hand and felt a soft fabric beneath her fingertips. It smelled like her father's aftershave.
Scarf.
The word came to Allison's mind. Dad's scarf, the blue one.
He was wearing it when- Allison gasped hard, squinting through the darkness. Her father...

"Dad," she whispered. "Daddy?" her voice rose and she felt herself start to shake. "Dad!" she screamed, pushing against the solid weight on top of her. She reached out in front of her.

In the pitch darkness, she felt an arm around her waist.
Her father's arm.
Her father's chest.
Henry, half on top of her, pinning her beneath himself, holding her against the seat.

"Dad," she whispered frantically, trying to reach the seat belt underneath her father's body, trying to unbuckle herself. She pushed against Henry's side, attempting to slide her hand beneath him, but she couldn't lift her father. She tried to squeeze out of the belt but the safety lock was on and the more Allison struggled, the tighter the belt became. She felt herself start to cry, the seat belt tightened around her waist as her father's strong hold held her against the seat. Allison gasped out a choking sob and moved her hand toward the dark shape she now knew was her father.
"Dad? Daddy?"
She grabbed Henry's lifeless wrist, unable to hold her hand steady as she felt for his pulse. Her fingers were cold and numb and she cried out in desperation, "Dad, please! Don't die!"
Her fingertips pressed hard into his wrist and found his pulse. Yes. Allison forced herself to exhale a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding in. Her father's pulse was beating against her fingers.
"Dad," she cried, struggling not to move for fear the belt would tighten again. "Daddy, what do I do?" she sobbed out, breathing quickly, her mind racing.

Her mother's voice came to her mind and she recalled her mother's whispered words from weeks ago...

Allison had awoken to the sound of her mother crying. The clock glowed 12:42am. She'd hurried to the stairs and peeked over the banister. Elizabeth sat in the easy chair and Henry on the arm rest beside her. Her father rubbing her mother's back as she wept. Allison had stolen into her parents' bedroom and found her mother's favorite gray sweater. She'd stood in the doorway and waited to catch her father's gaze for permission to join them. When Henry's dark eyes met her own, he grinned that smile that Allie loved most and nodded for her to come sit with them, "Come on in, Al." he'd whispered. Allison laid the sweater across her mother's shoulders. Elizabeth had kissed Allison's forehead and tucked a lock of her dark hair behind her ear... "Thank you, Noodle," she'd said with a small smile. "Remember, crying makes fighting and panicking worse," she'd whispered, wiping her eyes on her sweater sleeve and touching Allison's cheek. "It's just work, baby." Allison had settled on the floor between her parents' legs and rested her head against Elizabeth's knee. She'd fallen asleep to the soft soothing sound of their voices, lulling her back to rest.

Reaching blindly with her left hand, her fingers fell on the side pocket of Henry's jeans. The cold metal of his pocket knife touched her skin and she gasped, slowly working the knife from his pocket. Her hand shook so much she was afraid that she would drop it. In the dark, Allison felt deftly for the edge of the knife, she moved her hand closer to the window, which she could see now that her eyes were adjusting, and she could feel for the knife's edge.
There!
"It's gonna be okay, Dad." She found it, her numb fingers feeling for the edge. She took the knife to the seat belt around her waist, trying to cut through it. She pressed her knee up toward her chest to give her leverage for her arm to rest on. The knife slipped more than once, cutting into her fingers but she couldn't stop. She worked the knife and the belt until she was able to fray the belt enough that it came apart.
"I got it, Dad..." Free of the restraint of the seat belt, Allison pushed herself toward Henry. She moved to cut the seat belt away from his waist. Leaning heavily on her father, she repeated the process, feeling the blade of the knife with her fingers before wearing out the belt with the sharp edge. The belt slid off Henry in two pieces and Allison tucked the pocket knife into the pocket of her coat. She fell back against her seat for a moment, exhausted and unsure. She felt more terrified now than she had been before she freed them both. She didn't know what to do now. Her father was unconscious. Irrationally, Allison prayed for unconsciousness to take her again so she could wait with him until help arrived. "Dad?" It was so dark and there wasn't any noise... "Think," she screamed at herself, her tears falling freely now and soaking her hair. She pushed her feet up against the front of the car and they hit the dashboard. She reached above her head and found empty space. She realized that she could not free herself by moving downward but could move above, into the back seat.

"Dad, I'm gonna go for help. I'm gonna find someone who can help us."

She could just see her father's silhouette now, outlined dark against the soft glow coming from the snow. She used all her strength to pull herself up toward the back of the car and out from beneath her father's protective weight. She cried out in pain as she felt her ankle twist and she heaved herself over the back of the seat. She had to keep herself as calm as she could. She had to keep talking to her father.
"Dad, Daddy, I'm gonna go out and get help."
The door to her right was completely obscured by a dark shape, the glass shattered into spiderwebs. She crawled toward the other door, trying to open it. She couldn't. She threw all of her weight onto the door. It didn't budge. "No, no," Allison cried, frantic. She looked around her, her head bumping hard into the top of the roof.
"No," she moved herself away from the door and tried to kick the window out with her feet. She tried once, twice, three times. "No," on the fourth try the spider glass shattered out into the snow, creating a small hole.
"Dad, we're gonna be okay," she gasped, kicking harder at the little pieces of glass splintering everywhere. She pulled herself back toward the window.
"I'm going for help, Dad," she cried before pulling herself through the broken window.
Allison wasn't aware of how the jagged glass cut into the palms, how her knees hit rock when she fell, how deep the snow was around her, she was only aware of the smell of smoke.

"No," she cried, struggling to stand in the knee deep drift. "Dad! Daddy! Help please!" she screamed, stumbling toward the front door. It was smashed in toward the cabin. Allison slipped in the snow and fell hard against the cold metal. "No!"

"We're coming!" she heard voices...

"Dad!" she screamed, "Help me, please!"
And again, louder this time, more than one voice."Hold on! We're coming! Just hang on!"
A light bobbing toward her from between thick trees and the red and blue lights of an ambulance following along the road.

"Please!" she screamed again as the figures appeared with flashlights that blinded her eyes.

"Are you okay? Is there anyone else in the car?"

"My Dad, please, help my Dad!" Allison screamed, she felt someone touch her shoulder but she couldn't look around. She was transfixed, horrified as she watched two men smash the driver's side window. She felt someone take her hand, someone with a gentle touch, someone like her- "Mom?" she gasped.

"My name is Mary, honey. I'm a nurse. I'm here to help you."

"My Dad, please, my Dad..."

"That's my husband and my son-" the woman said, indicating the two men working to free Henry from the wreckage of the Jeep. "The ambulance is here."

The whirling lights of the ambulance...
The siren searing through the frozen air...
Allison felt herself grow dizzy and clung to the woman beside her.

"She's going to faint..."
Who?
Firetrucks, police officers...
She didn't understand...Dad. Get my Dad.

"Can you tell me your name, sweetheart?"
Allison shook her head, straining her eyes to try to see the car, the car. She screamed as she watched their Jeep go up in flames. "Dad!" she screamed, "No!" she felt arms grab her and she struggled, screaming into the night. "No, Daddy! My Dad!"

"They got him out. He's going to the hospital," the woman's gentle voice told her, but Allison didn't believe her. She had to see for herself, she just had to see...

"Where? Where is he?"
"Can you tell me your name, honey?"
"I need to see my Dad. I don't want-"
"I don't want-"
"Where is he?"
"Don't leave-"
"Please, I need-

The world was spinning, the blanket over her shoulders was heavy, the pressure of the woman's hand on her own...

"Allie," she whispered, "I'm Allie."