I do not own the main characters (Lu, Marc, Lana, Peter, Andy, Nick and Robert) in this story, they belong to Lifetime. I also sometimes mix the original storyline with my own.

Chapter 2: Attached

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Almost a week later, the weather forecast went from grey to less cold and sunny, which gave everyone in the RWHC some extra positive energy. Lu came out of her office. "Hey Lana, who's next?"

"10.30, Stanford," Lana replied after checking Lu's busy schedule.

"Okay.." Lu searched for a familiar face in the waiting room, but there was no sign of Vanessa yet. No wonder, she thought. It ain't 10.30 yet, either.

"Hi mom, Lana," Marc said, entering the clinic. After a few days on South Beach he definately got a tan. Combined with the summer blouse and his fancy sunglasses, he looked as though he had just been picked of a Hawaii holiday commercial.

"Looks like someone here enjoyed the beach, kid!" Lana said delightfully.

"Looks more like he thinks he's still there if ya ask me," Lu joked, but the smile upon her face quickly disappeared. "Marc, what's that on your arm?" Upon closer look, she discovered it was a pretty bad bruise on Marc's upper arm.

"Oh, it's nothing mom, some guy and his surfboard kinda ran into me." Marc said quickly.

"So you really enjoyed the beach, huh" Lana said, trying to keep the positive spirit up.

"Yeah, it was great, lots of sunshine and all." Marc smiled sheepishly.

"Sunshine? That's all?" Lu teased. She knew for sure it wasn't, she was just trying to find out why he had that funny grin on his face.

"Oh man, I guess I'll have to tell you guys eventually." Marc hesitated though. A slight blush appeared on his face. "I met a girl, Natalie." Lu and Lana both smiled at Marc. They were surprisingly silent, but then again, of course they wanted to hear all about it. Marc could easily tell by the looks on their faces. "Okay, remember Erin?"

"The neat blonde girl?" Lana asked.

"Yup, that's her.." Lu said as she felt the same sense of reluctance returning, even though things with Erin worked okay at the end. "Is she like her?"

Marc grinned, because he knew Lu didn't really like Erin. "Actually she's almost the opposite. Even just by looks. You know how Erin always looked perfect, always neat and shiny. Natalie looks kinda alternative. She wears what she likes, not what the trend is. And she's really funny. And.." Marc turned to Lu, ".. she's not rich."

Lu opened up her mouth to comment on that, but at that moment she saw Vanessa walking in. "Lucky you, saved by the bell.. or at least, my next patient. Gotta get back to work now." Lu stood up from her seat, leaving Marc and Lana chatting and joking on.

"Vanessa? You can come with me." She took her into exam 1. "Hop up! How are you doing?" Lu asked. She noticed that Vanessa avoided making eye contact, she was continuously staring at the ground.

"Better. The headaches aren't as bad as they were after you discharged me."

"That's good. And your shoulder?" Lu asked while preparing the suture removal kit.

"It hurts when I lift my arm. The sling was a good idea, I use it a lot."

"Good."

After a short silence, Vanessa decided to tell Lu what was bothering her. She looked up. "Lu?"

"Yeah?"

Vanessa waited until she had Lu's attention. "I'm almost 3 weeks late," she said quietly, as if she didn't want to hear the words.

"So.. you want me to do a pregnancy test on you?"

"Yeah." Vanessa felt relieved, yet scared. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to know the outcome.

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Later that week, Lu was just finished with her patients for the day when suddenly Marc came into the clinic, supporting a girl that apparently had trouble to walk.

"Mom, Natalie ell at dance rehearsal and she can't stand on her right foot." Marc explained. Lu reacted immediately and helped Natalie into the exam room.

"I'm fine Miss Delgado, it's nothing.." Natalie started.

"I think it is. And I also think you can call me Lu. Look, it's all swollen and turning blue. Looks like you seriously sprained your ankle." Lu grabbed a bag of ice out of a cooling box. "Here, put this on it."

"Thanks." Natalie carefully held the cold bag to her ankle.

"Can you explain what happened?" Lu asked.

"Well, I was dancing, and at one point we had to turn and slide. But it went really crazy and I ended up sliding to the floor before I even finished my turn."

"Was there any sudden pressure on your ankle during that move, like landing from a jump?"

"Not really. I was lucky Marc was there and the teacher offered me a ride, otherwise I wouldn't be here. I told her to go back though, because I wouldn't wanna be the reason for the other girls to miss the second hour," Natalie said, still holding the ice bag.

"Okay," Lu said, "from what I just heard I assume you didn't break anything, but I wanna take you up to x-ray to make sure, alright?"

"That's fine," Natalie replied. Lu could easily see that Natalie didn't mean to cause any trouble.

"How long until I can dance again?" Natalie asked. She didn't wanna know, but she had to.

"4 weeks, if it's broken it would be 6 with a little practice," Lu answered with an obvious tone of sympathy in her voice. She knew how hard it was if you have to give up one of your hobbies for a while because of something like this.

"Don't worry, you'll be back at the top in no time." Marc added, trying to comfort her. Natalie wiped the hair out of her face and sighed at the thought of not being able to dance all that time.

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