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By the time the meetings were wrapped up, and Stratt and Grace were climbing into the car to be driven back to the airstrip even Grace was too tired to try and crack any jokes to fill the silence. He sat quietly, gazing out the window as they passed through the backroads, trees towering on either side of the pavement.
Beside him, Stratt had her tablet resting in her lap and was working diligently on God knows what, and they had done events enough times together before that Grace knew her work would not stop on the plane, either.
Lost in his own thoughts, Grace saw the truck coming, but did not process that there was anything wrong until the light’s headlights were blinding him and his arms were thrown up in front of his face, braced for impact.
Around him, there were shouts, whether from him or the others he didn’t know, and didn’t have time to think about it before he was knocked unconscious.
The next thing he remembered he was fumbling with unsteady hands to get out of his seatbelt. Around him was what looked like little more than a pile of debris, but he was still belted in- that had to be a good sign, right? He wasn’t thinking enough to decide.
When the seatbelt was finally released, he fell forward, landing on his side. Though he was still in shock, the still of the glass cutting into his arm was enough to make him cry out.
“Okay, okay,” he mumbled to himself, trying to force himself upright, but the entire world was upside-down around him, and still spinning so that he could barely tell where he was.
Eventually, he was able to right himself enough to understand that the car was upside down, and that he was still inside it. he glanced towards where the window should have been, preparing to climb out- if he could manage- when a moan came from behind him, and he whipped around so violently he fell over once more.
“Stratt!” she was there, and evidently, had not been wearing a seatbelt at the time of the impact. “Oh my- oh my god, oh my god, oh- “
He stopped himself, he did not have time to panic, not when Stratt was in front of him, body contorted at such an angle he had no idea how bad her injuries might be if they weren’t fatal, and his mind was not dismissing the possibility.
“We need to- We need to get you out of the car. I smell something and- “He spoke to her though she was not conscious enough to hear him, it felt right. Acting like she was already gone was not an option. “I don’t know,”
For a moment, he could do nothing but stare at her, like he might wake up, like he had drifted off during the ride and he was going to be woken up by Stratt’s door slamming when they arrived at the jet.
“I need to get you out of here, I need to get you out of here- “he tried to get himself to move, but to get to Stratt he had to get out of the car, there was nothing that he could do for her inside. Moving away from her was just about the damned hardest thing he had ever forced himself to do.
With the power of only adrenaline, he was able to back up until he hit what he knew to be the door of the car, and reached up for what he thought might be the handle. When the door would not open, he threw himself against it, and the entire car tilted as he tumbled out and onto the grass, they had landed in.
Standing was a challenge, but he managed to pull himself up on one of the trees, for the first time able to get a look at what the wreckage actually looked like.
The car was flipped onto its top, and from the looks of it, had rolled over a few times before it came to a stop. Nearly the entire front half of it was smashed, having hit one of the trees at what appeared to be a great speed. The drivers seat took the brunt of the impact, as well was the front of Eva’s seat.
The world stick rocking beneath him, Grace stumbled forward just enough to try and get a look at where the driver used to be. The body was so mangled that Grace fell to his knees, vomiting into the grass.
How was it that he was the least injured? The truck had been approaching his side. It was by some miracle that the impact had been taken by the front row and not the middle, the thought of what he might have been like if that wasn’t the case- he didn’t have time to think about that while Stratt was still in the car, and still breathing.
Emptied of all the food that he had consumed from the buffet at the event, Grace somehow felt less steady than before. A part of his brain was telling him to find something to call 911 with, to send out some sort of signal that they needed help, but the rest of him was only on Stratt, and stopping her from bleeding out before anyone could get there.
He crouched, glancing through the hole of what used to be the window on Stratt’s side, and tried to get a feel for how he was going to go about it. The car was already in a precarious position, and getting her out was going to require some manipulation.
More than that, he had no idea the extent of the damage that had been done to her body, and if- or how much- he was going to make it worse by trying to get her out. Keeping her in there wasn’t an option as much as he wanted it to be, as much as it would have been easier, the car was damaged and smoking, a thick, grey smoke. He was going to find a way to get her out.
To his credit, Grace was a damn lot stronger than he had thought he was, and once he had pulled apart enough debris to get a good look at her it was not difficult- aside from the cuts he could feel being scratched into his arm- to get her partially out of the car.
The problem came when her first spotted her leg, stuck between two pieces of what he assumed to be the frame of the car, though he had no real way to know.
