Hello readers! You guys are ridiculously amazing. I have over 800 views! Thank you so very much, for reading and reviewing! This chapter took a while to write up, but I'd like to send a special thanks to idevourbooks.This girl is the best! Enjoy the show~

Summary: It's quite interesting how everything can change in second. In which the gang are involved in a car crash. *WARNINGS* Mentions of injuries and blood. Not for easily grossed out. YE BE WARNED.

One second, that's all it took.

First, they had all been sitting in the group car. Liam at the wheel, Chubs in the passenger seat, with Vida and Zu in the seats directly behind them. And Ruby in the very back.

All was normal and well, with Liam and Vida screeching out the lyrics to a barely recognizable song, and the rest of them laughing along. Chubs, half-scowling half-smiling. On another group adventure, facing the world, together. Like they always did.

Then, a frozen-in-time second, a speeding car skittering on frozen ice to the right of them.

Screams.

Shattering glass.

Turning, turning, turning.

Silence.

Nothing.

Then the ice around the frozen time shattered, the sounds heavy breathing and sirens in the distance crawled through the air, and the world returned back to normal speed.

But definitely not back to normal.

The world was tipped over.

The view of the car was sideways for Zu but it was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Next to her was a blearily waking Vida, but she was sideways too. And glass underneath her. What was going on?

Blinking eyes clear a couple times, her vision sharpened and shifted, clearing and giving her an idea of what strange world she was in.

The window on her right was shattered, and directly under it was pavement, touching her shoulders and head.

Vida was leaning towards her, hair tipping in the direction of the pavement, towards Zu.

The car had tipped over, the windows on the right now able to touch the ground.

Fumbling for the seatbelt locked over her chest, her cheeks and arms stung from lacerations caused by glass. Maneuvering so her feet touched the broken window frame, she tested her limbs and was grateful to find all her arms and legs were working fine, perhaps a bit bruised, but nothing she couldn't work with.

She heard groans from the front, signaling the awakening of Liam and Chubs. As they regained their bearings and began to try to unbuckle, she could hear Chubs release a string of curses at the belt that locked over his chest, probably bruising a couple ribs. Next to her, Vida had managed to unbuckle and (maybe a bit ungracefully) flopped down to stand in the cramped space next to Zu.

Liam also unbuckled from the front, and worked on unbuckling Chubs from his seat as well.

"Everyone alright?" He asked while tugging on the belt stuck in the mechanism.

"Yeah, but I think I broke my arm." Vida answered from next to her, cradling her broken arm. "What about you?" she asked, glancing down at Zu.

She heard herself answer a "yes" or something along those lines, but didn't hear herself say it.

Liam's ankle was most definitely broken. His face twisted in what she could only describe as agony as his left foot touched pavement and glass. Not okay. As Chubs tumbled out of his seat, he turned immediately to Vida, going into automatic doctor mode.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

Vida almost imperceptibly smiled at his sudden attention on her, and said, "Yeah, I think we're fine. The other damn driver hit the back of the car more so…."

The back of the car.

Liam's eyes widened, Chubs' narrowed, and Vida's turned to face the back of the car, to find the last figure that had yet to say anything. If she could.

Ruby.

Certainly, most surely not okay.

For a few moments, Liam didn't feel anything. The only thing he heard was a rush of blood in his ears. The only thing that kept him from passing out on the spot was the ever-present fiery pain, setting the nerve endings of his tarsals ablaze in panic.

Liam saw Zu and Vida try to pry the seats around the middle to the back free, where the top of the car had dented in, making it impossible for even Zu to crawl through.

Even if she could, he wouldn't allow her to, the jagged edges of metal would cut her porcelain skin up more.

But he couldn't help but try to push the door above him open, the windows above him and window shield still intact.

Damnit.

Glass crunched underfoot, and he grimaced and suppressed a hiss as the glass around his ankles poked his injured ankle.

Trying to get a glance, a look, anything that would tell him if Ruby was okay, alive or still breathing, he saw only one thing.

Through the cracks between the seats and jagged metal, there was bright red crimson.

