"What happened?"

"I...I don't know." He stuttered, trying to wrap his mind around what was happening. "she was at a party and she called me to pick her up. When I got there she was passed out on the sidewalk."

"She's burning up, doctor. Her temperature is 106.6."

"Get her back to ICU, try to get her temperature down. Ice her if you have to." Turning back to Dan, the doctor made him look at him. "Has she ingested any drugs tonight?"

"I don't know. If anything, probably cocaine."

The older man sighed before beginning to turn away. "All right. I need you to go over to that desk and fill out as much information as you can on her." Unable to speak anymore, Dan just nodded and went over to the front desk as told.

"Can I help you?" The older woman sitting there asked.

"Yeah. I just brought a young woman in. He said I needed to fill out some paper work."

"All right." Grabbing a clipboard with a few papers on it, the woman handed it to him. "I need your information and relationship with the patient here, and her information and insurance down here."

"Ok."

"Take your time, sweetie."

Sitting down on the uncomfortable waiting room chair, Dan tried to focus on the papers in front of him but he just couldn't. Had she overdosed? Is that why she had passed out and was suffering a severe fever? What if they couldn't get it down? Would it cause permanent brain damage like he knew it could?

Oh God. What if I was too late?

He had to know what happened. Maybe Autumn would know. After all, she had been there.

Finally finishing what he could of the paperwork, Dan gave it back to the woman at the desk and walked outside. Pulling Raleigh's phone out of his pocket, Dan scrolled down to Autumn's name. Punching the number into his phone, Dan hit send and put it to his ear. He didn't dare try using Raleigh's phone. He was surprised it was even working for how long it'd been lying in the rain.

Finally on the fourth ring Autumn answered. "Yeah?"

"What the hell happened to her, Autumn?"

"Mr. Cooper?"

"Yes, now what happened?" He was trying, he really was trying not to completely blow up at the girl but his patience was wearing thin. He needed to know what happened to Raleigh.

"Mr. Cooper, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I'm at Hollywood Medical, Autumn! Raleigh is in the ICU and I have absolutely no idea what's wrong with her."

There was a long pause on the other end of the line and Dan had thought she hung up. "Autumn?"

"I'll be right there." She then hung up and Dan had to fight the very strong urge to punch something. He hated not knowing. Not knowing just led to more unanswered questions.

Suddenly he heard "Down on Love" break the still night air and he pulled Raleigh's cell out of his pocket. Seeing that it was her brother Bobbie, he immediately hit "talk".

"Hello?"

"You're not Raleigh."

"No. I'm not."

"Where is she? She all right?" Dan heard the worry in his voice and wondered if he knew something had happened. "A guy I don't know answers my baby sister's phone after I've been calling for two hours. Where is she?"

Should he tell him? Could he tell him?

"I'm Dan."

"Oh." Dan thought he heard relief in Bobbie's sigh but he knew that relief would soon be fear. "Is she there with you?"

"Uh...kind of." He honestly didn't know what to say. It had completely escaped his mind that she had a big family in Tennessee that had no idea she was in the ER.

"Dan? She's ok isn't she?" He heard the worry and fear immediately re-enter his voice once again and Dan fought hard against the tears that began to well in his eyes.

"No, Bobbie. She's not ok."

"Where is she?"

"She's in the intensive care unit of Hollywood Medical." Dan heard only a slight silence as the news sunk into her brother's head.

"What happened to her? Was she in an accident?"

"I don't know exactly. But I think she may have overdosed on something."

"Oh my God..." Bobbie said softly before quickly adding, "I have to go tell my parents." Then he hung up.

Going back inside, Dan returned to the hard seat he had occupied moments before. Only one thought kept floating through his mind. Would she be alright? Unable to move or do anything, he just sat there and waited. For the doctor to come, a nurse, someone to call. Anything. He just waited.

After about fifteen minutes, he heard his name being called. Looking to his right he saw Autumn running towards him. Standing up, Dan began walking towards her. Immediately she wrapped her arms around his neck, trying to give him some sort of comfort. When she finally released him she got a good look at his broken appearance. His hair was disheveled from raking his fingers through it in worry, his eyes were bloodshot and rimmed with unshed tears, and he just looked exhausted.

