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Chaos.
The van attack created absolute chaos in the city of Toronto.
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Jessica spent too long processing that the van was driving straight towards her. She wasn't acting fast enough, since she was more confused than anything.
The rough pull of her sweater sleeve and hair brought her out of her daze as she tumbled to the sidewalk. Her sweater sleeve ripped from the friction of landing on the pavement and from the harsh pull on the fabric. Someone fell with her because she felt their leg under her body. Her left side was beat up from the fall.
The van missed by only a couple of inches.
Jessica stared at the sidewalk she had just been walking along; her belongings were scattered across the sidewalk and street, her purse had been run over by the van and was a few feet away. She didn't know where half her purse had ended up.
Her jeans had ripped along her hip from the impact of her fall, her arm was scraped and sweater completely wrecked; but she was alive.
"Are you okay?" The person who made to standup from half underneath her asked. His suit had been wrecked also.
Jessica nodded. "Yeah," The two helped each other stand up. "I think I am- Thank you."
He nodded. "Sorry, I think I grabbed your hair-" He began to apologize and Jessica stopped him.
She hugged the stranger, tears forming in her eyes. "Thank you. Don't apologize, you saved my life."
They stayed like that for a moment, each finally understanding that they both almost died. The gentleman moved to back away. Jessica couldn't help but feel as if she knew him. "Do you need an ambulance?"
Jessica shook her head, "I don't think so. Just scraped my arm bad. Could have been a lot worse. " She shuddered at the thought before she heard someone yelling. "Do I know you?"
"Maybe from another life," his answer was cryptic and Jessica couldn't help but feel as if she knew his eyes. They felt familiar.
"Jessica!" Steve's voice rang through her ears. She recognized a figure running towards her. He stopped when he was a few feet away and stared before looking up at the sky. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
"Steve? What are doing?" Jessica asked and approached him.
"I'm thanking God for keeping you alive, it was my fault you left the office for lunch and I watched that van plow down the sidewalk. I thought you might have-" Steve shook his head and grabbed Jessica's shoulders . "You're alive. That's what's important." He hugged her and she started to cry.
"Steve you've ruined my makeup," She joked. "I'm only alive because of this man-" Jessica turned to ask suit guy for his name, but he was already gone. "Where did he go?"
"Let's get you to a doctor, your arm is bad," Steve commented. Jessica's left arm was bleeding a little.
Jessica shook her head. "Take me back to my place, I'll bandage it myself and see a doctor is a few days. Let the more serious injuries see a doctor with less wait."
Steve considered what she said. "Okay. I'm parked at the restaurant, we're gonna have to walk back they've shut down the street I think."
"Okay. I wanna grab my purse though, I dropped it."
She grabbed her purse and any of the contents that she could find that had spilled out. Her entire body was shaking and she hadn't noticed until now. Her breathing was heavy and she quickly ran back to Steve with only half her things. "Actually I just wanna get out of here, I have my wallet so let's go."
Steve nodded and the two slowly made their way back to Steve's car. Earning a few sympathetic states along the way as people began to realize what had happened.
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Auston ran a hand through his hair and waited. His phone was glued to his hand as he searched for information about the attack, any news was important to him.
Mitch and William sat with him in he dressing room, no one talked as Auston waited for a police officer to call back if he found Jessica at the scene anywhere.
He read articles that contained little information, but it was all the information that was available. More and more injuries and death tolls were being reported and Auston felt sick knowing Jessica might be one of them.
"You should talk to Babs-" Mitch started off talking before stopping because of the glare he got from Auston.
"Mitchy is right. You're in no condition to play," William concluded, even though Auston just wanted them to shut up.
The game was the last thing he cared about.
"Her phone was lying on the sidewalk where a van killed people, people like her who were just walking to get lunch probably," Auston's glare softened and he looked back at his phone. "I should've taken her out for lunch, then she would have never been on that sidewalk.
"No but you might have been standing in front of her work waiting for her," Mitch commented. "What good is thinking of the worst when you aren't sure of the worst right now."
"A cop answered her phone Mitch-"
"So she dropped it when she got out of the way and never found it?" He suggested. William nodded a little in agreement with Mitch.
"It's been almost three hours why hasn't she looked for her phone yet?" Auston's voice was quiet. He hadn't cried a lot but the longer it went without hearing from her the more he felt he needed to cry. "Why hasn't she called?"
Auston's phone began ringing from an unknown number and Auston stared at it. "What if it's the cop and he's found her but she's-" he stopped and stared at his phone wondering if he should answer it.
"Answer it anyways. You'll need to know," William whispered since the locker room felt quieter, with the exception of the loud ringing.
"Hello?" Auston's voice was strained and worried. He couldn't help how he sounded; he was sick with worry.
"Aus?" Jessica's voice was quiet through the phone.
He was silent. He couldn't believe it was her, it felt like a sick joke. He couldn't find words and instead started crying.
"Auston. Don't cry, I'm okay. I'm a little bruised up but I'm okay," Jessica tried to reassure him through the phone. She hadn't realized this had put him through as much as it had.
William and Mitch looked at one another, trying to decide what they should do about their friend.
"Auston-" she started to talk again.
He took a deep breath to stop crying. "Jessica," he finally found his voice. "I thought- Your phone- I didn't know if- You're okay, you're really okay?" Auston stuttered on the phone.
"I'm really okay," she felt herself wanting to cry again. It was like when she called her mother with Steve's phone; she cried with her mom because her mother thought Jessica had been hurt badly.
"I've been worried," Auston whispered. "A cop answered your phone and I thought he found it because you were dead."
"Auston..." Jessica trailed off. She had no words.
"I thought I had lost you," he swallowed hard. "I thought I'd lost you."
"You didn't, I'm gonna fine in a few days. Just a scrape," Jessica replied. "You don't have to worry."
Auston stayed silent on the phone with her for a minute just listening to her breath. He needed to hear that she was breathing.
"Are you at home?" He asked. The game was tonight but he needed to see her.
"I am," she replied. "Steve is here helping wrap my arm up," she informed him.
"I'm coming over," He had already gotten up and was heading through the hallways to get to his parked car. "I need to see you."
"Okay. I'll be right here waiting for you," she assured him. She felt he needed the assurance that she wasn't going anywhere.
"I'll be there soon," he replied and waited for her to hang up.
In his car he simply sat in the drivers seat and stared out the window; he wasn't sure if he need a shot of vodka, two days of sleep, or a burger. He leaned his forehead against his hands on the steering wheel.
A few minutes later he started driving, heading towards Jessica apartment.
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a/n
unedited.
also Tampa won their series against Boston 4-1, now time for Vegas to close their series tonight.