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It’s strange how things happen. The odd rhythm of life with its ups and downs, chaos and calm, happiness and agony.
One moment, you could be driving happily down the road, music playing softly over the radio, Todd on his phone trying to find an open restaurant to pick up something to eat on the way home; and then the next, you’re hurtling over the side of the road, car smashing into rocks, rolling and crushing as you fall, a blur of sounds and sensations, heart pounding, lungs aching, vision hazy, just confusion and pain and adrenaline and noise.
Dirk's vision refocuses after a few moments. His ears are ringing, stomach still flipping as his body adjusts to coming to a stop. He feels off balance, pressed up against the driver's door, like he's being pulled out of the side of the car. It takes another moment for him to realize that he’s not being subjected to some strange magnetic force, but the car is on it's side, jagged metal curving inwards towards him. The windshield is just a spiderweb of cracks, illuminated from outside by the blinking of the headlights into the darkness around them.
Dirk breathes heavily. His head is throbbing, and when he shifts, he feels a sticky wetness and sharp stings of pain blossoming in his nerves as he pulls it away from the window. He carefully lifts a hand to the wet spot, tenderly brushing over it with his fingers and winces at the jagged pieces of glass stuck into his skin. Wearily, he brings his hand in front of his face, looking down at the red blood on his fingertips, confused.
His brain feels agonizingly slow, each thought crawling through his neurons to his consciousness like there were anvils wrapped around their little thought legs.
If Todd were here, he would know what to do.
No.
Wait.
Todd was here.
Dirk moves his head too quickly, his neck screaming at him for the sudden twisting motion. He draws in a sharp breath, his eyes watering, but forces himself to push through the pain and looked to where the passenger seat was, his heart dropping when he sees that its not there. The passenger seat, and the entire right half of the car is gone, like it had been cut away with rusty scissors leaving sharp bits of metal and car parts sticking out like monstrous fangs.
The panic starts to set in now.
He needs to find Todd. He needs to get out of here.
He fumbles at his side for the seat belt that’s digging into his chest. The buckle clicks softly, and the belt loosens around him, and Dirk pulls it away, trying to untangle it from his torso. His chest aches as he starts to move more, but he ignores it, his body only telling him to go, move, get out now.
He's breathing heavily by the time he finally gets the seat belt off, and he leans forward, trying to shift himself enough in the drivers side to push himself up. Something in his chest crackles in a way that he's sure it shouldn't, and he makes a mental note to deal with that at some point later.
Dirk takes a shuddering breath, and calls out.
"Todd," he tries to shout. His lungs don't seem to be able to push the air out forcefully enough to be able to let out more than his normal talking volume. He tries again. "Todd!" He forces out, slightly louder, wheezing a bit. He listens carefully. He can hear some sounds, but it's mostly just clicks and scrapes from the metal bits of the car settling together and the engine cooling. He swallows, his mouth tasting metallic, and takes as deep of a breath as he can manage before his chest protests, and then lets it out slowly.
He manages to get himself laying down on his back on the driver's side door, looking up at the night sky through the opening where the passenger's side used to be. There's a haze of something in the air, dust or smoke, that's being lit by the reflecting light of the headlights in front of the car, and what looks to be a red light behind it. Dirk puts his hands next to him, and starts to try to push himself up, and immediately stops when pain in one of his wrists causes him to yelp. He brings it closer to his face and can see that it's already swollen, and now that he is aware of it, he can feel the throbbing pulsing under his skin, and he clenches his teeth together.
Dirk returns to his current goal of getting out of the remains of the car, and sighs. He carefully pushes himself up with his one arm, leaning up against the ceiling of the car as he stands up. Now that he’s higher than the left half of the car, he can see where the car landed.
A steep hill is in front of him, scattered bits of metal covering the ground. At the top, Dirk can see the edges of the guard rail they must have crashed through, lit by a dim streetlight. It’s too dark, and he’s too out of it to see, but there’s a dark figure watching from the road as he climbs haphazardly out of the car, scraping his arms on the metal. Dirk flops onto the ground, knocking the air out of his lungs, and he wheezes for a few moments, as he catches his breath and wills away the growing pain in his body.
He glances up, catching the sight of movement behind the back of the car, but it’s being lit only by the red light of the brakes that are stuck on, and he can’t quite see what it is.
"Todd?" He calls out, nervously, pushing back up onto his feet. He cautiously starts walking towards the movement, that seems to still at his voice.
