A/N: Hey, guys, sorry for the delay. The last several days have been kinda crazy. But here's chapter 7. The next couple chapters are some of my favorites; I hope you guys like them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

As always, review if you feel the need to (I do like getting them) but no flames please!

Also, I should prolly start adding disclaimers, since that totally escaped me at the beginning, so here it is: They're not mine. I'm just borrowing them for a while. I promise to return them in something resembling their original conditions.

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Chapter 7: Crumbling

Still slumped against the wall, Stella squeezed her eyes more tightly closed. She was crumbling, slowly now, but her walls and defenses were breaking in what would soon be an avalanche. She knew should could hold it together long enough to see Danny; beyond that, it was anyone's best guess. She just hoped she could get away before anyone noticed that something bigger was wrong.

She opened her eyes, defenses barely in place, at the ding of the elevator. She, Flack, Hawkes and Lindsay watched the doors open, and they all broke into a grin as they watched Danny arguing with the orderly steering his wheelchair, about the necessity of said wheelchair.

Seeing him nearly ruined Stella's hastily resurrected defenses. His heavily bandaged hand was resting on his lap, on the blanket that had been draped over his legs. Most of his face was covered in newly emerging bruises, and he was breathing shallowly, in deference to his bruised and possibly cracked ribs. Feeling the emotions start to storm through her, she prayed for just a little more time and ruthlessly squashed them back down. Forcing herself to smile, she pushed off the door to Adam's room.

"Danny! Behave!" She called down the hall to him.

His gaze snapped over to her, then traveled over the others, lingering on Lindsay before swinging back to Stella.

"Stel! Hey, tell this guy that it was my hand that got smashed, not my foot!" he called back with a smile, a hint of a whine present in his voice.

"Sir, you just came out of surgery!" The orderly replied, obviously exasperated.

"Danny, you need to let him do his job. You're likely still woozy from the general, and you've had a rough day," Hawkes said in his sternest 'Doctor' voice.

"Aww, man. C'mon, Doc!" Danny whined.

Hawkes just looked at him. Danny was the first to look away, and mumbled something uncomplimentary under his breath as the orderly wheeled him into his room.

"Watch it, Messer, or I'll have them pull your morphine drip. Now behave and let the man do his job," Hawkes said, strolling into the room behind the orderly.

"Man, you're mean, Doc," Danny muttered as the orderly helped him into bed. He stopped his grumbling when Lindsay stepped up to the bed and grabbed his good hand.

"You look like hell, man," Flack said.

Danny turned his head and glared at Flack. "At least it's temporary for me. What's your excuse?" he shot back.

"Hey, I get no complaints," Flack smirked.

Lindsay sighed. "Boys. Behave. Please?"

They turned to look at her, amused by the pleading in her voice, as if she didn't expect her request to be headed.

"Alright, Montana. We'll play nice."

"Yeah, but only cuz you asked so nicely," Flack chimed in.

Absorbed in the banter between the friends, no one noticed Stella slip out of the room.

A short while later, during a lull in the conversation, Danny suddenly spoke up. "Hey, where'd Stella go? I wanted to ask her about Mac."

Flack and Hawkes shot out of their chairs, exchanging a panicked look. Lindsay shot them a quelling glance when Danny looked at them, confused. "She probably just went to check on Adam. Hawkes and Flack will go check. I'll stay here," she said firmly.

"Look who's being the mommy of the team now," Danny teased as Flack and Hawkes hurried out of the room. His smile faded as soon as they were out of earshot.

"Alright, Linds, what's going on?"

She didn't answer, knowing that her cell phone was about to ring. How long had Stel been gone? She thought frantically. A minute? 10? How would they find her now? Glancing at her watch, she realized they'd only been visiting with Danny for about 15 minutes. When her phone rang, she answered.

"Did you find her?" she asked Flack.

"No, Linds. She's not in Adam's room. He hasn't seen her. We woke him up to ask. Damn it!" He suddenly cursed.

"Don't worry about it, Don. You guys'll find her."

"I should have been watching her! I knew how close we thought she was!"

"Don't think about that now. If it helps, I think she's probably only had about a 10-minute head start, at the most. I'll hold down the fort here. You go find her."

"Thanks, Linds. We'll call when we know something." With that, Flack hung up and turned to Sheldon as they impatiently waited for the elevator. "Lindsay thinks she's got about a 10-minute lead on us. Where do we think she'd go?"

They stepped into the elevator. Hawkes pressed the button for the Lobby, then answered. "Someplace safe? Where she could be alone to cry, where no one would see her weakness?" Hawkes suggested.

"Yeah, but where's that, Doc?" Flack groaned. "The lab's out… her apartment?" Flack looked at Hawkes. "Would that be somewhere she'd consider safe, after Frankie?"

Hawkes shrugged. "I don't know, man. Worth a shot, right?"

Flack nodded and the two men strode out of the hospital. Flagging a cab, they jumped in and Flack gave the driver Stella's address, forever imprinted on his memory from the day he'd had to break her door down.