Category: Gen
Setting: Between season 1 episodes 2 and 3.
Characters/Pairings: Jake Green, Stacy Clemmons, April Green, Mrs. Clemmons.
Rating/Warnings: K+
Summary: After the fallout, Jake visits Stacy in the hospital.

Note: I was really disappointed that we never saw Stacy again after that first episode, so this is my remedy for that. I got the last name Clemmons from the IMDB cast list for the pilot episode. This was really fun to write and I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: Neither Jericho nor its characters belong to me.

Hospital Visit

Jake had never liked hospitals and yet he seemed to spend much of his time in them. It wasn't bad, just a tingling sensation that made him want to run for the hills, but he could usually ignore it enough to push through and show no reaction. That particular skill wasn't reserved for hospitals and it had saved his butt more times than he could count. Now was not one of those times. Everyone walking through the med center halls could see that the black sheep turned prodigal savior was nervous. He was looking around nervously, wiping his sweaty hands on his pants as he limped along, mouthing the room numbers as he went.

The med center was busy as the patients who had been in the hospital before the fallout evacuation returned and those who had been in the mine were admitted to be checked out. They had been lucky with that and what injuries there were were minor. Jake waved at a few people he knew and kept moving, only to be forced to stop when Lucas and Julia all but cornered him beside the nurses' desk. He had never been more grateful in his life then he was the moment their parents dragged them away. He wasn't a big fan of kids. Oh, he didn't mind them so long as he didn't have to deal with them for long, but he was always worried he would hurt one of them or say something that would get both them and himself in trouble.

Which made his reason for being there that much more nerve-racking. He should have been at the Town Hall, preparing for whatever was to come. Instead, he was standing outside of Stacy Clemmons' hospital door attempting to gather the courage to knock. He was saved when the door opened and April hurried out. Jake jumped to the side, barely managing to avoid a collision. April tensed up, her hands tightening on the clipboards and medical vials in her arms. She gave a weary smile at her brother-in-law before letting it fall.

"Sorry, Jake. I didn't see you there."

"Don't worry about it." He shuffled slightly, rubbing his hand on his pants. "How are you?"

"Busy." April shuffled the material in her arms. "I'd love to chat, but we are swamped right now."

"You better get going then." Jake said awkwardly, eyes peering into the hospital room.

April caught his gaze and smiled.

"She's going to be fine. You saved her life, Jake."

"I was just lucky." Jake shrugged.

"Don't keep her long." April advised. "She needs her rest."

Jake nodded and April gave one last smile before heading off down the hall. Jake took a deep breath and turned back to the cracked door. Gathering his courage, he pushed the door open and slipped inside. Stacy was lying on the hospital bed, IV lines running form her arm to the machines. Her mother sat in a chair beside the girl, and looked up at the sound of the door opening. She smiled in greeting and rose to her feet.

"Jake, it's good to see you."

Jake wasn't quite sure what to say. He had never really known Mrs. Clemmons except in passing. Sometimes she would buy food from the Richmond's when he had helped them out, but other than that he had no interactions with her.

"It's good to see you too, Mrs. Clemmons." He looked down at Stacy who was blinking her eyes open. "How is she doing?"

"April says she should make a full recovery thanks to you." Mrs. Clemmons beamed and brushed a stray hair from her daughter's forehead. She looked back up at Jake. "I wanted to say thank you, Jake. You saved my daughter's life."

Jake just shrugged, not use to being thanked. "It was nothing."

"It was far more than nothing!" Mrs. Clemmons denied. "You performed a complicated surgery with juice straws and band-aids! Stacy is alive because of you."

"She's a strong girl." She would have to be to have made it this far, he supposed, so it wasn't a lie.

"Are you the one who saved me?" Stacy's voice was quiet, but her eyes were alert.

"I just helped." Jake told her, moving to stand by the bed. "The doctors did most of the work."

"But you were on the bus." Stacy insisted. "The doctors weren't."

He couldn't deny that. She met his eyes and smiled.

"You're my hero, you know that?"

Jake just stared. Of all the things associated with him, hero was not one of them. With the things he had seen, the things he had done, he was the farthest thing from a hero. He just stared numbly as Stacey closed her eyes and fell to sleep. Her mother smiled down at her, gently running her hand along her daughter's face. Jake shook himself out of his stupor and started to back away as quietly as he could.

"Jake?"

He paused and looked back at Mrs. Clemmons' voice. She had tears forming as she nodded at him.

"Thank you."

Jake just nodded and closed the door behind him. Taking a shaky breath, he hurried as quickly as he could on his bad leg to leave the building. As he made his way to Town Hall, he thought back on the little girl in the hospital bed who had called him a hero. No one had ever said anything like that to him before. He was the screw up, the black sheep, anything but a hero. He remembered something Freddy had told him shortly after that day in Iraq. "You have to move on from the past, man. Everyone deserves a second chance."

Entering the Town Hall, he followed the crowd until he spotted Eric and his father along with Gray Anderson and a couple others. Already he had ideas forming of what their next steps should be. These next steps would be the most important ones, the steps that would define whether or not Jericho would survive this apocalypse. Even as he brought up the subject of sending out scouts into the surrounding areas, in the back of his mind he could hear that little girl calling him a hero. If he was going seize this second chance and prove himself worthy of her title, then he had best get started.