"Who is that?" Ricky asked as he sat down in the seat after getting them more to drink from the store inside. They had been on patrol all day, doing community outreach in areas that needed more patrols and also looking for a few people.

Donny looked up at him, and then he closed his sketchbook.

"What?" Donny asked.

"I know her face from somewhere. Some actress you saw on a call and can't get out of your head?"

"Something like that." Donny made sure to slip the book into his backpack. It was his own fault for doing that where someone could see it.

He did have Molly's face stuck in his head, and he was working on making something for her birthday. He needed to figure out what he wanted to do for the meal. He wanted to do a whole spread at her place for her, but that would mean that he needed to have a key to her place. His new place was too small, and it was really not good for the kind of cooking that he wanted to do.

Molly was good. Donny knew he was in love, but Molly needed time. Not just because of what she had endured when it came to Street, but also, Molly wanted to make sure that Donny was really over Val.

Therapy had meant that Donny had been able to realize that he had been out of love with Val for a while, but he had committed to her. Of course, finding out that she had been cheating on him for a long time after he had treated her like a princess had broken him. He had been unable to cope with a lot of what came out in the divorce. How much Val just didn't want him, but had wanted the comfortable life that he had given her. Until she found someone she wanted more.

Only the scuttlebutt that he had gotten from a friend who was still friends with someone who was friends with Val, her boyfriend, had left her. It was karma that Donny loved when it hit the people who needed it most. He felt bad that Val didn't have the ticket like she had before, when the boyfriend had been willing to fund her lifestyle, but now she had to work for what she wanted. It was more than enough to make him feel a lot smug about it. He still lived in his small place because he didn't need much. Molly hated the vibe of the place, which Donny got. It was a place to rest his head, not a place for him to live in forever. He was going to make a home somewhere else with someone else, hopefully Molly. He wasn't sure what she really wanted out of life, but he hoped that in the end, their paths would walk roughly in the same direction.

A revving engine had Donny looking out into the street to see a truck narrowly missing being hit by what looked like a drunk driver. He hit the sirens and checked traffic in his area before he pulled out to go after the drunk driver.

"Call it in," Donny said.

Ricky started to call it in, and he had it nearly fully done when the truck revved its engines again just as Donny was getting level with it. He knew what was happening before it did.

"BRACE!" Donny yelled just as Ricky had the radio pressed to where his voice was caught by dispatch. There were a few seconds where Donny thought that things were going to go even worse, but he pressed the gas, and the back of the car was clipped. The issue was that it seemed the drunk car was part of this because they slammed on their brakes. The car collided with the end of the other car, causing it to flip over and roll.

The world went dark.

---

Molly knew that not telling her father would bite her on the ass at some point. She wanted to be sure before she told her father that she was dating another of his men. Donny was everything that Jim had never been. There was something about him that made her want to do something stupid, like ask him to move in with her already.

She knew that she wasn't a rebound for him. He had confessed to realizing that he had been out of love with Val for a long time before she had cheated on him and asked for a divorce. She had been there when his tests had come through, and he wasn't infected with HIV since that test took longer. He had been pushy on the whole condom thing with her touching him until then. She had understood it even if it cut the mood a bit. After that, she had blown him so long that her jaw had ached all the next day. They still used condoms when they had sex, but that was mostly a pregnancy thing, even though she was on birth control. They didn't want an accident. That would be the thing that turned her father into someone who was pissed off at Donny so much that Molly fought that he would have to transfer. There was nothing that would make him hate Donny more in Molly's eyes. She was hopeful that he would be willing to give Donny a chance in this.

But today had wiped that all away.

Molly found a spot and parked. Looking at the ER as she sat there. If she went in there, there was no going back. If she didn't, there was no going back. If she couldn't face her demons to face her father while Donny was hanging on for his life, she didn't deserve him. Molly grabbed her purse and got out. She looked at her shoes and shook her head before she headed for the trunk. She had a bag of better clothes in there. After hours, when the clients were all gone and everyone was working on shit that would keep them there for hours, they could dress down. She kept the bag in her car, and when she ran out of stuff, she would take it in and restock it. Her work clothes were not stuffed back in but put into the bag that she had in there, and replaced each day.

Once she got a good idea of what was going on, she would get changed. She was more looking forward to being out of the high heels that she was wearing. There were cops everywhere, mostly to protect Donny and Ricky. That was who she had heard had been injured. Her father was there because that was where he belonged. Donny's team was running under Hondo's command as they worked on figuring out who the fuck did this.

"Molly?" Dad asked as he saw her.

