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Sue what happen? Lucy asked and signed simultaneously as she strode up to where Sue sat in the lobby, seeing the distress on her friends face as Tara hurried behind her. You ok?
I ok, Sue replied, moving over towards the edge of the bench that she was sitting on to provide room for them both.
"What's the matter?" Tara asked, coming to stand before the bench as Lucy hugged Sue and Sue fought against the tears that obviously wanted to come.
"Jack's...," Sue began, taking a deep breath to try and calm herself. "Jack's family just showed up about an hour ago."
"I thought that they were supposed to be here last night," Lucy said incredulously, looking between Sue's distraught face and Tara's confused one while making certain that Sue could see her lips.
"They were," Sue answered, finding some sense of composure and dabbing at her eyes with the handkerchief that Demetrius had given her the day prior. "But they just showed up and...and...they asked me to leave."
"They what?" Lucy asked as Sue's wide and worried eyes remained trained on her lips. "They can't ask you to leave! You've been sitting there with thier son for more than a day while they were late and they asked you to leave?"
"It doesn't seem fair does it?" Tara concurred, sitting down on Sue's other side and taking her hand to squeeze it comfortingly. "Why did they?"
"It doesn't matter why," Lucy said angrily, standing up from the bench and Sue sent up a silent prayer of thanks that the hospital lobby was mainly empty other than the occasional employee. "They have no right and I'm going up there to give them a little piece of my mind...that's my right."
"Lucy, please, don't," Sue begged, standing from her seat, feeling as though she would never breathe right again. "They..."
"They what?" Lucy asked carefully, calming herself at her friend's tearful implorement.
Sue did not want to admit it, not now. The agreement that she and Jack had made to keep things quiet until a decision could be reached kept burning in the back of her head. But the terrible emotions compounding themselves on her previous worry and fear were eating away at her insides to the point that she could no longer think clearly.
"They brought Allie with them," Sue finally relented, knowing that she would be unable to handle this on her own.
Looking between Lucy and Tara's faces while trying to maintain her composure with every calming breath, Sue could see the same expression come over them both. Pity and patience, understanding and sorrow for their friend.
"Sue," Lucy said calmy, reaching to pat Sue's arm. "I'm sorry. I know that it's difficult to see Allie at time like this...but...maybe she and Jack are..."
"No they're not," Sue stopped her, giving up their secret altogether for the sake of their understanding. The team deserved honesty at a time like this, especially when they had all done nothing but try their utmost to be there for her. Sue took a deep breath and swallowed it down slowly. "They're not...because Jack asked me to marry him two weeks ago...and I said that I would."
Sue had not met either of the women's eyes until her confession was made. First, her eyes met Tara's immediately sober and understanding gaze as Tara gave her a kind smile but nodded her head to show her condolences. However, looking to Lucy, she only saw the broad smile of a very excited woman as she laughed happily and grabbed Sue's hand to begin her congratulations. It was not until a single rebel tear escaped Sue's eye that the perception dawned on Lucy's face...soon changing to sadness...and then to anger.
"They," Lucy said and signed, her face directly at Sue's with all of it's anger. "Will not keep my best friend from being with her fiance at a time like this. Sue...you have got to go back...tell them what's going on!"
"And how exactly am I supposed to do that," Sue questioned in return, shaking her head, wishing that Lucy could just understand. "When they think that Allie is his girlfriend, no doubt, with some good reason to believe it...and when Jack cannot even come out of his comatose state? How am I supposed to convince them that their son and I have plans to get married in the spring? Am I supposed to just waltz in there and tell them that we were looking into the church on 5th Street for an April wedding?"
"Sue...," Lucy began, silencing her anger towards the unconsiderate Hudson family when she realized the true depth of Sue's desperation. "We could tell them. The whole team, plus Charlie and Troy, could vouch for the fact that you and Jack have been dancing circles around each other for years. They may not know...but we do."
"Lucy," Tara said quietly, pulling both Lucy and Sue's attention to herself for the first time, determined to play Sue's defender in this. She knew that Lucy would never mean anything but well for Sue, but she also knew that sometimes Lucy went about doing right in the wrong way. "I think what Sue is trying to tell us is that it won't be that simple. Jack's family has known Allie since she and Jack were in high school...obviously a close family friend. What are the chances of them taking the word of strangers' over hers?"
Sue forced a shaky smile at Tara, despite all of the sorrow in her protesting it; she, at least, wanted Tara to know that it was appreciated. The expression on Lucy's face transformed to sober understanding like Tara's once the difficulties were spelled out for her.
"Thank you," Sue said dryly, having no more tears to release, after several minutes of sitting in silence on the bench of a hospital lobby with her two best friends. "Both of you...for everyhing."
