Sorry for the delay. Between sickness, holiday travel, and the fits my A thread chapter has given me, this is the soonest I could get it posted. Thanks for reading!

"Oh, hey there, Sheriff. We really need to stop meeting like this." I'm on my way upstairs when I ran into Dr. Weston in the hallway.

"Hey Doc. How is she?"

"She's holding her own but we're still keeping her sedated for now. The swelling hasn't gotten any worse, but there hasn't been any improvement either. We'll take her for another scan tomorrow morning to see how she's progressing."

"Why..., how, uh, how did this happen? She'd come back to work and seemed to be doing okay."

"She likely would have been fine if she hadn't suffered that second injury. That's why we always encourage caution with concussions. To re-injure the brain before it has fully healed can lead to even more severe damage."

"Second injury?"

Dr. Weston's pager sounds and he starts to walk away as soon as he checks it, "I'm sorry. I have to take this, I'll come find you later and we can talk some more."

I make my way to the ICU and a nurse buzzes me into the locked double doors. She points down the short hallway, "Room 5." She doesn't ask who I'm there to see. I guess I should have expected that. I take off my hat as I approach the open door of Vic's room and start sliding my hands along the brim. It's a habit I have when I find myself in an uncomfortable situation. I can see the end of the bed. Ruby's sitting in the chair in the corner reading a magazine. I freeze and stand just outside in the hallway for a minute before Ruby notices me. I can't seem to make my feet move forward. Ruby smiles, puts down the magazine and stands, "Walter, it's good you're here."

I nod slightly but still don't move.

Ruby glances over at the bed before making her way out into the hallway, "You had everyone a little worried. Nobody knew where you were."

I look at the floor. Once again my selfishness had hurt others, "Sorry, Ruby. I, uh, was taking care of something."

She pats my arm "It's okay, you're here now. Don't you want to go in and see her?"

I shake my head, "I, uh...I don't know if I..."

"That is why you're here isn't it?"

I nod. She wraps her hand around my arm and walks me into Vic's room, "Dr. Weston was in about an hour ago. He's very optimistic about her recovery. Since the swelling hasn't increased he said he's fairly certain it will resolve on it's own and he won't need to go in to relieve the pressure surgically."

I keep my eyes on Ruby because I can't bring myself to look at Vic, "Has someone called Shaun? Is he here?"

Ruby seems to hesitate a moment before answering, "Shaun is aware of her condition and no, he isn't back in Durant but we can talk about that later. Right now why don't you have a seat." She pulls the chair over to the side of the bed, "You know the drill. You should talk to her, let her know you're here. I'm going to go get us both some coffee."

Ruby leaves me alone and I can no longer keep from facing the reality lying in the bed before me. It's never easy to see someone you care about hooked up to machines in the hospital. Unfortunately it's been all too common an experience for me. I had thought there couldn't be any worse feeling than to be at my wife's side as she took her last breath, hearing the long beep indicating her heart had stopped beating. I was wrong. Seeing my child hooked up to machines, wondering if she was going to survive, was much worse. Now I find myself once more sitting at the bedside of a woman who holds my heart in the palm of her hands and I'm helpless to do anything. All the things I take pride in, that make me who I am, are useless in this place.

The sound of the ventilator fills the small room. It seems to mark the passage of time like the ticking of a clock but I'm not keeping up very well. I start to reach for her but stop myself before I can stretch the distance to the bed. I clinch my fingers together tightly and tap my fist on my knee as I try to keep my eyes looking anywhere but her face. I study the details of her hand. It's not the first time I have looked at her hands as a way to refocus when my mind has wandered somewhere it shouldn't have gone. Concentrating on her wedding band has always provided a reminder to keep my thoughts and actions in check, even when I don't want to. I'm having a hard time doing that right now though. The fear coursing through me is keeping me from caring a whole hell of a lot whether Vic is married or not. All I care about right now is whether she's going to be okay. She has to be okay. I finally raise my eyes to look at her partially obscured face. I know they'll keep her intubated as long as she is sedated but I'm sure hoping that won't be for much longer. I put my head down trying to stay calm and ease the ache that has taken up residence in my chest. I'm not sure how long I have sat there when I hear footsteps enter the room. I assume it's the nurse and keep my face pointed toward the floor. I'm not ready to endure the empathetic look that is sure to be present.

"Walter"

It's not the nurse. I look up and see that Ruby has returned with coffee, and reinforcements. I'd managed to keep my emotions under control up to this point but when my eyes meet Cady's the tears start to quietly run down my face. She walks over, sits in my lap and wraps her arms around me like she has since she was a little girl. If I thought I had let out all the lingering emotions over Martha's death when I'd scattered her ashes, I was wrong. Seeing Vic in the hospital bed brought the loss right back. I was reliving not only all the pain I felt at losing Martha, but also the fear I had seeing Cady unconscious in the same hospital, as well as the anger at Henry's arrest.

"It's okay, Daddy." Cady holds me tight and takes it all in. When my breathing starts to steady and the shaking subsides she stands and takes my arm, "Come on. Ruby will stay here with Vic."

I let her lead me out of the room and down the hall where Henry is waiting.

"The charge nurse said we could have some privacy in here." He leads us into an empty patient room and closes the door.

"Walt, I know you are concerned about Vic right now, but we need to talk. Do you think you can focus enough to hear what I am going to tell you?"

"No. I need to know how this happened. I saw the doctor in the hallway on my way up here. He said something about a second injury but then he got called off to another case before he could tell me what he was talking about."

Henry looks at Cady and she nods, "The doctor thinks that Vic may have suffered additional damage from when she was punched in the face."

I press my lips together, not wanting to say the words I know to be true, "You mean from when I punched her in the face." I had done it again: hurt someone I loved. I've always felt that both Martha and Cady had suffered for the sins I had committed and now Vic is too.

"Before you start blaming yourself, Dad, they don't know for sure it was that. You know how Vic pushes herself. She's a lot like you in that way. She doesn't slow down, even when she needs to. She's running full steam ahead all time."

Cady's right about that.

"Walt, we are all concerned about Vic and I do not want to take away from that, but there is more you need to know."

I can tell by the tone of Henry's voice that he has something to tell me that I won't necessarily want to hear. I set my hat on the empty bed and rub my face with my hands, "What is it."