Author's Med Note: Time wise I'm squishing down some of the medical things, because 1) hey, it's fiction right, and the soaps/csi shows squish time frames all the time, DNA in five minutes, woo... and 2) Because the story doesn't seem to work if I don't, so... Soap time is freaky anyway. I'm also... uh, forgetting some of what I learned while doing research, because again, it doesn't work for the story unless I do this or that even though, in the real world, it wouldn't happen. I love Fiction...

"Liv..."

"Oh heaven... what... what's wrong?" Olivia sat up in bed and rubbed at her eyes. "What happened, and why exactly are you laughing at me?"

Natalia smiled from the doorway, "Because you are very cute when you get woken up unexpectedly, all ruffled and..."

Olivia threw the covers off and stalked towards Natalia, who held her hands up, "Clothes, clothes..." She looked over her shoulder, and then back to Olivia. "Not that I wouldn't..." She sighed, "Love..." She searched with her hand for something, anything, never taking her eyes off of Olivia. "Clothes, if not for the children, my impressionable son, than for my... for my sanity."

"What's gonna be is gonna be. I'm..." Olivia leaned down and kissed Natalia long and deeply, "...going to let it happen."

Natalia sighed, "With clothes..."

Olivia laughed and gave Natalia a gentle push, "Now shoo and I'll get dressed. You'll check on Emma?"

Natalia tilted her head to one side, "Already did, I think she finally got to sleep."

Olivia let out a deep breath, "Good, that's good. We'll get some food into her."

Natalia pointed at the hall, "I'm going to be out there... so that... well... hurry up and put on clothes Olivia Spencer..."

Olivia chuckled. It was only a few moments later that Olivia opened the door. "Is she up yet?"

Natalia smiled as Olivia joined her in the hallway, in clothes. "There was a grumble, yes. Takes after her mother."

Olivia rolled her eyes as they pushed open the door to Emma's room. "C'mon sleepy head. Time to face the day."

Emma mumbled something as Olivia pulled back the covers, "What did you... Oh my God."

"Mommy?"

Natalia and Olivia's eyes met, "Do you feel okay jellybean?"

Emma bit her lip, "A little?"

Olivia looked up, but Natalia was already gone from the room, "You're looking a little yellow today, now, on a bumble bee that's good. On you... we're going to take a trip to Cedars okay? Get you checked out by Uncle Rick and made human color again?"

Emma didn't look scared, but she didn't look quite at ease either. Primarily she looked tired. "My tummy hurts."

Olivia picked Emma up from the bed with a wince, "Remember to tell Uncle Rick that, okay?"

Natalia reappeared, "Everything's off, put away, I have the car keys, and I woke Rafe up and told him what's happening. We're ready to go."

She was naked, not a bad thing, but as Doris woke up fully, she realized, she was at home, a home in which her daughter was currently also residing. Her daughter who definitely did not know she was a lesbian.

She was also alone in her bed, which was a definite change from the night before when she and Casey.

She stopped the thought before it could bloom and spread its seeds. She needed to leave Doris Wolfe mode and get into her Mayoral persona. The person who was straight as a one dollar bill, the mother of Ashlee, the bitch (now that Olivia had been softened by Natalia) of Springfield.

She slowly got ready for work. Teeth, shower, clothes, shoes. It was all rote. Her wardrobe that she had plotted and worked out so that it was perfect. Authoritative, but not enough that she wasn't approachable. And colorful so as not to come off as dull, but not flamboyant either. It was as she was putting on her perfect makeup that she smelled it.

Coffee.

She kept telling herself that it was her daughter that had made it. Ashlee. Doris wasn't really surprised when she walked into her kitchen and it was Casey sitting there though. "Uh, hello."

Casey looked up, "Mornin'. I... ironically, I'm great at lunch and dinner, but suck at breakfast, so. Coffee. Hope it's okay, I brought in the Wall Street Journal."

Doris blinked, slightly stupefied, "Uh... you read it?"

Casey shrugged, "I have before. Marketplace, Personal Journal, the Tech Guy's columns. I like their new Sports page. But do I read it for what the markets are doing and that garbage... Nah. Buncha crap, if I wanted to gamble with stuffed shirts who have no legs in reality I'd go back to Vegas."

"Oh."

"You're weirded out by what happened last night, you didn't seem like a first timer, but..." Casey stood, "I'll go."

Doris shook her head and snapped out of her funk, going to the coffee maker and pouring herself a cup. "No..." She took a long, steadying sip. "It's not that. I..." She glanced at the doorway to the living room. "Ashlee doesn't... know... no one in town does."

Casey nodded, "Won't hear it from me. and I really should..."

