ONE

"AHH!"

Winona Arrow's body jolted awake as a familiar scream haunted her memories, her dark eyes becoming wide and frantic, terror evident within them.

She tried to move her body, but she felt as if she was trapped, cables and wires surrounding her weak body, keeping her stuck in the current position that she was in, only able to move her eyes, which were going from side to side frantically.

Crystal clear droplets of water began to form in her eyes, quickly falling down her cheeks until they hit the crisp white sheets surrounding her body. The tears just kept on coming, free falling down her face like a waterfall that wouldn't stop flowing.

She tried to open her mouth to say something, just a painful and scratching feeling leaving her lips for the first couple of moments, until a harsh but quiet sound of sorts managed to escape her.

Nobody was around.

She was alone.

All alone.

"I told you! Hawkeye is the best Avenger!"

The door to the room that she was in opened abruptly, figures walking in during the middle of their conversation, having not noticed how the Arrow woman was awake and unmoving, staring at them in fear.

"He's a man with a bow and arrow! Thor is the God of Thunder!"

"And? They only beat Thanos because Clint was there! They lost the first time without him!"

"H-h, he... help."

The multiple people who had entered the room halted immediately at the sound of a familiar voice, their faces snapping towards the hospital bed where their best friend had been laying for the past two years.

Two whole years.

"Oh my god! You're alive! You're back!"

Aquilles Alleyne practically shouted as he charged straight towards his best friend, tears of joy leaving his dark eyes which had lost their sparkle, since Winona had given them their sparkle and without her, it had vanished.

His arms latched around her upper body, his hands slightly becoming tangled within the mass of wires that had been keeping his best friend alive for the past two years, hugging her as softly as he could but as best he could.

He wanted her to see that he had never stopped loving her, his best friend and sidekick.

She was the Batman to his Robin, which he often tried to dispute but since nearly losing her, he realised that maybe being her Robin wasn't so bad, as long as she was still around, because that was all that he wanted.

The Barbadian sniffled as he cried, having never been so excited to see anybody in his entire life.

His hands began to shake in relief at seeing her awake, having spent so many months of the past two years sitting by her beside waiting patiently, hoping, that she would be strong enough to pull through.

"You have no idea how many headaches I've had from putting up with him."

Safa Daraghmeh rolled her eyes with large smile upon her face, a smile of hope, happiness and relief at seeing her best friend staring back at her.

She had almost forgotten how beautiful Winona's eyes were.

Safa remembered vividly the day where their world had crumbled, being contacted after finding out that Winona had been in a car accident and hadn't woken up, wondering for just how long could she hold on for until her body gave up and she left them.

They had all gotten their flights to see her at the hospital, having been told that the other people within the car had not survived the accident.

Her mother, who had been in the back seat behind the driver, having bled out before help had arrived to save them.

Her father, who had been beside his wife also in the back seat though behind the passenger seat instead, who had tried to shield his wife and daughter with his own body, dying within seconds.

Her boyfriend, who had been the driver of the car, had taken the brunt of the crash, the power of the train hitting them as were unmoving on the train tracks being too much for his body to bare.

And her.

Safa and her friends, they all thought that they knew that Winona Arrow would not survive, just waiting for the inevitable, though it never came. She clung on by the smallest of margins, fighting with just enough energy to keep her alive, and they were so glad that she had done so.

Because she was here, with them.

It had taken two very long years, it had taken twenty four months, three weeks and six days. Seven hundred and forty seven days.

But she was back.

Winona's lips twitched up ever so slightly, her index finger weakly tightening around the finger of the Alleyne man.

As she opened her mouth in another attempt to speak, a cough sounded from the door, a nurse entering the room, surprise at how she was awake having expected her to still be deep in her comatose state.

The two friends of Winona side stepped to allow the doctors and nurses to check over their best friend, removing the wires and making sure that she had not lost the feeling in her body, whilst also helping to make her more comfortable and sitting upright.

"I can't wait to tell the others." Aquilles whispered to his friend as Safa stood beside him, rolling her eyes once more.

"Just let them find out themselves. They wouldn't believe you, trust me." Safa chuckled, her cheeks aching from her constant smiling, though she didn't mind the slight pain as it was only because Winona was now awake.

The duo waited for all the doctors and nurses to leave the hospital room before they moved towards her bedside, Aquilles' hand immediately finding the hand of his best friend, squeezing it lightly.

"H-how l-long?"

Winona Arrow strained as she forced herself to talk, her throat incredibly sore from not having used it for two years.

"You, uh... you-" Aquilles trailed off nervously, not sure how she would take the news at her having lost two years of her life just like that.

"H-how l-long Q-Quill?"

"Two years."

A small pained sob left her lips as she turned her head slightly away from her best friends, struggling to take in the news of how long she had been laying in a bed fighting for her life.

"Your car was stuck on a train crossing, you were hit by a train and we really thought that you we had lost you, Win." Safa spoke up instead of the Alleyne man who seemed to be struggling with having to break the news to her, holding back his tears.

"M-mom? D-dad?"

"They were in the car with you, as was Dean." The Daraghmeh woman took a deep breath as she was about to rip the band aid off, about to tell her that she was the only survivor.

"They didn't make it, Winnie." Aquilles let out a pained cry as the words left his lips, feeling the woman behind him squeezing at his shoulder to comfort him.

Winona Arrow turned her head to face up at the ceiling as the words clicked in her brain, she knew what that meant.

Tears fell from her eyes and ran down her cheeks as she squeezed her irises shut, hoping that when she opened them again that it would all be a sick joke and her parents would walk in to the family home with smiles on their faces.

But when she did inevitably open them again, it was just the exact same nightmare, except it was very real.

The crystal clear teardrops fell at a much more rapid and frantic speed than previously, the Native American girl allowing her body to shake as she cried, wanting nothing more than to have her beloved parents by her side, but she couldn't have that.

They were dead.

Her breathing was quick and ragged, had enough that her friends were so very close to sprinting out of her hospital room in an attempt to find a doctor, but it wasn't something that they could help with and they knew it.

She had just found out that her parents were dead, her boyfriend too. She had just found out that for the last two years of her life, she had been laying unresponsive in a bed attached to machines and wires, instead of being out and living her life.

Everything that she had known had been flipped on to its head and they didn't quite know how they were going to help her get through it.

What could they say? They couldn't make it better, the pain hurt less. They just had to be there to hug her and comfort her and love her like they always had and what they had always done even whilst she was almost in the land of the dead.

Her heart ached as she cried, memories flashing in her head of parents laughter and smiles, their kind and loving selves, ripped so harshly and abruptly from the world that they had only wanted to help fix.

How would she go on without them? How could she go back to the family home without them?

The place would be so empty. She could barely even consider it a home nowadays, no not any more, instead it was simply just a building.

Just an empty building that she wanted no part in.

She stayed like that for the rest of the night, crying hysterically and grieving her losses, with only the hugs and comfort given to her by her best friends keeping her from falling back in to a state of unconsciousness which she wouldn't wake up from a second time.

"We're here, Winnie, we're right here."

____________________________________________________

A/N

Introduction chapter here and I can't wait to write this, I am so excited!!

What do you think??

This is gonna be depressing for a while as she has to adjust but eventually she'll learn to accept it and live with her loss.

Also, everybody please remember, all eyes on Rafah!!! ❤️

Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy this introduction chapter and I'll see you all soon for the next one,

I'm so proud of all of you, my loves

Love you all,

-RUBY 🇵🇸🇨🇩