A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed chapter one, but keep doing it ok! I don't want to have to get mean. And don't worry, I'm a diehard M/E shipper, (Amy drives me nuts) I just like angst way too much to get them together yet.

Just to clarify, because I'm not sure how clear it was in Accidental, but Madison's car was hit and she had head and chest injuries. She had to have heart surgery because of that. The later she got an infection in the muscle wall of her heart which almost killer her again (a myocardial infection), but this was after Accidental took place. If that wasn't clear, bits of this wouldn't make sense.

Chapter Two

Madison's POV

It was a couple of days later and Ephram was still moping around the house like a lost puppy. He'd been doing it since Monday after Amy left and it was driving me insane. His bad mood seemed to have directly transferred to Mac, and for that I wanted to kick his ass. But less than a month after that damn myocardial infection, the closest I could come was a death glare. Damn.

Amy still hadn't been over to the house, though I guess Ephram must have seen her at school. He kept sitting strategically in the living room, so he was near the phone and the front door. I sat in my bedroom, and tried to teach Mac the joys of MTV. It's never too early to teach a child good taste in music, and there was no way in hell I was going to let Ephram brainwash my daughter into listening to that whiney depressing crap he listens to. Ok, so I'm not sure if the music was her thing yet, but she liked Pimp My Ride. I think all the bright colors got to her.

I checked my watch, and saw it was just after six. That meant I had about an hour before I had to put Mac to bed, but I had to get dinner together before that. Nonny and Grandpa, as they insisted I call them were out for the day in Denver and wouldn't be back until late. I'd actually looked after Mac by myself all day and hadn't killed or maimed her. I was impressed with myself; maybe I wasn't such a horrible parent after all.

I grabbed Mac's chair and headed up to the kitchen to cook. Of course carrying Mac up the stairs left me a little out of breath and I had to sit down and rest for about five minutes once I got to the kitchen, but it was an improvement. I checked around and decided that pasta was probably the safest option. I was pretty hungry. I put a stick of garlic bread in the oven, put a pot of water on the stove for the noodles and started to grab things from the refrigerator for a salad. All the while I talked to Mac, who was sitting in her chair on the opposite side of the kitchen, away from the stove.

It was a few minutes later, when the smell of the garlic bread started to come from the oven, that Ephram appeared in the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" He asked me in kind of an accusing voice.

"What does it look like? I'm cooking."

"You're supposed to be resting. Let me do it." He held out his hands to take the knife I was using to chop tomatoes for the salad. "You can go rest or something."

"Jesus, Ephram. I'm making a salad. It's not exactly difficult." I sat down in the chair next to me and carried on with what I was doing. "Look, I'm resting. Happy now?"

"No. I'll do it. Give me the knife."

"I don't think so. You're cooking skills are a step below your dad's." I was starting to get pissed at him now.

"You're comparing me to my dad? Nice." Damn. That hadn't been what I meant to do, but by this time it was a little late. "Way to twist the knife Madison, comparing me to the one person I really hate."

"You are such a drama queen! God, I'm just making dinner. Someone has to do it. It's not like I'm running a marathon!"

"You almost died. Twice. You have to take it easy." Ephram walked over to the stove and stood there with his back to me. "They told me you could die, Madison. They told me you might need a heart transplant. And you think I'm a drama queen because I want to make sure that doesn't happen."

"You think I don't know that? You think I don't have this little voice in the back of my head telling me that even the flu could put me in heart failure?" I was so mad at him for bringing all of this up. I was happy living in my little denial bubble. "I'm sitting chopping lettuce, tomatoes, maybe some bell peppers for a salad. It's not going to kill me. It's gotta be better for my heart than the pizzas or Chinese you usually order."

"Whatever. You know, do what you want. It's not like have a right to care anyway. I'll just take Mac and go do some homework." He started to walk over to our daughter.

I stopped him. "Leave her. She's fine."

"Ok, fine. Assert your independence as a single parent. It's not like I can help anyway. I mean I didn't do it all myself for two months."

"Jesus, Ephram, just shut up." This was turning into an argument on a level with some of Ephram and Dr Brown's that I had seen. "You don't get it, do you? You still insist on doing it all yourself. I mean I know I'm not the world's number one mother, but it's like I have to fight you to take care of my daughter."

