Erin was talking to Ivy quietly, just a few steps ahead of Lydia and Carley. They were discussing Lola, the newest addition to the Stitch family. Or so Erin hoped. The converstaion wasn't intense, really, but it had the same dymanic that many of their conversations did. Ivy thought Erin was being impulsive, and made no secret of it.

"She's a little young to just have the whole thing to herself, though, Er. I mean, you're going to need to be there all the time, and with everything you do already..."

"No, no, she's fine. She's worked on that side since she was how old? I think it'll work out great. Plus.. she needs the responsibility. So many kids around here fall into crime and stuff. She has a job, she's a good kid."

Ivy sighed. Erin had won. She knew that the girl was a good kid and that she would probably stand to stay that way if she were added to the Stitch family. They were dysfunctional, but they were no street gang. Turning her head a bit, Ivy spotted Lydia go back into the Stitch.

"Hold up, looks like Lydia forgot something." Erin nodded at her friend, and the two paused. Erin smiled widely as she saw Lola leave the coffee shop. This was its last week, and she had been putting in extra time. Griffin, who was about half way between the pairs of girls, waved her over, and the girl with the bouncy blonde hair started towards the ragtag group.

"Look, she's perfect..." Erin turned to smile at Ivy when she heard the explosion. It was weird... she could hear the blast before she realized where and what it was. Her face scrunched up for a moment and she heard herself talking in her head before she realized that nothing was coming out of her mouth. The missing time felt like seconds, like a blink. It would be a long time before she realized just how long she was out.

The blast knocked Ivy to the side, and without her knowing, she ended up beyond the zone of rubble and damage. Her palms were scratched up and her legs battered. The stocking she had been wearing were nothing more than a bit of fabric desperately clinging to her cherry red legs. Blood dripped here and there, but nothing was gushing, nothing was serious. After spending a moment or two regaining her wits, she turned to check on Erin.

She wasn't there.

Another turn and another blink as she tried to see through what there was of the smoke to see her friend. It was nothing but chaos and yelling, running and people pulling at the rubble. Rubble.

Erin had been to her right, and therefore right where the large pile of concrete and cobble and wood now where. Ivy pulled herself up and climbed over to the pile, clawing at it with raw hands. She wasn't thinking, not really, just pulling at the mess in hopes of finding her friend right there beneath the mess and perfectly fine.

"Erin?!" She called out, looking around. A bleeding elf passed her on one side, holding what looked like a dislocated arm to her body. Pausing for a moment, the woman with blood matted hair looked straight at Ivy. It was a second, the lavender eyes of the elf met the brown ones of the Englishwoman. And it seemed like an eternity as they silently spoke to one another.

"Help me?" She said softly to the woman, who then continued to stare blankly. "Please, my friend is in here and I can't do it alone...." Ivy had never sounded so young, so out of control. She had made her life around being in control, and now she had lost it all in a moment. But the woman just stared for a long moment and then walked off, shaking her head and muttering in a language Ivy had never heard before.

"Erin? Erin?" Ivy kept calling as she pulled at the mess at her feet. There was nothing but wood, it seemed like she was standing atop a cart of some sort that had tipped and was covered by the blast. Her hands started to bleed from the glass that was littered about after blowing out of store windows. She didn't feel it, and the red tainted pieces of debris confused her and caused her to work even faster.

"Erin?" She didn't know what else to say, and so she kept repeating the name of her friend. Another piece of something or other was moved and she recognized the paint on the side of the cart. It was an apple merchant selling off the last of the crop before winter freeze.

"We're down here!" The voice that replied was male. Gruff. Ivy thought she may recognize it, but didn't. Not at first. "We're down here!" The answer of we're had her hopeful and she kept pulling at the rubble.

"I'm coming..."

