Chapter Seven

Gwen hurried into Monroe University Hospital where Arthur and Aggie were taken to be looked at. Gwen couldn't stop thanking God for the accident being so close to Monroe. "Gwen!" She turned to see Alice coming out of the elevator, but she was holding the door. "He's up in surgery. Come on!" Gwen ran over to the elevator and they got in.

"How bad is he, Alice?" she asked.

"He coded in the ER, but they got him stable enough for surgery," Alice said. "Jennings is working on him."

"What about Aggie?" she asked. She had grown to love Arthur's partner at NCIS.

"Bumps and bruises," Alice said. "Her seat belt stayed latched when the car rolled. I'm not sure the extent of the damage to Arthur. You'll have to ask Jennings when the surgery's through."

"You forget, Alice," Gwen said. "I'm a surgical intern."

Fifteen minutes later, Gwen was in scrubs and donned a mask when she entered the OR where Arthur was being worked on. "Dr. Rylee, you can't be in here," Dr. Jennings said.

"I'm scrubbed, Jennings," Gwen said. "I don't plan on performing surgery on my fiance."

"You can't be in here because he's in here."

"I'm just standing here, Derek," Gwen said. "I can observe," she said. "Please, Derek. His mother will be here soon and I want to at least give her something when he gets out she doesn't have to wait for you." Jennings sighed as he clamped something off and asked for a scalpel.

"Fine, but don't get in the way."

"Thank you." Gwen came closer to the table and came around where Arthur's head was separated off. One of the nurses got her a seat and she sat down. "Thanks, Mary," she said. The anesthesiologist, Dr. Bing, was someone she knew and she finally glanced down at Arthur. His eyes were taped shut and the tube was down his throat to help him breathe and stay asleep during the surgery.

"There was a punctured lung from a broken rib, but they took care of that in the ER. I mopped up their work before I got the internal bleeding under control, but I had to do a splenectomy. Good thing he'll have a doctor for a wife. He'll need you since his body will be more vulnerable to germs now." Gwen chuckled before running her fingers along Arthur's cheek. A habit she did when she watched him sleep. She heard the heart monitor beep a little faster when she dragged her fingers over his cheek. He knew she was there. "He'll pull through, Gwen. I promise."

"I'll hold you to that, Derek," she said. She got closer to Arthur so no one else could hear her talk to him. "You can't die on me, Arthur, okay? I found my wedding dress and you haven't seen me in it. You got to stick around for that. Besides, you promised me a couple of kids and growing old together. I'm going to hold you to those promises, okay? Live for me, Arthur."

Igraine was holding her brother's hand in the waiting room when Gwen came down the hall. She was the first up out of her seat when Gwen came into the room. "How's my baby?" she asked.

"He's all right," Gwen said causing Igraine to breath a sigh of relief. "Broken ribs, arm on his left side. He had some internal bleeding, but they got that under control. They had to remove his spleen, but Jennings believes he's out of danger."

"Oh, thank God," Igraine said putting her arms around Gwen. "I'm so glad you were in there with him."

"Me, too," she said. "I think he felt me there. The heart monitor beeped a bit when I touched his face." Igraine chuckled and Gwen noticed that Aggie wasn't in the waiting room. "Where's Aggie?" Gwen asked.

"She felt faint," Tristan said. "Merlin took her down to the ER to get the doctors to have another look at her."

Camille came up to her stepdaughter and hugged her.

"We had the whole family praying," she said.

"Gwen, could I have a word with you in private?" Tristan asked.

"Sure," she said. She pulled away from Camille and walked down the hall with Uncle T. "What's up?"

"The suspect that Aggie and Arthur were transporting admitted to being hired help."

"For what? The accident?" Gwen asked and Tristan nodded. "Who would do something like that?"

"The suspect mentioned a name; Lancelot."

"No," Gwen said shaking her head. "He wouldn't do something this drastic," she said. "He's not that stupid."

"Jacobs and Kent went to question him and they found only his mother."

"You mean he's missing?" Tristan nodded.

"It only adds to his guilt, Gwen. We need to know any local haunts he would go to or friends who would house him." Gwen nodded.

"Okay," she said.

"In the meantime, I'm going to give you and Arthur a protection detail until we catch him." Gwen nodded again before going to the nurse's station to get some paper. She quickly wrote down some of Lancelot's haunts and all of his friends.

"These are all the places and people I can remember," she said handing Tristan the paper. The elevator dinged signaling that someone was on the floor and Aggie and Merlin walked off. "Aggie, are you okay?"

"Aggie has a concussion," Merlin announced. "We need to keep her alert and awake for the next couple of hours."

"How's Arthur?" Aggie asked. Gwen repeated what she said to Igraine and Aggie let out a sigh of relief. "Our suspect doesn't have scratch on him," she said. "Can you believe that?" she asked.

"Looks like keeping her awake and alert isn't going to be a problem," Camille said.

"They moved Arthur into Recovery until he wakes up," Gwen said. "I'm going to sit with him until he does."

"All right, dear," Camille said. "Don't forget to eat and sleep yourself." Gwen nodded headed to the Recovery Room.

"I better get that protection detail set up," Tristan said getting out his cellphone.

Gwen entered Recovery with her bag over her shoulder and found where Arthur was placed. She walked over to his bedside and pulled a chair up. He was due to wake up soon and she wanted him to see a familiar face. She sat down and pulled out a book from her bag. Keeping her right hand in Arthur's, she opened her book and began reading. An hour passed before Gwen felt the hand she was holding begin to move. She looked up from her book to see Arthur's eyes stirring under his eyelids. She closed her book and sat up in the bed. She got a better grip on Arthur's hand and kissed it. "Arthur, I need you to squeeze my hand if you can hear me," she said. He hand squeezed hers and she cried out for joy. Minutes later, brown eyes met blue when he slowly opened his and he saw Gwen sitting next to him. He tried to move his left arm, but it was still strapped to his body. Surgery still needed to be performed on it to set it right, but the doctors wanted to wait until he got stronger.

He felt something was keeping him from talking and he moved his right hand to it, but Gwen stopped him. "No, Arthur, that needs to stay in. You had a punctured lung that needs time to heal," she said. She reached into her bag and got a pencil and paper out. "Here. Use these," she said giving him the pencil. He wrote his first question.

What happened?

"The car you were driving was hit by a truck," Gwen said and Arthur wrote another question.

Aggie?

"She's fine," Gwen said. "She has a concussion, that's all."

Who hit us?

"They're still investigating, but your uncle thinks Lancelot is behind it." Arthur quickly scribbled onto the paper.

He left threats on my phone. I ignored them.

"Lance has disappeared. Uncle T's getting us a protection detail until he's caught."

I don't need one, but you do.

"Arthur, you've just recovered from major surgery and your left arm is broken. I don't think you'll be able to fend off Lancelot in your condition." Arthur went to write again, but Gwen stopped him. "You need some rest," she said. Arthur shook his head and gestured for the pencil. Gwen reluctantly gave it back to him and he wrote something before giving her the paper back.

I heard what you said when I was under. I was thinking at least three or four. Gwen chuckled as she nodded her head.

"Sounds good to me," she said. "Um, now that you're awake, they're going to move you into the ICU to monitor you closely. You're mum is anxious to see you. So I'm going to tell them you're awake and can be moved." Arthur nodded and Gwen leaned forward to kiss his forehead. "Just for the record, this was worse than when you got shot," she said. She heard Arthur scribble something and she looked down at the paper.

Duly noted.