AN: Wow, the reviews I'm receiving for this story are incredible. Please, keep them coming! I'm starting back at school, so I don't know when I'll update again, hopefully soon. This chapter started off with a little gag and turned into what it is. I love having no idea where I'm going with this story for each chapter and then it comes to me as I'm writing. It's so great. I love writing Jared and Kim stories! THANK YOU AND READ AND REVIEW!!

Chapter 3: The Pink Scrubs

Look at those buggers who are looting the crash site
taking the ring off your sweet little finger
that i gave to you, when we got married
you're under water now, you're getting back to where you came from
no stealing of your beauty that could naturally flow
from the center of all that you are,
you're beauty must be rubbing off on me.
- Your Beauty Must Be Rubbing Off by Hawksley Workman

"Argh! My shoes don't fit!" I hear my wife's cry downstairs. I'm in the washroom, shaving, when I hear her frustration emanated throughout the house. I hear her stomping up the stairs and the bathroom door is flung open. I look at her frustrated face, feeling sorry for her. She wasn't adapting too well to her changing body. It had been almost six weeks since we found out about her pregnancy and a nice small bump was already visible, I always felt like grinning like an idiot whenever I saw it.

During her outburst into the bathroom, I had cut myself shaving. I roll my eyes at myself for being so careless.

"Jared!" she walks over to me holding out her shoes. They're strappy heels that I rather quite like when she's wearing them. Her eyes are on the verge of tearing up. She cries a lot since being pregnant. At first I found it unnerving and now I saw it as an unavoidable occurrence that I had gotten used to. I can't remember more than three occasions when I had seen Kim cry before in the ten years we'd been together. "I love these shoes."

"I know you do, baby."

"I can't get my feet in them."

"I'm sorry about that –"

"I love these shoes, Jared."

I look at her helplessly. I turn back to the mirror, continuing my shaving. I have no idea what to say to her. "I wish I could do something about that..." I trail off and her face drops, obviously she had been wishing for that too. She walks over to the little step that led to our bath and shower - just off from our sink and toilet - and sits down, with her chin in her palm that was resting on her knee.

"I'm hungry," she says.

"Okay, what do you want?"

"I was gonna go to the store and get it myself," she states.

"Don't worry about that, I'll get it for you. What do you want?" I say, finishing up my shaving. The cut on my face has already healed up. I still got those speedy healing powers. Well, for little scratches like these at least.

"I feel bad...after last night."

Last night at three o'clock in the morning, I had been woken up by my wife shaking me back and forth. I opened my eyes; alarmed that something might be wrong. I found her staring at me guiltily.

"Sorry," she muttered. "I can't sleep."

I squinted at her in the dark. "Uh, okay. Night, night," I kissed my hand, then pressed it to her cheek, falling back onto the pillows, ready to continue my sleeping. She shook me again.

"I was thinking about food. Then I realized that I just had to have a Big Mac."

"Are you kidding me?" I groan. No, please let me sleep. We lived nowhere near a McDonalds.

She kissed my lips. "Sorry," she repeated. I opened my eyes, staring at her face in the dark, she was almost a shadow.

I sighed, whipping off the sheets, as I got out of bed. I shuffled to the door, opened it, then looked back at Kim, who was sitting up, giving me a hopeful look. I groaned once again and descended down the stairs, shoved my feet in some shoes, left the house in the middle of the night, climbed into the car, started the engine and embarked to the closest McDonald's I knew – an hour away, at three o'clock in the morning.

I returned two hours later, to find her fast asleep. When she woke up, she no longer wanted a Big Mac.

"What am I going to wear now?" she grumbles, sitting on the toilet seat.

I clean off my face, turn to her, clueless. "You can borrow my shoes," I try, only to have her shoe thrown at my head. I walk over to her, kneel by her feet and begin to massage them. She tilts her head back appreciatively. "Or, you can forget about going to Seattle all together."

"No, I'm excited. Rachel and I will be switching drivers every time we have to stop for gas," she says. "We were going to look at baby stuff, along with maternity clothes."

