He was crumpled inward. Shirt dirtied so the once neat pinstripe was buried beneath a layer of dirt. It was impossible to even distinguish what color it had been. The sleeve was rolled up entirely on his left side, revealing the dried swatch of iodine on his elbow. She wouldn't have recognized him. Bette started to step across his shoes as she searched the clinic for Gregory and Olivia.

It was the shoes that stopped her. She knew them. They were in the closet, on the bottom row, beneath the rows and rows he left open for her. The same racks that used to hold Olivia's shoes. The expensive brown leather was scuffed, ruining the satin finish he was so proud of but she knew them. She remembered watching him pull on the neat black socks before leaving the bedroom and going to work.

Bette didn't have anything to say. She let herself sink down the wall next to him. Was it Trey? Had something gone wrong? Gregory didn't sit like that. He didn't hold his head in his hands.

He did once.

"Oh god." Her involuntary whisper drew his head up. "What happened to Livie?"

He didn't speak and her arm went around his shoulders. She hadn't held him before but he didn't pull away. He just sat there.

There were still streaks on his face. Pale lines that betrayed everything he'd gone through. Bette was soft against him. There was warmth in her hands. Warmth he needed. He let her pull him into her chest.

"The aftershock stopped the car. Something fell on the hood. Part of a building." Gregory leaned back against the wall and took advantage of the way she blocked half the triage center from seeing his face.

Bette wiped the fresh tear away for him. "You really didn't waste any time getting all dirty did you? I'm not going to be able to take you anywhere."

Laughter was lifetimes away, but he did manage to smile for a second before his face collapsed in on itself. "They said she has internal injuries. Bette-" He looked past her into the faceless crowd. The world was continuing all around him and he was no part of it. "I haven't seen her like that. So pale I could see through her skin. She has these little tiny veins in her cheeks that I've never seen before. Little blue ones."

Gregory looked up at the canvas tent over them and then down at the cement beneath his feet. "She said she loved me."

Bette cupped his cheek, feeling the dried sweat in his hair as she checked him for signs of the accident. "Of course she did. Poor thing probably thinks she's dying. Women like to confess their deepest, darkest secrets." She settled against the wall and wrapped her fingers around his wrist. As she moved her fingers up towards his elbow she stopped and examined the bandage there.

"You didn't get hurt too did you?"

Shaken his head weakly, Gregory lifted his arm a little. "Olivia needed blood."

"Matching blood types." Bette winked at him, attempting to be cheerful. "How cute."

He let her take his hand. "If it keeps her stable long enough to get her to South Bay, I'd give it all."

She shuddered at the thought of the shining steel needle. "I'm glad you could help her. I don't mind the donating part. If they could get the blood out with some kind of magic device- great! I'd be fine." Shaking her head as she covered the bandage with her hand. Bette put on her best smile. "She's going to be okay."

"I keep telling myself that." Gregory ran his right hand up his leg and balanced it on his knee. "Over and over. As if I can make it happen if I say it enough."

Bette watched as AJ found them and started to work his way through the crowd. "Maybe you can. Positive thinking and all of that new age nonsense." She stood up to meet AJ and gave her hand to Gregory to help him to his feet.

He was slower to get up than she was used to. As AJ reached them Gregory's arm slipped around her shoulders. Bette didn't mind the familiar act, but it wasn't caring on his part. He stumbled slightly and Bette had to steady them both.

"How much blood did you give?" Bette hovered between amusement and concern. "Or did you go out to celebrate afterwards?"

Gregory found his balance and let her retrieve his water bottle from the ground at his feet. "I'm fine."

"Dr. Robinson said Trey's safe at South Bay." AJ's relief brought a glow to his face. "Bette's car is still working and the roads aren't too bad. Are you ready to head over?" AJ paused searching for Olivia. "Where's Olivia? Why isn't she with you? Is she with Trey already?"

Bette gave Gregory a moment, but he didn't volunteer any explanation. "Olivia was hurt when your car had a bad turn with part of a building. She's having some tests-"

She waited for Gregory's nod before she finished. "Ultrasound. Then they're flying her to South Bay."

"Oh my god." AJ deflated as if he'd been hit with that chunk of concrete instead of the car. "Oh my god. What's her prognosis?"

Gregory fielded that question. Bette couldn't help wondering what was fueling him now. His hatred of AJ or his love for his ex-wife. She supposed it didn't matter. Olivia needed his strength, that crazy manic strength that always kept him going. "She was barely conscious when I got here her. I don't know if she even knows where she is now."

