Crashed into Love: Boxed Set (24 page)

S
apphire eyes.

In the swarming chaos and overwhelming sickness, I
latched onto those eyes with all my strength. My body was bruised, battered by
some unseen force. My head thundered with agony and the tiny zinging shocks ran
along my veins, sparking in my fingertips.

What the fuck happened?

Last thing I knew I was on the beach, wretched. Nina
died in my arms. My own pains dismissed compared to the heart-crippling pain
that she’d gone.

I’d screamed and shouted, locals had come running.
But before they reached me, wooziness took hold. The ocean was no longer
placid, but broiling with disaster. The ground shook and chasmed, whisking me
from lucidness to the sterile white noise and electricity.

My brain was in two halves, unable to sew together
what I saw through murky eyes and where I was just a moment ago.

“Liam.” Nina’s voice was different: Cracked. Brittle.
I blinked to dispel the film obstructing my vision. It was as if I was under
water and it was full of silt and pond sludge.

A door slammed open. “He’s awake. Turn that damn
thing off.”

Light, lyrical voice. Joslyn.

She was here, too? Where the hell was here? I tried
to move, but my back snarled, and my head threatened to black out.

Nina wobbled beside me, bracing herself against my
chest. Her hands were cold; she looked like a ghost with matted copper hair,
draping hospital gown, and her blue eyes that kept me centred and sane.

My heart tried to launch itself out of my useless
body to go to her. I needed to touch her, prove to myself she was alive. What
was real? Antiseptic and whiteness, or tropicalness and colour?

“What…?” I swallowed against the gravel in my
throat.

Joslyn appeared in my vision, obstructing the white
fluorescent lights from above. “You’re in a Samoan hospital, Liam. Just rest.
Everything is okay.”

A nurse pulled Nina off me and pushed her onto a bed
not far away. Even though she was close, the loss of her hurt all over again.

Joslyn took the place of the nurse once Nina was
safely under the sheets. 

I tiled my head, grinding my teeth against the
incessant hammering in my skull to keep both of them in my murky vision.

Slowly, more detail made its way to my brain. Nina
was a wreck. Her face and arms were covered in scrapes and bruises. A brace and
bandage wrapped around her neck.

Joslyn wasn’t much better. Her normal blonde hair
ragged and unkempt. One of her eyes ringed with heavy shadows, and I winced
when my gaze travelled down and noticed her entire left leg was in a cast.

Doctors darted around us, checking my vitals and
murmuring their finds. It all pointed to hospital. But how did that make sense?
We were just on the beach. 

Nina looked as freaked out as I felt. My brain
pounded and didn’t have enough space inside to unravel the situation in front
of us.

Joslyn clasped hands with Nina, then did the same
with mine. Squeezing, she sucked in a breath. “I thought I lost both of you. I
can’t believe you’re awake.”

I held my own breath, drinking in the sight of her.
Her temple had a row of neat black stitches, and her crutches leaned against
the bottom of my bed.

Then, it hit me.

In a series of catastrophic mini explosions, as if a
building inside me was being demolished and razed to the ground, I remembered.

Boom
. We crashed.

Slam
. It was worse
than we thought.

Wham.
We hadn’t
walked away and enjoyed an island holiday.

Nina sobbed beside me, realization colliding into
her as it tore me apart.

She asked, “The crash… it wasn’t a simple skid along
the runway, was it?”

Joslyn hung her head. “What do you remember?”

Nina eyes swimming with worry shot in my direction.
Did it mean everything we went through together... the connection we built… the
waterfall… the night in our fales…was that all in my head? A coma-fantasy? My
heart died in that moment, and I wished I’d never awoken to this shattered
reality.

Swallowing my despair, I answered, “Nothing. I
remember nothing.” How could I explain that I knew so much about her? How did I
know Nina had a small birth mark right by her belly button? Or that she
comforted me when Nikolai and I told her the truth. Oh God, was Nikolai here, too?
Why was he in my coma-fantasy?