"Hmm, what time will you be home tonight?" I have to get to work soon. Maybe, I'll work late instead of staying here waiting for her to come home.

"We'll be having dinner at about five, so probably nine-ish," she puts her hand in my hair. She didn't want to stay overnight because she wanted to sleep in her own bed. It was kinda crazy to just spend one day in Seattle, considering it was about four hours away. What a nuisance, I think.

"How's the weather looking in Seattle?"

"Good, I think."

"You didn't check?"

"Yeah, I did, a few days ago."

"The weather could have changed you know," I remark.

"What's a little rain when we live in the Olympic Peninsula?"

"Kim."

"Help me up." I yank her to her feet and she leaves me in the bathroom. I watch her go down the stairs, planning on searching for other shoes to wear.

"Why are you guys just going for the day?" I call down the stairs. I've asked this a few times, but it just worries me that she'll be driving home so late.

"Because we'll miss you too much," she says in a mocking tone. I roll my eyes and head down the stairs.

"But, you're up so early. It's six, Kim," I say.

"You look tired," she says.

"That's because someone woke me up at three," I say bitterly. She grins at me toothily.

"Sorry."

"You said that already." I open the fridge and begin to make my lunch for the day. Kim sits at the table where the Big Mac sat in the bag. She peered into it and made a face of disgust.

"That smell makes my stomach churn," she pushed the bag away from her and I wondered how I would be able to handle these cravings for the next six months, because right now, I didn't think I could deal with this stress.

I buttered the bread that would help make my sandwich when I heard a car horn beep. Kim stood up and kissed my cheek.

"I'll call you later, okay?" she said, grabbing her purse and heading for the door. "Bye."

"Love you," I said just before she closed the door. I exhaled as I heard the car drive off with my wife in it. I finished three sandwiches, placing them in a brown paper bag. I glanced at the clock, seeing that it was almost seven. I grabbed my lunch, heading outside to work.

When I got to the garage, I found Claire sitting on top of a car we acquired yesterday, with Quil working on something under the hood.

"Hey Claire, how are you?" She beamed at me, kicking her legs out; it hit the car window and made an unpleasant, hollow thump. She winced.

"Sorry," she called out to Quil, who was laughing. "I'm good. I heard Kim's pregnant. That's so cool!" she said to me.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool," I agreed, smiling at the thirteen year old girl. "So, you spending a nice boring day with Quil here today?" I ask, leaning against the car, next to her.

"It won't be boring. I like hanging around here with you guys," she said. I nod sceptically.

"Yeah? You're the only one, you won't see Kim or Nessie here at all," I say, stepping away and moving to the back office.

"Well, I like it here," she announced. "Hey, Quil and Embry said they'd show me some of their cliff diving. Will you come to, Jared?"

Quil looked up from under the hood. "Yeah, you should come. For old times' sake. Maybe we can get Jake to stop by."

I thought it over, it was better than working late. "Sure, I'll be there," I winked at Claire and headed into the office, closing the door behind me.

Later, around five o'clock, Embry tapped on the door before opening it. "We're heading to the cliffs now," he said, grinning. I jumped up and gladly followed the way to his car. We all piled into the car, with me in the passenger seat and Quil and Claire up in the back. Claire was giggling away, jumping in her seat with excitement. Quil just stared at her, mesmerized by her reaction. I smirked and nudged Embry, to take a look in the back. Embry rolled his eyes, before turning back to the road.

It was raining here in LaPush, which reminded me of the weather in Seattle for Kim. I wondered if she was okay. Strangely, just as I had thought that, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I reached in and pulled it out to see Kim calling me. I anxiously opened up the phone, pressing it to my ear.

"Hey," I said.

"Uh, Jared," her beautiful voice came through all crackly. Bad reception. "There's a little problem."

Oh, fuck. Be still my heart, because everything felt like it got caught in my throat. "A good one or bad one?" I asked. I closed my eyes and willed myself not to speak. I couldn't have my thoughts all mixed in with my anxiety and impatience. Right now, I was having a mild heart attack because of her 'little problem.'

