My head jerked up, and I took another step back, looking around me. "Who...who said that?"

Angel... .

The voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. I did a slow circle, eyes darting around the clearing, but as far as I could tell, I was completely alone.

"Please. Who's there? I won't harm you. Just please... ."

Angel... .

Drawing a bead on the origin of the voice, I turned quickly back to the tree.

Only, it wasn't a tree anymore.

In its place stood a woman of breathtaking beauty. She was tall, broad of shoulder and lean of hip. Her hair was black as night and flew freely from her brow in luxuriant waves. Her face was that of an artist's model, and her eyes....her eyes were the pale, intense blue of the hottest part of a flame.

"I know you," I breathed with surety, though the full knowledge of the woman before me danced tauntingly out of reach, like a word stuck on the tip of your tongue and refusing to come forth.

Angel... .

The corner of her mouth turned up in a crooked smile, and she reached out one long arm, elegant fingers slightly curled, beckoning.

Without conscious thought, I felt my own arm raise in response as my feet moved me steps closer to the breathtaking woman in front of me.

Our fingers brushed together and memories of a forgotten lifetime crashed over me, literally bringing me, gasping, to my knees.

Angel... .

The voice came again, only this time, I knew who it was that was calling to me.

"Ice?"

A radiant smile broke over her face like the beauty of the rising sun. She reached out again, beckoning.

Grinning like a fool, I jumped back to my feet, ignored her outstretched hand, and leapt into her arms, only to find myself tumbling into blackness once again.

I came to with a gasp which sent pain wracking through to the deepest levels of my body. My lungs were on fire, and I began choking and gagging so hard that I felt as if my lungs and guts were about to make an unseemly exit through my nose and mouth.

The only thing to come up, thankfully, was brackish water, and that in great amounts.

"Oh god," I gasped as my body convulsed again, trying desperately to expel everything I'd evidently ingested. "Help me."

In answer to my prayer, I was enfolded in a tender embrace by arms I knew and cherished. I felt a kiss being pressed into the crown of my head as those arms gathered me close against a muscled body which was shaking as badly as I was.

"It's alright," came the whispered words. "You're gonna be alright."

Forcing my stinging eyes open, I tilted my head back and looked up into the cherished face of my lover. "Ice?"

She barked a half laugh, half sob which brought more tears from already swollen eyes. "Yeah, it's me."

"What happened?"

The lines of her face tensed in unimaginable pain. Her eyes closed and she gathered me still closer with an almost desperate strength. Laying her cheek atop my head, she rocked my pain-wracked body as I listened to the panicked beat of her valiant heart.

It all rushed back to me then. The monsoon. The accident. The feeling of flying, of falling, and ultimately, the total darkness which spiraled around me until it finally caught up and captured me in its inevitable grasp.

Something horrible had happened. To me. That much I knew.

I just needed to figure out what it was.

"Ice?"

Sensing no answer from that quarter, I opened my eyes again, and gazed outward, past the comforting circle of my lover's arms and body.

I latched on to the first face I saw. "Critter?"

Like Ice, her eyes were red and swollen from crying. Giving me a watery smile, she moved closer, settled on her haunches, and grasped my hand, her thumb trailing tenderly over my knuckles. "Welcome back, Angel."

I could feel my brow creasing, though the action sent a fresh wave of pain through my skull. "What happened?"

She took in a deep breath, then let it out, hesitating. "What...what's the last thing you remember?" she asked at last.

"I remember the car flipping over. That's it, I think."

"It...um...flipped into the canal," she commented softly, sniffing back fresh tears.

"On it's fucking roof," came the voice of Pony as she moved in to kneel beside Critter. Her face was white with shock, and there was a suspicious wetness around her eyes. "Damndest fucking thing I ever saw," she continued, shaking her head as she dragged a slightly trembling hand through soaked hair.

"What was?"

The two women exchanged glances. Critter nodded slightly, and Pony sighed.

"You guys were trapped. There wasn't enough room to get to the doors on either side," Pony explained. "Rio jumped in to see if she could get underneath, but the water was so damn fast she nearly got swept away."

"Rio? Is she... ." Though I looked around, I couldn't see the woman in question anywhere.

"Yeah," Critter interjected, squeezing my hand. "She's fine. Pony and I were able to drag her out before she got too far away."

"Where is she?"

"With Nia," Pony answered.

"Is Nia... ?"

"She's fine too. Banged up pretty good, but not too bad, considering."

"Considering what?"

They exchanged glances again, and Pony, once again, took up the gauntlet.

"We were going all kinds of crazy, trying to figure out how to get you all out of there. Rio kept wanting to jump back in and me and Critter kept holding her back." Her fists clenched. "We needed help, but none of the other assholes who caused this whole fucking mess wanted to help out. They were too damn busy pissing and moaning about their pitiful pieces of shit cars to pay any attention to us." Her face screwed up into an expression of bitter disgust.

Critter wrapped her free arm around Pony's waist and squeezed. She picked up the tale. "Rio found some rope in one of the other cars. We figured we'd try and tie it around one of the axles and maybe pull, somehow try to move the car and get you guys out."

"We were getting ready to do just that, too," Pony said, "when the damndest thing happened." She shook her head, disbelief plain on her features.

"What?" I'm afraid I sounded a bit annoyed at that point, but my head was pounding, my lungs were still on fire with every breath I took, my body felt as if Ice had used it in place of her heavy-bag, and I felt as if I was going to throw up sometime in the very near future.

