It was f**king selfish, that's what it was. She could have gotten herself killed and left him all alone. Did she even think about what her dying would do to him?

No.

It was so f**king important to her to be one of the guys that she never once stopped to think how it would affect him if something happened to her. If something happened to her he would-

"The three of them attacked him! He was forced to defend himself," the social worker declared loudly, drawing the attention of everyone in the crowded waiting room.

"Ma'am, you don't know the full story," Bill said, keeping his tone polite, but Eric knew the man was pissed. Not even an hour ago he'd been in the nurses' break room when Bill stormed into the room after seeing Joe and slammed the door shut. Then for good measure he kicked a few chairs across the room.

After a rather loud shouting match between them and two nurses running away from the room in a panic they calmed down enough for him to tell Bill what went down. Hearing what happened only seemed to enrage the man more and set off another bout of chair kicking.

Eric would have joined him if a doctor hadn't shown up at that moment to ask about Joe's closest relative, nearly taking twenty years off his life. After explaining that they needed permission to treat her because she was still unconscious he reluctantly explained that she didn't have any relatives.

He certainly didn't count her mother since no one had seen or heard from her in almost fifteen years. When the doctor refused to explain what was wrong or what they needed to do, he of course lied and told him that he was Joe's medical proxy. Although technically it wasn't lying since they had filled out the paperwork, but they forgot to have it notarized.

It took a few minutes of arguing and Bill flat out lying to back him up to convince the doctor, but finally he relented. They'd already ruled out a spinal injury as well as a skull fracture, but he was positive she had a concussion and they required permission to treat the deep gash along her temple. He quickly gave it and obediently followed a nurse to the waiting area to fill out her paperwork.

The paperwork hadn't provided the distraction he needed. In less than five minutes he had it filled out and returned to the triage station. He'd hoped it would take longer so he didn't have to think about Joe being helpless and alone.

"I know that three so called professionals took it upon themselves to gang up on a helpless man," she said with an indignant sniff. "Thanks to their brutal tactics that poor man is in there getting his broken arm fixed."

Yeah, he broke the little bastard's arm. Did he care? Not one f**king bit. He knew without a doubt that if the little bastard had gotten his hand on the gun he would have shot them and everyone in that house. Throw in the fact that he'd attacked Joe when she was bleeding and down and would have probably killed her with his bare hands if Eric hadn't grabbed him then he would say the guy had got off pretty lucky.

"If they'd done their jobs properly my client would not be-"

"And if you had done your job," Eric snapped, sick of her bullshit, as he got to his feet, "then you would have known that facility was not providing him with proper care and that he needed a medical intervention. If you had done your f**king job we wouldn't be here right now and my partner and an officer would not be stuck in this hospital getting patched up."

Tyler had suffered dozens of bites, scratches, and punches requiring god only knows how many stitches and shots. By the time backup had arrived he'd looked like he went ten rounds with a tiger.

"Eric," Bill said tightly, "I'll handle this."

"How dare you?" the social worker hissed. "It's not my fault that my client was attacked. He has several neurological problems and you were well aware of that fact. You knew he has bipolar and schizophrenia! Knowing that you should have-"

"I'll be sure to tell his family that you took the time to announce his private medical information to a roomful of strangers. I'm sure they'll appreciate that," Eric drawled, cutting her off. He ignored her outraged sputtering and headed for the double doors of the emergency room. He was tired of waiting.

The double doors abruptly opened just as a nurse called out. "You can't leave!"

Eric sighed long and loud as he watched Joe storm, half stumble, into the ER waiting room with her light blue uniformed shirt untucked and bloodstained, her boots untied and a large white gauze pad taped to her forehead, barely covering the large bruise peeking out to complete the ensemble. He'd like to say he was surprised that she was trying to haul ass A.M.A. (against medical advice) this early in the game, but sadly he wasn't.

Nothing pissed Joe off more than being told what to do, which of course meant he was going to have to resort to lying and manipulation to make sure that her sweet ass never touched the tech bench in the back of an ambulance ever again.

Joe leveled a glare on him when she spotted him. She pointed an accusing finger in his direction, barely righting herself as she stumbled on her own two feet. "Don't think you're getting out of buying me a steak dinner tonight, you cheap bastard!"

*******

"I. Hate. You," Joe bit out evenly as she watched Eric savor another bite of the steak that should rightfully be hers.

"Mmmm, this was a really good idea tonight," he said, taking a sip of her beer.

"You're dead to me," she groaned just as another wave of nausea took over. Slapping a hand over her mouth, she quickly crawled off her bed and made a mad dash to the bathroom. She just barely made it to the toilet when the ginger ale Eric had forced her to drink ten minutes earlier made another appearance.

