TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - Michelle Saye dreams that she is walking again. She visualizes running through the sand dunes at Lake Michigan like she did when she was a kid, and hiking down Mount Rainier. It's how she stays positive after a deadly two-boat crash Sept. 29 on Lake Tapps that crippled her and killed a friend.

Saye lost a section of her right tibia and faces years of recovery as doctors rebuild the bone and muscle. She's already had too many surgeries to count and faces more.

She can't walk on her right leg for a year and is severely limited in what she can do.

"I could be down, but it wouldn't help me," the 33-year-old Saye said this week from her Seattle home. "I visualize what I want to do again."

Saye was one of seven people on an 18-foot Bayliner as it cruised on Lake Tapps the night of Sept. 29.

Her friend, Ron Scott, owned the boat and took the warm, sunny day off work - a rarity for him since he worked as a real estate agent and co-owned the Wilkeson Saloon with a close friend. He gathered six friends at his waterfront Bonney Lake home on the south end of Lake Tapps for one last hurrah before the end of the nice weather.

"We'd been trying to plan a day all summer for all of us together," Saye said. "It was our last chance to get out on the lake."

The friends went out on Lake Tapps in Scott's Bayliner in the late afternoon, then returned to the house and enjoyed barbecued burgers. They went back out to putter around the lake after dinner and planned to have a bonfire afterward.

"It was my first time out on Lake Tapps," said Saye, who moved to Washington last year from Michigan.

Scott was steering his boat back home when it was struck from behind by a 21-foot Supra between Interlake and Inlet islands. The Supra flew over the top of Scott's boat, knocking Scott into the water and injuring all six of his friends.

Pierce County prosecutors have charged the Supra's driver with homicide by watercraft and four counts of assault by watercraft. Neil Richard Larsen, 41, pleaded not guilty to the charges and is scheduled to go to trial next June.

Saye remembers hearing someone yelling at Scott to turn. She looked behind her and saw the other boat speeding toward them.

"I remember saying, 'Oh my God, what are we going to do?"' she recalled. "I remember the boat slamming on the top of my head. It landed directly on top of us."

The boat still had momentum and went over the Bayliner.

"That's when it went through my leg and everybody else's," Saye said.

Saye was one of the more severely injured. The propeller of the Supra sliced into her right leg and carved out 7 inches of her tibia. Other passengers had head, leg and arm injuries.

In the minutes after the crash, friends frantically searched for Scott, whose body was later found in the water.

Saye was freaking out and avoided looking down at her mangled leg.

"I thought I lost my leg," Saye said, noting that she can now talk about the crash without crying.

She remembers someone came onto Scott's boat and talked to Saye, keeping her awake and calm.

Saye was taken by helicopter to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where doctors gave her the choice of amputating the leg or rebuilding it. Her foot, her knee and the back part of her leg were in good shape after the crash.

"I chose to rebuild even though it's going to take forever," she said. "I couldn't imagine going through life without my leg."

Saye has had multiple surgeries since the crash. Doctors have taken two muscles from her back to make a new calf. A skin graft from her left thigh went over the top.

Next month, she'll have a cement cylinder put into her right leg. Doctors will take soft bone from her right femur and "smoosh it into the cement cylinder," Saye said.

"They say they are going to regrow my tibia," she said.

It'll be a year before she can stand on her right leg. After that, she most likely faces physical therapy as she rebuilds her leg strength.

"I don't want to loose the muscle in there," Saye said. "It is not being used at all."

In the meantime, Saye is learning to cope.

She spent the first two months after the crash at Harborview Medical Center and Ballard Care and Rehabilitation. The first month is a blur.

Members of her family from Michigan came for stays. They are still telling her about some of the things she said during those initial weeks. Saye is now back at her home in Seattle.

She's had to overcome her fear of needles and give herself shots of medicine.

Saye worked as a bartender before the accident. Now, she can't work. In the meantime, the state crime victims' compensation fund and donations are helping pay the bills.

"I miss working incredibly," she said. "I am so frustrated that I can't work right now."

She gets around using a walker and crutches but must take breaks.

"I can only stand in one spot for a short period of time," Saye said.

That's limited her ability to cook a meal on the stove and do the dishes afterward. She relies on the microwave. And her roommates.

"My roommates are really good," Saye said.

When she's resting, her right leg needs to be elevated to keep the circulation going. Saye said she doesn't have a lot of pain in the right leg except when she overextends herself like a recent dinner out. She didn't have her leg elevated, and it was swollen by the time she headed home.

"I can't even have my leg down for very long without being in pain," Saye said.

For the most part she doesn't leave the house except for doctors' appointments.

It's a good thing it's wintertime, Saye said. She loves the outdoors and fell in love with Seattle because she could do activities outside year round.

"I am not an indoor person," Saye said. "I am not much of a TV person, but I have turned into one because there is only so much reading and other stuff you can do."

She hasn't had much contact with the others who were injured in the boat crash. Of the driver who's been charged in the wreck, Saye said she wants him to realize the impact of the crash.

"And that it makes a difference in his life," she said. "People just need to slow down and pay attention."

Saye also thinks about what she wants to do when her leg is back to normal.

"I totally visualize as much as I can with my leg," Saye said.

And she thinks about her friend, Ron Scott.

She missed his memorial service because she was in the hospital. She hasn't been to his Wilkeson Saloon or any of the benefit nights for those injured in the Sept. 19 crash.

"Everybody loves that guy. He's a great person," Saye said. "I am scared to death to walk in that bar and not see Ron."