"Your daughter. Fine. I guess that's what you wanted all along. I guess you should have remembered to take my number out of your wallet."

"You know that's not what I meant. Give it up Ephram. Stop acting like someone shot your puppy. You've been acting like an ass since you argued with your precious Amy, so stop taking it out on me."

"I didn't have an argument with Amy."

"Yeah. Which is why you've been pissed since she came over on Monday, and why I haven't had to watch you make out since." By this time I wasn't even thinking about what I was yelling. I was just going for volume and sending him my best death stare.

"If I didn't know better I'd think you were acting like a bitchy jealous ex-girlfriend."

"Like that would ever happen." I answered entirely too quickly.

Ephram's POV

"I mean, God, were you even there when we broke up?" She continued.

"You mean when you broke my heart into several pieces? I think I remember." I didn't mean to start with the sarcasm, but I could just feel my mouth running away from me.

"God, you just can't stop acting like a petulant child can you?"

"You know what. I think I'm just going to take my petulant self away. Have fun cooking. If Mac needs me I'll be in the den."

I stormed out of the kitchen. Even when I was so angry with Madison it hurt, I still told her exactly where I was going in case she needed me. It was like a damn reflex. Not that she would have had to look far for me.

I stormed into the den and slammed the door behind me. I looked towards the TV and Playstation, but decided on the piano. I started hammering out these minor chords. I didn't have a clue what I was playing, but it was cathartic. It took me a while to actually calm down enough to play an actual piece. I chose a Clementi Sonata for some reason. Probably because it was the first piece of music I pulled out. For love, heartbreak, passion, jazz was preferable, but for anger it had to be classical music.

I don't know how long I played for, but I just kept working on bits, and trying to put the piece together for what must have been hours. Eventually she door swung open, and in stormed Madison.

"Could you possibly shut up?" she half hissed at me. "I've been trying to get Mackenzie to sleep for an hour, but there is no way she's going down with you hammering away on that thing."

I glared at her, but I moved from the piano to the couch in front of the TV.

Madison left and I turned on the Playstation and resumed a shockingly graphic, but incredible satisfying game, where I proceeded to shoot people for a while. But eventually I got bored and realised I was hungry. I headed to the kitchen where I found a plate of food on the counter with a note next to it.

"Eat it, not, whatever."

If I hadn't still been in such a godawful mood, the note probably would have made me laugh.

I nuked the food, ate it and decided that I should probably try and get some sleep. But when I headed down to my room I could hear Mac crying softly in the nursery. I started to head towards her, but then remembered Madison yelling at me for not letting her do things.

"She wants to do it? Fine with me," I muttered to myself as I headed into my room.

It was maybe five minutes later when I came back out to go brush my teeth. Mac was still crying, but louder now. I couldn't just leave her there so I headed in to see what was wrong. Her diaper was wet so I changed it and calmed Mac down. She fell back asleep pretty quickly, so I decided to go yell at Madison for ignoring Mac.

The door to Madison's room was open slightly and the light was still on. But as I walked in I saw that Madison was fast asleep. She was laying in her side, naked on top of the covers. Her blonde hair falling over her face. It wasn't like I hadn't seen it all before, but still as a 17 year old boy, looking at a naked woman who was this beautiful should have made me feel something. All I felt was shock, because for the first time I saw the angry pink scar running down the centre on her chest. This was proof of how fragile she still was that I really didn't want to see.

I knew the argument we'd had was my fault for being so overprotective, and I knew it was stupid. I just couldn't help it. The thought of loosing her was still too painful to contemplate, and the fear was still too raw. She lay there looking so peaceful, but so vulnurable. I loved her even more.

I stood there for a few minutes just looking at her. I wanted her in such an elemental way, like she was a part of me that was missing. I thought about covering her up, but then she'd know I'd been there. Then she'd just yell at me again for being an immature pervert. So I just left and went to bed.

I dreamed about Madison that night, in the snatches of sleep I got between looking after Mac. I got up pretty late and just rushed to school, not even saying good morning to Mackenzie. It was only in my first class of the day when I saw her that I realised I hadn't even thought about Amy. Madison was always in the back of my mind, right there with Mac. Amy could be chased from my thoughts easily. I knew what I had to do. But as always, I'm just a fucking chicken.