Hello everyone! I am the worst and I apologize for the great delay in this chapter. I got a bad case of writer's block and then future parts of the story kept coming to the forefront when I tried to brainstorm for this chapter. I now have it completed and hope you guys don't hate me for some of what I do in this chapter. I hope to have the next chapter up quicker then this one was, but we shall ultimately see what I can do. I also want to add to this note that I am not a doctor, so any medical situations I write are completely falsified and I understand in the real world it may not work like this.

All credit goes where it is do.

Chapter 6

I sit stunned as I hear Finn's words, the machines next to me start to blip a little faster and Finn looks at them concerned. He looks back to me as I sit still trying to formulate a response to all he said, but before I can say anything, he says, "Look Rory, forget about everything I just said. This is not the time nor the place to be making any statements like that. Please forgive me for my statement."

I watch him carefully holding Rose and can see the care he is giving to the task. All through my relationship with Logan he had always been so goofy, but also caring at the same time. He always knew when to quit being goofy and be serious. It just amazed me at that time that he could go from jovial to serious in no time flat to help me out of whatever situation I was in. This time though he was being the opposite. I could see the truth to the words he had spoken, even if I don't know quite how to respond to them, but then he so casually brushed it off like it didn't matter. I finally look in his eyes and carefully ask, "Are you saying that you recant your statements?"

He nods his head and I see a slight stir in Rose. I know I will need time to process everything that just happened, but ultimately as always Rose comes first and even though I'm wondering why my heart feels like it is breaking into a thousand pieces I have to push that away for her. The machines calm down a little bit in their beeping, but before I can respond to the slowly waking Rose, one of the doctors returns to the room with the female police officer from earlier. The officer looks at Finn and Rose and asks politely, "Would you mind exiting the room so that I could ask Miss Hayden some questions in private?"

Finn nods his head and stands up leaving the room, followed by the doctor. The officer takes Finn's place in the seat next to me and asks, "Now Miss Hayden, would you be able to tell me about the altercation that occurred earlier tonight?"

I look over at her and my mind starts to process all that happened before the hospital. The attack and Sally's threat are at the forefront of my mind leaving me wondering about the safety of outing my attacker. I know that it would probably be best to tell the officer the truth of who attacked me and why, but I also know that the police never did anything against her when she attacked Tristan so what would make this time different. As I am thinking over all of this, I also can hear the machines start to blip faster and faster. I start to formulate my response and state, "I really am not sure what all to say."

Before I can say anything else though, my heart beat continues to race and I feel my eyes roll back into my head. I collapse onto the gurney and for a brief second in almost an out of body experience I hear the machines give a flat line sound.

Meanwhile out in the waiting room

Finn walked out of the hospital room containing Rory to let the officer take her statement. He returns with the confused, dazed Rose to the waiting room where he passes her off to Donny. He collapses into the chair unsure of why he said anything that he did, but mostly unsure why he decided to recant his statements. He knows that what he said was true, but he thinks that perhaps now was not the right time to say any of it. Finn drops his head into his hands, but is surprised to hear foot steps near him. He looks up to see Mitchum standing next to him. Mitchum states, "How is she, Finn?"

Finn looks at Mitchum and thinks back to when the doctors came rushing in and grabbed him to come into the room because he was the one holding Rose at that moment. He was shocked to see Rory who was such a strong force to be reckoned with most of the time, so scared and small. He wasn't quite sure what had transpired before he had been brought into the room, but he could see the fear still present in her eyes. He finally looks up at Mitchum and says, "She's scared and traumatized. I think she may have had a vivid hallucination of something. After I entered the room, she asked the nurse if no one else was in the room when she came in. I wonder if she was having a hallucination about whoever attacked her."

Mitchum nods his head and asks, "I am not surprised if she is scared or traumatized right now, but she has Donny, Rose, the towns people, and I all here to support her in her recovery. Is there a reason why you left the room when you did?"

Finn listens carefully to Mitchum's statement and hears how he carefully worded who would be around to support Rory. He tries not to think that it was purposeful, but he also has known Mitchum long enough to know that he never does anything without purpose. He can feel a little anger building up as he angrily asks, "What about me? Do I get to be their to support her in her recovery?"

Mitchum looks at Finn and can sense the anger coming off of him, but he also knows that Finn's involvement with Rory puts an even greater target on her and Rose's backs. He also feels that Finn can't just show up out of the blue and expect to be trusted with the job of supporting Rory. He finally responds with the same amount of anger back at Finn stating, "No, you don't get to be there to support her. You have never been their to support her and you won't be their to support her now. You can continue being Logan's friend and supporting his relationship with Sally, but you don't get to blow in and out of Rory and Rose's lives whenever you please. She was doing perfectly fine before you blew into town and she doesn't need any more of the damage from you being around her! If it was up to me, you wouldn't even be in this hospital right now!"

