I'm baaaaaaack! Thank you to everyone who reviewed (cause I 3 reviews - they're what keep me writing) and to everyone for putting up with me during the long gaps in between chapters.

Here's the bad news - the remainder of the month is going to be really crazy with deadlines and final exams (ahhhhhhhh!)

But the good news - next month I will have 3 weeks off straight where I plan on doing a huge amount of writing for this (so keep those fingers crossed)

Special shoutout to Mistress Mina who won the last contest and got a sneak preview of this chapter. I'm so glad you enjoyed it.

Now, for everyone else, sit back, relax and enjoy.

Chapter 26:

The entire ride to the hospital Will sat in the backseat with me, maintaining pressure on my arm, which was still bleeding, while giving Julie directions to follow. Suddenly I shivered.

"How are you doing Liz?"

"I'm cold." I said, my teeth starting to chatter a bit.

"It's the loss of blood. Hold on."

With some deft maneuvering he managed to shrug out of his jacket and placed it over my shoulders.

"Any better."

"A bit."

"We'll be there soon. You're going to be ok."

I nodded in response. Julie then pulled up in front of Columbia-Presbyterian.

"Julie I'm going to take Liz inside, can you go park the car?"

"Yeah, I'll meet you inside."

Darcy then opened his door, stepped out, and gently guided me out of the car and into the hospital. We went into Triage where they asked me multiple questions about me, my medical history, whether I was pregnant (a resounding no) etc. They wrapped gauze around my arm to help with the bleeding.

"Ok that's it for right now. You can take a seat in the waiting room and wait for your name to be called Ms. Bennett."

"What do you mean, sit in the waiting room?! The woman has a giant gash in her arm that is gushing blood and you want her to wait?!?!" Darcy demanded.

"Sir" the nurse replied "we can only treat as many patients as there are beds in the emergency room. Further, we need to treat them in the order of their severity and then in the order of their arrival. I dare say that there are several patients with worse injuries than Ms. Bennett so she will need to take a seat. If the bleeding gets worse, let me know immediately."

"But –"

"Will." I interrupted. "I'm ok. Let's just go sit down." I said wearily. I stood up and walked out of Triage into the waiting room, leaving no choice but to follow me.

Julie joined us in the waiting room not too long after. We just sat there staring at the TV mounted in the corner. I was intently focusing on the reality show in hopes it would take my mind off the pain in both arms. It wasn't working.

"Do you want me to go check how much longer?" Darcy whispered in my ear after he saw me wincing about a half hour into the wait.

I shook my head no. A person in scrubs suddenly stopped in front of me.

"Hey, aren't you Jane Bennett's sister?"

I looked up at the person in front of me. 6'2", dark hair, blue eyes, really cute. He looked familiar but I couldn't place him.

"Yes."

"I knew it. Ummmmm, Liz, right?"

"Yeah. Do I know you?"

"Ryan Sullivan. Jane and I went to school together and work together here at the hospital. I guess now I should say worked."

Recognition dawned on me.

"Oh, I remember you. You came over to the apartment a couple of times to study with Jane. How are you?"

"I'm doing all right. Pulling an extra shift in the emergency room tonight. How are you doing?"

I held up my arms.

"Oh, ouch. Let's get you into the back and get you taken care of." I stood up and he placed an arm around my shoulder to guide me into the back. Julie and Darcy stood up to follow.

"Julie, I think you should stay out here." Darcy told her.

"But Will –"

"I think if there are too many of us then we'll just get in the way."

"Ok" she said, resigned and sat back down.

We went into the back and Ryan had me sit down on a bed in a small curtain area.

"Mr. . . . ?" Ryan asked.

"Darcy." Will provided

"Right. Would you go to Triage and ask the nurse to give you Liz's chart. Tell them Dr. Sullivan asked for it."

Darcy nodded once and headed off to Triage. Once he was gone, Ryan turned to me.

"Ok. Liz I have to ask you this and I need you to be honest with me. I know this is hard but please remember that I'm a friend of Jane's and I'm only looking out for you."

"Ryan, they asked me in Triage, I'm not pregnant. And that's not an awkward question, I know you need to ask in order to treat me."

Ryan laughed

"Oh no. Not that." His expression turned serious. "Liz, did your boyfriend do this to you?"

"My boyfriend?" I asked, puzzled. "Oh! You mean Darcy! No, no, no, no! He's not my boyfriend, he's just a friend and he didn't do this to me, I fell."

"Liz, you don't sustain injuries like this from just falling. Besides, the gash on your arm is on the wrong side if you just fell."

I sighed and looked around to make sure Darcy wasn't on his way back.

"Ok, I got into an argument with a woman at a cocktail party and she slapped me. I took a few steps back and knocked into a table holding a vase, which fell and shattered and then I fell. The vase is what cut me. Darcy had nothing to do with it"

He nodded and seemed to accept my response.

"So you and this guy aren't an item." He asked as he looked at my arms.

"Nope."

"So I guess it would be ok if I asked you for your number so I can ask you out?"

"Why don't we see how good of a doctor you are at treating my arms before we talk about asking me out?"

He chuckled.

"I'm going to change the gauze on your arm and then send you for an x-ray of the other arm. That way the x-rays can be developed while I stitch up the cut. Sound good?"

"Sounds painful but ok."

Darcy then arrived with my chart.

"Here you go."

"Thank you." Ryan rifled through my chart.

"How are you doing Lizzie?" Darcy asked.

"I'm ok."

