Anyway, about a week later Jack and Spot forced her outside "for her own good". Race dragged her along with him when he went selling. She didn't have to try to sell, but they wanted her to at least get outside and get some fresh air. She was very obviously unhappy about it. Even so, all went well, with the exception of Pandas aversion to crowds, until that evening. Sometime around seven o'clock, when they were heading back to the Lodging House, Panda silently and unknowingly stepped out in front of a horse and cart, not having seen it or heard it, because she was thinking of something else.

She turned around just in time to see the runaway cart barraling towards her. The horse, being unable to avoid Panda, ran directly into her.
Then, frightened, he reared several times, coming down on Pandas helpless body repeatedly with his
hooves. After a few moments, he went tearing madly down the road.

Race ran up to Panda and knelt down. To his horror, he saw a great deal of blood. He knew he had to get Panda to the hospital, and fast, but he just stared in shock. After a moment, he snapped out of it, picked her up carefully, and took of, hurrying to the nearest FACE="Times New Roman,Times">As he was trotting along, all of the sudden something that nearly caused him to drop her happened. She started twitching, and then moaning. She opened her mouth, and said in a tiny, quiet voice "No! Please, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! Don't put me there again, I'm scared, Daddy!"
This actually stopped Race in his tracks. He stood there stunned, for close to a minute, then he remembered what he was supposed to be doing, and he kept on towards the hospital.

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Once at the hospital, Race attempted to locate a doctor. When he finally found one, he turned Panda
over to a nurse, and quickly explained the situation.

After about an hour of waiting, the doctor came out. "In over twenty years of medicine I don't think
I've ever seen anything quite like this."

"Wasamatta?" asked Race nervously.

"Well, she was so distraught that we had to sedate her. She was very loud, and having apparently
graphic nightmares of sorts. From what I can put togethor, her father was abusive, and then she somehow ended up on the street, where she was abused in more ways than one."

"But like I said before, she wasn't supposed to be able to talk. Dat means she lied to me, don't it?"

"Most likely she really doesn't think she can talk. Sometimes, on rare occasions, which the body finds
traumatic, they attempt to block out memories, and things like that, and something goes wrong. They lose other things, speech being the most common. Under normal circumstances, eventually it comes
back slowly, as the memories would have, if the brain had done what it was supposed to. I would
recommend you not tell her this, seeing as how even simply the knowledge of this could upset her greatly. And if possible, tell as few people as possible, so she's not treated any differently if she wakes up."

"Um, wow, ok, I won't tell no one, but - woah! Wait a minute, what do you mean IF she wakes up?"

"Well thats what I was going to tell you. She has lost a lot of blood due to injuries on the surface, not to mention internal bleeding. Like in a lot of cases, the first twenty-four hours are critical. As of now, I'd say she has a fifty-fifty chance. We've done all we can, I'm sorry." Then he left.

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"GUYS!!!!" Race ran into the Lodging House screaming. "GUYS!!!! Pandas in the hospital!!!"

Blink's head jerked up from the paper he was reading "Huh!?"

Jack's face took on a shocked expression "What?"

Race panted, out of breath. "Yeah, she went out in front of a horse, and got ran over, an now she's in da hospital, an dey don't know if she's gonna - dey don't know what's gonna happen!"

Everyone knew what he was going to say, so they were all silent for a moment. Finally Dusk stood
up. "I'm goin ta go over there an' see her, who's comin' wit' me?"

Everyone in the room got up to go. "Ok, I don't think their gonna allow twenty people in dere at
once," said Race hesitantly.

"Well then their just gonna have ta make an exception," said Dusk simply as she walked out.

Everyone followed her, and fifteen minutes later there was a long line of unhappy newsies marching along down the street. Some of them didn't even know Panda, but that didn't matter, she was one
of them now, and she was hurt. No one needed to know anything else.

**********************************************************************************

Everything was messed up. Things were distorted, and she was having a problem with her eyes. Not
to mention a headache, so severe she thought her head was going to split in two. She was having trouble keeping her eyes open, and her eyelids were heavy. She felt like she had cotton in her mouth, her whole body ached and she felt all around the worst she had ever felt.

She blinked several times, and the clouds in front of her slowly started to part, and she saw faces through her hazed vision. She saw the relieved face of Crutchy first, then Jack, then Dusk, then Race. And she could see several others behind them, and even more out in the hallway, as her vision got clearer.

