A/N: Okay, this chapter is a little short, but it gets us through to the next chapter, which will probably be the last one (and will be much longer, I promise!). Thank you all for sticking with this story and still reviewing even with all the delays!
"Brody. B-r-o-d-y."
The nurse behind the bulletproof partition shook her head and glanced up over the rim of her glasses. "Lady, you can spell it as many times as you want to, it's not going to make a difference. You cannot come into the trauma bay. Take a seat, someone will come find you when they can."
"But…"
"Look around," the nurse interrupted, gesturing to the crowded waiting room. "It's barely noon and we've seen almost five hundred patients today. Waiting isn't going to kill you, so take a seat and let the doctors do their work."
"Can't you just tell me if he's badly hurt?" Abby pleaded.
The nurse sighed and nodded, flipping through a few screens on the computer in front of her. "You said Brody?"
"Yes."
"They've got him in the blue zone."
"Blue? Is that bad?" Abby asked anxiously.
"We've got green, blue and red," the nurse explained. "Red's critical, green's treat-and-street, blue's in the middle. Now will you please take a seat?"
Abby felt as though she might jump out of her skin as she sat on the edge of a chair near the front of the waiting room, her eyes periodically darting around the room while her hands were folded in front of her in prayer. It had been almost an hour since the nurse had sent her away from the main ER, and she'd sent up every sort of prayer she could think of from her Catholic school days.
Shivering, she looked down at her hands, noticing for the first time that they were a slight shade of blue. She wasn't sure if she was shaking more from nervousness or from the fact that she'd been sitting there in her rain-soaked clothes, but she figured the reason didn't matter, because she wasn't moving until she knew that Brody was alright.
Feeling a blanket slipped around her shoulders, she glanced to her side and offered a grateful half-smile as Lina sat down down next to her and forced a cup of coffee into her hands.
"Drink it," she insisted. "You look like death warmed over, you're starting to scare the patients."
Abby nodded silently, not having the energy to argue, and took a few small sips of the warm liquid. "They won't tell me anything," she said in a small voice. "He…he has to be okay."
Lina sighed and bit her lower lip as she placed a hand on Abby's forearm. "I know."
A few minutes later, Lina glanced up as the doors to the waiting room opened. Grinning, she nudged Abby with her elbow.
"Abby. Look."
Hesitantly looking up, Abby was on her feet almost immediately at the sight of the man walking toward her. "Brody," she whispered tearfully, shaking her head in disbelief. A second later and she was in his arms, her tears flowing as she kissed him.
"Hey," he whispered gently. "Don't cry."
"I thought you were dead," Abby said in shock, running her fingers gently over a stitched-up cut on his cheek. "I thought…"
"You can't get rid of me that easy," Brody assured her. "I'm fine."
"You're sure?" Abby questioned, still not quite believing him as she took a step back and looked him up and down, taking in the cuts and bruises on his face, the sling his arm was resting in, the dried blood on his uniform shirt.
"Abby, they wouldn't have let me go if I wasn't going to be okay," Brody reassured her, now taking a hard look at her. "Why are your clothes all wet? You must be freezing, it's twenty degrees outside."
"It's a long story. It's not important."
"I think it is," Lina interrupted from behind. "Your genius girlfriend here couldn't get to the crash scene fast enough, so she got out of her car and ran at least a mile to get to you. In the rain. In heels. And then she refused to leave here to get dry clothes until she knew you were alright."
"Abby…"
"Don't you dare criticize me for that," Abby warned tearfully. "I've been in a lot of bad situations in my career, John Brody, and I have never been so scared as you made me this afternoon. So don't you dare try to tell me it wasn't rational, or smart, or…"
"I was just going to say, that's very sweet."
"Liar."
Lina groaned slightly as Brody kissed Abby's forehead and laughed. "Alright, I don't want to interrupt this Kodak moment, but what do you say we get the two of you home? You look like you could use some rest, Brody, and I'm guessing if we don't get you out of those wet clothes soon, Abby, I'm going to have an ice block for a partner tomorrow."
