"Okay, you're doing good Todd, just keep hold his head over the bucket."

"Mr. Edgar, there's something I need to tell you!"

"It'll be fine Todd, really, we'll get him to the hospital and everything will be fine."

"But…"

"Put your seatbelt on!"

"Okay…"

It had taken Edgar quite a while to wake up from the trance he'd fallen into. Staring mindlessly at Nny who was bleeding all over, unconscious on the floor of his apartment he'd been asleep. But then the horror of what he'd done had started to seep in. Then came the overwhelming need to make sure Nny would be okay, to get him to some place where they could find out how to help him. Edgar had slowly dragged the mad man and a bucket down the stairs to the car. Todd saw him coming, and he saw Nny, if Edgar had thought he'd seen the widest those terrified eyes could go, he had just been proven wrong. He loaded Nny into the car with Todd, who had the bucket on the floor of the backseat in between his short little legs. Together they'd strapped Nny to the seat with two of the three seatbelts and Todd was doing his best to hold Nny's head over the bucket so the blood pouring out of his mouth didn't get on the new car's upholstery.

"God damnit, god damnit, where the fuck is the hospital?" He shouted.

Hadn't Nny told him to give him a concussion, all those weeks ago? But only if he was perfecting the moment. He hadn't said that he was perfecting the moment, now had he? It didn't look like he was going to calm down though! Well, he could have done something other than head butt him in the chin! No, he didn't have anything to stab him with. Stab him? He could have just gotten the swords out of his hands, he'd done it last time, right? That was pure luck.

Edgar squinted through cracked glasses at the street sign over the intersection they were rapidly approaching. Elm? Wisteria? Broad? No, the hospital wasn't on any of those streets. Edgar jerked the steering wheel around once he'd reached the intersection and performed a well executed, though very illegal, u-turn. He needed to head back on Denny st. that way he could get to western ave.

"Mr. Edgar, warn me before you make big turns like that again! It's hard to keep the blood from going everywhere when you make turns like that."

"Sorry, Todd," he answered absently.

Big white building…big white building…

"Todd, does that say hospital, or something like it over there?"

"Yes."

"Big turn."

"Oka-aaaaaaay."

Edgar cut across the intersection diagonally and went speeding up onto a curve and through some hedges. There were branches everywhere, but he couldn't stop, he rolled down the window and stuck his head out to see where he was going. He heard something that sounded vaguely like, 'Sorry Mr. Edgar…big turn made blood splash on backseat…'

They careened through the hospital parking lot until they were pulled in by the front doors. Or, at least, Edgar hoped they were the front doors considering he couldn't see none-too-good. His glasses were cracked this way and that from head butting the mad man he was now trying to save. Edgar hopped out of the car and went around to Todd's side. The kid sure was a trooper, it looked like he was already unbuckling Nny from his seat. Together they managed to pull him out of the car and drag him through the front doors.

The first thing Edgar noticed with his vision askew was that there were lots of people around. They must have found the emergency room.

"Help! Somebody!" He yelled. Nobody stopped.

Blurs continued to move past him nonchalantly ignoring him, not seeing him, as usual. He reached out and tried to grab one of them but they eluded his grasp, or maybe he just wasn't aiming correctly. He wished he could see. There was an insistent tugging on his hand. Edgar looked down. A familiar blob was staring intently up at him. Todd.

"Mr. Edgar, I'll get one of the nurses, you don't have to try and hurt anybody."

Hurt anybody? Did Todd really think he would do that? Well, considering the state Nny was in…

"Miss nurse, 'scuse me, but my friend needs help."

"Oh, dear, where is your mother?" A woman's voice crooned.

"He's right there, but I don't think you can see him."

"Um, sir?"

Edgar's head whirled to the side, staring at someone, probably the nurse that Todd had gotten the attention of. She was peering at him.

"Yes?" Someone had seen him, in this crazy place. Only because Todd pointed you out.

"You are…this boy's….mother?"

Edgar glanced down at the small fuzzy circle he'd come to know by now as Todd. All insecurities about his masculinity aside, he didn't have time to argue about whether or not he was Todd's mother or father or what-have-you.

"Yes."

"And this is….?"

"His…er, father."

"Will you come this way please?"

Edgar nodded and followed Todd, who'd taken him by the hand to lead him through the bustling crowd. He watched through broken glasses and broken eyes as the nurse set about finding out what was wrong with Nny. First she found out where the bleeding was coming from on the back of his head. Something that sounded like a razor buzzed into life, and Edgar tensed. It wasn't like she would be amputating anything, right? I mean, okay now he was just being illogical. God he wished he could see!

"Todd? What's she doing?"

"She's cutting off all his hair so that she can bandage up the cut on his head."

"Oh."

He calmed down some.

"Um, sir?"

"Yes?"

"Do you have any idea what your prescription is?"

"For…?"

"For your glasses, sir."

"Oh, um…I'm so blind that everything's blurry without them? I don't really know."

"Far sighted…?"

"Yes."

"Bethany!" The nurse called.

A few minutes later, 'Bethany' answered, "Yes?"

