ICU

"Wait, but, wha..." Dani's voice trails off as she hears Dalton hang up. She rolls her eyes a little before flipping the phone shut.

"Dani!"

"Coming, coming." She puts her phone away then goes to the other side of the kitchen to see where they were at.

"New plans?" Carson inquires as he kneads more dough.

"Hmm? Oh yes... tomorrow, actually."

"Where you headed?"

Dani looks at him slyly. "Don't you wish you knew. I'm going to go see if table three needs anything."

Watching her walk away, Carson chuckles. Alone for a moment, he catches Aerith during a minute or two of quiet. "Hey, you. How's thinks with you and Wyatt?"


Leo lifts his eyebrows, thinking for just a moment. "I, um.... well no, I...." He starts to grin. "You could be covered in grease and still be beautiful. I just wanted to make sure you knew what you makeup job looked like so you could either take care of it, or make the other side to match."


Driving quickly across town, Kirk's hands grip the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles turn white. It wasn't often there was an accident, and even more rarely was it any of his own men.

With the quiet, his mind is a million and one miles away until Charlotte speaks. Then he blinks, his eyebrows rising and his jaw dropping just a little. "He... you mean you're...." He looks over to her quickly before his mouth starts to curl into a smile. "Well I'll be... I never thought I'd see the day that Bret..." He lets his words trail off, the seriousness returning almost immediately. "You'll still get to tell him." He reaches over to pat Charlotte's shoulder. "He'll be okay... he'll be just fine..."

The rest of the ride seems to take way too long, but finally the hospital is in sight. Kirk and Charlotte arrive minutes after the ambulance, and Kirk leads the way inside. The information desk is chaotic and Kirk can't seem to get anywhere, losing his temper with one of the nurses until he's finally pointed down the hall in the right direction.

Making sure Charlotte was still with him, they wind up being forced to sit it out in a waiting room, hearing nothing of either men for what seemed like an eternity. Kirk paces like a caged cat, not once sitting down. His clothes smelled of smoke, his hands still stained with dirt and grease. But he didn't care. Several others from the track eventually join them, all waiting to hear the outcome of the two men.

Finally, a doctor appears and Kirk just about pounces on him. "How are they? Landon? Bret? Are they okay? Are they-" He's cut off by the doctor raising his hand.

"Alright, one thing at a time," the doctor states calmly. "First, Landon has a fair concussion to his skull, but he's out of the woods. We had to repair some damage on his leg, but it's nothing that time won't heal. He has one broken rib, but otherwise, no other bones were broken."

Kirks sighs in relief. "Can we see him?"

"He's being moved to room three-twenty-two right now. You may see him in a few minutes, though he's probably still a bit foggy from the medications we gave him."

"Okay. And Bret?"

The doctor scans his chart for a moment. "Is... Mrs. Parker here?"

Kirk gestures to Charlotte, making her step forward.

The doctor extends his hand, giving her a warm smile. "Hi, my name is JT. You must have had quite a scare today." His voice is calm, though his eyes hold seriousness to them. "Your husband is also being moved to a room, but will be kept in the ICU for the next few hours. Unfortunately, he received more trauma than Landon."

Kirk is still listening intently. "Just give it to us straight."

"Bret also received a concussion, and some damage to his neck. His lower spinal chord was pretty severely knocked around, though thankfully, nothing was broken there - that will just be somewhat painful as it heals. His right shoulder was broken and it took quite a while to repair that damage. His left ankle was also cracked and will have to heal before he'll be able to walk on it." JT pauses, glancing back at his chart. "Um... he's still unconscious right now... which worries me a little bit, so we're keeping a close eye on him. We'll only be able to tell if his spinal chord injury was severe or not when he wakes up."

"You mean..."

"I mean if he can move his limbs when he wakes up, we'll be doing well."

Kirk swallows hard and gives Charlotte a glance before looking back to the doctor. "Can we see him?"

"Mmm, right now his wife may go in, but I'd like to keep everyone else out for now, at least until he's out of the woods."