Jay and Emma made it back to Jay's house with only a small degree of difficulty. Jay was in a great deal of pain, but tried to play it off as if he was fine, with only the occasional lean on Emma's shoulders. Emma did her best to try to hold him up, but their body compositions were not exactly evenly matched, so they struggled through the door. Once inside, Jay flipped on the light switch and Emma was finally able to really take a look at him.

"Oh, wow, you are worse than I thought." Emma stated, with a hint of disapproval for him being in this mess in the first place. "Go sit down on the couch. I'm gonna go find some…You do have a first aid kit, right?"

"Yeah, it's in the bathroom, under the sink."

Jay, gingerly, sat down on the couch and Emma went in search of the first aid kit along with anything else she could find, around the house, to help. She came back into the living room a few minutes later with her arms full of random items. She laid them out on the coffee table in front of the couch and then sat down next to Jay.

"Here, put this on your eye." Emma commanded, as she handed him a bag of frozen peas. "It's all I could find."

"It's fine. Thanks." Jay replied as he lightly pressed the peas to his left eye.

"Let me see your hand," was Emma's next command.

"I'm fine, really. You don't need all of this stuff." Jay took the peas down from his eye.

But, Emma would not be dissuaded. "Just give me your hand. And, put that bag back on your eye for at least 20 minutes."

Jay did as he was told with the peas and then, reluctantly, showed Emma his right hand.

"Oh, yeah, you're fine alright." Emma said sarcastically. "Your knuckles are all cut up and bloody."

"You should see the other guy's face." Jay said, trying to lighten the mood.

Emma sort of half smiled and then looked up into Jay's one good eye. "I really wish you hadn't done this. Why do you always have to be the tough guy? Violence never solves anything."

"I know, I know. Lord knows I've heard that enough times, but he just got under my skin. He practically called you a…Well, I just couldn't let him talk about you like that. He's the one who didn't fight fair. I would have been fine if his buddies weren't there too. By the way, thanks for calling Towerz."

"Yeah, well, I couldn't let them kill you, just for defending my honor, now could I?" Emma sprayed Jay's hand with disinfectant.

The spray stung and Jay pulled his hand away quickly. "Whoa! Warn a guy, would ya?"

"Sorry. I just don't want you to get an infection. Let me see it one more time." Emma reached her hand out for Jay's.

"I don't think so."

"Please? I'm not finished."

Jay sighed. "Fine."

Emma sprayed Jay's hand one more time and although ready for it this time, he still winced. She, then, wrapped his knuckles with gauze and tape.

"Okay, I'm done. And, you can take those off of your eye now." Emma said, referring to the bag of frozen peas.

Jay lowered the bag from his eye, took his other, newly wrapped, hand, brushed it against Emma's cheek, and tucked some of her hair behind her ear. She smiled and put her hand on his. They both leaned in for a kiss, but then Jay pulled away and grabbed his ribs.

"What's wrong?" Emma asked, profoundly concerned.

"It's nothing. I'm fine." Jay tried again to kiss Emma, but she moved her head away.

"Show me," came another one of Nurse Emma's commands. "Take your shirt off."

"You wouldn't be trying to take advantage of me, would you?" Jay playfully asked while wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

Emma gave Jay an extremely un-amused look, so he quickly obeyed. Emma lightly touched his ribs and he winced again, cowering away from her touch. She apologized at the same time as the realization sank in that she had a shirtless guy-no, not just any guy-a shirtless Jay Hogart sitting next to her.

After a few seconds, Emma shook herself out of her daze. "Does it feel hot in here to you?" She began to fan herself with her hand.

"Not really…Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm totally fine." Emma answered a bit unconvincingly, but then changed the subject. "I should really head home, but I want to go with you to the doctor tomorrow, okay?"

"Hold up. Who said I was going to the doctor?"

"I just did, and don't fight me on this. You're going. Your ribs just look bruised right now, but they could be broken. Not to mention, you might need stitches on your hand."

Jay found her concern cute and conceded. "Okay, okay. I'll go."

Emma smiled victoriously. "Good. I'll see you tomorrow morning, Rocky."

"Bye, beautiful."

Emma stood up and leaned over the couch to give Jay a quick kiss, before walking home.

More is coming soon. Thanks for reading!