"Wherever you go, I will follow.
Whenever you're low, just let me hold you,
Let me hold you.
Don't be afraid, I will show you.
I'll make it okay, just let me hold you,
Let me hold you…"

Singing along to the music she was streaming through the car's speaker on her way home from dropping Mikey off at practice, Emma couldn't help herself from hoping that Bravo would be back soon because with school starting back up and her own activities with that, driving Mikey to and from practice 4 days a week was going to get real old, real fast. Not to mention that he had games coming up almost every weekend too.

"Baby, don't let me down.
Don't let me, don't let me, don't let me down.
Without you, I'm…"

The music cut out and Emma frowned for a second before it was replaced by her ringtone.

"This is Emma." she said after pressing the answer button on the steering wheel.

"Hey, sweetheart."

"Hi, dad! Are you on your way home?" she asked cheerfully and crossed her fingers while she waited for his answer.

"We actually just landed on base."

"You're home? Do you want me to come pick you up?" she asked, excited at the prospect of seeing Clay. And her dad. And the rest of Bravo. But mostly Clay.

"Yeah, about that…" Jason said slowly, making Emma's eyes widen and her spine straighten.

"What's going on?"

Jason was silent for a short moment. "Are you driving right now?" he then asked, knowing the background noise coming through the phone.

"Yes… why?"

"Can you pull over please?"

"Dad, what's going on?" she asked, desperation filling her voice.

"Pull over, Em."

Seeing the almost empty parking lot ahead of her, Emma pulled in there and parked.

"I've stopped. What's happened to Clay, dad?"

Jason sighed. He should've known she would figure it out before he got to it.

"He got hurt during our op. Trent has patched him up but he's being taken to the infirmary as we speak and he'll probably have to stay there for a day or two."

Brushing away the tear that had managed to escape and was now rolling down her cheek, Emma took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"How and where?"

"What do you mean, sweetheart? You know I can't tell you where we where…"

Emma let out a sound of frustration. "I meant, how was he hurt and where is the injury? Was he shot? Blown up? Is it his head, his arm, his legs? Details dad, they matter."

"Oh." Jason said slowly. "He was stabbed. In his upper right chest."

"Upper right?" Emma asked, running through the human anatomy in her head. "There's never a good place to get stabbed, especially in the chest but… that's probably one of the better ones at least."

Jason let out a chuckle. "Trent said the same thing. He'd be proud to know you know your things, Emmi-star."

"Yeah… when can I see him?"

"How soon can you get here?"

Clay looked up with a smile on his face as the door to the room was pushed opened, only to have said smile fade a bit when it wasn't Emma but Sonny who stepped in.

Sonny snorted at the disappointment he could clearly see in his brother's eyes.

"Not who you wanted to see, huh Bam-Bam?"

"Well, duh. Who in their right mind would be happy to see you?" Clay said with a smirk.

"Uhm, everybody?" Sonny answered as he sat down in the visitors chair next to the bed. "I am a fucking delight to be around."

They looked at each other for a moment before both of them burst out laughing, only to stop when Clay winced as his laughing jostled him enough to tug on his wound.

"Careful there, Princess. Don't hurt yourself anymore than you already have."

Clay scowled at the Texan. "It's not like I stabbed myself."

"No, but you did forget to mention the fact that you where injured to anyone! And if you think you're getting out of a 3 hour long lecture lead by Trent about that, you are sorely mistaken my friend."

"I didn't even know I was hurt, so how was I supposed to tell anyone else about it?!" Clay asked, frustration written all over his face because it wasn't like he hadn't told them on purpose.

Sonny looked skeptically at the blond.

"So you're telling me that not once in the 2, almost 3, hour span from getting shivved to collapsing on the plane did you notice that there was a gaping wound in your chest? I call bullshit."

"…I didn't." Clay said shortly but Sonny caught on to the small hesitation before the answer.

