He heard beeping. Not the beeping of his phone. This was something else. His head felt fuzzy.

Adam opened his eyes slowly. It took a moment for him to realize that he was laying in a hospital bed. The beeping was a heart monitor. He could feel the weight of the oxygen monitor on his finger. There was an IV in his arm.

There was a hand wrapped in his. And a head with brown hair laying on the edge of the bed.

"Jordi?" Adam whispered. He gently wiggled his arm.

Jordi half jumped awake. "Dr McAndrew. You're awake." Jordi grinned sleepily.

"What's going on?"

"I'll get the doctor." Jordi leaned out the door and called out to someone outside.

"Hey Sleeping Beauty." Erin grinned as she walked into the room. "Thought you would never wake up."

"Would you please tell me what happened?"

"So cranky." Erin tutted at him. "Let me check you over first."

Adam sighed but said nothing. Jordi stood in the doorway talking on his phone. Adam could guess who he had called.

"Happy?" Adam smirked as Erin wrote something on the bedside chart.

"Very." She perched on the edge of the bed.

"And?"

"And you are really stupid and really lucky." Erin tucked the bed sheets around him. "How many lectures did we get in med school about the evils of letting yourself get run down or dehydrated or missing meals. You had to go and do all three."

"Not my finest hour."

"No, your 'finest hour' would be how, after the hundreds of patients you've seen, you missed every symptomatic warning side that your appendix was perforating."

"What?"

"No, that wasn't heart burn from too much coffee on an empty stomach." Erin shook her head. "You went full blown rupture last night. I guess you passed out from the drop in blood pressure. Knocked over the water cooler and wacked your head in the process.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah." Erin looked over at the doorway. "Jordi told me the two of you had a fight about you not doing the surgery after all. He said some mean things and he felt really bad about it and had been trying to talk to you to apologize."

"He had nothing to apologize for."

"He thought differently. And lucky of you that he did. Brittany let slip that you were working and he snuck out of bed to find you. I guess it was bugging him so much it was literally keeping him up.

"If he hadn't found you when he did."

Adam looked up at Jordi who seemed a little embarrassed by the comments. "Thank you."

"Yeah."

"Dude." Dash grinned as he half jumped through the doorway. "You're okay."

Adam found himself grinning as Leo, Kara, and Emma followed him into the room.

"I'm so glad you're okay."

"You had us really freaked out."

"Do you have like a gnarly scar, cause some chicks dig that."

They crowded around the bed, full of grins.

"Really, guys, I'm fine." Adam laughed.

"Okay, okay." Dr Grace said firmly.

"I'm sorry, Dr Grace." Jackson said from the doorway. "They've been pretty worried all day. They just needed to see for themselves."

"And now that they've seen, let's let Dr McAndrew. He'd be back up and running before you know it."

"Come on kids." Jackson pushed them out of the room.

"Welcome to the Red Bands, Doc." Dash said, giving Adam a fist bump.

"Glad to see you awake there, Adam. Place isn't the same without you."

"Jordi, wait a second." Adam called out.

"Adam." Erin fussed.

"Just two minutes."

"Okay."

Adam waited until the room was clear.

"I'm really glad you're okay."

"Sounds like I owe that to you."

Jordi shrugged. "Look I'm really sorry about what I did."

"Sorry enough that it will never happen again."

"I swear."

"I mean it, Jordi. Nothing. To anyway. Sold or even given away."

"Not even an aspirin."

"Okay. Then it's done. It's over."

"Can I have my application back?"

"Let's talk about that later. When we have time to sit down together and go over it. I promise I will make time."

"Okay."

Adam noticed Jordi chewing on his lip. "What?"

"Can I not be grounded anymore?"

"Grounded?"

"Stuck in my room all the time. Having to have a nurse walk me to class and to treatment. Making them check me every hour to make sure I haven't snuck off."

"Jordi, I'm so sorry. I didn't do that as a punishment. I was just worried about what would happen when you started this new chemo. The drugs were a lot stronger and you go so sick that first time. It kind of freaked me out to hear that you passed out at the movies. I didn't want a repeat of that. Or something worse."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. I care about you. Not just because it's my job. That's why I was so upset the other night. It wasn't just that you did something illegal that could get you in a ton of trouble. When I saw the money in your application I knew what it was for. And it disappointed me that you would do something like that. And that you didn't think you could come to me for help."

"I guess I'm not used to adults having my back."

"I'm not your mother, Jordi."

"No. You aren't." Jordi smiled.

"So we're good?"

"Yeah. Very good."

~~~~ fin