"Stay. Ashlee seems to like you. Stay. I need to get to work anyway." Doris flashed her very best protective smile, "Run the town, maybe catch a bad guy or two..." She trailed off, "Stay."

"Thank you."

Doris shrugged and downed the last of her coffee. "Well, you should probably go with it while you can. This is not me. From my recent actions, I most likely have a tumor in the part of my brain that regulates caring, not caring." She was almost out the door when she turned, "Oh, and when it hits one p.m. and Ashlee's not awake, feel free to douse her with ice cold water."

"You can't go in there ma'am."

Natalia didn't even realize the nurse's assistant was speaking to her until the woman put a hand on her shoulder and physically stopped her from entering Emma's room. Natalia turned, she was not in the mood, "Excuse me?"

"Only family."

Natalia carefully removed the woman's hand, "I am."

"No, you're not. The child's mother is already in there with her. So, if you'd like to wait."

"Miss. That is my child in there as well. I am not violent, I am a Christian woman, but, even the Christians had the Crusades, so don't mess with me. I could dig through everything I have with me right now, show you a piece of paper we still need because the state and country just have to label everything, but I'm not going to. I'm going to go in there, give the love of my life a kiss and hug MY scared daughter as hard as I can without breaking her and pray until my hands and feet bleed."

The assistant simply moved to one side as Natalia went by and entered the room.

"What is that?"

Casey looked up from the piano. "Did I wake you, sorry about that."

"Whatever. What were you playing, I recognize it."

Casey stood and went over to the shelf to the left of the TV. She scanned it for a second before she took a box off of it and handed it to Ashlee. "The Muppet Show?"

Ashlee handed it back and Casey opened it. She looked at the disks and then the inner flap for a second before she selected one of the disks and put it into the DVD player. They both stood there as Casey whipped through the menus, and then fast forwarded through the episode until she got to what she was looking for. There was cheering to a black screen and then a dog at a piano appeared.

Casey put down the remote and just watched Ashlee watch the skit. At the end she had to sit down she was laughing so hard. "I didn't... can you play hatless, who wrote that, and then... Fozzie bear, I remember now. I used to watch this with Doris when I was a kid. I loved Fozzie and Kermit."

"Nah, Rowlf was the best. Henson, or whoever did it could fake playing the piano better than most people can actually play the piano. Okay, here's a test, how about this one..." Casey sat down and closed her eyes for a second. She started playing a simple note chord chord, note chord chord rhythm. "Cottleslon, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie. A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly. Ask me a riddle and I reply: 'Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.'" Casey stopped playing. "Uh, on the show, Rowlf sings it better."

Ashlee laughed, "Oh my God, I recognize that one too. I... Do you know all of them?"

Casey shrugged, "Pretty much. The music teacher let me stay after school until I just had, had to go home." She shrugged again, "There was a piano. Watch it the night before, then try to bang it out on the little spinet they had."

"Man, your life sucked huh?"

Casey chuckled, "Define sucked. It could have been worse, I never lived on the street. Seven out of eight of my foster homes were fine. Juvie was..." Casey quirked an eyebrow, "...an interesting experience. After all that I got to start new. Any time I want, I can pick up, no ties except the friends I choose to keep."

Ashlee sat down on the piano bench, and poked at the keys in no particular order. "Yikes, that sucks."

Casey shrugged as she stopped the DVD, "Yeah, well, believe me, my life could suck so much more, so, I'm not complaining."

Frank watched as Mallet listened, and listened, and listened. Mallet opened his mouth to respond a couple of times, but it was obvious that he was not going to get a word in edgewise. Finally, the call ended. "Yes, yes Jeffery. Right after I hang up, yes..."

Mallet hung up and let his head drop to his desk. "Uh..."

"Let me guess. Reva didn't come home?"

Mallet nodded as he lifted his head and punched in a number from memory, "Rhoda... beautiful. I need a favor. Couple of people were walking home last night from the Company party, towards Cross Creek. They never made it. Could you get a couple of your guys who are out and about to do a little searchin'? Names, yep, Reva Shayne and Josh Lewis." Mallet smiled, "Thank you, thank you Rhoda... yep, I owe you one." He hung up, "They're just... they ran off together, Reva got sick of Colin and Jeffery and just decided to high tail it from Springfield with her ex, right?"

"Done it before."

Mallet nodded to himself, "Yeah, that's what happened. Crazy Reva, and heartsick Josh." He blew a breath out, "God I don't want to be the one to have to tell Marah and Shane that we've found Josh and Reva dead."

"She needs a liver."

Olivia blinked slowly, "Excuse me?"

"What has she had to eat recently?"

"Uh..."

