A/N: This is AU.

***Warning: Violence described***

1987

Suzie knew she shouldn't have gone to work. She also knew that she couldn't stay at home so there wasn't much choice. When she got to the hospital, everything was quiet. She wasn't even needed on the floor so she had spent the morning in her office, catching up on charts, inventory, personnel, and pretty much anything else she could find. However, she was so distracted that an hour's worth of work took her three hours to finish. She knew she have gone home then. She wouldn't have allowed another nurse to work feeling like she was but she didn't know anything else to do. If she went home, Joey would be calling and Danny would be giving her 'that look'. The look that said she was making a huge mistake. Well, maybe she was but she didn't need to hear it from him.

She reached for the phone again. She had done this three times before without even thinking. She wanted to talk to Joey. She wanted to hear his voice. How many bad days had she had at work that just a call to him had made better? He never cared if it was four in the afternoon or four in the morning. He would listen as she vented off her frustrations, then he would crack a joke. She would laugh. He would tell her that he loved her and the day would look better. Suddenly she realized what a horrible mistake she had made. She grabbed the phone and dialed the number before she could change her mind.

"Hello?"

Shoot. It wasn't him. "Hey, Bruce," she said. "This is Suzie. Is Joey around?"

"Man, Sue, y'all are playing some really weird game of tag," Bruce laughed. "He left this morning to head home early. You didn't know?"

"I didn't get a chance to talk to him this morning. I didn't know when he was leaving," she covered. "Thanks." She hung up.

"Nurse Gladstone?" A young nurse tapped on her office door.

"Yes, Amanda?"

"My patient in room four won't let me come in his room," she explained. "When I try to go in there he starts yelling, calling me names, and he threw a bedpan at me and Dr. Peters wants him to have a sedative as soon as possible. Nurse Santoni said to come tell you. She said he listens to you sometimes."

"I'll handle it," Suzie sighed. She knew the patient Amanda was talking about. He was a frequent customer to their ER and for some reason, he liked Suzie. He was often mean and insulting to other caregivers but she had to admit that throwing things was new. Well, she would just go give him his medicine, make sure it knocked him out, then she was leaving early. She had to talk to Joey and she couldn't wait.

"Hey, Karen?" she asked as she walked over to the nurse's station to check the patient's chart. "Can you cover for me this afternoon? I've got something I have to do."

"Are you sick?" Karen asked, feigning shock. "You never leave early."

"Not sick, just incredibly stupid," she replied. "I'll give you the lowdown later, but I need to go see Joey."

"I can cover," Karen said immediately.

"Thanks. Would it be too much to ask if you could take my shift tomorrow too?" she asked hopefully.

"Ugh," Karen groaned, then said, "Sure. I could use the money. Are you going to give Four his sedative first? He yelled at me until Peters threw me out of the room so he could examine him."

"Yeah, I got it," she replied, drawing up some medicine. "He's over the top today. What's the deal?"

Karen shrugged. "He fell down his stairs but claims he was pushed. The Doctor had him put in restraints and still couldn't examine him."

"Well, let's see if he still likes me," Suzie replied, heading down the hall.

Everyone makes mistakes. Usually, they are small, they don't really make a difference, or they are easily corrected. And sometimes, you don't get a second chance to fix it. Sometimes one mistake can change your whole life and that day, Suzie made two such mistakes back to back.

"Hello, Mr. Anders," she said, brightly. "How are you feeling today?"

He didn't say anything, but he didn't throw anything either as she walked over to far side of his bed to retrieve a pair of gloves. That was her first mistake. How many times had she cautioned nursing students to never let a dangerous patient get between them and the door to the room? Yet she didn't even notice that she had just done that to herself.

"The doctor wants me to give you some medicine to help you rest," she said, pulling on her gloves.

"He wants you to poison me," Mr. Anders snapped, flinching away.

"Now, you know me," she said, calmly. "Have I ever poisoned you?"

He gave her a dark look but replied, "No."

She smiled at him and reached for his blankets, making her second mistake of not personally checking his restraints before getting within his reach. He suddenly struck out with his fist, connecting with her cheek hard enough to send her sprawling to the floor, breaking her nose, and busting her lip. Though dazed, she quickly got to her feet and tried to reach the panic button to call for help but the patient had also gotten the restraints undone and gotten to his feet. He grabbed her hair and pulled her backward, throwing her to the floor again.

She scrambled to her feet again, praying that she could make it to the panic button.

Nurses don't run, they like to keep things nice and calm. But when Karen heard the panic alarm go off, she dropped her stethoscope and ran. She didn't even look at the board. She knew where it was coming from. She burst in the door for room four.

"Call Security," she yelled at the ward clerk. "Dr. Peters! David! Help me!"

1987

Danny didn't work on Fridays to free him up to do the weekend sports. Of course, Jesse didn't share that with Nick. He wasn't going to give up the last day of his two weeks off.

He was sitting at the bar, watching Danny re-clean the kitchen that Jesse had thought was already clean enough. When the phone rang, he grabbed it, "Talk to me." He was quiet for a minute. "He's not here. Can I take a message?" He listened again. "Okay, he is here." He held the phone out to Danny. "They want to talk to you."

Danny took the phone and Jesse would later swear that he turned gray as he listened. Jesse didn't have to ask who the call was about. He knew. He knew because he could imagine that he was wearing the same look when Joey had called him in the middle of the night back in February. He shifted from foot to foot as he waited for Danny to tell him what had happened.

"I understand," Danny said. He hung up the phone and stood silently for a minute. "That was one of Suzie's co-workers. She's been in an accident."

"How bad is it? What do we need to do?" Jesse asked, trying not to be impatient.

"Bad. She's in surgery. They said..., They said Joey needs to be there as soon as possible," Danny replied.

"Okay," Jesse said. He could handle this. She was alive. He could handle alive. "You go to the hospital. I'll call Mom to come get Michelle and wait for the girls, then I'll go to the airport and pick Joey up and take him to the hospital."

Danny didn't say anything, he just continued to stand there, looking at the phone.

"Don't think that, Man," Jesse said. "It won't happen again. Don't even think it. Just go."

"Right," Danny replied, snapping out of it.

Please R and R. Sorry for the short chapter.