A good time had passed and Randy was in the middle of picking up T.K.'s copy of To Kill A Mockingbird that had some time ago fallen to the floor, when the door to the intensive care room opened. Randy stood at attention right away and put the book down on the nightstand next to the commander's hospital bed. For obvious reasons that Randy knew all too well being married to a nurse, intensive-care units were strict on what people were allowed to visit the patients and when, and Randy wondered if he would get in trouble for being in the commander's room without T.K., Jared or Max present. The group of them were close, the last four months notwithstanding, but Randy, Sharona, Monk and Natalie weren't Leland's immediate family, at least not by blood.

It wasn't a nurse or any staff member. It was only Jared, and Randy relaxed. "Hey, your stepmom stepped out for a few minutes so I told her I'd stay here with your dad. Hope you don't mind."

Jared shook his head. "No, if T.K. said it was okay then it's okay with me. The more people that are able to be with dad, the better. The doctors said he can hear us, so the more voices he hears, I figure that's got to be a good thing."

A hint of a smile tugged across the young man's mouth when he saw his dad's favorite book on the other side of the room. "T.K. hates that book. She fell asleep fifteen minutes into the movie because that was all she could stand. Wait until Dad hears that she read it to him." Jared shook his head again and looked at Randy. "If she's taking time for herself, I don't want to interrupt her and go looking for her. When she comes back, can you do me a favor and tell her that I have to go home for a little bit? Max called me and said that Mom showed up and I have to go - deal with that."

The look on his face said enough without saying a word about how he felt about his mother's presence at his dad and T.K.'s house. "On second thought, just tell her I have to go home to help Max with something. Nothing significant. Don't tell her it has anything to do with Mom."

Randy only nodded, not wanting to get in the middle of whatever happened now between the Stottlemeyers and Leland's ex-wife. "Yeah, sure, I'll let her know. She's been gone thirty minutes and she said she'd be back in ten, she should be coming back soon."

Leland's son nodded. "Thank you, Captain Disher. Thank you for keeping an eye out for my stepmother and thank you for sitting here with my dad. It, it means a lot to all of us." He slipped out of the room, leaving Randy once again alone with the commander.


If asked later, Jared Stottlemeyer wouldn't have been able to tell T.K. or any of them what drove him to head out the doors of the intensive care unit and then head not for the elevators to take him to the main level of the hospital, but to the restrooms located just outside the ICU. The house was not all that far from the hospital and he really could have waited, but something compelled him to go.

As he walked past the ladies' room on his way to the men's, he heard what he believed were the muffled sounds of a woman crying. Instinctively, he felt that they weren't the cries of just any woman, but those of his stepmother. She'd spent the last five days trying so hard to be strong for Leland and for himself and Max, and had barely taken any time for herself or left her husband's hospital room unless she was ordered to by one of them or by a nurse. There was no logical way she could keep up this pace for however long it took for his dad to wake up. She had tried so hard to be strong for them all and Jared's love and respect for that woman had grown exponentially. The potential was enormous for him to make a fool of himself, but if there was a chance his stepmother needed him, the choice was simple. He took a deep breath for courage and opened the door to the women's restroom, and then entered the room.

By some miracle, there was no one in there to scream at him, a young man, for opening the door. There was, however, a closed stall at the end of the line. Jared inched hesitantly closer. The heartbreaking crying got louder the closer he came until there was only the locked door between them.

Jared knocked quietly, gently, on the stall door. "T.K.?" he whispered. "T.K., it's me, Jared. Are you -?"

Jared heard the scrambling of feet and the unrolling of tissue paper, presumably to rid herself of evidence she had been crying. He'd told Captain Disher the truth, she was trying so hard to be strong for him and for Max that it broke his heart. "Is your dad awake?!" she asked.

The quiet, desperate-sounding 'oh,' when he had to tell her no, he was just checking on her before he headed out for a little while, upset him even more than hearing her cry did.

Jared told her that he'd be back soon with Max, and if she needed anything at all, he wanted her to call him. She indicated quietly that she would.


He didn't go to the elevators when he left the restrooms. Rather, he headed straight for the private waiting room that he and Max and T.K. had used that first day. If Randy was in his dad's room, sitting with his dad, there was a possibility that his wife was here too. Maybe Mrs. Disher could talk with his stepmother for a while and help her.

Jared immediately opened the door to the waiting area and found Captain Disher's wife sitting there, but Adrian and Julie's mom were there as well. He hesitated only slightly before stepping into the room and headed for the chair where Mrs. Disher sat.

"Mrs. Disher," he started.

