Thursday, around two in the afternoon

Things had gone well for the past two days; Blaine's cuts were healing nicely and quickly, Mairead, Blaine, and Joey caught up on much needed sleep, and Kurt was continuing to practice for his duet with Blaine. But it had come to the point when Mairead and Joey had to go home because the Warblers were coming back four days early to work on choreography and music for the upcoming Regionals competition a week from Saturday. Blaine had dressed in his sweatpants and a long-sleeved t-shirt from Kurt's insistence that he would get cold from the fifty-ish degrees outside.

"Do you really have to go?" Blaine asked Mairead wistfully from in front of her orange Honda Accord. He was eternally grateful for what she had done to help him and Joey, but she was going to miss his best friend.

Mairead closed her eyes briefly and nodded, composing herself. She didn't want to leave either, but the Warblers were coming and she didn't was to cause them any disturbances by her being there. "Yes, Blaine, for both our sakes, I think it's better if I go right now so you don't get too distracted when you're practicing with Kurt and your Warblers for your competition. Don't worry; we'll see each other again next Saturday. I'm going to make sure that Joey, my family and I don't miss this. Besides, I've already heard a little snippet of your duet with Kurt." She winked with a smile. They hugged tightly when they heard Joey and Kurt coming out with the rest of the stuff Joey had brought with him. Mairead surprised Blaine by whispering in his ear a phrase she reserved only for the closest of friends. "I love you, Blaine. You are my brother and I love you." She broke apart hugged Kurt before heading to start the car.

Blaine hugged Joey tightly and a few tears leaked out of his eyes. "Skype me as soon as you're safe, Joey. I need to see you when you get home." He sternly told his younger brother, looking him in the eye. Joey nodded and went to sit in the passenger side car. Blaine and Kurt waved to them as they drove out the gates of Dalton's visitor parking lot and onto the road that would take them two hours to get back to Mairead's house. Going back into the student dorms, Blaine felt a little lonely, but cheered up at the thought of Wes, David and the rest of the Warblers coming back later that day.

Both Kurt and Blaine went into Blaine's room to relax for a bit more before the chaos would start.

Kurt was thinking deeply about what Joey had told him when Blaine was still unconscious. Joey had told him that there was a video on Blaine's iTouch that showed what happened after Blaine's dad threw the plate at his head.

"Blaine?"

Blaine looked up from his laptop he had settled on top of his blanket, with Kurt besides him lounging. "Yeah?"

Kurt bit his lip, apprehensive. "When I was talking to Joey, while you were still knocked out, he told me that you recorded a video on your iTouch…" Kurt looked at his boyfriend, hoping he got the hint.

Blaine looked away, once again ashamed; he nodded just once. He never intended to show Kurt this soon about what had happened in the bathroom. "I… don't think you want to see, Kurt. I'm screaming in pain in this… Considering that you've already done so much, I don't want to have nightmares because of me." He told him sadly.

"Blaine! For the last time! I don't care how much I've done for you. You're my boyfriend and I. Love. You." Kurt nearly yelled. He quickly calmed down and put a hand under the side of his cheek, feeling the stubble.

"I-I'm sorry! I-I just feel like I'm going to lose you after you finding y-you." Kurt sighed, feeling regret at Blaine's scared tone of voice.

"Listen to me, Blaine. You're not going to lose me, ever. I will promise you that, Blaine Zachary Anderson, I will not go anywhere. I am yours forever." Kurt promised; feeling like it sealed the deal for life.

Blaine dumped the laptop on the bed and kissed Kurt passionately and urgently. Kurt could feel this and put a hand on Blaine's chest, trying not to feel the scars that had been carved into his beautiful boyfriend's chest all those years ago.