"It's not a big deal, so calm down. It's just sort of hailing here in Seattle, so we're gonna try and get a hotel for the night. I can't drive, I don't feel good about that idea and neither does Rachel. Okay?" I think that's what she said. She could have said hailing or sailing. And when she said drive, it easily could have been dive. Also, I hope she said hotel because if she was planning on staying in a motel, that wouldn't make me feel at ease at all. The reception was so bad, I kept hearing cracking noises over her voice and even in the background when she didn't speak.

"You're staying the night in Seattle?" I confirmed.

"Yeah, it's impossible to get out. So, I'll say goodnight to you now. –bye, I lov –" her voice got cut off, just when she was about to tell me she loved me. The line went dead and I growled at the stupid phone. I shut it, opened it again and dialed her number. She didn't answer; the call went straight to voicemail. I tried again. And again. And again. And again.

I didn't realize we had already made it to the cliffs, when Quil knocked on the window and I could already see Embry and Claire making their way over to the cliffs. I sighed, realizing that there was no way I could get a hold of her now. So, I climbed out of the car, following Quil, to the cliffs.

Claire was peering over the rocks, with Embry by her side.

"Hey! Be careful Claire Bear," Quil came up behind her, grabbed her by the waist, and swung her around so she would be behind him.

"I'm fine! Who's going first?" Claire asked, looking at us excitedly. Claire had come to the garage without a rain jacket, so Quil made her wear one that was his. It looked so big and ridiculous on her, but she was the only one who had a hood. I shivered, slightly. Damn, I remembered when I could go out in this kind of weather and feel perfectly warm.

"I'll go," Embry said and before we could really register this, he ran and jumped off the cliff. Claire watched him with her eyes wide and when he finally hit the water, she let out a short scream.

"There's rocks at the bottom?" she asked, peering down carefully. Embry surface laughing and whooping. He made his way to the rocks and climbed back up.

"Well, yeah, but they won't hurt us," Quil said, grinning at her.

Suddenly, I felt dangerous. I can't exactly describe it, but I really wanted to jump off. Like, I had something to prove. I wasn't scared about Kim, I wasn't cold and I wasn't fazed about the rocks at the bottom. And I definitely wasn't thinking that I was no longer a werewolf with powers.

So, I jumped off the cliff, doing a few flips in the air, crashed into the water, and hit a rock at the bottom. The way my leg made an impact with a rock, was shocking. I felt it snap, glancing down I saw my bone protruding from my skin, and damn did it fucking hurt. I gasped underwater and swallowed a whole bunch of water into my lungs. I began to cough. The current was strong and it was hard to kick out my leg. I struggled to the surface just using my arms, the pain excruciating. I can't believe that just happened. I had hit these rocks before, feeling nothing. The sudden realization that I was no longer invincible, left me staggered, however I couldn't let that cripple me when I was trying to make it to the surface. I was desperate for air, so when my head made it out of the water, I inhaled sharply, the pain blinding. I blinked and held myself above the water with my arms.

"Jared! Are you okay?" Claire called down.

"Jared?" Quil shouted.

Hold on a minute. I couldn't move because it fucking hurt like nobody's business. I couldn't concentrate on their words. I was pretty sure my leg was on fire and I wanted nothing more than to just rip it out of my socket and get it over with. Why wasn't it healing? Sam told me these after affects of being a werewolf would stick around for a couple more years. He also said that I would always be a little more superhuman than an actual human, but I would never ever be super like I was before.

Maybe my leg just needed to be set in place and it would do the healing. Oh, fuck.

Embry was climbing down the rocks to me.

"Jared, are you okay? You were under there for a while," Embry stood on the rocks watching me questionably.

"Uh," I wince. "Can you take me to the hospital?"

"What?" Embry asked disbelieving. "Did you really get hurt?"

"Mmhmm," talking hurt as well. My face was contorted in pain, my arms couldn't hold me up anymore as my main focus was the throbbing feeling of my bone sticking out of my skin.

