He groaned, softly at first, then he just let it out. But he couldn't. It felt like there was a rock in his throat, but it was easier to breathe, he wasn't even trying. Trent forced his eyes open. It was bright, too bright. Trent tried to bring his hand up to shield his eyes, but he couldn't. He was too weak.

Trent hadn't had a chance to really grasp what had happened to him. He had been so consumed in making sure his mom was okay the day before that he hadn't even thought about how HE felt. And then there was that pain. He couldn't breathe. There had been an extreme tightening in his chest, and his throat closed up. But that rock in his throat was helping him.

He felt really hot, but cold at the same time. And even though he didn't have any trouble with oxygen, his chest felt like an anvil was resting on it. He was sore too. He didn't know how it was possible, but he could practically feel his previous lung injury. He felt like he had no strength left. 'It's gonna be hard to work back all this muscle I'm losing.' he thought, and would've smiled if he could, but it would've hurt too much. He didn't feel so bad the day before. Forget that anvil, his whole body hurt. He shuddered. This was a hospital, where were the doctors, with some meds for his aching body?

Suddenly, as if someone had heard his thoughts, Dr. Anjer came striding in.

"Well, well, Mr. Malloy, you're awake," he said cheerfully as he walked in. He smiled, and began checking his vitals. His smile quickly disapeared when he checked his temperature. "How did that happen?" he muttered softly, "104.3, this isn't good."

He cleared his throat. "Okay, Trent, I'm going to push gently on your chest in different areas. Let me know if it hurts." he gently pushed in the middle of Trent's right lung. Trent didn't flinch. He tried on different spots around the right lung. He shrugged. "So it doesn't hurt?" Trent shook his head slightly. "Okay, we'll try the left lung." As soon as he touched the area, Trent closed his eyes in pain and gritted his teeth. Dr. Anjer looked at his reaction, very concerned. He carefully took Trent's hospital gown off on the left shoulder to reveal his lung area. From a scar on the side of his chest radiated a deep purple bruise that extended all over the left area of his chest. "Dear God." Dr. Anjer cried out, a little too loudly.

Trent looked at him, alarmed. What was going on? He didn't get his answer, Dr. Anjer ran out of the room.

"Nurse Sonders, get me Dr. Hunter on the phone right now. Okay, I want someone to call up to surgery and tell them we need an OR as soon as possible. I need a specialist, preferably heart and lung. Now, you four," he pointed to some nurses. "Go prep Mr. Malloy for emergency surgery. I want a full prognosis checkup, temperature, heart rate, sputum culture, everything."
 

Katie cheerfully walked through the doors of ICU, a vase of flowers in her hand. The house had been flooded with flowers the past day from concerned friends, and she thought Trent could use the cheerfullness in his room as he was getting better.

She stopped as soon as she walked through the doors. What was all the commotion for? Dr. Anjer was standing in front of, oh no, Trent's room. All she heard was 'emergency surgery.' She ran the rest of the way to his doorway, but was pushed away by a nurse.

"Excuse me ma'm, you need to go to the waiting room." She spoke briskly.

"What's going on, where's my son, Trent Malloy?" Katie exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, but you need to get out of the way, we're extremely busy."

"No, you don't understand, he's my SON!" Katie cried out.

"Ma'am, GO!" The nurse was getting angry.

Katie backed up a few feet, but refused to leave ICU.

A nurse brought Dr. Anjer a phone. "Here's Dr. Hunter, Doctor."

"Thank you Nurse Sonders." Dr. Anjer put the phone up to his ear. "Dr. Hunter.........Yes, I do............I have a patient, and I need an OR immediatly.........Yes, it's life or death.........................What do you mean, there aren't any OR's available?!........... Then get meone, for crying out loud!............................ I've got a massive acute hemorageing due to complications from a previous lung injury with acute bacterial pnemonia..........yes, it's internal, and I'm guessing that there's a pretty severe infection along with it.......................What the,.......................Okay, Hunter, I'm gonna level with you. I've got a young, fit guy very healthy, at least until he got this pneumonia. I lost him several times. Once, he was clinically dead for 25 minutes and then he just came back!!!! ......I know it doesn't make any sense, but the guy was dead! So now, I'm not going to let this guy die just because I can't get an OR!!!!!!!.................Thank you, which one?.....Okay, we'll be up there in 10 minutes.." He hung up the phone and turned back towards the room.

"Okay, let's get him ready, we're due up in the OR in 10 minutes."
 
