He had sworn to himself that if he ever found another woman that had the *potential* to be an Immortal that he would turn around and walk right out of her life. He had made one of the biggest mistakes in his very long life trying to give Kate the chance to be with him literally forever, and all it had earned him was her undying hatred. In her eyes, he had stolen her life from her. She had never wanted to be an immortal. They had tried to reconcile four years ago, but she had finally shaken her head and told him that she still needed time and left to go back to Europe. He knew better than to follow her. They *literally* had all the time in the world. Then he had met Kelly. He shook his head and turned to look back at her. She was finally awake, lucid, and looking at him. “What the hell is going on?” She struggled to a sitting position and looked at her arms and and torso. “Duncan, what is going ON? I have a fuzzy memory of being hit by a car.” He looked at her and asked, “how do you FEEL? The doctor said you can leave if you are up to it.” She titled her head to the left, and stated slowly, “well, except for this really weird feeling sort of behind my eyes, I feel fine.” She moved her arm, and got a puzzled look on her face. “I’m a bit stiff, but that’s it.” She turned back to him. “Can we GO? I *hate* hospitals.” Duncan knew that most of this aversion stemmed from her mother’s death and the hours she spent with her mother through chemotherapy treatments after her cancer was diagnosed. Duncan was uncharitably glad at that moment that Kelly had no close living relatives. He breathed a silent prayer to whatever deities were looking over him this day. “The nurse is bringing in some paperwork for you to sign. As soon as that’s done, we can go home.” Kelly looked at him and scowled, “and where would THAT be?” He winced. “I’ll take you back to my place or yours, whatever you want.” Kelly was still frowning, but he could! tell that she recognized that he was trying to be sympathetic and not start another battle. “We can go back to your place. I feel really weird in some respects.” Duncan slowly nodded his head. “You can stay as long as you want. I have a lot I want to talk to you about.” She smiled, and in her face he saw the thought flash across that she was hoping he had changed his mind. Boy was she going to be shocked when she found out what he was actually so anxious to talk about. Just then the nurse that had originally brought him back popped her head in, and Duncan saw that she had a clipboard in her hand. “You ARE awake. Well, I’m sure you want to get out of here. As soon as you sign this form you are ‘free to go’, as they say.” She grinned at Duncan as she stepped into the small room and then headed for the bed to give Kelly the clipboard. Kelly took it and eagerly scrawled her name. “Your clothes are in that closet,” and she nodded over to a cabinet in the corner. “Hope you feel better, and you are one VERY lucky girl.” She took the completed form and left the room. Duncan went over and shut the door so that Kelly could get out of bed and change. He watched as she gingerly stood up and then got a puzzled look on her face. She walked over to closet and pulled out her jeans and blouse, both of which were in pretty sad shape. “Wow, these have met their end!” She grimaced as she put them on. “Ick. I’m glad I still have clean clothes at your place. I ! really need to just get rid of these and then I want a nice long hot shower.” She finished dressing, put on her boots and jacket, then turned to look at him. “Well, let’s go. I’m actually really HUNGRY. Can we stop and get takeout?” Duncan looked at her, got a small grin on his face, and said, “how about we hit Chang’s?” She nodded her head and then he opened the door for him to precede her. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!