A/N: Thanks again for the reviews! And, yeah...I like cliffhangers. A little too much :-P
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The next time I woke, I was in a different place. Many of the monitors were gone, and I was off oxygen, from what I could tell. The walls were wooden, opaque, instead of the transparent glass I'd seen during my brief awake spell in the other room. I was grateful for the increase in privacy, at least.

Paul was still next to me when I awoke, and I gave him a big smile when I saw him, squeezing his hand tightly. I was about to say something, probably mushy and ridiculous, but he pointed to the other end of the room.

Standing on the other side of my bed were my father and…Charlie? "CHARLIE!" I half shouted…and noticed that the action only caused a little bit of pain. This thrilled me. "How'd you get away from Iraq?"

My brother stroked my hair. "Hey there sunshine." He smiled. "I took an emergency leave of absence. Everyone understood…and I think that's a first for the military. But enough about that…you're looking pretty good. How do you feel?"

"Like I got hit by a bus..oh no wait, never mind. I don't feel quite that bad. Must have been a car then."

Charlie and Paul groaned in unison, "Liz, I see that the crash hasn't affected your sense of humor in any way. It's still as bad as ever."

"Hey! I think I'm quite funny, actually, thank you very much." There was a pause, and while Charlie and Paul were attempting to control their laughter, my father made his way to my bed.

"Hey Lizzie," he murmured softly, brushing hair out of my face. I stared at him in shock. My father hadn't called me Lizzie since I was a baby.

"Hey Daddy." I said, suddenly feeling very small. He didn't say anything else, just continued to stroke my hair until a doctor entered the room.

"Hi everyone." She said, glancing around. Everyone else must have known her, because they all responded with "Heys" and "How are yous" I just stared.

Paul looked at me, concerned. "Do you remember her at all?."

"Umm…should I?"

"She's been your doctor for the past week and a half."

"Oh."

The Doctor smiled. "It's completely normal to have some sense of memory loss after such a trauma. My name is Dr. Jenkins, Liz. I've been taking care of you. And right now, I'm afraid I'm going to have to examine you, and I think you'll want some privacy." She looked pointedly at the three men standing around me.

"Translation: Shoo." Charlie laughed, as he grabbed my father's arm and led him out of the room. Paul followed, eyes growing more and more anxious as he got further away. I waved him on, even as a hole began to make its way into my chest: I did not want him to leave.

When they had left, Dr. Jenkins began undressing me. "You are much, much better than when you first came in here." She told me.

I grimaced. "THIS is better?" I indicated my bruised and broken body. I was almost curious, in a gross way, to see what had happened, "What do I look like, anyhow?"

The doctor laughed. "You mean under the mountains of gauze? I'd say probably pretty gross. On the upside, they shaved your legs before surgery…they were smooth when they put them on."
I laughed with her, but then stopped abruptly, "Wait…you always shave before surgery, right?"

"Yes, that's the procedure…what on earth is the matter?" she asked, somewhat alarmed as I attempted to reach my broken arm up to my head.

"Do I still have hair?" I asked, beginning to hyperventilate. The doctor pushed my arm back then reached into the back of my head and pulled out several golden locks.

"There you go little miss goldilocks. Most of your hair has remained on your head. We did have to shave a little of the left half, to put the skill fragments together correctly. The impact mostly had concentrated around that left side; you were very lucky."

I immediately relaxed, "Any other permanent damage?"

She frowned, "Aside from healing? I'm a little concerned about your uterus- it seems as though it was damaged in the accident. I can't say for sure, but it seems severe enough that you may not be able to have children for quite awhile, if at all."

I didn't know what to make of that statement. Though I'd never really thought about it, I suddenly realized that I did eventually want children. I felt suddenly sad at the prospect of that being snatched away.

Dr. Jenkins changed the subject. "I want to check your ribs now, if you please."

I allowed her to push into my back. I gasped- her simple touch caused a wave of pain to run through my body. "OWWWW.' I half shouted. That hurt, too.

"Your ribs are still in a precarious position: I'm going to have you wheeled to X-Ray later this afternoon to check up on how they are healing. I also want to take a look at your leg and your skull." She grinned, "They probably know you by name now."
I thought about that for a moment. "Does this mean that I'll turn into some sort of X-Ray monster, you know, from the all radiation. Cuz that might be kinda fun, not gonna lie."