"Ok Liz, I'm going to have someone wheel you to x-ray and I'll see you when you get back." Ryan said before leaving the area with my chart.

Before I knew it, I was back in the curtain area with Darcy and Ryan.

"Ok, let's get this arm stitched up. I'm going to apply a local anesthetic to numb the area and I'm going to give you a Vicodin for the pain and then I'm going to start stitching." Ryan said as he sat down on a rolling stool in front of me. He then looked up at my face. "Liz, are you ok? You're looking pale."

"I don't like needles." I whispered.

"Ok let's lay down." Ryan suggested.

I did as he asked and he sprayed the anesthetic on my arm. Darcy stood on the other side of the bed.

"Liz, look at me."

I still stared at my arm as Ryan was threading the needle.

"Liz. Look. At. Me." Darcy repeated, a bit more forcefully.

I turned my head toward him.

"I know I can't offer you a hand to squeeze, since you can't squeeze it right now, but just keep your eyes on me and we'll get through this together. Ok."

I nodded.

"Did I ever tell you about the time Julie went to work with my dad?"

I shook my head.

"Well Jules must have been about 4 or 5 at the time and was completely in love with pretzels. Don't ask me why. Anyway, she came to work with my dad for some reason and got bored in his office so while he was on the phone she snuck out and wandered around the office. Dad found her by following the trail of people who's cubicles and offices she stopped by to ask if they had pretzels. She ended up in an junior associate's office, sitting at his desk, munching on pretzels that the associate kept in a tin on his desk."

"Awwww that's so cute!"

"Well Julie doesn't think so. So if she ever finds out that you know the story, tell her that Josh was the one who told you."

I laughed at that.

"I'd tell you to hold still but I'm all done." Ryan said from the other side of me. I looked over to see my arm, with stitches in it, finally not bleeding. "Thanks for keeping her distracted."

"No problem."

"Now let's take a look at these x-rays." Ryan clipped the films onto the lighted board on the wall. "Yep, just as I figured. You fractured your wrist Liz and are going to need a cast."

"How long?"

"Approximately 6 weeks."

I groaned.

"So I'm going to put the cast on you now and I'm going to give you a script for Vicodin for you to take over the next couple of days cause you are going to be in pain for a little while. You can get the pills at the pharmacy downstairs."

"Why don't I run down and get the pills for you while you are getting the cast on so that you can get home faster and get some sleep."

"You don't mind?" I asked Darcy.

"Not at all. As long as you are ok by yourself."

I nodded.

"I'll be fine. Thanks."

Darcy headed off with the prescription Ryan had just written out and then Ryan made quick work of getting the cast on my arm and getting my arm into a sling. By the time he was done Darcy still hadn't come back.

"Now that the treatment portion of the program is completed, perhaps we could go back to the part where I ask you for your number so I can ask you out."

I laughed.

"Go ahead, pull it out of my chart."

Ryan gave a horrified look on his face.

"I would feel so unethical doing that. Don't know why though. So if you wouldn't mind . . ."

I laughed again and then gave him my number.

"Great! Now you need to keep the stitches dry for the next 4 days and then you need to have them taken out. Perhaps we could combine taking them out with going out?"

"Perhaps. Give me a call and we'll see what my schedule is like."

At that moment Darcy returned.

"Sorry it took so long, I stopped in the waiting room to ask Julie to bring the car around so you wouldn't have to wait." He handed me a bag. "Here are your pills."

"Great thanks."

"All right, someone just needs to sign the discharge papers and I can get you on your way home."

"Liz do you want me to sign them for you?" Will asked.

"No that's ok. I can do it myself."

"Won't that be hard to do with the cast on your hand?"

I smiled.

"Not really, considering that I'm left handed."

"Oh."

I signed the papers and then stood up off the bed to get into the wheelchair so they could wheel me out.

"Whoa!" I cried out while losing my balance. Darcy quickly snaked an arm around my waist to balance me.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Darcy asked, concerned.

"I'm very dizzy."

"That's the Vicodin taking effect." Ryan said.

"Oh crap." Darcy muttered.

"What?"

Darcy turned to me.

"I didn't think about it sooner. You had alcohol back at the party."

Realization dawned upon me.

"Uhoh."

"It's ok." Ryan inputted. "She's just going to get really drowsy soon and is probably going to fall asleep for a good long while. I'd suggest someone just keeps an eye on her."

Darcy nodded solemnly.

"Ready to go?"

I nodded. Darcy kept his arm around my waist to steer me towards the waiting wheelchair.

"Bye Liz. I'll speak to you soon."

"That sounds good. Bye Ryan, thanks again."

The arm around my waist tightened. I winced and the arm loosened. I looked up to see Darcy's face was a mask showing no emotion. He helped me into the wheelchair and wheeled me out of the emergency room to where Julie was waiting with the car. Julie went into the back so Darcy could drive and I could sit in the passenger seat.

On the way back I noticed that Darcy was gripping the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were turning white.

"Will is everything ok?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Are you sure? Cause it doesn't seem like everything's ok."

"I don't want to talk about it." He snapped out angrily. I shrunk in my seat a little at the response.

I then began to feel drowsy and let out a huge yawn. Darcy suddenly loosened up.

"Liz, don't fight the drowsiness, it's going to overcome you whether you like it or not. Close your eyes for a little while, if you fall asleep I'll wake you up when we get back."

Listening to his advice, I leaned back in my seat, closed my eyes and before I knew it, was drifting off to sleep.

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