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On her tip toes she scrubbed off the top list of patients who had moved out of the ER. Updating it quickly she grabbed her boards and began her rounds. Determined not to think Of Peter Wentz until she had to.

Staring at her last board, she drummed her fingers on it and walked quickly to his now private room. Knocking softly, she entered. Just the two Mrs Wentz's.

"Beatrice..." Mrs Wentz snr smiled.

"Hey." She said softly. She pulled up the clipboard from the end of his bed and looked at his charts. Scanned his vitals, scanned his wife, looked back to the charts.

"How are you both doing?" she asked concerned. Pete's wife just nodded, continuing to stroke her husband's face softly.

"We just want him to wake up!" His Mom said, weakly. Bea understood that, she walked over to the bed and pressed a few buttons on the machine.

"I think we should give his body more time to repair, he's had a major trauma what with the overdose and the surgery, we need to let the body have time to heal. I think another few hours and we can start decreasing the sedation drugs, see if he wants to breathe on his own.....we'll monitor closely..." She explained.

"Mrs Wentz-

"-Sarah...please." She corrected her quickly.

"Sarah...." She started again, detesting it with most the resistance possible, this woman had done nothing to her.

"We don't know how much damage the overdose may have done yet....it may have done nothing, I hope -.....we hope it's nothing, and that he makes a full recovery. But until he's awake and we can assess, you need to be prepared...." She advised.

"What do you mean like brain damage?" She asked with a frown.

"Yeah..." Bea said softly, with respect. Sarah's demeanor changed immediately.

"But-...But he's gonna be OK! You said, he's going to be OK now you're saying you don't know?!"

Beatrice stared at the brown haired woman who's eyes were already sending looks of betrayal her way.

"He's going to live....I said he would live." She said calmly.

Sarah shook her head and turned back to Pete, repetitively stroking his forehead, if he was awake, he surely would've swatted her hand away by now.

"Well why don't you just come and tell us when you're sure." The cold tone hurt Bea.

"Sarah..." Mrs Wentz said softly, putting a hand on her thigh.

"No!!" She snapped back at her.

Beatrice stared at her, carefully watching the tension between her and Pete's Mom.

"I'm sorry..." Bea said and walked out the room quietly.




Patrick did bed duty whilst Sarah and Pete's Mom went home to shower and change. The nurse was fixing a drip.

Bea slipped in and looked at Patrick.

"Dr Owen, he's responding well to the sedative reduction." She said softly.

"Good. That's good." She replied with a nod, she leaned over and read the machines.

"We should try to get him breathing on his own, increase the steroids to 7.5 mls for the next 2 hours." She instructed the nurse, she smiled and nodded, writing down on her board.

"Hey, was Aaron ok with the butterfly sutures? I had a crazy day yesterday - totally forgot to ask!" Bea said.

"Well, he's been complaining about the colour of them..." The nurse said, Bea giggled and nodded.

"I did ask, and I recommended the green!" She said,

"He's a stubborn decision maker.....often regretful too!"

"wow...all for a 9 year old?" Bea asked.

"You know kids Bea....they are just small adults!"

"Oh I do!" Bea smiled.

"How's Ayla doing?" She asked, Bea looked at her quickly.

"Er..she's great - she's really great!" She said quickly.

"Good...." The nurse said slowly, giving her a funny look.

Bea pulled on gloves and turned off the ventilator. They both waited, Patrick sat up in his chair and watched anxiously.

"Come on Peter....you need to breathe...." Bea whispered to herself.

Bea smiled suddenly and so did the nurse.

"He's breathing on his own, that's a very good sign...." Bea smiled at Patrick. The nurse walked out with her board and Bea detached the tube from Pete's mouth, she slowly pulled out his breathing tube and quickly disposed of everything in the bin by the bed.

"Who's Ayla?" Patrick asked. Bea kept her eyes on Pete and fixing his face up after being tubed for the last 48 hours.

"Er...Ayla's my daughter Patrick." She said, not looking at him.

"You have a daughter??"

"Yes..."

"When??"

"A while ago."

"Well that's amazing!" he said with a smile.

Bea smiled and looked at Patrick. She firmly wiped Pete's mouth and then the rest of his face, with an affection Dr's usually didn't have for their patients.

"How old is she?" Patrick asked, totally curious.

