I don't always introduce characters to kill them off, but when I do, I don't spend a lot of time building their characters. It gets happier in later chapters, but we are building a story :).


Eventually, a doctor walked into the room. He looked at the devastated looks around the room, and the priest comforting each person, except for the one man sitting in the back of the room with a stony expression. Clearing his throat, the doctor began. "Where's Jack Hudson? He's listed as a contact for the HIPPA stuff for Sue." Jack raised his hand. The doctor walked over to him, unnerved by the utterly neutral stare that he received. "Um…so, Sue will be okay. She got pretty banged up; four broken ribs on the right side, a fracture in the sternum, two broken fingers on the left hand, a hairline fracture on the tibia. She's bruised pretty much everywhere, and I don't know how she didn't have a concussion. We'll be keeping her here for several days, exact time to be determined by how quickly she heals."

"Understood." Jack repeated the doctor's words to the rest of them, then sat back down. Jack's head fell back, he took a deep breath, and tears began to pour down his face. The doctor looked at him, and realized he saw that name as a contact before… the young lady who died had put his name down. "I'm sorry for your loss." Jack nodded, then buried his head in his hands. Before he always had Sue to comfort him, but now…he needed to get this out so that he could be strong for her when she woke up…

The quiet keening coming from his throat reached everyone else in the room, and it took them a bit to find out what and who it was. Bobby let Tara go, and strode quickly over to Jack. He grabbed him by the jacket, hauled him up, and wrapped him in a fierce hug. "I've got you, Jack. Let it out. Now, you damn fool."

Jack cried like he hadn't cried before, keening out his pain, sobbing so hard that he shook violently. He began babbling "I lost her, Bobby. I lost her, and she loved me. She wanted to give everything to me. And I tried to be everything she deserved. I was never unfaithful, but my mind never stayed always with her. And I just wanted to be what she deserved. God, Bobby, I lost her and she never knew how important she was to me." He broke down further, incapable of speech, just sobbing and clinging to Bobby.

Bobby just held the poor man. He couldn't understand a word of what Jack was talking about, but that wasn't important right now. "It's alright Jack…It's alright. Let it go…We've got you here…you're safe…"

It took Jack fifteen minutes before he had pulled himself together enough to pull back from Bobby. The pain was still there, but the tears wouldn't come anymore. D handed him a bottle of water. "Re-hydrate. Bobby, you are to stay here with Jack, and take him home this evening."

Jack's head snapped up at that. "I'm not going to leave Sue here to deal with the pain of losing Matt on her own. That's why I let my pain out as violently as I did, so that I could help her. I'm not going to leave her here tonight to handle it on her own!" D opened his mouth, but Jack spoke right over him. "She's my best friend, and I won't do it!"

D raised an eyebrow. Jack was stretched to the breaking point, what with the stress of the case, and now this. "Can I talk?" Jack nodded curtly, eyes locked filled with an unspoken challenge on D's. "Very well. I will make the arrangements. Bobby, stay here for a bit with Jack. See if you can scare up a cot for him. The rest of you, we can't do anything else while we are here until normal visiting hours. Tara, do you need a lift?" She nodded. "Okay, you're with me. Let's go people. Work is still on for tomorrow." He hated being the supervisor and having to be cold to drive his people through a situation like this. He had to do it on the case, and now he had to do it here. It sucked. But they moved.


Forty five minutes later found Bobby sitting on the cot in Sue's room as Jack sat at her head stroking her hair gently. Jack didn't know what to say when she woke up…what to do...

She was still beautiful, even as she lay covered in bruises, her nose braced since it was broken by the airbag. She had several stitches in her forehead and a few in her cheek due to flying glass. The doctor had said that she would be waking up soon, but that they had some pain drugs in the IV drip to keep her from hurting too much. Jack just nodded.

He seemed to be the one that was able to be the one to take care of her. Her parents were out of the country on a mission trip for the next month and a half and couldn't be reached. Her brother was stationed on Guam at the marine base and couldn't come for obvious reasons. That left…well, no one else that he knew how to contact, so he decided that he would be there to help. D was going to order him to take 3 weeks off, he knew it. Standard practice so that he wouldn't put anyone else at risk on any operation, and though it was just a field ban, D would want him to have time to recover. Made him the best option to look after Sue until evening when Lucy would get back to help with…more personal issues.

