Donna felt Harvey's steel-grip on her left hand tighten as people crowded around her, checking her heart rate, pumping drugs into her and offering what she supposed were comforting words. She could still feel Jackson's cold hands on her cheek and her chest and side felt as though they were on fire. She was dazed and terrified and all she wanted was Harvey and to go home and sleep. God, she was tired.

'Mrs Paulsen-Specter, we need you to stay with us,' a paramedic spoke, kindly but forcefully, 'I need you to stay awake.'

Donna forced her eyes open, trying to focus on Harvey. She could see how panic-stricken he was, and she wanted to reassure him. As she opened her mouth, instead she became panicked as she couldn't breathe. She felt her eyes widen and her chest flared with even more pain. Her heart raced as it tried to pump oxygen around her body, but there was none left to pump.

'Donna, breathe,' she heard Harvey order. And she tried, she really did, but she just couldn't. It felt like she was drowning yet she knew that she was surrounded by air. She felt a sharp pain in the left side of her chest and she panicked even more, remembering the stabbing from earlier. Then her chest went numb and a few seconds later, she could breathe again. She gasped for air as though she had been underwater and after a few deep breaths, her breathing rate returned closer to normal.

She must have passed out again after that because the next thing she knew, she was in the ambulance but she didn't see Harvey. Seeing the panic growing again, the paramedic reassured her that Harvey was there and just being checked over by another paramedic. Donna nodded and closed her eyes again, ignoring the paramedic's pleading to stay awake. Within seconds, she succumbed to exhaustion.

'Donna Paulsen-Specter, 39, involved in a physical assault, stab wounds to the chest, a laceration to the left side of the abdomen, query fractured ankle, and possible concussion. She was given 5mg morphine at the scene and a thoracostomy was performed due to a hemothorax.'

The hospital was completely overwhelming: alarms going off from machines that Harvey couldn't give a purpose to; people rushing to and fro against the tide of people coming in. All he could do was keep following the bed that they'd put Donna on, doctors and nurses following like a funeral procession. As they reached a pair of double doors, one of the nurses pulled him away gently and told him to wait outside.

'But Donna-' he tried.

'I know but we need to treat her. I promise I'll come and get you the minute she's stable, ok?' the kind nurse reassured. Harvey nodded because he needed Donna to be looked after and that wouldn't happen if he was kicking up a fuss about not being with her. He watched, eyes wide with horror, as he heard machines beep warnings. His heart was in his mouth as he watched the team swarm around her, shouting things he couldn't hear but knew couldn't be good. More than once, he caught glimpses of her being defibrillated. Donna had to make it, she just had to- what would he do without her? Without the woman he loved?

'Sir?'

The nurse was back.

'You can see your wife now, but she has been through quite an ordeal so she needs to sleep. She's sedated for the time being.'

Harvey barely registered what was being said, all he wanted to do was see his wife. As he followed the nurse to Donna, he gasped as he saw her. Bandages bound her chest where that son of a bitch had stabbed her; now that her dress was off he could see the bruising and other cuts up and down her arms; her face was pale, almost grey, and Harvey couldn't help thinking she looked… dead.

Sensing this, the nurse reassured him that she was just asleep and left them to it. He reached out and clasped her hand in his shaking one, wanting nothing more than for her to wake up. The ER quietened down after a few hours as the night grew later. Technically, he shouldn't have been there still, but no one attempted to remove him as he rested his head in the space between Donna's hip and stomach and fell asleep with her.