Embry held out his hand to me. "Here, grab on." I swam slowly to him and grabbed his arm, when he pulled me up out of the water. He gasped when he saw my leg. "Oh shit. Damn, Jared, I forgot you're not a werewolf anymore. Fuck, you're stupid!"

Embry helped me up, as I balanced on one leg, with my arm slung around his shoulder. I limped up the cliff with a lot of Embry's help and when we made it closer to the top; Quil jumped down and helped me the rest of the way. When we got up to the top, Claire's high pitched scream nearly broke my ear drum.

Quil cursed, let go of me – I stumbled a bit and Embry shouted at him – and raced to Claire where she hid her face in his chest. Quil tried to calm down the traumatized Claire. Embry was complaining to Quil for not being useful at all. Quil glared at him and glanced down at me.

"I can call Kim," Quil said to me, trying to be helpful. Embry led me to the car, me jumping all the way on one foot. Pain. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

"You can try," I say, hopping to Embry's car. This was embarrassing as hell. I just wanted to be shot up with morphine and have the guys leave me alone. Most of all, I wanted to see Kim. I just concentrated on her and the pain was a little easier to deal with. A little easier.

I fished in my pocket and tossed Quil my phone. I heard the digital noises as Quil pressed the buttons, over the pelting rain. Claire was crying softly, Quil holding her close as they followed me to the car. Once Embry helped me in, he got into the driver's seat, Quil and Claire got in the back, once again.

"Does it hurt?" Claire's voice was muffled, with her mouth pressed under Quil's arm.

"Not so much," I grimace.

"Kim's not picking up. It keeps going to voicemail, should I leave a message?"

"No, no, never mind," I say. I glance down at my leg and see the bloody bone. "Oh, God!" I gasp.

"Leave a message," Embry ordered. He started the car and we were driving eighty miles down the highway in no time.

"Hey, Kim, this is Quil. There's been a bit of an accident, so we're taking Jared to the hospital right now...Call us, I guess," Quil hung up. I groaned in pain. Kim. Kim. Kim. I needed her. She could calm me down like no one else. "I'm sure it won't be long before she calls back."

Claire began to cry.

"Wait! What's your temperature running nowadays, Jare?" Embry asked. "We gotta be careful; otherwise we might have to take you to Dr. Cullen." Temperature? What was he talking about? I wasn't think about my bloody temperature!

"I donno!" I scream as a spasm shoots through my leg.

"Shh, Claire it's alright," Quil comforts her.

"It's my fault!" she sobs.

"Sweetheart, how is it your fault?" Quil asks. Pain, pain, pain. Fucking, pain!

"I asked if we could go cliff diving!" she explains, devastated.

"Claire, it's not your fault. Listen to me, it's not your fault," I feel a thump on the back of my seat. "Tell her, it's not her fault!" he snaps at me. Jesus, the minute Claire starts blubbering, my actual pain means nothing.

"It's not your fault!" I yell, as Embry hits a bump, which causes my leg to jump up. Incredibly painful. Ow. I want to scream so badly. It's the only way I can see this pain leaving me just a little bit.

"See, Jared told you it's alright, now calm down," he coos to her. Fucking, annoying.

"Do you have something I can bite on?" I ask Embry.

"Quil's balls. You're such a pussy!" Embry snaps. Embry gets punched in the arm.

"Seriously! I can't handle this!" I declare. "I'm gonna explode!"

"Calm down, Jared. We're almost at the hospital. Wait, should we take you to Dr. Cullen? You make the choice, right now, Jared." What the fuck. I don't care, just take this pain away!

"Just go to the fucking hospital!" I bark.

"Language," Quil says.

"Grow some breasts!" I bellow. Embry laughs and Quil grumbles. Thankfully, Claire's crying has decreased by half. Now if only my pain could do the same.

Joyously, we pull up to the Emergency. "Hallelujah!" I say. Embry asks Quil to park the car somewhere else and runs in, grabbing a wheelchair. He helps me into it and he takes me to the front desk inside, away from the rain which was becoming irritating with its constant noise hitting the car. I hate hospitals, crying babies, police standing by, sickly looking people who make you uncomfortable...

