Yes, it's a new scenario! Going back to the month at Netherfield; it's just so rife with possibilities. Hope you like it.

Lizzie hesitated at the door to the hospital room, torn between the need to rush inside and the fear of what she would see. She reminded herself of what the nurse had said. It wasn't very serious, just a broken collar bone. On the other hand, it was bad enough that he needed surgery. And she'd only had about twenty minutes to process all of this, from the time of the nurse's phone call followed by a frantic rush to the hospital. She really hadn't made any sense of it yet.

She took a breath and forced herself in.

William was sitting – well, propped against the bed in its half-reclined position – with a sleepy but untroubled expression on his face. That face, Lizzie noted with a hard swallow, was crossed with scratches and cuts, not to mention a purpling bruise around the right eye. All superficial wounds, but still. His right arm was in a sling, and he was hooked up to several machines. She hovered by the door, hating her cowardice, until William looked up and smiled.

"Lizzie. I'm so glad you came."

"William," she sighed, and suddenly she was hurrying to his side, taking his free hand. "What happened? Someone hit you on your bike? I just can't believe it; you're such a careful cyclist –"

"Lizzie," he said again, his smile widening. "This bed is marvelously comfortable. You ought to try it. Shall I get up?"

"What? No," she said, making sure he wasn't actually trying to get to his feet. He seemed content to lay his head back on the pillows, his face growing positively goofy. "William, I think you're delirious."

"Mmm. Yes, delicious," he mumbled, his eyes drifting shut. Then they popped back open. "We have children!"

"Uh, yes, we do." What kind of pain meds were they giving him? "They're with Charlotte right now. Remember, she's in town? Thank goodness. She's happy to help out."

"Why not bring them here?" he said, with an expression that could only be described as pouting. This was getting surreal. "They would benefit from the expedient. The experience."

"Probably not a good idea," Lizzie managed to reply, just as the nurse was coming in.

"All righty," she said in a cheery voice, "who's ready for surgery?"

"Sorry," William said, "but I don't have the license. The medical one."

"You're not the surgeon, William," Lizzie said. "You're the patient."

"I wouldn't try reasoning with him, dear," the nurse said with a low voice and a wink. "He's pretty heavily sedated right now."

"I noticed."

"So we'll be taking him into the O.R. in just a few minutes." She handed Lizzie a pamphlet entitled Clavicle Fractures and Repair. "It's a fairly routine procedure, and Dr. Harrison is one of the best surgeons in the Bay Area. If you have any questions, feel free to ask."

Lizzie could only nod and squeeze William's hand, then wait and watch as they wheeled him away.

The afternoon passed with agonizing slowness. She made a few calls, checked on Charlotte and the kids, paged through some magazines without reading a thing – then looked at her phone to discover less than a half an hour had passed. Her thoughts drifted aimlessly from one place to another, sometimes panicked and fearful, other times just bored. Then, unexpectedly, they settled somewhere that opened a whole new field of possibilities.

Time passed much faster after that.

She was there in the recovery room when William's eyes flickered open. He gave her a groggy smile.

"You're exceptionally lovely today, Lizzie. Have I told you that?"

"Thank you. And you're exceptionally eloquent for being severely doped up." She leaned down and kissed his forehead. Once he was a little more responsive, he was wheeled back to his room. He drifted in and out of sleep over the next hour while Lizzie made a few more phone calls and mentally elaborated on the scenario she was developing. By the time William was fully coherent, she was itching to tell him everything. First, however, they had to address reality.

"I'm sorry for causing you all this worry," William said, glancing at his sling with a grimace.

"The only person who needs to apologize is the driver who hit you," Lizzie said. "And he already did, profusely. I think he was expecting a lawsuit, especially once he found out you were a CEO. I assume that's not necessary."

"Not at all. I'm sure I share at least a part of the blame."

"Never mind that." She smoothed his hair from his scratched-up forehead. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired. But otherwise, remarkably well."

"That's good." She added shrewdly, "I'll have to ask again once the medication starts wearing off."

"And Charlotte will be able to watch the children tomorrow as well?"

"Yup. She said it'll be very useful practice. I'd forgotten she's already four months along, did you realize that?"

He glanced at her sideways. "You don't seem as distressed as I'd feared you would be."

"Trust me, I was freaking out plenty when I first got the news. But the surgery went smoothly and you're on the way to recovery. Besides…." She couldn't contain herself anymore. "I just thought of a new hypothetical."

A smile slowly spread across his face. "Really? I'd love to hear it."

"Imagine if you'd had an accident like this while Jane and I were staying at Netherfield."

His smile shifted into bewilderment. "You're excited about scenarios in which I break my collar bone?"