Natalia spoke up, placing a supportive hand on Olivia's back, "Yesterday morning Emma had some oatmeal, regular stuff. A turkey sandwich and chocolate milk with lunch. Nothing after that since she couldn't keep anything down. Nothing this morning. Uh, two nights ago we had pizza. And other than that, she's just had water and ginger ale."

Rick frowned in thought, "The same pizza?"

"No, two pies. One was cheese, for us, the other cheese and mushrooms and..."

He interrupted Natalia, "Mushrooms? Did you use your usual pizza place?"

"Yeah, Towne. It's the closest, we got it delivered."

"Same guy? Talbot?" Olivia and Natalia both nodded and Rick continued, "Would... I have an idea what's wrong, but is there any of Emma's pizza left?"

Olivia raised an eyebrow, "You're hungry?"

Natalia frowned, "Olivia..."

"Sorry, I... I'll get the pizza."

Natalia reached for Olivia's hand to stop her, but the older woman was too fast and was out the door at the end of the hallway before Natalia could collect herself, "Olivia..." Natalia put her hand to her head, "Uh, are they, uh, done with the tests, may I see Emma?"

Rick took Natalia's arm, "Of course, may I make a suggestion?"

"I'm not going to lie to her."

Rick shook his head, "Of course not. Get Phillip, Ava's in town, her, any family, friends too, everyone and their brother. We need to find a tissue match. She's going on the list, but a living donor that's a good match is better than a cadaver liver."

Natalia frowned, "What about Olivia?"

"Oh, she's not going into any sort of surgery."

"She'll still want to be..."

"Typed..." Rick sighed, "I know. Go sit with your daughter, she's been freaking out. It'll be okay."

Natalia took a deep breath in, centered herself, and nodded. "Oh-okay." She pushed through the door and swallowed down the lump that immediately formed in her throat. "Hey jellybean."

"Natalia..."

Natalia picked up Emma's hand. The young girl looked so small in the big hospital bed. "Your mom's just going home to..."

"Am... am I going to die?"

Emma had started to hyperventilate. Natalia brushed Emma's bangs off her forehead and kissed it. "Take slow breaths kiddo. In and out, in and out."

Emma slowly came down from the state she'd been in. "I don't want to die."

Natalia closed her eyes for a moment. Her heart felt as though it was going to pop in her chest. She wanted to cry, or scream, or just curl into a ball in the corner. Instead she pushed it all down and opened her eyes. "Who's the strongest person you know Em?"

Emma swallowed, her eyes never left Natalia's face. "Mommy..."

Natalia smiled a smile that didn't reach her eyes, "And do you think that your Mom is going to let anything... anything take you away from her?"

"N-no..." Emma stared down at her feet under the covers, moving them to and fro. "Natalia... is-is it okay to call you Mama. Aunt Alex said I should never call anyone Ma, that it's... it's... unaccentable."

"Unacceptable?" Natalia's smile got all the way to her eyes, "You can call me Natalia, or Mama, or Ma, which, by the way is perfectly acceptable, or all three, or even 'hey you'." Emma laughed at that, and a little bit of the pressure in Natalia's chest went away. She tried to get her hand back from the young girl, but Emma wasn't going to let go. "Em, can I have my hand, just for a second."

"You're leaving?" Panic tinged her little voice.

Natalia pointed at Lillian, who stood at the door. "I will be talking to Lillian, won't even leave the room, I promise." Emma paused for a moment, but let go and Natalia met Lillian at the door. "Could you..."

"...call everyone I know and tell them to get their butts down here, I'll do one better. I'll call Buzz. May I... and can he tell people what's going on?"

Natalia stared back at Emma and nodded as she faced Lillian again, "Yes, yes, tell them... anything."

"Phillip?"

Natalia didn't pause before answering, "If he doesn't already know, yes, he's her father."

"Okay, okay." Lillian put a comforting hand on Natalia's arm, "It will turn out okay."

Lillian left Emma and Natalia alone in the room and was nearly run down by a gurney carrying Josh Lewis. "Oh, my..." She blinked, "Cyrus? What happened?"

Cyrus Foley shook his head, his accent seemed to be thicker as he spoke in a rush, "I don't know. They were on the side of the road, and I was driving by... I stopped, thought they were a couple of drunks that'd gotten too pissed and decided they couldn't make it back to their flat." He shook his head, "Never thought I'd know 'em."

Mallet stood, swinging on his jacket, "Cyrus Foley just showed up at Cedars with Josh and Reva. Josh's barely hanging on, Reva's..."

Frank stood as well, "Already cursing out everyone, and trying to save the day as only Reva can. Cyrus huh?"

Mallet nodded, "Could it be that easy, retribution for whatever he believes happened to his brother Grady?"

Frank shrugged as they left the squad room, "People have gone on rampages for less."