Nina winced. Was she wincing because of the brace
around her neck and her injuries, or something else? I stared at her with all
my strength, trying to understand.

Joslyn tugged her hands free and rummaged in her
pocket. Holding a piece of paper up, she showed me first.

My breath turned to icicles in my lungs, arctic wind
whistled in my body.

It was a newspaper article. It was crinkled and
torn, looking old, rather than breaking news. “How old is this?”

She wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I’ll tell you after
you’ve read it.”

On Tuesday, 3
^rd
of March, Kiwi Air 93, on
route from Sydney to Samoa, suffered a series of malfunctions approximately two
hundred kilometres from their final destination.

The pilots, Captain John Anderson and co-pilot Liam
Mikin, dealt with utmost professionalism and skill. According to passengers who
survived the crash, they suffered a severe descent, along with extreme
turbulence.

The plane was flown to Samoa, despite the issues. A
distress call was registered with air traffic control at 1610 hours.

Mack Collins, head traffic controller had this to
say:

“It was like a meteorite slammed into the earth.
I’ve never heard the crunch of metal so loud in my life. The aircraft turned
into a tin can and the runway was the can opener. The left engine hit tarmac as
the wing tore off and exploded, sending wreckage and shrapnel into the cabin.
It took three fire engines to dampen the blaze.

After talking to John Anderson and Liam Mikin over
the frequency as they prepared to land, I know how hard they were both working
to stay airborne. Everyone who survived owes their life to them.”

Kiwi Air has begun the investigation into what
caused the malfunction and ultimately the crash of KA93.

Out of the one hundred and thirty-seven souls on
board, not including the crew, eighty-eight survived.

A special remembrance service was held last Saturday
for the two crew members who lost their lives.
 

My head slammed against the pillow.
Ouch.
My
hand shot to my hairline, finding it heavily wrapped in bandages. A constant
ache throbbed beneath it, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the headaches I’d had
by the waterfall or on the beach.

I swallowed hard. I already knew who died.

“What is it? Can I read it?” Nina asked, awkwardly
reaching for it, despite being restricted with her neck brace.

Joslyn plucked the article from my numb fingers and
passed it to Nina.

Captain Anderson and Samantha were dead. I knew that
with terrible certainty. It didn’t explain what they were doing in my coma. How
did I conjure such a life like reality when I was knocked out for God knows how
long?

Nina sucked in a watery breath as she finished
reading. “Anderson and Samantha. They’re dead. Aren’t they?”

My eyes narrowed. She guessed, too. How did she know?
Did she suffer the same visions when she was knocked out? How long had she been
asleep? I needed to know more. Lying in a backless hospital gown weak as a
kitten wasn’t cutting it.

Something niggled me. Sam and Anderson… they were in
my dream-coma… and then they…left.

I reached out, paying for my fast movement with
jagged spasms of pain. I grabbed Joslyn’s hand. Dates. I didn’t have a
timeline. “Did Sam and Anderson die at the crash or at hospital?” If it was at
hospital, perhaps I wasn’t as out of it as I thought. Somehow that knowledge
filtered into my dream world.

Joslyn’s eyes brimmed with unshed tears. “They died
the following evening. Almost at the same time.”

I stole a glance at Nina, bracing myself as hope
flared inside me. If I’d picked up on that, perhaps I wasn’t so alone. Was she
there after all? Did she live through what I did? What if everything
had
happened between us?

Nina didn’t look at me. Instead, she plucked the
bedspread, her head cocked at an angle from the brace. “Were they in pain?”

“I’m not sure. I was in and out of conscious myself,
but from the reports Samantha died of internal bleeding, and Anderson died from
a brain haemorrhage.” They never woke from the crash. I like to think they just
drifted off in their sleep, oblivious, and softened with morphine.”

Two nurses pressed closer, checking their watches.

Joslyn gave us a sad smile. “Anyway, I need to let
you rest. Now you’re awake, the doctors will want to do tests; make sure you’re
okay.”