"Have you heard anything yet?"

"No."

Sighing, Autumn moved to sit down. This was going to be a long night. "What happened?" The question was more to herself than Dan but still he felt something go off inside him.

"I don't know, Autumn! I wasn't there. Why don't you tell me?" His words were harsh and getting louder with every syllable. He knew this wasn't her fault but he just felt he needed to put the blame on someone.

"Mr. Cooper, I have no idea what happened. Last I saw her she was going into the kitchen to get a drink." As a final thought, she added, "With Effron."

"That son of a bitch. I bet he did something to her."

"Mr. Cooper, what are you talking about?"

"She didn't just OD, Autumn! She looked like she lost a brutal fight. Did you see him again after that?"

"About a half hour later or so. He ran out of the house looking pretty pissed off."

"That son of a bitch...I'm gonna kill him." Jumping up, Autumn ran in front of him and pushed hard against his chest, trying to keep him from storming out of the hospital.

"If you leave right now you'll kill him! Raleigh needs you right now. You're no good to her if you're sitting in jail! Now sit down!"

Running his hands over his tired face, Dan complied and sat down. She was right. If he went to find Effron, there was no doubt in his mind that he'd kill him. And that scared him. While they sat in silence, Dan received another phone call from Bobbie saying that their parents were on their way to the airport.

"Don't leave her, Dan."

"I won't. I promise."

"Good. If you find out anything before they get there, call me?"

"Of course."

"Thanks."

"Bye, Bobbie." Hanging up the phone, together they sat in silence once again until Dan just couldn't take it anymore. "So how long have you known about Raleigh and me?"

Letting out a small laugh, Autumn turned her head to look at him. "Since the Halloween party. The first time you two slept together."

"Well, that's just great."

"Don't worry. She didn't tell me."

"Then how did you know?"

"I'm just good at reading people." Suddenly Autumn let out a louder laugh. "You should have seen the look on her face when I said she'd been with you. It was priceless."

"Hey, she's the one who came over and seduced me in the middle of the night."

"Oh, I know." Their laughter calmed and Autumn suddenly got a chill. Rubbing her bare arms, she wished she'd have changed before going straight there. "I hate hospitals. They're always so cold."

"Well, maybe if you wore more clothing you wouldn't be so cold."

"Funny." Dan took off his jacket and handed it to her. Saying a "thank you" she quickly put it on, reveling in its warmth.

"You know, just because you have money doesn't mean you need to flaunt it throwing formal Christmas parties and whatever else you do."

"I don't have money. My parents do. Besides, I like dressing up. So do most of my friends. I think it kind of makes them feel like they have money too."

Growing quiet again, Dan was forced to think about the problem at hand. Autumn may have liked living like a rock star, but Raleigh was in trouble because of it.

"I don't know what I'll do if I lose her, Autumn."

Putting her hand on his back, she began to rub in slow calming circles. "You won't. She's going to get through this. She has to."

"I just don't know."

"You really love her, don't you?"

Looking at Autumn, Dan knew he could trust her. She'd had nearly two months to turn him in and get him fired, but she never did. She really cared about her friend's happiness. "I do. I know she's six years younger but I really am in love with her. I don't know what it is, but we just have this connection. And yes I do realize how corny that sounds."

"I'm not passing any judgment."

"You know, I didn't let it show, but when Josh was here, it about killed me to not touch her. I'd gotten so used to her coming over late at night and we'd just hang out, order Chinese or something...I just want to be with her. So much more than anybody I've ever known. And now, knowing that her life is hanging in the balance right now?" Dan shook his head as he wiped away the tears before they could fall. "I can't lose her, Autumn. I need her."

Autumn felt her composure crumble as she looked into his eyes. Pulling him to her once again, she closed her own eyes, trying to keep her breathing steady. "You're not going to lose her. We're not." If Raleigh didn't make it through this, Autumn was going to track down Effron and kill him herself.

