Max looked up at her, drawing in a struggled breath as Henry manoeuvred his right arm out from underneath his own body. He felt the bones jar and grate, a woozy nausea lurching in his stomach as his arm was moved to press against his chest.

Zoe looked down at him, just looked. She had yet to say a word, her lips parted, a frown furrowed at her forehead. She stared into his eyes as he winced and Henry held out a hand to him.

"Can you get up?"

He asked as Max glanced at him, clasping the outstretched hand clumsily with his left hand and pulling himself up to a sitting position before standing gingerly.

"Where's the girl?"

He asked, looking toward the bench. Nobody seemed to know, the odd person turning their head to look for her but she had disappeared into the night.

"Zoe, can you call 911? Cops and ambulance?"

Henry dug the cell phone from his pocket.

"Zoe?"

He called her name again. She had stood risen from where she sat slowly, looking again toward Max, her face so pale she looked as though she might vomit.

"911?"

He tossed the phone to her, she only just caught it, fumbling with it against her chest and staring down at it for a moment before her brain seemed to catch up with the command he'd given her. She unlocked the phone and began to dial.

"Wait wait wait..."

Max looked from Zoe to Henry. Zoe seemed to flinch at the sound of his voice.

"Don't call an ambulance..."

He looked back toward Zoe, his lip was bleeding, cars were honking, tires were slipping and people shouted in the distance.

Henry put a hand on his back, his palm warm through the thin material of his coat.

"You've got a couple broken fingers and your shoulder's been pulled out of it's socket, you're going to need to get checked over."

He spoke loudly over the blare of a juggernaut in the distance. The crowd were slowly beginning to disperse.

"I haven't got insurance."

Max touched his lip as he spoke, feeling a dribble of blood slide across his bottom lip towards his chin.

Henry paused.

"Are you on holiday?"

He asked, realising his accent and looking him up and down. He didn't look the sort to be on holiday, unshaven, grease thickened hair and the smell of yesterdays sweat.

"Uh...no. Not really."

He looked back at Zoe, willing her to say something.

Henry followed his gaze, her expression must have given something away because he moved over to her, placing both hands on her shoulders and looking into her face to gain her attention.

"Do you know him?"

He asked, lowering his voice.

She watched Max, he lowered his gaze, holding his right arm up against his chest with his left. His fingers were swollen and crooked, encrusted with blood and shards of dirt from the ground.

She nodded slightly.

"Friend or foe?"

He asked, his voice softer still, searching her eyes, the glitter of tears pricking their corners.

"You can go back to the bar, I can call an ambulance. You don't need to deal with this if there's something you can't tell me..."

He seemed to enjoy playing the macho man. She smiled a hesitant smile, looking back up at him and shaking her head.

"He's ok..."

She whispered, looking again at Max as Henry turned back to him.

"You need to get checked out."

He repeated, taking a firm grip on Max's shoulder and gesturing to Zoe to dial again.

"No, seriously..."

Max tried to move from the grasp Henry had on his shoulder but found his grip stronger than he'd thought and as he moved it hardened all the more, he looked up at Henry, his eyes meeting his own, a cool steel blue silently challenging him.

"I haven't got any money."

He said, speaking slowly, as if to a child.

Zoe hovered her thumb over the call button, '911' in large white print on the screen of the phone.

"You can sort everything out once we've got you to the hospital."

Max looked up at the sky, exasperated.

"I can't pay! I. Have. No. Money. Not here, not at home. I'll be fine, I can wait...I just need to speak to you."

He turned his attention away from Henry and looked over to Zoe who still seemed unable to function. She looked at him, the dark half-circles under his heady blue eyes, his lips, those lips...the kisses she'd had from those lips. She pressed call and held the phone to her ear.

"Zoe?!"

Again he tried to move toward her but Henry held him back, his grip now so tight on his shoulder that he could feel the bones grind in their places as he tried to pull away.

He listened as she ordered an ambulance, her voice had never sounded so strained, so far away.

She hung up and passed the phone back to Henry.

"I'll pay."

She said flatly, placing a hand against her forehead briefly touching it with her fingertips.

"No. Zoe..."

"If you don't see someone, you risk infection, you risk nerve damage in your fingers and your shoulder...you risk never being able to play that again."

She spoke suddenly, the words louder than she meant for them to be and she gestured limply to the guitar that rested still underneath the bench.

"I will pay."

She said again, quieter this time, watching his eyes linger on the guitar case.

"Zoe...do you realise how much it will be? The ambulance and treatment fees, the x-ray...medication..."

Zoe made a non-committal hand gesture, silencing him, her eyes unmoving from Max's own.

The long low wail of a siren could be heard as the ambulance headed in their direction.

"I don't care."

She whispered as the lights of the ambulance flared and flickered in the distance.

xxx