Sharona, for her part, looked up immediately at the urgency in his voice and so did Natalie and Adrian. Adrian, fearing the worst, as was his instinct, reached over his armrest for Natalie's hand and squeezed it tightly. Natalie didn't say anything about the way he was crunching her fingers.

"Mrs. Disher, my...T.K., she's in the bathroom and she's crying. I went in to talk to her, but for obvious reasons…well…she wouldn't say much to me at all. It's - it's been a hard week for her and I think it's all catching up to her. Do you think you could...?"

Sharona stood up and hugged Jared. He was a good young man. "Your dad would be so proud of you, do you know that?" she said as she leaned back and tugged on his cheek a little, just as she would have her son Benjy, who was just a year younger. Reaching for her purse on the seat, she followed Jared to the door, intending to walk with him to wherever T.K. was.

Natalie stood too, and it was her quiet, pleading voice asking if she could come too that made Jared stop at the door with his hand clutching the knob.

The young man stood and looked at his stepmom and his father's estranged friend for several seconds. Natalie's confidence and bravery for at least standing up seemed to shrink under his inquisitive gaze, yet she continued on. "Please, Jared. Please don't send me away. Please let me have the chance to be the friend T.K. needs me to be, for the first time in a long time. I - I know a little bit of what she's going through, I can help her. I can talk to her if she'll let me."

Jared considered this and ultimately nodded. "You've been at the hospital and that says a lot. But there's one condition, Ms. Teeger, and please don't take my tone as disrespect, but her feelings are the ones that matter right now. If my stepmother asks you to leave and stay away from her, you leave and stay away from her."

Natalie swallowed and nodded, and with a quick kiss to Adrian's cheek telling him she would be back soon, the two women followed Jared out the door.


Natalie could feel Sharona's intense gaze on her the entire walk to the restroom, and once they reached the doors, Sharona pulled Natalie back.

"She's Leland's wife," Sharona hissed under her breath. "She's his wife and she's finally giving in to all the emotions she's tried to suppress for the last five days. Her feelings are what matters now, not yours."

Natalie nodded. It was her own fault and she knew that everyone was lining up to protect T.K. from her, but her own self-realization didn't make her feel better.

Jared motioned for the two of them to go inside, and once he heard from one of them that T.K. said she was okay, he would leave. Natalie lowered her head as she walked past Leland's oldest son and entered the restroom, quickly moving to the end stall. Quietly she knocked on the door. "T.K.?" she murmured. "T.K., it's Natalie. Sharona's here with me. Jared heard you crying and thought that you might -"

Silence, and the sound of quiet sniffling was the only response for a few seconds. "Jared worries about me when he should be worrying about his dad. I'm fine, don't worry about me, I just need a few minutes to be by myself."

Sharona tugged on Natalie's arm and started to take her back to the door. "You heard her. We'll leave her alone."

Natalie stood firm where she was and turned back towards the stall at the end of the bathroom.

"It sounds to me like she doesn't need to be alone, she needs a friend." As Sharona watched, protectively, Natalie cautiously stepped closer to the door and closer to her own failure as a friend for all these weeks, especially since Leland had been suspended from his job due in large part to her and Adrian.

"I'd like to be that person, T.K., if you'll let me." She said softly. "I know I've been horrible to you and to Leland, that I've only thought of myself, and if - if you want to go back to hating me and wanting me to stay away from you once we leave this bathroom, and not to talk to you, I'll do that. I'll do whatever you want, T.K., whatever would make all of this easier on you. But I hear you crying and I know that you're upset and you're scared and I want to help you. Please. Please give me the next ten minutes to be the friend I should have been all along, and then, after that, if you want me to go… "

It was a tense few moments of awkward silence after Natalie spoke and soon, the only sounds heard were T.K. standing up and her heels walking across the tile. The sound of the sliding lock within the oversized stall signaled the opening of the door and T.K.'s tear-streaked and swollen face was the first thing that Natalie and Sharona saw as she opened the bathroom door a mere crack, looked at Natalie, and nodded. T.K. then moved away from the door.

Natalie stepped forward and pushed the door open even more and T.K.'s lip quivered. Sharona watched as Natalie stepped further into the stall and T.K. simply collapsed against her and cried.

Sharona doubted either of them noticed when she left, and when she exited the bathroom, she whispered to Jared that everything was fine and he could go. T.K. was okay where she was, with Natalie. The young man glanced towards the bathroom and back at Sharona, deciding to trust her judgement and nodding. He would be back later.