"Do you have any ID on you?" Embry asks.

"Fuck no."

"Shit," Embry says. I can't see him as he's standing behind me, but shortly I hear him talking into his phone. "'Kay, Quil is getting your ID, where is it?"

"Umm," thinking is so difficult. My eyes are getting droopy; I think I'm passing out. I'm thankful, maybe it will take away some of this pain. "Kim knows where it is."

"Kim's not answering her fucking phone, Jared. Think, where could it –" My eyes close completely and I block out all the noise.

Suddenly, I hear muttering in the background. Where am I? Where's Embry? Wasn't I just talking to him?

"He's got a bit of a fever at one-oh-one point eight," I hear someone say. Ow, my leg hurts. Ow. OW!

"We'll deal with that as soon as we set his leg straight," another voice. Fix my leg, it hurts like a bitch. I feel hands on my searing limb and a bunch of people around me. "Alright, on the count of three." What's on the couch of three? "One, two – three!"

I scream as loud as I can as I'm woken out of my half-sleeping state. My leg is put back into place; meanwhile I'm experience an intense amount of pain. I see spots in front of my eyes as the doctors try to push me back into a laying position.

"Hello? Jared? Is there anyone you want us to call? You have a friend outside, but he doesn't have your ID so, we just need to –"

"Fuck off!" I gasp, as the pain slowly subsides. I get my vision back slowly and I see a young nurse look at me, crestfallen.

"Nadia, not now," says someone beside me.

"Okay, Jared, we're going to have to go into surgery, we'll be leaving in just a few minutes but we'd like to know your age, height and weight."

Concentrate on the words, not the pain. I close my eyes blocking out the bright lights and annoying looking people.

"Morphine, time," sings a voice. Please!

"I'm twenty-seven," I say. Kim. I want Kim. "I want Kim," I slur, through the pain.

"Kim, any number we can –"

"Nadia, ask his friend! Alright, Jared, you're height."

"Six four, but I'm almost six five." Ah, I think the morphine's kicking in.

"You weight?"

"My wife said that it's best not to know your weight. Or else, you'll worry about it..." I don't even know what I'm saying. I feel the bed moving. I hear rolling on the ground and a lot of voices. I think I hear Embry, Quil and a crying Claire.

"Jared!"

"Okay, Jared, we're heading into surgery now." God, surgery is far. I'm getting rolled around through the hospital. We're turning down corners and now we've stopped.

"It hurts," I murmur.

"Yes, we know. It won't be long now before you're all healed. You lost quite a bit of blood."

"Blood," I say. I hear someone chuckle, but I don't care. "Kim."

"Someone is calling Kim, okay?"

"Okay," I repeat. I get moved again and we hit a bump. I think we're in an elevator 'cause I can feel that heavy feeling of going up a floor.

I'm wheeled out, as I open my eyes a peek to see what's going on. I see another reception desk and we're flying right past it. I'm going down a hall and I see two double doors. A hand reaches forward and presses a button and they slowly open. I'm down another hall and we turn a corner and they open a door and we're in a complicated looking room, so I just close my eyes, not wanting to think too much about it.

I'm feeling my body lift up slightly before being placed down again.

"He's heavy, we're gonna need more help picking him up."

"I'll be right back with more help."

"Jared? We're gonna give you something to help relax you."

I nod my head. I block out time. Eventually, I hear a bunch of people come into the room and I hear them all wince as they pick me up, transferring me to another bed. I feel relaxed. And sleepy. Oh, so sleepy.

"Okay, Jared, think of something happy. A boyfriend, a girlfriend, someplace warm. Okay?" I think about Kim and pretty soon I'm out.

...

"Jared, honey, wake up. It's time to wake up now," I feel someone rubbing my back and I slowly open my eyes. I see pink clothing and a kind, blurry face smiling at me. "That's right. Wake up." She stops rubbing my back and I cry out in protest. It felt good. She is fiddling with something or another, before leaving me alone.