She laughed, "I don't think so…"

I sighed, feigning disappointment, "Too bad."

As Dr. Jenkins continued her exam, I took the time to actually look at myself and survey the damage. I couldn't see my head, but I knew the left side was wrapped in gauze and partially shaven. That was ok. I could deal with that as long as I had most of my blonde hair remaining.

I could feel some scrapes on my chin and nose, but that seemed to be the extent of the damage on my head. I looked down at my body: my neck did not have a brace on it- this was promising. At least, it meant that I wouldn't be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of my life. I hoped.

My chest was completely bandaged, but it looked like everything was in the right place. I felt kind of sad again as I looked down- I assumed it was a feeling that would not go away overnight.

My left leg actually looked pretty good- there was a piece of gauze across my knee, but other than that, it was in-tact. The right was another story- an ugly cast extended all the way to my mid-thigh. That would be annoying. How was I supposed to use crutches?

I looked to my arms- the right was only covered in gauze, but there was a fairly large cast on the left one. It was an ugly beigeish yellow- such a boring color. I wondered if Alex would bring me markers to spice it up.

Alex. I had forgotten him, what with everything going on. Where was he? Had he driven himself home? Was he in this hospital too? Or worse…was he in a funeral home or graveyard? Surely they would have told me…but then, he would have been here if he were ok…

I felt my heart rate rise- the monitor began to go crazy, some sort of alarm started going off, and a couple of nurses came running in with the emergency cart. I heard someone screaming at Paul to stay back, and then saw him through the corner of my eye.

The doctor came to my side immediately, "Liz, what's the matter? I need you do tell me where you are in pain. Liz?" her voice was far from the joking tone she'd had earlier- it was purely medical. A voice practiced in dealing with stressful situations.

"Where is Alex?" I looked at her, face pained. "Why isn't he here?"

She relaxed, and waved everyone back, taking my hand. This was bad, why was she stopping? Was he dead?

"Alex. Where is Alex?"

"He's fine. He's just very upset with himself. He's been here a couple of times and nearly went crazy each one of them. He blames himself, sweetheart. I think he's trying not to upset you by being here. Of course, your friend over there didn't exactly help either." She pointed to Paul, who was standing in the corner, despite the protests of a male nurse.

I looked over to him, confused. "Paul, did you say something to Alex?" Paul's face looked irate at the mention of the name.

"He put you through a huge amount of danger." Paul half growled. "You were nearly killed."

I sighed- the motion was surprisingly painful, which, of course, set off my heart monitor. "I hate that thing" I muttered, as Paul broke free of the male nurse and rushed to take my hand.

"What's wrong with her?" He demanded, looking at the doctor.

"Nothing's wrong." I told him. "I just sighed, and that hurt. Relax." He sat back, and I continued. "Look, I don't blame Alex and neither should you. He's been a very good brother to me, and gotten me through more than you could imagine. So do not make him feel worse about this. It upsets me. A lot."

Paul's eyes looked even more pained, and I felt a bit guilty- after all this, I shouldn't be causing him more pain. But slowly, he nodded, and I began to feel better and relax. The beeping stopped.

"Can we see if Alex will come? Like soon?" I asked the doctor and Paul.

It was Paul who sighed and answered. "I will tell him that you want to see him." He said reluctantly. "But he is not entering this room until you get back from testing and x-rays. "

The doctor looked at both of us, "Actually, I'm going to restrict most visitors until tomorrow- I want to be sure you are completely stable. You're particularly prone to infection right now." I looked at her, feeling horrified all of the sudden.

"You're going to take away visitors? But I don't want to be here all alone! I don't want Paul to go away! Don't push him out." I begged her. Ordinarily, I would have been mortified at my neediness, but, hey, I'd been through a lot in the past week or so.

Paul's hand tightened, and I felt a certain amount of reassurance that he would not leave me easily. But the doctor pushed a hand over my forehead and said, "Relax. He's been here. If he is carrying some sort of super virus, you almost certainly have it." Both of us visibly relaxed. "Now," she continued, "I'm going to get you into X-ray, then we are going to conduct some PT tests to check your range of motion. I'm also going to try to start giving you liquids to drink later- see if we can't get you off this IV."

I nodded, making a face as I looked at the IV tube. "That sounds wonderful."