Prologue
She looked on into the night, tears welling up in her eyes. Did she really just see this? Was it real? Could it be a mere nightmare? She didn't know, but lord she could hope, and hope she did. The flames mirrored in the tears she finally let fall.
Chapter 1
Hospitals
"Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing." -Redd Foxx
In what seemed like lifetime, Jordan Ruddy heard the numerous sirens coming closer. Although relief started flowing through her, she still found herself paralyzed on the side of the street.
"How is this happening?" she asked no one in particular.
Slowly, she sank to the ground, her tears falling like rain onto the already wet grass. To keep from losing herself completely, she pulled back into her deep subconscious, running through her favorite football plays, even her favorite math equations.
Suddenly, her solitude was interrupted by a deep, masculine voice,
"Miss? Miss? Are you alright? Miss?"
"I-I'm fine," she replied when she realized he was talking to her.
"Did you see what happened?" the man asked
"Y-yes, I was right here the entire..." all of a sudden, quick-moving clips flashed before her eyes, Brehnan waving to her from the driver's seat of his blue Chevy, Presto blowing her a kiss, the car backing up, and the idiot in the hippie van who came racing around the corner, smashing right into the side of her friends, her family.
"Jordan? Oh my GOD! Jordan! I'm so glad you're alright!" strong arms wrapped tightly around her, she knew immediately it was Stefan, Preston's dad. She couldn't help it; she let the rest of her tears escape her eyes.
After a few moments, he let go and stepped back into the flood of light coming from both the fire and the porch light. That was when Jordan noticed he was crying too. In all four years of dating his son, Jordan realized she had never seen Stefan cry. However, she couldn't dwell on this now, she glanced over at the mangled wreckage. She noticed a stretcher being brought away, she ran for it.
"Oh my GOD! Preston!" she managed through the tears.
He reached for the oxygen mask strapped to his face, "Ha *cough* I'm fine Jo! *cough* You know, I'll see you at the hospital, Babe." And with that he and his father were loaded into an ambulance.
She was watching it drive down the street when she heard someone yell, "We've got him! Somebody get me a stretcher over here ASAP!"
Jordan turned and saw it had come from the Chevy; her heart started pounding even more wildly than before.
As the stretcher came closer she gained visibility of the body lying there, it was Brehnan.
"Are you family?" asked a paramedic standing at the doors of the ambulance.
"I'm his little sister." Jo replied, and she climbed in the back, "So how bad is he?" she asked the lovely auburn-haired paramedic monitoring Brehnan.
"He's in a coma and non-responsive. His vitals are, for the most part, clear. His airway is partially blocked, and his breathing is strained, also due to his collapsed left lung. I am so very sorry darling, I know this must be terribly difficult." She placed a tiny, delicate hand with deep-purple fingernails on Jordan's shoulder, "He'll be okay."
At first, Jordan felt relieved by this statement, but then she remembered something she had learned a long time before; they can't really promise that. You never truly know if they're going to be alright. Just as she finished this thought, the ambulance pulled up to the huge, looming hospital building that had been their destination all along.
