A.N: Props to @cormierbm for rightfully and politely calling me out on a mistake and inadvertently uncloging the writer's block I had had. I probably wouldn't have had an update for days, if not a week or more if it weren't for this error correction I had to make. Thanks so much!!! This chapter is dedicated to you.
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Stana rushed through the doors of the E.R for the second time, the same man dominating her thoughts as always. She had left her sister behind as Gigi parked the car. Knowing what Gigi now knew of her sister's feelings toward the man, she wouldn't keep Stana any longer than she had to, and had dropped off her sister at the door. When Stana reached Molly and her father, she was only the second person to arrive after the fact this time. Seamus waited with his head down, looking more agitated now than he had before. Molly was only able to look up into the swirling gaze of the frantic woman standing before her for a moment. She couldn't handle any more pain than that and she quickly looked back down. Judging by their posture, she assumed no word had come on Nathan's condition, and she simply sat back down.
Molly couldn't get the images out of her head, she couldn't stop seeing Nathan on the floor, eyes entirely white, mouth frothing, body convulsing with a mass of tremors. He had been fine. He was better than fine, in fact. He was almost normal, spare the limitations Molly had put on his activity. But- he had insisted on getting his own water. He got up, ignoring her disapproval, and now he was in surgery. Again.
What the hell was going on?! Why wasn't anyone talking to her about this?! She was family! What happened to him?! She needed to know that he was alright! She'd been sitting alone for almost an hour with no news. She needed to know what was happening with him. Stana and Molly both desperately needed to know what was wrong with him.
When Gigi caught up with her sister, she simply sat down, took Stana's hand and remained absolutely silent. This time, a fewer number of people showed up. Jon and his wife came up, Juliana eventually showed, and a couple of Nathan's other friends made it in before... her. When Christina Ochoa came rushing in, Stana and Molly could feel the descent of rage coming over them.
The runny makeup on her face and the panic in her breath wouldn't exempt her from her sins. Molly immediately pounced. "Christina?! What the hell are you doing here?!"
The woman almost looked insulted, but desperation over shadowed that content in her voice. "I'm here for Nathan."
"For-," Stana began before biting back her words, instead nearly crushing her sister's hand.
Molly didn't hold back. "If you were here for Nathan, you would have been here two weeks ago, or any time between then and now! But you couldn't even manage a phone call!"
"I wasn't in the country," the woman explained. "My phone didn't have service. I didn't realize Nathan had been injured until yesterday morning and I immediately hopped on a plane. I tried to call, but only his mother picked up and she told me he was here, so I got here as soon as possible."
"And, so, what? You thought you would just trot your way in and instantly everything would be fine?!"
Molly's father stood and put his hand on her shoulder, calling her back with a gentle, "Molly."
The kid shook her father off her back. "No. You were gone for weeks! You didn't even bother to call! He thought you'd left him!"
"I left-, " she stopped herself in her tracks, but continued. "He thinks I left him?! He told me to leave! He said I should go if I wanted to go and we'd talk when I got back! I didn't leave him! What lies have you people put through his head?!"
Stana then looked up at the woman, chilling calm in her breath. "You people?" She dropped her sister's hand, rising to her feet. "Who are you to call us you people? We're his friends. You've known him for five months, we've known him for over five years. We were here for him while you were traipsing about some remote place without a care in the world. Don't come in here and act like you have the right to be pissed at us."
Christina's brow raised. "Who do you think you're talking to? I'm his girlfriend! Don't underplay our relationship. I know him far better than you think."
"Then don't underplay our relationship to him, because there is no way in hell any of this can change facts or help him," Stana stated bitterly, trying not to insult the woman any further. "Now both of you, calm down and sit down, and I'll do the same."
Not another word was said. Molly went back to sitting beside her father, Stana fell back to the chair beside her sister, and Christina simply took her seat. Stana, taking her sister's hand once more, couldn't think of anything but that wretched woman sitting two seats down. How could someone with such a kind name make Stana so irate? It was maddening. The simple fact that Christina was there drove Stana absolutely insane for no other reason than the fact that she shouldn't have been in Nathan's life in the first place. Nathan should have been with someone who cared about him for more than just his name, and every second Stana spent with that woman made her realize more and more thoroughly that she cared more about being in the press than she actually cared about the most perfect man in the world.