Kurt finally ended the kiss when he ran out of air. He chuckled at Blaine's faint blush in his cheeks and noticed him trying not to yawn. "Why don't you take a nap? I'll wake you up when the boys get here. Seriously, Blaine; you do not want to look like disaster like when you woke up with a hangover at my house after Rachel's party a few weeks ago." Kurt said dryly when Blaine started to voice his dissent. He finally relented with one last kiss before snuggling under his Gryffindor blanket Mairead and her family had gotten for him.

Kurt made sure he was fast asleep before escaping into his room for a shower and to do his quite late moisturizing and cleansing routines to get rid of the blackheads he was sure were popping up on his nose from the last few days.

Three hours later

Blaine woke up feeling warm and happy, and with his head under his pillow instead of on top. His hand searched his night stand for his glasses he had taken to wearing as wearing his contacts were getting annoying. Putting his black half-framed glasses on his nose required work so he didn't accidently cause himself pain from his forehead. Blaine laid there for a few minutes, waking himself up by humming a few choice songs from a certain soundtrack composed by John Williams.

He took a deep breath in through his nose and slowly pushed his way up to sitting on the edge of his bed. Gingerly setting a foot on the floor and using the bed as his support from the dizziness that came from standing up, he made his way to his bathroom to take a look at himself; it had been days since he saw his face in a mirror. Blaine gaped at what he saw.

Touching his nose gently, it was mottled purple and black all the way up to the space between his eyes. He hesitantly pressed down with the barest pressure and the pain came back with a vengeance. Wincing, he took his hand off and looked at his forehead.

Should I or shouldn't I? Blaine contemplated, wanting to take off the big white gauze bandage. He took off his glasses and set them on the white marble countertop and looked in the mirror fuzzily. Peeling off the medical tape, quite slowly, from one side of his forehead took time as the tape hurt like being slapped after every second of being pulled off. Eventually, the whole bandage came off and Blaine leaned in closer to the mirror to see how big of gash he really had. It ran along the center of his forehead, stopping just before the middle of his right eyebrow and ran the entire length of his left eyebrow. Eleven tightly bound and off-clear stitches ran the length of the gash. Blaine hoped it wouldn't leave too noticeable of a scar when it finished healing. He would have to thank Carole later for using the dissolvable stitches instead of silk thread stitches. He hesitantly touched the stitches with his fingers, feeling the bumpy texture.

"What are you doing?" a startled voice came from the doorway to his bathroom.

Blaine jumped up and swore, his fingers accidently pressed down on his stitches in surprise. Kurt cocked an eyebrow at his boyfriend.

"Um," Blaine said sheepishly. "Trying to imagine how dashing I'm going to look after this heals up?"

"You're already as dashing as someone who has my love for eternity." Kurt rolled his eyes and pulled Blaine into a half hug. He took a look at the two of them in the mirror while Blaine groped around the countertop for his glasses and put them quite gently on his bruised bridge of a nose. He could see Kurt smiling at the two of them in the mirror.

"What are you thinking right now, Kurt?" Blaine quietly asked as he looked in the mirror at his boyfriend's happy face.

Kurt continued gazing at the couple in the mirror, thinking that it could not have been more perfect. "We're perfect for each other, Blaine. It's like… looking at this, it… make me feel complete in a way."

Blaine lowered his eyes and whispered, "Even when I'm like this? Bruised and broken?" He felt fingers under his chin, lifting it up and turning his head. He was soon looking into Kurt's beautiful glasz eyes.

"Even like this. I don't care what you look like, Blaine. I don't care if you decided to shave your head off or grow a three foot long curly beard. You are perfect for me. And I wouldn't change a thing." Kurt said so sweetly that Blaine felt his eyes water. His boyfriend kissed him on the lips and Blaine responded passionately, putting his hand behind Kurt's head to deepen the kiss. Kurt finally ended the kiss when he ran out of air, leaning his forehead against Blaine's; and totally forgetting about the stitches.

"Ow! Kurt! The stitches!" Blaine exclaimed, the pain returning.