Finn looks at him and jumps up to face Mitchum. He balls his hands, but before he can respond to Mitchum's statements Donny jumps between them. Donny spreads his arms out between Mitchum and Finn and states sternly, "Stop this silly argument, both of you. We need to focus on helping Rory and this is not helping Rory."

- "Everyone clear, clear!" -

Finn fights his urge to push out at Donny, but he angrily looks towards Mitchum and says, "Are you saying this is all my fault? I'm not the one that pushed her into isolation!"

Mitchum looks across Donny towards Finn and almost shouts, "Yes I am! I didn't push her to isolation, but no one else was out there to support her!"

- "Still flat lined, again, Clear!" -

Before Finn can respond to Mitchum's statement, all three men are shocked to be shoved apart by the female police officer. She looks at both Mitchum and Finn and says, "Stop this or I will arrest both of you. This is not what your friend needs right this moment."

Finn looks at the police officer and cautiously asks, "Are you done with your questioning of Rory?"

The police officer looks back at Finn and says carefully, "No, I am not. Unfortunately, she flat lined during our conversation and the doctors are trying to bring her back right now."

Both Finn and Mitchum collapse into chairs and look out into the hallway almost hoping or praying that everything will go alright.

–- Beep, beep, beep. "There we go, we got her back." -

The police officer looks towards Mitchum and Finn, but before she can say anything else one of the doctors comes running into the room. He looks at the officer and the men and states, "We got her back."

Finn looks up relieved as he was again not ready to think of a life without the lovely Rory. Mitchum looks at the doctor and the police officer again carefully. The doctor then looks back and forth between Finn and Mitchum before stating, "The only visitor she is going to be allowed right away when she comes to will be her daughter and the man currently holding her. You two (pointing at Mitchum and Finn) are banned from the room until she is more stable because if you can't keep it calm between yourselves then I can't expect you to keep calm for her health."

Finn and Mitchum both nod their heads in almost defeat. Mitchum desperately wants to get in to talk to Rory to figure out what happened and who injured her. The doctor then looks towards the police officer and says, "You will have to wait to ask your questions until she is more stable as well. We don't want remembering or trying to tell of the attack to send her into a downward spiral again either."

The police officer nods her head and then says, "Of course doctor. You will let me know when I can question her again, correct?"

The doctor nods his head and then heads back off to take care of Rory. About an hour later, Donny and Rose are escorted into Rory's hospital room where she has come to again, this time much calmer then the last.

In the hospital room

A short while after I had crashed and the doctors brought me back, I awoke into a room this time filled with the chaos of doctors and nurses trying to ensure that I would come back and be healthy. After less then an hour of being checked over by them, they approved me to have Rose return to the room, but told me that I could not hold her currently until my health status improved even more. Now she and Donny have come into the room which leaves me questioning why Donny is the one bringing her in now not Finn or Mitchum. Donny smiles at me and says carefully, "Hello, miss Rose has missed her mommy."

I smile at him and Rose who I can see calmly behaving in his arms. I am excited to see that she seems to have calmed down after her terror from being taken from me earlier. I smile and say, "Well mommy has missed miss Rose as well."

Donny turns Rose carefully so I can see her face and I light up as I watch her see me. She babbles quietly and smiles at me. I smile back and then look up at Donny before carefully asking, "Not that I don't love seeing you Donny, but is there a reason out of the three men out there you are the one they sent in with Rose this time?"

Donny looks at me and I can see he is contemplating how to respond to my question. He finally states, "Mitchum and Finn got in an argument and have been both informed they can't come into your hospital room until the doctors have had a little more time to make sure you are stable."

I wonder what the argument could have been over, but also know that I really have to avoid taking the time to ask him about it. I think over everything that had happened since yesterday when I met Finn for the interview and wonder what could have been different if he had never come to town or if we hadn't interacted when he was in town. I also think back to the statements he made, even if he recanted them, and think over the fact that he was always Logan's friend first. I couldn't ask Finn to pick Rose and I over Logan and I couldn't let him make the decision himself. I know as I have done since our meeting yesterday that ultimately I will have to push him away because I can't cause the break of the friendship between him and Logan. I look at Donny and finally carefully say, "Thank you for telling me."

He nods his head and says, "Now Rory, I know you have always been hesitant to talk about your family or about Rose's father, but I have to ask you a question. What happened that caused you to push your mother away?"

