A/N: Sorry for the delay on the update. Trying to do some NaNoWriMo writing so it took a minute to update this story! Next chapter will be up early next week though! Enjoy; as always, I own nothing and feel free to review and comment! I love hearing from everyone!

Emergency Contact

Theodore could still taste the metallic flavor of the blood that pooled in his mouth hours earlier. He touched the left side of his face, the side of his face with the swollen-closed eye and the busted lip and grimaced. He turned over again and looked at the darkness on the other side of the window and tried to close his eyes again. The doctor had said that he had broken ribs, a collapse eyes socket and a missing tooth.

"You are still awake," the nurse said coming in and filling up the ice water jug on the table in front of Theodore. "How is your pain?"

Theodore's eyes fluttered open and then closed again. "Well…we are trying to get in touch with your emergency contact right now…"

Traci paced back and forth in front of the closed hospital room door and tried not to curse her little sister's name. She had called Chelyn nearly two hours ago, and although she knew the girl had been asleep, she expected Chelyn to at least be prompt after she was awake. Traci looked down at her watch in a huff and patted the tip of her boots on the linoleum floor. "Dammit, Chelyn," she began to curse under her breath just as she saw her sister turn the corner to the hospital hallway.

"I called you nearly two hours ago," Traci started right in. If she had to be awaken from her bed at night, Chelyn could damn sure do the same.

Chelyn ignored the bite in her older sister's tone and stifled a yawn. "You didn't even bring coffee," she mumbled in audible disbelief. "Geez! You woke me up at four and didn't even bring me coffee!" Traci rolled her eyes and shushed her sister. "Are you serious? First you woke me up, now I can't talk…"

"He's resting," Traci pointed to the room in front of them. It was Chelyn's turn to roll her eyes.

"Why exactly did you call me for Theodore Nash?" Chelyn wondered out loud. It was a breach of the only concrete rule that she and Traci shared; do not involve her in the overwhelming mess of the Nash family. Although they shared a father; Chelyn wanted to, in no way, be associated with the Nash lineage. This was how her father had treated her growing up, and now in her adulthood, she appreciated being separated from that pack of wolves.

"He is your uncle too…" Traci reminded her. Seeing that her sister was unmoved by this declaration, Traci moved on to her second angle. "Gail said that you are working the Amnesia case," she whispered. "There's a possible connection…" Now this information caused her sister's eyes to rise just enough to cause Traci to smile. "I have you attention now?"

Chelyn shook her head "no," and shrugged. "You have my curiosity," Chelyn said opening the door to her uncle's hospital room. "Theodore Nash!" she yelled loudly enough for the man to jerk to attention. "Wow, you look like shit…how did you manage to get a private room," but she already knew the answer. She turned to look at her Traci's reaction, which revealed that she was behind the feat.

"Hey…keep it down," Traci chastised, "it was hard enough getting us in here at this hour," she said to her sister.

"Theodore, what type of shit did you get yourself into now!" Chelyn questioned not lowering her tone one decibel. "You look like shit…" she reiterated with an amused smile.

Theodore looked from one niece to the other and closed the eye that wasn't already shut for him. Every part of his body pulsated pain, but the fact that Traci had called that little shit, Chelyn was causing him the most pain right now. He waved the girl off as an off-handed dismissal.

"Just as I thought…useless as ever," she said with a self-satisfied grin. "Why did you call me, Traci?"

"This happened outside of Club Amnesia last night…" Traci whispered low enough so Theodore couldn't hear her.

Now the next logical question was, "what was Theodore doing at Amnesia," but Chelyn decided to keep this question in her holster right now. "Interesting," was all Chelyn would offer her sister. "Inside the club or out front?"

"He said in the alleyway…he and some girl was …"

"Spare me the details," Chelyn held up her casted arm.

"Well, to make a long story short, he was hit in the head, subsequently beaten, wallet and jewelry taken and when he woke up…he was here. I'm one of his emergency contacts…"

"What happened to the girl?" Chelyn was far more interested in her whereabouts than her uncle's condition and loss of money and property. Traci shook her head indicating she didn't know. "How'd he get an invitation?" the same blank look travelled over Traci's face. "Theodore!" Chelyn shouted again. "How did you get an invitation to Amnesia?"

Theodore stared at Chelyn for a moment. "I do maintenance on their security systems…I was there for work…"

"At night, with a full club," Chelyn followed quickly. Traci poked her sister sharply in the ribs.

"Do you know a better time to make sure security systems are up-to-date?" Theodore spat at his niece. "I was doing my job…"

"In the alleyway with a woman? And judging by the end product, you suck at your job…"

"Listen, Chelyn…someone did this to MY FACE, MY BODY…" Theodore said becoming angrier.

"Who else do you do security systems for?" Traci questioned.

"Most of the clubs in the area," he answered Traci calmly. "I don't know what happened Traci," he said mournfully.

"Theo, it's fine. You just rest and we'll figure this out…" Chelyn looked at her sister skeptically, but kept her mouth shut. "We're gonna let you rest, okay?" Traci turned to leave, and moved to pull her sister along. When they were safely outside the room, Traci looked at her sister accusingly. "Why do you have to push everyone's buttons?"

