I can't believe my fourteen year old self thought it was okay to write Derek Shepard and Callie Torres into my story. Dear god. -Megan

I rode in the back of the ambulance beside her, silently cursing the EMT with every bump in the road he hit. When Clary first fell, I hadn't thought it was that bad. I had hoped it was just the shock that was causing her to not answer me. But as I looked at her bandage covered arm, and her head in a brace with an oxygen mask obscuring her face, in the ambulance the field medic had called, I knew I was sorely mistaken. I had made a move to touch her, and the EMT had sternly warned me off. So now I sat beside her, our fingers loosely entangled. I had done that after she had reached her hand out earlier, bossy paramedic be damned. The ambulance screeched to a stop and the doors were thrown open to a sea of people in white coats and light blue scrubs. The doctors started reporting stats as I hurried out of their way.

They surrounded her, shining their tiny flashlights and asking a million questions. I fought the desire inside me to tell them to back off; after all, they were just doing their jobs. I followed them inside the sliding doors, but that was as far as I got before a nurse stopped me. I tried to move past herm but she held me back. "Sir – sir, I can't let you go back there." She commanded. Her eyes softened at what I'm sure was a crazed look on my face. "You can see her as soon as we get her in a room, okay? I know you're worried. But the best thing you can do for her is let the doctors do her job and help her. Can you do that for me?"

I closed my eyes, and nodded.

"Good. Okay, to start off; what are you to her?" God, was that the question of the hour. And why did it even matter?

"Um, a friend I guess." I answered.

"Okay. Is there anyone I need to call for your friend? Maybe her parents or a guardian?"

I laughed, but there was no humor behind it. "It's just her dad, and he is at a ski lodge in the upstate with her brother."

She frowned. "Okay. Is there anyone else? Specifically, an adult?"

"I'm eighteen." I interrupted. I doubted that was what she had meant.

She eyed me for a minute, and I thought she was going to tell me to get lost.

Please. I silently begged.

Finally, she sighed. "Okay, come with me."

I followed her down the hall, and she looked over her shoulder at me as we traveled the fluorescent-lit hallways. "Can you tell me a little bit about what happened?"

{*}

After giving the nurse all the details I could remember, and about twenty anxiety-filled minutes later, she handed me off to a doctor with dark hair and blue eyes. I followed him into a room labeled '103' in little plastic letters. Clary was in the bed in the middle, her red hair a shock against the white sheets and hospital gown. The oxygen mask was gone, replaced with a smaller tube fit against her face and around her ears. The brace around her neck was gone as well, though her elbow was still bandaged and she had small little bandage strips over the cuts on her face. Her left wrist was thickly wrapped in a gauze as well.

She looked a little better, and the vise grip on my heart loosened a little. After the dark-haired doctor gave me the go-ahead, I made my way over to the uncomfortable-looking chair beside her. She silently held her hand out to me, and I immediately took it, returning her hard squeeze with one of my own. Another doctor walked in, this one with tan skin and hair almost as dark as her co-worker's. Both doctors started explaining some medical jargon that went right over my head. I tried my best to listen, regardless. The female doctor explained wrapping Clary's wrist in a harder cast as it was, in fact, broken. As well as having to pop her dislocated shoulder back into it's socket. Clary declined the doctor's offer of morphine, and I thought she was equal parts brave and absolutely crazy.

"Brave choice," The female doctor amended. "Let's get started." The male doctor left then – I realized I hadn't even thought to ask either his or the woman's names – with a request that the nurse keep him informed. The other doctor had Clary sit up on the side of the bed, and without even realizing how I'd gotten there, I was beside her. She gripped Clary's shoulder and then announced "Ready? On three. One, two..." Skipping right over three, she hoisted her arm up and I heard the loud pop as she fit her shoulder back into it's socket.

I heard Clary's sharp intake of breath as she pressed her face into my shoulder. She whispered an expletive as I ran my hand up and down her back. I whispered calming words into her ear, even though it felt entirely helpless. After a minute or so, the doctor eased off. "Okay, that's the worst we have to do tonight." She assured.

God, I hope so. I thought. After that, she wrapped the broken wrist, and helped Clary into a sling for her shoulder.

{*}

It was sometime after all the doctors and nurses had left, and the tv was ironically playing some old medical drama. Somehow, I had never made it back to the chair. I sat propped against the pillow with Clary's head against my shoulder and the fingers of her good arm entangled with mine. I ran my fingers through her hair, feeling like I could breath again. I couldn't stop myself from touching her, almost as if I stopped, she could disappear. I didn't even want to think about how much worse off she could be right now if those two girls hadn't slowed her fall, or if she had landed an inch off. Her eyelids fluttered, and I gently nudged her. "Don't fall asleep." I warned. She only had a mild concussion, but even still, they wanted her to stay awake for the next few hours. She heaved a heavy sigh as she opened her eyes wider, and I grinned.

After a moment, she broke the silence again. "You don't have to do this, you know."

The smile slipped from my face and my hand in her hair stilled. "What?"

"This goes way past best friend's little sister territory."

I was at a loss for words for a moment, and then I realized I needed to make something really damn clear right then. A shift had occurred tonight, and it happened quietly without me realizing it. But it was where I stood, and it was where I planned to stay, no matter where she stood.

"Clary..." I sighed as I tried to piece together the words to accurately convey how I felt.

"When I saw you fall...and then you weren't moving or even breathing..." I took a deep breath, as I realized I was admitting these things to not only her but myself, as well. "God, I thought I'd lost you. If you had died..." The thought stole my breath again for a second. I took another breath in, making myself go on. "I'm done playing around. To hell with your brother, to hell with anyone who isn't you or me. I love you. God, I love you so much sometimes I can hardly stand it."

Admitting that scared the hell out of me, but after tonight, I knew I couldn't go any longer without telling her. Her bright green eyes filled with an emotion I couldn't quite decipher, but then she reached up and kissed me, and every other thought melted away.

My hand in her hair slid down to fist in the back of the gown she wore, whispering over the exposed skin of her back. My other hand cupped her cheek, and I savored the sweet spiced taste of her, and how she fit in my arms as if she just belonged. I could no longer entertain the thought of fighting something that felt so right. There had been other girls, but it had never been like this with anyone but her. No one sent my senses crazy like she did, no one made me want to risk absolutely everything for this, right here. She was right; this was right, damn what anyone else thought. And I would fight for it with everything I had. Because she was worth it all.