When Stana caught herself on that thought, however, on that description of Nathan, she had to revise. He wasn't the most perfect man in the world. He had his flaws. He had his failings. Yet- even knowing some of the worst thoughts Nathan had ever had, she could define him as nothing less than extraordinary. He was somehow very kind and caring in spite of the things he'd been through. Nathan was somehow charming and funny even after seeing the worst in humanity. Somehow Nathan was... more than perfect. He was perfectly imperfect, the greatest mural of broken pieces she had ever known. Sure, he had his chips and divots, he had his flaws and stains, but even the darkest parts of him were still beautiful because of the lessons they taught him. That was what made him... Nathan.
Yet, that was something Christina Ochoa would never see in him. It was something only broken people could see, and the woman had never been broken. It wasn't her fault, and it certainly wasn't a bad thing, but it was something she would have to acknowledge. That was the reason Stana never really approved of Christina. It wasn't honest jealousy, though, that had it's input, but it was the fact that this woman would never appreciate the heart of the man she was with, and the truly incredible being he was. Stana's biggest wish was for Nathan to be happy, and this woman couldn't make him happy. But then again, what made Stana think that she herself could make Nathan happy? She'd never really had a ton of success in the past.
"Are you here for Nathan Fillion," the approaching doctor asked the familiar faces around him, choosing not to ask too loudly for the patient's sake.
Molly answered by asking, "How is he?"
The doctor breathed heavily. "Are any of you family?"
"According to his paperwork, I am," Molly replied again.
The man nodded, straightened up and threw a ton of medical terms at her. Most of them, Molly couldn't quite understand, but Stana and Seamus got every word. Nathan's head wounds had been agitated by the fall and the swelling came back, this time affecting his lower occipital region (the base of the back of the skull). There, swelling had put pressure on his brain stem, eventually causing his seizure. This was a rare occurrence and nearly unforeseeable, which is why they hadn't had him come in. He was stable now, but again he was unconscious in a medically induced coma while they waited out his injury. He was in critical condition.
After slight translation, Molly asked, "Can I see him?" The man nodded and they all allowed her to head in first. Even Christina didn't argue that Molly needed to see him more than she did.
Once Molly was out of sight, Stana told Christina, "I take it you'll want to go in and see him next?"
"Is that a problem," the girlfriend asked, tears in her eyes.
Stana sighed, "Not if you're here for the right reasons. If you really care about him."
"Of course I care about him," Christina replied defensively. "I'm his girlfriend. I wouldn't be here if I didn't."
"I understand, and I know he cares about you. I just- I need you to know that the man you're with loves hard and loves furiously. He's not the kind of guy you can just mess around with. He acts tough, and he's very good at hiding pain, but- he's been through Hell and he's realistically rather fragile. I want to believe you were somewhere remote where you didn't get our calls because I don't want Nathan to have to deal with the thought that his girlfriend, someone he cares deeply about, just abandoned him. I want to believe you and I want to believe that you aren't the kind of person to tell a recently injured man that his memory complications went further than they did by telling him a story that isn't true. I want to believe you, Christina, but- given the dress you're in, your heels and your manicure, it's very hard to believe you've been where you say you've been."
Stana's words caused the woman before her to swallow hard. Her eyes, which had been on Stana's, left and fled to the ground as Stana continued, "Right now Nathan is under the impression that you just disappeared. He's already lost you in his mind. Please, if this is all some rouse, just- do one thing right in this and walk away. Don't say another word to him. He's in enough pain. He doesn't need to know that he could have had you and he lost you. He doesn't need that on his plate."
After this, Christina looked back up at Stana, swallowing hard and choosing to asked, "Will you at least tell him I called? Tell him I wasn't just the bitch who didn't show up."
Her face reacting to the request, fleeing from Christina's for a moment and then coming back up. It took a lot for her to say, "Yeah, I'll tell him." Christina then breathed, nodding and walking out the door, never to be seen in their presence again.
