Alice walked Dana back to her car where they stood in an uncomfortable, awkward silence. Alice couldn’t take it. "Dana, is your hand ok?" Alice lay her hand on Dana’s arm, as Dana’s gaze went from Alice’s arm to her shoulder, to her cheek, to her lips, to her eyes. THOSE were the eyes she wanted to look into all day. Those were the eyes she couldn’t live without. But, something was different. They were almost dull, and the bags under them didn’t use to be there. Dana felt like she’d got hit by a semi.

"Y-yeah, I’m ok." Dana clinched her fist again, and had to bite her tongue as not to scream from the pain. Alice picked up on it immediately. "You’re not ok, Dane. C’mon I’ll take you to get it checked out." Dana instantly shook her head from side to side. Alice gave her the classice "for me?" look and Dana’s heart skipped a beat. "Fine, but can we take your car?" Alice nodded and pulled Dana’s keys from the the brunettes front pocket.

They turned around to see the family walking towards them. "B, you wanna drive Dana’s car to my place?" Bette looked at Tina, and earned a nod. "Yeah Alice, I can do that." Alice tossed the keys to Bette, only to have them land in the dirt at Bette’s feet. "Nice hands feet." This comment got a laugh from everyone but Dana who was in too much pain, and Bette, considering the joke was aimed at her. Shane was standing in the back of the group. You wouldn’t have noticed her if it wasn’t for the small smoke line reaching up into the evening sky.

"Shane, thanks for the call." All Alice got in return was a mumbled line of words that she was sure she didn’t want to hear. "Alright, I’m taking tennis stud here to get that hand looked at." With that she was half dragging Dana to the Mini.

"So, I um, I’m……I’m sorry." Alice barely heard Dana say this, but when she looked over, Dana wouldn’t look her in the eyes. Alice figured she was crying and grabbed her hand and laced thier fingers together while swerving through traffic to get to the ER. "No, Dana I’m sorry. I get that I was smothering you, and believe me when I tell you that’s the last thing I meant or wanted to do." Dana looked at Alice, and she could see how bad this entire ordeal had hurt the blonde.

"You weren’t smothering me, Al. I mistook your love and protectiveness as you having control issues. I was wrong, and if I were you right now, I would’ve stayed in bed and said fuck Dana." Alice laughed at the phrase "fuck Dana". She shook the thought from her mind as she took the exit to the hospital.

They got Dana right in and checked out. One broken finger wasn’t going to kill her, but the cuts across her knuckles were still hurting her, so she was perscribed pain medication and sent out. Once they were to the car, Alice spoke again.

"You know it’s not gonna be easy for me to just take you back right?" With that, Dana’s heart dropped seemingly to the floorboard of Al’s Cooper. All she could do was nod. "You’re gonna stay with me tonight so I can make sure you don’t go around punching anything else like a lunatic. We need to talk, and I’ll even order CHINESE." With the thought of Chinese food, and Alice, Dana’s heart beat against her chest again, just like it had the night Alice showed up at 4a.m. for thier first kiss.

They pulled up behind Dana’s Mercedes. Alice was the first to exit the car, and walked over to Dana’s side to see the brunette staring blankly out the windshield. Al opened the door and earned a warm smile in return. Alice took Dana’s hand and helped her from the car. Once the Mini door was shut, Dana expected Al to let go of her hand, but Alice laced thier fingers together. Alice unlocked the apartment door and they went in and grabbed drinks.

"Hey, Al?" Alice’s body shuddered at the sound of Dana’s voice. "Yeah Dane?" Dana’s body got the chills at the sound of Al’s voice. "I love you."