She made no noise as he pulled her, but he could not stop to try and tell if she was still breathing, and did not have time to consider that she might not be.
Frustration growing and coordination diminishing, Grace dived forward, dropping Stratt’s top half to use both hands to pull out her leg.
When it finally came loose, he stumbled backwards, his brain taking a moment to catch up with what exactly he was seeing.
From the knee down, Stratt’s leg was crushed, one bone sticking out at an odd angle, the blood too much for him to truly see the extent of the injuries. He did not allow himself to freeze again, and grabbed her under the shoulders, pulling her back, away from the car with as much speed as her body could muster- which wasn’t much.
It wasn’t until he could pull himself no further, and plopped down onto the ground behind her that she started making noise. He relaxed, but only slightly. Just because they weren’t in the car anymore didn’t mean he had nothing else to do, she had already lost too much blood.
“Wh- “The noise came from Stratt, strained and rough, but it was clear that it had at least been an attempt at a word.
“Eva! Eva! It’s okay, you’re okay. I need to stop the bleed but, you’re going to be okay,” on his knees, he moved around to her lower half, unbuckling the belt around his hips to use as a tourniquet- he thought there might be a first aid kit in the car, but he wasn’t going to leave her long enough to go and get it, not while she was still bleeding.
He wrapped the belt around her upper leg, over her pants which had been torn off below the knee, caught in the wreckage. Her screams as he pulled it tight were heartbreaking, but he knew just enough to know that he couldn’t stop, not until the bleeding had slowed.
“Stop! Stop it, please!” Eva screamed, the pain having brought her back into the world just enough for her to wish she could leave it once more.
“I can’t. I can’t I'm sorry, you’re going to bleed out,”
She didn’t hear him, but once the bleeding had slowed and the tugging had stopped the world had become clear enough that she tried to get an idea of where she was- and couldn’t.
“Eva, Eva look at me,” Rylands hands were suddenly on both her shoulders, presumably holding her down so she did not attempt to sit up. “We were in a car accident, I don’t know, I don’t know exactly what happened, but you’re hurt, badly. I think one of our phones, or the radios are in the car, I'm going to try and call for help, and see if there’s any kind of gauze or- something, I don’t know,”
“Driv- driver?” Eva’s question was clear.
Ryland sighed, “Dead. I couldn’t- he was dead before I knew what was going on. I must have been- I think I was knocked out,”
“Hurt,”
“I know. I know it hurts I'm sorry, I don’t know what else to do for you,” Ryland shook his head, scanning up and down her body. She was bleeding in several places, and the bump at the top of her head was only growing, but without help there was little he could truly do.
“Hurt,” she said again, face clenching, both in pain and frustration. “You’re hurt,”
“What?” he glanced down at himself, it had been just about the last thing on his mind, “I'm- I'm fine, better off than you, at least,”
Eva shook her head, which sent a shock of pain down her spine. “Planned?”
“I don’t know- I don’t know what you’re asking me,” Ryland stood, he couldn’t waste any more time, “I'm going to get a phone,”
When Ryland returned to Eva, the only thing in his hand was a white box, and his breath was panting. “They weren’t- crushed, they were crushed, Your tablet too. I don’t have anyway to call for us,”
“They will come,” When Eva spoke, it was clear, like she had fully come to herself while Ryland was gone. “They will know when we don’t arrive, the plane does not leave without us,”
“How long is that going to take?” Ryland asked, landing on the grass with more force than he wanted, the first aid kit next to him. “I don’t know what’s in here, but it’s gotta be better than nothing,”
“I don’t know,” Eva admitted. She wasn’t sure she had ever admitted that before.
“Do you know where you are?” Ryland was glad to see her more aware than she had been, but she still appeared disoriented.
“Do you know where we are?” Eva shot back, intending it to be snarkier than it came out as a wave of crippling pain rolled over her, her back arching as she tried to escape it. “Ryland I can’t- “
Ryland shot up to kneel by her head, cradling the back of it as she relaxed back to limp, “I know, I know. We’re going to be okay, they’re going to find us, they have to find us,”
“The other car?” Eva asked, having already cycled through all their options for getting help- there weren’t any.
“I- “Ryland stopped, it was the first time he had thought about it, “Not- I don’t think it was there. No, it wasn’t there, it was a truck, it’s gone now,”
“Planned,”
“I still don’t know what you mean Eva,”
Eva groaned in frustration, “Planned, knew we were going to be here,” other wave of pain crashed over her.