Kurt quickly jumped back about six inches, but remained in Blaine's embrace. His eyes wide open. "Oops, sorry!" Kurt smiled apologetically. "Why don't you get cleaned up? I think the boys are coming in half an hour. Take a shower, your clothes will be here after you're done." Kurt said. Blaine did love it when Kurt picked out his clothes because he was jeans and t-shirt kind of guy; that aspect drove Kurt nuts whenever he needed Blaine to dress up for an occasion.

Blaine grinned. He pecked Kurt on the lips before heading out into his room, with Kurt following behind him, to grab some clean boxers from his dresser. Heading back into his bathroom, he leaned his back against the closed door, smiling. He loved Kurt so much; he thought his heart would burst. Taking care not to bump his stitches as he took off his t-shirt and sweatshirt, he saw his collarbone dotted with cuts and small white bandages. He just glanced at them before he turned his gaze towards his scar on his left pectoral muscle. Blaine lightly ran his fingers over the six letter slur before sighing. He put the bandage back on his forehead, remembering what Mairead had told him about not getting the stitches wet until they were completely dissolved in another three days or so.

Kurt was in Blaine's room after getting himself dressed in a dark purple dress shirt and tucked the shirt into his black skinny jeans. He had decided to leave off the tie until Blaine was finished with his shower. Searching through Blaine's dresser, he was putting ideas of what his boyfriend would look best in. Taking out a light blue polo shirt, he paired it with a pair of black skinny jeans he thought would emphasize Blaine's calf muscles and make him look fabulous. He grinned as he knocked on the bathroom door.

"Yeah?" Blaine's voice answered, echoing slightly in the bathroom.

"I'm opening the door, you decent in there?" Kurt asked, blushing slightly. Not that he wouldn't mind seeing Bl-

"Yeah, I'm just finishing shaving. You can open the door, Kurt." Blaine replied.

Opening the door, Kurt saw he was in his boxers and he had managed to put his usual half a bottle of hair gel on his curly head of hair. Kurt's faint tinge of red in his face had gone to a full blown deep red blush. He loved seeing Blaine in nothing but his boxers, the few peeks he had snuck when Blaine wasn't paying attention.

Blaine smiled affectionately at Kurt, seeing his blush fill his pale face. "What? You like seeing me like this?"

Kurt shifted his eyes diagonally and bit the corner of his lip, too embarrassed to answer. Blaine laughed at his expression. He pulled Kurt into a hug and kissed him on the temple. Kurt smiled back and laughed a bit.

"I have your clothes on your bed. I'll meet you down in the rehearsal hall?" Blaine nodded. "Oh, and Carole says you can leave off the bandage if you want, it'll be better if it's exposed to air, so it can heal faster. And don't forget to take the oral med before you come down." Kurt kissed Blaine on the cheek as he released him from his embrace to go put his tie on.

Mairead pulled into her driveway a little faster than she wanted to. She and Joey had taken an extra hour to get home because she thought the kid need a little more fun before he went back to his house; she was trying to prolong that confrontation with Matthew. So, Mairead decided to stop at a lake on the way home and they crumbled up one of the left over muffins they brought with them and throw it into the lake where ducks and birds were flocking to eat them.

"Do I have to go home?" Joey said tiredly. He really did not want to face his father after what happened with Blaine.

Mairead sighed, not wanting to tell him. "Yeah, Joe. You kinda have too. Your father's going to get suspicious if he sees me and the car here in the driveway and you're not with me. Do you want my dad and me to come with you? "

Joey muttered something under his breath that sounded like "… little kid anymore."

Mairead pretended not to hear that. "What?"

"Nothing!" He said quickly.

She grinned and mussed up his hair. "C'mon, let's get you inside. But listen, if you ever need anything, and I mean anything at all, just call me on my cell phone. It's always on." Looking him in the eye, she said seriously. Joey nodded solemnly.

They were walking to the front door when Matthew burst out the door and grabbed Joey by the back of the shirt to get him inside. Joey fought and Mairead managed to get a good blow to Matthew's gut to get him to back off. Matthew stopped trying to do anything physical to the two of them, for now.