I think back over the friendship that my mother and I had had while I was growing up, but that is all overshadowed by the words she spewed with anger at me while discussing my pregnancy with Rose. I look at Donny and carefully say, "I know Donny that I have been horrible in keeping so many secrets from you, but expecting so much. In regards to my mother, it wasn't originally me that pushed my mother away, but her who pushed me away. She and I were much more like best friends then mother/daughter as I grew up because she had me at 16. As I got older and went off to college, Yale to be exact, we had some split differences over how I was living my life. My involvement with Rose's father, Logan, being one of those differences. When I graduated from Yale, Logan proposed to me and I said not right now. He told me it had to be now or never and we broke it off. We meet up a few years later and started up a fling. A few years into this fling, his father forced him into an engagement with a socialite, as the family never approved of me. After the engagement started, I continued on with the fling right up until his fiancee moved in with him in his apartment in London. I broke it off, but a few weeks later he whisked me off my feet with a gallivanting trip to New Hampshire and little Rose was created that night. I gave him my final good bye the next morning and walked off none the wiser of what we had created that night. I learned of my pregnancy a few days before my mother's wedding and I let her know after her wedding of my pregnancy. At first she was excited, but then when she returned from her honeymoon she attacked me verbally. The biggest thing that pushed me to run from home though was that she called my baby a mistake. I compared her to my grandmother and stormed out of the house. I headed promptly off to London, to tell Logan of my pregnancy. He shunned me as well stating that he loved his fiancee, Odette, and did not want to take any claim on our child. I left London devastated knowing that I could not return home and that I needed to head somewhere away from those who knew me. I didn't want to interrupt Logan's life anymore then I had already done and to preserve his relationship with Odette, I decided to hide myself from the world. This was started by going under a false name and finding a place where no one knew me. This city drew me in with how closely it resembles my home town. That first day when I walked into your diner, so lost and alone, the way you treated me, a complete stranger, solidified that this was the town I needed to stay in. I think I was drawn so easily to trust you most out of all the town members because you remind me so much of my step-father. He and my mother just married recently, but he has always been a father figure in my life. He owns a diner like you and is a friend to all, but he can be gruff when needed as well. Overall, I know I have given you more information then you requested, but ultimately I keep my mother out of my life because she told me my baby was a mistake and I couldn't let my child live with that surrounding them."

I can see Donny's mind processing all the statements that I had just made. I turn my gaze from him to Rose and smile at her as I quietly whisper under my breath, "Rose, no matter what, know that you were never a mistake. I loved you from the first moment I knew about you."

I see Donny smile as he hears my words and he looks down at Rose and says, "You just threw a lot at me, would it be alright if I ask a few questions?"

I nod my head and he states, "First off, is Mitchum your father or Logan's father?"

I look at him and say carefully, "He is Logan's father. At first he didn't like me, but he somehow learned of my pregnancy and found me here. He was the first person to show real excitement for my pregnancy besides myself which ultimately surprised me."

Donny nods his head and then asks, "So that may answer my next question, but if Mitchum is Rose's grandfather on Logan's side why did he force an engagement when you were having your fling with his son?"

I think back over everything that happened and remember how hard Logan and I had been hiding our fling even before Odette. I finally respond by stating, "When I first started dating Logan, his family, including Mitchum, did not approve of me because I wanted to work and a wife in that family did not work. Also, through that disdain Mitchum once told me that I did not have what it would take to be a journalist. I think this may have been one of the reasons for the forced engagement, but also my fling with his son was very well hidden so he may have not even known that we were together at the time."

Donny nods his head again and I am glad that I am finally able to open up at my life story to him. Some of the questions he may ask maybe tough, but after everything I have asked of him I know I must return the favor and answer his questions in exchange. Donny says, "Alright. Now you mentioned the number one reason you came here and changed your identity being that you wanted to protect Rose's father's relationship. Has that changed at all?"

I nod my head and remember the day that Mitchum had informed me about Sally and the kinds of behavior she may pull to keep Logan in her grasps. I say quietly, "Yes, it has changed some. I learned shortly after I was pushed away that by the time I informed him of my pregnancy, Rose's father was already in another relationship with a woman besides his fiancee."

Donny nods his head and says, "I think I have heard this story from Mitchum as he was informing Finn of the story. This woman he is dating is a woman named Sally, correct?"

I nod my head and watch Donny carefully. I can see that he is still carefully mulling over everything I had told him and know that I have to be prepared to answer any other questions he throws at me. We slowly pass the time for another hour or so discussing different things, including stories from my childhood. About an hour after Donny and Rose had entered the room, a doctor comes into the room to check my vitals and look through things. I look at him carefully as he finishes and ask, "Can I hold my daughter now?"

A/N: I hope you all have loved this chapter. I am very grateful for all you readers. Please leave your thoughts in the friendly comment box below.