The storm worsened. The sky growing so dark it was almost like night.

Bianca hurried from the house to Ryan's car as fast as her crutches could carry her; battling against the pelting rain and buffeting wind.

She eased herself into the passenger side and wiped her rain soaked hair away from her face. Suddenly she was aware of someone sat behind her. She spun round to see Cara smiling back at her.

"Hi." said Cara. "I didn't mean to make you jump. I've come to be part of your cheering section. I roped Ryan in to give me a lift."

"No problem." said Bianca, as her heart settled. "Storms make me a little jumpy, that's all."

Cara nodded and then peered through the rivulets of water running down the car windows.

"What is he doing?" she asked, wondering what was keeping Ryan.

"He was just supposed to lock the door." said Bianca peering out as well. She couldn't see a thing the rain was falling so hard.

They jumped at the unexpected sound of the driver-side door opening. Ryan dived into the seat followed by a blast of cold air, he looked half drowned.

"Nice weather for ducks." he muttered, as he started the car.

He pulled out of Kendall's drive, trying to see the road through the heavy downpour.

"We might be a little late." he said "I can't go too fast in this, I can hardly see a thing. Do you want to call the courthouse and let them know are going to be delayed."

Bianca rumaged into her damp bag for her cell phone.

"You can say one thing about Pine Valley." said Cara, awe in her voice. "It has really impressive storms."

The lightening flashed, lighting up the wind whipped trees along the short wooded road from Kendall's house.

"We've had some doozies." agreed Bianca. "Although I've gotten into the habit of holing up somewhere and waiting for it be over. When the weather gets like this something bad always seems to happen."

Bianca smiled with relief when she eventually extracted her phone from her purse.

There was another crash of thunder and brilliant burst of lightening.

"Look out!" screamed Cara.

Just ahead on the road a large branch came crashing to the ground, no longer able to hold up against the violent winds.

Ryan slammed on the brakes and swerved across the rain slick road.

…

"Is everyone okay?" asked Ryan as he switched off the engine. The car had plunged backwards into a muddy ditch, the nose of the vehicle now resting slightly up in the air.

"Yeah, I think I'm okay." said Cara pulling herself up between the front seats now the car was balanced at such an awkward angle.

"I'm good." said Bianca, after she made a quick self-assessment. It hadn't been much of a crash; almost comedicly graceful, the way the car had spun gently in a slow circle before dropping with a slight jolt into the soft mud of the ditch. The air bags hadn't even deployed. The main problem was that the car was now well and truly stuck. Well that and Bianca had dropped her phone. It had to be somewhere in the footwell but she couldn't see it.

Ryan turned to Bianca.

"Well we aren't going anywhere, I guess we call for help."

Bianca gave him an awkward grin.

"Um... I can't find my phone."

"Something bad always happens!" muttered Ryan despairingly. With a sigh he fished his cell phone from his back pocket. "You know this is your fault for saying that."

"It could have been worse." said Bianca apologetically.

Ryan winced.

"And saying that will jinx us again." he teased. "I probably won't get phone reception now."

He held the phone up to his ear. There was a dial tone.

"Well I'll let you off for now."

He rang for a recovery service so they could begin to organise their rescue.

"Oh." said Cara quietly from the backseat, surprise in her voice.

Bianca and Ryan froze.

"Oh!" she said a little louder.

Bianca and Ryan turned back to look at her.

"Cara…" began Bianca.

"Oooooh!" groaned Cara, panting slightly.

"No… no… no… no… no..!" cried Ryan, panic on his face. "This cannot be happening. No… no… no… you are not going into labour in this car, you hear me."

Cara looked back at him a worried expression on her face.

"I don't think I have a choice."

And then she groaned loudly once more.

Before scrabbling for his phone again, Ryan gave Bianca a look that spoke volumes.

"Something bad always happens." he muttered again.

"Sorry." she said before turning awkwardly in her seat to see what she could do to help Cara.

…