"You. Get your butt inside the house, now. I'll deal with you after I'm done with her." He said dangerously to his son. Joey defiantly started to open his mouth but by the look and shake of Mairead's face, he decided to grudgingly do what his father said.

Mairead felt a sense of dread come over her when Matthew turned to face her. "So, you decide to sneak into my house in the middle of the night, take my son and my failure of a son back to Dalton and keep them there without my permission." Matthew sneered at her.

"Blaine needed to be somewhere else other than here and your stupid way of treating him. I mean honestly, is this how you treat your own son? You broke him, you know that? You broke your own freaking son you son of a bitch! And you call yourself a father after doing this. I'm surprised that he hasn't called the police yet to have you charged with chil-" A punch to her stomach stopped her from finishing her angry speech. She was knocked to the ground and all of her breath went out of her body.

Matthew stomped his way to where she was lying on the ground. "Don't. Ever. Tell. Me. What. To. Do." With that, he started to pummel her.

Mairead blocked most of his punches except a few missed ones to her face; she could feel her nose bleeding and taste the blood dripping into her mouth. She could blurrily see what was coming next because he had well-aimed punch to her eye, knocking her glasses off her face and pain blossoming in her eye. Her left hand and wrist she could feel him stomping on. Mairead squeezed her eyes shut for the final blow that would render her unconscious when she heard someone knocking Matthew to the ground. She just lay there, listening to the scuffle trying to identify who her savior was.

"You don't ever touch my daughter, you son of a bitch!" Jason roared as he started punching Matthew in the face.

Sarah and Nick ran over to Mairead. Nick crouched in front of his sister while Sarah started to see if she was conscious.

"Nick, call 911. Now!" Sarah told Nick firmly.

"No!" Mairead gasped. "Don't… call. He… will make worse… for Joey." She gasped.

Sarah and Nick looked at each other. "Okay, sweetie. We won't. I promise. Nick, carry her inside the house." Nick nodded. He tried as gently as he could to gather her up in his arms, trying to cause any pain. Mairead tried her hardest not to make any sounds of the pain but couldn't help herself when he accidently bumped the hand Matthew stomped on. Nick muttered his apologies and ran as fast as he could to their house. Sarah went to pull Jason off of Matthew.

"Jason, stop!" Sarah said urgently, concern lacing her voice. "We have to get our daughter help. Now."

Jason stopped punching Matthew, blood covering his fist. "That's for my daughter and Blaine, you piece of shit." He whispered dangerously. Jason spat on the ground near her daughter's best friend's father.

"So, that's where your loyalties lie then, huh? To fags? To my piece of shit so-" He didn't get to finish as Jason kicked him in the crotch before walking back to his house.

Sarah could barely see Miranda in the doorway, hiding. Her heart ached for her, what did Matthew do to her after Blaine left? She ran back to her house, wanting to see her daughter.

Nick had brought Mairead upstairs to her bedroom, laid her on top of the blankets and ran back downstairs to grab a big bowl of ice for her injuries when he heard his parents coming in the door. He stared wide-eyed at his father's fist, covered in scarlet red blood. Jason shook his head, meaning Don't ask right now. Nick concentrated on getting the bowl of ice while Sarah raced upstairs to the bedroom and Jason ran to the bathroom to wash his hands of the blood.

Running up the stairs himself with a big bowl of ice, and nearly tripping three times on the spiral staircase, he was finally able to take stock of what happened to his sister. Sarah was propping her up on her lap while trying to keep her awake.

"Nick, go to the linen closet and get all the towels in there. Now!" Sarah said firmly, trying to keep Mairead from sleeping. She took a hand full of ice and placed in on her newly-forming black eye. Nick came back with the towels and Sarah instructed him to make an ice pack out of the smaller towels and wrap her hand with the impromptu ice packs. They all could hear Jason stampeding his way up the stairs.