"How are they?"

"Did you need me?" Dad asked, dodging the question.

"Dad, how are they?" Molly asked. Her hand started to shake, and there was someone taking the bag from her hand.

Dad pulled her close, and Molly inhaled before exhaling as she let her father calm her down.

"Richards is out of surgery already, but Rocker's going to be under a while. They are hopeful that he'll have no issues. His leg was pinned when it rolled, and then there was his head to worry about. When the doctor comes out, he'll talk to his medical person."

Molly was pretty sure that it was her.

"Who is that?" someone else asked.

"I am not sure, not since Val left him and they started the divorce process."

"He's divorcing?" Dad asked.

Molly looked at Tan, who looked a little worse for the wear. He looked like he had been hurt.

"I was close enough that I caught up with them, and EMS was behind me. I got blown up as well, but nearly as bad as them. My biggest injury is a concussion." Tan looked like he wanted to be out there. "Val left him, and they are in the last stages of the divorce, just waiting for the time and the final ruling to happen. He's been seeing someone, but he's not been open about that."

"I never knew," Dad said.

Molly knew that when it came to his men, her father would do anything, but there were some of them that he didn't like as much as others, and Donny was one of those that he didn't like too well on a personal level. Donny didn't care because Hicks defended him all the time when it was needed.

"Molly, what did you need?"

Molly shook her head. She took the bag from Tan. "I'm going to get changed and then we can talk." The bathroom she could use to change was just outside the waiting area for surgery. She hoped that nothing would happen while she was gone. She stripped with ease before looking at herself in the mirror. The bathroom was a single stall, so she didn't worry about being walked in on. She could see the hickey that Donny had left on her the night before, in a place that was easy to cover, just like she had left marks on his back from her nails. He was going to need a place to go because he didn't need to be alone. She would get him to come home with her. There, his team could come and stop by with food and everything else that they liked to do.

The hoodie that was inside of there was something she had kept in there after Donny gave it to her. It was too small for him, considering the newest bulk he had put on. But it fit her as much as an oversized hoodie did. It had his name on the back of it. It was a claim as much as anything else was going to be. She slipped on the shoes and looked at herself in the mirror. The shirt she was wearing was thin enough that she wasn't going to get too hot when they went outside as well, and if she did, she could take off the hoodie. She would have to see about getting a shirt with his name on it.

Tan was waiting outside when Molly stepped out. He looked at the hoodie and nodded. "He slipped up two weeks ago, and I didn't call him out on it. He said Molly instead of just saying girlfriend. I didn't think much of it until you came flying in there."

"I told him that I would tell my father when it was time. After Jim, I learned that I needed to keep a distance between them until I was sure that it was something that I wanted. I know I'm not a rebound for him."

"That's good. Now, let's go. I've got your back. I like Rocker, especially since he's been pretty happy lately, and I'm going to assume that it's because of you."

"It is. He makes me happy as well."

Tan took the bag again and he slung it over his shoulder, then got behind her as she headed for the waiting room.

"Molly Hicks?" a man said from the other doorway as Molly stepped into the room.

"That's me," Molly said. She swallowed and looked at Tan for reassurance before heading over to talk to him. Her father was there as well, looking at her like he didn't know her, and then his eyes moved. He had clocked the hoodie.

"Rocker is going to make a full recovery. The leg wasn't nearly as damaged as we thought it was going to be, and the concussion was bad, but the main wound was the skin and muscle around the base of the skull instead of his brain. He's heading into recovery, and you can stay with him once he's in his room for the night. I've been made aware that someone with him at all points was going to be better than the nurses trying to talk him into staying, or dealing with keeping him drugged if he has memory issues from the concussion. He'll probably stay for a day or two and then be released into your care. Do you have a home where he doesn't have to deal with stairs?"

"Yes, it's all one floor. Thank you."

"The nurses will go over things a lot more since I'm going to have to scrub up for another surgery. If you have any questions that they cannot answer, they will write them into his chart, and tonight, before I head home and I do my check on him and all of my patients, I'll answer them."

"Thank you," Molly said. She inhaled and exhaled, keeping her breathing calm as she processed that Donny was okay.

Hands on her had her turning into her father's arms, and he held on tightly to her, letting her break apart. She loved him and hadn't said it. She had tried to tell herself that it was less than what it was because she was afraid of scaring him off, but now she had to face that he could have died and never knew how she felt.

There were people talking all around them, and she just stayed in her father's arms and cried it out until she couldn't take it anymore and made herself stop. Molly looked for tissues, and she was handed a couple by Tan, who was staying close. She knew that he was one of the ones who was closer to Donny, who wasn't on his team. She liked Tan, so she didn't think she would get rid of him until Donny was in the room; he would be in after recovery.

