005

By the time she'd made her way through the chaos that the backstage area at Madison Square Garden had become, she'd been too late. Her husband had already been loaded on an ambulance and whisked away to the nearest hospital. It had taken nearly ten minutes to find someone who knew where— ten precious minutes that his life could have been in danger that she hadn't been at his side.

She was somewhat surprised that she hadn't killed anyone or been pulled over and arrested for breaking the sound barrier on her way to Mt. Sinai. By the time she made it to the information desk, she looked like a crazy person. Her mascara had bled down her cheeks thanks to tears of frustration that had also left her eyes wild and bloodshot. Another five minutes had gone down the drain before she was pointed in the direction of the Emergency Room, only to be told once she arrived there that he'd already been moved to the ICU.

Thirty-two minutes had passed, and she was growing more frantic with each passing second. Pacing the corridor, she kept her eyes fastened on the door. Hope had become nothing more than a waking dream, but right now it was the ONLY thing keeping her on her feet, and keeping her head above the river of sorrow that surrounded her. When the doctor pushed through the doors to the waiting room, she whirled and pounced on the man, backing him into a corner, tears shining in her red-rimmed eyes.

"Alexander Stryfe!" She screamed in his face, one fist closing over the doctor's shirt, crumpling the white coat and scrubs. "Where is he? Is he ok? How serious are his injuries?" All the words came out as a breathless rush, leaving the poor doctor no space to answer. "Please," she murmured through clenched teeth, her voice a low, very stressed-sounding whisper, "I need to know if he's alright."

The doctor himself looked more than alarmed, and with obvious reason as he stood, almost pinned to the wall. "Alexander Stryfe? Oh! He was admitted a little while ago. But you are going to need to get a hold of yourself, ma'am." He said this in a rather calm tone, much unlike the one she was using with him. "He should be fine. He did suffer a rather brutal attack. Laceration to the head, and a rather bruised body as a result. Amazing he doesn't have a concussion."

She released the poor doctor, sighing as she reached up to rub at her tear-streaked cheeks. "I... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have attacked you like that." Sniffling, she looked at him, "is he awake? Can I see him?"

"Patients in the ICU are only allowed one visitor at a time, ma'am. And he already has two people now. One with him, one waiting their turn. You just missed a....Mister Thunder, I believe his name was." The doctor led her back to the waiting area outside the ICU, away from the entrance to the ER. Fetching her a cup of coffee, he pointed out the closest seat. "I'll let them know that you are to be next in line. And you are?"

"H-his wife," she stammered, her hand shaking as she lifted the coffee cup to her lips. The coffee tasted like gasoline, but she choked it down to soothe her dry throat before continuing, "Kaitlynn Stryfe."

"Well then, I will make sure you get in tonight. If you'll excuse me..." He excused himself, leaving her there in the waiting area for a few minutes before the doors exiting the ICU into the room pushed open yet again, revealing the first familiar face of the evening, that being Jacob Stryfe. As soon as he spotted her, he seemed amused for a split second before taking a seat across from her.

"Well Kaitlynn, it's very good of you to join us this evening." His tone was warm, but the sentiment behind it was far from it.

She sipped the coffee for another moment, trying to bite back the caustic reply that popped into her mind, failing miserably, "what did you expect me to do, Jacob? Leave the arena and go back to the hotel alone when the man I love is here?"

"Admittedly, Kaitlynn, your habits are hard to predict. So while I assumed you would find your way here, I was by no means assured of that fact. I mean...the rest of us already arrived and have been here. Luther just left a few moments ago, and I have been visiting with him since then. If it makes you feel better, he did ask for you. But.....you weren't here." Jacob was almost apologetic in his tone as he spoke, though the same hint of smugness in his voice was still present regardless.

