Part Three

Jeff Hardy sat in the cold, plastic chair staring intently at the floor in front of him. His hands rested on his cheeks, holding his
head up. It had been at least four hours since he had arrived at the hospital with Lita. Upon their arrival, they had whisked her into the emergency room, effectively shutting the swinging doors in his face. The administrative nurse at the information desk had directed Jeff to the waiting area, which is where he sat now, a cold cup of coffee his only companion.

Deep in thought, Jeff didn't hear the footsteps coming towards him. Lita's words rang in his ears, "Jeff, I can't feel my legs."

"Hey, man, how is she?"

Jeff snapped out of his haze then, raising his head to acknowledge the new presence in the waiting room. He looked directly into the concerned eyes of one very worried Chris Jericho.

"I don't know, Chris" they haven't come out to tell me anything yet. "She's real bad, though. I know that much."

"Maybe not, kiddo. Maybe she's just addled a little bit. She's a tough chick."

"I know she's tough. But, Chris, she…" Jeff turned his head away, not wanting his friend to see the tears that were on the brink of spilling over. "… she said she couldn't feel her legs."

"What?" Chris asked incredulously. Jeff had said that last part so softly, he couldn't have heard him right.

"I said she couldn't feel her legs," the younger Hardy said, getting a better hold on his emotions.

"No, no way, man. That can't be. That thug didn't even land on her legs. He dropped her on her back mostly. I saw it backstage on the monitor."

"I know. I know. I guess we have to wait for the doctors to come out and tell us what's going on. I just wish they'd hurry."

"Like I said," Chris said, putting his hand on Jeff's shoulder in a comforting gesture. "She's tough. She's going to be ok."

Just then, Jeff and Chris were both distracted by a loud commotion occurring over at the Information Desk. Two men rushed through the doors, both talking at the same time and looking quite disturbed. The poor nurse was trying to calm them down in order to see how she could help them.

Realization dawned on Jeff's face as he recognized who it was that was causing the ruckus. Standing at the front desk, looking distraught, was his brother Matt, along with Edge.

"Guys!" Jericho hollered over to them, getting Edge's attention. Matt was still talking to, or more or less at, the nurse oblivious to everything. Edge nodded at Chris, and grabbed Matt by the arm, pointing at the two wrestlers in the waiting area. They walked quickly over to Jeff and Chris, worry stretched across their features.

"How is she?" Matt asked, looking intently between his brother and the blonde Canadian.

"We don't know, Matt," Chris stated. "The doctors are still in looking at her."

"But it's been at least four hours since it happened," Edge stated matter of factly. "We drove like maniacs from Louisiana to get here. That car will never ride the same again."

"I know. We want to know something too. But I guess they're giving her a complete evaluation," Chris answered.

Jeff remained silent, not willing to look into his brother's eyes. He couldn't believe that after all that had happened again that he was standing here in front of them.

"Jeff," Matt said to his brother, "How are you doing? Are you ok?"

Jeff snapped his head sharply staring down the man that stood in front of him. "And just why would you care, Matt? You turned on usagain, you know. You didn't care about us then, so why do you care now?"

Matt dropped his head, not knowing what to say. The truth was that he had turned on his brother a few months back, taking him down in an IC title match. And then he jumped ship to Smackdown, without telling anyone of his plans. If only he could explain to his brother why he did what he did. He had talked with Edge about it in-depth over the last few weeks. Surprisingly, the tall Canadian had been a friendly ear, given that he had been treated much the same way by his own brother. Matt and Edge had traveled together ever since, becoming fairly good friends.

"Jeff, if you just let me explain," Matt began.

"Um, guys," Edge interrupted, sensing this conversation would not happen as smoothly as Matt would want it to, "why don't we just focus on Lita now. We can talk about this stuff later."

"Um, yeah, ok," Matt said. "But, Jeff, you need to know that I do care about you and Lita both very much. I have my reasons for why I behaved the way I did. I didn't mean to abandon you, and I never intended to hurt you."

"You have a funny way of showing it," Jeff replied tersely. "You know, this is sounding like a freakin' case of déjà vu. Let's just wait for the doctor." With that, Jeff walked back to the blue plastic chairs, leaving Matt standing with Jericho and Edge.

TBC