 

Katie gasped at the sound of 'surgery'. Several people came rushing out of Trent's room, pushing a gurney on which her baby was lying. Trent's eyes were closed, and he was very, very pale. His body lay limply on the gurney.

"Trent," she whispered, and reached out her hand, but it was too late, they had already disapeared out of sight.

Katie couldn't hold it back. She sank down to the cold floor, sobbing.
 

Butch walked through the doors of the hospital and headed torwards the elevator. Carlos and Kim had gone to Thunder Investigations to get things in order over there, so he put one of his bartenders in charge of Uppercuts so he could come check with Katie on how Trent was doing.

He heard the muffled sobbing before he saw Katie. When he did he rushed forward and helped the anguished mother to her feet. She sank into his arms, and he led her to a plastic seated couch and looked at her, eye to eye.

"What's wrong Katie?" he asked gently.

"Trent.....I.........Walked towards his room,.......and-" she started crying.

"What? Come on Katie," Butch said soothingly. "Come on, tell me, so we can fix this."

Katie took a deep breath. "I saw, I saw Dr. Anjer, yelling at a surgeon over the phone, saying that he didn't want to lose Trent again, and how, and how they, they needed an OR. They wouldn't let me see him, and I don't know what's going on."

Butch looked up grimly. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed up Kim. "Hey Kim, you aren't too busy, are you?........Good, I need you to come down to the hospital. Is Carlos there?.............Okay, just leave a note for him or something. We have an emergency, and I'd like for you to be here with Katie..........Okay, thanks, bye."

In record time, Kim appeared in the waiting room. She quickly walked over and sat down beside Katie, who was drying her eyes. "What's going on?" she asked Butch.

"Well, we really don't know. They took him up to surgery, but they won't say anything. That's why you're here." He pointed to Kim. "You two stay here, and I'm going to go force it out of someone." Butch briskly walked away.

As soon as Butch was out of sight Dr. Anjer walked back into the ICU. Katie saw him and rushed over. "Dr. Anjer, what's going on? Where's Trent?"

Dr. Anjer sighed deeply. "Katie, let's go sit down." He led her over to the couch where Kim was sitting. "Okay, there's an old medical saying that 'nothing is impossible in medicine'. Don't ever deny something that you've never seen before. And in all my days practicing medicine, I've never see anything like this."

"Well, what is it?"

"Well, Trent was fine last night, but this morning his fever had risen consistantly, and he just looked, well, sicker. So I did an examination, and I made a startling discovery. For some reason the infection in his lungs spread to the newer lung material in his left lung, and something snapped. There has been massive internal bleeding in his left area, and the left lung is completely filled with blood and other fluids. Fortunately we caught it before it had the opportunity to spread to the right lung."

"What are the- I mean, what are his chances......." Katie trailed off.

"Well, I don't want to build up any false hope, so we're looking a 20% chance of survival, if he makes it out of the surgery, which should last several hours. Now, why don't you ladies go into the waiting room, and you can make any calls you need to make."

"Do you have the best surgeons in there?" Kim asked.

"Yes we do. I pulled some strings, and we have some of the best specialists in there treating and operating on him. If anybody can fix the problem, they can." He led them to the room.

"Will you tell me when they're done?" Katie asked.

"Yes, I'll come up here first thing." With that Dr. Anjer turned to go.

Katie started crying softly. Kim put a comforting arm around her. Sometimes just being there was better than any consoling words, and Kim knew that. She also knew that the mother was in so much pain for her son. The love from a mother was so different than the love from a friend. Kim was really saddened and scared for Trent, so she could only imagine what Katie was going through.

Katie took a deep breath. She walked over to the phone and dialed up her home. "Tommy, yeah, it's mom............um, honey, will you call Pastor Jones, and Walker. Tell Walker to see if Trivette and Alex would like to come, and ask Pastor Jones if he could pick you guys up and bring you here............Yes, all three of you, Tandy and Tyler too............Don't ask any questions Tommy, just please do what I ask. Okay, bye." She hung up, and turned to face Kim.

"I just called Carlos, he's on his way," Kim said when Katie sat down.

"Okay." They fell into silence.

15 minutes later Carlos walked in quickly. "What's going on?"

"They took Trent into emergency surgery this morning. He's bleeding internally and his left lung is full of blood from an infection," Kim explained sadly.

"Oh no," Carlos muttered.

"Well, I couldn't find anything out!!" Butch suddenly walked into the waiting room.

