I own none of the characters. They are owned by ABC

Janet struggled with Paul for the gun. She had to get the gun away from Paul. She couldn't let him hurt Eddie. Paul grabbed her wrist and twisted it until she felt it snap.

"Owwww." She screamed in agony.

Now she had one good arm to fight with. In the background she thought she heard Eddie scream something. She was in so much pain; she couldn't be sure what she was hearing. She and Paul went tumbling to the ground. They wrestled for the ground. Suddenly, she felt the gun jerk and she heard the shot. Janet froze.

Oh, my God, what just happened? Janet thought. She slowly pushed Paul off of her and sat up.

"Janet, sweetie, baby, are you ok?"

"I…I…oh everything hurts."

"Did…did…you get shot?" Eddie asked as he looked over Janet, trying to see how bad her injuries were. She was covered in blood.

"I don't know. Where did all of this blood come from?" Janet asked as she finally saw all of the blood that covered her.

Cops were beginning to surround them.

"It might be his." Eddie said as motioned over to Paul.

"Oh, God, is he…?" Nick looked at Janet and nodded his head. Paul had no pulse.

"Oh no, I killed him. Oh my God, I killed him. I can't believe that I killed him." She began mumbling.

"Shhh J, it will be ok." Eddie said softly into her hair.

"It won't be ok. I killed a man. I killed him. Oh God, I killed him." She repeated

The paramedic came over to her.

"Miss, come on. I need to examine you." He said kindly

"I killed him. Oh God, I killed him." She was becoming hysterical. Every time she mentioned killing Paul, she got louder and louder.

"She's in shock. I need to sedate her." The paramedic said to Eddie.

"Please, let me try to calm her down." Eddie begged

"All right, give it a try."

"Janet, please, calm down. I'm right here."

"I killed him. Oh God, I killed him." She screamed

Eddie looked at the paramedic with tears streaming down his face, and nodded. She was falling apart. She needed to be sedated. Eddie held down a struggling and screaming Janet so the paramedic could have access to her vein. As soon as the shot was given to her, she immediately felt her body relax and darkness began to take over. Before every thing went totally black, the last thing she saw was Eddie's face, full of love and fear looking at her.

The paramedics quickly loaded Janet on a stretcher. Eddie followed them, but was stopped by a cop.

"Sorry Eddie, you can't go yet. I need your statement." Steve said

"Please, I need to be with her."

"This is a crazy situation Eddie. We need to get all of the statements now. The sooner that you cooperate the sooner you can go to Janet."

"He was going to kill her. It was self defense." Eddie began as he recounted the events of the night.

Twenty agonizingly long minutes later Eddie was finally released to go see Janet. Eddie was in no condition to drive so Nick drove him to the hospital with Owen, Ickey, and Sully following behind them.

Nick barely had the car stopped before Eddie was out of it, running into the emergency room.

"Janet Meadows, where is she?" Eddie asked at the check in desk.

"Are you family?" The nurse asked as she slowly typed in Janet's name.

"I'm her boyfriend, she has no family." Eddie said through clenched teeth.

"Well policy states that only family be allowed with the patient."

"Screw your damn policy. I'm the closet thing she has to family."

"Third room on the right." The nurse said and Eddie took off running down the hall.

He practically ran into the doctor who was coming out of the room as he ran into it.

"Whoa there son."

"Is she ok?" Eddie asked as he looked at the love of his life through the window.

"She woke hysterical again and we had to sedate her. She has quite a few bumps and bruises. Her left wrist is fractured and her liver is lacerated so we are taking her up to surgery to repair it."

"Her liver? How did that happen?"

"From the bruises that she sustained, it looks as if she was kicked multiple times and if there was a hard enough kick, it could have lacerated her liver."

"Oh God. Can I see her?"

"For just a minute. We need to get her to surgery."

Eddie took her limp hand as he sat next to her bed.

"Oh God, baby, I am so sorry that this happened to you. I should have stopped him. You are the bravest woman that I know. I love you so much, and if I could take your pain away, I would." Eddie sobbed.

Three hours later Eddie was sitting in the surgery waiting room staring at the wall. He felt like his whole world was falling apart. Nick came over to him to sit next to him.

"She'll be fine man." Nick said

"This shouldn't have happened. I should have stopped him."

"He had a gun pointed at her. If you would have tried anything, he may have killed her."

"Mr. Latekka." Eddie jumped up at the sound of his name. The doctor was in the waiting room.

"How is she?"

"Well there was more damage then we thought. Besides the injury to the liver, her spleen was ruptured and it had to be removed." Eddie turned pale. "Don't worry though. She'll be fine."

Eddie slumped into a chair sighing in relief.

"Can I see her?"

"Not tonight. She will be out for the rest of the night. Go home and get some rest and come back in the morning."

"Please, just for a second." He begged.

"All right, just for a second." The doctor led Eddie to the recovery room.

Eddie looked at his Janet, lying motionless bed, her beautiful face covered with bruises. His heart was breaking. He gently kissed a small spot on her forehead without a bruise.

"I love you pretty girl. Sleep tight." He whispered as he walked out of the room.

Nick dropped Eddie off at his house. Even though he pretty much spent every night at Janet's, he couldn't imagine sleeping in her bed without her. Phil and Pizza Girl were waiting up for him when he came through the door.

"How is she?" Pizza Girl asked as she hugged Eddie tightly.

"Ok I guess considering what she has been through."

Phil came over and hugged his best friend tightly. Eddie broke down and began to sob. Pizza Girl quietly left the room to give them privacy.

"Phil, I have never been so damn scared before in my life."

"Pizza Girl told me everything. I was scared for her and I wasn't even there."

"I almost lost her."

"But you didn't."

"I realized something tonight."

"What's that?"

"I know that I love Janet. I have known it for a long time."

"And…"

"When I saw pointing the gun at her I was willing to die for her."

"Of course you would."

"But I also realized that I don't ever want to be without her. Ever."

"What are you saying Eddie?" Phil asked, even though he already had a good idea what Eddie was saying.

"I want to marry her Phil."

"Are you sure? It's a huge commitment and you have only been together a few months."

"We may have only been dating for a few months, but I have known her for years, and I loved her before we ever staring dating."

"This is huge man. I want you to be happy, but I'm worried that this is a gut reaction to what happened tonight. I don't want you to have any regrets."

"Of course it's a gut reaction. I almost lost her tonight. And just for the record, I would never regret marrying her."

"Just be careful. I don't want her to get hurt because you rushed into something that you aren't ready for." Phil said softly

"I don't want to hurt Janet."

"Then make sure you think a proposal through before you act."

"I've already thought it through Phil. I want to marry Janet Meadows."