About an hour had passed and finally the doctor came out to speak with them. Standing up, they both made their way to him.

"Is she all right?" They asked in unison.

"Are either of you family?"

"No. I'm her roommate and he's her boyfriend."

"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you anything unless you're family."

"Well her family is in Tennessee! We're all she's got right now."

"Doctor..."

"Richards."

"Doctor Richards, please. We need to know what happened. If she's going to be all right." Dan was glad Autumn was able to keep her calm. He was about ready to rip the guy's head off.

Sighing, Doctor Richards decided to tell them. If the roles were reversed he would be doing the same thing. He just hated the part of telling.

"Your friend had a large amount of cocaine and ecstasy in her system. Not only was it too much for her body to handle, the drugs mixed together along with the alcohol...it's a lethal combination."

"Is she..." Autumn tried to say the word but she just couldn't. She wouldn't believe Raleigh had died.

"She's still fighting. While we've been able to get her temperature back down to normal, she's gone into cardiac arrest twice and I'm afraid that if we can't get her heart rate down, she could suffer a fatal heart attack."

"The drugs are doing this to her?"

"In all honesty, no. If this was just an over dosage, she'd be awake right now. Her body is in panic mode. The best way I can describe it is like being stuck in a severe nightmare or reliving a traumatic experience. I'd say, with the marks on her face, she's reliving whatever it was that put her here."

"Doctor," Dan swallowed the lump in his throat. "was she raped?" Judging by his silence, Dan assumed he was right. But he needed to hear it. "Please, I need to know."

"Yes. I'm sorry to say she was. And unless she decides to press charges against whoever did this to her, there's nothing more we can do about it. Excuse me."

The doctor left them alone in stunned silence. Dan felt like he was going to be sick all over the white floor. All he could see was red as he clenched his fists into tight balls to keep from hitting the wall.

"How much coke did you give her, Autumn?"

"She only did about five lines the entire night. That's not even an eight ball. She's done a lot more than that before. But I swear to you, nobody there had any X. I don't mess with that shit."

"Well then where did she get it?"

"I don't know!"

Shaking his head, Dan looked at her. "I bet I do."

Lowering her voice, Autumn voiced her fears. "You think he nicked her?"

"I wouldn't put it past him to make her easier to handle. Judging by the marks on her face, I don't think it really worked. I think she freaked out more and he just didn't like it."

Shaking her head, Autumn took off Dan's jacket and turned to leave the hospital.

"Where are you going?"

"Just stay here. I'll be back." Before he could say another word she was out the door and getting into a cab. He wondered where she was going and what she was going to do but he didn't entirely care. He just wanted Raleigh to wake up. He wanted to be able to look into her beautiful lilac eyes again. He wanted to see her smile, hear her laughter. They had to be able to get her out of this panic mode. They had to get her heart rate down.

He hadn't had nearly enough time with her yet. He couldn't let her go now.

---

"Just wait here, this won't take long." Getting out of the cab, Autumn stalked up to the house. Wasting no time, she began banging on the door and ringing the doorbell incessantly.

"Open the damn door, Effron!" she called out, continuing to bang on the door. Why wasn't he answering? It wasn't really early in the morning anymore but it wasn't late by any means. Pulling out her phone, she tried calling him. She could hear his ringer in the house through the window, but he didn't answer. She didn't even hear any movement. If he was home he certainly didn't want to be disturbed. Trying the handle, Autumn turned it, only to find it locked. Of course it would be. This was LA after all. Didn't want one psycho breaking into the home of another. "Son of a bitch." She mumbled under her breath, making her way back to the cab. She would have gone in, not caring about the locked door, but breaking and entering was not something she needed to be charged with right now.

"Hollywood Academy of the Arts, West Dormitories please."

"Yes, Ma'am." Putting the car into drive, the man pulled back onto the street and headed to the dorms. After running up and changing she had him take her back to the hospital. After leaving the man a hefty tip, Autumn ran back into the hospital only to see Dan sitting there, bouncing his head gently off the wall. Sitting next to him, she let out a sigh.

