Emily Bowen-Quartermaine was eighteen when she arrived at the Douglas-Radford Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona. She’d broken her back in a bus accident in her hometown of Port Charles, New York and was at the clinic to regain the use of her legs.

She was a bright and bubbly young woman with big friendly brown eyes and bone straight chestnut hair. She was put on the second floor in room eighteen, in hopes that her perky disposition would rub off on her roommate.

Elizabeth Webber was seventeen when she’d arrived at the clinic the year before. She’d been in a car accident and was paralyzed from the waist down. Her parents had shipped her off to the clinic, hoping that their revolutionary therapy would work wonders on her. They kept her there, but never visited. They paid her bills, but never called.

And Elizabeth Webber still hadn’t regained the ability to wiggle her toes much less walk.

In the six months they were roommates, Emily’s personality didn’t exactly rub off on her bitter roommate, but somehow she managed to befriend the other woman. Some of the nurses were surprised when they held wheelchair races in the hallway after visiting hours had passed. They became inseparable, much to the chagrin of the some of the staff.

They looked remarkably alike from their delicate and petite builds to their dark brown hair. Emily was taller and more slender than the other woman, but in the wheelchair, you couldn’t tell. Elizabeth had dark sapphire blue eyes that had the ability to be warm and inviting, but few managed to see that.

They stayed up to all hours of the night, talking about everything and anything. Emily told her new friend all about the people back home. Her crazy family that she’d been adopted into after her birth mother died of cancer. How they manipulated and backstabbed each other to get what they wanted, but when the chips were down, they rallied around one another and protected each other. She told Elizabeth about her childhood best friend, Lucky Spencer and his perfect girlfriend, Grace Hardy. How they’d met when Lucky was infatuated with Grace’s older sister, Faith but eventually Lucky opened his eyes and fallen in love. She talked about Nikolas Cassadine, her one-time crush and how she didn’t think his new girlfriend Gia Campbell right for her. She confided to her new friend about her ex-boyfriend Juan Santiago and the current love of her life, Zander Smith. She talked about her siblings, AJ and Jason and how much she adored her brothers and how close they were to her. She was sorry that AJ and Jason didn’t get along better, but circumstances were a little strange where they were concerned.

And in return, Elizabeth told her about her wealthy family, based in San Diego, California. Her father, a lawyer who’d been cheating on her mother for decades. Her mother who was content to be oblivious and create the so-called perfect home and be the perfect wife. She told Emily about her siblings, Sarah and Steven who were almost like their parents it was scary. She told Emily that her boyfriend Josh had been killed in the car accident and that she no longer kept in touch with the people she’d once known.

In between therapy sessions and late-night confessions, they discovered a mutual love for hot chocolate and indulged their sweet tooth whenever they could. They both did their best to irritate every nurse on the floor and managed to charm half the boys into falling in love with them.

Somehow, Elizabeth Webber and Emily Bowen-Quartermaine found their kindred spirits in each other and formed a friendship that rivaled any other. Elizabeth constantly spoke of being released one day and never looking back, but she secretly knew that she’d never leave Emily behind and Emily always talked about the two of them moving to Port Charles together and getting an apartment.

Plans were made, therapy sessions were suffered through and cups of hot chocolate were shared. Life was simply as perfect as two paralyzed young women could hope for.

And then Elizabeth Webber met Emily’s older brother, Jason Morgan.

And everything changed in a heartbeat.

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