When Boxter woke it was nearly midday, and there were three texts on his phone.

One was from Wackerman, letting him know he'd gone home. Like he needed permission, or felt bad about leaving, or something. Man, he'd done more than enough already. His partner would've been more than warranted to deck him, or get back at him through some more official channel. Instead he'd been there for him. Boxter swallowed and texted him back. Sorry I hit you.

The next was from Detective Johannson. You're an idiot. Let me know if you need Anything. Which was actually one of the nicest messages you could get from Johansson. Capital Anything meant she knew you were about to get into trouble for something, but if you asked she'd go into bat for you. Or she'd make sure you got a counsellor that actually cared about your feelings. Or… Anything. It probably wasn't the best idea to use that bit of code for every bit of under the table dealing she did. She was going to get herself in trouble with internal affairs one day.

Boxter groaned and rubbed a hand across his face. He wasn't really sure if he wanted her to put herself out for him. Not after he'd done something so stupid. Cause yeah, they were going to want to know why they'd chased down the Shehicle so hard, caused it to crash. He wasn't sure he deserved it. But he'd figure it out later.

The last was from Droosha. Kelly was awake.

Boxter drove Guy to the hospital in the Mustang. He was pretty sure the fast car should've excited him, but his son just stared out the window.

"You think Kelly's going to be mad at me?" Guy eventually asked.

"Guy, if she's mad at you, just tell her to be mad at me. It's my fault."

Guy looked up at him. "You were just doing your job."

"My job isn't to run people off the road," Boxter said, fixing his gaze resolutely ahead. "Soon as you started driving so fast, I'm supposed to stop. I didn't."

"Dad, I was SheZow, I know how much you hate her. Course you're gonna chase her." A pause. "We're going to have to talk about this, aren't we? What happened to Kelly… and me be- being SheZow." Guy's voice held a slight tremor.

Boxter swallowed hard. He couldn't discuss this; not right now. "Son, just let me take this one, alright?" He was a fair bit more awake now, but he suddenly found that knot in his throat was still there. The damn thing hadn't gone anywhere. He blinked the blurriness out of his eyes. "Yeah, we'll talk about SheZow. But nothing you've done is this bad. This one's on me."

Guy brushed his father's sleeve with a hand for a moment, then he pulled it away.

Boxter trailed behind Guy into Kelly's room. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting. Droosha was sitting on a chair near the door, and smiled at him faintly when they came in. And Kelly was in bed. She was sitting up, a little unfocused with dark circles under her eyes. But she didn't look to be in any pain. At worse, a tad uncomfortable.

For the last few hours the only image Boxter had been able to conjure of his daughter was of her scrunched up in his arms. His shoulders slumped when he saw her and he swallowed hard.

"Guy!" Kelly said when she saw her brother.

Guy gave her a tentative grin, then came over and slipped up on the bed next to her, putting an arm gently round her shoulders. "Hey, sis, you okay?"

"Yeah," Kelly said, her words a little sluggish. "I guess." She reached out a hand for the bottom of the bed. "Can you pass me my medical chart? Mom won't get it for me…"

"Huh?" Guy frowned.

"I'm bored. I need something to read…"

"Kelly," Droosha sighed. "You don't need to read your medical chart."

"Can you even read a medical chart?" Guy asked.

"Um… maybe?"

Kelly was okay. I mean, she was obviously on a few drugs. But she was okay. Boxter felt tears well up in his eyes again. And that damn knot. He swallowed hard, but it stayed right where it was. He'd been able to push it down before, but now, with no more reason to stay in control, he couldn't do it. He'd found Guy. And Kelly was okay. She was still hurt, but she didn't need him to protect her now.

"Hey, I'm sorry you got hurt," said Guy.

Kelly blinked at him. "It wasn't your fault."

Guy smiled faintly and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. But hey, you'll have a really good story to tell now. Like, whenever the guys are all going on about how they hurt themselves falling off their skateboards, you'll always have the winning story."

Kelly seemed to think about that for a moment, a little slowly. "Yeah… I guess its really annoying when they do that… you do that too…"

"It's not annoying if you win."

Boxter hugged himself, and sunk back against the wall next to Droosha's shoulder. She couldn't see him there, not unless she tried to look right at him. And Kelly and Guy were talking. He squeezed his eyes shut hard and hung his head, but couldn't stop the tears that had started. He could feel his shoulders start shaking, his breathing become jagged.

"Aw, Dad,.."

Boxter looked up to find Kelly looking right at him.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Boxter stared at her a moment, his chest heaving. "I…sweetheart, I'm sorry…" he choked over a sob. "I'm so sorry…"

Kelly said nothing, just opened her arms wide.

Boxter slipped up on the bed next to Guy, gently put his arms around Kelly and buried his face in her shoulder. "I… I know I hurt you. I'm sorry." His body shook with sobs; he could feel his daughter rubbing his back, Guy's hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay, Dad," Kelly said eventually. "I'm not mad."

Boxter pulled back and pushed away tears. "You know I shouldn't have… shouldn't have chased you," he sniffed.

"Yeah, well… maybe I shouldn't have told Guy to keep driving the Shehicle when you wanted him to pull over," Kelly shrugged. "That was kind of dumb."

Boxter blinked. "Huh?"

Kelly blinked back at him, then her drug-addled brain caught up with what she'd said and her eyes widened. "I mean… SheZow… who I was… with… for… reasons…" she squeaked.

