Hello everyone.

Please, enjoy.

Emily woke up in a hospital, one of her least favorite places to be. The walls were too white, the machines she was hooked up to were too loud, and the smell was too off putting. The monitors and devices hooked up to her were bothering, and were itchy. Her hair was down and the bed covers were pulled all the way up. Emily could feel the tight bandages around her ribcage. The minor cuts and bruises she had were already healed. Her body felt light and Emily realized that she wasn't wearing her synthetics. They must have been too damaged to leave on, her synthetic arm clearly. She'd had to call someone to get replacements.

Then Emily realized someone was holding her hand. She looked down at her hand, and then followed the attached hand, arm and shoulder to its owner.

John was asleep on the chair next to Emily's bed, still holding on to Emily's hand. Emily smiled at his peacefulness. Emily lifted John's hand and kissed it.

John stirred and woke up.

"Good morning." Emily smiled.

John perked up. "Hey." He smiled, drawing himself closer to Emily. "How are you feeling?" He asked, tucking some of Emily's hair behind her ear.

Emily nodded. "Good."

"I was so worried." John added.

Emily smiled, laughing a little. "You pulled out all the stops to find me."

John laughed at that. "Well I had to. It's you of all people." He paused, smiling. "Besides, you did a lot of the rescuing yourself."

Emily nodded. "I suppose so." She sat up in her bed. "What happened to that man?" She asked, curious.

John looked down at their hands. "I got him." He answered quietly.

Emily kissed John's forehead. "Good."

"You can look at the case file later, if you want." John offered.

Emily nodded. "I think I will."

John look up at Emily. "I love you."

"I love you, too." Emily smiled and kissed John.

There was a knock at Emily's door. Someone slid back the door. "Hey, Em." It was Peyton. Nicholas was right behind her.

Emily smiled. "Hey."

Peyton and Nicholas walked up to Emily's bed.

"How are you feeling?" Peyton asked.

"Good." Emily answered.

"Can you promise me something?" Nicholas asked, a bit of a joking look on his face.

"Maybe?" Emily laughed.

"Can you stop running off into danger? You're gonna give me a heart attack at 30."

Emily laughed again. "Nope, no can do, sir."

Nicholas chuckled.

Emily straightened. "Where's Dorian?" She asked.

"Oh, he offered to grabbed coffee for all of us." Peyton answered, growing happy.

Emily nodded, smiling.

Then, Rudy entered, wheeling in a large case. He came right up to Emily and hugged her. "How are you? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Emily laughed. "What's that?" She asked.

Rudy smiled as he lifted the case onto a nearby table. He opened it. "I heard your synthetics were ruined, so I put a rush job on new ones." Rudy pulled out a new synthetic arm. "They're all made from lighter, more durable carbon fiber and their processors are faster and more efficient."

"Thank you, Rudy." Emily smiled softly. Rudy attached her new arm and Emily flexed and moved it about. "I like it." She smiled again. She gave Rudy a long, loving hug.

Dorian came in, his hands full of coffees.

"Just in time!" Nick eagerly took a coffee from Dorian. "I was about to run out of energy."

Dorian laughed a little as he gave a coffee to John and one to Emily. He handed over one to Rudy and gave the last one to Peyton.

"Thanks." Peyton brushed back some of her hair as she took the cup from Dorian. She blew on it to cool it down. Dorian stood near her.

A doctor came in next. "Miss Clark?" He looked up from a medical file. "Oh, wow, lots of visitors." He paused. "I need just one more test from you and then we can discharge you tomorrow."

"Sure." Emily answered.

"If you could all leave the room?" The doctor politely asked everyone.

John looked at Emily.

"It's fine." Emily nodded.

With that, everyone exited the room, leaving Emily alone with the doctor. He pushed a button on a control panel on the wall, making the privacy curtains descend, and then went to a cabinet in the corner of the room to retrieve some supplies.

"I'm sorry, but what did you say your name was?" Emily asked, a bit concerned.

"Gunther Fuchs." He answered, moving closer to Emily, but keeping what he was holding a secret. Emily faltered. His name sounded too familiar.