He was planning away when he saw Sue's eyes begin to flutter. He leaned over her, concern covering his face. She looked up at him, recognized him, and relaxed slightly. "Where am I?" she asked.

Jack swallowed. "St. Mary's hospital. You were in a car accident." Everything came back to Sue. The case. Matt insisting on going out. Trying to nap. Thinking about Jack. Matt's arm and the impact. "How's Matt?"

Jack's eyes slid away. He opened his mouth, but couldn't form the words. Bobby stood, and walked into her line of sight. "I'm sorry, Sue. He didn't make it. I'm so sorry…" Jack looked into her eyes, and his shared her pain. Sue began "Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord", and Jack continued the response, "And let the perpetual light shine upon him." "May his soul, and the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace."

She began to cry and Jack leaned over, wiping her tears away. "I'm sorry Sue…Please, let it out. Don't hold it in. I'm right here." He gently caressed her hair and wiped away her tears as they came. She cried harder at his words, and couldn't see enough to catch anything else Jack or Bobby had to say. Eventually the tears stopped and Jack wiped the last ones of them away.

Drink? He signed. She nodded slightly, and he poured her a cup. As he held the cup for her, he explained her injuries. Suddenly, she stopped him, remembering something incredibly important. "The other driver, are they ok?" Jack let out a slow breath and put the glass down. A broken "nope" was all he could get out as tears started down his cheeks again. He cussed internally. He had made it so far by distracting himself with caring for Sue, and now he was fighting for composure.

Bobby came to his rescue again. "It was Rachel. Jack's Rachel. She didn't make it either." Sue looked stunned, reaching her right hand out for Jack, wincing at the pain in her side. "Jack…"

He shook his head, fighting for composure. "Please, don't show me pity right now. I can't handle it. I'll deal with it a little later. Right now I'm here to help you." Sue shook her head, a stubborn light in her eye.

"I will not have you trying to smother your humanity under a mask, Jackson Hudson! Come here!" She grabbed his hand and tugged slightly, working her way up to his head and drew him down to her shoulder. Tears came at her tender touch, comforting him through his pain. "You are hurting, and I want to take care of you. Let it out." And so he did. It was more subdued than when Bobby was holding him, but no less grief filled. As he composed himself for the second time he gave a weak grin. He also noticed that Bobby had left, but turned his attention back to Sue.

"You are hurting with grief just as much as me, and you are physically hurt. Yet you are the one comforting me." Sue returned his smile, just as weakly. "And you were comforting me just a few minutes ago. Look, you will have to deal with letting out pain more times than this, Jack. It's grief. It takes time to heal."

This time, his grin was a little more real. "I'll help you, you help me. Deal?" Sue smiled slightly, tears starting again. "We're in the same boat now." He stroked her hair and wiped the few tears away. "Well, D's going to be shoving me out of the office for three weeks. You will be out longer than that, but I figured that, if you were ok with it, I would take care of you during the day, and evenings if Lucy had plans. However, if you would prefer I didn't…"

She shook her head gingerly. "I would prefer to have someone I knew, and this way it won't inconvenience anyone else. But are you sure? You could head home to be with your family."

Jack snorted. "And leave you here alone? Don't be daft. I'll take care of you, Sue. You're my best friend. I'm not about to hang you out to dry." Tears started again in Sue's eyes. "Thank you, Jack. I don't know if you know how much that means to me. Thank you."

"Of course, Sue. I'll always be here. Now, try to sleep. I'll still be here. I've got a cot." Jack pointed with a grin over to the corner of the room. "So if you ever need anything, let me know. Please. Let me help you. And when Bobby gets back with the oversized fluff-ball that you call a dog, he can help to. Now go to sleep."

He gently ran his fingers through her hair, comforting her as much as he could with her being so battered. She settled in, enjoying the feeling of his fingers in her hair, and blocked out all thought of pain or what had happened so that she could sleep. He listened to her breathing slow and deepen until she fell asleep. Then he stood, walked over, and collapsed on the cot. He, too, blocked out everything that had happened during the day, and fell quickly into a deep sleep.