T.K. sobbed profusely into Natalie's arms for a full ten minutes before showing signs of slowing down. And as Natalie sat against the wall of the empty bathroom stroking the other woman's hair and handing her squares of toilet tissue she'd pulled from the rack as well as a wipe from a leftover pack in her purse, the thought came to her that while they had seen her cry, T.K. had probably saved most of her sobbing the last five days for when she was alone, which wasn't very often because she was always with Leland. The idea that T.K. had suffered all of this emotional torment alone for almost a week because Natalie couldn't get past her own feelings of anger and resentment enough to reach out to her friend in pain was enough to want to make Natalie cry, too.

The cooling of the friendship between the two of them was nothing more than a casualty of the resentment she'd felt towards Leland for not doing his job to her satisfaction, and that was something Natalie needed to fix. And fix it she would, she promised herself with a ferocity that surprised even her. T.K. was the best friend she'd had in a long, long time, and she wanted that friendship back. But only if that was something T.K. was willing to do.

T.K. finally pulled back from Natalie's embrace and sat against the wall, hugging her knees to her chest. Natalie went back to the rack to get more toilet tissue and handed it to her, sitting beside her and putting an arm around her, T.K.'s head resting on her shoulder.

"He's going to be okay," Natalie whispered quietly. "I know it's hard right now and I know you're scared. I was terrified when Adrian was in that building collapse and we were waiting for word on him when we got him to the hospital and we weren't even dating then. I can't even imagine what you're going through right now.

But - I've known Leland for a lot longer than you have, and I know how stubborn he is. How strong-willed he is. I know how much he loves you and how much he loves Jared and Max, and I can only imagine how hard he's fighting to get back to the three of you. He's going to wake up soon, T.K., I know it. And he's going to look at you and he's going to tell you how much he loves you, and he's going to wonder why you worried so much because you should have known he would be all right."

T.K. lifted her head and looked at her for a long time and she laughed a little bit, which made her in turn cry even more. Natalie saw how her left hand never stopped holding onto the chain around her neck that held Leland's wedding ring. "He would do that, wouldn't he?"

Natalie nodded and smiled softly. "He loves you," she murmured. "You should have seen how happy he was when he came back to work the morning after he proposed to you."

T.K. wiped her eyes with one of the squares of toilet tissue. "The proposal Adrian screwed up for him, you mean? Leland knows he didn't mean any harm but he was still so disappointed that I wasn't surprised, I could tell. Of course, after he finally went ahead and asked and I said yes, it didn't seem to matter to him as much, but..." She sniffled and twisted the crumbled-up square around her finger. "I didn't need a big and fancy surprise and he knew that. He just wanted to do that to make me happy. What he didn't understand was that yes, having a good story to tell was nice, but - the man I love loved me enough in return to want to spend the rest of his life with me, you know? That's what made me so happy. Not where the proposal was or when it was or what he said." Her grip on his ring got tighter and her eyes traveled to her own ring, the one Leland had slipped on her finger on that beach in front of everyone almost three years ago. "Just that he wanted to marry me was enough for me."

Natalie wasn't surprised that her mind drifted to her own boyfriend and her own relationship, wondering if something as permanent as an engagement or marriage was in the cards for them, now that everything was settling down with Julie . Nor was she surprised at how strongly she felt about the idea of being engaged to him. Someday. Maybe that was something they could talk about one day and work out an idea of their future together. But right now, so many things needed to happen first. And that wasn't something she should even be thinking about right now when Leland was hovering somewhere between life and death.

"He's going to wake up," Natalie repeated, firmly. "You told me that I just had to have faith about Julie and I'm telling you that you have to have faith about this. He's going to wake up. If not today then the next day or the day after that. But however long it takes, you are going to be there for him, and I'm going to be here for you. If - if you'll let me."

T.K. lowered her head and wiped her eyes. "Natalie…I'm not nearly as strong as I thought I was.

Every day we've been married I've worried about him, that something like this would happen. And on the worst days, these last few months, it's as though I can't breathe until he calls me and I hear his voice and knows he's all right…"

"That's normal. I feel that way about Adrian sometimes as well. We love them."

"We do love them," she sniffled. Then she paused, "I haven't been a good wife to him lately, Natalie. I haven't been honest with him about so many things. There are so many things I should have told him about before we even got married."

It was the perfect chance for Natalie to tell T.K. how incredibly sorry she was for bringing James' name into the argument that horrible night and for bringing her friend into the fight at all. In fact, the words were right on the tip of Natalie's tongue when she heard Sharona's stern voice in her head telling her, this moment wasn't about her, it was about T.K. And so, she held back and didn't say them, hoping her friend would give her the opportunity to say later what she so desperately needed to say.

