Oh my goodness gracious! I want to hug all of you and send you cookies. But....um....that's not realistic, so let me just tell you that you rule. All of you! Here's the next chapter, please review and let me know and I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible. Thanks!

Disclaimer: Right, I don't own them. Got it.

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Tiredly, Sandy went back to the waiting room once he had gotten himself calmed down. Caleb had finished pacing and now was sitting in one of the hard plastic chairs talking very animatedly to Julie. Sandy wondered if the hospital made the chairs so uncomfortable on purpose. Just another way to make the whole experience that much more unpleasant.

"The girls and Seth are downstairs with Ryan," Sandy said sighing as he sat in the chair next to Julie and leaning his head back and closing his eyes.

"Girls?" Julie repeated. "What girls?"

"Marissa and Summer," Sandy replied without opening his eyes.

"She went to go see him? We told her that she couldn't!" Julie looked to Caleb hoping that he would reinforce her on this issue.

"Julie," Caleb said. "There are more important things right now rather than whether or not Marissa came to see her boyfriend or not." Julie immediately felt ashamed. Of course there were bigger things. Kirsten was in surgery. Sandy's wife, and Caleb's daughter, and they didn't want to have to worry about her own daughter who had just come down with her best friend to see her boyfriend. Julie forgot sometimes that the world didn't revolve around her and her daughters like she thought it should.

"Sorry," Julie said sitting back. "Can I get anyone anything? I'm going to go get a coffee."

"I'll take a coffee," Sandy said reopening his eyes.

"Cal?"

"I'm good thanks, Julie," Caleb said. Julie nodded and left the two men alone.

"She's going to be okay Cal," Sandy said finally. He didn't know who he was trying to convince, himself or Caleb.

"I know," Caleb said. "She's a Nichol. Of course she's going to be fine." Sandy let out a small laugh at this.

"She sure is stubborn," Sandy said.

"She gets that from her mother," Caleb replied. At this, Sandy let out a big laugh.

"She gets that from you," he told Caleb.

"Well, you didn't help. Turning her into a bleeding heart liberal. She's stubborn and always right. Now she's almost insufferable," Caleb complained. "Telling me that I need to think about other people more." Caleb let out an exasperated sigh. "I need to break her of that. We'll work on that when she gets out of here." When, Sandy thought, not if.

"And her cooking. We need to work on her cooking," Sandy said. "God, do you remember the time that she tried to bake Kate's favorite kind of cookies for her birthday that first year we moved back here?"

"She forgot the flour?" Caleb laughed. "And they just melted onto the pan?"

"She cried all night about that Cal," Sandy said remembering how he had run a hand over his wife's back convincing her that her mother had known that she had tried and that she had appreciated the effort, even if there was nothing to show for it.

"When she was little," Caleb said. "She would even burn those little cookies that came with the easy bake oven. I couldn't understand it. It's a lightbulb. How do you burn something when you're cooking it with a lightbulb?" Sandy was laughing so hard by this point that tears were streaming from his eyes.

"She caught our apartment building on fire trying to cook for me on our first anniversary," he shared with Caleb. "It was awful. Everyone had to evacuate and she kept apologizing to everyone who lived there, and to the firemen who came to put out the fire." Kirsten had offered to bake some cookies for the firemen, who had shared an amused look with Sandy and quickly told her that it was quite all right.

"Learn the art of ordering in," the one had told Sandy clapping him on the back as they left. Kirsten's bottom lip had quivered.

"I'm so sorry, Sandy," she said and Sandy had pulled her close to him and had assured her that he wasn't really hungry.

"She's just like her mother," Caleb said quietly. "Exactly like her. She has her temper."

"Oh don't I know it," Sandy told him. "I don't even want to count how many times she's locked our bedroom door with a pile of pillows and blankets sitting outside."

"Kate used to do that too," Caleb said. He closed his eyes. "I can't lose her Sandy." Sandy looked over at his father-in-law surprised. This couldn't be the same shrewd business man who would sabotage his own daughter's marriage for a deal. The old man was human after all, Sandy thought to himself.

Julie came in and Caleb started complaining loudly once again. Yelling that the hospital staff was incompetent, and demanding at the desk that someone come out and tell them something.

"And why haven't they found the bastard who did this?" Caleb asked coming back over to where Julie and Sandy were sipping their coffees.

Dave and Dawn. In all the commotion, Sandy had almost forgotten about them. Dave had to be in violation of his parole. Assault charges would be filed. Just as Caleb was about to go off on another tangent, the doctor came out and Sandy jumped to his feet.

"Mr. Cohen?"

"Yes?"

"Your wife's surgery went well," the doctor started. "We removed her spleen and managed to control the internal bleeding. All in all it was successful. She's being moved to ICU where you can go see her. She's not completely out of the woods yet, and there's still her head wound that's causing some concern, but she should be just fine." Sandy let out a sigh of relief and Caleb closed his eyes. "If you would like to come with me, I'll take you to her. I'm sorry, but right now, only one person at a time can go back to see her, and only family."

"You go first Sanford, I'll go tell the kids that's she's going to be okay," Caleb said and Sandy left the waiting room and followed the doctor.

Kirsten was okay. The surgery had gone well, and she was going to be okay. Sandy didn't know if he wanted to laugh or cry, but he knew that he wanted to see her. He wanted to touch her and make sure that she was real.

They arrived outside her door, and Sandy stepped inside the room. Her blonde hair was fanned out on her pillow and she looked so pale. He hated to see her like this. He hated that his strong, resilient wife looked so helpless and tiny on the bed.

"She's going to have to be careful of infections," the doctor told Sandy. "Any little thing that normally you wouldn't worry about, sore throats, sinus infections, you need to seek medical attention for her so that she can get some antibiotics."

