Jace drifted in the darkness and cold. Somehow finding it peaceful. He'd always loved the darkness and had always found the cold refreshing. Slowly memories returned and with a cold splash of water on his face Jace jolted awake to find himself alone in his seat.<span style="font-style: italic">Oh dear lord.</span>"MELISSA!" he thought at first and his thoughts ended in a terrifying scream of the single important name. The total chaos around him didn't seem to matter. The fact that he was waist deep in water didn't seem to matter. The fact that it sounded like the plane was about to explode didn't matter. Malissa was missing and he didn't know where she was. As quick as his cold and shocked fingers would allow he managed to get the seatbelt off. His ears still ringing from lord only knew what he stumbled towards the opening that yawned like the mouth of hell before him. Ocean. Ocean and bodies. That's all he saw. Maybe Melissa was amongst them. Maybe he'd find her there. Wherever she was she wasn't in the plane. A quick glance as he made his stumbling way had told him as much. He had no idea how long he'd been out. Or how long the plane would hold together.<br/><br/>Shaking, frightened and cold. Lost and confused and terrified and with only one single thought he dove into the water. Melissa. He had to find her. He had to... The thought broke off as an all too familiar head appeared in view swimming frantically away from him. The ten seconds of relief he had coursed through him before he took off towards her. His head pounding a steady rhythm in his skull. The pounding of his heart against all odds still beating. He was not in shape enough for this. He knew he was not going to get far enough away as the plane tilted. He only hoped that Melissa made it away. Everything he had left in him was slowly bleeding out in strained muscles and pounding head. He was just not strong enough. For her he had to be. He struggled and fought as hard as he could to make it to Melissa before the plane hit the water, but he couldn't. The first fall under the water seemed to never end. Dragging him down. Down down down. And darkness.<br/><br/>Jace slowly woke up. To the icy feel of water lapping against his legs. Certain that he was dead he shot up into a sitting position and regretted the movement almost instantly. The world spun around in a dizzying mass of brown and blue. And he fell backwards. Laying on his back staring up at the expense of spinning blueness. Everything was just so perfectly blue and his head hurt like hell. He wondered where he was and why he wasn't dead. For surely dead men didn't hurt so bloody much. Everything hurt. His lungs burned. His chest felt like it was stripped bare of skin and outer limbs felt like they weigh three thousand pounds. Overall he wanted nothing more than to lie here and sleep. Oh did his head ever hurt. He brought his hand up only to feel a trickle of thicker wetness. He had no doubt it would be blood and water mixed. Sure enough it was. Blood from his hair. He didn't even know if it was his. He didn't really care at this point.<br/><br/>Slowly pushing himself back up until he was sitting. His legs were in the water and he was on a beach. He looked around very slowly to keep the world from tumbling around in a kaleidoscope of insanity. He felt mildly sick, but didn't care. He needed to find Melissa. To see if she had survived. Tears stung his eyes at the thought. He swallowed the sudden lump in his throat when he heard her voice. Oh gods she was alive. He pushed himself up. Looking everywhere for her. He saw her. Just a few feet from him. He stumbled and staggered and fell down almost on top of her. "Melissa," he called and promptly lay back down on the sand with a moan.  "ow" he mumbled as he pressed his hand into his face.