Changed Ch. 02

"Shh, shh, darlin' it'll be okay," Josh whispered as he reached up, cupping her neck in his hands and pulling her down to rest forehead to forehead. Slowly, Josh's breath grew shallow and short.

"No... Please..." Karen sobbed, holding his face with her hands.

Josh looked up and smiled "I'll... see you... soon... Kare-bear......dimittes... eam.... incipiunt."

Karen felt a sharp pain behind her ear where Josh's hand was before it slipped limply from her body. Reaching up she felt a strange design, that was sore to the touch.

"What the..." She looked down to ask what he had done, only to realize that he was gone.

"NO!!!" She screamed, grabbing his shoulders trying to shake him awake " No no no no, Josh... God! No!"

Suddenly large hands grabbed her shoulders and began to pull her away. She struggled ignoring the pain she was feeling as her wounds reopened further. "LET ME GO!!" she screamed, but more hands joined the first set as the nurses dragged her off of the body. "JOSH! NO!!"

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Cody and Theo were just walking into the hospital wing when they heard the commotion. All the nurses were running towards one of the intensive care rooms. Outside of the room, three large men were trying to contain a very angry, very loud human female. Theo's heart jumped in his chest when he saw her again, though it quickly dropped back to his stomach when he noticed all the fresh blood that was soaking her hospital gown. She was screaming and yelling at the male nurses that were holding her, calling them names that would make a sailor blush. Inside the room, Theo noticed all the nurses around the male human, obviously trying to resuscitate him.

"Oh god..." he said under his breath and started towards the male nurses.

"Theo," Cody said cautiously.

"Relax Cody, I'm going to take her back to her room and try to calm her down, she shouldn't be here to see this."

Cody nodded his agreement and went into the room to see if there was anything he could do.

Karen noticed Theo as he approached. "Make them let go of me!" she demanded " I have to get in there, he needs me!"

"I'm so sorry, I can't let you go in there, there is nothing that can be done for him now. You however need to go and lie back down before you do more damage to yourself" Theo said gently, pushing just a tiny bit of his power into his voice to calm her down. "If you'd like I can take you back to your room myself, or I can have these gentlemen drag you there, it's you choice."

Karen let out a heart wrenching wail before going limp. Theo quickly closed the distance and scooped her up in his arms and walked swiftly back to her room, while she sobbed into his neck. Theo sat on the edge of the bed and held her as he watched the strong woman in his arms crumble. They sat like that for ages, Theo gently muttering soothing words until Karen fell asleep. He gently laid her back on the bed and then sat in the visitors chair to wait. For the first time in a very long time Theo felt a deep calm. Yes his woman was physically and emotionally hurt, but she was here with him, and he would not let her go.