When Amber woke up she took a deep breath, her dreams had been filled with memories of the attack and she still wasn’t sure she wanted to tell anyone about it. The ice that she held in her hand had melted so long ago that the water it left was warm. She rolled over and slowly pulled herself out of the bed, she knew that she didn’t have to work today but she felt like she owed it to Kerry. She walked out of the room and headed to the supply closet to get some aspirin when she saw Susan at the front desk. She decided she could wait on the pain medication and so she turned to go to the lounge to get her coat on so she could leave.

“Hey Amber what happened to you last night?” she heard Susan’s unmistakable voice from behind her as she entered the lounge. She didn’t turn to look at her hoping that her injuries would go unnoticed as she wondered where Susan was while she was getting attacked in the alley. She started to get angry thinking that Susan should have been there to prevent an attack from happening that’s why they went to the club together.

“I waited for you, you said you were going to dance with this guy and you didn’t come back.” Her speech was still impaired by her swollen lip and she cursed herself for speaking, she didn’t want Susan to know that she was hurt.

“Amber I…” Susan started to defend herself when Amber turned to look at her, “What happened to you?” Her voice was filled with genuine concern and so was the expression on her face. Amber pulled on her jacket and ignored the comment before she headed for the door. She felt as if she was going to get very angry if she had to explain the situation to Susan.

“I fell out of bed this morning and hit the table next to me.” She had forgotten all about telling Weaver that she had fallen down the stairs and she never thought that Susan and Weaver would be comparing notes on how she got injured. Susan followed her out into the hall trying to keep up with Amber who was moving just a little slower then a run.

“Did someone…”

“Yes I had it looked at now if you don’t mind me I’m going home okay?” She sneered at Susan the best she could with a swollen lip, “Don’t wait up for me.” Then she hurried off to her car leaving Susan to ponder what she meant by that.

The next day Amber didn’t even feel like getting out of bed, her face was sore and so was the rest of her body. When her alarm went off she rolled over and unplugged it before going back to sleep, but about 15 minutes later the phone started to ring. She groaned and with out lifting her head she reached over and grabbed the phone and put it to her ear.

“What?”

“Amber, it’s Kerry Weaver.” The voice on the other end said, she knew it was Weaver because she didn’t know of anyone else who would be calling her in the morning at this time. “Is everything okay?”

“Peachy.” Amber replied before pulling the covers up over her head keeping the phone to her ear, “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Yes…how did you say you injured yourself yesterday?”

“I tripped…” She replied blandly hoping to get off of the phone so she could get some more sleep, she heard a loud sigh into the phone.

“What did you trip on?”

“What’s with the interrogation lady I just want some sleep.” Amber snapped and without even thinking about it she hung up the phone. She yawned and put her arm around her dog who always slept next to her and drifted back to sleep. About five minutes later the phone started to ring again and instead of disconnecting it she picked it up and put it back to her ear, “What is it Kerry?”

“Susan told me you told her that you fell out of bed.”

“So what? Who cares how I got injured it’ll go away.” Amber growled wishing that people would just mind their own business and leave her the hell alone. She was going to take another sick day so why couldn’t people respect her privacy.

“Amber what really happened?”

“I fell that’s about it…what else do you want me to say? That I’m a clumsy ass?” She pulled the covers back over her head again and closed her eyes so she was in a state of half sleep.

“No I…”

“Good then. You aren’t my mom and I’ll be fine I’ve had worse injuries!” Amber nearly yelled into the phone, she was only starting to get defensive about it because she didn’t want people to be suspicious of what really happened but she didn’t realized that being defensive made Weaver even more worried then she was before.

“Are you sure you are going to be okay?”

“Yes…last year I was shot in the shoulder with a 9mm and I went to work two days later I’ll be fine!” Before she could even get a response from Weaver she hung up the phone, then she picked it back up and threw it across the room so it was off the hook. She curled up next to her dog, Iwata, again and slowly fell back asleep.

The rest of the day was rather uneventful, she woke up at noon and ordered a pizza before drinking a beer and watching TV for a little. She did some yoga and went out back to the stables and rode one of her horses for a while after she fed them. She was feeling a lot better and the pain in her face had subsided enough that it wasn’t throbbing any more. She finished brushing down her horse, Kyone, and headed back into the house to take a nice hot bath and have a cigarette while she was at it. She knew that by tomorrow the swelling would be down enough and she would be able to cover it with makeup and go into work. As she walked through the kitchen she grabbed a beer and the pack of cigarettes that were on the kitchen table. She took one out and lit it just as she heard the door bell ring, she stomped her foot in frustration wondering who could have found her house, before heading to the front door. When she opened it Weaver was standing there in the snow looking like she was freezing her ass off.

“Can I help you?” Amber said as she exhaled the smoke from her cigarette, she took a step back and motioned for Weaver to come inside before she closed the door behind her. “I know I don’t smell so great but I was just out with the horses, how did you find my house?”