Her head pounded, sending a fresh wave of nausea to her stomach. She gripped the sides of the toilet and held on for dear life as she lost the rest of the contents of her stomach. Dizziness took over, from the local anesthesia that had upset her stomach in the first place or the searing pain behind her eyes, she wasn't sure.

"Let's get you into bed before you slam your head and I end up having to bring you back to the hospital for more stitches," Eric said in a soothing voice as he gently picked her up and carried her back to her bed.

She couldn't help but glare at the take out container that held the remains of her juicy steak. "You could have waited until tomorrow night," she mumbled pathetically.

"I believe you requested your steak dinner tonight," Eric reminded her with a smug grin.

"You know I get sick from anesthesia! You could have waited!" she said a little too loudly, causing the pain behind her eyes to explode. She sucked in a breath as she buried her face in her pillow, hoping it would just go away. When it didn't she focused on not crying. No matter what she would never allow herself to cry. Crying was a waste of energy and didn't do anyone a damn bit of good.

From somewhere above her she heard Eric soft curse followed by his footsteps as he walked away. She forced herself to focus on relaxing her breathing. A moment later the pounding had somewhat dulled, allowing her to curl up on her side, facing away from the television and small lamp near her desk.

A minute later Eric knelt in front of her with what looked like another glass of ginger ale and the bottle of generic aspirin she kept in the kitchen.

"Open up," he said softly. When she grudgingly did as he asked he dropped three pills in her mouth. "Swallow," he said, holding the glass to her mouth. With a roll of her eyes she did just that.

Eric watched her intently as he gently ran his fingers through her hair, pushing it out of her face. After a minute he sighed softly. "You need the pain medication they prescribed to you."

She started to shake her head only to remember that right now that wasn't such a good idea. "I can't take that while I'm working," she pointed out, cringing from the new onslaught of pain that accompanied speaking.

"Since you're not going to work for a few days I don't see the problem," Eric happily announced, cutting off any protests she'd like to make by forcing her to drink more ginger ale. So she just glowered at him.

When he decided she'd drank enough he removed the cup and placed it by her bed. He stood up and pulled the covers over her. "I don't like the idea of leaving you alone to go pick up the pills."

"Then don't. I don't need them. I'm fine," she lied, feeling like someone dropped kicked her in the head. Considering she slammed her head into the butt of a gun it was probably a pretty fair description.

He continued as if she hadn't spoken. "So, I called-"

"If you tell me that you called mom," she said, cutting him off, "I will kick your ass."

Eric picked up an ice pack and gently placed it against her forehead. "It would serve you right if I did," he mumbled, ignoring her frown. "But no, I realized calling mom would only set off that stubborn streak of yours and piss me off when she started barking orders."

Relieved, she laid back and allowed him to place her hand over the ice pack to keep it in place. The last thing she needed was for Alice to come here and fuss over her. As much as she loved the woman, and she did, she tended to turn into a mother hen when one of them was sick.

Then there was her tendency to act like a drill sergeant to everyone around them who wasn't sick. She still cringed when she thought about the time Nathan caught Mono. Alice being Alice of course fussed over him, making sure everyone of his needs was met whether he wanted them met or not. She probably would have found the whole thing funny if she hadn't been regulated to what Alice liked to call, "Disinfectant duty."

For the first day Eric and she were forced to clean anything and everything Nathan might have come into contact with. It hadn't mattered that Mono couldn't be spread by touching the bricks in the fire place. They were scrubbed within an inch of their lives along with everything else in the house. The second day and every day afterwards until Nathan was better was spent on cleaning his room, bathroom and laundry. The only thing that saved Nathan from getting his ass kicked when they had to wash his dirty underwear and sheets was that he had it worse with Alice fussing all over him for every little thing.

She really didn't want to deal with Alice on top of everything else right now. Not that she would admit it to Eric, but she was still pretty shaken up by what happened earlier tonight. They'd had a lot of close calls over the years, but tonight's experience easily surpassed every single one of them.

On more than one call she'd wondered if they were going to be hurt or maimed, but she'd never actually feared one of them could be killed. There was no doubt in her mind that if the patient had managed to get the gun away from them he would have shot at least one of them and she'd been terrified that it would have been Eric.

"Hey," Eric said softly as he knelt on the floor next to the bed. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said, forcing a weak smile. "I was just thinking of the lecture mom would give me if she found out I left the hospital A.M.A." Which was a lie, because Alice wouldn't lecture her, she'd simply drag her sorry ass back to the hospital, kicking and screaming.