The day sucked. There was no other way to put it. The day sucked, and Donny couldn't wait to get home. He looked at his discharge papers, which he had already signed. They were waiting for a nurse to come through and go over them with him and get him off the IV they had stuck into him. Then there was the whole waiting for someone to come and get him. He hadn't been sure who to call, so he had ended up calling his team. They would figure it out from there. He would rather call Molly, but they were still kind of hidden on that.

Donny had wanted to scream it from the rooftops because she made him feel like he was whole again, happy. He had not been looking for her, but after they started to talk at the spin class, they had both realized that they had feelings for each other. There was a draw. Molly was the one who wanted to wait until Donny's divorce was actually finalized before she told anyone about him, and she wanted to be the one to tell her father. Hicks wasn't going to like it, but there was not a lot that could be done about that side of things. Molly's relationship with her father was hers to handle. He looked at his phone and sighed. He hoped that she would not be too upset about anything. There were more than a few things that they needed to talk about because this was something they should have talked about before this.

"Your ride is here, and I'm here to get this out of your arm. The pharmacy has your scripts ready as well."

Donny raised an eyebrow at that. He had been told the pharmacy wasn't open yet.

"The head guy heard that we had a patient waiting and didn't want to make a SWAT officer wait."

"I could have had my normal pharmacy just deliver them after dropping them off on my way home."

"Nah, we do try to take care of the first responders that we get. He was in there and just working on getting set up for the day; it wasn't hard for him to take a few minutes to get them going. We do it on occasion, especially in the shitty weather with families and stuff. I wish we could go back to having the pharmacy open twenty-four-seven. It would make things so much easier on so many people, but in the end, the money is what talks."

Donny knew that. He held out his arm and let her take the IV out while she went over his meds with him, as well as a few other things that were totally covered in the discharge papers. He had been on the medication before. He had also been through being hit by a car and getting a concussion and overall body issues, and of course, then he had been ripped out of the car and beaten on by a guy who Donny was still pretty sure had been in a 'roid rage. It hadn't been something that he had expected. It had sucked, and after the concussion, there hadn't been much he could do to the guy who had attacked him, all because he had been there. That guy hadn't even been driving the car that hit him. No, the rest of the team had taken care of that guy because he had a gun. Donny had held his own against the guy attacking him, but he had gotten a lot of licks in because Donny was trying to protect his head and just keep him contained until the other two of his team could help him. The guy with the gun was more important than anything else. It had sucked, to be honest.

"You okay?" the nurse asked.

Donny looked at her nametag and realized that her badge was flipped around, so he had no idea what her name was. He remembered being told, but his short-term stuff was messed up.

"Yeah, just remembering how I got here. That's all. It sucked."

"No kidding, it sucked. You made the news. It took a few for us to realize the guy we watched fighting a guy was you. Until the camera got close, when the paramedics were finally allowed in. You were bad ass there. Your team did well as they got the guy with the gun contained."

Donny nodded, his head aching a lot even though he was doped up. He hadn't wanted the stronger stuff until he got home.

The door opened, and then Molly walked in. Donny just stared at her for a few seconds before she smiled. He swallowed hard.

"What are you doing here?" Donny asked.

"My father called me."

"Why?"

"Because he said that my boy driver needed to be picked up after making the noise for fighting a guy who was not only in a 'roid rage but also high on meth. You really went toe to toe with him after getting a concussion after a guy rammed your car at a stoplight because they knew it was a cop?"

"I had to. He was freaking the hell out and wanted to fight. He could have gone over to fight with anyone, and he could have killed them. Once the guy with the gun was taken care of, my team helped me. My taser had been in the car and not on my person, and I didn't want to shoot this guy because there were too many people around. He could have freaked out and hurt anyone worse. I could at least take him."

Molly stepped up to him when the nurse stepped out of the way. She cupped his cheeks and kissed his forehead. "I didn't realize that Dad knew."

"Neither did I. I am shocked that I hadn't gotten the worst of things from him."

"I'll talk to him later. I want you to call me next time. I know that I've left things a little weird, but I am not hiding you out of shame, just not wanting to deal with the shit that will come with all of this."

