confrontation part 2! tw for violence and major injuries. we're almost done with the Alice's parents storyline, I promise! - Dee

He'd just entered the hospital when he felt the bruising, squeezing pain around his arm followed by a sharp constant one at the tip of his tongue; internally cursing - because there was only one person who could cause that familiar grip on his soulmate's arms these days - Matthew hurried through the hallways as he searched for Alice. He'd just rounded a corner when a blinding pain erupted at the back of his head; clutching at it, he saw his daughter running towards him, crying as she covered one of her cheeks with her hands.

"Daddy!" Anna sobbed as she reached him and Matthew knelt as best as he could to hold her close - trying to concentrate through the throbbing in his head.

Anger burned in his chest at the sight of his daughter's reddening cheek - it was sure to be purple in a few hours, but Matthew shoved it down to find out what had happened.

"Where's your mum?"

"A Bad Man is hurting her!"

"Tell me where she is, sweetheart."

"It hurt, Daddy!"

"I know, I know," he soothed her as best he could while a couple of the nurses came towards them. "But I need to know where they are."

Anna pointed behind her and Matthew kissed her forehead, "Stay with these nurses, alright, sweetheart? I don't want you caught in the middle."

He turned to one of the nurses - wishing for Mattie's cool head, but all the nurses around them were just as capable - as he stood, "Could you please call the police station and tell Sergeants Davis and Hobart to get here immediately?"

"Of course, Superintendent."

"Thank you."

Pressing a swift kiss to the top of Anna's head as the nurses surrounded his daughter, Matthew hurried down the hallway she'd pointed to as fast as he could; a hand tightened around his throat - echoing the last time Alice had been in this sort of situation, and Matthew felt his earlier anger return with a vengeance. Rounding another corner, he saw George and Alice at the other end of the hallway with his soulmate held up against a wall by her throat.

Matthew was not a man prone to violence - he used it when he had to, but he tried not to resort to it; one look at the man who'd hurt Alice, her sister, and Anna, however, made him reconsider. George Harvey stood before him, and the only thing Matthew saw was red.

As George was so focused on Alice, he didn't notice Matthew's approach until it was too late; Matthew introduced himself to his future father-in-law with his fist connecting with the man's jaw. It knocked the man off balance, and he let go of Alice as Matthew shook out his hand.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size," he growled as Alice coughed out a faint "Matthew, no!" before George righted himself and fixated on Matthew instead.

"How dare you."

"I dare because you're a bloody coward."

George snarled and launched himself at Matthew - who managed to get a few licks in before they crashed to the floor. Matthew hit his head on the ground (blinking away the burst of stars as he did), and tried to block as many of George's punches as he could; George gave him what felt like a pretty heavy shiner around his left eye, another blow to his cheek, and one near the jaw that split his lip. Being on the ground gave Matthew a little more stability than he had standing up, but it was becoming all too clear who had the advantage in this fight, and as the blows kept coming, Matthew hoped his men would arrive soon.

"Can't even fight like a man, and you call me a coward?" George demanded as he kept going at Matthew.

"I'm not someone who beats women just to feel good about himself," Matthew spat back up as George landed another blow to his face.

"Father, stop, please!" Alice begged and before Matthew could stop her, she reached out to pull on her father's shoulder.

"Away, girl!" he wrenched his elbow back and caught Alice's nose; she yelped and clutched at it briefly - a flare of pain echoing in his own nose - but still Alice pleaded with her father to let Matthew go.

"Please, Father, he's nothing to do with this, please just stop!"

"Fine!"

The barrage of punches stopped, giving Matthew a bit of a breather (it wouldn't last); just as he was blinking through the throbbing pain of his face, George stepped on Matthew's right leg.

Blinding, stabbing pain caught him off guard - it grew the longer George leaned his entire weight on the leg as he watched Matthew squirm; Matthew's ears rang, he could barely think through the pain as he heard someone screaming through it all. As George relinquished Matthew's leg, he realized both he and Alice were the ones screaming in pain. It hurt to move, it hurt to breathe, and Matthew could only really watch with dread and despair as George seized Alice by the arm again and dragged her away.

His soulmate stumbled in her father's tight grip, but she fought as much as she could against him; Matthew pushed himself up against a wall as they disappeared into the stairwell.

"Boss!" Bill's voice rang out down the hallway and he heard multiple sets of feet run towards him.