“I have my ways.” Weaver pulled off her gloves and rubbed her hands together trying to get them warm, Amber led her into the study that was just a few feet from the front door where a fire was already roaring in the fireplace. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I told you I’m fine, do I look like I’m not okay?” She smiled slightly and sat down on the leather couch that was across from the fire before flicking the ashes into a near by crystal glass. Her parents didn’t smoke and they hated her smoking and she had never really bothered to get an actual ashtray when a glass worked just fine. Weaver eyed the crystal glass she was using as an ashtray, and she almost instantly recognized it as one of the hand cut glasses in a collection she had seen a few years ago. It was several hundred dollars just for one glass, and Amber was using it for that? Weaver realized that this woman most certainly had money to burn, but the weird thing about it was she didn’t even act like it.

“You look just fine Amber but I wanted to make sure that you were okay.” Weaver answered her in a slightly annoyed voice, she then guessed that she would be rather annoyed too if her boss came to check on her.

“Can I get you something to drink? All I have is imported beer and Saki.” Amber added after she asked the question she thought that she would let Weaver know that she didn’t have any American beer in her house.

“Imported from Japan?”

“Yeah. I find that it tastes a lot better then American beer, then again I grew up drinking it,” She smiled and saw the weird look on Weaver’s face, “Not like that but there isn’t any age limit to drink over there and because of that there are less alcohol related fatalities. When kids turn 21 there they don’t rush out to get drunk for the first time.”

“That makes sense.” Weaver replied, she knew that they did the same thing in France and it seemed like it would be a good idea to adopt in the united states. If kids were raised with the allowance of drinking wine then it wouldn’t be a big deal any more and there would probably be less drinking. Of course there would be the occasional poisoning and drunk driver but she could see how the statistics of that would drop rapidly. “In that case I’ll have a beer.” Amber nodded and headed off to the kitchen, she knew that she smelled like horse manure but she didn’t want to send Weaver back into the cold right away or desert her to go take a hot bath. She walked back into the lounge holding to beers with a Japanese label on each, then she sat down next to Weaver by the fire place. The glow and warmth of the fire made her temporarily forget about her problems and for the moment she just kicked back and relaxed, enjoying the company of Kerry Weaver.

The next day she was back to work as usual and had pushed the attack into the back of her mind. She was able to cover up the slight bruise that was left with make up and she had applied some Japanese herbal treatment to speed up the healing of her lip. She was making her rounds and was in quite a happy mood which caused Weaver and Lewis to drop any questions they had about her injury. She walked up to the desk to grab a chart for some guy who needed stitches before heading into the exam room to check him out. What she actually saw in the room surprised her so much that she dropped the chart, she squatted down to pick it up so she could keep her eye on the man. She knew instantly that it was the guy who had attacked her two days prior and for the first time in a long time she was afraid.

“How…How were you injured?” She decided to try and play it off like she didn’t know it was him but he smiled at her from ear to ear it was obvious that he knew who she was.

“Bar fight…lots of broken glass.” He replied casually and she wondered how long he was going to let her pretend like she had never seen him before in her life. She nodded slightly before putting a pair of gloves on her shaky hands, she didn’t know if she would even be able to do stitches on him. Her first instinct was to run and her second instinct told her to kick his ass when she had the chance. She carefully started to pick the glass out of his wound before numbing the area and reaching for the things she need to stitch him up.

“Maybe you should stay away from the bar scene for a little while.” She said her voice quite a bit softer then it normally would have been, she didn’t know why she was so afraid she was in a hospital filled with people there was no way he could get away with hurting her again.

“You were one of the best I’ve ever had…” He whispered into her ear as she leaned in to close his wound. She felt a chill run through her entire body and then she knew she was going to be ill, she ran out of the room as fast as she could and she ended up vomiting into the trash can that was set just behind the front desk. Her whole body was shaking terribly and tears involuntarily streamed down her cheeks as she vomited a second time. She slowly got back up to her feet after realizing that everyone was watching her, she wiped her mouth on her sleeve and quietly headed outside to get some fresh air.

“Alright you act like you’ve never seen some one get sick before!” Weaver announced to the staff that continued to stand around gawking, “Get back to work.” A moment later everyone was back to business as usual except for Weaver who went outside to talk to Amber. She was sitting on the bench out there holding a cigarette in her hands, she was shaking but it certainly wasn’t because it was cold out. Weaver walked over to the bench and sat down next to her she didn’t have the first clue as to what could be wrong with Amber.

“I’m fine Kerry go back inside.” She whispered before taking another drag on her cigarette, Weaver could tell when she was being lied too obviously everything was not fine with Amber or she wouldn’t be shaking so badly.

“I’m not stupid Amber.” She turned her head to look Amber in the eyes, “What happened in there?”

“Nothing…I probably just had a bad egg for breakfast.” She whispered and took another hit from the cigarette. “I’ll be fine…I don’t have a fever and my stomach is empty.”

“Amber whatever happened you can tell me.”

