Gah! Sorry it's been so long! Spring Break made me lazy! :\ I promise the chapter after this will be up a LOT sooner! :D Thanks for sticking with me!

Thanks so much to the wonderful reviewers: xsparklesthemagicalunicornx, katespc123, Mrz Letty Ortiz-Toretto (Thanks again for you message! It reminded me I hadn't updated in awhile!), Kalvin (Yes, it is unrealistic, but this is fiction and there's always medical exceptions and miracles. Guess this was one of them ;) )and Rue Dawn.

Thanks so much for your reviews and favorites, and alerts, etc! You guys are awesome!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Mickey and Alex

Diamond in the Rough

Chapter 31: Pain and Time

By: LoveInk

Michaela sat on the examination table waiting anxiously for the doctor to arrive. She'd just sat through an hour of x-rays and CT scans and all she wanted to do was go see her brother and Jesse. A tall blonde doctor came in looking younger than she would've liked. "Hello, I'm Dr. Kaine. I see you're here for a cast."

"Yes, sir," she said holding out her arm to him.

He put the x-rays up on the wall and studied them closely. "How'd you get this injury?"

"I jumped off a car," she said for what felt like the millionth time. She knew the reaction that was coming next.

"You jumped off a car and this was all that happened?"

Michaela nodded. "Broken wrist, some major road rash, and a few fracture ribs."

"That's it?" he questioned as he gently observed her arm. "You've been checked for internal bleeding?"

"Yep."

"Pelvis fractures?"

"Roger that."

"And they found nothing?"

"Nada. I've been given just about every x-ray, scan, test they could think of. I'm fine. A medical anomaly, I guess."

The doctor whistled. "How the hell did you manage that? What did you land on?"

She shrugged. "Dunno. I just jumped and rolled. I probably landed on my wrist seeing as it's the size of a balloon."

"You're a lucky girl."

"That's what I hear," she said on a nod.

He just shook his head, staring at her with a mixture of awe and reproach. "You know a lot of kids die from car-surfing accidents."

"I've got thick skin," she murmured, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. Not only was she an adult, but she hadn't been car-surfing for fun; she'd been trying to save her brother. "Are you going to put a cast on me or not, Doogie Howser?"

Alex stood at his bedside, unsure of what to do. It physically hurt her to look at him lying there still on the hospital bed. She sniffled as she felt a tear slip down her cheek. When had everything gotten so ugly? Shaking her head, she wiped at the tear and ran a hand through her hair.

Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to look at him. He looked awful, all pale and hooked up to more machines than she could count. His right arm was the most heavily bandaged part of his body. When the nurse had explained the damages, her jaw had dropped. A gunshot wound, deep laceration to his arm, extensive nerve damage. She'd said his arm would never be the same.

Would their relationship ever be the same, Alex wondered selfishly. It was hard to believe it would be. When she'd asked him if he trusted her and that look passed over his face…she felt liked her heart had been torn into pieces. Just looking at the ring made her feel sick to her stomach. It was lie. Everything he told her was a lie. Why had he asked her to marry him? She didn't understand.

"Hey you," a voice greeted. Alex whipped her head around to find Michaela standing at the door, a bright green cast on her arm. "Look, second one in a year. I should start a collection."

Alex gave her a soft smile as she wiped at the tears on her cheeks. "Green, huh?"

"Yeah. Doogie was out of blue," she said nodding as she stood next to Alex. "You all right?"

She shrugged a shoulder. "Yeah. I guess. I don't know."

"What happened?"

"Did you know why he wouldn't tell me about the races?"

Michaela nodded her head in response. She felt her heart sink as Alex scoffed, pain flooding into her green eyes. Quickly, she tried to make it better. "Lex, this isn't about us."

"I know, I know," she said, trying to keep from getting angry. "I just…why don't you guys trust me?"

"It's a protection thing, Lex. It's not you personally, it's a defensive mechanism."

Alex shook her head, she didn't buy it. "Defense mechanism my ass," she muttered under her breath.

Michaela winced as her stomach twisted in a painful cramp. "Ouch, shit," she grumbled, sitting down in the chair. "Leave it to Mother Nature to make her appearance now. Gone for a month and then bam! Stupid."

Alex's eyes widened. "You skipped a period, Michaela?"

"Jeez. Say it louder, why don't you?" she grumbled in response. "Yeah, but it's probably just late. I've been stressed all right? Letty hasn't had hers either."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, we get them at the same time. It's just been an off couple of weeks, you know? And with ballet and everything, you know how irregular dancers can be." She rubbed a hand over her bandaged stomach, looking up at Alex who was still looking at her with wide, scared eyes. "What? Don't look at me like that! What's wrong with you?"

"Mickey, you might be pregnant."

"We use protection. I'm not an idiot. I'm on the pill and like I said, Letty's been off too. It's stress."

Alex shook her head slowly. "Letty might be pregnant too."

"Oh fuck off, Alex. Don't worry about it. I would've known by now. Don't pregnant people get morning sickness?"

"Weren't you sick this morning?"

"No, I was dehydrated this afternoon," Michaela said, waving her off. "Morning sickness only happens in the morning. I'm not pregnant. End of story."

