Blinking my eyes open several times, feeling a dull pain in my face from the punches I received from Lizzie. I hear Paul yelling and blink a few more times and see that it's aimed at a blurred Lizzie. I sit up and realize that some how I ended up on the couch and my nose thumps with my heart beat. Paul looks over and sees that I'm awake and grabs a glass of water, some pain meds and ice.

Paul walks to me and hands me everything then goes into the bathroom to get a wet towel.

"Lizzie care to explain why you hit my brother?" Paul says with his head peaking through the door.

Lizzie walks toward me and crouches down in front of me apologizing over and over. She takes the rag from Paul and begins to dab at my face.

"I explained to her that you had only come home to shower and get a change of clothes and that you had left like you did because you're scared to death."

Pauls voice sounds like he's in a wind tunnel and it's hard to make out what he's saying. I try really hard to focus as I settle on his lips and read them. I've always been pretty good at lip reading but concentrating is making my head hurt worse. So I just nod my head in agreement.

"Zane I'm so sorry. Please forgive me." Lizzie begs.

I shake my head and stand up to head into the bathroom. Looking my face over in the mirror, underneath my eyes are already bruised and there's a cut across the bridge of my nose. Jesus it looks like I took more than two punches to my face. I turn to the shower and start the water. While it warms up I head over to the dressers and take out my clothes and take them into the bathroom shutting the door.

"Wow he's pissed." Lizzie states.

"Do you blame him?" Paul says with his stern attitude directed at her.

"I should really learn not to assume."

"Good idea Lizzie. Poor guys nose looks broken now."

I hear Lizzie start to sob and her phone rings. I hear her talking but it's muffled. I wonder if it's about Lucy. Seconds later there's a tap on the door and it cracks open.

"Zane? I just wanted to let you know that Lucy is awake. Are you almost done so we can go back?"

"Give me a minute Lizzie." I say finishing my shower and getting out to dry off. Hopefully Lizzie admits to what she did to my face so I don't look crazy.

I step into my jeans quickly and throw my shirt over my head and step out of the bathroom before my shirt is fully on and Lizzie's gapes at me. I pretend to not notice even though even though her mouth is hanging wide open.

"Hey Lizzie if you leave your mouth open long enough a fly might fly in." Paul says laughing at his own stupid joke.

Lizzie closes her mouth and blushes and I slowly let my shirt fall to the floor to torment her some more.

"Oops. I can't feel my fingers." I bend over to pick my shirt up and Paul chuckles. Lizzie huffs and stomps toward the door and taps her foot impatiently.

Paul and I walk toward Lizzie, follow her to her car and get in. I took the backseat and Paul took the front. Every few minutes or so I would catch Lizzie looking at me in the mirror. I turn my head and just stare out the window.

************************************************

Pulling into the hospital garage, Lizzie's phone rings again. She picks it up and quickly sets it down.

"Your mom again?" Paul asks.

"No someone else. Not in the mood for him right now." She says to Paul.

"Who is he?" I ask from the backseat.

"Just some guy." She groans as it rings again and this time she answers. "What do you want Todd?"

She's quiet for a few minutes as I hear a deep voice on the other end. I can't make out what he's saying but she's quiet through the conversation. It's like she's receiving instructions from someone. "Yes I understand Todd, but not right now. I have a family emergency and I can't focus on what you need me to do just yet." She says finally. "Todd I have to go. I can't talk about this right now." She ends the call on her phone.

"So what was that about?" I ask.

"Don't worry about it. It's nothing." She tries to say with confidence but I see through her bullshit.

"Lizzie come on now." I say calling her bluff.

"Fine I run errands for him for extra money."

"Errands, what kind of errands?" Paul asks.

"You know like deliveries and stuff."

"Lizzie that's not Todd Bendon is it?" I ask.

A look of shock comes across her face and it takes a minute for her to respond. "You know him?"

"He's only the biggest drug dealer in the states. Lizzie what have you gotten yourself into?" I ask.

"I'm not delivering drugs there's no way!"

"Lizzie how do you not know?!?! You're done! You will not be doing shit for him anymore!"

"Who the fuck do you think you are? You don't own me and you sure as hell don't tell me what to do!" Lizzie yells.

"The fuck I can tell you what to do! Do you think your sister's or parents want to know what you've been up too? I'll be glad to fill them in."