"S-Stairwell," he managed to get out when Charlie and Bill drew near enough, "please hurry, I don't know what he's going to do to her."

"We'll get her out of there, Boss, I promise," Charlie nodded while Bill plowed on ahead into the stairwell.

Anna made her way up the hallway as well - followed by some of the nurses he'd charged to look after her - and as Charlie followed Bill into the stairwell, she hurried into his arms.

"Daddy!"

"I'm alright, sweetheart," he tried to smile for her, but couldn't hide the wince when his lip stung. "C'mere."

"Where's Mumma?"

"Charlie and Bill are gonna go get her."

"Are they gonna save her from the bad man?"

"I hope so," Matthew sighed as he held her close. "I hope so, sweetheart."

She struggled against her father's bruising hold as much as she could through the lingering pain of her nose and all of Matthew's injuries; her father didn't relent on dragging her into the stairwell and down one set of the stairs - not caring if she stumbled or ran into the rails frequently.

"So, are you ready to reconsider the money?" George pulled her around to face him - his hands like vices on her arms.

"Are you ready to tell me what you're going to do with it?" she snarked back at him.

"Insolent girl! You always were a pain in my arse!"

"Yes, being a pain in your arse is certainly obnoxious, but necessary when you loved to drink and beat me black and blue. I can see why my behavior drove you to that."

Alice hadn't used this much venom in her voice in a long time; being here in Ballarat had softened her - it let her relax the defenses that had kept her safe for so long… but left her very lonely. Now, she had her family. Now, she had a home. Now, she wasn't going to run like she had at twelve years old. Now, Alice was ready to fight back against the nightmare of her past. Whatever happened, George would not hurt her family anymore than he had already.

"I won't let you hurt my daughter ever again," she snarled even as her father squeezed her arms even tighter. "Hurt me all you want, but you'll never get money from me and I won't let you near my family ever again."

"So says you."

"Yes, I do."

Alice grabbed the front of George's shirt and hauled him over towards the stairs - using his shock at the sudden moment to manipulate him further; it was madness, what she was doing, but it was the only thing she could think of to get out of this mess and to buy time for Matthew's men to arrive. As the open air of the stairwell came into view, Alice looked up into her father's shocked eyes.

"You wouldn't."

Alice felt herself smiling, "Oh… but I am."

She shoved him.

For a moment the world tilted and it felt like she was floating, the sensation lingered even as she and her father tumbled and rolled down the stairs; even as she felt like she hit every part of her body on the way down, Alice felt like she floated through it all. (Though, that could be from hitting her head, she wasn't entirely sure.) The fog lifted sharply when they ended up on the landing; her left foot somehow caught on the last step, and between that and George landing on it, Alice felt the sickening snap of her leg - followed quickly by an old familiar white-hot pain that lanced through her body and all she could feel was the leg, all she could hear was the blood rushing in her ears.

Through the pain, Alice barely made out George groaning next to her as he stood; when he saw her lying there, a smirk crossed his face and she feebly fought against his hands as he grabbed the locket (and ring on the chain) from Matthew and tore it from her with enough force to break the chain. Slicing, stinging cuts lingered on her neck as he stepped over her and left her there - hurrying down the stairs, likely wanting to avoid the police and to hock the jewelry. She couldn't help the tears that escaped as she lay there staring up at the stairwell above her - wondering how'd she'd get out of this.

Her world shrunk to the pain in her leg, and the pain all over her body; she wasn't sure how much she'd hit on her body and didn't want to risk moving her spine if she could help it, so she had to wait and see if anyone would come after them. Some time later (was it minutes or hours?), she spotted Sergeants Hobart and Davis in the stairwell above her.

"Doc!" Charlie called down - seeing her somehow, and soon both policemen were kneeling above her. "Doc, what happened?"

"I pushed him down the stairs," she whispered - slowly shaking her head when they reached out to pull her upright. "Don't, please, I… I don't know what I hit. He went that way."

She pointed down the stairs that her father had gone down, and Hobart went off like a shot; Charlie stayed by her, gently taking her hand as she gasped through the pain.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Don't leave me?"

He smiled softly, "Never, Doc, the Boss would never forgive me."

