I watch her fall and hit the ground in slow motion. Everyone is gasping now and instead of punching me, Hamilton is looking over his shoulder at the commotion.

Hamilton pushes off the ground, and stands. His hand is bloodied from where the skin broke against my cheekbone and it drips onto the floor like a trickling creek. He rushes over to her, sliding down to the ground on his knees.

"Beth!" he yells, shaking her shoulders.

"That won't help," I groan, rolling over. The adrenaline was starting to wear off and my head was beginning to pound.

Slowly, I sit.

I can feel the blood rushing back to my head. I suck in a deep breath, my ribs screaming back at me in protest.

I'm pretty sure I felt a rib crack when Hamilton tackled me to the ground.

"Shut up!" Ham orders.

Slowly, I get to my feet. This couldn't get any worse. Beth didn't need the attention right now and that was exactly what was happening.

"Take her to the hospital!" someone in the crowd, alarmed at her falling, shouts.

Ham doesn't question the random strangers advice, and begins to scoop up her limp body.

I reach them both and place my hand on his arm before he can get her off the ground.

"I'm a medic, let me take over."

He scowls but doesn't argue.

"We'll take her back to my unit," I say.

"Why not the hospital?"

I hesitate. If she went to the hospital they would run tests and pretty quickly they'd find out her predicament.

"She just fainted, she'll recover soon. There's no need for a hospital," I eventually say.

He scowls. "Fine."

***
Back at my unit, Hamilton is pacing back and forth.

His hand is clenching and unclenching as he strolls up and down the small space in an irritating fashion.

"I can't work with you pacing like this!" I say to him.

"When's she going to wake up? It's been two hours already! I thought you knew what you were doing!?" he scowls.

"It's been five minutes! It would help if you stopped pacing."

"Well, hurry up and fix her!"

"I can't speed up when she's going to recover." I break away from where I'm tending to Beth - there really wasn't much more I could do but wait - and turn to Hamilton. "So, will you stop pacing and let me look at your hand."

He glances down at his knuckles, which is caked in drying blood. It runs down his arm to his elbow where it abruptly stops. I'm not sure if it's mine or his but I'd take it we both look as bad as each other.

"It needs to be cleaned."

His lips form a thin line as he holds out his hand.

I take it, and open up my medical kit. Taking out some rubbing alcohol and a clean cloth, I pour a small amount of the disinfectant on the cloth.

"This will sting."

His icy blue eyes stare me down, unwavering as I place the cloth on his raw knuckles.

The man must be made of steel. He doesn't flinch as I dab all the way along his knuckles and wipe the dried blood off.

Before he can protest, I get a clean bandage and wrap his hand up in it.

"Keep it clean," I say, letting him go. "There's ice in the cupboard."

I point to the cupboard where I keep the ice packs and he goes to it and gets one out.

"Just crack it in half," I instruct.

He does what I say and nods as the cold reaction spreads through the pack.

Whilst I'm at it, I figure I should check out the damage to my own face.

I go to the mirror. My left eye is turning a kaleidoscope of purple, blue and yellow. The same eye is bloodshot. There's a dried wound on my right cheek where the skin split against Ham's knuckle.

Shucks! That'll turn my face ugly for a good week or two.

I sigh and begin cleaning it. It stings and I'm more of a wuss than Hamilton so I gasp a little.

Once I'm done with that, I strip off my shirt. Underneath, are my exposed muscles. A six pack with slightly defined lines. It's stiff and menacing but not in the same way Ham's is. His biceps are bigger and his torso more pronounced, even when he's wearing a shirt.

My left rib cage is showing up in a delightful yellow bruise. The skin hasn't split so there's not much I can do about it.

"I really did a number on you, huh?"

I jump. Ham is suddenly in the entrance way to the small bathroom, leaning against the door frame. His taller, more masculine body towers over me. He holds out an ice pack, almost as if it were a peace offering.

"Did I break anything?"

"Probably."

He smiles. "Good. You deserved it."

I scowl. The cheek of him!

"Beth doesn't want you around anymore," I retaliated.

"Too bad," he says with a smirk, walking over to my couch and plonking himself down on it. "Because I'm not leaving."

"What if Beth asks you directly?"

He wouldn't refuse her wishes would he?

"Nope."

He stretches his arms out across the back of the couch, making himself at home.

"I could get used to this," he decides.

"I'm sure you could," I mumble, irritated at his mannerisms.

Cracking the ice pack, I place it on my eye. I figured that it needed it more than my poor cracked rib.

With a sharp intake of breath, I slide down a wall at the foot of the bed Beth's lying in and sink into the floor.

The pair of us sit in silence for a while, waiting for a noise from Beth that still doesn't come. What was taking her so long?

I've assessed everything I could with Ham constantly over my shoulder.

Her pulse was a little slow, but there was no blood on her pants and her pupils dialeted just fine.

I suppose it was just exhaustion from all the stress her body was under at the moment.

"Why'd you do it?" Ham says, cutting the silence with a knife.

I shrug. "She wanted to."

He scoffs. "Yeah right."

"Whether you want to believe it or not, it happened."

"Whatever." He brushes a hand through his hair, pushing it back out of his eyes just for it to flop back down into them again.

"You need a haircut," I say in disgust.

"And you need to go back to being the best friend and leave loving Beth to me."

"Not going to happen."

"I'll make it happen."

"Sure."

"Just you watch. Give it a week or two and I'll have her back in my arms."

"I doubt it."

He smirked. "I'm a better lover than you. I kiss better. I make love better. I flirt better. You just look like a headless chicken. I bet she took charge when you guys did it. I would never do that."

I'm so angry I swear I could feel the steam blow out of my ears.

"Well, I bet you didn't get her pregnant!"

Shucks!

Beth is going to kill me for saying that. We didn't even know if we could trust Hamilton to not do her in on the council! Especially after he dobbed Beth's mom in.

"What did you just say?" He turns around on the couch so he faces me, listening intently.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I say, playing dumb in the hopes he has short term memory loss. "I didn't say anything."

"Yes you did! You said she was pregnant."

Shucks!

"How is that possible?"

"Well," I begin. "When two people love each other-"

"I know that bit. I'm not stupid. I mean how did she get pregnant. No one's conceived in twenty years."

"I don't think Beth would want me to tell you."

"Why not?"

"Isn't it obvious? You dobbed her mom in."

"Oh." He pauses. "You know that was only because her mom told me too. We had a plan. To get her topside."

"Why on earth would she do that?"

He hesitates, unsure if he should tell me. "We received a message from the topside. They're coming for someone."

"Who?"

He shrugs. "I don't know. But if Beth is carrying a child, then we must protect her from what's coming."

I couldn't argue with that. Protecting Beth was a top priority.

"I agree on that part."

"So, the rumors are true then. I thought I was just making that up."

"What? You started the rumor about someone having a period?"

He nods. "Yup. Didn't realize it was true and that Beth was the one going through it. I just don't understand why she wouldn't tell me? I'm her boyfriend."

"Correction. Was her boyfriend. That role was transferred to me when you decided to hold her back from saving her mom."

"Whatever."

"So, we're agreed then. We must protect Beth from the Council."

"And whoever is coming for her topside," he adds.

Working with him was already turning out to be a pain, but for Beth's sake I would do it. I just hope she wouldn't be too mad with me when she woke.

"May the best man win," I mumble into the silence between us.