AN: He's alive! And mostly conscious!

It had been three hours and Davey had finally calmed down enough to sit in a chair of his own, and all three of them were half asleep by the time Jack's doctor finally came out.

"Christopher Morris?" They were suddenly all very alert as Crutchie stood and looked at him. The doctor walked up to him with a warm smile.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Moore, I've been examining Jack Kelly." Crutchie nodded.

"Is he okay?"

"I believe he'll pull through; it's going to take some time."

"What all is wrong with him?" Davey asked, and Dr. Moore was hesitant to tell anything, but luckily he could tell that he and Katherine were with Crutchie.

"He has a fractured wrist, that's what took us so long with him, it's been fractured more than once and he never got it checked out. He has a bad concussion but no signs of memory loss. He's severely malnourished and his voice is hoarse, which shows signs of choking, but that should go away soon. He also has some fresh scars that look like they were done with a belt, I stitched those right up, and they should heal up nicely."

"Can we see him?" Katherine asked, and the doctor gave them an apologetic look.

"Not yet, I'm afraid. I just came out to give you an update. He's resting now, when he wakes up we're going to run a few tests for any internal injuries, and then he'll be open to visitors." He smiled at them, and went back down the hallway they still weren't allowed to go down. Crutchie sighed and sat back down, and they prepared themselves for more waiting.

oOo

By 8 AM, Davey had made two coffee runs, and it had become clear to the three of them that they were definitely not going to make it to school. Crutchie had already texted the rest of the boys to tell them the situation, and insisted that they shouldn't all skip school as Race had suggested, and Katherine had offered to call Miss Medda once the school day was over, not wanting to worry her.

"Christopher Morris?" They heard again, from a female voice this time. A nurse walked towards them. "Dr. Moore asked me to let you know that Jack Kelly is awake and ready for visitors. Room number 4 on your left."

"Thank you." Crutchie said politely, and she smiled and left as the group of three stood up. They all stood in front of the door awkwardly for a minute before Crutchie finally rolled his eyes at the other two and opened the door. They walked in and Jack looked up from the hospital bed with a start as he saw them standing there.

"Guys?" His voice was hoarse, and they pretended not to notice.

"Hey, Jack." Crutchie said quietly. "How're you feelings?" Jack shook his head, trying not to wince as he did so.

"Don't give me that look. Any of you. I don't need sympathy."

"Jack." Davey began, but Jack gave him a look.

"Stop it. I'm fine." He assured them. "What are you guys doing here?"

"I get woken up at 3 AM and I'm greeted with 'what are you doing here'?" Katherine said sarcastically with a smile. Jack rolled his eyes.

"I'm serious! How'd you even know I was here?"

"They called me. I'm on your emergency contacts list, remember?"

"...Oh, yeah." They sat around and talked for a few minutes, telling Jack about anything interesting that had happened while he was gone. Not surprisingly, Jack ended up falling asleep, a side effect of his concussion.

"Does anyone else feel like it's their fault?" Katherine asked softly, looking at him.

"Yeah." Crutchie said.

"Me too," Davey nodded in agreement. "But it's not. It's not anyone but Snyder's fault."