I HOPE YOU ARE ALL DOING WELL - AND THAT YOU LIKE THIS CHAPTER. IT'S A BIT SHORTER. AND THERE IS MORE TO COME. BUT I JUST WANTED YOU TO GET A SENSE OF RESOLUTION. ENJOY - LET ME KNOW WHAT OYU THINK!


Elizabeth hadn't stopped holding Emma's hand. They'd been flown to Walter Reed AMC, and the personnel in the chopper had been as frightened as Elizabeth had when they saw the amount of blood everywhere. But they'd assessed that she was stable, and that, as Emma had said, most of the blood was not her own. As the chopper doors opened, and they'd wheeled Emma off the plane, she saw Will standing there, waiting.

A quick jump to the ground, and Elizabeth was walking right alongside the stretcher with Emma. As they entered the hospital, she reached out and grasped her brother's hand.

"Henry called." Will said, squeezing her hand before taking the chart from the helicopter medics. Then, all shop talk, he asked, "Heartrate? BP?"

"Heartrate of 120, BP of 138/94."

"Hi, Uncle Will." Emma said from the stretcher.

Will shook his head, "Hey, kiddo." Then looking at her, he said, "What did you get yourself into?"

Emma looked down at herself, then looked up with a smile and said, "A bathtub of blood, it looks like."

Will's eyes met Elizabeth's, then he turned to Emma, "Ok, so I want to first make sure that none of this is yours."

"I think it's just my face." She said, pointing at the dried and leaking blood from her nose and lip. "And my shoulder really hurts."

Elizabeth chimed in. "Don't forget about your ribs."

Will perked up at this, "Here's what I want to do." To Emma, he said, "I know you think it might just be your face, but shock can keep you from feeling other things. So how about if we have your mom help you get into a hospital gown?" Then to Elizabeth, he said, "Then I want to do a CT scan, just to check her ribs and make sure we don't have any internal bleeding, especially because of the extensive surgery just a few months back."

Elizabeth nodded, and she said, "I'm so glad you're here."

Will looked accusingly at Emma, "Looks like you gave your mom quite a scare." He then continued his medical speak, "If the CT looks normal, we'll go ahead and get some stitches in that lip, reset your nose if it's broken, and then check out that shoulder. That sound good?"

Emma shrugged, then winced. "Doesn't pay to be salty, does it?" She tried to joke.

To the nurses in the room, he said, "I want to do the sedated CT scan. Put a line in, and let's, just for good measure, get some fluids going and call in the anesthesiologist."

Elizabeth caught what he tried to hide, "The sedated CT?"

Will looked at Emma, and asked her, "You want to tell her why or?"

Emma quietly said, "I made Uncle Will promise that if I ever had to have any weird experiments done on me, that he would make sure I could sleep, cause it freaks me out."

Will nodded, then said, "And, come on, why not get some fun drugs to use and make your parents pay for it?"

"Will." Elizabeth scolded, but then said, "I think that's a good idea." No more trauma right now.

"I'm going to go put in the paperwork for the scan, and you get to change into the best gown we have at the hospital." And he held up a standard, blue, button in the back, hospital gown.

Once the door closed, Elizabeth helped Emma to the edge of the stretcher. Emma tenderly held her right side, squinting her eyes through the worst part of the pain. Elizabeth helped Emma pull her shirt up over her head, reminding herself to keep a straight face no matter what. Emma's stomach was coated with a brown-red dried blood that had soaked through the shirt, and her bra was soaked through as well. Where Emma had held her side was black and blue – and Elizabeth knew if they were broken ribs, it would only grow more discolored as time went on. Scratches and scrapes were all along Emma's arms and back. Elizabeth helped Emma slide her arms through the small sleeves of the gown, and then walked behind the stretcher to button it.

"Can I ask a question?" Elizabeth asked.

"You wanna talk about him?" Emma asked, and Elizabeth could hear the slight fear in her voice.

Elizabeth shook her head, "No, not yet." Then she buttoned the second button and walked back to the side of the bed. "I just wondered… why you are ok with me helping you with this?"

She then helped lift Emma to her feet, making sure Emma was holding onto Elizabeth's arm to steady herself.

Emma unbuttoned her jeans with her free hand. "I think just cause… maybe the adrenaline is still going, but … I just want you to be here with me."

