Chapter one!

Phoebe was lying in the ditch. Her father held her in his arms.

"Phoebe, my angel! Wake up! Come on, open your eyes!" Rick, who was slightly injured, stood next to him frantic. Ridge yelled at him.

"Do something! Hurry and get an ambulance!"

"Yes! Yes, of course!" Rick ran as fast as he could back into the house. Inside, the party was still in full swing, but everyone was startled when Rick, with visible injuries and blood on his clothes, ran into his mother's office to call an ambulance. When he came back into the room, Brooke rushed toward him in horror.

"Rick, for God's sake, what happened?"

"Phoebe...Phoebe and I were in a car accident!" Everyone stared at him in disbelief. Steffy slumped down.

"What about Phoebe?" Rick was incapable of a response. Steffy ran up to him and shook him. "Come on, talk to me! Where is she?"

"Out by the road. Ridge is with her!" Steffy immediately stormed out of the house and ran down the street. Many of the other guests followed her. Finally, Steffy spotted her father, still holding her motionless sister.

"Dad! What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know, Steffy! She's unresponsive!" Steffy stared at her twin sister. She had several injuries on her face and her body from which she was bleeding. Steffy bent down to her.

"Phoebe? It's me, Steffy! Open your eyes! Come on, say something!" After what felt like an eternity, the ambulance finally arrived. While one of the paramedics tended to Rick, his colleagues rushed towards Phoebe and lifted her onto the gurney. Steffy and Ridge watched anxiously as the doctors treated Phoebe. Everyone was relieved when the ER doctor announced that Phoebe was alive. He hooked her up to a monitor. Just as the paramedics were about to transport her to the ambulance, the monitoring kicked in. Phoebe's heart had stopped. The paramedic responded immediately.

"Cardiac arrest! Quick!" One of his colleagues prepared the mobile defibrillator. Steffy buried her face in her father's chest. She couldn't bear the sight of the medics desperately fighting for her twin sister's life. The ER doctor was about to stop the resuscitation attempts when they managed to bring Phoebe back to life at the last second. Her heart started beating again. Carefully, they carried her into the ambulance. Rick, who had been treated in the meantime, was already inside. After the ambulance left, Steffy, Thomas and Ridge, along with Eric, Stephanie and Brooke hurried to their cars as quickly as possible to get to the hospital as well.

In the emergency room Bridget was on duty that night. She was horrified to learn that Rick and Phoebe had been admitted. She tried to find out what had happened, but Rick was in complete shock and unresponsive. She handed him over to a colleague and went to the surgery, where the doctors had already started to examine Phoebe more closely.

A little while later, the rest of the family arrived at the emergency room. But they couldn't be given any further information yet. Finally, Brooke and Eric received the news that their son had been lucky. He had suffered only superficial injuries, in addition to a tremendous shock. A doctor led them to his hospital room.

"We've given him a sedative to help him get some rest!" Quietly, Brooke and Eric entered his room, feeling immensely relieved that nothing worse had happened to him. Brooke sat down at his bedside and reached for his hand. Rick, incapacitated by the sedative, did not respond to her.

"I'm so glad nothing worse happened to him!" groaned Brooke in relief.

"Me too!" agreed Eric with her. "Now we just have to hope it's nothing serious with Phoebe as well! I'm going to check if Stephanie and Ridge know anything more specific." He left the room for a moment. Rick tossed restlessly in his bed. Brooke did her best to calm her son. After a short while, Eric returned.

"And?" Brooke glanced at him tensely.

"Phoebe has a whiplash and most severe internal injuries, they took her for a surgery right away!" Brooke was shocked.

"Oh my God, I hope she pulls through! Where's Ridge? I need to see him!" But Eric pushed her back into the chair. "Stay here, Brooke, there's nothing you can do right now. Ridge isn't there anymore."

"Where is he?"

"He went to Taylor's to let her know. He didn't want to tell her over the phone."

"Oh, of course!" Brooke couldn't suppress some displeasure. Ridge hadn't even stopped by to check on Rick, let alone tell her he was going to Taylor.

Taylor was at home, still completely unaware of the tragedy. She was in the kitchen checking her ice cream supplies and making sure she had everyone's favorite flavor in the fridge. She was looking forward to having an ice cream party with her kids when they got back from the party. Most of all she was happy that Phoebe was back home and had been conciliatory towards her. She firmly resolved to mend her relationship with her daughter. She wanted to do everything to make up for her mistake. She made herself comfortable and waited for the three of them to return. On the cocktail table was her daughter's album of childhood memories. Taylor picked it up. She looked at the Mother's Day cards Phoebe had made for her as a little girl.

Just then, the front door opened and Taylor was very surprised to see who came into the living room.

"Ridge?! What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at your party!"

"Taylor..I..it's.." Ridge couldn't bring himself to reveal the awful truth. Taylor noticed Ridge didn't seem to be well at all. He was white as a sheet and visibly rattled. She took him in her arms.

"Ridge, what's wrong?" Ridge just stood there motionless. Taylor shook him. "Now tell me, did something happen? Why are you storming in here like a ghost?"

"Doc, I don't know how to tell you this! Phoebe..."

"What about Phoebe?"

"She was in a car accident!" Taylor stared at him with wide eyes.

"No! No, that can't be! What happened to her? Ridge, say something! What about our daughter? She's not…?"

"No, she's in the hospital! She's in surgery right now!"

"Well, let's not waste any time!" Taylor just barely grabbed her bag. Ridge woke up from his stupor of shock and the two of them ran out of the house and hurried back to the hospital.

No one spoke a word on the drive. Ridge had enough on his mind concentrating on the traffic and Taylor was too shaken up to think a decent thought. At the hospital, no one could tell them anything new yet. Phoebe had not yet returned from surgery. Steffy fell into her mother's arms, crying. Taylor put her own pain aside and did her best to calm her daughter.

"You'll see Steffy, it's going to be okay! Phoebe is strong, she will get through this! She's going to be fine!"

Hour after hour passed and everyone waited tensely for some redeeming news. Taylor now learned from the others that Phoebe had been in the car accident with Rick. She wondered how it had ever happened that the two of them had gotten into that car together. Eric approached the group. He wanted to inquire if there was any news. Stephanie turned to him.

"How is Rick?"

"He's fine, sleeping peacefully now. He has a tremendous shock, but otherwise just a few minor injuries."

"That little bastard always has more luck than sense!"

"Ridge, please! This really isn't appropriate right now!"

"What Dad? It's true, he almost drives my daughter to death and gets away with a few scrapes himself!"

"Ridge, we should be very careful with accusations like these. None of us know how the accident happened! Any accusations won't get us anywhere, we need to concentrate on Phoebe!"

But the night passed without them receiving any news. Steffy and Thomas had fallen asleep on the bench, exhausted. Taylor paced back and forth nervously.

"I can't get my head around this! Why did this happen now, when we were just getting back close again?!" She fingered the necklace Phoebe had put on her a few hours ago.

"My little angel!" Teary-eyed, she looked over at Ridge.

"She can't die! She just can't die now!" Ridge walked up to her and hugged her tightly.

"Stop it Doc! Don't say it! You can't even think about it! You'll see, Phoebe will survive! She has your power and your strength! She'll get through this and she'll be fine!" Desperately, Taylor and Ridge clung to each other. Each sought comfort and support from the other one. Brooke came around the corner, she had just grabbed a coffee and wanted to check on Ridge. That's when she saw him and Taylor in a tight embrace.