"It's okay, Kelly," Guy sighed. "He knows."

"Oh."

Boxter groaned. "You told Guy not to stop? Why?"

"You can't find out he's SheZow! It'd be… complicated. And I didn't want you to yell at me."

Boxter was still a little shaky, but somehow the revelation it wasn't his son who had decided to run helped him pull himself together a little more. "Aw, Kelly… Guy, how come you thought it was your fault?"

Guy chewed his lip and looked down at the bed. "I should've been able to control that spin. I mean, I drift all the time…"

Boxter groaned again, rubbing at his eyes. "Well, doesn't matter. It's neither of your fault. It's mine."

"Dad," Kelly grasped his arm firmly, and her gaze became a little less foggy. "It's okay, I forgive you."

Tears welled in Boxter's eyes again, but he just smiled faintly and pushed them away. "Thanks. But hey, you're… feeling okay?"

Kelly nodded. "Mostly. I think they gave me drugs," she stated flatly. Then her eyes focused on the bottom of the bed and narrowed. "Can I have my chart?"

Boxter sighed, ran a hand through her hair and then kissed her on the top of her head. "Go on, talk to your brother."

He moved off the bed and then sunk into the chair beside Droosha. His wife put an arm around his shoulders. "Hey, you're okay. You just had a big night."

Boxter sat up a little straighter and tried to smile at her. "So are you mad at me?" he asked.

Droosha looked at the floor, but rubbed his back. "A little bit," she said quietly. "But if Kelly can forgive you, I can forgive you too. Although…" she smiled faintly. "Once she gets back home she's probably going to need someone to get her drinks and food and stuff. That can be your job."

"Heh…" Boxter sniffed. "Okay, deal." He probably would've done it anyway; he still felt terrible about what Kelly had been through. Still felt terrible, but he was starting to feel better. They were all out of the worst of it.

Well, at least as far as Kelly's health went. Boxter sunk back down, resting his elbows on his knees. He lowered his voice. "What are we going to do about Guy?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know; he's SheZow."

"Tell him to stay in at night…"

"You know what he was doing last night? Fighting villains… trying to get himself in trouble because of what had happened to Kelly. It's dangerous. And not just at night. I don't want him to get hurt."

"Boxter," Droosha rubbed his back again. "He has superpowers."

"He's twelve. And it's not just that. I mean, what's with the dress and stuff…"

"You know," Droosha frowned, her eyes narrowing a little. "He's SheZow. Pants would just look… weird… with that shirt."

Boxter sighed and rubbed at his eyes. "Look, I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm just…"

"You're just trying to look out for the kids, I know. But don't go overboard, alright? Guy's not trying to get up in your grill. He's trying to protect people, same as you do."

"Yeah, but…" Boxter looked up, watching Guy talking to his sister.

Guy was trying to distract her, making faces. Usually, that would frustrate the hell out of Kelly, but with her higher functions still somewhat compromised, she was struggling not to giggle.

"I know you'll tell me it shouldn't matter to me, but it does. Because he's gonna get bigger, and someones going to figure out he's not… what he seems…" The last thing he wanted was for his son to get hurt. And not just by villains. If anyone ever found out, the media, the bloody internet, they would have a field day.

"You mean not a girl?" Droosha said, a growl creeping into her voice.

Boxter closed his eyes briefly. "Yeah. I'm sorry, but I don't want my son to blunder into anything that'll hurt his feelings. Probably would've helped if he'd updated the uniform." He could feel Droosha staring at him, and wasn't sure if she was angry at him or not. He didn't want to look and find out, because he wasn't quite sure his emotions were under control enough to handle it.

"Alright for a woman to do a job traditionally a man's. But they find out that's Guy and they'll be making all sorts of insinuations." Droosha eventually said, voice low. "It shouldn't matter."

Boxter glanced across at his wife then. She was watching the kids, her gaze hard. The same look he'd seen in her eyes those times she resolved on something worth fighting for. He hadn't seen it in awhile. But hell, if anything was going to reawaken that borderline militant streak she'd had when they first met, it'd be someone messing with their kids. Far more than whales, or trees or pesticides. He smiled faintly, and Droosha caught him.

"What?"

"I'm just thinking," he said. "If anything does happen that I'm gonna have to deal with… makes me feel a lot better I've got you on my side."

Droosha blushed and looked away. "And on Guy's side."

"Yeah. But look, maybe it shouldn't, but what people think? It'll matter to a teenage boy. Trust me. We need to talk to him."

Droosha sighed. "Okay, we'll talk to him. We figure out why he's doing this first, then we figure out how we're going to handle it. Don't fly into one your rants."

There was very little chance of that happening after last night. "Deal."

Droosha kept her hand on his back. Boxter watched the kids continuing to much around; Kelly was starting to look a little sleepy. They didn't yet know what a rough ride they were in for. But Boxter knew he and Droosha would be there for both of them, whatever happened.

A/n: Woo. Okay. So that's done. I haven't written straight angst for awhile, and I realise why. Brain overload. I'm hoping I did not detract too much from the fact Kelly is in hospital, but there's a lot they got going on, so ehr. And yes, Kelly would totally want to read her medical chart. XD

On another note, I've tried to start a fanfictionnet forum under the SheZow category. It hasn't shown up yet, but I'm following up and hopefully it'll be working soon. So keep an eye on that space cause there will be a forum there soon!