"What are you doing?" Emily grew anxious as she saw the flash of a needle.

The doctor brought the needle close to Emily. "Long live the reign of Schlechtes Leben!" He exclaimed in German. He moved to jab the needle of poison into Emily's neck.

Emily jerked forward and he missed. Emily shot out her arm and pushed his far shoulder. He rolled, his feet catching on each other, and he nearly landed on Emily. Emily quickly wrapped her right arm around his neck, trying to squeeze the life out of him. He still tried to complete his mission and reached backwards with the needle he still clutched tightly. Emily grabbed his wrist with her left hand, the tip of the needle just inches from her neck. He sputtered out labored breaths.

"John!" Emily eventually cried out. Her muscles burned. She put in all the effort she had. She squeezed her arm tighter around his neck and pushed out with her other arm far enough so she could lock her elbow.

John burst into Emily's room just as the fake doctor slipped to the floor, dead. Emily was in her bed, breathing heavily, staring at the dead body to her right.

"Emily!" John called out.

Emily's head whipped up, a scared and determined look in her eye.

"What happened?" John asked, rushing up to Emily.

"He was a member of Schlechtes Leben. He tried to kill me." Emily answered as John hugged her.

The rest of Emily's entourage burst through the open door.

"What's going on?" Peyton asked.

"Are you alright?" Rudy asked.

"Are you hurt?" Dorian asked.

"Is everything- Oh my God! Dead guy. There's a dead guy in here. A. Dead. Guy!" Nicholas freaked.

"Nick, calm down." Emily instructed. She took a deep breath. "I'm fine."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Dorian, could you call Maldonado? Rudy, can you get hospital security? And Peyton, take Nick to the bathroom before he throws up on the floor." Emily asked.

Dorian and Rudy nodded while Peyton looked over at Nicholas. Nicholas was hunched over, fanning himself to calm down.

Dorian and Rudy split, leaving Peyton to help Nicholas out of the room.

"Don't throw up on me." Peyton warned, her arms around Nicholas's shoulders. "Make it to the bathroom. I'll hold your hair while you're over the toilet." She joked.

John and Emily were alone. "Are you sure you're okay?" John asked.

"Yeah." Emily answered.

Eventually, security came, as well as a unit from the precinct. The body was carted away and Emily gave a statement. The situation died down and Emily and John were again left alone in Emily's hospital room.

John pushed some of Emily's bangs behind her ear while he looked at her. "Are you ready to go home?"

"Oh, yes. Definitely." Emily agreed, laughing. "After that ordeal, I need some peace and quiet."

John smiled as he pulled out Emily's new legs, handing them over to her. Emily snapped them on. Emily nodded in approval.

"Do I have clothes anywhere?" Emily asked.

John stopped what he was doing. "I don't think so. We had to take yours for evidence."

Emily let out an exasperated sigh.

"There are some hopital sweatpants and sweatshirts in here." John rifled through a storage cabinet along the wall opposite of Emily bed.

Emily rolled her eyes. "That's fine."

John smiled as he handed over the clothes. Emily used one arm to gingerly take off her hospital gown. She looked down at her injuries. There was a heavy wrapping of gauze around her ribcage. "That's gonna leave one heck of a scar." Emily commented, smiling. She pulled the oversized sweatshirt on.

John put a hand in his pocket, remembering something important. Emily had pulled on the sweatpants and stepped into the plain canvas sneakers John had also found. John walked over to Emily's bed and sat down next to her.

"I forgot to give you something." John said, smiling.

"What?" Emily turned to John, smiling.

John pulled a small box out of his pocket.

Emily sat up straighter. "What's this?" She asked.

John smiled, waving the box. Something rattled around inside. "It was a lead ball they found while you were in surgery."

Emily laughed. "So that's what was bothering me." She took the little clear box from John and stared at the tiny lead ball.

John eased Emily closer and kissed her. "Let's go home." They stood and walked out of the hospital room, hand in hand.

"I wanna eat, too." Emily added. "I'm starving."

John smiled. "Of course you are."

Emily whipped her head up to look at John, feeling accused. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

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