Time Warp: What Hurts the Most

[Layla Harlow]

Set 2016

It all happened rather quickly. Layla had been on her way home from the store, just grabbing a few grocerie here and there as needed. It was snowing, as if anything else in Vermont was new. It didn't bother her much anymore though, by this point in time, she had spent twenty winters in Pilot Ridge, Vermont and she was good with snow. After all, snow meant playing with her girls and making snowmen and snow angels. It also meant kisses in the snow with her husband whom she couldn't be more in love with if she tried. Snow wasn't a horrible thing, which was probably why she begged Riley to stay in Pilot Ridge after they got married.

After loading up the bags, she got in the car and was headed home. The roads didn't look all that slick, they actually looked pretty clear, but that was because instead of slush covering the roads, it was black ice. She hadn't been given much time to react because as she went to stop at a stop sign, her car slid a few more feet until she was in the middle of the intersection with a car coming right at her, going a little faster than what it should have been in this weather. And then everything went dark, like a curtain had been drawn over her eyes and she wasn't allowed to peek through.

In all of the blackness, Layla found herself dreaming. She heard mumbled voices, all gushing together in a rush, barking out at each other. None of them she recognized and she couldn't hear what they were saying. Then there was pain, lots of it, but she still wasn't aware of her surroundings. It seemed like years were passing by her until she heard voices that she did recognize, a little less muffled, but still uncomprehensible. There was Sophie's, her non biological sister that she'd know anywhere. Ashton, Sophie's man that she'd met a few times. And Jack, she couldn't say she'd ever not know his voice either, and she knew that among the words he spoke, there were a few swears intermingled. Then...then she heard the most beautiful sound in the world; Riley's voice.

It wasn't the right one though. This voice, though very much her husband's, was raw with some emotion that she couldn't make out through the cloudiness of her thoughts. But it made her sad and it made her chest ache.

What seemed like another decade passed before everything started clearing up again. And it was silent sans the strange beeping that she'd been hearing throughout the entirety of her dream. And breathing, two sets of breathing. She tried opening her eyes, but her eyelids felt heavy and she was sore. So sore. Eventually with a painful huff of breath, she got her eyes open and took in her surroundings. White walls, blinking monitors and sitting by the window, staring broodingly out at the world, was Riley. Her lips lifted in a smile and then she winced. Everything hurt.

With a raspy voice, she whispered his name.

[Riley Coleson]

It had happened so quickly. It was all kind of foggy really. Riley had been sitting at the table in the kitchen with their two daughters, twins. The hours had gotten later and leter, she was supposed to be there by now. If anything had stopped her, she would have called, right? He kept on waiting a little longer, entertaining the children to keep his mind from wandering. But that didn't keep his eyes from drifting to the driveway every now and then. Then the phone rang. A voice said something had happened and that he had to come to the hospital. Right away.

He called Sophie and dropped off the kids there, then headed straight for the hospital. He walked to the front desk and said her name, then the nurses lead him down a million halls. It was almost like a never ending maze. They kept talking about what had happened, but he could barely hear them. The voices sounded like muttering, he couldn't quite make them out. His mind was foggy, his muscles stiff, his expression... Empty.

Riley wasn't quite sure how to take it all, his emotions were like the ocean in the middle of a storm. At first, he tried keeping a straight face, trying to stay calm. Then he was angry. Really angry. He threatened the doctors, the nurses, everyone who as much as dared speaking her name. Sophie, Ash, Jack... Even the twins. He wasn't proud of it, but he screamed at them too. Sophie took care of the twins while Riley was in the hospital. He barely ate, he barely slept, he just sat there, with an empty expression on his face, his cheeks wet.

He sat there like that from day one, his fingers intertwined with hers, his eyes distant and his mind elsewhere. He didn't dare to think about what would happen if she didn't make it. He already had, and that almost got him thrown out of the hospital.

Riley didn't pay much attention to the people that came and went, they didn't get much response from him either. Not even Kali. Not even the twins. No one. Absolutely nothing. He felt so lost, so empty. His heart was breaking in front of him and Riley didn't lift a finger to save it. He let it happen. He wallowed in misery and pain. He didn't know what to do, what to think. She was the love of his life, and without her he'd cease to exist.

With his head leaned on the bedside, Riley had closed his eyes - just for a minute - and then he heard her voice. All though it was raspy and weak, it was the most beautiful sound in the world. He could feel his heart skip a beat. His entire body went cold, numb and warm all at the same time. Lifting his head, he looked at her, his cheeks still wet like they had been the entire time. His eyes were red and sore and his mouth dry. Was he dreaming?

As if someone had hit him with a bat, Riley stood up, pushing the chair away in the process, making it tip over. He leaned in, cupping the girls face in his arms, pressing his lips against her all the while crying, soaking her face with his tears. But something was different. They weren't sad tears. They were happy tears.

And they didn't stop coming.