"She's 5...."

"5 years old??" he asked, he stared at her, Bea looked at him. She busied herself gently fixing his wires and sorting out his drips.

"Bea?" Patrick asked softly.

"She's really special....she has such a wild imagination! She loves to dance....and loves Ren and Stimpy!" Bea blurted out, avoiding eye contact with Patrick.

"But she hates it when people say goodbye, she cries....she loves cuddles....dogs and.....any music with a beat!" She added.

"Bea..." Patrick said, he stood up.

"And when she's sad, she does what he does.....she just goes in.......into her little world....and you,........er........you know where she's at.....as a person.....at anytime.....because it shows in her eyes!" Bea smiled.

"She's just like him." She said softly. She looked to Pete. She touched his face softly and smiled.

"It would have thrown his world into even more drama and chaos if I'd stayed and made him ride out my bad decisions."

"He never stopped loving you."

"Oh he did." Bea nodded.

"No..." Patrick said shaking his head.

"He drove me away....He knew the one thing that would make me leave.....everyone thought it was mutual!" She said laughing slightly.

"Everyone thought we just decided we weren't supposed to be together any more, but it wasn't like that."

"What are you talking about?" He asked with a frown.

"See? Even his best friend doesn't know...." Bea said.

"Know what?"

"I found him in bed with another woman. I don't know who she was, or why she was in our bed with my boyfriend......but I knew she didn't get there by herself! He didn't even look sorry....he looked relieved!" Bea said,

"He cheated on you?"

"It was planned, he wanted me to leave, no doubt, thought he was protecting me from the turmoil a relationship with someone in his position would bring. We'd been struggling for months, what with my University work load and him being away so much. We'd been fighting, over stupid things. But I wouldn't leave, I loved him and would have done everything to make it work."

"I don't understand..." Patrick said.

"You wouldn't. You're not Peter Wentz."

"And Ayla?...." Patrick asked, looking at Bea with a close resemblance to contempt in his eyes.

"I was 4 months pregnant when I left him."

"He knew?"

"No...."

"He doesn't know about his daughter?" He whispered.

"No....but now he has a new family. I don't wanna get involved in it. We're all fine the way we are. Maybe if he's strong enough when he's fully better - I'll tell him..." She explained.

"You should...." Patrick nodded.

"It's not as easy as that!"

"You should tell him!" Patrick said, persistently.

"Oh Patrick, you don't understand."

"No, you don't understand Bea!" He snapped back.

They glared at each other.

"Samuel's not his...." Patrick said bluntly.

"Huh?"

"Sarah's son, Samuel....he's not Pete's."

"But I thought-"

"-You thought Bea....but not everything is at it seems...." He said.

"Clearly." She said softly.

"They were separated.....him and Sarah." Patrick continued.

"What?"

"Yeah...When Pete found out about Samuel....it pretty much ended everything....it was weird, when Samuel came along, Pete changed.....he really changed, for the better too! He really focused, he had this clarity....this drive to achieve the best and go about it the most moral way possible." Patrick explained.

"Then when he found out......this happened......." He said, they both looked to Pete.

"There is no-one he would need more in his life now Bea, than the woman who he will always love and his daughter...."

"I don't know Patrick. I really don't."




"You can't just swoop in Bea and save his doomed life!" Lady said in her nasally Chicago accent.

"Oh it's not like that Lady!"

"He was in your bed with another woman....another woman Beatrice - what part of " I'm a man whore and I clearly don't love my girlfriend enough" do you not understand??"

"Stop it!" She hissed back at her friend.

"Too much time has passed for me to still be angry over this - and on top of that - I would be a complete hypocrite for condemning his behavior, when I'm the one who's been sleeping with a Married man for the past year!!" She grilled back.

Lady looked at her, shocked.

"Don't think that every time I was with Michael I wasn't thinking about the horrible person I have to be to stay with someone who is prepared to do that??"

"That's different!"

"It's not different, it's totally the same!" She reasoned.

"Mommy - can you play with my hair?" Ayla looked up at her with those eyes.

"Of course baby, you sit here." She said, she looked across at Lady.

"This conversation is finished." She said, Lady threw herself back on the sofa and shook her head.

"And your relationship with Pete.....is finished." Lady added.

"Always gotta have the last word..."

"Tru dat."