Katie smiled. "As soon as you left Dr. Anjer came in to talk to us about what's going on, we forgot to find you."

"Well, then what's the problem?"

Kim began explaining it to Butch as Katie began talking sofly to Carlos.

"Carlos, they say there's only a 20% chance he'll make it," Katie whispered, her eyes once again filling with tears.

Carlos put his arms around her, pulling her into a hug. "Mrs. Malloy, Trent has come out of worse things than this, he's a fighter, he can beat this."

"I know Carlos, I know. But, he's just so sick..............."

Carlos began to say more, but was interupted by Roscoe and the kids coming in, with Walker, Alex, Trivette, and CD at their heels.

There were the usual hellos, then Katie asked everyone to sit down.

"Okay, the reason we called you is that Trent went into emergency surgery an hour ago, and it doesn't look good. They, they said that there's an infection from where he got stabbed, and the bacteria made his lung fill with blood and fluid. Dr. Anjer said that the sugery will last for several hours, so all we can do is pray."

And that's what they did.

"Okay, I'll begin, and Walker, would you please finish?" Roscoe asked, and Walker nodded.

They began, and a few people later, Tandy spoke up.

"Hi God, I want to thank you for this day, and for all you've given me, but God, Trent is really really sick. I know that if he dies he'll go to be up with you, Daddy and even JESUS!!!! But, I know it's selfish, and I hope you'll forgive me, but I want him to stay down here. He plays ball with me, and teaches me kar-a-tee, and he's my big brother. I love him God, and I know you love him too, so if you want to take him with the Angels so he can see Daddy, I won't be mad. I'll be sad, but not mad. But if you can, make him better so he can have fun again. In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen."

The childhood innocence of Tandy's prayer seemed to strengthen the others in the room. Katie and Alex wiped tears from their eyes, while Carlos found it hard speak when his turn came.

After the prayer had been ended Dr. Anjer walked into the room.

Katie quickly stood up. "Dr. Anjer, what happened, how is he?"

All eyes turned to the doctor as he opened his mouth to speak.
 
 

Dr. Anjer gave a slight smile. "He made it through the surgery,"

There were a chorus of sighs of relief in the room.

"But the next 24 hours are critical." Dr. Anjer continued. "He's in recovery right now, we're bringing him up to ICU in an hour. You can see him then."

"Doctor," Katie began. "What happened to cause this?"

"It was an infection, like we thought, from the bacteria, and it, somehow, caused a blood vessel near the lung to pop, and it caused the bruising look around the lung, and for the blood to fill inside the left lung. BUT the surgery went well. They were able to drain the lung and to stop the bleeding. He's a fighter, there's no doubt about that."

"Uh huh," Carlos muttered. There really was no doubt about it. Trent had beaten the odds more than once.

The hour passed slowly. It was quiet in the waiting room. Oddly, the only people in the room were waiting on word about Trent. So, except for some strained conversation, it was quiet.

Carlos took advantage of the silence in the room to think. He thought about Trent, his very best friend for as long as he could remember. He thought about their childhood. They had always gotten in trouble, much to the dismay of their parents. He thought about the night he saw Hector's shooting. Trent was the only one who was really there for him, all the other people he was close to were caught in their own grief. That was how Trent was, he cared about other people.

Then there were their teenage years. Trent began to learn Karate from Walker, and he suddenly changed. He began to acknowledge the ethics his parents had so desperately tried to instill in him. He kept Carlos in line then, and if it wasn't for Trent, Carlos didn't know if he could've stood his ground when it came to all that peer pressure that was associated with the teenage years.

Then, when they went their separate ways after high school; Trent went to seminary, and Carlos went to the academy. But that wasn't a problem, they saw each other frequently. But Trent didn't finish the seminary, he went to the Army. Of course, then, they never saw each other.

And today. Well, not maybe today, but recently. He thought about their cases. He thought about how many times Trent had saved his butt. He thought about the other time Trent had been in the hospital, and shuddered. It had been terrible, he just wanted to punch someone. So he did, he punched the wall! It felt good - for a minute. Trent came out of that all right. He just hoped he could come out all right out of this. They had had so many good times together. Carlos wiped a tear from his eye. He sure was lucky to have Trent as a friend, and he didn't want to lose him!
 

As soon as Dr. Anjer got word that Trent had been taken back to ICU he went to check on his patient.

He started checking vital signs before he allowed visitors. He pulled out his stethoscope and checked the heartbeat.
 

Trent painfully groaned. His chest hurt even more than he remembered. Something cold suddenly touched his skin over his heart, and he jumped.
 