"Where's the car?" AJ asked softly, trying to put it all together in his head. "If she had internal injuries you shouldn't have moved her." His fear lit a fuse he couldn't control. Even though Gregory had saved his life a few hours ago, the hatred between them was too stubborn to die.

"You could have killed her just by moving her. How dare you-" He grabbed Gregory's sweat-soaked collar. "How dare you play with her life."

Gregory just stood there. Watching AJ as if he were miles away. "The car exploded. We both would have died if I didn't move her."

Bette took AJ's hands off of Gregory. She wasn't going to make him explain why he would have died too. "Olivia's in the hospital now. They're taking her to a bigger one. She's going to be okay."

Tyus interrupted them. "Mr. Richards-"

Bette and AJ whirled around, all of them focused on what the young doctor had to say. It was Gregory who got Tyus' report.

"When we drew fluid from Olivia's abdomen we found a lot of blood. Her internal injuries are rather serious. We started to do an ultrasound, but her blood pressure's still dropping." Tyus looked over Bette and AJ. "Do either of you have type O blood?"

Bette shrugged apologetically. "A plus, sorry."

AJ fidgeted with his watch. "AB. All the Deschanels are."

Tyus' expression changed briefly. As if something was tickling at his mind. "I had to ask. Our supplies are stretched to the limits by this quake." He turned to Gregory. "Olivia's stable for now. She's being prepped in the parking lot for the helicopter."

Gregory pushed past Bette and started to make his way to the parking lot. "I'm going with her."

"As her husband-" Tyus paused when AJ made a choked noise. Bette stopped him with an elbow to the gut. Gregory looked at her with quiet desperation. Though the good doctor seemed confused, he continued, "You can fly with her."

"Take me to her." Gregory begged as if AJ and Bette weren't even there.

Bette only nodded. "AJ and I have to talk. We'll meet you there."

AJ started to protest but she pulled him away. "Let them go." Bette hissed with all the power she could muster. "Just let him go."

"He's not her husband." AJ yanked his arm out of her grasp. "He's your husband not hers. He has no right to make her decisions for her."

"Oh honey-" She dragged him further from the exit into the parking lot. Bette pushed him into a chair. "Just shut up for a moment. Stop trying to be Olivia's knight in shining armor and just listen to me. I'm wiser than I look. Okay?"

AJ folded his arms across his chest, but waited without protest.

"When Gregory and Olivia divorced-"

AJ rolled his eyes and started to speak but Bette covered his mouth.

"Just listen to me. Livie was worried about what would happen to her. She didn't want Caitlin and Sean to have to make the hard decisions." Bette rested her hand on his shoulder and buried her worries. "Gregory has power of attorney for her. If anything happens to her, he makes all the choices for her."

AJ forced his way out of the chair. "She let him put that in the divorce?"

"No no no." Bette grabbed his chin and stared directly into his eyes. "You really aren't as smart as you are suave are you?"

Her fingers stung his chin. AJ hadn't realized how much she cared for her friend. How much emotion was hidden behind those laughing blue eyes.

"Livie asked him for it. She told me that she knew he'd make the right choices for her." She released him and kissed the place on his chin she had grabbed. "It was what she wanted. And I support that. You should support that."

AJ felt her arms wrap around his shoulders and he let himself fall into her embrace. "All right."

Bette sighed in relief as she rested her head on his shoulder. "That's a good boy." She took a deep breath before she pulled away. "Come on, let's go. If we start now we can check on the little guy. Mini-dimples."

AJ checked his pocket for her car keys and nodded quickly. "Let's go. Before they start closing down roads."

Tyus signed off on the bottom of Olivia's chart as he tucked it into her stretcher with her. Gregory stood on her right, fingers wrapped around her cold wrist. The helicopter's approach thumped through the air like the heartbeat of a huge creature.

The air rushed around them, and the landing lights were brilliant against the darkness of the stricken little town. Tyus let the paramedics load Olivia into the helicopter. He caught the captain's arm. "Send her directly to surgery when you land. As close to the top of the list as you can get her, all right?"

The captain nodded and climbed back up into his seat. "You got it. Anything else?"

Tyus knew no one could hear him over the noise of the helicopter blades but he still looked around clandestinely. "Bring me back a copy of Trey Deschanel's chart. Something doesn't add up."

"No problem. See you in an hour for my next pick-up."

Tyus ran back as the helicopter whirred into high speed. All Deschanels were type AB according to AJ. Why did he remember Trey's blood type as being different? Why did it bother him as much as it did?