I lie there as I seem to slip in and out of consciousness. I try to open my eyes, but they keep closing on me. Argh, I'm at the hospital. Oh, yeah my leg. It hurts, but not as bad as before. I want to get out of here. Where's Kim?

"Jared?" The nurse in the pink scrubs returns. "Hi, sweetie. Can you rate your pain on a scale of one to ten?" Her voice is so nice and soft. I want Kim.

"Um, seven or eight," It's so difficult to speak. My throat is killing me. "And my throat," I add.

"Yeah, it'll be sore for a couple of days. How about I get you a freezee?"

"Yes, please," I mumbled, curling up and then hissing as it hurts my leg to do so. "Kim!" I try to say loudly, but my voice can't seem to go above a whisper. The nurse has left already so I can't tell her how much I miss my wife.

The nurse came back, giving me a white freezee, I put it to my mouth and relished in the soothing feeling it brought to my throat.

"I want my wife," I say.

"This is the recovery room, visitors aren't allowed, but pretty soon you'll be able to have them. Just another more hour, okay?"

"I want Kim," I mumble, sucking on the flavoured ice.

"Okay, well, sometimes we just have to make an exception. We'll page your wife, Jared, okay?" She gave my back another nice rub, before turning out of the room.

After what felt like forever, I hadn't seen the nurse or Kim at all. When someone finally entered the room again, it was a different nurse.

"Alright, Jared, is it? What's the pain like on a scale of one to ten?"

"Um, four," I say.

"Okay, we'll be taking you to the waiting room, soon."

"Where's Kim?" Is all I can say. I'm trying to get back to sleep to pass the time. I'm bored as hell. When will I be able to leave this hospital? I just wanted to go home.

I think I actually fell asleep because it felt like just a second when I heard a couple nurses surround my bed.

"We're gonna take you to the waiting room and then you can have visitors." They got a hold of the bed and after a little bit; they were off, pushing my bed down some halls or something. I don't know. I kept my eyes closed.

"What about Kim?"

"We couldn't get a hold of your wife, Jared. Is she at the hospital?"

"No. She might be. She's in Seattle. What time is it?"

"It's eleven-thirty at night."

I groan and put a hand over my eyes. Kim was most likely still in Seattle. The bed stopped and I opened my eyes to see the nurse in pink talk to the people at the reception desk.

"Change of plans, Jared. You'll be staying here over night, so you get your own room."

Oh God, would this day never end?

--

So it was mid-afternoon the next day and the only people who had visited me were Embry, Quil and a distraught Claire. I hadn't heard anything from Kim or even Paul who couldn't find the decency to give me an update on the status of our wives. Embry said he had called him and the rest of the pack, saying they would probably drop by later today. I was bored out of my mind. The doctor and nurses who had come to see me said I'd probably have to stay another day.

Miserable, I shifted in my bed and glanced down at my cast on my right leg. I'm pretty sure I still healed faster than the average human, so when the doctors said it would be a six week recovery time, I had taken it upon myself to decrease that time by half. I glanced over at the guy in the bed beside me. It was kind of disgusting because his wife was here all the time and they kept making gross kissing noises. Last night, she had closed the curtain and I could hear things. Ugh.

I heard a knock on the door and I saw Emily slowly walk in the room. With a tin box, which I could only assume was full with baked goods.

"Is that for me?" I sat up.

"How are you, Jared?"

"Horrible. Hospital food." I hold out my hands and rolling her eyes, Emily hands me the box. I open it and find cookies and cupcakes. I devour, happy, for the first time in what seemed like days when it had only been hours, really.

She pulled up the chair beside my bed and gave the couple next to me a wary look. "I know how this can all be a bit, overwhelming."

"What?" I say my mouth full of cupcake.

"You're not a...werewolf anymore, Jared," she whispered the word with the couple listening in. This was the first woman who had come to see me who was not a snivelling thirteen year old girl.

"Yeah, reality check," I grumble. It was kind of depressing. Even though I was more than happy to stop transforming so I could have a long, happy and normal life with Kim, I was shocked that I missed it. It had been a major part of my life for eight years and now it was finally leaving me.