Charlie stayed by her - shouting for some medics when he heard a door above them open up - and Alice focused on his hand as a whirlwind of activity surrounded them; medics and nurses came - slowly inching her onto a stiff stretcher to get her out of the stairwell, then transferring her to a rolling one - and got her into X-Rays for her leg, back, and head to see what was needed to be done. At some point, she was given painkillers, and instinctively Alice knew they were not worried about a concussion, while she barely made out conversation about her leg.

"Alice?" Lucien's familiar face appeared above her and swam in and out of focus as he looked down on her. "How are you feeling?"

"Like my leg is broken, next question."

Her friend smiled and squeezed her hand, "We're going to fix that with surgery shortly, but I thought you'd like to see some other very important people first, so stay with me for a bit longer."

He disappeared and not that long after reappeared with Anna in his arms while Matthew sidled up on her other side.

"See, Miss Anna, she'll be alright," Lucien smiled as Anna waved to her. "We're going to take her into the operating room to fix her leg, and then she'll be asleep for awhile after that, but she's going to be perfectly alright."

"You promise, Uncle Lucien?"

"I promise."

"Okay," her daughter nodded and leaned down with Lucien's support to hug her. "I love you, Mumma."

"I love you too, my darling girl," Alice held her as tight as she could stand. "Be good for Daddy and the nurses, alright?"

"I will."

Lucien carried her away - leaving Matthew and Alice alone for a bit before her surgery; her soulmate and fiance leaned down to kiss her forehead softly.

"Don't keep me waiting too much, sweetheart."

"I'll try not to, my dear Matthew."

He kissed her forehead again - pausing when she reached for him, "What is it?"

"I'm… scared."

"It'll be fine, sweetheart. Lucien says it was a clean break, no splintering of the bone, so it'll be a fairly simple surgery. Anna and I will be waiting in your room for when you're done. It… it won't be a repeat of mine, I promise."

She knew anything could go wrong in the operating room, but she also believed Matthew; he kissed her forehead one last time, whispering how much he loved her against her skin, before he too left alone. As the nurses bustled around her - preparing the room and her for surgery - Alice felt the slight sting of her IV and then the warm, fuzzy feeling of anesthesia flooding through her veins; her eyes fluttered closed and all went to black.

Anna clutched his hand tight as they followed a nurse down the hallway towards the hospital's recovery rooms; he'd shook his head at all of their suggestions to leave and come back in the morning - he'd promised Alice they would be waiting for her in her room after surgery, and even though she'd still be unconscious, he was going to keep his promise. He gnawed on his inner lip - carefully, it was still split from George's knuckles - when he noted it was the same room both he and Lucien had recovered in after their long hospital visits.

'Is there only one singular surgical recovery room in this entire hospital?' he thought as he pulled up a chair next to the empty bed - smiling when Anna immediately tugged on his sleeve. As he pulled her up in his lap, the nurse lingered.

"Is there anything you need, Chief Superintendent?"

"Is… is there a way we could bring in a cot or something? The little miss and I don't really want to leave even after Dr. Harvey comes in from the surgery."

"I'm not sure if we have anything like that, but I'll certainly look into it for you, sir."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, sir. Anything else?"

He shook his head no, and thankfully the young woman left them alone; Anna clung to him like she had in the past when she came to him or Alice for comfort after nightmares. Matthew kissed the top of her head and held her close - ignoring his own sore muscles to give her comfort and safety as they waited.

"Sleep, sweetheart. Your mum will be here soon and I'll wake you when she is."

"What happened to the bad man?"

"He's in jail, sweetheart, he won't hurt you again."

"He won't hurt you or Mumma?"

"No."

"Good."

He smiled into her hair as she settled a bit more in his arms, but soon Anna drifted off after all that had happened today; Matthew wished he could join her, but he needed to know Alice was safe and that meant he was going to wait until she was back in his sight - tired as he was. The adrenaline had left his system, and George Harvey was firmly locked away in their worst cell at the station, and so Matthew was tired; he could feel the exhaustion in his joints and the lingering soreness of his injuries occasionally throbbed as he shifted in the chair.

Tears welled in his eyes, but he sniffed them back; now was not the time to cry, not when he didn't know what life would throw at him next. When he saw Alice safely out of surgery, then he could lose it, but not before - not when Anna needed him to be strong and everything still felt uncertain. He'd cry - of that he was sure, and he now understood what Alice had felt like during his accident - but not yet.