"Be careful, Miss..." There was a pause. "Ivy. Pull too hard and you may crush us." The voice of the man was so calm, that it relaxed the pounding in Ivy's head. When he came up with her name, she let out the breath she was holding. Erin had to be in there.... Looking back over her shoulder, she thought she caught a sight of green. And it was moving, seeming fine. She breathed a sigh of relief, even if she didn't check to make sure. She had a bigger problem ahead of her.

"I'll get help. Don't move." The irony of her statement was lost to her at the moment as she stood and turned to look out at the mess and see who could help her.

In the time it had taken Ivy to get help, Erin started to get woozy. The pain emanating from her leg was more than anything she had felt before. The woman was no stranger to pain, but this was crushing, mind numbing discomfort. It didn't help that she was also claustrophobic. The gnome had ignored her for the most part, spending his time muttering in a language she didn't know as he evaluated the structural safety of their little den.

The blackness started as a bit of fuzz around her vision. And then all that was left was a pinprick of light. A hand moving to her chest, she fought to breathe against herself. It wasn't that she couldn't, or was hurt, it was that the utter panic of pain, and being trapped was too much for the claustrophobic young woman. So many forgot how young Erin really was, but in that moment it was painfully clear to her. Finally she closed her eyes and let the blackness overtake her. It wasn't that she was giving up, or dying, it was that she needed a break from her own reality. Just for a moment. It was more like hitting the snooze button in the morning than it was accepting a firing squad.

"I think it should be fine if they just dig us out carefully. It doesn't seem like it's about to fall." When he turned around again to address Erin, she wasn't listening to him. She was in her own world. A dream world. Somewhere far away from there...

"Erin..." A male voice. It was unclear whose at first, and Erin just fluttered her eyes open to see bright blue eyes and jostled blonde hair.

"Jordan?" Her voice was normal, her body felt normal, and though she thought she was reaching out for him, she couldn't much feel him. "What are you doing here?"

"You needed me, right?"

"But there's no way you could have... you never know when..." Erin shook her head, the tears welling up weren't something she could fight against as she stared at the blonde man. "You can't be here."

"Guess not. Even if I could, am I the person you want to see?" The question almost made her realize that there was no way this was real. She stared at him a long moment.

"No." The answer surprised even her. She pursed her lips in confusion. "You can't save me."



Erin's eyes opened slowly and she shook her head a little with the sleep. She was in a bed. It was warm, but not hot. Clean, definitely clean. It had that smooth fresh feel of a hospital, and made her immediately try to sit up. The pain ripped through her arm and then her leg, and she eased back onto the sheets.

"Erin?!" Ivy hopped from her chair next to the bed to grab at Erin's hand. "Erin! You're up... the doctor said it could be as long as a few days... it didn't look like you hit your head, but they said something about trauma or shock or something, and I feared..."

"I....Ivy?" More fluttering of her eyes and she groaned a little as she tried to move.

"Lie still, Er. You broke your leg. And your wrist, they think, but they still have to do more tests. Your leg, though, that's going to need work. They said something about pins and--"

"Which leg?" Erin cut her off as she strained to see just which of her legs was in a cast.

"Left." There was a sigh of relief from the englishwoman. It was the one she had already broken. It was easier that way... it meant she would be less likely to limp for the rest of her life-- what, with both legs having been shattered.

"I'm tired, Vee. Is everyone okay?" Her eyes drifted closed again, but this time more out of exhaustion than fear.

"Everyone's going to be fine, Erin. Don't worry about them."

"I need you to get Jake. Can you get Jake... And to tell Lydia I love her. Lydia's okay? And Carley... oh, god, we were fighting..."

"Shhh, shhh. Rest, Erin. Everyone's fine. You'll be fine in a few hours. It's just your leg."

"Thanks, Ivy. Thanks for everything." Erin sighed happily as she let her head rest against the pillow once more.

"Don't you mention it, Er." Ivy squeezed Erin's hand and waited for her to fall asleep before she knelt beside the bed and prayed. One of them had to give thanks for what could have been a much worse day than it was. And Ivy always was the sensible one.