I do not own Hannah Montana. This fanfiction does not represent the actors and actresses in the television show.
Lilly stayed one step ahead of Miley, making sure each rock she stepped upon wasn't loose, and was save for Miley to walk on. Miley grasped onto Lilly's hand tightly and followed behind her.
When they got back to the riverbanks, they had started to walk upstream. The sound of the rushing water was too loud for them to talk over, so Lilly had motioned for Miley to follow her and be careful.
They had been walking for a good half hour until both of them thought they heard a faint voice in the distance. They froze and strained their ears, hearing it again. They realized it was a recognizable voice calling out their names.
"Lilly! It's Daddy!" Miley cried, running ahead of her.
"Miley! Hold on!" Miley was already too far ahead of Lilly to hear her over the water. "Dammit…" Lilly cursed under her breath and took off after her.
Miley ran alongside the riverbank and disappeared up over a hill. Lilly became unsettled after she lost sight of Miley. She quickened her stride and ran up over the hill.
She sighed in relief as she saw Miley ahead of her, and Robbie Ray with Jackson, accompanied by several member of a search party, across the water.
Lilly could her Robby Ray's joyous muffled cries, and the tears in Miley's eyes as she fell to her knees. She couldn't help but feel like she was being tossed aside again, but tried her best to brush that feeling away. Miley and she were practically saved; there was no reason not to be happy. Still, something nagged at Lilly; would things go back to the way they had been?
She sighed and jogged up to Miley's side. Miley turned to her excitedly. "Lilly! We're saved!"
Lilly smiled weakly and nodded. "Yeah, but how do we get to the other side?"
Miley stared at her, suddenly asking herself the same question. They both glanced over across the river, and it appeared that Robbie Ray and the search party were trying to figure out the same thing.
Miley shifted anxiously and chewed on her bottom lip. "Lil, what do we do?"
Wanting to calm Miley down, Lilly looked around and racked her brain for an answer. Her gaze followed the riverbank as it raised further uphill, and formed into steep climb to a ledge. Her eyes followed the ledge across to the other side of the river, and saw that in the distance, there was a place where the ledge on the other side and came close enough that if they jump, they might be able to made it across. She ran it through her head a few times, and then decided that it was too dangerous. She didn't want to do anything risky that could possibly get Miley hurt.
Miley followed Lilly's gaze towards the ledge, and gasped excitedly. "Oh! Lil! Great idea!"
Before Lilly could figure out what Miley meant, Miley had started climbing up the ledge.
"M-Miley, wait!" She called after her, "It's too dangerous!"
Again, Lilly's words failed to reach Miley, and she continued to climb. Lilly glanced back across the river; Robbie Ray was trying to call at Miley to get back down. She sighed, frustrated, and then climbed up after Miley.
After a long strenuous climb, Lilly pulled herself onto the ledge, and her eyes rested on Miley.
"Miley!" She shouted angrily. "Stop, it's too dangerous!"
Miley could hear her, now that they were higher up than the river. She had already started towards place where the two ledges neared, and stopped in her tracks. She turned to look at Lilly, almost seeming alarmed that Lilly was there.
"O-oh, Lilly…"
"Don't you "Oh, Lilly," me!" Lilly flushed with irritation. "You totally left me back there, and now you're acting like you've forgotten I'm even here!"
Miley looked down, embarrassed.
Lilly sighed again, feeling bad for yelling. "Look, I just don't want you getting hurt,"
Miley squirmed nervously where she stood. "But… but the sooner we get back, the soon I can…" She stopped, knowing she shouldn't finish her sentence.
Lilly stared at Miley in disbelief. Her anger flared up again. "The sooner you can see Zack? Great, that's just great, Miley," Miley stepped back, ashamed of her train of thought. Lilly sighed, "You know what, Miley? Fine, just go. Do whatever you want, go run into Zack's arms. I might as well just stay here," Lilly turned away, not wanting Miley to see her cry.
"Lilly…" Miley felt awful. She had tossed Lilly aside again, just for the thought of Zack. She took a step towards Lilly, trying to think of something she could say to apologize.
Unfortunately, Miley took a step right onto a loose rock, and lost her footing.
"Lilly!" She screamed, and the franticness in her voice was enough to make Lilly spin around.
Lilly turned just in time to see Miley start to fall backwards, right towards the end of the ledge. Again, Lilly was thrown into action by her instincts and her emotions for Miley.
It was too late for Lilly to save Miley from falling off the ledge, so she jumped after her, throwing her arms around her and bring her in close in attempt to protect her from whatever platform they landed on.
Everything happened too fast for Miley to understand what was going on. All she knew is that she was falling, and then, she was in Lilly's arms being held tightly. It brought back the feelings she had when they had been together in the cave.
Miley thought she could hear muffled cries from below the ledge, across the riverbank, and then all of a sudden, she felt a hard impact, and had the wind downed out of her.
It took her several moments to catch her breath, and realized they had fallen onto a lower ledge that stuck out near the bottom of the cliff. She still felt Lilly's arms around her, and she slowly became aware that Lilly had turned herself towards the ground, and taken the impact, full on.
She shot up out of Lilly's arms and turned to her.
"Lilly!" She cried, placing her hands on her shoulder and shaking her. Lilly's eyes did not open. A thin red line of blood colored the rim of her bottom lip, and Miley froze in shock.
Slowly she brought her trembling hands away from Lilly's shoulders, and looked around helplessly as tears built in her eyes. Across the river, her father and the search party and were staring at them in shock as well.
Miley's breathing became labored, and she propped Lilly up in her arms. "D-Daddy!" She cried as loud as she could, "Help me, what do I do?! This is all my fault!"
