A/N: Prompt: Rory Gets Hurt

'Gail, GAIL' Gail holds her phone a little further away from her ear so she doesn't lose her hearing with Holly yelling down the phone.

'Holly, relax, I can hear you, is everything ok? Why are you yelling?'

'It's Rory, he got hurt at school and they're taking him to hospital, can you meet me there?' Holly manages to get out between deep breaths in an attempt to calm down slightly.

'Holly what happened? Is he ok?'

'He fell off the climbing frame, and they said he fell pretty far and maybe has a broken arm, but I'm not sure'

'Ok Hols, which hospital?'

'Toronto General, where are you? Will it take you long to get there?' Holly is doing her best to stay calm but Gail can hear she is holding back tears.

'Yeah, I'm only a few minutes away, are you at work?' Gail responds.

'Yeah I'm just leaving the morgue, I'll be at least 20 minutes'

'Ok i'll make sure our boy is ok, you just drive safe ok, I'll see you soon'.

/

When Gail arrives at the emergency room she runs straight to the front desk and asks to see Rory, as she doesn't recognise anyone around as being from his school. 'Ma'am who are you? I can't allow just anyone in to see a child, are you his guardian?' The receptionist asks. 'Well no, not legally, but I live with him, I'm engaged to his mother'

'I'm sorry Ma'am but I can only let legal guardians in to be with him, you'll have to wait until his mother arrives' as the woman finishes speaking Gail hears a distinctive cry from the room behind her

'Is he in there? Is that him crying?' She asks the woman rather loudly 'You have to let me in there, he's in pain and he's probably terrified, please, please let me in' Gail is not above begging where Rory is concerned, especially when he is pain.

'Ma'am I'm sorry but I have to follow protocol, he has a teacher with him. Now the waiting area is just around the corner' the woman turns away from Gail and starts typing on her computer.

Gail is getting more and more concerned, after hearing Rory cry out loudly she doesn't want to be away from him for a moment longer. While the woman's back is still turned Gail decides her best option is to just make a break for it, she can deal with the consequences later. She runs up to the door she is sure she heard Rory behind just a minute ago and eases it open quietly, 'Ma'am you cannot go in there! I expressly told you to go to the waiting area!' the receptionist finally turns around to see Gail peeking into the room to make sure it was the correct one.

Gail lets out a deep breath when she see's Rory lying on the bed, looking a bit sad but not too badly hurt. He looks up and spots her at the door 'GAIL' he calls out.

'Hi Baby, how are you? Did you get hurt?'.

The receptionist bustles in behind her 'Ma'am I have to ask you to leave or I'm going to call security'

'NO, Gail please don't go' Rory calls out.

'Excuse me are you this boy's mother?' The doctor in the room asks.

'No, I'm not his legal guardian, but I'm engaged to his mother, who will be here any minute, but Rory is only 6 and I didn't want him to be alone until she got here, so please let me stay. You can clearly see he knows who I am and he wants me to stay' Gail pleads.

The teacher who has been silently waiting with Rory speaks up 'excuse me doctor but Gail is very familiar to us at the school, she lives with Rory and she is his mother in every way except legally, there is no reason she should not be allowed to stay'.

The doctor looks conspiratorially at Rory 'What do you think little man? Should I let her stay?' 'Yes please' Rory responds.

'It's alright Agnes, she can stay, he shouldn't have to be without a parent when there is one here for him, now, Gail is it?' Gail nods, thoroughly relieved 'Rory here has got quite a bad break in his arm, which will need a cast and he banged his head quite badly when he fell, so we'll be keeping him in overnight to monitor him for a concussion, but he should make a quick recovery and you can bring him home tomorrow. Would you like to come over here and hold his hand while I give him his cast?' the doctor asks.

Gail nods again and rushes over to Rory's side and places a gentle kiss on his forehead 'Hi Bud, how are you feeling?'

'I'm ok Gail, but I fell off the jungle gym'

'Yeah I heard about that, I also heard you crying while I was waiting outside, were you hurting pretty badly?'

'Yeah' Rory responds getting a little tearful.

The doctor responds with more detail than Rory 'I had to examine his arm, and it hurt him a little, but he was very brave'.

Just then Holly rushes into the room and over to Rory's side and the doctor explains everything once again, while Holly reaches out to wrap her hand around Rory's good hand which Gail is still holding.

/

Later that evening after Rory has been fitted with a lovely green cast and is resting in his room for the night Gail explains to Holly what happened when she first arrived at the hospital.

'Wow, what an awful woman' Holly exclaims.

'She was just doing her job Hols, according to the law I'm no more of a relation to Rory than some stranger off the street, and we should probably be happy that they don't let just any old people in to see patients'.

'Yeah I suppose, but still, it's probably high time we did something to change that'

'Change what?' Gail asks.

'Your relationship to Rory, it's never really been an issue before, but if you want to, I would love for you to adopt him'.

'Wow' Gail lets a out a deep breath 'that's a big step'.

'Gail we're engaged, we're all about big steps these days! I know now more than ever, that if anything were to happen to me there's no one else I would rather take care of him than you. You're always going to be in his life no matter what, so this would just confirm that, if you want to that is?'.

'Holly, of course this is something I want, I love Rory, more than I ever thought possible, he makes my life so much better every day. But I would like to talk to him about it first, to make sure he's ok with it?'

'Yeah of course, we can talk to him once he's feeling better' Holly agrees.

Holly snuggles in closer to Gail on the cot they are currently sharing, and the two of them drift into a light sleep, happy in the knowledge that their little boy is sleeping peacefully and that their family is taking one step closer to being complete.