I didn’t want her to go, she was the link to this
nightmare I’d awoken in, but I smiled and nodded. “Thanks for staying with us.”

Nina burst out. “How long have we been unconscious?”

Joslyn retreated to the end of the bed, before
saying, “Twenty-two days.”

T
wenty-two days? That
didn’t add up in my little fantasy world. The world where I fell for Liam and
enjoyed the most amazing time of my life. The world where I wasn’t barred from
being my true self—the girl who chased what she wanted. 

It was all fiction.

Every touch.

Every caress.

It was all make-believe. A trick, a fairytale my
brain conjured from fabrication.

I couldn’t look Liam in the eye. What if he thought
I was a freak who woke up in love with him? Maybe I
was
a freak? I
created a better world than the one I lived while in a coma.

Liam shifted beside me.

I froze, not knowing what to do. If I looked at him,
he’d know I loved him, but… he’d reacted to my voice and came back, even when
the paddles weren’t working. Why, after twenty-two days, did we both need
resuscitating, at the exact same moment? What changed?

“Nina?”

I twisted to look at him, hissing in a breath at the
restriction of the stupid neck brace. I wanted to tear it off. The more I
moved, the more lubrication settled into my joints. It was better to suffer
discomfort rather than waste away on a bed.

His eyes swirled with emotion, warring with hope and
despair. I knew my own would be identical. Did we share the same thoughts? The
same love and connection? Is that why we fell so fast and furiously for each
other? Reality wasn’t barring us. Our souls were the only things alive and
communicating. Could that even
happen
?

“Was it real?” I whispered, my heart trying to
escape through my feet.

Liam sucked in a breath. “God, I hope so.”

Our gazes connected. I couldn’t look away. It was
now or never. “If I said to you, waterfall… you would say?”

“That it was the best afternoon of my life as I
kissed you for the first time.”

My heart stopped, and I couldn’t do anything but
stare.
Oh my God.

Liam shuffled higher against his pillows, confidence
and barely-muted excitement starting to glow. “If I said to you kamikaze, what
would you say?”

I closed my eyes, remembering every moment of that
night. The orgasm gift he gave me and then replacing the fear of the crash with
the starlit escapade. “I’d say it was the best night of my life, and the moment
when I fell in love with you.”

He tensed, hands fisting on the sheets. “It’s true.
Is all of it real? How is this possible?”

The large door swung inward just as I tried to come
up with a rational response. A dark-skinned doctor arrived. A stethoscope
dangled around her neck, and her hair was coiled in an intricate design.

“Liam Mikin, I’d like to talk to you. I need to go
through your injuries and your rehabilitation. The nurses have checked your
vitals and you’re defying all odds, considering you’ve been in a coma for
twenty-two days.”

Liam shot me a look.

My heart bounced. Somehow we found each other, even
when lying inert in the same room recuperating.

His jaw tensed. “I have a few questions of my own.”

The doctor nodded for two men to come in with
wheelchairs. “I’m sure you do, as must Nina Poppins. That’s why I want to talk
to you sooner, rather than later. It’s a rather unusual circumstance.”

An orderly parked the chair by my bed and ripped
back the sheets to help me into it. Liam suffered the same treatment, moving
gingerly with a little help to plonk into the chair. We were a right pair.

Once I was settled, the orderly pushed me toward the
door. Liam and my wheels collided and I laughed, ignoring the shoots of pain
and discomfort. I was alive. Liam loved me. Whatever else happened, I could
handle it knowing Liam was mine.

The chair rolled forward, but Liam lashed out.
“Stop.”’

I knew what he wanted. It was what I’d been wanting
since the moment I opened my eyes. With awkward stiff movements, we leaned into
each other and hugged. His arm banded around me, making me safe, while his
warmth through the thin nightgown seeped into me. He whispered against my ear.
“I love you. This may be the only time I’ve hugged you in this form, but I’ve
touched every part of you in my subconscious.”