"Don't you dare!" She shouts.

"Bet me Lizzie! Bet me!"

"Alright you two need to calm down!" Paul interjects.

Lizzie stares at Paul shocked that he spoke or maybe she forgot he was even in here. 

"Shit! No no no no!!!!" I say as I come to a realization.

Paul and Lizzie turn and look at me confused. No she can't be, this isn't cool. God I hope she's not the same person.

"Bro what's going on?" Paul asks. "Why do you look so panicked?"

"Lizzie what code name do you go by with Todd?" I ask.

"Oh you know more about his group than I had thought. He called me Starlet."

"Fuck! This just cannot be happening right now." I say to myself but out loud. I get out of the car and head to the elevators. I need some time to sort this out. Lizzie and Paul are coming up in me quickly and I jump in and urge the doors to close before they can get in.  I hear Paul say what the fuck is his problem? And the elevator goes up.

Stepping off the elevator it appears that I managed to make it up before Lizzie and Paul. Rick takes one look at my face and asks who I pissed off and when I told him that it was his daughter he almost fell to the floor in fits of laughter. He tells me Lucy is waiting for me and I gladly go back to her. Less chance of Paul and Lizzie trying to pry what I'm freaking out about out of me. 

I take long steps down the corridor toward Lucy's room. Lucy's laying in the hospital bed with a bandage around her head and her face appears swollen.

Sensing my presence she opens her eyes. "Who are you?" She asks with a serious look on her face.

"Lucy it's me, Zane."

"No? I don't know any Zane's."

"Your dad said you were waiting for me to come back and to see you." I say bending over to try and place a kiss on her forehead.

Lucy freaks out and tells me to get the hell away from her. I notice that she's not moving the right side of her body. I press the button for the nurse as she tries to slap my hand away.

"Calm down Lucy I'm just trying to help."

"I don't know who you are and I don't know why the fuck you are in my room and you couldn't have talked to my dad because he's dead!"

The nurse walks in. "I think she needs to see the doctor. She doesn't know who I am and her right side is not moving." The nurse steps out of the room and about five or so minutes later she comes back with the doctor.

"Dr. Green." I greet him holding my hand out to shake his.

"Zane. How are you holding up?" He asks.

"I'm ok. What's going on with her? Did the nurse tell you?"

"Yes she did tell me what was happening which is really odd because as soon as she woke up she asked for you. I'm going to have to run some more tests." He says walking to Lucy." Lucy do you know where you are?"

"And who are you?" She asks.

"I'm Dr. Green. Lucy I operated on you, you had a tumor on your brain that was causing quiet a lot of issues. We need to run a few tests. Are you up for it?"

"Can I go home after?" Lucy asks.

"Sorry Lucy you will here for a bit but we will do what we can to get you out of here asap. How does that sound."

Lucy huffs blowing air out of her lips causing the layers in the front of hair to kind of fly up. "I guess. I'm not sure why the tests are necessary but ok."

"Great." Dr. Green says and instructs the nurse to wheel her down to the radiology department.

The nurse takes Lucy from the room and once she's out of sight he asks me to what I had said and I told him. I told him that I was told she asked for me and that I had to come back to see her so I did.

"What happened to your nose? It looks broken." Dr. Green asks me.

"Well her sister had thought I was running away from Lucy because I did before. That's what I do when I'm scared. I run. Because I left upset without saying anything to anyone she punched me in the face."

"Well it looks broken so let me take a look at it." Dr. Green reaches over and start pushing on my nose which I almost cried out from it. "Yep it's broken. Take a deep breath." Crack!

"Son of a bitch! That fucking hurt!"

"Well I had to set it. Did you want your nose crooked?"

"Nah would prefer it be straight." I say shaking his hand and thanking him.

"I'll let you know what we find out as soon as we have results. You can go hang out back in the waiting room and I'll come get you all when we are done. Oh and IbProfen for that nose and ice!"

I smile and head back into the waiting room filling everyone in on what happened with Lucy and let them know that they will be running some tests to find out what's going on. Rita looks uneasy as I explain but I assure her that Dr. Green seems to think it's nothing much. Lizzie and Paul have a questionable look on their faces but right now there are no answers, this is not the place nor the time to be discussing anyone's bad habits. So we patiently wait for any news on Lucy with the hope she's ok.