Two Thousand Miles from Me

1. ER

Jase Cooper checked the time on his watch as he entered the Emergency Room, it had been two hours since he'd got the call from the Dallas hospital, and now at nearly 3:30 a.m., he had finally arrived. The ER was busy despite the hour, and it took him a minute to locate the check-in desk in the chaos. Finally spotting it, he approached slowly, a part of him still wondering why he had come. Leaning onto the receptionist's desk he gave her a name in exchange for a room number. She pointed him in the right direction and Jase nodded his thanks before moving that way. Two lefts and a right brought him to room 112, the door was open but he paused before entering.

There she was, Tessa Craig, the girl he had never planned to see again. Her eyes were closed, maybe she was sleeping, he hesitated a minute longer. He felt a stone settle in his stomach as he looked her over; blood had matted some of her blonde hair to her forehead, there were stitches over her right eye, two fingers on her left hand were already in a blue brace and most disturbing of all were the purple and blue bruises around her neck. He had suspected something fairly serious when they called him, but that hadn't prepared him for the story he was putting together in his head now that he was here. Jase knew there was nothing for it, so he braved his way into the room. She opened her eyes when she heard his footsteps, and then froze as he finished his way to her hospital bed. Her face went tomato red, and she covered her eyes with both hands.

"What-what are you doing here?" she yelled hoarsely.

"Nice to see you too, Sunshine," he replied as he took the seat next to her.

"How did you know where I was?! I haven't told anyone! Why are you even here?!" She peeked at him from between her hands, looking mortified and still very red. Jase swallowed before admitting,

"Turns out I'm still listed as your emergency contact. You showed up in the emergency room, they called me." She covered her face again and groaned. Jase chuckled, he felt about the same way.

"That's just great. Really wonderful. You're exactly who I wanted to see tonight, on top of everything else." She ran a hand through her hair and winced.

"Like I said, nice to see you too," he griped back as he leaned over to pick up her left hand. "So what's all this?" he asked his voice getting softer as he brushed a thumb over the broken ring and middle finger.

"It's nothing, I just fell down the stairs," she snapped, snatching back her hand and scowling at him. He stared at her for few seconds and then nodded.

"So the stairs broke your fingers, hit you in the head and tried to choke you? You should take the elevator next time," he gave her a little smile but she just shook her head at him.

"It was nothing, really. You can go home now," she sighed and rubbed at the back of her head.

"Tessa-" he started in, trying to sound like he could tell her what was best, but he was interrupted by the nurse coming in the room.

"Who's this?" she asked in a snippy little voice, eyeballing him harshly.

"This is my...emergency contact," said Tessa shooting him a dirty look, Jase laughed.

"Oh. Well, I have your CAT scan results here, and the doctor should be in shortly," she said, still eyeballing him.

"Thank you," croaked Tessa.

"Also, I'm sorry to tell you that we did have to cut your engagement ring off when we set your fingers," she pulled a little baggie out of her pocket and handed it to Tessa, "A lot of times you can get those things fixed...sometimes you just shouldn't bother," she glanced sharply at Jase out of the corner of her eye. Tessa accepted the thing and stared at it for a moment. Feeling uncomfortable, Jase piped up,