"Could you get this man over here some glasses while I get this guy to the x-ray?"

"Sure."

"Excuse me, Mister?"

Edgar reached out a hand and felt another hold on to his."Todd, I'll be back, don't leave Nny."

"Okay."

Edgar just kept walking. He held onto 'Bethany's hand and followed her to wherever it was in this hospital that he was going to get a pair of temporary replacements for his thick lenses. He didn't want to leave Nny, and he most certainly didn't want to leave Todd, but it would be best if he could see the two of them. So, for now, he was accepting help from this Bethany woman whom he had no idea what she looked like. Everyone looked the same at the moment. Todd and Nny seemed to stand out to him, but that might just be because he'd memorized the look that their blurs had. He sighed.

He hoped Nny would be okay, he hoped Nny would be okay, he hoped…

"Alright, sir, what is your name?"

"Edgar Vargas."

"Okay, hopefully I can do this the easy way and find out what your prescription is on your medical record…hm, let's see."

She'd let go of his hand so she could type with both of hers. Edgar looked around, out of habit. But everything looked the same as the room he'd left. He sighed wearily. Bethany mostly hummed and tsked to herself as she stared at a bright computer screen. He wished she would hurry up. He really wanted to get back to Todd and Nny. He didn't like the idea of leaving them alone in a hospital like this. Hospitals were scary places after all.

Eventually Bethany made a 'whoa' sound that most people made when they discovered just how strong his glasses were. Sometimes they would also say things like, 'How are you not blind?'

"Alright, Mr. Vargas, let me just go ask this friend of mine if he has a pair of these…"

Edgar nodded to her and she walked away. He earnestly hoped that she didn't forget who she was helping and just left him there. That would be bad. He wouldn't be able to find his way back to Todd and Nny.

He was in luck; Bethany returned after a few moments and pressed a pair of glasses into his hand. He carefully removed the ones he was wearing and put on his new pair. He blinked as suddenly everything came into focus and he saw Bethany, the rather helpful brunette with twenty/twenty vision. He smiled at her and asked if she could take him back to his friend. She nodded and reached for the phone next to the computer.

By the time that Bethany had gotten them lost a few times and then returned him to Nny and Todd it looked like they were ready to go. The nurse that had helped them appeared very confused as she stared down at the now bald and bandaged maniac.

"Alright, sir, your friend is all set to go home now…"

Her voice sounded, off, so Edgar asked, "You say that like you're not sure. Is there something wrong?"

"No, not really wrong. It's just, I took him up to the x-ray and it showed he had a small sliver of a crack in his jaw and another in the back of his head. I took another set of films just to be sure…but then everything was healed just fine." The nurse chuckled, "I guess I must have just been seeing things."

Edgar laughed with her, though on the inside he was just as confused as she was. He gathered the fixed up Nny in his arms, maneuvering him so he could hold him with only one. He made sure to take Todd by the hand before he headed out the door. He groaned when he saw his car, which remained just outside the doors on the sidewalk. There were branches all over the front of it.

He heard Todd sigh and glanced down at the boy, "Yes?"

"Well, we just spent a whole lot of time in there Mr. Edgar and we didn't really need to."

"What do you mean we didn't need to? Todd, Nny was really hurt!"

"But he's healed already!"

"Well, maybe the injuries were…"

"No, I was trying to tell you, Nny can't die! He was going to be fine."

Edgar let go of Todd and gaped at him, "Why didn't you say so in the first place?"

"You shushed me!" Todd retorted.

"You could have kept trying I might have paid attention eventually."

Todd crossed his arms and gave him a look. Edgar grumbled and went to the passenger side of the car. After loading a limp Nny into the front seat and putting his seatbelt on, Edgar glared at the hedge branches all over the windshield that he now had to clean off. He knew it was his own fault but he chose to ignore that fact that be angry about it instead.

"Mr. Edgar."

"Yes Todd?" He replied as he disentangled branches from the windshield wipers.

"I think we should take Nny over to Pepito's house just to be safe."

"Why?"

"Do you know how to take care of a crazy person who doesn't want to be taken care of?"

"…no, not really."

"Guess who probably does?"

"Oh no, no no no no."

"I bet Pepito's mommy does."

"Ew."

"Mr. Edgar, I'm the kid here, remember?"

Edgar scowled but said nothing.

"Are you done with that?"

"Yes."

"Let's go."

Todd went to the back seat where he yanked the bucket of blood out of the backseat and chucked it towards the doors to the hospital. Then he clambered in and shut the car door. Edgar kicked the pile of branches to the side and went to hop into the driver's seat. So much for his pride. It had all but deteriorated by now. He was the mother in the two-men co-parenting relationship and he was acting more like a kid than his 'son' was. And, and now he would have to ask for help from the one woman he probably hated more than anything he'd ever hated before.

As Edgar started up the car and made his way out of the parking lot he realized something. Before Barbara he'd never really hated anything. Too, he noted, he'd just been more worried then he'd ever been before in his life. Even more so when he thought he was about to die.

TBC…