One afternoon a week later, when Sam pulled her car into the driveway at her house, she smiled to see Jack and Jake playing in the front yard. Jake had a baseball glove on his left hand and they were tossing a ball back and forth.

"Good catch!" Jack exclaimed when Jake managed to grab a somewhat errant throw. The little boy smiled proudly before tossing it back.

"Looks like you're having fun," Sam commented as she retrieved Abbie from her car seat in the back of her Volvo.

"Tons!" Jake exclaimed. Abbie was reaching for Jack to give him a hug, so Sam handed the toddler over.

"He's got a good arm," Jack told Sam. She smiled, glad to see the two of them spending time together. She knew that Charlie had also been very into baseball, but so far it seemed like Jack wasn't going to let memories of the past keep him from sharing activities with Jake. Maybe they were all finally putting everything behind them…

"Can you catch, too, Sam?" Jake asked as he joined them.

"Mmm, I've played a few times. Maybe we can all go toss a ball around at the park this weekend."

"What did you get for me to take to the picnic tomorrow?" Jake asked, and Sam inwardly groaned. His summer camp was doing a potluck the following day and Jake was supposed to bring dessert. She'd said that she'd pick something up on the way home, but it had totally slipped her mind.

"Sorry, buddy, I forgot. I'll run back out to the store right now, okay?"

Jake didn't seem as concerned as she'd feared. "Okay. Can I come with you?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, that's fine. That way, you can pick out what you want to bring."

"What about dinner?" Jack asked.

"We'll grab something on the way back. Chinese sound good?"

"Sure."

"Okay. Hop in, Jake," she said after unlocking the car.

"Bye!" he called to Jack and Abbie before climbing into the backseat. The toddler waved as the car pulled back out of the driveway.

Jack looked down at her once they were gone. "When you grow a few inches – and learn some hand-eye coordination – you can come play baseball, too." She giggled.

A half hour later, Sam and Jake had finished at the grocery store and were on their way over to Hunan Manor, their favorite local Chinese place.

"These are perfect," Jake proclaimed as he looked at the container of cupcakes in his lap. It was at least the third time he'd said so since they left the store.

"I'm glad you're happy, buddy." The dozen cupcakes had green icing and either basketballs, baseballs, or footballs on the top. Since Jake was attending a sports camp, she'd thought that they were a good fit. He loved all of those activities, and the kids were also able to go swimming, play soccer, and participate in other games like capture the flag, scavenger hunts, and obstacle courses.

"I like playing baseball with Jack," Jake proclaimed. "I can catch pop flies now."

"That's great. Maybe we'll see about finding a team for you to play with in the spring?"

"Yay!"

Sam quickly looked back to give him a smile. As she turned around, she realized that there were moving headlights shining in the passenger side windows of the car. A car was running the light at the intersection that they were crossing. She tried to swerve, to do anything to prevent the inevitable, but there wasn't enough time.

She could hear Jake scream, "Mommy!" a split-second before the collision occurred. The car was slammed sideways by an unbelievable force, and her head hit the window, cracking the glass. Then everything went black.

Jack looked at his watch for the fifth time in the last ten minutes. It was getting close to sunset and Sam and Jake still weren't home yet.

"Where Mama?" Abbie asked as she sat on the floor amid some blocks that she was playing with.

Jack sighed as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. "That's a real good question," he told her. He pulled up Sam's number and dialed her phone, but there wasn't any answer. "Hey, Sam, it's me," he said once her voicemail picked up. "I don't know where you are, but you've got a couple hungry people waiting here. Call me. Or better yet, show up at home. Bye."

He turned back to Abbie, who was offering one of her blocks to him. "That better be some pretty impressive dessert your brother's getting," he muttered as he sat down to play with her.

Sam slowly opened her eyes. Everything was fuzzy and seemed to be moving in slow motion. There were lights in front of her, flashing red and blue in a steady pattern. There were voices all around, but she couldn't make out anything that they were saying. Where am I? What's going on?

She tried to move, but her body wouldn't cooperate. Her arms felt like they each weighed a ton and her legs…something heavy was on top of her legs. She tried to look down to see what it was, but found that her head was restricted.

"Stay still for me, ma'am," a voice told her, but it sounded far away and muffled. Why do I need to stay still? Ignoring that request, she tried harder to look around and see what was happening, but the motion caused some kind of liquid to run into her left eye. Blood, she suddenly realized as the metallic scent fully registered. There was a lot of blood nearby. Obviously some of it was coming from her head; the voice belonged to a person who was putting pressure on a laceration near her hairline.

She was starting to get lightheaded, so she tried to take a couple deep breaths, but blinding pain instantly radiated through her chest. Broken ribs, undoubtedly. Probably worse.

"Try to remain calm," the voice from earlier told her as he tried to wipe some of the blood away from her eye. "We're taking care of you; we're going to get you out of here."

Here? Where is here? She couldn't remember what had happened. There was white fabric in front of her, stained red in places with blood. An airbag, she suddenly realized. She was in her car. Or, rather, what was left of her car. The dashboard had been deformed and the steering wheel was pressed against her legs, pinning her in her seat. The windshield was cracked and broken… and smeared with something green.

Where did the green come from? There's something important about green…

Icing. It came to her in an abrupt flash of clarity, even as unconsciousness began to pull at her body. The icing on the cupcakes was green. Jake's cupcakes.

"Jake?" she croaked out, but she could barely get enough air into her body to stay conscious, let alone to speak. "Jake?" she tried again, attempting to turn her head.

The owner of the voice was holding her still, with a little more force this time. "Calm down, ma'am," he told her. "I need you to just stay still."

Sam didn't really care what he needed. "Wh-where…" she tried to choke out, but couldn't. She coughed involuntarily; in addition to pain, it also brought blood into her mouth. That didn't matter, though; she could worry about herself later, after she knew what had happened to Jake. Is he okay? She couldn't see any trace of him with her limited field of view, and then a terrifying thought suddenly occurred to her. Oh, God, oh, God, they hit his side of the car…

Everything was beginning to go dark around the edges, and Sam felt someone force something plastic against her mouth and nose. "I'm giving you some oxygen," the voice said. "Keep breathing, ma'am; stay with us…"

"Jake," she futility tried to get out one more time before losing consciousness.

TBC...