A/N: Shout out to missy7293 for being awesome, haha. As well as the other lovely eight reviewers I had for the last chapter: Alnihan, Rea Josette, Kass95, EnglishPoet18, MonDieu666, SailorJollyRegina, Punkrockerbabe95, and i luv ewansmile. Thanks, guys.
Twenty minutes had passed in silence between Beth and Daryl. A small television was tuned in to some news broadcast in the corner of the room. The combined noises of it along with the shuffling of feet, beeping of electronic equipment, and the automatic sliding door opening and shutting had practically become muted to Beth. It all felt like some distant dream.
She imagined Daryl must have felt the same way. He was far more fidgety than usual, his leg slightly bouncing, and he had resorted to chewing on his other thumb since Beth had robbed him of his right hand.
There hadn't been any news. No one had consulted with either of them on Jesse's condition or what could have possibly happened—not that any of the hospital staff would be able to tell them that anyway. The only person who knew what happened was Jesse, and it didn't seem like they were going to learn a whole lot more unless his memory started to come back to him.
Another ten minutes passed and Daryl explained to Beth that he was going to give Jax a heads up as to what was going on since he and Jesse were supposed to work today. He squeezed her hand before departing, heading back outside through the automatic doors.
And after a couple minutes, Beth couldn't handle sitting there alone. She thought about calling Maggie just for someone to talk to. Maggie could always cheer her up. That was something she was in desperate need of by this point. But as she found herself walking outside with her cell phone in hand, she realized then who she really needed to call.
Beth walked a little ways away from the doors after having spotted Daryl sitting on the tailgate of his truck smoking a cigarette. He was still on the phone so she shook her head to let him know that there wasn't any word yet. She allowed him to have his privacy and took a seat on the curb before flipping her phone open and staring down at the digits.
She had to call Haley.
"Beth, hey," Haley answered on the fourth ring. She sounded a little uncertain. "Is everything okay? It's kinda early for you to be calling me."
Beth immediately found herself at a loss for words. She struggled to even come up with a reply to let Haley know she was still on the line. And the more she thought about it, the more she realized she hadn't really seen Haley in at least over a week.
"I'm sorry, it's just…" Beth bit her lip and stared down at her feet, the receiver pressed firmly to her ear. Had everything gone differently she'd probably start gushing about yesterday's events with Daryl. She'd ask her what she was doing for the day, get together, and get caught up on everything they'd been missing. "Something happened."
"…What do you mean? Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"I'm at the hospital. Its Jesse," Beth regretted to inform her.
There was a moment of silence before Haley responded, "What did he do? What happened?"
"I—we don't know. I was over at Daryl's and we just found him passed out on the floor. He was in pretty bad shape."
"Okay… Okay, I'm coming." Haley hung up before Beth could say any more.
Beth shut her phone and sighed. If she didn't know any better, she'd almost think that Haley seemed a bit indifferent. She figured she'd get an answer to that one as soon as she got there though. Maybe something would start making sense.
Daryl walked over in front of her and caught her attention. He offered her a hand up in which she took, jumping back to her feet. "You alright?"
Beth vaguely nodded. "Haley's on her way."
"You wanna wait for her or you wanna go back in?"
"I'll wait out here." Beth could tell he seemed more at ease outside of the hospital so she figured she'd stay outside for his sake in the meantime. He led the way back over to his truck and they both hopped up onto the tailgate, seeing as he left it down.
"You wanna talk 'bout anything?" Daryl offered.
Beth just shook her head. She appreciated the concern he was showing though. Especially considering he wasn't the talking type. She felt as if their roles had suddenly reversed because now she preferred the silence and Daryl was trying to be talkative.
It wasn't much longer after that when Beth recognized Haley's Ford Escort pull into the parking lot. She absentmindedly slid off the tailgate and started walking toward her car while Daryl gave them some space and stayed back. And as soon as Haley exited from behind the steering wheel, Beth could tell she had been crying, her eyes red.
Haley stared back at Beth, her mouth slightly ajar as she tried to find the words. Beth could tell Haley was already starting to tear back up again just as she closed the gap between them and hugged her.
"How—how is he? Is he okay?" Haley merely whispered into Beth's shoulder.
"We haven't heard anything yet. We decided to wait for you after I called." Beth rubbed her back in a comforting manner before taking a step back.
Haley wiped at her eyes and forced a choked laugh. "We haven't been getting along… I haven't really talked to him in a while. And now this."
"What?" Beth furrowed her brow. This was certainly news to her. "What happened between you two?"