"Sam stopped about four years ago and he's still remarkably werewolf-like. It's just you have to remember that you're no longer able to do all the things you used to. You'll be fine, Jared. Sam is," she smiled at me warmly. I nodded. I felt so old all of a sudden. I mean, Paul was basically in the same boat as me, so that made me feel a little bit better. "Embry told me about Kim. She should be on her way home soon, though."

"Do you know if Paul's in contact with them?"

Emily shook her head. "Paul's frantic. Rachel left her phone at home; we're guessing something happened to Kim's phone and – Jared...oh, I shouldn't have said anything!"

"They're lost?" I try to grasp.

"What? No! Paul has gone to go get them, he was impatient. I'm sure their fine!" Emily said quickly, she could obviously see the panic rising in me.

"You're sure?" Oh God, oh fuck. I couldn't handle this. I whip the covers off of me and throw my legs over the side of the bed. Why are there no crutches? I stand up and cry out in pain as I put the pressure on my leg.

"Jared sit down or I'll call the nurse!"

"They can't fight me off!" I scoff; I begin to hop on one foot out of the room.

Emily quietens as she realizes how true that is. "Jared, sit down! Kim would not like you walking around like this! You're injured! You need to heal with rest! Jared!" I get to the door and lean against the frame. Emily follows me. I breathe in deeply and make my way down the hall. "Jared, so help me!"

"Go. Away," I pant. This is taking a lot of energy out of me. I wasn't quite sure what I was accomplishing, getting out of bed. I had no idea what to do, but I needed to take action to finding Kim. I rounded a corner and a nurse saw me struggling with a frustrated Emily.

"Sir, should you be out of bed?" The nurse asks her brow furrowing.

"No, he should not!" Emily grabs my arm and I stumble. She screams, scared that I would fall, but I grab the wall and steady myself.

"Sir, get back to bed please," the nurse attempts. But I can tell her she will fail. "Sir! If you do not listen to me, I'm going to have to call someone to assist me in putting you back to bed."

"I'm a grown man; can't I just sign myself out?" I ask.

The nurse hesitates and gives Emily a helpless look.

"Yes, I suppose you can..."

"Jared! Get back to bed!" I freeze. Kim. I hop around and Kim is running toward me. Her face is all flushed and her eyes are all red. "Oh my God, Jared!" she cries. Tears are falling down her cheeks and she throws her arms around me. I have to hold onto a cart that's next to me so I don't fall over. If I, a disabled man, fall down with a pregnant woman...that can't be good for either of us.

"Kim," I breathe in relief, wrapping one arm around her waist.

"Oh, God. I dropped my phone in a puddle," she hiccoughs. "I didn't get your message and then Paul found us when we were driving home this morning. Oh, Jared."

"Ma'am, can we get him back to his room now?" the nurse interferes.

"Oh! Yes! Of course!" She puts an arm around my waist and helps me back to my room. Emily says a quick goodbye to us as I sit back onto the bed in relief. Kim helps me to get my leg back onto the bed and the nurse says she'll be getting the doctor. "Jared, please, tell me you're alright."

"What about you, is everything fine?" I ask, giving her a once over. She sits in the chair that Emily had just occupied.

"Yes, don't be silly," she grabs my hand and kisses it. I close my eyes feeling peaceful.

"I missed you. I wish you could have been there when I woke up," I whisper to her.

"Oh, don't make me feel guiltier then I already do," she strokes my hand with her thumb.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to," I say. She is so beautiful. She's my salvation, the only thing that can truly calm me and take my pain away.

"It's weird worrying about you," she nods to my leg. "How does it feel to be vulnerable?" she smirks at me.

"I hate it."

The doctor came in after that and gave me a shot of morphine to put me at ease. As I was drifting off, I rolled over onto my stomach.

"Can you rub my back?" I mumble, losing consciousness.

She doesn't respond, but I feel her hand make soothing circles on my back.

I sigh and fall asleep.

R/R!!