Dr. Anjer stopped. Did Trent just jump? He got his answer. Trent's eyes fluttered, and then opened to small slits. He flinched, and tried to say something, but he couldn't, they had hooked him up to a respirator. "Mr. Malloy!" he exclaimed, excited.

Trent tried to say something, but Dr. Anjer stopped him.

"Don't try to say anything Mr. Malloy." Dr. Anjer put his hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Do you want me to go get your mother?"

Trent gave a slight nod, and Dr. Anjer briskly walked out of the room, down the short hall, and into the waiting room.

"Mrs. Malloy." She looked up. "Trent wants to see you." With that he left the room.

Katie got up very quickly, and looked at the retreating doctor. She ran out of the room, the rest of the anxious people in the room followed her.

Katie walked into the room, but Dr. Anjer stopped the rest of the people. "You guys don't have to go back into the waiting room, but I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't go in Trent's room right now, only one at a time until he's a little more stabilized."

Carlos had to see for himself that Trent was okay, so he went to the window outside of Trent's room. There was his best friend, very pale, sickly looking, but his eyes were open, and he was squeezing Katie's hand.

Before Dr. Anjer walked out of ICU Walker called out. "Dr. Anjer!"

The doctor turned, and walked over to Walker. "Yes, Mr. Walker?"

"When you first came in the room, you said the next 24 hours were critical and if Trent could even survive those hours he had a better chance of being okay. But he's awake in there! How?"

"Mr. Walker, I really don't know. That man in there has overcome some pretty major obstacles in the past few weeks, and I can't explain any of them. He's just willing to fight!"

"That's what I thought." Walker smiled. "Thank you doctor."
 

Katie smiled happily as she held her son's hand. They had developed the hand squeezing system, one squeeze for every yes, two for every no.

"Trent sweetie, does it hurt?"

One squeeze.

"Do you want anything?"

Two squeezes.

Trent tried to move his mouth, but he couldn't say anything.

"What is it honey, do you want anything?" Katie repeated.

Two.

Trent moved his head towards the doorway.

"Do you want to see someone?"

One

"Do you want to see Carlos?"

Two

"Tommy?"

Two

"Walker?"

"Tyler and Tandy?"

One

Katie sighed. "They can't come see you until you're in a regular room honey, I'm sorry. But Carlos wants to see you, do you want me to go get him?"

One

Katie walked outside and motioned to Carlos. "You can go in now." She spoke softly.

Carlos walked into the room, and sat down in the chair. "Hey buddy."

Trent weakly smiled.

They did the hand thing for awhile, and then Carlos saw that Trent's eyelids were starting to droop.

"Hey, Trent, I'm gonna go ahead and go so you can get some rest, Okay?" Trent smiled and gave Carlos' hand one squeeze.

Carlos gave Trent's shoulder a slight squeeze, and walked out of the room. He just hoped that this roller coaster ride would slow down, he didn't want any more ups and downs, and he was sure everyone else didn't either.
 
 

It had been a week, and for once Trent's condition was improving. Dr. Anjer, not wanting to take any risks, kept his patient on the respirator until he had stabilized, almost to the point of being able to move into a regular room. And Dr. Anjer had even figured that out, he had already recommended a doctor change for Trent when he had moved to a regular room. His intern, Dr. Walters, was going to take over. She was a young one, just into her residency, and Dr. Anjer usually referred the recovering patients to her, for practice. Katie Malloy had agreed to the change; she was pleased as of how quickly Trent was improving.

But the doctor didn't think Trent was very happy. When he wasn't asleep he was giving Dr. Anjer and his nurses evil looks. The guy hated the respirator, but the infection in his lungs was a little too much for him to be able to breathe properly on his own. Trent couldn't understand why they had that thing in his throat, he thought he was fine, but there was a big difference in THINKING you were fine and BEING fine. And Trent was far from fine. You could just tell. He had tremendous bags under his eyes, and his face had lost almost all color. It looked all the same color, even his lips were white. And with all the time he spent sleeping, there was no way he was fine. His temperature had rested at 102 a few days ago, and he had stayed at about that temp for the past few days. That alone could prevent the antibiotics from doing their job.

Dr. Anjer had done some observing; Trent's family and friends were very interesting. His mom was there constantly, by her son's side. She even stayed when he was asleep, stroking his hair and holding his hand. The doctor could only imagine what she was feeling; the mother had almost lost her son twice, and it was quite obvious that she planned on being there every possible moment.

