Things had happened in such a whirlwind, Jen hardly knew which way was up. In the events since she the shooting, her memories were distorted and fragmented. She could feel more than she could actually recall. She knew she had been crying as her children were huddled beside her. She had begged Nick to wake up. But Bernice had told her he was alive and reminded her that Cody and Ella needed her. And her own tears had stopped then. She could be a panicked wife later, she needed to be a strong mother now.

The three of them were piled into another ambulance as the one with the gunshot victims had already sped away. Nick and Duncan were with the professionals keeping them alive and rushing them into emergency surgery. Jen and Cody and Ella were on their own. Ella sat in her mother's lap, shaking with adrenaline. Cody was with the emergency responder who was speaking to him gently and helping with his broken arm.

Upon arriving at the hospital, they were all taken to be examined. Ella was given a very mild sedative to help calm her down, but she was otherwise physically fine. Jen refused any medication but was given a similarly clean bill of health. Cody had to have his little arm set. He screamed in pain as the nurse cut the jacket and dress shirt off his arm. Jen held him on her lap and kissed his hair and whispered to him, promising it was going to be alright and the doctors would help him. A nurse came by to give him a shot of painkillers, which helped significantly.

Outside the exam room came a shrieking that Jen would recognize anywhere. "WHERE IS HE!? YOU TELL ME RIGHT BLOODY NOW!"

Without any other warning, the door to the room banged open. There stood Hope Buchanan. Her lovely face was red with emotion and her perfect white wedding gown was smeared with blood from when she had been holding Duncan's injured body to her. Upon seeing Jen and the children, she had relaxed infinitesimally. "Jen?"

"Duncan's in surgery, Hope," Jen told her, relaying what she had been told in the ambulance. "Him and Nick."

Hope's eyes went wide with terror. "Nick?"

Jen realized that the bride had been too preoccupied over her groom to notice that her own brother had been shot just a few feet away from her. Jen similarly hadn't noticed Duncan until Bernice had told her.

Eloise came by to try and collect her distraught daughter and saw Jen. "Oh thank goodness you're all okay!" She pushed past the protesting nurse to sit down beside her granddaughter. "Ella, sweetie, are you alright?"

Ella was very groggy, and she just nodded numbly.

Jen explained, "She's been sedated to help cope with the trauma. I've seen it in children before. And Cody here's broken his arm. But we'll get him patched up just fine, eh?"

Eloise scooped up Ella and kissed her long blonde hair. Hope, meanwhile, was still standing in the open doorway, ignoring everything else. She was staring right at Jennifer. "Jen? What's happened to Nick?" Hope asked. Her voice was shaking. The rage of a frightened animal lashing out was gone from her. Everything deflated and she had tears welling up in her eyes.

Obviously Jen wasn't going to explain anything in graphic terms in front of the children. She asked the doctor to hold on a moment and put Cody down. "Stay with Gram, alright? I'll be back soon."

Cody started to make protesting noises, but Jen and Eloise both were able to reassure him. Jen hurried out into the hallway with Hope, closing the door behind them.

"Nick was shot three times in the back. He dove in front of us and tackled Cody to the ground to keep him safe. That's why Cody's got a broken arm. Nick still had a pulse when the ambos took him away. He and Duncan both were rushed into surgery. A nurse told me when we got here."

Hope collapsed against Jen's shoulder, crying again. "How are you so calm?" she asked amidst her sobs.

Jen didn't have an answer to that. Jen wished she could say that they'd survived worse, but that wasn't exactly correct, was it? Nick had never been shot before. And even when Jen had been shot, it was just a graze to her arm, and she was fine again in a week. This was…this was very different.

But Jennifer Mapplethorpe had always been a woman to handle a crisis well. She had hunted down Dane Majors in the woods to save Nick's life, getting him talking enough to distract him and be able to shoot him dead. She was trained to run into buildings full of criminals in a raid. She could do the job that was required of her, no matter what. And right now, her job was to care for her children and reassure her distraught sister-in-law.

A minute later, Eloise came out holding both Cody and Ella's hands. Cody had his plastered arm in a sling and Ella's head was lolling to the side as though it was too heavy for her neck.

"Mummy, look at my cast!" Cody announced. Obviously the painkillers were working.

"It's green!" Jen replied, trying to force some enthusiasm for him. "How come you didn't get blue? I thought blue is your favorite color."

"It is, but Dad's favorite color is green, so I wanted to get something that he'll like for when he comes back."

Jennifer nearly vomited on the spot. Christ, what was she supposed to say to them? What sorts of painful questions would they ask that she could not answer? Ella was usually the much more intuitive and curious of the two of them, but she was so out of it for the moment. That was for the best on quite a few fronts. But Cody seemed to have the subtlety of a sledgehammer at times. Jen had often had the very dark feeling that he had inherited that from Jen's own mother. Luckily Cody had also inherited his father's kindness, or a little boy version of Susan Hayes would be a complete nightmare.

But then Danielle and Sam found the family and distracted from needing to tell Cody anything. Danielle and Eloise, as had been the case all during the wedding day, took care of Hope. Danielle extricated her little sister from her vice grip on Jen and led her away.

"Come on, Hope, let's go sit down. The doctors will give us an update. Do you want me to go home and get some clothes for you?" Danielle asked soothingly.

It was not until that moment that Jen realized that she too was still in her wedding clothes. She was wearing a bright fuchsia ruffled gown and Ella had hers on to match.

"No," Hope protested. "Duncan was supposed to take the dress off me."

Probably not the best thing to say in front of the children, but again, Jen was reminded of her own post-wedding plans. She had neon pink lingerie on under her dress that she was going to surprise Nick with when they got home tonight. Neither she nor Nick would be going home anytime soon.

But Hope still refused to change out of her blood-stained wedding dress. Like Jackie Kennedy on November 22, 1963, she would proudly bear the evidence of holding her dying love in her arms and not hide away from her loss. Only Duncan hadn't died. And Jen could not bring herself to add the obvious 'yet' to that sentiment.

Everyone took seats in the waiting area. Ella had fallen asleep in Jen's arms, and holding her daughter was the only thing that had kept Jen together up till now. Sam sat next to her, holding Cody, who had figured out the somber mood and kept himself quiet and pensive. Hope sat across from Jen. She had stopped crying and was resting her head on her mother's shoulder while holding her sister's hand beside her.

Eventually, Kim came to join them. She had changed out of her bridesmaid's dress and brought a change of clothes for Hope and Danielle. The sisters all made their way to the bathroom to change. Hope would need help getting out of her dress. Now that she had calmed down, she was like a docile ragdoll, going whatever way anyone led her. The panicked fight she'd had before had all been overtaken by the exhaustion of her emotions.

"Mummy, sing?" Cody murmured, breaking the quiet after Hope, Kim, and Danielle had left.

Normally Jennifer would not ever think of singing in a public place. It wasn't appropriate by any stretch. But for now, she could not care about the propriety of anything. Her son needed her. She'd do anything he asked in that moment.

Sam shifted where he sat to bring Cody closer to his mum. Jen rocked a sleeping Ella in her arms and began to softly sing one of the songs she would often use a bedtime when the twins were babies. A serene smile appeared on Cody's sweet face as he rested his head on Sam's chest and closed his eyes to listen.

Across from them Eloise began to cry, trying to muffle her own sobs in a handkerchief from her purse. Jen looked over to her to see if she was alright. She was as alright as she could be, with her son and near son-in-law hovering between life and death.

Jen just continued to sing softly.