She felt the tears threaten and sniffled as she averted her eyes, looking down into the black depths of the coffee in her cup. "I got here as quickly as I could... no thanks to you. You could have told me where he was being taken. Someone could have. Do you know how many people I had to ask back at the arena before someone could give me a straight answer? Do you know how long it took me to get..." she sighed, trailing off. There was no use in fighting with him.

"Oh, well I will have to beg your pardon, Kaitlynn. Amidst my very heartfelt concern for my older brother, the thought of contacting you was lost somewhere. We all thought perhaps you were going to see Mr. Deas..." Jacob gave a rather sad face as he spoke, as though he were truly sorry for not contacting her. But anyone who knew him knew that was about as fake as it gets. "But you need not worry. Those who love and care for him have been here to keep him company. I can't begin to tell you how honored they will all be to know you found the time to join us. I know Luther was curious to your whereabouts, as was I but I know you better than him. The only one who was not concerned is with him now."

Her eyes narrowed as his words sank in, making her frustration and anger boil to a near-fever pitch. "Who?" She asked, feeling the worst possible dread settle in her guts as she mulled over his description, "who's in with him now?"

A grin formed on his face as Jacob glanced down to the floor, leaning forward in his chair. "Just an old flame, if you will. After all, my dear brother has had a few in his lifetime and some of them were here tonight because they wanted to be here for him. He's not much of a wrestler, certainly not on your level, Kaitlynn. So when they discovered what was to take place, they made plans to be here. Much like you did. Just....a fair bit sooner."

An old flame?

"That fucking bitch," the words came out unbidden, surprising her perhaps more than him. "And I bet you were the one who brought her here, weren't you? Probably let her ride along in the ambulance so she could pretend she still matters."

"Oh, you give me far too much credit, Kaitlynn. I wish I could say that I did, but the only ones in the ambulance on the ride here was myself and Luther. We had room for a third, but you know how that goes. Sometimes a wife has more important things to attend to. I just assumed there was an important Twitter fight taking place at the time." He shrugged his shoulders as he said it, so very matter-of-factly.

"You know damn well I was watching the match on the monitors in the locker room, not picking fights over the Internet." For a brief second she contemplated throwing the coffee in his smugly smiling face, and reconsidered just as quickly. He certainly wasn't worth that sort of trouble. Instead she set the cup aside and clasped her hands in her lap. "You're an asshole, Jacob, you know that? God, you and Katherine deserve each other."

"Well I would certainly hope were I in the condition my dear brother is in, that Katherine would be the first to arrive on the scene to see me. Not the fourth. But that's alright. No one holds it against you, Kaitlynn." His condescending tone made it worse. "Not me. Not Luther." The smile broke out over his face again. "And certainly not Jennifer."

A growl of irritation that might have been a scream if they weren't inside a hospital waiting room passed her lips as she launched herself from her chair, her palm connecting with his cheek a split second later. Jacob recoiled, holding his jaw for a moment before looking back to her. The cold expression on his face gave way to the smug look returning.

"If I were a lesser man, Kaitlynn, I'd have hospital security remove you from the premises for that and make it so you didn't see your husband till the day he was released under his own power. But I am a better person than that. One of us has to be." He looked about to say something else as he glanced towards the window and noticing Alex's last guest making her exit. He turned his gaze back to Kaitlynn. "Looks like we have an opening. Maybe you'd like to go see him now? It's only been an hour or so. Perhaps you prefer a bit of a grander entrance as you walk in? I'm sure if you need musical accompaniment, I could arrange something."

A classier woman would have swallowed her temper and just walked away. Unfortunately for her, that old Irish moxie just wouldn't go down that easily. "Fuck you, Jacob." She spat, and then turned on her heel, making her way through the doors before he could reply. Jacob grinned as he watched her heading out, fishing out his cell phone and searching through his contacts before finding the name he was looking for and hitting send. He brought it up to his ear as he headed out of the waiting room.

"Hello there. Thank you for coming......Oh yes. Everything is going perfect to plan, Jenny. Trust me."