Then there was Mr. Malloy's job. Dr. Anjer knew that he owned a Karate school, but he didn't know of Trent's other job. His best friend, Carlos, was a private investigator, and apparently Trent and Carlos were partners. No wonder Trent had gotten sick; there must have been a tremendous amount of stress thrust upon him after Carlos had gone off on a case investigation, his younger brother had gone on vacation, and his office manager had gotten shot.

Yes, there was quite a lot to learn through the simple act of listening and observing. He had also learned that Trent had a lot of friends in high places. There was assistant district attorney Alex Cahill, and two Texas Rangers, one being the famous Cordell Walker whom had been Trent's karate teacher and still was his mentor.

Dr. Anjer smiled. He only hoped that there weren't going to be any complications involving Trent anymore.

"Yo, Dr. A!"

Dr. Anjer was yanked out of his thoughts. He looked up from his seat in the Doctor's lounge, only to find himself face to face with one of the younger ER doctors in the hospital, Jesse Travis.

"Yes, Doctor Travis?" He answered.

"Have you seen 'Lana anywhere?" Jesse flopped down in a chair next to him. "I can't seem to find her."

"Did you check ICU? She's been in there a lot, we've had a troubling patient for the past couple of weeks."

"That Malloy guy?" Dr. Anjer nodded. Jesse continued. "Yeah, 'Lana's been telling me about him, pretty fascinating. But anyways, I haven't checked there. I guess I'll go on up there now, we're supposed to have a date tonight."

"Alright, and I'll join you. I need to be heading up there myself."

"Heading up where?" Dr. Walters briskly walked into the Doctor's lounge and poured herself a cup of coffee.

"We're about to go up to ICU."

"Oh, isn't Trent Malloy up there, that patient you're giving me in a few days?"

"Yes he is, and he's doing better, as a matter of fact."

"Oh, that's good, when can I expect him?"

"I'm not sure, but soon. He's doing a lot better."

"That's great," she smiled. "I'll co-" She was interrupted by her pager.

"Oh, I've got to go to the ER." She shrugged. "See you guys." and with that she walked off.

Jesse let out a low whistle. "Man, she's hot."

"You know, you have a girlfriend," Dr. Anjer remarked as they walked to the elevator.

"I know that, but remarks, well, it's the truth."

Dr. Anjer shook his head, smiling.
 

DaLana met her boyfriend at the elevator "Hey sweetie." She kissed him on the cheek.

"Hey, don't I get better than that?" Jesse puckered up.

"Nope," DaLana laughed at the bewildered expression on Jesse's face. "And what are you doing here? Doesn't the ER need it's best doctor?"

"Yes of course. But you need me." Jesse leaned forward.

"No I don't." She smiled. "I'll see you tonight Jess, kay?"

"Okay."

"Now, why don't you go back down to the ER and do your job so I can do mine." with that DaLana gave him another kiss, and walked the other direction.
 

Dr. Anjer joined up with DaLana in Trent's room and checked his chart. "Have you checked his vitals the in the past couple of hours?"

"Yes, they're improving. Doctor, it's your call, but I think the antibiotics are taking effect well enough for the respirator to come out."

"Well, let's see." He walked over to a side of Trent's bed, and, being careful not to disturb the sleeping patient, he checked his temperature.

"Well, DaLana, it's at about 101, and the sputum culture for today came out with a lesser amount of Bacteria. I think it'd be alright to take it out today. Give me a couple of minutes, and we'll be all set."
 
 

Trent strained to open his eyes. Dr. Anjer and Nurse Allen were at the foot of his bed, studying his chart. He looked at their faces, struggling to hear what they were saying. Something about temperature, taking out the respirator.

His eyes got big at the sound of that. Yes! They wre taking out the respirator! He hated not being able to talk, it was torture! Even if he wasn't awake very often, it would be nice to be able to talk when he was awake.

Dr. Anjer noticed his patient was awake. "Ahh Mr. Malloy." He smiled. "Now, if it's all right with you, I'd like to take out the respirator."

Trent nodded, he was FINE with that!

At that moment Katie came in, and noticed Dr. Anjer and Nurse Allen. Her motherly instinct took over, and a look of concern came to her eyes. "Is something wrong?"

"No, actually, nothing's wrong. We were just about to take out the respirator."

"Oh, that is good news, isn't it." She smiled.

