“Dec, stop. Just don’t go there.”

Before he could respond, Mac was pulling up to the doors of the emergency room. Without waiting for the truck to come to a complete stop, Declan jumped out his door and bolted into hospital and to the reception desk. “Ella Webber, where is she?”

The woman behind the desk looked up with an annoyed expression on her face. “Excuse me, sir?”

“Ella Webber,” he growled. “She was brought in a few hours ago. Where is she?”

“Declan?” He whirled around to find Julie standing before him, obviously on duty. He’d forgotten that she worked at this hospital. He reached out to her like a lifeline.

“Ellie’s here somewhere. Damn it, please, please find out what’s going on.”

Julie was already running toward the doors to the nurses’ station as she yelled over her shoulder, “Webber, right?”

He was pacing the floor, not so patiently waiting, when Mac walked in. “What do we know?”

“Not a fucking thing,” he snapped. Just as he turned to go back to the reception desk, a much more subdued Julie walked back toward him. “What?” He didn’t realize that his voice had now taken on a pleading tone.

She took his arm and pulled him over to a sitting area in the corner. “I’m just going to give this to you straight, okay?”

“Yeah, shit, give it to me.”

She took his hand, holding it firmly while looking him dead center in the eyes. “It’s bad, Declan. She has internal bleeding that they believe is coming from a ruptured spleen. Her pelvis is fractured and her shoulder is dislocated. On top of that, she is pretty banged up.”

He jumped to his feet, “I need to see her.”

Julie came up with him, holding him back. “You can’t right now. They’re prepping her for surgery.”

He was pushing Julie aside, determined to get to Ella before Mac grabbed him. He swung around, full of pain and anguish. “Take your fucking hands off of me, man. I’ve got to get to her. I have to help her.”

“Dec, you’re not going to help that girl if you barge back there and cause a commotion. You need to let them do their job.”

“I . . . I need to see her. She doesn’t know. What if something happens to her and she never knows?”

Both Mac and Julie looked confused. “Brother, what are you talking about?”

A single tear ran down his face as he whispered, “I love her. She doesn’t know that I love her. She’s my fucking life. I’ll never live through it if my Ellie doesn’t make it. I wouldn’t want to.”

Julie stepped forward, a determined look on her face. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to try to get you back there for a minute while she is wheeled down to the operating room. You have to leave when I tell you or we will both be escorted out of here by the police.”

He followed her through the emergency room doors and down one of the vast hallways. The air was heavy with the smell of disinfectant and the noise level seemed deafening to him after the relative peace of the waiting room. When they approached a set of double doors with a sign reading, “Trauma 4,” Julie told him to wait while she went in and cleared his visit. He tried to control the shaking in his limbs as he braced to see what awaited him on the other side of the doors. Julie finally opened a door and motioned him inside. A nurse stood at the head of the bed checking an IV monitor. He was dimly aware of Julie promising her that they would be gone in two minutes. She touched Declan on the arm and told him she would be right outside and that he didn’t have long before they would take her to surgery.

His beautiful Ellie lay in the bed, very pale and still against the white sheets. One side of her face was filled with a long, red angry looking road rash. The sheet hid the rest of her injuries. She looked so peaceful lying there almost as if she were just sleeping and had not been involved in a serious accident. He approached the bed and took her hand gingerly, afraid to do anything to cause her further pain. He had no idea if she could hear him. “Ellie, baby, I’m here.” He used his other hand to gently push the hair back from her face, tenderly stroking her uninjured cheek. “I’m so sorry, baby, so damn sorry.”

When he leaned down to kiss her, he was shocked to see her eyes twitch before opening just the barest slit. Her lips trembled, but no sound emerged from them. He knew his time was almost up. He put his lips against her ear whispering, “I love you, Ellie. Please don’t leave me.” He could have sworn that her finger pressed against his hand for just a brief moment, but he wasn’t sure if he had just imagined it because he wanted so badly to believe that she had heard him.

Julie came back in, her eyes gentle with understanding. “We’ve got to go. They’re coming in for her now. I promise, I’ll let you know everything that’s going on.” He gave Ella one last soft kiss and backed away from her bed just as two nurses came into the room and started preparations to roll the bed down the hall. He followed Julie out feeling like his heart was being ripped from his chest.

What he walked into in the waiting room made him wish that he had stayed in the hallway. Ella’s parents and sister had arrived and, from the looks of things, they had offended everyone there in the short time he was gone. Nick’s face was flushed and Beth was holding onto his arm, speaking quietly in his ear. Gray appeared to be holding Suzy back bodily and even Ava looked like she was seconds from attack mode. Walking up to Mac, he asked, “What the hell’s going on?”

Mac grimaced, “If those are gonna be your in-laws at some point, you should probably go ahead and bail now. No one would blame you. The mother is a real piece of work. She came barging in with the father and girl trailing behind her. Instead of asking how her daughter is doing, she starts attacking Beth and even throws in an insult about God punishing Ella because she’s friends with an unwed mother. Beth took it better than most would but her sister and Nick are about to go ape shit. I hate to throw this on you now, but you probably need to do something quick before this gets worse.”

“Fuck,” Declan muttered under his breath. This kind of drama was the last thing he needed, but he owed it to Ella to take care of this for her. She would be horrified about her mother hurting her best friend. If he could deflect some of the anger onto himself and save a riot, then that’s what he had to do. Stepping forward, he had a strong urge to tuck his tail and run when Ella’s family zeroed in on him. “Mr. and Mrs. Webber. I’m glad you are here.” Shit, he actually got that out with a straight face. “I know you’re worried about Ella. They just took her back to surgery and my friend, Julie,” he looked around, but Julie had apparently taken one look at the situation and decided to bail, “Well, she is a nurse here and she has promised to keep us all updated.”