"Mhm, sure buddy. Jason said he thought something was up but before he could get to that you were out. And if Jay noticed from across the plane, you sure as hell knew something was up. So spill, Tinkerbell."

"I second that."

Clay's head snapped up and turned towards the door as Jason's voice cut in to their conversation.

"Boss…"

"Em will be here in about half an hour so you have than long to convince me you didn't hide an injury. Go." Jason said, waving his hand at Clay as he sat down at the foot of the bed and stared the younger man down.

Letting out a deep sigh, Clay accepted that this conversation was going to happen no and that he wouldn't get out of it unless he passed out. And he'd done that enough for today.

"I didn't know I was stabbed." he said, looking from Jason to Sonny. "I swear I didn't."

Sonny still looked skeptical but Jason inclined his head.

"But…" Jason prompted.

"But, I knew something was off when we got on the plane."

"Off how?" Sonny asked, leaning forward in his seat while keeping his eyes firmly on his best friend.

"Like achy and just… drained. I knew the guy hit me during the fight but I didn't know he had stabbed me. I figured I'd gotten a bruise or maybe pulled a muscle as I fought him off."

"And you didn't tell me or Trent because…?"

"…because I figured it wasn't a real injury?" Clay answered hesitantly, knowing it would backfire but it was the truth. He hated attention if it had anything to do with injuries or medical things and a pulled muscle wasn't something he would ever draw attention too.

Jason and Sonny both let out a pained groan.

"How many times do we have to tell you this shit, Goldilocks?" Sonny asked exasperatedly. "You tell us about everything. Doesn't matter if it's a hangnail, a headache or a broken bone. You tell us so we know and can freaking help!"

Clay's eyes drifted from his best friend to his boss (and girlfriend's dad) who was nodding in agreement with his 3IC.

"You tell us. We get it fixed. No one ends up in a panic attack because you collapsed." Jason said pointedly and Clay nodded reluctantly.

"Fine. I'll try and remember that."

"Do. Or do not. There is no try."

Clay turned back to Sonny with a snicker.

"Seriously, man? You are not Yoda."

"No he really isn't…. he's more like Jar Jar Binks." Jason said, fist bumping Clay when he held his fist out.

"Ok, now you're just being rude!" Sonny exclaimed before getting to his feet. "And since I can tell when I'm not wanted, I am going to leave you two to your fun and go find myself some better company."

Before either of them could say anything Sonny gave them a two-finger salute and disappeared out the door, leaving Clay and Jason snickering at the over-the-top reaction from their beloved teammate.

Emma took a deep breath and slowly let it out. And then another one. Followed by a third. And then she squared her shoulders and opened the door that would take her in to the infirmary.

As she stepped inside she looked around as she slowly made her way down the long and bare corridor. She'd been her more times than she (or her dad for that matter) would like to acknowledge. There had been that time when her dad was shot. And that time when he was stabbed. And when he got a concussion. And that other time he was shot. And stabbed. And almost blown in to pieces. So yeah, Emma was very familiar with the infirmary. She just hadn't taken this part in to account when she'd gotten together with Clay.

She knew she should've and she had no idea how she hadn't thought of this when he'd come back shot from the op that had cost Hannah her dad. But somehow she had looked past the injured part – too focused on the alive part - and that was one of the reasons why she had no idea how she was supposed to act or feel right now.

Reaching the double doors which lead to the room Clay was supposedly in, she glanced through the window and couldn't stop the small smile that settled on her face as she found her dad sitting in the visitors chair next to her boyfriend's bed. The two of them was talking easily and neither one looked tense (which was always a good sign) so Emma gently tapped on door.

Both men looked up at the sound and both smiled and waved at her to enter so Emma blew out a deep breath and then pushed the door open so that she could step inside.

Jason got to his feet as Emma approached them and pulled her in to a hug as she reached him. Holding her close he felt her wrap her own arms tight around him as she buried her head against his shoulder.

"It's ok sweetheart. He's just fine and this is just a precaution." he whispered in her ear before he placed a kiss on top of her head and then let go of her.