She looked pleadingly at her father from across the river. Robbie Ray cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted to his daughter. She couldn't hear him and shook her head desperately. He held his hand to his ear like a telephone, then pointed at the sky, and yelled as loud as he could.
"They're calling in a chopper!" She pieced together his muffled sentence.
Miley nodded feebly, and looked down at the unconscious Lilly in her arms. She closed her eyes, trying to stop her tears, and lowered her head into Lilly's chest, holding her tightly in her arms.
She continued to sob until the rumbling sound of a helicopter in the distance became louder and louder. Soon, it was visible. The pilot looked for a place to land, but there was no flat space that was big enough to lower the helicopter onto. It ended up coming down and hovering close to the riverbank where the girls where.
Miley held onto Lilly tightly and shut her eyes as the fierce wind from the pounded down against them. A man appeared in the entrance of the helicopter and jumped out to Miley and Lilly. He swiftly took Lilly from Miley's arms, leaving Miley momentarily bewildered and alone. She watched as the man took Lilly onboard the helicopter, and strapped her onto a stretcher after he had fitted her with an oxygen mask. Then, he turned back to the entrance, and jumped back out, holding his hands out to help her up.
Miley stared at him, blankly, and then stared the extended hands in front of her. The man waited several more seconds, and then reached forward to gently lift Miley from the ground. Another man appeared at the entrance of the helicopter, and he carefully handed Miley to him. Miley was sat down inside and then the first man jumped back inside and gave the pilot the signal that they were good to go.
Miley gazed out the window, still bewildered, and saw her father and her brother watching the helicopter lift back up into the sky. They became smaller and smaller, and when they were nothing more than small dots, she saw them start to move back towards the road where they had come from.
Miley turned her gaze back to Lilly, who was still strapped down and hooked up to oxygen. Her face looked like she was in discomfort, and Miley lowered her head and started to cry, feeling responsible, and knowing there was nothing she could do to comfort or protect Lilly like Lilly had done for her. Lilly had selflessly saved her life again… even after Miley had discarded her again.
Tears rolled down her cheeks and dropped to her lap. She reached to take Lilly's hand in hers and prayed that she would be okay.
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Miley sat in the hospital waiting room in a daze. Her minor cuts and scratches had been cleaned and bandaged and the nurses had shown her where the cafeteria had been. They encouraged her to eat, seeing how she had been without food for the past 24 hours, but Miley was too worried to eat.
When the helicopter had landed on the roof of the hospital, a handful of doctors and nurses had rushed towards Lilly and taken her from the helicopter, strapped her down onto a wheeled stretcher, and rushed her away. A kindly looking nurse had told Miley to please follow her, and she was taken to the room where her cuts were addressed. Now she waited anxiously, for any word about Lilly.
"Miles!" Miley looked up and saw her father and Jackson running towards her. When they reached her, Robbie Ray threw his arms around her, lifting her from the sitting position, and enveloped her in a tight hug. "Oh thank god, you're safe," She felt his warm tears fall onto her neck. He pulled away and looked at her. "Miles, are you okay? Are you hurt?"
Miley stared at him, and then her gaze drifted to Jackson, who seemed to be trying hard not to shed tears of his own. She looked back at her father, and her tears finally left her eyes.
Throwing her arms around her father, she started to cry. "Daddy! Lilly saved me again, and she got hurt! She wouldn't wake up!"
Robbie Ray smiled sadly and gently stroked her hair. "Shh, Miles, it's okay… Lilly'll pull through,"
Miley sniffed, and pulled away, trying to convince herself that her father was right. She nodded weakly.
Her father cleared his throat uneasily, "Look, darlin', Zack's on his way…" Miley stared at him, wide-eyed, completely surprised and blind-sided by this statement. Robbie Ray turned to Jackson, who handed him a bag he had been holding. "It's your decision if you want to see him, but we brought your Hannah wig…"
Miley stared at the bag, and then reluctantly took it from her father. "Okay…" She stood up and slowly staggered towards the bathroom. Robbie Ray and Jackson exchanged worried glances, and watched her as she walked away.
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"Hannah!" Zack pulled Miley towards him as soon as she stepped out of the bathroom after combing her hair out and putting her wig on. "Man, I was so worried! I was freaking out! I called your manager, and notified the search team, and then I didn't know what else to do… Brad and I just sat and waited at the hotel until we got word that you were okay!"
Miley glanced past Zack, and saw Brad hovering behind him, looking bored and somewhat annoyed. When Zack released her, he leaned forward to kiss her. Images of Lilly filled Miley's head, and she pushed Zack away on reflex.
Zack backed away and stared at her, surprised. After several seconds, he recomposed his "cool" attitude and smiled. "Sorry, you're still pretty shaken up, huh?"
Miley looked away and nodded.
"Listen, let me take you back to the hotel. You can get some rest in your room," Zack put his arm around Miley's shoulder and passively pushed her forward, trying to get her to go with him.
"B-but, I can't leave," Miley planted her feet, "I need to stay for Lil- Lola…"
Zack sighed and pulled her closer. "Lola will be fine. Brad said he'd stay and call us if there was any news. I've already talked with your manager, and he agrees that you should get some rest,"
Miley hesitated, giving Brad a skeptical glance. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and smirked at her.
"Come on, Hannah. You really need to relax. You've been through a lot,"
Miley hated the idea of leaving Lilly. She wanted to stay by her side until she knew she was okay. However, she was too shaken up and tired to argue or stand up to Zack's forceful insisting. She looked everywhere for Jackson and her father, but they were nowhere to be seen. Zack had to practically dragged her out of the hospital, and back to the hotel.