Ryland held the back of her head through it, waiting until she had settled back down to grab the first aid kit. “I'm going to grab an ice pack, for your head. I don’t know if it will help but- “he did not address the fact that Eva believed the accident to have been planned, it didn’t matter in that moment, that was for someone to figure out later, after they had been found, after they had gotten Eva to the hospital.
The ice pack seemed stupid given the extent of her injuries, but Eva welcomed the distract that came for the briefest of moments as it made contact with her head.
“Are you able to hold it? Can you move your arm?” Ryland asked.
The answer was yes, upon attempting she was in fact able to move her arm enough to get it over her head and hold the pack into place, but the question brought along something much more pressing, something she had failed to notice until she started testing her limbs. “I can’t feel my leg,”
The words were steady, but Ryland knew that even Eva Stratt would panic if she learned of the state that her leg was in. “It’s shock!” he blurted out, the only explanation that he could think to give her. “It’s just shock,”
Eva wasn’t stupid, she knew that it was more than that, if it was both legs, shock wasn’t so selective. Still, the reassurance was enough in the moment to stop her from having a complete freakout- Eva Stratt did not freak out, not in times of crisis, not when she and her lead scientist were stranded in the backwoods of some city neither of them were familiar enough with.
When Eva did not respond, Ryland spoke again, trying to get the information he needed without causing any more stress. “Is it both legs?” he didn’t know which answer he was hoping for.
“Just my right,” Eva answered, the pain was enough in her left leg that there was no chance she could not feel it, not even the adrenaline pumping rapidly through her body could provide any relief for that kind of pain.
Ryland glanced down, the leg that had been crushed was her left- the one that she could feel- it was a bad sign, and he knew it. Had it been better to get her out of the car? Now that he had slowed down a bit the decision was started to seem stupid. What if he had paralyzed her? She could move her arms, but her lower body… he wasn’t going to ask her to try.
He slipped off his sportscoat, one that he had constantly complained about wearing, and draped it over the crushed leg. He couldn’t do much more, but he could try to protect it from the elements, and more importantly, protect Eva from seeing it.
“How badly are you hurt?” Eva asked after a few moments of silence during which they were both just trying to catch their breath.
Ryland shrugged, which hurt his right shoulder more than he could try and cover up, “I’ve been worse,”
“I doubt that,’ Eva said, eyes turning up at the sky, stars shining through the trees that they were under.
Ryland didn’t say anything.
A moment later, it started to rain.
------
Carl did not believe that he had ever moved so fast as he did when he was informed Stratt and Grace had not arrived at the jet in time, and that the waiting period that was standard had passed.
It was supposed to be a safe event, their security top notch, and a frantic call to the organizers proved that Eva and Grace had in fact made it out of the building and into their ride.
When the SVU he was driving a million miles an hour finally came close enough to spot the wreckage, his heart plummeted, alongside everyone else in the car with him, or in the others behind him.
It was bad, that much was clear. What exactly had taken place could not be made out in the dark, but it didn’t need to be, it was enough that it was there.
Nearly a dozen people jumped out of their cars, running over to the wreckage.
The first person there yelled out that the driver was dead, and just a moment later that the other two were gone.
For a sinking moment, Carl thought me meant they were dead too, but his sprint to the car proved otherwise. “A kidnapping?” he asked, scanning for signs of a random note, but there was nothing there but debris.
“Alright everyone!” he called out, stepping away from the car, “Fan out, search the area in pairs, stay together. If you find anything, radio before doing anything else,”
There were assents all around, and they spread out to find them.
It didn’t take long, and the instant that Carl took the radio call he took off in their direction. When he reached them, they were both unconscious, Eva cradled in Rylands arms, both soaked to the bone from the rain.
------
Three weeks- and several surgeries for both of them later- they were back on the Vatt.
It was far from any kind of triumphant return, but it was good enough for them- for both of them.
Eva would not be able to walk unassisted for a while, and it was likely that her leg would never fully recover, but her mind was back on the project, little else mattered to her anymore.
It was not until another month later that they fight got in a car together again, and though neither of them would show it, the fact they had to be driven through yet more woods did nothing to ease their anxiety’s they were trying oh so hard to cover.
Halfway through the drive, Ryland reached over and gripped Eva’s hand. Eva did not pull away.