[Layla Harlow]

The reaction he had to seeing her, the animation behind it would have made her laugh if laughing didn't hurt so much. It also seemed wildly in appropriate. Granted, Layla wasn't always so good with her reactions being appropriate in situations, but hey, she was drugged up on morphine and wasn't completely herself. Still, just seeing him, her dreams didn't do him any justice. He was absolute perfection in all of his pain. Even with puffy red eyes and tears on his cheeks, he was beautiful. Absolutely the most attractive man she'd ever looked at (besides Batman, but that was implied). She still couldn't believe that he was all hers.

His hands cupped her face and she tried not to wince because the pain was worth what she got from it. His lips pressing against hers, it was like the cure to all of her problems, to all of her pain. She felt her chest swell up and she was sure she'd combust into feels. Layla reached up to put her hands in his hair, but the tubes attached to her made that next to impossible. With narrowed eyes, she stretched up a bit more until she could place her hands on the back of his neck, keeping him down to her level. His tears mixed with the ones that started falling from her eyes and eventually she couldn't hold it back anymore. It was the first time she'd been awake in a few days and it was the first time she realized what could have happened.

She could have died. She could have been ripped away from the love of her life and her children.

Layla shivered at the thought and clutched at him closer. God was going to have to do a hell of a lot more to pull her away from him. She was a fighter, she was going to live forever, right here with him. She buried her face in the side of his neck and squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." She whispered against his shoulder as she shook. She knew it wasn't her fault that the car slid into the intersection, but she felt guilty for putting him through this. Layla knew that if it had been reversed, she'd have been broken.

And to think, this was the same girl that sat in the middle of the road in pouring rain just because the boy she loved was walking away.

[Riley Coleson]

Riley wanted to laugh, he wanted to scream, he wanted to continue crying and trash the entire room. He wanted to kill someone, he wanted to kiss her, he wanted to hold her, he wanted to scold her. He wanted to run away, he wanted to stay. But most of all, he wanted to be with her. Here. Right now. Like this. He wanted to kiss her forever, hold her tight and never let go. He was scared beyond belief. He was like a little boy again, uncertain about everything, no clue about what he was supposed to do - or say. He couldn't stop the waterfall coming from his eyes, and the mixture of feelings just made them flow stronger.

As Layla pressed her face against his neck, his arms automatically wrapped around her body, pulling her as close as he dared, afraid of hurting her. ''Shhh.'', he whispered slowly. ''It's okay. It's okay.'' She had woken up. Everything was okay now. She was here, she was alive. She was back in his arms, and there was no chance he was ever letting her go again. Ever. If he had to put a collar and a leash on her, he would. He couldn't imagine his life without her, he didn't want to. Without her, he was nothing. There was no point in going on without her. As sad as it was, not even their kids or Kali could hinder him.

He didn't care what had happened in the past or what had gotten them where they was. She was here now. She was okay. She hadn't died, she hadn't left him. She was still here.

''Don't you ever fucking scare me like that again.'', he whispered, turning to kiss her forehead. He kissed her again and again. Over and over again. Riley crawled up into the bed, and lay down next to her, forcing her down to relax. His hand sought hers and as he found it, he intertwined their fingers again and rested his head next to hears, finally closing his eyes.

''I love you.''

[Layla Harlow]

Layla was just trying to get her breathing normal again. It was sporadic and choppy and a mixture between not breathing at all and hyperventilating. She didn't know what to feel, with every emotion crashing over her, she found that it was difficult to settle for just one. She was happy, relieved, exhausted, drained, irritated, and so she just cried and clung to him as tight as she could, ignoring the tugging of the tubes in her arms. It was really kind of annoying being so limited in her movements because she wanted to be carried away by him and out of this hospital. She wanted to see her best friends and her sister and her girls. The twins...she could only imagine what would have happened if they had grown up without a mother and with a broken father.

Shaking her head, she clenched her jaw against the idea of it. They were going to have two loving parents for as long as they possibly could and everything was going to be fine. She just needed to recover and get healthy fast because she hated hospitals and she hated that she was stuck here until she got better.

His lips found her forehead and she briefly closed her eyes again, each time he kissed her. She found herself smiling despite the situation because she was happy that he was there. She didn't know what it'd be like if she woke up all alone. She'd have probably ripped free of the tubes and gone looking for someone because that was just what Layla did. He curled up in the bed with her and she scooted closer to him, careful not to disrupt the wires and tubes as she cuddled up next to him. Lifting her hand, she stroked his hair gently with his eyes closed and nuzzled his cheek, "I love you, too, RiRi. I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

And then she had a thought, one that she wasn't sure she wanted to voice, but knew that it would come up eventually. In all of her dreams, not once had she heard her parents' voices. Part of her wondered...had they even known she almost died? Or did they not care at all? She hadn't spoken to them since they said they weren't going to the wedding. They had never met their grand children and weren't part of her life...but what would have happened if she had died? Would they have gone to her funeral? Layla took a shaky breath and fresh tears filled her eyes, "Ri...d-did my parents..." she trailed off and looked away. Did she really want to know the answer?