"I don't really wanna talk about it." Haley wrapped her arms around herself and started walking toward the doors.
Beth stood there, dumbfounded, before she started moving herself. Daryl hopped down from the tailgate and shot her a confusing look after seeing Haley take off without her. Beth only shrugged as he accompanied her back into the hospital to continue waiting.
Before long, they were the only three sitting in the emergency waiting room. Nobody had said a word since they sat. Beth was staring at Haley trying to figure out what she missed and Daryl was staring at Beth trying to figure out what he missed. In fact, Beth was so trained on trying to read Haley that she didn't notice the brunette woman standing off to the side of them.
"Are you three here for a Jesse... Pinkman?"
The three turned to face the nurse but Beth was the one who found her voice. "Yes. Is he okay?"
"He seems to be doing fine. We've got him in a room now, if you'd like to follow me."
Haley was the first to jump up out of her seat while Beth and Daryl followed. The nurse scanned her badge at the door to allow entry and led the way down the hall. There were multiple hallways that split up and met back together, meeting in almost an awkward circle with rooms all throughout. Beth had never seen this part of the hospital, nor had she really been in one before then.
"We ran a couple scans to check for any internal damage. Good news is that nothing is broken. He has a concussion, few stitches, and some bruising but everything else checks out fine," the nurse explained. "They just want to keep him in the ER a little longer and make sure he's okay, with the head injury. He'll most likely be moved to a different room later today. Outside of the ER."
Beth was relieved to hear that Jesse wasn't seriously injured and that he didn't have any life threatening ailments. By the sounds of it, he probably wouldn't be in the hospital for too long either. Maybe a couple days max.
They came to a stop outside room 324. The nurse slid a blank card into the slot and once it lit up green, she opened the door. She kept it propped open with her back while she faced them, extending her hand with the card. "While he's back here, you'll need this to get in."
Daryl took the card and thanked the woman as she allowed them in. She exited from the room shortly after, leaving the three to spread out around Jesse's bed. He looked about the same as the last time Beth saw him, only he was now in a hospital gown with a sheet over him. There was an IV in his arm and his eye was still pretty swollen, the left side of his face—hell, the left side of his head in general—seemed to have taken the brunt of the blows. He had a few stitches just below his eye and on his scalp, a small patch of his hair having been shaved down.
Haley took to one side of the bed and grabbed Jesse's hand. Beth and Daryl stood opposite of her. The only sound that filled the room at that very moment was the faint beeping coming from the machine reading Jesse's pulse.
"You look like shit," Daryl remarked.
"Yeah? Well, I feel like shit…" Jesse closed his good eye and rested his head back into the pillow. "I got a headache from hell… My ribs hurt. But they said nothing's broken. Pain meds are helping though."
"But what happened?" Haley placed her other hand over Jesse's, sandwiching his between both of hers.
Jesse turned his head enough so that he could look at her since she was standing on his bad side. He looked shocked to see her there. "I, uh…" He shifted slightly, cringing. "I don't know. I don't remember… It was just, like, two guys or some shit. It might've been Emilio and Krazy-8."
"Who?" Beth questioned. She glanced back and forth between Haley and Jesse. Maybe all of this had something to do with why Haley hadn't been talking to him.
"His drug dealers," Haley muttered in a bitter tone.
"They're not my—" Jesse stopped himself. "They're not dealers, they're distributors."
"Same difference."
"No… There's a difference. Besides, I'm done with all that. I don't even know for sure if it was them."
"Alright," Daryl spoke up, breaking up the little feud between the two. "So, what you're sayin' is that you have no clue what happened? No clue who attacked you?"
Jesse sighed. "Right. All I know is that it was late when I left my friend's place and I was either followed or they were waiting for me because as soon as I parked my car, they jumped me."
"This happened in the parking lot?" Beth was floored. It made Jesse's apparent attack that much more frightening having happened in the parking lot of the apartment complex. "But who would do that?"
"I don't know, alright?" Jesse groaned. He sunk down into the bed even more than he was before and shut his eye.
Beth could tell there was some sort of unresolved conflict between Haley and Jesse. They both seemed almost agitated with one another and Haley took her hands back after Jesse's last statement. She figured they needed some alone time to talk things over and since Jesse was okay, she'd give them that.
She explained that her and Daryl were going to leave and they'd come back later to check up on him and keep him company. Daryl didn't say much on the topic and Haley only stared back at them. Beth shot Haley a bewildered look before exiting from the room, hoping that she'd hear from her at some point with an explanation as to what was going on.
Somebody had some explaining to do.