Fanfiction for The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draan. Amazing and inspiring book. :)

"I still can't believe I made that," Jessica gasps as they board the bus. "It was so close-"

"We all expected you to win," Fiona tells her, grinning. Jessica hurries down the aisle and plops down in her usual window seat on the right. Fiona slides in next to her. "Who else is going to keep Vanessa Steele in her place?"

Jessica's smiling now. "Did you see her face?"

Lucy Sanders peeks over the seat in front of them. "What did she do this time?"

"Threw her racing glasses down," laughs Fiona. "I don't know who she thinks she is!"

They're still laughing about Jessica's win and Vanessa's meltdown when something hits their side of the bus. The noise is terrible – a huge bang and the screeching of metal. Everyone is screaming or crying or praying. Fiona sees Lucy knock her head against the window frame and bounce back, forehead bloody from a shard. Fiona reaches over the seat to touch her, make sure she's all right, when she turns and catches sight of Jessica.

Her eyes are scrunched up, her mouth open in a silent scream. Fiona's heart jumps and she looks to see what the problem is –

Blood.

Blood everywhere.

"Help!" she yells. "Help!"

Long seconds pass in silence, and the bus shudders to a halt. It's destroyed. The windows are cracked and falling out, and half of the team is not in their seats. "Help!"

She hears Mario Reed's voice from above her head, "Fiona, what – oh God. Kyro!"

Kyro comes barreling up the aisle, takes one look at Jessica, and rips off his shirt. "Somebody call nine-one-one."

Fiona does, with trembling fingers. A calm male voice answered on the other end. "Nine-one-one, what is your emergenc-"

"Somebody hit our bus," she tells them frantically. "My friend's bleeding and another one hit her head hard. We're at the intersection of Wright and Rea. I need an ambulance!"

The dispatcher stayed on the phone with her the entire time as Fiona watches Kyro bind Jessica's leg as tightly as he possibly can. The flesh is torn, the shape abnormal.

Something is throbbing on Fiona's arm, and she looks to see the skin angry and red. She barely feels it. She barely feels anything until the sirens are heard in the distance.

Fiona doesn't realize something is very wrong with Lucy until Annie looks up at her, stricken. "Did you see her hit her head? She won't wake up!"

Fiona doesn't have the worry to spare. Jessica has lost consciousness. The transfer from the bus to the ambulance is not as difficult as she'd have thought. The workers storm their wrecked bus and get her and Lucy on stretchers and command the rest of them to come in the ambulances with them.

Fiona insists on riding with Jessica. She looks and can't find Jessica's phone anywhere – it must have fallen out of the bus. Fiona huddles next to her best friend as they hook her up to a dozen machines, calling numbers to each other and touching her right leg, and calls Jessica's parents.

"Fiona, honey! This is a surp-"

"Mrs. Carlisle, we got in a crash. Jessica's really hurt. We're going to Mercy."

The other line goes dead.

.

The rest of the team is let go that night, but Fiona haunts the ICU like a ghost. Jessica is somewhere in here, and she's not allowed to see her.

Lucy, on the other hand, is in the morgue.

Fiona paces. She's still wearing her running uniform. She walks around the waiting room in clockwise circles, feeling her stomach twisting into knots.

What if Jessica dies, too?

Finally a nurse emerges from the ICU that looks like she's heading in Fiona's direction. She takes in the Liberty purple and gold, then asks, "Are you from the bus crash?"

Fiona nods.

"Fiona Bartlett, right?"

Fiona nods.

"Jessica Carlisle's parents said to update you. She's in surgery right now, but her chances are good."

"What is she in surgery for?" squeaks Fiona.

The nurse gives her a sympathetic look, pats her arm. "They're amputating."

.

The first thing Fiona does is buy the bear. He remains nameless for several days' worth of visits, and then he suddenly becomes Lucas.

The entire team is back at school except for Jessica and Lucy.

Fiona drives straight to the hospital every day for weeks. Finally, Jessica lets her in.

Fiona is totally unprepared. She'd made a point to wear pants every time, but the last few she's been so sure Jessica won't want to see her that she hasn't changed after track practice.

Feeling vulnerable, Fiona goes in.