Guerrero was standing with his back to him, looking out the window. "So, how'd you find out anyway? I mean, I know I missed the meeting earlier but that could've been for any reason."

"Let's just say that we have a mutual friend with...above-average hearing." Junior grimaced at how lamely that came out.

Guerrero turned his head to look over his shoulder, slightly troubled. "Who?" He thought about it for a second. "Baptiste?"

"Yeah."

"You serious? Dude, I was all the way down the hall. Could've sworn I was out of range." And that I was quiet about it. His expression clouded.

"Well, we both know from experience that Baptiste isn't exactly someone to underestimate."

Guerrero frowned and turned to face Junior. "What did you tell him?"

The taller man shook his head, "Nothing. Just said I wanted to check on you and that was it. I left."

Guerrero just stared back at him, obviously running several scenarios through his mind.

"Look, if he had heard anything else, he would have told me. And I swear I didn't say anything more to him." Junior paused. "Besides, I don't understand why you distrust him so much. He actually seemed kinda concerned about you, God forbid."

"Concerned?" Guerrero nodded his head quickly in sarcasm, eyes narrowed. "The guy's a psychopath."

Junior scoffed. "Do you now anyone in the fold who isn't?"

No answer. Guerrero continued to stare at him.

"Anyway." Junior sighed. "When you didn't answer your phone," he looked at the smaller man pointedly, "I called the hospitals one by one asking if they had admitted Sarah. 'Cause I figured that for you to just drop everything like that it must have been something to do with her. Never thought it'd be anything this serious though." He paused there, hoping Guerrero would pick up on his cue.

If he understood the hint, he gave no indication.

Junior tried a more direct approach, "What happened out there?"

Guerrero sighed, stalling a moment before having to go through the arduous task of explaining his girlfriend's injuries again. Unlike the first person he had to go over it with though, Junior's concern was at least genuine enough to have brought him here. He took a seat and crossed his legs, supporting his head with the arm that was propped against the armrest.

"It was on the 40. Her car turned over somehow. The EMT's and the fire department had a hell of time getting her out of it, from what I hear." He took a deep breath and braced himself for the rest. "Apparently, she had a sheet of metal or something go through her chest into one of her lungs. I, uh, saw part of the wound earlier. She's got a few broken bones." He looked up at Junior, still standing at a distance from him, to make sure he had his attention. "She hit the side of her head hard enough to fracture her skull. CAT-Scan showed a," he concentrated a fraction of a second to get it right, " subdural hematoma. It means her brain's hemorrhaging."
He reflected a moment and added,"You should have seen her eyes, bro."

Junior pressed his mouth into a firm line, signalling to his friend that he understood the gravity of his words.

"Anyway, they stopped the bleeding in her chest and they're working on the intracranial pressure. Basically, if there's too much swelling in the brain, the blood supply can't really get to it. Could kill her and the baby, so that was their priority... She had a few seizures before they got her stabilized. Or relatively stabilized," he corrected himself.

"Has there been any, uh," Junior wasn't sure how to put it, "improvement since we spoke earlier?"

Guerrero shook his head. "Not as far as I know. Like I said, they don't expect her to pull through, between the two surgeries and all the blood loss. And, if she does, the chances of her not being in a coma or seriously impaired for the rest of her life are... very low."

Junior took the seat diagonal from where Guerrero was. He had been hoping all along that his friend had exaggerated a little on the phone earlier, the way he had a tendency to always assume and prepare for the worst possible outcome for every situation. Or maybe he, himself, was a little in denial. He looked back at Guerrero, distracted by his leg steadily twitching. He had been at it the whole time he was seated but seemed completely unaware of it. That was saying a lot for the man who guarded his emotions better than anyone else he knew and never gave anything away.

"They only let me see her a few minutes...She was," Guerrero's voice was subdued, his breathing a little more forced. "She looked like a corpse, Junior." He shook his head, as if to clear the image from his mind. He scoffed weakly, "It's almost funny. We see and do a lot of terrible things in this line of work, but nothing really prepares you for the day it happens to you. The day it's someone you care about."

Junior silently agreed although he had to admit that didn't really have any personal experience in the area. "What'd they say about the kid?"

"Seems ok, so far. They were worried about his blood and oxygen supply and that he may have been, uh, dislodged or something like that. But they said the cesarean should go well."

"At least that's something." Junior regretted not having anything useful to say.

"Yeah. If you put aside all the risks associated with preterm births. Seriously, dude, they went over a list this long," he held his hands apart almost the length of his armspan, "of problems to possibly expect at birth and later on."

"He could turn out fine, you never know."

"That's another thing. The not knowing. Sitting around and waiting. It's killing me."

"I know."

There was a prolonged silence between them. Junior wanted to change the subject for a less depressing one but nothing really appropriate came to mind. "Did you contact her family?"

Guerrero shot him what he hoped to be a warning look. "She doesn't have any."

Junior considered it a moment. "I thought she had a brother," Junior squinted in concentration, "I can't remember his name...Rick? I met him once... And you two hate each other. Ring any bells?"

"The guy's a douche," Guerrero muttered.

Junior leaned back in his seat. "Be that as it may and far be if for me to tell you what to do, but don't you think he should know? Being her brother and all?"

Guerrero recognized the tone as one his friend often used when toying with people. He glared at him.