My chest swelled with surreal happiness. “I love
you, too.”

When we pulled apart, the doctor clutched the
clipboard against her chest. “I didn’t want to believe it, but against all
science, I think it’s true. Come.” She held open the door so the orderly could
push us through. “I think it’s time we talked. I have lots to ask.”

I had a feeling whatever happened between Liam and I
was not normal. Every meter we rolled down a yellow painted corridor, I tried
to understand it myself, but no logical explanation came. Liam and I lived in a
world, created by us. Anderson and Samantha shared our world before they died.
Joslyn shared our world, which made sense if she was unconscious after the crash
with her injuries. What didn’t make any sense, and made my brain hurt trying to
figure it out, was what was Nikolai doing there? I didn’t know him. He was a
guy I danced with. If the confession about Charlotte was true, that was Liam’s
doing. Was he so churned up with guilt he needed his own subconscious to grant
him absolution? 

We turned into a room with a bunch of electronic
equipment and a tunnel that I thought was a cat scan or MRI.

We were pushed to the centre, in front of a desk
with light boxes glowing with brain scans.

The doctor appeared behind us and sat, her clipboard
sounding loud against the desk in the hushed world of technology and medical
apparatus.

An itch drove me nuts under my brace and anxious
fingers found the Velcro and ripped it off.

Liam curled his lip. “Are you sure you should do
that?”

The doctor raised an eyebrow. “How does your neck
feel? We were concerned your spine was broken. Luckily, it was just heavily
bruised.”

I tested, gingerly. Rolling my neck and looking left
and right. The pain was bearable, nothing worse than what I dealt with in
coma-Samoa. “It’s fine. I’d prefer to leave it off, if that’s okay?”

The doctor smiled. “Sure. I know how uncomfortable
those things are.” She sighed. “It’s rather unconventional to get you out of
bed so soon after waking, but it’s best to encourage blood flow and ensure you
are grounded firmly in this reality. I say that as a few times we tried to bring
you back, but were unsuccessful. You fought,” she smiled, “both of you.”

Liam reached out and took my hand. My skin sparked
with awareness and I drank him in. He was skinnier than he’d been in Sydney,
and the tan I was used to seeing was replaced with a soft cream.

“I think I remember. I had a dream. It was stark and
white and I hated it. I awoke to heat and island sun, then went for a morning
swim.” He raised my hand to kiss the back of it, directly on top of the IV
puncture wound. “That was the morning you brought me breakfast, and I knew I’d
never be able to let you go.”

My body melted. He’d been perfect in my dream, and
now perfect in reality.

The doctor shifted, a sad, soft smile on her face.

Concern whittled along my spine, turning my sappy
happiness into tension. There was something she hadn’t told us.

Liam frowned, picking up whatever vibe I gave off.

Running a hand over her face, the doctor said, “I
suppose we’ll begin. The sooner I ask my questions and catalogue your
experiences, the sooner I can let you rest.” She picked up a folder and pulled
out a sheet of paper. “My name is Alea Ali’tasi. I was the doctor on call when
your flight crashed at 1650 hours.” Her face fell, remembering what we
couldn’t. “Ambulances started arriving not long after, and the hospital was
overrun with burn victims, broken limbs, and casualties. You were brought in
separately. Nina, you were brought in with Samantha. We didn’t think you’d make
it. We suspected you had a broken neck and internal bleeding.”

Liam and I shared another look, full of horror. No
wonder my mind decided to pack up and go on holiday. 

Doctor Ali’tasi carried on, “Liam, you were brought
in a few hours later once the flight deck could be reached. According to the
fire brigade, the entire front half of the plane was engulfed with flames. You
sustained a few injuries being dragged through the cockpit window.”

Liam bit his lip, eyes far away, probably trying to
remember. I hoped he couldn’t, it sounded horrific. 

“The next day, the hospital calmed enough for us to
assign rooms and decide who needed intensive care. We were short staffed and
overrun with patients, so we placed all the Kiwi Air crew into one room.” Her
throat contracted as she swallowed.

