A nurse came in then and informed Daniel all too calmly that they needed to do some tests on Kate, but he could wait in the waiting room. The nurse promised that they'd call Daniel if anything happened. Daniel gave Kate's hand a squeeze and told her he'd be back soon, and walked out into the waiting room. He asked the receptionist where the nearest pay phone was, and after a strange look, she pointed him to an ancient relic stashed in a corner of the lobby.

Daniel fed the machine some coins and dialed Max's number.

"Max Lewicki," Max answered.

"Lewicki, it's me."

"Doc. You okay?"

Daniel glanced back at the doors he'd walked out of minutes before. "No," he answered. "Kate's—she's not doing well."

"Did something happen?"

"Yeah, she, uh, she had a seizure," Daniel said quietly. "Well, not quite a seizure. Everything was fine, and then she started screaming and thrashing. The nurses came in and sedated her, and now the doctors are running tests."

"And you, Doc?" Max asked. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," Daniel said. "I have to call her dad."

"Do you want me to come get you?"

"No, I'll take a cab."

Daniel hung up and dialed Joe Moretti's number.

"Joe Moretti."

"It's Daniel Pierce."

"Dr. Pierce? Is everything okay?"

"No." No point trying to water the truth for a man who'd given out more than his fair share of hard news. "She had a seizure. The doctors are running tests now."

"I'm on my way." Joe hung up. Daniel picked a chair and sat with his head in his hands, waiting.


"Mr. Moretti? Dr. Pierce?" the nurse called. Daniel stood quickly. Joe turned from his brown study at the window. "You can come back now."

Daniel exchange worried glances with Kate's father as they followed the nurse back to Kate's room. He hoped that no news was good news.

She was awake. Daniel stood back in the corner as Joe took the chair by Kate's bed.

"Hey, kiddo." Joe's rough cop voice was softer, like it always was when he was concerned about his little girl. "How do you feel?" Joe asked.

Kate looked around the room, her eyes darting from place to place until they found Daniel. "Tired," Kate said hoarsely, her gaze fixed on Daniel. "They tell me I had a seizure." She tore her eyes from Daniel halfway through her sentence, forcing herself to look at her father and not her friend.

Her bewilderment was poorly masked, and her genuine confusion worried Daniel. He moved from the corner where he stood and pulled up a second chair opposite her father. "You don't remember?" he asked.

Kate frowned, staring thoughtfully at the IV in her hand. "I—" She sucked in a ragged gasp. "It hurt," she said quietly. "Like I was burning from the inside out."

Daniel closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as his chin fell to his chest.

"I think," she said haltingly, "that knife might have been poisoned." Vicious coughs wracked her body, and Daniel's fingernails bit into his palms as Joe did his best to comfort Kate. Daniel felt more useless now than ever, unable to help Kate in any way, but he did not resent her father's presence. It was more than he'd had.

Her coughs subsided, and she lay still, her eyes closed as she breathed slowly, deeply. After a minute or two, Daniel realized that Kate's father was looking at him. Daniel didn't understand why; it was Kate who needed watching. Daniel continued to watch Kate, and Joe continued to watch Daniel, until Kate opened her eyes again and attempted a weak and somewhat pained smile. It was unquestionably directed at Daniel, and in it, Daniel found the resolve to take her hand—carefully, because it was the hand with the IV. It didn't seem to matter that her father was there, probably because any good friend would have done the same.

Kate closed her eyes again, and her breathing evened out into sleep. After half an hour, Joe reluctantly slipped his hand out of Kate's. He gave Daniel a long, hard stare before he spoke—quietly, so as to avoid disturbing Kate. "I've still got a business to run," he said, regarding Daniel severely. "You take care of her until I get back."

Daniel understood most of the things Joe wasn't saying, or wouldn't say, or couldn't say. Daniel knew that, if it was absolutely necessary, Joe had enough regular business to close the bar for a week. But he trusted Daniel with Kate, and expected Daniel to take care of her while he was gone. There wasn't much to do, of course, because Kate was asleep and also under the care of half a dozen nurses, but that didn't mean that Daniel wouldn't do anything and everything he could.

Daniel nodded.

Joe leaned down to kiss his sleeping daughter's forehead before he left. Daniel carefully extracted his hand from Kate's, laying hers gently on the bed, and moved to the other side so he wouldn't need to be quite so careful about holding her hand. He thought long and hard about her symptoms, about all the things he'd learned in medical school, but it was about as much use as contemplating Homer.

He was surprised when, about five minutes later, a familiar face sat in the chair he'd been sitting in before. Had he forgotten to take his meds again, or was he just getting worse?

"I think I might have been wrong," Natalie said quietly. "But she could very well come through."

"I know," Daniel whispered. He didn't want to wake Kate, especially when there was actually no one around.

"It's okay for you to be concerned," Natalie said. She knew he was more concerned than he thought he should be, or was allowed to be.

Daniel only sighed. Natalie watched him with a heavy concern of her own, the concern of a best friend. He thought it strange that his subconscious mind would be so concerned for its conscious partner when it should have been worrying about Kate, since every other part of him was worried about her. He sat there for another twenty minutes, and neither he nor Natalie said a word. Eventually, his shoulder got sore from sitting still for so long, and he shifted so he could be more comfortably holding Kate's hand.

He would have said that he held her hand because she needed to know someone was there with her, but in truth, he needed to know she was there. Her hand was a little cold, but if he moved his index finger half an inch, he could feel the pulse in her wrist, letting him know she was really only asleep. He was afraid of what might happen the next time she came out of slumber. Would she open her eyes and try to give him a weary smile, or would she scream and seize? Either seemed likely at the moment, and though he hoped the seizure had been a one-time thing, he suspected it wasn't.

"Time isn't going to stop for her," Natalie reminded him after another long silence. "You still have things you have to do."

"I won't leave her," Daniel said.

"The nurse is going to make you leave in about five minutes." She was right, of course. Daniel was probably breaking rules already. Only a select few family members were allowed to stay, and Joe had left almost half an hour ago. No one had come in since, but they were sure to be in any moment to kick Daniel out.

He felt panicky and anxious about having to leave her. Maybe if she'd said she'd wanted him to stay, if she said it to the nurse... but she was tired and sick and he couldn't really do anything for her while she slept, anyway.

The nurse came in at that moment, right on cue, and quietly and politely told Daniel that he would have to leave, and when she had escorted him to the hallway, she quickly told him exactly how often he was allowed to visit Kate, which might as well have been never. He protested, of course, but as he was nothing more than her friend, he had no right to stay with her, no matter how much she needed a hand to hold.

He called a cab to take him home, dutifully took his meds, and tried to occupy his mind with news, but it was useless. His head was full of the last twenty-four hours, of terror and torment and Kate.


A/N: I am, in fact, in London, but a weary travelling companion has left me with some spare time. Besides, you lot have gone four days without an update, and you're all so wonderful, I thought you could have a nice little bit of story. Don't forget to tell me what you think!