"Okay, I will. I have the team as my emergency contacts; most of the time, they are right here beside me."

"Make that me as well. I already made you mine."

Donny closed his eyes, and he let Molly hold onto him. He loved being in her arms. He loved just having her with him at all times. He felt safe with her, which was something that he hadn't felt for a long time.

"You filed the paperwork a while back to make sure that the LAPD knows that you are not with Val anymore, right?"

"Yeah, I did. I didn't have you as my contact there. So even if Hicks had looked that up, he wasn't going to see her, just that we were in the middle of a divorce. There was more paperwork I had to file to make sure that everything with her was squared away. To be honest, I have no idea what the hell I want to have happen with her on this. She wants the divorce, and I'm done with her. You know that, but I want her to feel bad about it. Sorry."

"It's fine. We talk about her because she's a big stress in your life. I'm not shocked you are still stressed about it all, given that she's the way that she is right now. She's fighting everything. I know that you are not hung up on her, but outside of work, she's the biggest stressor. I understand."

Donny tried not to talk about Val other than about the divorce. Molly understood why, and she seemed to care that he cared. He didn't want to feel like he was talking about Val too much.

There was a knock on the door, and Donny looked to see if it was Hicks. He tried to sit up, but it hurt his body. He groaned and leaned into Molly.

"Sir," Donny said.

"Stand down. You look even worse than I thought. Are you going to go to Molly's or your place?"

"Mine," Molly said.

"I'll have someone drop off your stuff from the station. Keep me informed on when you can come back to work, at least inside the station. Deacon's gonna help your team since this is the first big time they have been without you—Hondo's more than willing to allow him to help with what is needed."

Donny was waiting for the other shoe to drop. He looked at his boss and waited.

"You look like you are about to take on a brawler," Hicks said.

"I think we are worried about your reaction," Molly said.

"There is no reaction right now at all. I'm not happy, but I found out when the divorce paperwork was filed. I will be talking to you about why you didn't tell me."

"I didn't tell anyone outside of my team. If a case came up where I would be worried about it affecting what I do, I would have told you, but it was personal at that moment; it wasn't something I really wanted to talk to anyone about."

"I've never been divorced, but I can understand that it's something hard to talk about with someone like me," HIcks said.

Donny looked away from him. Hicks had lost the love of his life and found it hard to move on. Donny thought years ago that it would be him and Val, that it would be Val who would find it hard to move on. There was so much shit going on in his head that he just nodded.

"Get him out of here and where he can rest. Text me if you need anything when you get home. I'll pick it up when I get off work, and then if you are up for it, we can talk then, or later," Hicks said.

"I need a nap. Or to just sleep all day," Donny said.

"I'll place an order online, and if there is anything we can't get, I'll let you know. Thanks, Dad."

"As I said, we will talk, but I'm not going to act like I have any control over your life because I never have, and I know that."

Molly smiled at Hicks, and then she turned to him. "Do we need to wait for anything?"

"No, well, yes, but I bet they have them out there. They went to the pharmacist to get my scripts read for me so that I didn't have to get them from anywhere else. I was very happy that they did that, but I don't need to now. So, I'll be good to go as soon as I get changed." Donny didn't even notice when the nurse had left him after getting the IV out of his arm."

"I bought a change of clothes," Hicks said. He handed over a bag.

Donny knew the bag well; it just had SWAT issues, sweat, and stuff in there, but he was happy for that instead of having to get back into the work clothes that were going to pull at the wounds on him. This was going to be so much better. It wasn't like his clothes had been taken for evidence. He was pretty sure that his shirt had been cut off. "Thanks."

"You are welcome. When I come over tonight or tomorrow, tell me what to bring for food because I'm not going to have you cook for me," Hicks said, looking at Molly.

Molly nodded, then she looked at Donny and smiled at him. Donny felt like his life was going to be changing. He knew it was for the better, but he still wasn't sure that he was ready for more change. His life had changed so much over the last while. It was the circle of life, though, changed. Not always for the better, but it all came down to how one took the change. Donny could take it, and he would make it the best he could, with Molly at his side.

The End