"I'm guessing you haven't heard anything else?

"Nope. It took you forty minutes just to go and change?"

"No. I made a stop first."

"Where?"

"Effron's."

"You kill him?"

"No. But if he'd been man enough to answer the door or his phone I might have."

Dan let out a small laugh before looking at her. "And you talk about me."

"Did you call Bobbie? Let him know?"

"Yeah, I did." Dan just looked down at his entwined hands, not offering another word.

"How did he take it?"

"Not well. He's sworn to kill the guy who did this to her. Begged me to tell him if I knew who it was." Sitting in silence once again, Autumn tried to relax in the uncomfortable seat. Her eye lids felt incredibly heavy and she felt exhausted. It had been a long night and knew it was going to be an even longer day. All she wanted was for Raleigh to wake up so they could get the hell out of there and move on with their lives.

"Mr. Cooper..."

"Autumn?"

"Yeah?"

"I think after the night we've had, you can start calling me Dan." Letting her smile fall, Autumn looked away for a moment.

"Do you think that she's going to press charges?"

Dan looked straight into Autumn's eyes and didn't hesitate to answer. "Even if she doesn't want to, I'm going to use every power I possess to make sure he doesn't walk away from this unscathed."

"Good." Autumn certainly didn't want to see him walk away from this. After sitting there, feeling herself fall more into tiredness, Autumn sighed and began rummaging through her purse.

"What are you doing?"

"I can't just sit here doing nothing anymore. There you are." Turning back to face him, Autumn held up a deck of cards. "Crazy eights?"

"Nah, I'm more of a go fish type of guy."

"Go fish it is." Laughing, Autumn pulled the cards out of the box and shuffled them up. As she dealt out the deck between them they began to talk. Not about Raleigh, not about Effron, but about themselves and everything else.

After about nine rounds of go fish they decided to move onto scat.

"Dan, have you ever been in love? Before Raleigh I mean."

Looking away from Autumn and to the cards he held, Dan thought about his next move. Should he pick up the eight of spades or draw? He decided to take a chance and drew a card from the deck.

"Yeah. I was engaged."

"What happened?"

"She wound up pregnant and told me two months before she was due that the baby wasn't mine but my best friend's. I told her to get out and haven't seen her since."

"I'm sorry." And she was. Nobody should ever have to feel that type of pain. To be in love and have them just walk away, it was terrible.

"How about you?"

Picking up the ace he just threw down, Autumn put it in her hand and threw down a ten of hearts. "Thought I was once. I was sixteen and he was the most gorgeous boy I'd ever seen. He was completely infatuated with me and he told me he loved me. Of course I believed him. I wanted him to love me. I wanted anybody to love me, really. But he was a senior and I was a stupid sophomore. We dated for about three months and I thought we were going to be together forever. So when I finally slept with him, it was in the back of his pick-up truck. It lasted about ten minutes and I felt the worst pain in my life. Then he took me home and never spoke to me again. I was crushed. Cried for weeks but nobody knew. And then I found out he'd gotten me pregnant and when I told him he didn't care. Said I was a slut and how could he even know it was his." Dan watched as a few tears rolled silently down her cheeks. "I was alone and pregnant and sixteen years old. My father wanted to disown me, my mother said it would be taken care of. I miscarried the night before the appointment she made me and a part of me felt like I'd never be whole again. My parents never brought it up again after that and I just didn't care. About anything."

Setting down his cards, Dan let out a small ironic laugh. "You know, you and Raleigh are a lot more alike than I thought."

"What do you mean."

"It's not my place to say, just trust me on this."

"I do." Reaching across the chair between them, Dan wrapped his arms around her protectively. No one should have ever had to endure what they had been through. Trying to speak through the tears, Autumn said softly, "Who said that it's better to have loved and lost? I wish that I had never loved at all."

"Excuse me?" They heard a woman's voice to their side and both immediately released one another to look at her. "You're here for Ms. Coons, right?"