My back straightened; she was getting to the good
stuff.

“I was updating our records on your conditions and
noticed something…” Gazing at us, she continued, “You were next to each other,
with John Anderson and Samantha Wiggins against the opposite wall. Joslyn
Duncan refused a bed once she recovered from her brief unconsciousness, and was
content in the La-Z-Boy provided for relatives.” She laughed softly, her
professional edge slipping a little. “You have one tenacious sister, Liam.”

A fond smile brightened his face. “Don’t I know it.”

Looking less like a doctor and more like an awed
spectator, Alea said, “The strange thing was, when I took note of your heart
rate and brain activity monitors they were the same.”

“The same?” My fingers latched tighter around
Liam’s.

She nodded. “Almost identical.” Shoving the two
folders at us, she added, “Here, take a look at this before I explain. You can
see proof.”

I looked at the printed graph paper. Lots of
straight lines and squibbles stared back. I knew I held recorded data, but it
didn’t really mean much when I couldn’t speak medical jargon.

I looked over at Liam’s. It was the same. Right down
to the small crest in one loop and jagged dip in another.

The doctor leaned over and followed a squibbly line
with her fingertip. “See how the output is identical?”

Liam began to shake, the paper rattled in his hands.
“So not only was it all real in our minds, but it was real in our physical
bodies, too?”

I knew I was looking at something amazing, but my
mind was sluggish.

Alea smiled with such wonderment, I almost fell off
my chair. “In my nineteen years of practicing medicine, I’ve never come across
this before.” Her eyes flashed with interest. “You shared brain synapses. Your
minds
linked.
I don’t know how and would need to do years of study to
understand it, but you’re a medical miracle.” Looking down at the charts, she
added, “These are your brain frequencies. You hold Liam’s, Nina, and Liam holds
yours.”

Liam shook even harder, his head whipping to look at
both. His eyes darted to the timeline on the bottom, but it was in code. If we
were out of it for twenty-two days, how did it seem like only three in
coma-world?

“So everything we experienced. You can see that on
these charts? How do you read it?”

Alea shook her head. “Sorry, forgive me.” Her voice
rose in excitement, pointing at the paper in my hands. “See here… this section
represents a lot of stimuli. I’m guessing you were doing something adrenaline
inducing or out of your comfort zone. We see patterns like this in REM sleep
when the person is dreaming of something exciting. Do you recall anything like
that?”

Liam locked eyes with me. I shrugged. There were a
few instances where my heart rate excelled, but the only thing adrenaline
inducing was the flying in the crop-duster.

Liam answered for both of us. “I think I know what
we were doing.”

Alea beamed. “Do you know what he’s referencing,
without being told, Nina?”

I nodded, whispering under my breath, “Kamikaze.”

Confusion raised her eyebrow, but she just pointed
to another section of waves. They were mellow, soft, with sharp spikes in rapid
succession.

“This tells me that you felt great emotion.” Her
tone softened. “I’m guessing you had sex, or were intimate in some way.”

My cheeks reddened, quickly scanning the page for
more tell-tale loops and swirls of my sex life.

Liam chuckled. “It tells you that?”

Alea smiled. “Do you mind if I ask you a personal
question? Did you two have a physical relationship before the crash?”

Liam looked at me, allowing me to answer. “No. We
only flew together a day before the crash. I’m good friends with Joslyn, but I
didn’t really know Liam…” Now I knew how he smelled, tasted, reacted. All of it
garnered from our minds. It was so odd to think I’d shared everything with him
and yet we’d only touched chastely in real life.

Alea tapped a finger against her lip. “That is
strange you bonded so strongly subconsciously then. I’ve been researching this
phenomenon, and the only thing I came across was a reference to a couple who’d
been married for fifty-three years. Their brain patterns adapted into
cohabitation, showing the more humans are around their mate, the more in tune
they are.”