After a few seconds, Junior went on, "No? Maybe-"

"He's not coming," Guerrero growled suddenly, surprising Junior. "I spoke with him earlier."

Junior inclined his head, raising his eyebrows to encourage him to continue.

Guerrero fidgeted a bit with his sleeve before going on, jaw clenched. "I told him what happened... He told me that everything is my fault. I should have looked out for her... and so on. Guy couldn't be bothered to even show up for his own sister, dude."

"Wow."

"So, it's like I said. No family left." Guerrero's matter-of-fact tone contradicted his uneven breathing. He was practically fuming. "Happy now?"

Junior didn't intend to make things worse, he just got a bit carried away. "Not really, Guerrero. I'm sorry, man. I mean it."

Guerrero shrugged it off, "Doesn't matter anyway."

.

The next few minutes passed. Junior decided to keep his mouth shut to avoid saying anything else that might start some trouble. He reasoned that if there was anything that Guerrero wanted to discuss, he'd bring it up himself. It took a while but he felt relieved when his friend finally did speak up.

"Sarah and I, we had this argument last night. She was mad that I agreed to take on a new contract so soon after the last one. Long story short, we parted on good terms and everything but... it's occurred to me a number of times since the accident that if I had been with her this morning, where I should have been, none of this would have happened."

"Guerrero, there was no way you could have seen that coming."

"Yeah, dude. I know." He turned away. "Just couldn't help but think that if I had listened to her, for once-" He shook his head.

"Everyone feels guilty and finds a way to blame themself when things like this happen. It's a normal part of grieving," Junior didn't want to get in too over his head with the psychology stuff. "In your case, it's probably just her good-for-nothing brother messing with your head."

"Maybe," he considered it briefly. "Nevermind, bro. Just forget it."

Sensing that they were both due for a distraction, Junior leaned forward to slap Guerrero on the arm. "Anything I can get you? Coffee? Food? You really look like you could use some, you know."

Guerrero smirked weakly. "Doubt I could keep anything down if I tried. And coffee? Dude, you've got to kidding me. You don't think that I'm shaking enough as it is?"

The man had a point. Junior shrugged. "Some water, maybe?" He didn't want to seem desperate to move but he was honestly almost as sick of waiting as Guerrero was.

"Dude, could you stop worrying about me? I'm fine. But if you want to go, by all means, go. It's not like you're under obligation to stay," Guerrero said almost non-chalantly while checking his watch, unaware of how seriously he was being taken.

Junior reflected a moment before answering. "Right. And you think I could just leave you here like that?" He seemed almost disgusted by the idea.

Guerrero slowly turned to face his friend, eyebrows raised in what looked like confusion. He sighed, "Considering that her own flesh-and-blood brother refused to even show... yeah, I think I'd understand if you had other," he gestured around the room, "slightly less depressing, places to be than here, dude. She's not even part of your family."

"No, she isn't... But I'm not exactly here for her, Jack." Junior felt really awkward having to spell it out but Guerrero obviously wasn't up to making the connections on his own for the moment.

Guerrero almost started at the sound of his name. He tried to read his friend's face. Junior wasn't usually one for heart-to-hearts, most definitely not with him, but the man had become his closest friend over the years, the only person he could say he honestly trusted. They just never really discussed that kind of thing, perhaps because there had never been any need to. Guerrero finally nodded in understanding, somewhat at a loss for words under the weight of what had been said and everything else that no longer needed to be. "Don't really know what to say to that, Junior," he said truthfully.

Junior forced a half-hearted smiled, shook his head and shrugged, emphatically. "You don't have to say anything."

Guerrero was silent again for a moment, pondering the strange friendship they shared. "Thanks, bro."

.

The next twenty or so minutes went by in relative silence, what with everything out in the open. Guerrero was resting his head against the wall behind his chair. Junior tried to stay quiet to allow his friend to gather his thoughts in peace. He returned unenthusiastically to his newspaper and went over the less interesting articles he had skipped the first time around. The minutes crawled by. He wondered idly how Guerrero could have spent the last few hours in here without completely losing it.

A soft knock on the door abruptly startled them both into alertness. A moment later, the door opened and two people, a man and a woman, stepped into the room. Guerrero recognized them as the obstetrician and the trauma doctor he had spoken with earlier. As expected (but nonetheless to his dismay), they both wore carefully blank expressions.

"This does not bode well," Guerrero muttered under his breath before forcing himself to his feet. Eyes fixed on the ground, he spoke up a little louder, "Bro?"

Junior, still seated, looked up at him, unsettled about what was about to transpire.

"I think now would be a good time for you to fetch that food you were talking about earlier."

Junior stood up, hesitation obvious in his expression as he gazed down at his friend. He was about to voice his objection when Guerrero looked up him imploringly. Junior questioned, "You sure?"

Guerrero nodded and had to look away. He was outwardly calm but Junior was so in tune with his body language that he noticed the change in his breathing, however imperceptible.

"Alright. I'll be back in a little while." He placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder as he spoke and let it linger for a second.

Guerrero watched without expression as Junior left the room. The mild relief he felt was quickly shadowed by his growing distress. He felt unsteady on his feet but didn't really care anymore if it showed. It was all becoming so unimportant. He crossed his arms, bracing himself for whatever the doctors had to say.