"We have to get her to the hospital, I don't like the way her wrist is swelling up and she's having trouble staying conscious." Sarah stated, shifting into her doctor voice with absolutely no emotion in her voice. Jason nodded and pulled out his cell phone, intending to call 911.

Mairead could see dizzily out of her non-blackened eye the outline of her father about to punch in the numbers. "No! Dad, don't!" She gasped loudly; Mairead had been gritting her teeth to rein in the pain. "It'll make things worse for Joey and Blaine if that bastard sees police cars out here. Just l-let Mom t-take me to the ED. I-I'll just say I t-tripped down the s-sta-airs." Pain making its way into her voice.

Jason, Sarah, and Nick all looked at each other for a full second before springing into action. They knew she made complete sense, not wanting to argue. Nick quickly made his way back down to the kitchen to grab another bowl of ice from the ice dispenser in the door of the freezer; Jason gathered Mairead in his arms and walked as smoothly and quickly as possible down to the garage. Sarah bolted downstairs, cell phone already to her ear and muttering rapidly into it, to start up the red Honda Pilot. They all met in the garage where Nick got in first in the back seat with the bowl of ice at his feet, Sarah right behind Nick, and Jason bringing up the rear with his battered daughter. Jason slowly "slid" her in with Mairead's head lying on Nick's lap and her legs on Sarah's lap. He slammed the door shut and ran his way to the driver's side and practically jumped in. Jason nearly broke the wing mirror, backing out so fast. Sarah barely just reminded him to close the garage as they were out the driveway.

"Get her to the ED doors, they know they're expecting us. They already have the scanners and radiology free for her. Seems it was a calm day today." Sarah told her husband.

Jason flashed a quick half-smile as he concentrated on breaking the speed limit to get to the hospital.

Looking out of the drawing room windows, Joey couldn't help but feel a sense of dread when he saw the red Pilot speeding away with his neighbors in it. He jumped when he heard the front door of his house slam and his father roared his name. Joey swallowed a big lump in his throat and slowly made his way down stairs.

Jason could see people in pale blue scrubs waving him down outside the ED doors where Sarah worked. The screeched to a stop and the door behind the passenger side seat was wretched open. Mairead could feel herself being pulled, gently, off of her mom's and Nick's lap and put on to a gurney and the odd sensation of being wheeled down a white hallway. One person was cutting off her bloodied and dirtied clothes and covering her body with a hospital gown quickly. Someone's finger peeled back her good eye's eyelid and shined a too bright light into it. She was so tired, all she wanted to do was sleep.

"Mairead? Mairead, honey? It's Rebecca, your mom's friend. If you're still awake, say yes." A frantic, but collected voice said as she could feel herself stop moving and more hands touch her body.

"Y-yes." She slurred.

"Good, good job. I need you to keep talking to me, okay?" Rebecca told her as she inserted an IV needle and tube in the underside of her right wrist. She could feel liquids seeping in her blood and spreading all over her body.

"M-hmm…" Mairead started to drift off.

"Don't you dare Mhmm me, miss smarty pants." Mairead chuckled a bit at the remark. "There you go, just keep talking to me, Mairead. What's your favorite song? Can you sing me some of the lyrics" Rebecca said in a rushed voice. She could feel herself moving again and see the lights flashing by her behind closed eyelids.

"S-sure," she slurred. "I-I gotta feeling, That tonight's gunna a be a g-good ni-ght, That to-night's gunna be a good good n-ight." Mairead whispered as she continued watching the lights flash by.

"That's right sweetie, keep singing." Rebecca told her distractedly. Mairead could hear other voices, including her parents talking. The pain was starting to get to her and she started gritting her teeth, but kept singing and trying to remember the lyrics.

"Tonight's the night, let's live it u-up, I got my m-money, let's s-spend it up, g-go round and smash 'em." She could feel herself being lifted up and transferred to a hard cold table, the lights no longer flashing by her.