Ruby red.

The first thing Ruby's mind processed when she dazedly woke up, was that her body was dangling dangerously to the right, held up only by the seatbelt snug against her body.

The next, was pain. Fire raced up her right wrist, and a pressure sat comfortably on her chest, squeezing her lungs. Something warm dripped down her back, clinging to her clothes and neck. Clicking the seatbelt release, Ruby crashed to the right into glass and shrapnel.

Think, adapt, react, Ruby. She forced herself to assess the situation, moving to sit in a somewhat upright position. Alright, let's see… sprained wrist, two no-three broken ribs, probably moderate concussion. Reaction? Painful, but not unmanageable.

Shuffling to stand sideways on frosted glass, a slender, pale hand snuck into the small space between crushed seats and metal. Dark eyes met green, one beyond scared and one determined to get out.

On the other side of the seats, Ruby heard Vida exclaim, "She's awake!" to Liam and Chubs.

"Ruby!" Liam's face appeared in her vision a little ways off, pressed up against car seats.

"It's alright, I'm fine." She said. Even though adrenaline was pouring through her veins, and her hands shook from the chilly air and pain harassing her nerves.

Zu was pale faced as she stared at Ruby, eyes fixated on the small of her back.

Puzzled, Ruby followed Zu's stare to look what had entranced the girl so.

A large piece of shrapnel, nearly half a foot in length, protruded from her back.

Feeling suddenly faint, Ruby stuck an arm against the top of the car, to her right, tucking her other arm closer to her.

Thoughts skittered around her mind, unfocused and chaotic, like cockroaches under light. She heard someone- perhaps Liam or Chubs, call her name, but it was like hearing it at the end of a tunnel.

Crouching to the pavement through the window frame, her green eyes unfocused as her vision went fuzzy around the edges.

Bit not good. She thought. That made her inwardly giggle- the characters on her favorite show "Sherlock" always said that.

Taking a look at her "sprained" wrist, she found it was probably more than sprained as it was already bruised and swollen-looking, speaking higher volumes than that of a sprained wrist. Her chest was constricting with every breath, hinting at a punctured lung.

Maybe more than "a bit" not good.

Liam's voice was getting louder and more desperate, but she didn't have the energy to listen. She was tired, her body running low on adrenaline and deciding it was quitting time.

The last thing she saw were yellow emergency jackets and strangers voices above her before she blacked out.

Within 5 minutes of blinking his eyes open, Liam was halfway to the door, despite the nurses' arguments and protests and bulky white cast covering half of his shin and encasing his foot.

Wheeling himself out in a wheelchair, (on behalf of the nurses) he found his way to Ruby's room and surprised to find that he had been beat to it.

Chubs leaned against the pale green tiles, white gauze visible underneath his simple white hospital gown. Vida paced the hall impatiently, her arm in an uncomfortable looking sling. Zu sat in a generic blue hospital chair patches of gauze scattered throughout her arms, legs, and torso, swinging her slightly too-short legs rhythmically.

They were a pretty sad looking bunch.

Wheeling over to the group, he inclined his head to ask to unspoken question. Ruby?

"Still in surgery. She managed to break three ribs and fracture her ulna and radius and wrist in four places."

Paling considerably, Liam asked, "Anything else?"

Looking him over as if deciding if he should withhold the information, Chubs told him, "she has a concussion and the piece of metal in her back severed nerves. That's why she didn't feel it. She... she's lost a lot of blood, Liam."

Running a hand through sun-kissed hair, Liam huffed and wheeled himself next to Chubs.

"I guess we wait. Not like we do anything else."

1 Week Later

Sighing happily at the fresh outside air, Ruby felt like doing a twirl after being cooped up in the hospital for so long.

After waking up in the hospital, life had been pretty much boring.

The nurses were fake, the air smelled antiseptic, and the food was disgusting.

So, with her arm in a cast and wrapped in miles of yards, Ruby was final able to leave.

Liam crutched awkwardly next to her, two to of them walking out whole and together.

As they always did.