“No I can’t…cause nothing happened okay?” Her voice got louder and more assertive, “Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go brush my teeth.” With that she tossed her cigarette out into a pile of snow that was near by and walked inside as she crossed her arms over her chest. Weaver sighed loudly, she knew there was something going on but if Amber wasn’t going to talk about it then there wasn’t much she could do to help. She waited a few moments before going back inside, hoping that eventually Amber would trust her enough to explain what was going on.

A week later everything was back to normal, and other then a guy waiting in chairs demanding a wound check everything was going smoothly. Amber was in the lounge enjoying her sushi lunch and papaya juice, her wounds were all gone and she was feeling a lot better about herself. She was now convinced that she could go forever without mentioning to anyone what had really happened on the night that Susan had left her at the club.

“Look sir, we’ll get to you as soon as we can…” Amber heard Carter explain to someone as she dumped her empty lunch bag into a trash can. She went over to desk and set down her juice before picking up the chart for the next person she had to see.

“Goodie some one has a flashlight lodged in their rectum.” She said to no one in particular as she turned to go find the patient. She was reading over the chart trying to find the explanation to why this guy had a flashlight in there to begin with. She laughed to herself hoping that the reason wasn’t because he wanted to see inside himself. As she continued to read she walked passed chairs totally unaware that the man who was screaming for a wound check was the man who had attacked her. It had totally slipped her mind that he would have to come back for a wound check. She looked up and turned her head just in time to see him come at her and put an arm around her neck and a gun to her head.

“NO ONE MOVE!” He yelled his mouth very close to her ear, she winced slightly and tried to pull away from him but that just made him more angry. “What the hell is wrong with you people? I’ve been here for three HOURS!! First come first serve my ASS!” Amber heard the familiar click of the safety being turned off and she closed her eyes and started to pray. Everyone who was within ear shot froze leaving the staff to deal with this maniac.

“Look…sir…if you put the gun down we can have some one check you out right away…” She heard Carter say from behind them, she was wondering if it was too late for him to even consider dropping the gun it was clear to her that he had already lost it.

“No…it’s too late for that…I’m now an hour late for work so one of you is going to have to pay.” He replied turning to face Carter as he pulled Amber along for the ride. She put her hands up on his arm and tried to pull it away because he was cutting off her air but he didn’t loosen his grip. “Now that I’m here and I’m in control…I want all the vicodin that you have.”

“What?” She heard Weaver’s voice behind them, Amber thought it was weird that a guy would hold up a hospital for vicodin but Weaver had seen and heard things more strange then that. He turned again pulling Amber with him and he looked at Weaver.

“You heard me.” He replied, Weaver looked to Abby and nodded, she nodded back and hurried off to get the drug. “You are so pretty…but a woman like you is too good for me…isn’t that right?” He said to Amber but loud enough for everyone else to hear, “That’s why I did it…if want a motive that’s why you little slut.”

“What is he talking about?” Weaver asked as she took a small step towards the man with the gun, he stepped back and slammed the gun into Amber’s head rather hard.

“You stay right there…” He waved the gun at her for a moment before putting it back to Amber’s head, “Dr. McKay…why don’t you tell her what happened.”

“No…” Amber whispered she didn’t want to admit the events to herself let alone the staff and patients in county general, “Nothing happened.”

“BULL!” He tightened his grip on her throat, “Tell everyone what happened! And tell them it wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t think you were above all men!”

“But I don’t think th…” She was cut off as she suddenly applied a lot more pressure to her throat, Weaver put a hand to her face trying to stop herself from saying anything that might upset him even more.

“Of course you do…you want guys like him…” He pointed to Carter, “Or him!” He then pointed to Luka, both of the men looked at each other and then back to Amber who shook her head slightly she would never be interested in them in a million years, not because they weren’t cute or anything but she was a lesbian. “So I had to take matters into my own hands…TELL THEM!”

“Amber…” Weaver started before the man holding Amber shot her a nasty glare, Abby approached from behind them holding a rather large box of pills, “Please…”

“He…he…raped me.” She whispered so low the only person who could hear it was Weaver, he applied pressure to her throat again.

“What did you say?”

“I SAID YOU RAPED ME!”

“And why did I do that?”

‘Because you are a sick bastard!” She spat and he suddenly pushed away from her before punching her rather hard in the face, hard enough that a resounding crack could be heard. She fell to the floor completely knocked out. He turned to Abby and grabbed the box of pills she was holding, he was never late for work because he was a drug dealer and once he had the gun to Amber’s head he saw an easy way of acquiring drugs. He ran out of the hospital as fast as he could but the police were out there waiting for him and they made quick work of taking him down. Luka moved quickly and picked up Amber and got her onto a bed where Weaver started to look her over.

“Well she doesn’t have a concussion…amazingly.” Weaver said as she looked up to Luka and they both started to move her into an empty room as the others tried to get back to their normal routines as the police flooded into the ER for statements. Kerry took Amber’s hand once again and waited silently for the injured young woman to wake up,