"Good job, keep singing, okay? You're going into a MRI scanner, now, Mairead. But I want you to keep singing okay?" Rebecca told her soothingly. "I'll still be listening but voice is going to sound a little muffled because I'm going to talk to you through a microphone, okay?" Mairead gave her the barest of nods as she could hear the motors of the machine inserting her in the big cylindrical machine.

"Okay, honey, it's Rebecca again, I want to hear those lyrics!" A female voice sounded out of the speakers near her head as a loud whirring sound started.

"Let go my g-gun, jump up that s-sofa, let's g-g-get it on. I k-know what we'll have a ba-ll, if we get down and g-go and j-just lose it a-all." She slurred the rest of the song and heard the whirring sound stop. Mairead felt herself coming out of the machine and transferred back to the gurney.

"Excellent job, honey. Now, I'm going to give you something that's going to put you to sleep. You're going to be fine, Mairead." Rebecca told her softly.

Mairead could feel a warm liquid coming through her wrist and spreading throughout her body, like the feeling of warm bed beckoning to her. She fell into the comforting and kind blackness quickly.

"What do her scans look like?" Sarah asked softly from behind the MRI technician's chair. She had been allowed to follow the ED doctors in, but wasn't allowed to interact with her daughter.

"Everything's clean, there's nothing out of the ordinary. Her brain shows no sign of bleed or even of a concussion. She got lucky." The technician told her and the doctors scattered around the cramped computer room.

Sarah noticed a doctor nod to Rebecca who got up and pulled a syringe out of her pocket. She got up out her place at a computer screen with a microphone by her. Watching through the protective glass, Rebecca inserted the syringe to her adopted daughter's IV and saw her quickly nod off.

"We're going to take her to radiology for that wrist and CT, just in case, now, Sarah. I think it'll be fine for you to go back with Jason and your son in the triage center." Todd, one of her friends in the ED, said. She nodded and headed out the door. Mairead was wheeling by when Rebecca stopped the gurney. Sarah smiled gratefully towards one of best girlfriends and kissed her sleeping daughter on the forehead and smoothing her black hair back from her face before she headed off for radiology.

Sarah returned to the ED and into the room where Nick was leaning his head against the wall and Jason pacing the small room. They both snapped to attention when Sarah quietly opened the door.

"Her MRI scans are clear. She doesn't have any brain damage. They're taking her to radiology now for her wrist and CT just in case. Rebecca gave her a sedative. She's sleeping right now." Sarah simply said. The both of them breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed a bit.

Five minutes later, the phone rang. "Dr. Stryka speaking." She listened for a minute before her face brightened up. "Thank you so much, Rebecca. Call me when she's in her room? Thanks!" She hung up and crossed the room to the computer with the duo monitors, one for the doctor and the other for the patient, and turned it on. Logging into her system, she saw black and white images fill the screen. Jason and Nick looked confused for a second then realized it was Mairead's x-rays.

"Doesn't look like there was anything broken." Nick softly said, thinking he was wrong.

Sarah smiled. "You're right, Nick. Nothing was broken or even cracked. The only problem with her hand was that some of her fingers popped out of the socket, but they corrected that. That's why you see some of her fingers are shorter at the top, see?" She pointed at the top of the monitor with the mouse arrow, shower where her middle finger and ring finger were almost level with her index finger. Both Jason and Nick winced. The phone rang again.

"Dr. Styka speaking." Sarah answered automatically. "Okay, fifth floor, room 311. Thanks, Rebecca. I'll meet you up there. Thanks, bye." She replaced the receiver back on the phone mounted to the wall. "She's got her settled in on the fifth floor in room 311 and they have put a temporary brace on her hand. The CT scans were clear, so no internal bleeding. She's also on morphine so when she wakes up, she might be… out of it." Sarah told her husband and son tiredly, but with a smile.

Jason simply nodded. "Let's go."

