He needed to get her help, but he didn't want to leave her, he couldn't. For the second time since Zoe became a part of his life he was happy that he hadn't had the walls insulated.

"Jason!"

*******

"Sir, you need to calm down," the triage nurse said, probably for the hundredth time that hour.

"I'll calm down when you let me in there to see her," Trevor said, trying to pull out of his uncle and Jason's grasp as they tried to drag him away from the front desk.

"If you'd just have a seat, I'm sure someone will be with you in a moment," she said in that annoyingly calm tone that made him want to tear the place apart with his hands.

"That's what you said an hour ago!" Trevor snapped. "I want to see my girlfriend or at the very least have someone tell me how she is!" he snapped, fighting to get out of the restraint so that he could storm through the double gray doors and find Zoe.

For three of the longest hours of his life he'd been forced to stay in the emergency room's waiting area while doctors did god only knows what to Zoe. When his family wasn't reassuring him that she'd be okay or offering to get him something to eat they were taking turns trying to restrain him.

Never in his life had he appreciated his family more than today. When word got out that Zoe was hurt, every single one of them came running, except for Haley who'd been forced to stay away because no one wanted to take the chance of the babies catching a bug in the waiting room. He hadn't been pacing the waiting room ten minutes when the first flood of Bradfords came storming through the doors demanding to know how Zoe was. They didn't all know her, most of them hadn't met her, but she was important to him so that made her important to them. Plus it probably didn't hurt that she'd tipped them all off about the buffet last weekend.

"Let's go have a seat before she calls the nice security officers on you again," Jared said as he half-dragged/half-shoved Trevor back to the waiting room where a fresh group of Bradford males looked ready to take him to the ground if he moved so much as an inch out of the room again.

For a moment he actually considered going for the doors again just so they'd beat the shit out of him and give him a bed inside so he could go look for Zoe. Then he realized he wouldn't do much good for Zoe if they knocked him out or the nurse had him restrained to a bed since he was acting a bit insane at the moment.

"We should have lied about her family," Jason said, rubbing his hands down his face in frustration. "I should have told them I was her brother so I could find out what the hell was going on."

"I tried telling them that Zoe was my daughter, but the ice princess manning the desk wasn't having it," Jared said, looking like he'd aged ten years in the past three hours.

"I honestly don't know how she's managed," Jason said.

"Managed what?" Trevor said, glaring at a rather rotund man who stepped in his line of sight. The man noticeably started when he spotted Trevor and thankfully moved the hell out of his way so he could keep his eyes on the door.

"Being alone," Jason said softly. "I can't imagine how she did it all these years, having no one and nothing."

"She's not alone," Trevor bit out. "She has me."

"Until you fuck up again that is," Jason mused, looking thoughtful.

"I'm not going to fuck up again," he said between clench teeth.

His uncles, all six of them, sighed long and heavy. "Yes, you will," they pretty much said in unison so he decided to turn his glare on them, but only for a moment. He needed to keep his eye on the door so he could grab the next person who walked out wearing a hospital ID.

"You're a Bradford," Jared said with a careless shrug. "We always fuck up."

"That's not exactly helpful," Trevor said, quickly losing all those warm fuzzy feelings he'd had about his family five minutes ago.

"But it's the truth. We all fuck up when it comes to our women and you will too. The key is to make her love you more than you piss her off," Jason added. "It's a very delicate balance."

He shifted in his chair to scowl at his cousin. "How exactly is that helpful?"

Sighing heavily, Jason threw his arm over Trevor's shoulders and gave him a hard squeeze. "Don't worry. Once she gets over her crush on me, I'm sure she'll forgive you."

"You do realize that Zoe thinks you're insane, right?" Trevor asked distractedly as he threw another look at the double doors.

"But the point is that she does think about me," Jason said and Trevor appreciated the man's efforts to distract him from his worry. It was sweet really.

"Shit," Jason gasped, dropping his arm from around Trevor's shoulders to grab his side. "Bastard," he said, sucking in a breath.

Trevor stood up and gave his cousin a solid clap on the back. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up."

"Not a problem," Jason said, coughing, which only made Trevor feel kind of bad for elbowing the man in the ribs, but he quickly got over it when he saw the double doors open and a nurse and doctor roll a barely with it Zoe out in a wheelchair.

The doctor, a tall man who looked to be in his early forties, spoke with the triage nurse who threw him a dirty look and gestured their way. Trevor didn't wait for the doctor to approach. He rushed over to Zoe, barely pausing to shove a few of his cousins out of his way.

Seconds later he was dropping to his knees in front of the wheelchair, forcing the nurse to stop. His stomach clenched into a knot when he spotted the white gauze taped to her temple. He reached out to smooth the gauze over and offer her some comfort.

"Baby, I'm so sorry-ow!" He pulled his hand back, trying to shake off the slight sting. "What the hell was that for?" he snapped, making her wince and grab her head and making him feel like an asshole. Of course her head hurt.

"Don't," she sucked in a breath, "touch."

"I won't. I'm sorry, sweetheart," he whispered softly, too afraid to raise his voice and cause her any pain or discomfort. "Let's get you home where I can take care of you. Okay?"

Of course the stubborn woman shook her damn head, well, tried to at least. "Go away, Trevor," she said, noticeably wincing.

"Shh, baby, try to relax. You don't have to say anything. I'll take you home and take care of you."

"I.....don't want......you," she said, sucking in a breath. "Go...away."

Instead of getting mad, which under normal circumstances he probably would have done, he leaned over and pressed a kiss to the back of one of the hands that was holding her head tightly. If he didn't know that she had a head injury and was obviously out of it, he might have taken that personally, but he knew she loved him.

How could she not? He was so damn giving after all, he thought as he ducked out of the way before her blind swing could connect with his jaw. He ignored his family's obvious amusement and decided he'd use her, hopefully, temporary little disabled state and show her just how giving he really was.

Chapter 28

"It's over," Zoe said, again.

"Uh huh," Trevor said, not really paying attention to her as the stubborn man carefully placed a tray on her lap. "My aunt dropped some food off last night, but you were asleep and my uncles and cousins were here to help out and everyone got hungry," he said with a shrug.

"So they dropped off more food, but unfortunately you slept all day and I got hungry and you made me nervous because you slept so damn much," he said accusingly like she'd fallen asleep the second Jason placed her on Trevor's lap in the back seat of Jared's car and hadn't woken up until about twenty minutes ago on purpose.