"Let me explain. It happens on a day when Caroline's in L.A. on business and Bing and Jane are out somewhere, being schmoopy, with their phones shut off so they won't be interrupted. So when the nurse can't get in touch with Bing – he's listed as your local emergency contact – she calls the landline at Netherfield. I didn't even know the landline was hooked up, but when I'm there, alone, and it starts ringing, I have to decide whether to answer it. I figure it's either a telemarketer or an emergency. When I see the local hospital on the caller ID, I have to answer it."

William leaned back into his pillows thoughtfully. "And then?"

"The voice on the other end asks if Bing is there, and when I say he's not, she asks if I know you. Uh. Yeah. While I start thinking, what if you'd been killed? It's one thing to indulge in a few schadenfreude-ish fantasies about your death. It's quite another to confront to the actual reality of it."

"Lizzie," William said, not quite meeting her eyes, "did you truly have fantasies like that?"

"Sorry. Not – too many. More often, I just imagined you in some situation of public humiliation." She felt her cheeks burn red. "And then I was helpful enough to provide just such a situation for you in front of millions on the Internet." She leaned close, kissed him, and rested her head on his shoulder. Good thing she had enough foresight to sit at the left side of his bed. "Sorry, a hundred million times."

Somehow, around his I.V. and the tangle of blankets, he managed to bring his hand around her and began stroking her hair. "Are you sure you want to explore this hypothetical?"

"Absolutely. Things are going to change very quickly. First of all, once I've learned you're not dead, just in need of clavicle repair, the nurse asks if anyone could come to see him. It's best if he sees a familiar face when he's waking up from surgery. And I start to get frantic. If she couldn't reach Bing on his phone, that must mean he's turned it off. Caroline is gone, Jane – maybe I'll start calling her on my phone even while I'm still talking to the nurse. Well, I'm sure I can get a hold of – just a second – no – no, she's not answering. Um. Okay, I guess I can come in. And as soon as I say it, I want to bite my tongue. I figure I'm the last person you'd want to see in a drug-addled haze, and I sure don't want to be there myself. How am I supposed to feel when the guy I despise is in the hospital? Jubilant? That doesn't seem nearly the right word for this twisted-up feeling in my gut.

"I'm not a monster, after all, is what I tell myself. If he needs a familiar face and there's absolutely no one else in the entire world, I can dutifully step in and act the part. Only to the barest minimum. And only until Bing finally gets the five messages I leave both him and Jane on the way to the hospital."

"I can only imagine my surprise when you show up in my hospital room."

"Well…" Lizzie turned to look at him slyly. "If you want to envision this accurately, you're going to have to take into account the fact that you're incredibly loopy."

"Loopy?" He pulled back from her, examining her face with growing suspicion. "Lizzie, what did I say when you first got here? My memory of that time is – somewhat clouded."

"Oh, it was quite entertaining," she said with an evil grin.

"Please tell me I didn't humiliate myself."

"No. You were just adorable."

"That's not very reassuring."

"So I'll come into the room," she went on, pretending to ignore his expression of growing panic, "and discover something alarming. It doesn't matter how much I hate you, there is nothing nice about seeing your face all covered with scratches and marks. Seeing you vulnerable, barely conscious, helpless – it just makes my gut twist up even more, like all my ill-wishing somehow brought this upon you."

He squeezed her hand.

"Then you open your eyes and rasp out my name. I come to your bed reluctantly. Yeah. It's me. I, uh, left a message with Bing. Hopefully he'll get here soon."

"If I'm truly as 'loopy' as you claim I would be," William said, "I might say something unguarded. Lizzie, I am honored to enjoy the privilege of your company."

"I'd just stare at you. Huh?"

"Please make yourself comfortable. May I get you anything? Does that sound about right?"

"Pretty close. Except your speech would be all slurred, accompanied by a silly smile."

William's eyebrows went up, but he managed to restrain whatever protest was on his lips.

"And I'd be tempted to back away slowly and get out of there. Sedated Darcy is weird. Like, actually nice and friendly, in a stiff and formal-ish kind of way. But since you're Bing's friend and I'm not a monster and all that, I force myself to reply. Thanks, but I'm good. Uh…how about you?"

"I am quite well, thank you. These are excellent accomandants. Commendations."

Lizzie giggled. "Exactly." She looked at him fondly, almost longingly. "Have I mentioned yet how very, very glad I am that you only broke a collar bone?"

He kissed the top of her head, then let out a slight but unmistakable groan. Lizzie drew back. "You okay?"

"Well enough. Forgive me, but the pain is slightly more than I expected."

"Should I call the nurse?"

"No, no. I just need to avoid any extraneous – contortions."