As they were in the elevator, Todd, the ED doctor attending to Mairead met them from the third floor. She would have to spend the night in the hospital, but she could go home in the morning.

Reaching the fifth floor and finding her room, Mairead was still on the narrow hospital bed. A heart monitor was beeping with the rhythm of her heart beat. Jason went to sit down by her right side and picked up her hand and kissed it. Nick sat on the chair near Mairead's feet, feeling the exhaustion creep into his head. Sarah went to the computer where her daughter's records were onscreen and clicked around a bit.

"She's on morphine for the pain, saline for fluids, and the sedative is going to wear off soon and she's going to wake up pretty soon." Sarah quietly said. She crossed over to the other side of the room and took a seat beside her husband and waited for Mairead to wake up.

It wasn't until about nine at night when she started to come to with small crying sounds. Oh shitty, shitty, shit, shit. Sarah mentally chanted to herself. She totally forgot about Mairead's drugged nightmares. She and Jason looked at each other. Jason was thinking the same thing by the way his eyes looked. Nick was snoozing in the chair by her feet and didn't hear a thing.

Sarah went over to the other side of the bed, lowered the railing, and sat on the edge. She gently gathered up her daughter in her hands and made shushing noises. "Shh, shh. Honey, you're okay. You're okay. Wake up, sweetheart, I'm here. Mom's here and so is Dad and Nick." Sarah pointed her eyes towards Nick. Jason quietly woke him up and came back to his seat by his daughter. Nick sat on the edge of the bed near Sarah and rubbed her leg that was covered by the blanket.

Mairead slowly came to, making louder and louder sobbing noises until she opened her eyes. "M-Mom? Dad? N-Nick?" She stuttered, gazing blurrily around the unfamiliar room. She sniffled, trying to keep the mucus from running out of nose.

"Shh, I'm here, I'm here." Sarah whispered into her ear, rocking back and forth.

"Sarah," Jason said. Sarah looked up and saw Jason wide eyed. She looked back down and saw Mairead was almost ready to vomit. She grabbed the kidney shaped bowl and put it under her chin just in time. There we strands of a dark brown liquid in the saliva that came out of her mouth and into the bowl. Nick saw it and looked at Sarah questioningly.

"She must have swallowed some of the blood that came from her nose." Sarah quietly said.

Mairead vomited for the next ten minutes, emptying the contents of her stomach. Once she was done, Jason got her a cup of water. She swished the water around in her mouth before spitting it into the bowl. Sarah used the bed controls to move the head of the bed up so she could lie down, but still see everyone.

"How long?" She rasped, her voice scratchy.

"It's been nearly four hours since you were admitted." Jason gently said.

Mairead nodded and slowly blinked her eyes, still drowsy from the sedative. She didn't want to go back to sleep even though her parents were here; she would go back to the nightmare.

Sarah smoothed back her long hair from her face. "You'll go home tomorrow, sweetie. You just have to stay the night tonight. And you'll go home tomorrow morning, I promise." She nodded off again. Once she was fitfully asleep, Sarah whispered "Jason, you and Nick go home and sleep. I'll stay with her."

"No, honey, I'll stay with her." Jason argued quietly.

"No, you go, you know where you parked."

"Yes, but you are clearly exhausted. You go home."

Nick rolled his eyes. "Why don't you two go home and I'll stay here?" He said. Both parents cocked an eyebrow at him. He rolled his eyes again.

"Fine, you stay here, Sarah." Jason conceded. She threw up her hands.

"Thank you!" Jason and Nick gave her exasperated looks. "Nick, when you come back tomorrow, bring a pair of her sweatpants, a tank-top, and her orchestra jacket. Oh, and her sandals, the flip-flops not the other ones." Nick nodded.

Jason stood up and kissed Sarah and his daughter's forehead before dragging Nick out of the room.

Sarah sighed and settled into the uncomfortable chair for the night, watching her daughter endure her nightmares.