A gunshot ricocheted down the long white hallway, I heard it before I saw it. Shooting straight through the air against the blank walls, a tiny metal bullet.

I braced myself, waiting for darkness to engulf me. I hoped the pain wouldn't last long, that it would all be over in a split second.

The last thing I expected was for the bullet to whip straight past me brushing delicately on my ear and filling my head with fear. I spun around watching where it was going to go.

"Noooo!" The scream had barely left my lips when the bullet that should've been for me collided with someone else. It hit them square in the chest allowing me to watch the shock spread across their face.

"Cara," a single tear trickled down their face and the loss in their voice made my heart break.

Then in an almost slow motion they tipped backwards and hit the floor with a sickening smack that made my stomach curl.

"Nooo," the scream ripped at my throat again as I sprinted towards the lifeless body on the floor.

I skidded to my knees beside them tearing up my skin, pain echoing through me with the force of impact. I didn't care about myself though as my hands reached for the body on the floor.

It was Grey, his face sunken and ill looking with his beautiful grey eyes wide open but glassy and staring straight through me at something beyond.

"Grey, please don't leave me," I sobbed shaking his shoulders violently as my whole body shook with petrified cries and I choked on my own tears. Then Grey was replaced by Mitch, then Sawyer, then Nico all in quick succession and with each change my body became more exhausted with the power of the gut-wrenching sobs tearing through me. Then came Ben his usually so cheery face hollowed and tired like skin merely stretched around a skull, there was no life in him. As much as I tried to shake him his head only flopped lifelessly.

Then my mom was in his place, her lips still stained a violent red and her hair fanned out around her beautiful face. Instead of shaking her I held her to me this time and breathed in her soft scent of perfume and tequila. I pressed my face into her long curled hair and whispered into her ear.

"I'm so sorry mom, I couldn't save you," I let my tears fall onto her skin and drip down her face as if they were her own tears of heartbreak.

As I pulled away her face switched again; this time I was surprised to see my father staring blankly back at me through empty eyes that rolled back slightly into his head. His body pressed into my arms and weighed me down. His head flopped back and rolled around lifeless and heavy.

That was when I began to scream.

***

"Cara!"

There were hands on me, shaking me, someone was shouting my name, loudly. Too loudly. My head was pounding and aching and they weren't helping. Their cries were distorted and the feeling of their hands on me was disconnected. I knew they were there but couldn't quite comprehend them.

"Cara, you're okay, we're here, you're going to be alright," I could identify the voice now, Mitch's, it was becoming clearer but still made my head hurt. Couldn't he be quieter?

"Cara, you're okay," another voice repeated, Sawyer.

Why wouldn't I be okay?

Then it hit me, the waves of flashbacks came rolling into my head at once making my already pounding headache worse. One by one they bombarded me, images of Grey with a gun pointing at his head, bolted doors, lifeless bodies, the barrel of a gun, the sound of a gunshot and the feeling of water pouring into my lungs.

The panic was enough to make my eyes open, though my eyelids felt heavy and droopy and it was an effort just to lift them. I had to blink a couple of times against the onslaught of bright florescent lights that seared my brain. It was a painful experience. I kept blinking and with each blink the world around fell more and more into focus.

I could make out the shapes of figures hovering over me, concerned expressions. I made out three bodies in total. My other senses were kicking in now, I could smell antiseptic and new plastic. I could hear the rattle of trolleys and the beeping of a machine. I could feel a soft pillow under my head and a hard surface below me. I knew I was in a hospital, I would recognise that smell anywhere.

"What happened?" My voice sounded groggy and came out in a mumbled whisper.

"Thank god!" I heard a relieved cry, "I thought you were never going to wake up."

"Cara," Sawyer took my hand, clutching at me tightly.

I took in each of their worried faces, Sawyer, Mitch and Nico. They were all here looking unharmed, where was everyone else? Were they okay?

"Where's Grey?" I demanded trying to sit up but three pairs of hands held me down.

"He's fine," Sawyer soothed, "he's in the room just next door, he only had a concussion. He's awake and fine, I promise."

"And he's kicking up a right fuss, he almost hit a nurse earlier cause he wants to come in here and check on you," Nico added, looking much less concerned and now wore a cheeky grin.

"He makes us go in every half an hour to tell him any change," Sawyer gave half a smile and squeezed my hand.

"Even though, sorry Cara, you haven't been very exciting," Nico teased and I smiled easily in return, "that is until you started screaming your head off."

"What?"

"Just now, were you having a nightmare?" Sawyer asked gently.

"You scared the shit out of all of us," Nico included earning him a glare from Mitch.

"Are you alright?" He enquired his face still contorted with concern.

"I'm fine," I insisted, "what about the person who pushed me in the pool? Who was it?"

They all glanced at each other nervously which sent fear racing down my spine. What had happened to them?

"You need more rest Cara," Mitch insisted carefully. I shot him a vicious glare that made him snatch away the hand that was about to push me back.