Alex could tell if she pushed it anymore, Michaela would get mad and she didn't need that to add on to the growing list of things that had gone wrong. "Did you tell the doctor?"

"No. The doctor was checking my wrist not my stomach," Michaela explained with a roll of her eyes. The thought of the blood tests that had yet to be analyzed popped into her head, but she pushed it away. She would definitely know if she was pregnant. "Anyways, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I need time to think."

"So you're going to leave?"

Alex nodded slowly. "My mom, dad, and sister just got back from their vacation. I might go stay with them for a little while. They've been gone for a few weeks so they don't know about…all this. It'll be nice to be somewhere I don't have to talk about it."

Michaela understood her need to get away. If Leon had done the same thing to her, she'd be running away too. "I don't know how I'm going to tell him."

"Oh, I'm going to tell him," she answered confidently. "I'm not just going to leave him here, Mickey. I'm mad at him, but I still love him. I'll wait until he wakes up."

Michaela took the time to really look over her friend. She'd never noticed how strong a person Alex was. Usually, she just saw her as the silly short girl who danced her way through life. Always smiling and making jokes. She never saw this serious, strong side of Alex. "You going to be okay?"

"I just need time," Alex repeated. She felt like a broken record. Who was she kidding? She didn't need time, she needed advice, but there's was no one to go to.

"Where are you going home to?" Michaela asked out of the blue when she realized she had no idea where Alex was running off to. "I mean, I don't think you ever told us where you're from."

She shrugged a shoulder. "No one asked."

"I'm asking."

"I'm from San Francisco, originally," Alex explained softly. "Grew up there with Ed and Ron right next door. When I was sixteen, I left to go on tour and our families moved up to Lake Tahoe so that's where I'll be going."

Michaela bobbed her head up and down as she listened. She was about to ask more questions when Mia entered the room, a sad look on her face. "How's Jess, Mi?"

"What's wrong with Jesse?" Alex asked before Mia could answer.

Mia sighed and ran a hand through her long hair. "Tran came by and shot him."

Alex gasped, tears coming to her eyes. She'd had a feeling the thing with Tran wasn't over at Race Wars; she just didn't think Tran would take it out on Jesse. "Is he all right?"

"I don't know," she answered on a shrug. "He's still in surgery."

"Where's Leon?" Alex questioned, surprised that her brother wasn't in there worried as hell. She watched as Michaela's jaw clenched and instantly regretted the question.

Michaela cleared her throat. "I...uh…I told him to leave with Let. I didn't want her going alone."

Alex blinked, surprised by the selfless act. Michaela was, by nature, a selfish person. She admitted it and was proud of it. "Does he know about Jess?" Alex asked.

She shook her head in response. "No," she said softly. "How am I supposed to tell him? He'll come right back here, Lex. He can't go to jail. I won't let that happen."

"This is his best friend, Michaela, his brother. You can't keep this from him."

"Dom will tell him when he gets there. By then, the coast will be clear. We'll be fine," she explained as though she'd thought it through.

Alex shook her head, that wasn't right. Leon was not going to be happy about that. "Michaela…"

"You tell him and I won't talk to you ever again, Alex. I know you think you're his sister, but you're not. Not really. So stay out of our business."

Alex tried not to be hurt over the harshness of Michaela's words. She was right after all; she wasn't really Leon's sister nor did she have any real connections to the team or their family other than Vince, and that connection was about to be torn. "You're right," she said on a sigh. "No worries. I'll be gone before I'll get a chance to talk to Lee anyway."

"You're not leaving," Mia stated, her brown eyes taking on a stubborn look. "Don't listen to Michaela. She's being an idiot."

"I am not!" she shouted loudly. "I'm being right! Leon can't go to jail! They'll kill him in there! He's not big and scary like our brothers!"

While they took their argument outside, Alex's eyes fell back onto Vince. His brow was furrowed, but his eyes were still closed. She slowly made her way over to the bed. She wanted to grab his hand but couldn't bring herself to do it; instead she grabbed the bed railing. It took a minute, but his beautiful blue eyes opened slowly and landed on her. "Hi," she greeted softly.

" 'm surprised you're here," he croaked back, his eyes blinking open and closed as they adjusted to the bright light.

"I wanted to make sure you were all right."

He nodded, reaching up his good hand and running it through his hair. His movements were as slow as molasses, an indication that he wasn't all the way awake. " 'm fine," he said sarcastically. "You stayin' for awhile?"

"No," she replied honestly. She didn't want to get his hopes up. "Just wanted to make sure you're all right."

"Where you goin'?"

"I'm going to go to my parents' for a bit. They just got home from Europe so…"

He nodded again. "I figured. I really fucked up, huh?"

She shrugged a shoulder. "Just get better, okay?" she asked, leaning over to press a kiss to his forehead. She noticed his eyes were slowly drooping closed, apparently the drugs hadn't worn off completely yet.

"Tiny, you'll come back to me, right?" he managed to ask just before he fell asleep.

A sad smile tilted up the corner of her mouth. "We'll see."

Disclaimer 2: I do not own Doogie Howser, but i LOVE Neil Patrick Harris. :) If you missed the reference, its an old 80s show about a kid doctor staring NPH :D

Thanks for reading! As always, your reviews are well loved and much appreciated! :)

~Love Ink