"Dirk?" Todd calls back from the dark. His voice is louder than Dirk’s. The movement starts again, and as Dirk gets closer, passing by the brake lights, he can see Todd, strapped into the mangled remains of the right half of the car. Dirk breathes a heavy sigh of relief, rushing to him as quickly as his body will let him. Todd looks just as relieved to see him, smiling wide.
"Oh my god! Are you alright? Are you hurt? Can you move?" Dirk reaches Todd and can see that his legs are wrapped by the metal of the car, his seat belt pinned to the seat by part of the door, keeping him from escaping. Dirk’s eyes widen in panic when he sees this, but Todd shakes his head, reaching out to him reassuringly.
"I’m okay, Dirk. Seriously, I’m just…stuck, but I’m not… I don’t think I’m hurt." He frowns, looking over Dirk, noticing the patch of red soaked into the collar of his shirt where his head wound dripped down into it. "Shit, are you okay? You’re bleeding."
Dirk pressed a hand to the back of his head and shrugs.
"No… I mean… yes. I’m fine. It’s just… it’s a little blood, but I’m okay…" Dirk looks back around at the wreckage, shivering a little as the rush of adrenaline continues to drain from his bloodstream and the reality of what just happened keeps sinking in. He shakes his head, swallowing the lump in his throat. "I don’t… what the hell happened? I mean… I know I’m not the best driver, but…."
"Someone hit us." Todd says with a frown. Dirk looks back at him, confused.
"What?"
"There was… headlights in my window before we crashed. I think someone must have t-boned us over the side of the hill." Todd looks up at the hill, squinting into the dark.
"You didn’t see anyone, did you? I’d hope if some asshole hit us, they’d at least stick around to make sure we weren’t dead…" Dirk shakes his head, feeling dizzy and sick. Todd looks back at him and his frown deepens. "Dirk, you need to sit down. You look like shit."
Dirk’s breaths are coming quicker now, his vision unfocusing. He feels something grip his arm, and looks down to see Todd’s hand wrapped around him.
"Dirk, sit. Now." Dirk stares back at him for a second before he complies, squatting down and flopping onto his bottom next to the seat Todd is trapped in. He feels Todd’s hand brush over the crushed glass stuck in the back of his scalp, thumbing gently over the blood matted hair. "Do you have your phone?" Todd asks after a moment. Dirk frowns, trying to think through the haze what that question means, then remembers the hard lump pressing into his thigh. He reaches into his pocket with his uninjured hand, pulling out his phone. Todd reaches over, grabbing it out of his hand.
Dirk can hear Todd, tapping away at the screen and then the sound of his voice, and the sound of another voice. He doesn’t have the energy to focus on it enough to understand the words. He just closes his eyes, trying to focus on something other than the sharp ache in his chest, the way his heart his pounding so hard and fast, the chill settling over his skin like an ice cold blanket.
It takes ten minutes for the paramedics to arrive. Dirk is firmly in the stages of shock. Todd had given up on trying to escape the car seat, settling for pulling off his long-sleep flannel and wrapping it around Dirk, rubbing his arms and trying to keep him warm until help arrived.
"They’re here, Dirk," Todd tells him, his voice hushed. Dirk nods, breathing shakily. The pain in his chest is growing overwhelming. He wipes at a tear that drips down his cheek. "We’re going to be okay, alright? It’s okay."
They’re separated shortly after, the paramedics getting Dirk onto a stretcher into one of the ambulances as the firefighters cut Todd out of the car, strapping him into a matching stretcher, and then take them both to the hospital. Todd is released in the morning, only superficial injuries from the crash, and waits in the waiting room until he is allowed to go back to see Dirk, who’d been in surgery most of the night for his injuries. The doctors explain that the surgery went very well, and he should recover quickly, but Todd’s panic doesn’t ease until he walks into the room and sees Dirk smile at him when he sees Todd’s face.
Todd rushes to his side, grabbing Dirk’s face in his hands, and letting out a sigh of relief, smiling.
"I swear to god, Dirk. I am going to wrap you in bubble wrap one of these days."
Dirk rolls his eyes at Todd, but his smile doesn’t fade.
"You know, that actually sounds pretty fun… imagine rolling down a hill like that… just like… popping the whole way down." He motions going down a hill with his hand. Todd huffs a laugh and shakes his head.
"Yeah, no. Never mind."
Dirk pouts, gazing up at Todd, who strokes over the bandage wrapped around Dirk’s head. Dirk’s eyes soften and he relaxes into the touch.