Pony, however, seemed oblivious. Her eyes were dark and far away. "We heard this loud crack, and the next thing we knew, Nia was flying through the air, pretty as you please. Rio caught her just before she would have hit the ground. She was soaked, and bleeding some, but she was alive." My friend's voice trailed off as she shook her head in patent disbelief.

"Then Ice came out through the back window she'd somehow kicked open," Critter said, softly. "You were in her arms. The water kept trying to sweep her away. I don't know how she managed, but somehow she did." She, too, shook her head. "Pony, Rio and I went down to take you from her, but she wouldn't give you up. She was in shock, I think." She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "We finally managed to get hold of you and bring you up here. You were... ."

"Dead," Pony supplied, flatly, wiping at her eyes with savage hands.

"Wha-at?" My entire body went numb at her pronouncement. Ice's arms tightened convulsively around me, cutting off my breathing for a long, aching second before they finally loosened, though only infinitesimally, for which I was grateful.

"You weren't breathing," Critter supplied gently. "You guys were completely under water for a long time, and you were unconscious. You hit your head a good one on something."

That explained the unmerciful throbbing which threatened to explode my skull into tiny little fragments.

"I tried...to get a pulse...and I couldn't find one," Critter continued, tears streaming liberally down her cheeks and dripping onto the still-wet pavement. "I...we...didn't know what to do. I mean...we all knew CPR, but... I'm afraid we panicked." Her face flushed a deep shade of red and self-disgust was very prominent in every tense line of her face and body.

"Critter... ." I whispered.

Scrubbing her eyes, she shook her head, refusing my attempt at comfort.

Her face similarly flushed, Pony embraced the weeping Critter, and looked at me over the top of her lover's bowed head. "All the sudden, we heard this...this...roar. Like some kinda wild animal or something. Scared the shit outta me. Next thing I know, I'm flying backwards. Almost fell into the damn canal."

"What happened?" Those words seemed the extent of my vocabulary of late.

"Ice did," Pony replied. "Everything that we couldn't do, she did." Her voice was soft, reverent almost. "Somehow, she got some of the water outta you, then she started doing CPR, pounding on your chest and breathing into your mouth. She was like a demon, almost. Totally possessed."

Critter pulled slightly away from Pony and turned her face toward mine, her eyes bright with awe. "We...we tried to help, but she wouldn't let any of us near you. Just kept doing CPR and screaming at you not to leave her. It seemed like it went on like that for...god!...hours. She just kept screaming. Kept telling you you couldn't leave her. That it wasn't your time to go. That you were strong. That you could fight it." At that, she broke down into sobs which matched my own. "She begged you not to go."

Pony wrapped Critter in an embrace again, unmindful of her own tears. "It was taking too long," she whispered. "Too long. I...tried to pull her away. It seemed fruitless...too late. But she wouldn't listen. She wouldn't... ." Her hand went up, unconsciously, to brush against a swollen, bruising area just below her right eye.

"Did she... ?"

Pony hung her head. "I deserved it."

"Pony!"

Her chin raised and she met my eyes again, her own burning with a strange intensity. "I deserved it, Angel. I gave up. She never did."

"She believed in you," Critter added, her body still wracked with sobs. "Even when the rest of us had given up, she still believed."

Closing my eyes for a very long moment, I gingerly moved my head, ignoring its outraged screaming, and wormed an arm free of my lover's desperate grip. Reaching up, I trailed my fingers across her icy cheek until I could cup her chin and turn her head toward my own. "Ice," I whispered, willing her eyes to open.

Her face was a tragedy's mask, set in harsh lines of grief. Her eyes and jaw were tightly clenched. Her nostrils flared as her breath came in quick pants.

"Ice," I whispered again, stroking her jaw. "Look at me. Please."

I continued my gentle stroking, loving her as best I could and willing her to feel that through the bond we shared. "Please, sweetheart. Please open your eyes."

Whether it was the tone of my voice, or the realization that I was never going to give up until she did as I asked, her lashes finally fluttered open to reveal the deep, stormy blue of her eyes.

There was such a tumultuous wash of emotion in those beautiful eyes, but I could read each one as if it stood out as a beacon for my gaze alone.

Grief.

Pain.

Anguish.

Anger.

Self loathing.

Fear.

And, swirling through all the negative, dark emotions, trapped like a ship battered by a winter storm, was the one thing that I needed to see, more than anything else in this world.

Love.

"Thank you," I said, meaning it from the bottom of my soul and beyond. Though it hurt to smile, I did, so filled with love was I for this woman who'd given everything to save my life, and never gave up.

Ever.

With a mystic's sight, I could see how trapped she felt; torn between holding me tightly and pulling away, thinking herself undeserving of my gratitude and love.

With a strength I didn't know I possessed, I drew my fingers along the base of her skull, and pulled her head down even as I raised my own, trying not to wince as fresh pain flared through my head with the motion.

Our lips tangled, and at first, hers were as cold and unyielding as a marble statue. But, just as she never gave up on me, I wasn't about to let her hide away in whatever dark hell she'd built for herself.

As I'm sure you've noticed by now, I'm nothing if not persistent. I kept to my task with a single-minded devotion until finally, after eons had truly passed, I felt her begin to respond. Slowly, tentatively at first, to be sure, but within moments, it was as if I'd released a lion from its cage, all ferocious passion and primal need.

She built an inferno effortlessly within me as my body surged to renewed life with a passion and an intensity that matched her own, need for need, want for want.

There was nothing gentle about this fierce reclaiming of our souls. Nothing tender. Nothing soft or soothing. It was as if we both knew, by some strange metaphysical, karmic fusion, that neither of us could handle that right now.