Elizabeth remembered Henry's words, Be cool so as she helped inch Emma's jeans down her legs, she said, "I'm glad I get to help." The jeans had dried blood onto Emma's skin, and it took a bit for them to work their way down. But once they got them off, Elizabeth stood up and carefully helped Emma back into the bed beside them and out of the stretcher.

Once she got Emma reclining in as comfortable as a position as she could, she pulled the chair next to the bed. And she sat there, running her fingers through Emma's hair.

"I think I've got half of the hill in there." Emma joked.

Elizabeth pulled out a twig from the curls and set it on Emma's chest. Emma started to laugh, and then shook her head, "It hurts to laugh."

"Why don't you just close your eyes and rest while we wait for them to come get you for the CT scan?"

Emma nodded, shifted so she could lay her head on Elizabeth's hand and she whispered, "I love you, mom."

"I love you too, babe."

Emma didn't sleep. Elizabeth could tell that she was in pain, and after five minutes, Emma whispered, "Are they coming?"

"I'll check." Elizabeth said, getting up and stepping out of the door. To a nurse walking by, she said, "Excuse me, but my daughter is…"

The nurse, eyes wide, nodded and said, "I'll get Dr. Adams."

Then, before Elizabeth could walk into the room and sit down again, three nurses and Will were in the room. Sometimes it paid to be the President.

"She's in quite a bit of pain." Elizabeth explained, reaching for Emma's outstretched hand. "Can you give her something for that?"

Will nodded. "We're going to put an IV line in. Then we'll give you some stuff just to calm your nerves before we actually put you under, ok Em?"

Emma nodded. And she looked at Elizabeth as the nurses prepped and put the IV in, squeezing Elizabeth's hand for a second while the needle went in.

"And…" Will led, "You're going to start to feel just settled and relaxed here in about…"

And Elizabeth felt Emma's hand slowly relax, and her eyes drooped down about a minute later.

"She's not asleep. It's just to help."

"With the scan?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yes, and…" He said, gesturing to the nurses to wheel the bed out, "She didn't do so well the last time when they had to separate the two of you at the airstrip, from what I've heard."

Elizabeth agreed, "So you proactively made sure she wouldn't get anxious?" When he shrugged his shoulders, she said, "Look at you, a softie."

"Don't tell anyone." He said with a smile, then, as the nurses wheeled the almost asleep Emma out of the room, he told Elizabeth, "It'll just be about forty-five minutes. But I think Henry is here…"

Elizabeth waited a few minutes after Will left the room. She knew the detail wouldn't just let her wander the hospital, and she'd end up walking in circles waiting for Henry. So she stayed in place while she waited.

"Elizabeth!" Henry called from down the hallway.

Elizabeth had barely gotten to her feet before Henry ran into the room. And he stopped dead in his tracks and fell immediately pale. His eyes fell down her jacket and back up to her eyes. "Babe…" Then his eyes flew to the empty stretcher filled with dried blood and Emma's bloody clothes lying on the edge of the stretcher.

"It's not hers." She answered, trying to calm him down.

But he still hadn't moved. "It's…" He couldn't speak. And his lips were trembling.

Elizabeth shook her head and reached her hands up to his face. Forcing him to look her in the eye, "Henry… Henry, just listen to me…" His eyes flew back and forth between both of hers, and she could feel his chest rapidly rising and falling. "Henry, she's safe."

He nodded, trying to understand, then his eyes closed tightly as tears began to flood his cheeks, "You're sure…." And he buried his head in her shoulder.

"She's just getting a CT scan." Elizabeth whispered, running her fingers through his hair as he began to sob. His entire body shaking in relief. She said, "She's safe, babe."

"I thought we'd lost her." He said, "She looked…"

Elizabeth whispered, "Shhhh… Henry she's safe."

He lifted his head, and set his forehead on hers. And his breathing slowed. And the terror she'd felt, the utter and deep fear she'd felt there, all alone, waiting for horrible news about their daughter – she felt the kindred spirit and the feelings he'd felt – the same ones – she felt them and she then felt them dissolve with his touch. And as his head tilted to the side, she instinctively turned her head and their lips met. And she suddenly felt like she could breathe again.