Molly let her father coax her into sitting down, and she tucked her legs up onto the chair with her and looked at him. "I was going to tell you soon. He didn't tell you because I told him not to. I said that after everything with Jim, I wanted to be sure about things before I told you, since he works under you."

Her father handed over something. She took it and she realized it was Donny's sketch pad. "He had been drawing in that before they were rammed, from what Richards said. It was reviewed, and the tech who did that realized it was all personal. When they gave it to me, it was open to the page with your face. Given that there were no other people from the station, I knew it meant something. I just wasn't sure until you came in here. How did you find out?"

"I came to make the plan for the meal where I would introduce you both, on my birthday. Now, I think I'll have to figure out something else where I have a meal brought in, because he wanted to make me a big meal. I doubt he'll be able to do that. So, something low-key and then when he's on his feet, he can make me a meal, take a raincheck on it."

"I'll try not to be a miserable bastard to him. I respect him for what he was doing for you, letting you set the pace for revealing to me. I'll want to see him for a few minutes, and then I'm heading back. Hondo has left a few behind to make sure that they are covered at HQ. I'll take Tan with me because he can at least help me there."

"Happy to help as soon as I lay eyes on him."

"Then you two go first, and I'll get myself something to snack on after he's out of recovery because you are not dragging me out of here right now."

Tan and the rest of them who were there waiting moved off to the sides, leaving her alone with her father.

"He treats you right?" Dad asked.

"He treats me really well. We met at spin class. We were friends at first. He was going through the worst of the divorce, and he was afraid of something that I'm not going to go into with you about because that's his private information."

"He had some extra tests after a risky exposure," Dad said.

"Yes, that. Then he was worried about the extended stuff and having to take the extra pills even though nothing looked wrong. He wasn't taking a damned chance on that. We were friends, and then I kissed him. I didn't realize until I was standing in the middle of HQ and heard that his car had been rammed and he was in surgery that I loved him, and I had never told him. If he had..."

"He's alive and he's going to be alive for a long time to make you happy. He's going to do everything he can to keep you happy, or he will answer to me."

Molly laughed, and when her father held up his arm, she leaned into him. She could settle down into this for now. Let her father make her think that nothing horrible would ever happen to them.

---

Donny knew that something horrible had happened because there was so much pain. It took him a few seconds to remember that he was in the hospital and Molly was there somewhere. She had been there when he had woken up the first time and a few other times after it. Donny wasn't sure how many times that had been. His head was hurting him, probably what had woken him up.

"Hey," Donny said, smacking his lips because his lips were dry and his mouth felt that way as well.

"Hey, hold on."

The cold was there wet, a little bit of sponge that had cold water in it. She used it on his lips and then let him suck it a little. He coughed, and it hurt, but he got that under control. The sponge came back, and she let him suck it. He didn't cough that time, so next was a spoon with some ice pieces. He sucked on them and made sure he wasn't going to cough again. His throat liked to fuck him over, and he had coughed so much the first time he had taken a sip of water. So they did this when he needed it. He was on fluids, so there was no reason he should feel as thirsty as he was.

"Hey," Donny said again.

"The lights are mostly down. I've been reading on my Kindle. I went home a little while ago while Dad sat with you. You didn't even rouse at all for him."

"That's good because I like seeing your face, not his."

Molly kissed his forehead, and he opened his eyes, looking at her face, the little light in the room giving him enough light to see her.

"Can I wake up seeing this face every day?" Donny asked.

"Is that the concussion talking?"

"Nope, the few nights we've had are never enough. I miss you in bed with me when I wake up alone. I don't wanna wake up alone again like that."

"Well, you are going to wake up alone for a little while. I have a new bed on order, something a little bigger that will cut the bedroom size, but it'll allow me to sleep in bed with you while injured and not have to worry about hitting you. So, until then, I'll be on a cot beside the bed because I don't want you getting up. We can arrange for the team to get your belongings out of your home, and we can help you move in while you're recovering. We can pack it all up, and you can get it all out of a box at a time while sitting on the couch."

Donny smiled because that sounded really good. He rented a place that had a very good lease-breaking policy, and his accident could get him out of it with ease.

"I'll see your face every day now?"

"Yes," Molly said, leaning in for a kiss.

Donny cupped the back of her head as he kept her right there. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

The admission wasn't new, but at least they were good at saying it already. Now, to just face the future, together.

The End