"Uh... Mason, sorry about earlier." Ariel said, as they walked towards the cafeteria.

"Don't worry about it," Mason shrugged his broad, muscular shoulders. He had been a football player in high school, until he had torn his ACL his junior year. After the surgery, he could have kept playing, but his mother decided that it was too dangerous, and that was the end of that. Just like after his sister had broken her wrist horseback riding, her mother had told her she couldn't do that anymore. She had been ten and was still resentful. Mason was pretty sure that was why she now dated some guy with a motorcycle and Sarah was learning how to drive it. "So uh... Where are you from?" Mason decided to move the conversation into safer water.

"Massachusetes, like right outside of Boston, you?"

"New York, right outside of New York City."

"Westchester or Long Island?"

Mason pretended to be offended, "Long Island?"

Ariel smiled, she had a nice smile, Mason had noticed it before, "Must be Westchester then. Do you know Todd Forester? He's from Westchester. He's a sophmore."

Mason shook his head, "Nah, but there's a lot of Westchester kids at our school."

"It's an east coast thing, everyone comes out here looking for sunshine. Except Taylor and Ryan, they're both from Newport."

"Did they like- come to school together?" Mason asked.

Ariel shrugged, "I dunno, it's hard to tell with those two. I know they went to high school together, but didn't really talk much back then. They said something about sort of getting together senior year, I dunno. I know she was in France for awhile, like before she came here. She started like mid- year our Freshman year."

"You're a sophmore right? Taylor's class?"

"Yeah, and you're-?"

"A Junior,"

"How do you know Ryan?"

"We play soccer every week, he's a nice good guy. I feel bad he got hurt..."

"Hopefully it's just a sprain." Mason decided not to say that he had seen sprains and breaks before- and he thought it was a little too swollen to just be just a sprain, also Ryan seemed like he was in serious pain, and he was a pretty tough guy.

"Yeah," was all Mason could say.

"I'm surprised Sandy wasn't there today."

"Who?"

"Sandy? Ryan's dad? He usually watches your game, and his wife and kid come too. Sandy's awesome- I had him for this pre- law class I took." Now that she mentioned, Mason did remember seeing an older-professor looking type watching lots of their games, sometimes with a blonde wife and a kid. He remembered Ryan talking to him, but hadn't thought anything of it. He just thought Ryan was a student of his.

"Maybe cause it was raining?" Mason suggested, now wishing that had decided to postpone game like they had been planning on doing. Ryan might not have gotten hurt.

"Oh right," They reached the cafeteria and bought various sodas, chips and a few orders of french fries. Mason insisted on paying. He had decided to bring back the ten to Ryan. The kid was lying the ER with a broken ankle, he could keep his ten. Walking back, their conversation flow easily. Mostly they talked about the east coast versus the west coast, and laughed about the stereotypes of themselves that they had encountered, and the way that everyone made fun of their accents- especially Mason's which had the thick-sounding t's of a New York accent. Ariel had the bad habit of occasionally slipping into the Ah'accent of Boston.

When they rounded the corner of the ER, both of them stopped short at the sight in front of them.

Taylor had climbed up onto her chair, and was on her knees, sideways, facing Ryan. Ryan's head was resting against her chest, her head was on his and his arms were circled around her waist. She was running her hands gently through his hair, and speaking softly too him. Ryan's face was pale.

Ariel and Mason exchanged a look, they were afraid to go and intrude on such a tender moment, that they didn't feel like they had been meant to see, but Ryan spotted them, and pushed himself upright, and managed a smile that was almost more grimace than smile, as he tried to adjust his ankle on its chair.

"Dinner," Mason tried to grin, as he handed Ryan his fries, coke and his ten- dollar bill. Ryan looked annoyed when he saw the money, but Mason just shook his head. It's my fault your hear Ryan- I could have called off the game and I didn't. But he said nothing allowed as he sank into his chair and dove into his own fries.

Ryan ate about two fries, then seemed to lose interest. Taylor glanced at him nervously, as she ate her chips. Their meal was quiet, everyone was trying hard not to look at Ryan, but they all couldn't help it, and kept shooting furitve glances towards him. The kid did not look good, and his ankle seemed to look worse and worse by the second. The purplish bruise beneath the skin had spread, and Mason noticed that now it was almost triple the size of the other ankle. He was almost certain now that it was broken, and the bone possible displaced. After his own knee surgery he had become almost obsessed with sports injuries, and after recovered he had done EMT training. Now, he was going to school to be a doctor. He wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. He mentally berated himself for not splinting the ankle. He glanced at his watch. They had been there for over an hour and Ryan needed medical attention. The kid was way too pale and sweating slightly.

"I'm going to get a doctor to see you," Mason stood up, wiping the grease from the fries off his hands and onto his pants. "Try and look... injured." He winked.

"I'll go with you," Ariel jumped up, but Mason just ignored her. He was on a mission. He strode over to the desk.

"Excuse me?" He asked, trying to keep his voice polite but stern, the way his father did.

"Can I help you?" The woman glanced up, looking slightly interested.

"Look, I'm a certified EMT," he pulled out his wallet and flipped open to the card he always carried. "I came in with my friend over there," he gestured towards Ryan, "And we thought his ankle was just sprained, but I think it's worse than that, and it looks like he might be in danger of going into shock, he's already showing early warning signs. His pupils are dilated and he's very pale. He's a little sweaty too."

"Ryan Atwood?" The nurse glanced down at the chart, then looked up, craning her head around Mason to look over at Ryan. Ryan was playing the part of pathetic patient a little too well, he was slumped against Taylor who was stroking his hair, but she glanced up at Mason, looking slightly frightened and worried. Mason decided that Ryan wasn't acting. "Let's see if we can get someone out here..."