"Yeah, it is, and I think that he'll do all right without it. Now, Mrs. Malloy, you can stay and help me out. Go over to his left." Dr. Anjer had DaLana unplug it, and he told Trent what he was going to do. "Now, this may feel like I'm gagging you, but just relax and stay still, and it'll be done before you know it." He started to pull the tube out of Trent's throat.

Katie sensed what was coming, and she grabbed her son's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

It was very hard to relax. Trent stiffened, and that just made it worse. He tightened his grip on hismother's hand and squeezed his eyes shut. It felt like he was strangling, and it hurt. But soon it was gone, and Dr. Anjer told DaLana to go get some oxygen.

"Trent, we're gonna give you an oxygen mask to help you breathe, you'll have some difficulty in breathing for a while, and I'm not going to take any chances."

Trent tried to speak, but no sound came out.

"Honey, don't try to speak yet." Katie stopped him, and took a cup of ice chips a nurse handed her. She spooned some into his mouth. Trent felt the cool water flow down his dry throat, it felt good, really good.

Katie ran her fingers across her son's still warm forehead. "How are you feeling sweetie?" she quietly asked.

Trent knew that there would be no lying to his mom, so he was honest. "Not too great," he managed.

"I'm so sorry, honey," Katie whispered. "Now, why don't you rest, do you want the oxygen?" at his nod, she placed the mask on his face. "I'll stay with you until you fall asleep," she whispered, taking his hand.
 

Carlos walked into Thunder Investigations, not wanting to face what was waiting for him in the office -- Pure Chaos.

But someone had beaten him to it.

"Thunder Investigations, this is Kim...............Ah, Mr. Jamerson, yes, I have the file riiiighhhht, here!.........Yes, I'm teribly sorry about the wait, we had a little emergency. Mr. Malloy has gotten very sick, and our other investigator wasn't here at the time, but he is now. Okay, I will, and here's Mr. Sandoval." She handed the phone to him.

"Hello.....Yes......Okay.......How about I meet you somewhere?........Okay, where do you live......Great, I'll be there in about an hour." He hung the phone up.

"Were they mad?" Kim asked when he hung up.

"No, not really, I just have to go meet them at their home in an hour."

"They ARE paying, aren't they?" Kim asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"Yes!" Carlos said, mimicking her. "So," he continued, "You have everything under control?"

"All things considering, we're doing okay. But Trent sure left a lot of paperwork." She gestured to her desk, overflowing with documents and case files.

"Well, that's not a problem, is it Kim," Carlos said, smiling.

"What, you want ME to do all THIS??!!!" Kim exclaimed.

"Sure, why not?"

"WHY NOT!!! Carlos, look at this!! I'll be here all night if you don't sit your BUTT down here and open up THESE files." she angrily plopped a file of folders in his lap.

"But I have to go meet the Jamersons-"

"In an hour, so you have an hour to clear some of these up." It was Kim's turn to smile.

"And if you'd excuse me, I'm going out for lunch, and then I'm going to stop and visit Trent."

Carlos stared at her retreating figure, his mouth gaping.

Kim quietly walked into Trent's room, an arrangement of flowers in her arms. The little 'angel' was asleep, his head tilted, he looked peaceful, and Kim figured that was a good thing. She walked over to the other side of his bed, and placed the arrangement on a table.

"Kim,"

Kim looked up, surprised. "Hey, Trent, how are you feeling?"

Trent sighed. "Okay I guess."

Kim rolled her eyes. "Trent......"

"All right, rotten, happy?" Trent laid his head back on the pillows. "My head hurts, my chest feels like a rock's sitting on it, and I know I'm burning up."

"Oookayy, I guess then that today wouldn't be good to bring over some of that huge stack of paperwork you left on my desk, huh?" She smiled.

"You're cute Kim, real cute." Trent gave a weak smile. "You know, they're thinking of moving me to a regular room."

"Oh, that's great." Kim said.

"Yeah, I guess."

Kim checked her watch. "Oh, Trent, I better go, I left Carlos with some stuff to do and ten to one he hasn't even touched it yet. Get some rest, and I'll stop by tonight or tomorrow."

"Hey, Lana, you're the supervising nurse for that patient I'm getting, Trent Malloy, right?" Dr. Emily Walters asked her friend on their lunch break.

"Yeah," she replied, "What about it?"

"Well, what's up with him?"

DaLana smiled, "Weeeeellllll........."

"Well, what?"

DaLana's smile grew. "Lana!!!! C'mon, WHAT?"

"Emily, let's just say that if I wasn't going out with Jesse, he'd be MINE!!!!!"