"I'm gonna go pick up Mikey from practice. I'll talk to both of you later." Jason said, looking from his daughter to his rookie and after squeezing Emma's arm he moved towards the door and left the two alone.

Emma watched her dad leave before turning to face the man on the bed. As her eyes traveled over his bare chest her eyes caught on the bandage that covered the upper part of his right chest. Feeling the tears pricking in the back of her eyes she bit down on her lip to stop them from breaking free.

"Em?" Clay asked when she didn't say or do anything and just stared at his chest. "Birdie?"

When her eyes finally left the bandage to meet his eyes, Clay felt as if someone had punched him in the gut. The look in her eyes – a mix of desperation, sadness, fear and anger – made him want to jump out of the bed and wrap her up in his arms and convince her with both words and actions that he was ok and that he was right here.

Since getting out of bed wasn't an option (to many wires and tubes), Clay held his arms out towards his girl.

"Come here, sweets."

Emma swallowed hard and then closed the distance between them to sit down on the very edge of his bed.

"How are you feeling?" she asked with a low voice.

"I'm ok babe, promise."

Emma raised an eyebrow at that and looked skeptically at him.

"You're not ok and that wasn't what I asked."

Clay rolled his eyes at his girlfriend and took her hand in his, giving it a firm squeeze before moving it to his chest, letting it rest on top of his heart.

"I'm a bit tired, my chest hurts a little and my head feels stuffed with cotton. But I'm going to be just fine, Birdie and I'll be out of here in the morning."

Emma nodded slowly and glanced down at her hand, that was resting right beside the bandage that covered his wound, before looking back up at Clay.

"How did you get hurt? Dad said you where stabbed?" she asked gently, fingers now trailing the skin around the bandage.

"I was. A bad guy managed to surprise me and apparently he managed to stab me in our short fight." Clay answered, letting one of his own hands move up to her face and stroke her cheek.

"Apparently? What do you mean 'apparently'? You have stab wound – you where stabbed."

"Yeah… I just didn't know it at the time. I found out about it when I came to on the plane after Trent had preformed minor surgery to remove a piece that got lodged in there."

Emma stared at her boyfriend.

"What do you mean you didn't know? How do one not know they've been stabbed?" she asked incredulously.

"Adrenaline, mostly. We were in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of an op and there were no obvious blood flow. I only realized something was off when we were back in the air."

"That's crazy." Emma said as she shook her head. "I hope you know how crazy that sounds."

"Maybe, but adrenaline is a powerful hormone and it can make people capable of many a things."

"Hmm…" Emma mumbled and then she leaned down and pressed her lips against his.

Clay wrapped his left arm around her and tried to pull her closer but Emma fought back and sat back up again.

"I don't want to hurt you." she said softly when she saw the frown on his face.

"You wouldn't." Clay said and tried to pull her mouth back to his but Emma shook her head.

"Not gonna risk it, Bear. You'll just have to wait at least until we get you back home."

Clay groaned at that before closing his eyes with a sigh.

"Fine." he finally said and opened his eyes again so that he could look at her. "But if you won't kiss me, will you at least lie down with me?"

Emma started to shake her head again but stopped herself. She wanted nothing more than curl up against him and feel his heartbeat against her ear, but she also didn't want to hurt him anymore than he already was.

As if seeing the thoughts running through her head Clay shifted as far to right as the bed would allow.

"Come here, sweets. The only thing hurt is where the bandage is so if you lie down here on my left side there's no way you can hurt me."

Emma still hesitated.

"Please?"

Letting out a small sigh Emma finally nodded her head. Kicking off her shoes she lifted her feet up on to the bed and then gently lowered her upper body down next to Clay who immediately wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close.

The bed wasn't big to begin with and with the two of them in it, it was even smaller, but as she let her head rest on Clay's shoulder and her arm wrap itself around his waist Emma knew that there was no other place in the world where she would rather be.