"Then you'll tell him when he wakes up," she said reassuringly. "He will wake up and you'll get the chance to tell him everything you need to tell him. He might be stuck here in the hospital for a few days after he wakes up so you and he can have a talk."


Later that evening, T.K. was where she was supposed to be, by her husband's side in his intensive-care room. Natalie and Adrian had long since gone back home to spend time with Julie - they wanted to spend every moment with her they could now that she was free of murder charges and T.K. couldn't fault them for that - and Randy had asked them to drive Sharona back to their house because he had to get back to work. Jared had texted her earlier in the evening to say that he was staying out at the house with Max and T.K. had a feeling there was something her oldest stepson wasn't telling her, but she decided to let it go for the time being.

It was eleven o'clock now, and the night shift nurses were on duty. All Quiet On The Western Front was on her lap, unopened. She didn't want to start the second book, not yet, because that would be admitting it to herself and to him that she didn't think he would wake up soon. He would. Natalie had told her that she had to have faith and that was just what she was going to do.

Setting the book down on the table, she scooted even closer to the side of his bed and softly brushed her fingers across the skin of his cheek. "Jared's at the house with Max. They'll be here tomorrow to see you. Karen's been texting me asking me how you are. She wants me to tell her when you wake up so she can come visit you again."

The only response she received was the steady rise and fall of his chest thanks to his machine-assisted breathing.

Once again, she took his hand, entwining her fingers with his. "If you wanted to prove to me that you have a dangerous job, I get it. We went through this same thing with our wedding and with Stephanie and I told you that marrying you and loving you was worth the risk. Remember that? Leland, I...I can deal with you getting shot, I can handle anything as long as you survive, but I absolutely draw the line at you dying. Do you hear me, Leland Stottlemeyer?"

T.K. held firm to his hand and blinked away the sudden tears that clouded her vision. She had cried enough today, in here it was about being strong and in control.

"We took vows that day on that beach and we made promises to each other. I am your wife and I am holding you to that promise. You will not die! Jared and Max need you. I need you. Your friends need you. You are too damn important to all of us for you to die, do you understand me?"

Tears streamed down her face by the time she finished. No response from him, not that she expected one, but it was a crushing blow and another little dagger to her heart all the same. The machines keeping him breathing and keeping him alive kept a steady rhythm. For now, that comforted her.

She swallowed back the lump in her throat as she stood up from the chair and went to the second bed in the room to find her phone. She needed to have it next to her in case someone texted. Returning to her chair she immediately took his hand again. "It's late and I'm getting kind of tired, so if you don't mind, I'm going to just put my head down here and rest for a while. You know, you're actually getting the better part of the deal, you get to sleep through all of it." Slowly, she laid her head down on the side of Leland's bed. "I love you," she whispered quietly.

The clock on the hospital room wall read eleven fifty-eight at night when she fell asleep.


Almost two hours later, on the morning of the sixth day since he had been shot, Leland woke up.

His eyes tracked the unfamiliar room. He didn't know where he was or what day it was or what had happened. He remembered the theater and he remembered needing to protect Monk and Julie from Melody and Jenna. He vaguely remembered there being a gun. But everything that happened after that was blurry and fragmented.

Had he been shot? He'd been shot before years earlier and he didn't remember it hurting him like he was hurting now. Something was in his mouth preventing him from talking. Leland's eyes tracked the room again, taking inventory of his surroundings much like he did when he was on duty, and it was then that he saw her, and the frightened and unsure look in his eyes immediately made way for a soft look.

T.K. was here, asleep at his bedside.

Her face was stained with tears, even in sleep, and that made him wonder how long he had been unconscious. He never wanted his job to scare her even though he knew it did.

His eyes crinkled and he concentrated all of his focus and energy on moving his hand and carefully touching her head, his fingers awkwardly patting at her hair. As far as loving gestures went it wasn't the best, but it was literally all he could do at the moment.

He patted her hair a few more times, concentrating hard on getting a strand of her hair between his fingers and tugging cautiously. He didn't want to hurt her and judging by the awkward way she was sleeping it was the first sleep she'd gotten in a while. But he tugged at her hair again and it was then that he saw her eyes start to open and her face turn quickly to look at him.

Oh, the look on her face when she saw that he was awake and looking at her, it was something that Leland wouldn't forget as long as he lived.


And the next morning, when Randy Disher, Sharona Fleming, and Natalie Teeger all reached for their phones, they would each see the same message from T.K. marked urgent. Natalie immediately pushed open the door to Adrian's bedroom and ran into the living room, jumping on the pull-out bed and thrusting the phone in his face.

Leland's awake! You can come by the hospital later if you want to see him, just text me when.