“Who put you in charge of my daughter’s affairs?” her mother snapped. Waving her hands around to include everyone, “If it weren’t for all of you people, this would have never happened to Ella. She would be safely at home right now instead of in some hospital.”

Ella’s father and sister had been quiet through the exchange up until that point. Her father stepped forward and laid a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “Dot, this is not the place.”

Crystal stepped up beside her father saying, “I agree with Daddy. This isn’t doing Ella any good. We don’t even know what happened.”

Her mother huffed, “I don’t care to know what happened from these people.”

“Dorothy, that’s enough!” Everyone in the room jumped a foot as Ella’s father’s voice reverberated off the walls. “Our daughter has been in an accident and her friends are here to support her. If you cannot control yourself, then please go home. I will not have you embarrass Ella any further with these attacks.”

Crystal gave her father a look of admiration before saying, “You go, Daddy.” Declan found himself smothering his first smile of the day at this quirky girl who reminded him so much of Ellie in that moment that it made his heart literally hurt.

Ella’s father stepped forward and extended a hand. “Declan, wasn’t it?” At his nod, he said, “Bob Webber. Could you tell us what happened please?” He was happy that Bob had decided to formally introduce himself since their first meeting had been under less than ideal circumstances. One quick glance showed Ella’s mother standing off by herself, clearly unhappy with her husband’s words, but wise enough to stay quiet for the moment.

Declan filled them in on everything he knew about the accident and Mac stepped forward to let them know that the police would be by to speak to Ella as soon as she was able to talk. He assured them that he was doing everything he could in the meantime to find out what happened and to locate the driver of the car.

The tension slowly lessened in the room as the Webbers settled into one side of the waiting room and the rest of them in the other. He wasn’t sure how long he had been staring off into space when someone tapped his shoulder. He was surprised to see Crystal sit down beside him. “It’s okay,” she smiled, “I’m not going to go all crazy on you like Mom.”

He gave her a smile in return, once again struck by how much she resembled her sister when she smiled. “That’s good to know. I don’t think I could handle another round this soon.”

“I’ll bet,” she laughed. “She means well most of the time, but she has no idea how to go about communicating with people. She is so caught up in what people think about her that it has taken over her life. I just know she is as miserable most of the time as she makes all of us. Poor Daddy, I’m so proud of him for finally sticking up for Ella today. He used to be kind of like Mom, but I think he has gotten burned out from all of the social climbing. He’d love nothing better than to be left alone in his workshop to putter around.”

Declan really looked at her for probably the first time, seeing a lot beneath the surface. “It must be pretty tough on you with Ella gone from home.”

Crystal sighed, and then looked down at her hand for a moment, gathering her thoughts. “I was pretty jealous at first,” she admitted. “I was trapped in a marriage that was mostly miserable and I had completely bowed to the pressure of trying to be the perfect daughter. When Ella moved out and seemed to be doing so well, it finally hit me that instead of being jealous of her for finally getting a life of her own, I should take control of my own. I’m not saying it happened overnight, but I’m trying. I may end up in divorce court before it’s over, which of course means that Mom will never speak to me again, but I’ve got to live my life.” Her voice caught on a sob when she added, “Ella showed me that.”

He could feel a lump in his own throat as he thought of the woman he loved lying in surgery. That woman meant so much to the people around her. He had tried to fight it. He had railed against it, denied it, and just downright lied to himself—and her—but if he was honest, he was a goner from their meeting at Suzy’s house. When she had ended up sitting next to him at dinner, he had been hooked. She was so obviously ill at ease that he had felt all of his protective instincts kick in. When Nick had flirted with her to put her at ease, he had wanted to kick his ass. That night had begun a cycle for him. He had started seeking her out almost every day, first making it look accidental and later, as their conversations had gotten easier and increased in frequency, he had begun bringing her things like her favorite coffee or candy. Hell, he didn’t even know when the habit had started. He just knew she had become the focal point of his day. His Ellie deserved so much better than someone as fucked up as him, but if she would give him a chance, he would spend the rest of his life trying to become a man worthy of a woman like her.

Mac gave him a nudge when Julie walked back in the room. He jumped to his feet, trying not to look as nervous as he felt. Ella’s parents also walked toward their group hoping for some news. He couldn’t tell anything from Julie’s expression. When she gave him a brief smile before she started talking, he felt like sagging to the floor in relief. “Ella is out of surgery,” she began, “and she’s stable right now. They are confident that they found the source of the bleeding and repaired as much as they could. She will probably still need another surgery when she is stronger, but the goal today was to stop the internal bleeding.”

“When can we see her?” Ella’s mother demanded.

“She’s going to be out for hours now. It will probably be tomorrow. I would advise you all to go home and get some sleep tonight. She’s going to need you all during her recovery so you need to be strong for her.”

Declan knew there was no way in hell he was leaving the hospital until he saw her again. He was relieved when her parents seemed to be taking Julie’s advice and gathering their things. Her father walked over and gave him a piece of paper with his cell phone number on it and asked if he would call if there was any change and assured him they would be back first thing in the morning. Crystal also gave him a wave and he was pretty certain that both she and her father were leaving the hospital before her mother could inflict further damage. He walked back over to their friends. “You guys should go home for the night, too. Beth, I know Ella would be pissed off at me and Nick if we let you sit in these hard chairs all night.”