"Yes. Is she awake?" Autumn asked, wiping away her tears.

"No, I'm afraid not. But you can come back and see her if you like. We think having people around who love her and need her might help her pull through."

Just nodding, Dan and Autumn stood up and followed the nurse back to where they were keeping Raleigh. As soon as Autumn saw her she broke down into tears once again.

"She's not breathing on her own?"

The nurse looked at Dan with a sympathetic look on her face. "No, she's not. The second time she went into cardiac arrest her lungs collapsed."

Looking at all of the machines, Dan zeroed in on the rapidly beeping monitor. "Her heart rates still up?"

The nurse nodded and moved forward a few steps. "It has gone down a little, which is a very good sign. But its still much higher than we'd like."

"Can you get me something to clean the tar off her with, please?"

"Sure." The nurse left and Dan immediately pulled a chair up beside Raleigh. Taking her hand in his, he looked at her relaxed face. She didn't look like she was having a bad nightmare, she looked at peace. Like everything was right in the world.

When the nurse came back into the room she handed him a washcloth with a bowl of warm water. "Here you go, sir."

"Thank you." Taking the cloth and bowl from the woman, Dan set it on his lap and soaked the entire cloth. Ringing out the excess water, he gently began dabbing at the tar staining Raleigh's face and neck. He understood that they had to pump her stomach to get the drugs and alcohol out, but couldn't they at least clean her up after? He carefully cleaned around the tube that was inside her mouth until he was satisfied she was clean enough to stop.

Setting down the bowl of now black water, Dan took Raleigh's hand in his once again. Looking at her relaxed face, Dan tried to hide the tears as they sprung to his eyes.

"Hey, baby girl. It's me." He whispered to her. Reaching up, he gently brushed her hair away from her face. "Listen, you gotta wake up, ok? I'm not ready to let you go just yet. We have so much to look forward to. Christmas in two weeks, my birthday...just time with each other. You can't let go, Raleigh. I need you." As a tear escaped his eyes, Dan whispered softly, "I love you, Raleigh. You hear me? You can‘t leave me because I love you. I don‘t know what I‘ll do without you here with me."

Watching from the wall she was leaning against, Autumn felt tears streaming down her face. She'd never had a friend in the hospital before. No one even close enough to her that made her upset. Raleigh was her first real friend. She couldn't just let her die because a guy she'd hooked her up with was a jealous freak. She'd rather die than let happen.

Hearing the cries of a frantic woman outside, getting closer to the room, Autumn straightened and wiped her face just as Doctor Richards entered with a man and woman. She guessed they were Raleigh's parents.

"Oh my God." The woman whispered, immediately running to her daughter's side.

Seeing the couple in the room, Dan let go of Raleigh's hand and stood up, wiping his face clean of any tears that may have strayed. Clearing his throat, he asked, "Are you Mr. and Mrs. Coons?"

"Yes. You must be the young man who brought her in?" Mr. Coons offered Dan his hand. He took it, shaking it firmly.

"Yes sir. I'm Dan." Motioning to Autumn, Dan introduced her. "This is Autumn, Raleigh's roommate at the dorm.

"It's nice to meet you, although I wish it were under better circumstances." He said. Autumn just nodded, unable to get her voice to work. Turning back to the doctor, Mr. Coons asked, "So, is there anything else you can do for her?"

"As of right now, it's just a waiting game I'm afraid."

"Thank you, Doctor Richards." Nodding, the doctor left them alone with their loved one.

Feeling uncomfortable, Dan decided it would be best if he left them with their daughter. "We should go, give you some time alone with her." Pulling her cell phone out of his pocket, he handed it to Mr. Coons. "Here's her cell phone, I'm not sure what they did with her clothes. Well, uh...goodbye." Turning to leave, Dan only stopped when he heard Raleigh's mother call him.

"Daniel?" Standing up, she went over to him and wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you."

Looking into the older woman's eyes, Dan just smiled as best he could and nodded. Then he turned around and left with Autumn.

Dan had never felt more helpless than he did right then at that moment, walking out of the hospital.