"Which means I can't keeps squishing right up next to you," she surmised with a sigh. "All right, all right." She pulled away to sit up straight in the chair again. "So there we are, loopy sedated Darcy and freaking-out Lizzie. I shoot Jane another desperate text or two while we wait, but still nothing. You just keep grinning goofily at me, and then, finally, they wheel you off the surgery. I've lost track of how many messages I've left for Bing and Jane. At this point I'm calling Charlotte too, just to send out an S.O.S. Nobody's answering. When someone does finally call, it's not on my phone – it's yours. They have a bag of your stuff in your room, and when I hear your phone ringing I go for it, hoping it's Bing. Instead, it's your sister. I recognize the name and decide at the last minute that I'd better let her know what's going on."

"She would be extremely worried," William said, wincing as he shifted position. "After losing our parents…"

"Oh, no," Lizzie said, horrified. "I feel bad even doing this to her hypothetically."

"It's all right. Once you've explained to her that it's a minor injury –"

"She'd still want to fly straight out to be with you," Lizzie said. "And I'd be startled that you were able to inspire such sisterly devotion. Well, by the time you're getting out of surgery, Bing and Jane finally come rushing in, full of apologies and worries. But things have already been set it motion for a whole lot of change. Your sister is coming, I'm having a lot of squirmy-gut feelings, and then, when you wake up in your room, barely coming out of the haze of anesthesia, the first thing you ask is 'Where is Lizzie?' As it happens I'm sneaking out the door at that very moment, and hearing you say my name like that is enough to make me practically run for the hospital exit. Sedated Darcy is just too, too weird."

"I wouldn't remember much of this once I was fully awake, but I would be vaguely aware that you were at my side before the surgery, and the thought would fill me with a peculiar warmth."

"Back at Netherfield, I'd be cringing with guilt, and then get mad that I was feeling guilty. I didn't owe you anything; I'd already gone way above and beyond by going to the hospital in the first place, and it was really weird that you were asking for me afterwards. Yet I'd still feel bad for running out. Jane would come home a little after, saying Bing's going to stick around at the hospital until Gigi can get there. That was really nice of you to be there for Darcy. And I'd shrug. There wasn't anyone else. I'm just glad Bing finally turned on his phone.

"Oh, we're so sorry about that! Bing heard this idea about going without electronics for a day, and it seemed like such a nice thing to try. I just can't believe the accident happened today, of all days! And I'd just shrug again. No harm done. But Jane would wonder. Was it all right, really? I know you don't get along that well with Darcy. And I'd find myself laughing. Actually, he's a lot more tolerable when he's heavily medicated."

"The next morning, Gigi would show up at Netherfield. In all her worrying and scrambling to buy a plane ticket, she forgot to ask where the hospital was. So Jane goes to answer the doorbell, and there's your sister. Oh hi, it's so good to meet you! You must be Gigi Darcy. And I'd be hovering in the background, part of me desperately curious to put a face to the nervous voice on the phone, part of me figuring she'll turn out to be just as awful as her brother. Then she sees me and says, Are you Lizzie? Thank you, thank you for helping William yesterday! I'm so glad someone was there for him. I just sort of mumble, Sure, no problem. And Gigi would put down her bag and say, So, um, could you tell me the address for the hospital? I'll just take the cab and – To which Jane would insist that she would give Gigi a ride on her way to work, even though the hospital is completely in the other direction, and I realize I have to be a decent human being and offer to drive your sister instead."

"You've planned this scenario very elaborately," William said, his lips twitching in a barely perceptible smile.

She grinned. "I had a lot of time this afternoon. So your sister and I have a twenty-minute ride to talk. She asks some questions about your surgery and how you're recovering, and I answer as best I can without giving away how I actually feel about her brother. More and more I'm feeling confused at how sweet and talkative she is – though she has moments of quiet gloominess because you-know-what is still pretty recent – and then, she speaks so highly of you. William this and William that, all the times you've rushed to her rescue and how important it is that she can finally do the same for him, how you never think of yourself and you were probably apologizing to the driver after he hit you."

"That seems a tremendous exaggeration," William said, holding back a yawn.

"Maybe so, but I'm thinking there must be some particle of truth in it. Which is really, really confusing. But I have no more time to think about it, because we're at the hospital and Gigi is dragging me inside before I have a chance to make some excuse to leave and come to pick her up later. Back at your hospital room –" Lizzie glanced at him, figuring she'd been dominating the narrative long enough and it was about time for William to offer some input for his hypothetical counterpart. But his eyes were fluttering shut. Right. The nurse said that might happen.

She leaned forward to kiss him, then gathered up her things. She'd be back as soon as visiting hours started tomorrow. And maybe then she'd let him do a little more of the talking.