"Geez, ya scared us!" said Crutchy, obviously relieved.

At the sound of Crutchy's voice, the rest of the people in the room came over and crowded around the
bed. Several called for the others out in the hallway, and they crowed in as well. Everyone was talking and yelling, and worst of all, they were all looking at her.

She tried to close her mind, but all the images came to her as if it had been yesterday, being mugged by a common criminal with a knife, and raped by a police officer with a gun.
No, these people were definitely no good, they wanted something, she just knew it. They were going to hurt her!
Panda started shaking and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the images. Despite all the people, she felt utterly alone. But she didn't cry. There were no more tears left.

Everyone started to notice the way she was acting, and figured they'd better leave. They had heard she didn't seem to like people too much, so without question, they left her alone.

So Panda was all alone in complete terror with no one to turn to for help, and for the second time in a few days, had she had the energy, she would have seen to it she that wouldn't have woken up the next morning.

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"So" said a voice, "I leave ya alone wit' Race for one day, and dis is what happens?"

It was early the next morning, and Dusk had stopped by before she bought her papers since she hadn't
had a chance to talk to Panda the night before. She looked half amused, half upset. "Race sad ya got run over...?" She looked confused. "That was about all we could get out of him last night."

Panda nodded and attempted a shrug, but found out pretty quickly that that wasn't a very good idea.

**********************************************************************************

Once she was back, Panda was even more adament about going outside, and frankly, no one could
blame her. But Panda didn't smile (not that she did that before), eat, or have any semblance of fun whatsoever, and Dusk was worried. Not to mention the guilt stricken Race.

Panda had taken to cleaning up the Lodging House, it was understood between the others,
including Kloppman, that this was how she earned her room and board. Besides cleaning the place, all she did was stare listlessly out of the window.
Despite her apparent lack of personality, she had an endearing quality about her, that made people care, almost unknowingly.

**********************************************************************************

A week later, everyone was going out of their way to talk to Panda, especially Dusk and Race.

Dusk, possibly because even though Panda was uncommunicative, she was the only other girl in the Lodging House, and Racetrack most likely out of a mixture of guilt and of curiosity about that indescribable aura surrounding Panda.
Everyone tried to get her to go outside, go to Tibby's, or do something, but she adamently refused.

One day Race and Dusk were talking.
"Yeah, what bothers me is the way she just mopes around like she does," said Race, "I mean
from da look on her face, she should be in tears by now, but she's not. She just seems like she's - she's
- well - like she's just sort of...existing, ya know?"

"Yeah I do, ya can't really explain it, but she just seems so...so sad all the time...like beyond help.. I'm
definitely gonna go talk to her," said Dusk with her determined look.

That night Panda didn't eat anything, and Dusk decided to talk to her She basically told Panda that
people were worried about her, and asked her to please try to snap out of it. She didn't know if she'd made an impact on Panda because she was wearing her normal impassive expression, but she was getting frustrated and figured that if things didn't get better in a few days then she'd have to get help. She looked at Panda's emotionless face again, and shook her head. She just didn't understand that girl.

The next day, Dusk had a severe stomach ache. She thought she'd be okay though, and was surprised
when Panda came up to her right before she left, and looked like she had no intention of leaving.
Dusk grinned. "Ya comin wit me?"
Panda shrugged. 
"Good lets g - " Dusk cut herself off and into the bathoom, ran covering her mouth. "I guess we can go now," she said, re-emerging some minutes alter, looking almost green.

"Ya can't go anywhere," Spot protested. "You're sick."

"No I'm fine, really."

"No you're not," said Spot, pleasantly looking over at her. "Ya look like your gonna blow chunks any minute now."

"Gee how charming" replied Dusk wryly.

"Thanks, I think so."

"What about Panda?" Dusk asked.

"She can go wit' Race" said Spot, leading Dusk back over to her bed.

"Sure," said Race amiably, walking over.

Panda looked at him, saying nothing of course, but looked at him.

Race grinned " I promise, I ain't gonna let nothin' happen ta ya dis time"

Panda just looked at him a second longer, then walked out the door.

As before, all seemed to be going well. The when they got to the street where Panda had gotten hurt
before, Race dramatically grabbed her hand.

She stared at their hands dumbly for a moment, then quickly pulled her hand away. Race looked at
her out of the corner of his eye, but said nothing.

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