"Someone better start talking quickly, I want to know who saved me," I snapped with force, I was tired and irritable and not in the mood to be messed with.

"Maybe it's better we show you, then you can see how they're doing?" Nico suggested.

"She only just woke up," Mitch hissed at him as if I wasn't in the bed right between them able to hear everything they said. I felt like a little kid stuck at the children's table while everyone else made my decisions for me.

"Someone fucking take me before I get up and walk there myself," I hissed, then recoiled back slightly, surprised at myself. I hadn't intended to be so harsh, the drugs I was on must be messing with my mind.

I didn't get the reactions I expected though, as far from being annoyed, Nico actually let out a chuckle, "you sound exactly like Grey," he told me, "it took two nurses and some sedatives to stop him running in here."

"You better not give me any sedatives," I warned eyeing him carefully as if he was going to whip the sedatives out from behind his back or something.

"I wouldn't dare," Nico swore holding his hands up, then he glanced between Sawyer and Mitch, "let's take her, at least we can make sure she's safe then and wheel her in the bed."

"Thank you," I nodded, "I want to see them, are they awake? Do they know what happened? Who is it?"

I still had no idea who'd saved me, all I knew was that they were male. I'd been too disorientated and drowning to notice anything else about my rescuer.

"Like we said, it's better to show you," Mitch sighed and reluctantly began pushing my bed with Nico's assistance out the door. Sawyer remained by my side refusing to let go of my hand. He looked as if he never wanted to let me out his sight again, I wouldn't mind that much either.

I peered round the pristine hospital corridors and felt a chill streak through me. I hated hospitals. I wasn't scared of them, I just hated them. I hated the smell of bleach that burned your nose and the sounds of crying and coughing. I hated the memories they conjured up, the last time I'd been at a hospital it was with Jackson. They didn't bother taking moms body to hospital, she was dead when they arrived on the scene, they only wrapped her up in a black bag and carted her away.

Jackson had taken me in because he'd broken one of my fingers. He'd punched my face and sent me flying back where I slammed into the cupboards behind and felt one of my fingers snap as it hit the wood at an awkward angle. He usually refused to take me unless it was serious, he was afraid I'd tell someone, but it was unavoidable as the top half of my finger was pointing a different way to the bottom half.

***

Jackson barely left my side the whole trip until I was taken into the X-ray room where they would tell me what I already knew, it was broken. Jackson had to wait outside this time, something he wasn't too pleased about. A kind faced nurse had taken me in, I could read her face easily to tell she was concerned about me.

"Hey, you know you can tell me anything right," she asked as she took the scan of my finger.

"What?"

"I mean about your injury, it looks a bad break ..," she paused waiting for me to fill in the gaps.

"I told you, I jammed it in a door," I repeated insistently. That was the story I had come up with and Jackson had approved of, I didn't want to sell him out any more than he wanted me to.

"Is that a bruise on your cheek?" She'd inquired reaching out to touch the blossoming purple bruise on my cheekbone I'd received from the punch. I had tried to conceal it with makeup but nothing could hide the dark shadow it made underneath the layers of foundation.

"Yeah," I shrugged trying to sound casual about it, "I hit it on a table corner. I'm really, really clumsy." I pulled an 'Oopsy Daisy' face but I could tell she wasn't buying any of it.

"Nice boyfriend you've got taking you in," she faked a tight lipped smile, her eyes fixed on me to gage my reaction. She was probing now for any excuse to catch him out, I wasn't going to give one to her.

"I know," I agreed nodding, then insisted with force, "he takes great care of me. I'm really lucky to have him."

She stopped asking questions after that but the worry didn't leave her eyes and she kept shooting me sympathetic glances. Jackson noticed this too and later that night he threw a saucepan at my head because he thought I'd told her something. It knocked me out cold.

I hated hospitals.

***

Finally we reached our destination, luckily the room was only a few corridors away from mine as the boys snuck me there with no interruptions. I would have berated anyone who'd got in our path though. I wasn't in a mood to be argued with.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Mitch waited his hand on the door knob.

"Just open the god damn door," I snapped losing my patience.

The door was opened with reluctance and I was rolled in. It took a while for me to fully see the person in the bed, at first only white sheets with the outline of a body underneath were visible until finally a head came into view surrounding by wires and machines coming in and out of various parts of the body. They were hooked up to a heart monitor that beeped at regular intervals. The person in the bed was alive.

When their face fell into view under the gliding artificial lights I couldn't help but gasp.

The person who had saved me, of course it would be them. Someone who'd failed to be there for me for so many years had finally pulled through. They'd been there when it really mattered. They loved me, they'd take a bullet for me. Their love had left then lying there with a bleep the only sign of their life. They could've died trying to save me. I owed them everything, but maybe this was fair because they owed me a lot too.

My dad and I, we were even now. Because he's risked his life for me. He'd proven that he could be there when it mattered. He did love me enough to stay.