Ben stayed by Em's side for the next two days. Saturday and Sunday were spent in the hospital with her, though most of the time she was sedated. The nurses would bring him coffee and meals from the cafeteria and he'd work on homework.

When Monday came along Lisa had a hard time getting him out of bed. It was his first mnnight of real, straight through sleep and it was like his bed was telling him not to leave. And in first period he got pounced by Jeff and Rob, who were rambling on about how Jack told them that his dad said Em was in the hospital and that a certain Ben Braeden had saved his life.

"What the hell happened?" Rob asked first. "Is she okay?"

Ben gave a dismissive shrug and scribbled on his worksheet.

Jeff said nothing; His suspicions had been more than confirmed. That strained look on Ben's face, the exhaustion said he was worried, and there was that underlying guilt; Not to forget the anger. He'd been right.

"Ben, c'mon. Jack said she was really bad when you brought her in."

"Would you just shut the fuck up about it?" Ben finally snapped. "I don't want to talk about it. She almost died, okay? I'm done talking about it for now."

"I'll have Nonna make her something sweet," Jeff said idly.

"Can I visit her?" Rob asked. Ben glanced over at him, irritated.

"Her dad just beat the living shit out of her, Rob! Do you really think she wants visitors!"

Silence fell over the group and a few people stared.

"...Sorry," Ben muttered, thankful for the timely ringing of the class bell.

The whole day was a blur. A soundless blur that he would hardly remember the next day. Just before he left to walk over to the hospital Jack reeled him into a quick conversation. Ben was not pleased. He just wanted to get to the hospital already to see how Em was doing. They were doing the psych evaluation today and he knew it wasn't going to end well somehow.

"Dad told m-"

Ben cut him off. "Don't you breathe a word about this whole thing to anyone, you hear me? It's bad enough you told Jeff and Rob. I'm sorry, but if you tell anyone else I'm going to rip your balls off personally."

Jack just stared at him, before throwing his hands up in defeat. "Jeeze, okay, okay... Sorry. I didn't realize."

"Just don't, okay?" And with that he was walking off towards the hospital, a hand brushed angrily through his mussed curls. He just wanted Em to be better. That's all he wanted. Maybe then he could rest.

Upon arriving at the hospital one of the older nurses with greying brown hair smiled at him and handed him a coffee. "She's awake," she said to him. Ben nodded his thanks and walked towards Em's room. They'd replaced the full oxygen mask with the small tubes in her nose that connected to an oxygen tank. She could still breathe though, which was a plus. It just helped her get more oxygen in her system.

To his surprise she was propped up slightly, twisting away at a rubix cube furiously. Eventually she just got frustrated and tossed it aside, shrugging irritatedly. Ben could tell by the look on her face that the evaluation hadn't gone well.

"Hey, Em," he said softly, so as not to startle her. Ben pulled up a chair next to her bed and gave a faint smile. "How are you feeling?"

"I hate that therapist," Em spat, wrapping her arms around herself. "I hate him."

"Did you even say a word to him?"

"...No."

"So you just stared at him?"

"Basically."

They both sat in silence, Em staring intently at the wall and chewing on her bottom lip which was starting to get red and sore. "I don't want to talk about it," she said finally.

"That's fine."

Ben started to fish around in his backpack and pulled out a stack of books. "I brought you something to read." More like enough reading to last her a month. He piled the books at the foot of her bed and handed one to her. Curiously, Em started to flip through it, reading a few senteces experimentally.

The book fell from her hands with a thud and she'd started shaking.

The heart rate moniter started going off like crazy again and Ben grabbed the book from her, trying to figure out what could have set this off. There was so much beeping and God, he felt horrible about this.

...Of course.

He'd handed her his Religion and Philosiphy text book on accident.

Within minutes they had her sedated and Ben's hopes of having a slightly normal day with her, working through things, were dashed.