He was already braced for the impact when he saw Jack's arm flash in front of him.

"Nick, don't."

"You heard him." Nick's voice trembled in absolute rage. He couldn't look at Jack as it would mean taking his eyes off his target. Maybe he had more of his father in him than he wanted to admit. In this moment, he could actually understand the impetus to wipe someone off the map, to do anything it took to rid the world of someone like this. He finally managed to turn away. "Come on Jack. He's asking for it." He lunged at him again, hissing in anger as Jack's hands gripped his shoulders and pushed him back.

"Hold on there." The guard stepped over to the group, his face not at all friendly as he eyed all of them individually before addressing them collectively again. "This is a hospital, not a wrestling ring and you all need to take this somewhere else."

"I'll go," Billy said quickly. "I don't need to be here anyway."

"We're not fi …" Nick stopped as he saw the guard take another step forward. "We will finish this," he continued.

"I can't wait," Billy smirked.

The smug smile on his face made his blood boil and it took everything in him not to jump over the back of the chair and throw him to the floor again, but Summer's jagged breathing as she hunched over in the waiting room chair was more important. He had to talk to her, to figure out where it had it all gone so wrong. He had to talk to Phyllis. There was way too much to do to waste any more time on Billy Abbott.

"Let's go," Jack said, grabbing his elbow and nudging him towards the exit.

Billy jerked away. "I don't need a chaperone, Jack. Besides, don't you want to stay here and make sure Phyllis is alright?"

"Lauren will keep me updated. Besides, I think you and I need to talk."

"Will you be okay out here on your own for a little bit?"

Summer looked up, her eyes still wet with tears. "What? You're leaving?"

"I'm just going in to see your Mom for a few minutes and …" He saw her eyes close and stopped.

"And you know she doesn't want to see me, right?"

"Summer … I … I don't even know where to start, so I think it's best if I just go talk to your Mom for a minute and then I'll come back and maybe by then I can figure out something to say that makes some form of sense."

"You can just say it, Dad. You can tell me that you hate me. You can say that I'm disgusting and that I've done the worst thing in the world and that I should be ashamed of myself and …."

"I'm gonna go talk to your Mom now." He stood up without another word and walked quickly towards the door.

She was alone again, but only for a moment.

"Summer?"

"He can't even talk to me, Kyle."

"He's just … He just doesn't know what to say right now. I'm sure he'll talk to you once he's had a chance to sort it all out." Kyle sat down beside her, letting his hand fall down beside the arm rest. He didn't want to push her, but he wanted her to know that he was there, right next to her, where he'd been the whole time.

"I think he knows exactly what he wants to say." Summer finally managed to look up, to raise her head high enough to meet his gaze. "I just think it makes him feel like a horrible father to say the words outloud. He's ashamed of me, Kyle. I think my own parents may actually hate me."

"Am I interrupting?" Nick's soft knock on the door instantly stopped the women's voices.

Lauren stood up from the chair she'd pulled to the side of the bed. "No. Not at all." She leaned down to kiss Phyllis' cheek before taking a step back and turning to face him. "I was just telling Phyllis that I was going to head home." She smiled gently. "But you promise me that you'll call me if you need anything, alright?"

Phyllis nodded. "Promise. Thanks for coming."

Nick quickly slid into her place and waited until the door closed behind her before letting his breath out. "You okay?" he asked tentatively.

"You want the honest version or the one you'd find in the greeting card?"

"It's good to know you've still got that biting sense of humor." He tried to smile as he looked at her. She could pretend with a lot of people, but he could see the deep rooted hurt behind her eyes. "Seriously though, you okay?"

"The doctors said a mild concussion, some cracked ribs and …"

"Phyllis," Nick sighed. "I know all that … That's not what I mean and you know it. I'm talking about …"

"Oh you mean the fact that our daughter slept with my fiancé?" She shook her head at the absurdity of it before letting herself consider the statement. "Is he still considered my fiancé if we were only engaged for like two minutes?" She saw the look of pity on his face and it immediately enraged her. "Don't do that!" she snapped. She struggled to sit up straighter and drew in a quick gasp as the pain ripped through her.

"Easy," Nick cautioned her as he helped her ease back against the pillows. "Sorry. I mean, I'm not sorry. I know you hate it when people feel sorry for you and I'm not. I swear. It's just this is a … hell of a situation and … I guess I just wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help make this any easier, better, less complicated … for you?"

She shrugged. "I think you've done enough." She saw him avert his eyes quickly. "And I didn't mean that the way it sounded. You didn't do any of this on your own and honestly, this isn't even about us or what we did. This is about what Billy did, the kind of person that could do something like this. I'm not even sure I ever really knew him."

"Listen, I've done some really stupid things too … when I was angry and hurt and …" He let his mind think back to some of his more destructive choices. "It didn't mean that I didn't love the people my choices hurt. It just meant that I was too hurt to think about them at the moment. I was just too angry, too selfish …"

"You can't compare what he did to anything you've done, Nick. He crossed the line. He and Summer … what they …"

"About that …" Nick leaned back a bit. "Summer and Billy? When you told me you thought she might be attracted to him I just thought you were being …"

"Paranoid?" She shook her head. "I kind of convinced myself of that too, but then … God, Nick. So much has happened I don't even know where to start." She felt her eyes growing heavy.

"You know what …" He reached out to lightly pat her arm. "We don't have to get into all that now. You need to get some rest. I can come back in the morning and we can figure all this out. For now, is there anything you need? Anything I can get for you?"

"There is one thing," she said softly. "I need you to talk to Summer. I can't right now. I can barely even look at her, but I feel like she needs someone. She's lashing out and I know from experience that that doesn't end well for anyone."

"Billy, would you just slow down?"

"Why? Why should I slow down, Jack? Phyllis will be back here soon and I can't be here when that happens." He threw another handful of clothing in the bag and zipped it quickly.

"It's a big house, Billy and you have every right to be here. Besides, I doubt Phyllis was planning on staying here very long anyway. I just need her here until we get this whole situation figured out with Jabot and it'll be good for her to be here while she's recovering. Who knows, it might be a good thing for you two to spend a little bit of time and …"

"You can't be serious? You know what I did now. You know why Phyllis and I aren't together. You can't possibly think there's any chance for the two of us after …"

"I've given up trying to figure out what keeps two people together, Billy. Besides, I don't feel like you are the person making the calls here. You're still spiraling whether you realize it or not and honestly, I'd rather have you close by so I know where you are when you really do find the bottom of the barrel."

"That's nice, Jack. I always appreciate that big brotherly vote of confidence with a big hint of condescension thrown in for good measure."

"I'm not trying to be condescending, Billy. I care about you and I don't want to see you throw away something really good here. Phyllis really does love you and she wants to help you. You're so busy trying to hurt everyone in your life right now that you don't even see how much you're hurting yourself. Or maybe you do … maybe that's the point. Maybe you're the person you want to hurt the most."