"By asking questions?" Chelyn smirked. "What did you call me for if you didn't want my help?"

"He's your uncle…"

"You've said that," Chelyn reminded her.

"Okay, I thought this could help with your case…" which Traci knew really meant that she didn't want Chelyn undercover in a place where people were getting beaten and killed.

Chelyn understood what her sister was trying to say. "I do have an idea…" Chelyn smiled.

"I hate it when you have ideas," Traci blew out a heavy breath.

Chelyn hadn't thought about the logistics of bringing coffee home for Elle, but now standing at her front door trying to get it open and hold onto two cups of coffee, made her feel as if she should have done some planning. After three minutes of gripping the doorknob with just her fingertips, Chelyn finally got the door opened. She balanced the coffee cups all the way to the table, before the sound of Elle's voice startled her into jumping. "Dammit," she said as she watched one cup of coffee fly in the air and land upside down on the kitchen table.

"Oh my gosh," Elle said, "I'm so sorry, Chelyn. I didn't mean to frighten you," she offered her apologizes.

"No, you're fine," Chelyn smiled although in her mind she was already tasting her coffee. "Can you grab a dishtowel for me, please?" Elle came over and wiped down the table and picked up the coffee cup. "I bought you coffee…"

"Is mine the one literally on the table?" Elle teased.

"Nah, you can have the cup with actual coffee in it," Chelyn laughed. "I wish I could say I was less clumsy without a broken wrist, but…" Once Chelyn had gotten everything cleaned up, she looked at Elle. "How did you sleep?"

"It's amazingly quiet up here," Elle had to admit as she took the lid off of her coffee and add sugar and cream. "I mean, like very little noise and it's very dark up here…"

Chelyn could only laugh. "Yeah, it's peaceful."

"And you don't have a television in the living room," Elle mentioned. "I woke up once, and was going to watch TV…"

"Yeah, there is a small one in my room…but it is really of no use," Chelyn grimaced. "I'll buy one today…I think I have a DVD player somewhere…I've never been much on TVs."

"You don't have to buy one on my account…" Elle started.

"Nah…when we go grocery shopping we'll get a proper television. I don't know how long this operation is going to last, but you should at least be comfortable while you are here."

"That's sweet of you," Elle mumbled feeling guilty for putting Chelyn out. "Where did you go this morning? Do you usually get up before six?"

"Geez no," Chelyn shook her head. "I can go to sleep at eight at night and stay asleep until noon the next day. Traci called me, it seems her uncle got into a bit of a mess, but it could prove to help us with this operation. It seems that he does security systems for a bunch clubs in the area…"

"So our operation is changing?" Elle asked as she finished her coffee.

"Not really, but I may be able to get us into Club Amnesia a lot faster," Chelyn gave Elle her most charming grin. "But first, I think it's imperative to get groceries in here…I'm starving."

It was nearly two hours and three hundred and fifty dollars later when Chelyn and Elle made it back to the cabin. Elle had flat out refused to buy the usual stock of frozen and canned meals that made up the bulk of Chelyn's diet. However, she did allow the girl the stock up on her variety of chips and snack cakes. "I can't believe you aren't a million pounds," Elle admitted playfully as they unpacked the groceries.

"Doritos are not bad for you," Chelyn said doing more directing than actually helping. "And who buys frozen vegetables?"

"It's for when I can't cook fresh ones," Elle informed her tossing a variety of bags in Chelyn's freezer. She had picked up frozen vegetables, a variety of frozen fish and seafood, fresh meats, whole grains, canned tomatoes, milk, cheeses, flour, three different types of sugars, spices and herbs. There was likely nothing they would need for a couple of weeks. "You should have let me split the cost with you, Chelyn."

"I can afford groceries," Chelyn frowned.

"But we are sharing them and you bought a television too today," Elle reminded her.

"Where is my chocolate cereal?" Chelyn questioned ignoring the last comment from Elle. "I put like four boxes of chocolate cereal in here…" When Elle didn't respond, Chelyn's mouth flew up. "You put back my cereal!"

"When you choosing three different types of ice cream."

"I need those cereal for breakfast, and lunch, and some nights' dinner," Chelyn gasped.

"Do you like parsnips? I'm thinking about putting them in a soup for tonight…" Elle glazed over Chelyn's last comment. She broke down the last reusable bag and then headed over to the television sitting in the middle of the living room floor.

"You know what…this is going to be very believable …us as a couple, because you have already went about the task of changing me…" Chelyn babbled. "And what in the hell is a parsnip?" Elle tried not to laugh, but failed miserable. "Are you laughing at me?"

"No," Elle said biting down on her lips to keep from giggling. "Are you sure you can set this up?" she asked looking at the television box.

"Yeah," Chelyn said confidently. "I'll hook it up to the Wi-Fi and you can watch TV on the connection until someone comes up here to install a dish." She came and sat down on the other end of the couch.

"Hey…thanks, seriously," Elle said. "For making me feel welcome…for making this a lot easier than it could have been."

Chelyn leaned back against her couch cushion and nodded. "It's not a problem; we may as well be comfortable together…even if I did have to sacrifice my cereal…" she winked.