"She's going to be okay though?"

"She should be just fine," the doctor's pager went off and he smiled at Sandy before excusing himself and leaving Sandy alone with Kirsten.

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Caleb and Julie went down to Ryan's room just as he was being released.

"Mom!" Marissa said when she spotted her mother. "I can explain."

"It's okay," Julie said surprising everyone, including herself. "There are more important things to deal with."

"Is Mom okay?" Seth said paling instantly.

"She's out of surgery, which the doctor said went well. They're still a little concerned about her concussion, but he said that she should be just fine," Caleb told his grandson.

"Oh thank God," Summer breathed.

"Can we see her?" Ryan asked.

"Not right now, one person at a time," Caleb said. "And Sandy's in there with her."

"Can we at least go up to the waiting room?" Seth asked.

"We can do that," Julie said. They gathered their things and the nurse came in with a wheel chair for Ryan.

"But I don't need one," he argued.

"Hospital policy," she said shrugging.

"But I'm not leaving. I'm just going upstairs."

"I don't know what to tell you," the nurse said. "Except get in the damn chair."

"Geez," Seth whispered to Summer. "See what I meant about the devil in white? She may seem like a kind and good nurturer, but she's really sadistic."

"Cohen?" Summer said as she walked out of the room following Marissa who was pushing Ryan's chair.

"Yes sweetums?"

"Shut up." But Summer was glad to see Seth back to his normal self. She didn't like worried Seth. Worried Seth was quite honestly a downer.

"Shutting up," Seth said. He noticed that Caleb was starting to walk the other way. "Grandpa? Where are you going?"

"I have to take care of something Seth, I'll be up there in a little while." That was cryptic and on any other day Seth would be demanding to know where he was going, and why that was more important than seeing his sick mother, but he was just so relieved that his mother was going to be okay, that he didn't even think to ask his grandfather more questions. Instead, he quickened his pace and caught up with the rest of the group as they made their way up to the ICU.

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Sandy knew that his wife wasn't always the most talkative person, but it was still disturbing to not have her respond at all. The nurse had said it was a good idea to talk to her, tell her good things, not things that would upset her. So he was trying his hardest.

"Ryan's okay," he told her. "He just has a broken wrist. No biggie. You took the brunt of it. You had to go be the hero, didn't you? He can come home with us. We're going to get a police escort to go get the rest of his things....this really isn't the best thing to be talking about. So okay....the weather's gorgeous. What am I talking about? The weather's always gorgeous....it's southern California....well, um....you know what? Seth's better at this rambling thing than I am. I know you claim that he gets it from me, and while you are probably right, I still don't think that I am nearly as bad as he is. You can argue all you want....well, I guess technically, you can't argue right now, huh? Not a great time for jokes, sorry....." He looked around her room and all the machines that were hooked up to her. God, if he got his hands on Dave Atwood. He could kill him. Sandy had never been a violent man, but for his wife, he would kill. And one look at her, the bruises on her arms and on her stomach, the bandage on her head, and he wanted to murder Dave in the most brutal way he could think of. He could enlist Seth, he figured that Seth could come up with some creative ways to dispose of Dave.

And Dawn. Who could stand by and just watch this and not do anything about it? She had held back Ryan, and he knew that this was for Ryan's safety, but she didn't do a damned thing to help Kirsten. He just couldn't understand who could do that. Who could not do anything to help a woman who had done so much for her?

"Well, gorgeous, since you aren't the most conversational person right now, I'm going to go get some coffee and check on Ryan and Seth. Maybe I'll let your dad come back and spend some time with you." Sandy knew that this was a lie. He was only leaving to check on the boys. He didn't want to leave her side, in case she woke up. There was no way that he was letting Caleb stay back here with her for an extended amount of time. A quick glimpse was all that Caleb got. And Sandy didn't care if that was unfair of him or not.

When he walked out into the waiting room, he saw everyone, minus Caleb, sitting in the chairs.

"Dad," Seth spotted him first. "How's she doing?"

"She's okay, would you like to go see her?"

"Can I? I mean, would you mind?" When had Seth gotten so old? So considerate?

"No, go ahead and see her."

"Thanks Dad," Seth grinned at his father.

"They said to talk to her, it helps," Sandy told his son. "It shouldn't be a problem for you."

"Yeah, yeah, make fun of the good conversationalist. My vocabulary is something to be envied, not mocked," Seth said as he walked away back towards his mother's room.

"She's really going to be okay?" Ryan asked when Sandy came down to sit next to him.

"Yeah, kid, she's really going to be okay." Ryan's body sagged in relief.

"I was so scared. When she stopped breathing...and all that blood from her head...and....."

"I know," Sandy said placing an arm around Ryan's shoulders. "She's okay now." They were silent for a minute.

"What about my parents?" Ryan asked quietly.

"Well, obviously you can't stay there," Sandy said.

"Obviously," Ryan chimed in.

"And your father is in violation of his parole, and your mother....I don't know about her, kiddo."

"So my dad...he's going back to jail?"

"I think so." Sandy studied Ryan's face. His head was hung and Sandy cursed his parents for what felt like the thousandth time that day for doing this to them. All of them. Kirsten and Ryan mostly, but to all of them.

"The way that he hurt her. The way that he didn't even blink when we were yelling at him to stop...." Ryan shook his head. "Who does that?" Sandy didn't have an answer for him so he didn't.

"Would you like to go see her?" Sandy asked.

"They said only family," Ryan said. Sandy smiled at him.

"Yeah, so I repeat, would you like to go see her?"

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That seems like a good place to leave off. I have to finish my paper for Western Civ...so I probably should go do that. But please review and let me know if you still like it. And where did Caleb go? And will Kirsten ever wake up?!? Review please and I'll let you know!