"Michael?" Max pushed his friend back down to the hospital bed with all his force. "It's okay."

"What's all this noise?" A plump African-American nurse carrying a trey of food came in and walked past Liz. "You all are gonna to have to leave if you're gonna get him all ralled up."

"And you." The nurse pointed at Michael. "You better relax before you rip that IV right outa' yo' arm." With his eyes, Michael followed the long clear tube up to the annoying machine that was beeping.

"Yes ma'am." Michael stared at the long needle as she sat the trey down in front of him.

"Roll over please." She tugged at the bottom of Michael's hospital gown.

"Excuse me?" Michael looked at her as if she was insane. Isabel smiled.

"Liz and I are going to get a drink of water." She smiled showing Liz out the door.

"Don't go far I want to talk to you." Michael looked at Max then to Isabel as she struggled to hold back a burst of laughter.

"Come on, I ain't got all day." Isabel disappeared from the doorway. She wasn't about to watch a nurse shoving a needle in Michael's butt. Michael rolled his eyes and leaned on his side as the nurse stuck the needle deep into his sensitive skin.

"If you ever tell Maria about this I'll kill you." He tensed as the nurse pulled the needle from him. Maria? The sound of her name brought a flash of the accident back.

"Thank you young man. Now eat all your peas." As she left and Isabel came back in.

"Where's Maria-is she okay?" Isabel's smile faded and she took a seat next to Michael on the bed.

"She's in intensive care." Isabel fixed a fallen piece of Michael's spiky hair.

"Intensive care?" Michael sat up in his hospital bed ready to stand. "I-"

"It's okay-I healed her." Max put a hand on Michael's blue hospital gown.

"She's okay?" Michael looked seriously at Max and Isabel.

"She will be-she still has some broken bones-I couldn't completely heal her-you know it would look kind of suspicious."

Michael nodded looking down at his hospital gown and let out a sigh. "Man, I gotta admit I look good in this."

"Yeah, especially from the back." Michael met Isabel's gaze and softened his expression to a smile. Feeling happy to have Michael back, Isabel cupped his hand in hers. Michael looked at his hand in Isabel's. His eyes ran up his arms and body. There were no bruises. No cuts. Nothing, he looked and felt as good as the day he was born or rather…hatched.

"You can thank Max for that." Isabel smiled watching Michael nod to Max.

"I'm glad you're okay and everything Michael, but why? Why did you run off with Maria to meet Tess in the middle of the night? We talked about all this. We trust no one except each other." Max couldn't help but let an angry but hurt look show on his face.

"I know and I totally agree with you, but you don't know the whole story. I didn't know Maria was planning to meet Tess. When I caught her trying to leave she lied and said she was going to get some stuff from her house and make up a story to tell Liz's parents." He looked at Liz in Maria's sweater staring at him. "It wasn't until she tried to ditch me that the whole story came out."

"Ditch you?" Isabel flashed him a questioning glare.

"Don't ask." He said pushing the food trey full of Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, and peas away from him. "But she told me everything. She found a letter from Tess at her house and-

"Yeah, we found it." Isabel said still imagining the part where Maria tried to ditch Michael.

"Well-" Michael cut Max off.

"Sorry guys, but getting out of here ASAP seems like a really great idea to me. I'm getting the creeps thinking about all the people that have died in this room, so can we talk about this later?"

"Sure." Max said shutting the beeping machine next to Michael's bed off as Michael pulled a few rubber suction cups from his chest.

"So Iz, what's the plan?" She looked to her brother and smiled.

"To get Michael some clothes and break outa' this jail house."

*******************

"Uhhhhh." Maria sighed groggily coming out of her induced coma.

"She's going to need to come back in eight weeks to get the casts on her legs and arm removed." Maria's eye lids flipped up and she jolted at the sight of the same doctor she had seen in the Emergency Room.

"It's okay Maria." Dr. Ross said as he took her head in his hands and shined a small light in her eyes. "Do you know where you are?"

"Yeah, the hospital." She said turning her head as looked in her ears.

"Do you remember what happened?" The blonde doctor above her asked. "BP 180 over 90 pulse normal. She seems pretty steady." The nurse stuck a small machine in Maria's ear and like predicted, Maria turned her head, not enjoying the cold object in her warm ear. "Temp. 96 degrees."

"I was in a car accident. How could I forget? Who are you?" She said watching the nurse stick a needle in her IV and inject a clear fluid.

"Maria, this is Lucy Knight, she's just going to be watching over you." The doctor smiled.

"When can I go home?" Maria looked at him shivering in her hospital gown.

"It's still hard to tell. You have a few broken bones and a torn ligament in your thumb. Luckily no permanent damage." Dr. Knight said unclipping her pen from the T-shirt on her white hospital coat and scribbling something on Maria's charts.

"So everything else seems okay?" Maria asked trying to scratch her face where the plastic tubes went up her nose.

"You're clean, not pregnant, no STDs, and you don't have AIDS." Maria looked at her feeling violated and at the same time relieved. Relieved? She shouldn't feel relieved, a virgin wouldn't ever get an STD or AIDS. She nodded watching the nurse cover her with the white bed sheet.

"We tried calling your mother but it we couldn't get a hold of her. Seems she's away." Dr. Ross sat on a stool next to Maria's bed.

"Yeah, she went to California on a business trip." She said almost gagging at the trey of hospital food that the nurse brought in.

"So are you staying with a friend? Your boyfriend?" He looked at her putting her medical charts under his arm.

"My boyfriend?" She thought of Michael and felt the fear in her upset her stomach to the point of actually tasting the bile. "Oh, no a girlfriend. How is Michael?"

"The boy that came in here with you?" Maria nodded to him looking down at the casts that covered her arm and legs. "He's going to be fine. His injuries weren't as severe as yours so he's on the next floor down." Maria let out a sigh of relief. [Thank God he's okay.]

"Has he had any visitors?" She looked around the room at all the sleeping people with tubes coming from their mouths.

"Yes, there are a few people with him right now, but unfortunately since no visitors are allowed in the ICU they couldn't come up to see you."

"Oh…well when do I get out of here." She looked at the white wallpapered walls.

"As soon as I give the go-ahead." [Wonderful, I'll be here FOREVER!] "But I still have a few questions for you like why were you out on the middle of the night with your-" Maria cut him off.

"You know, I'm really tired right now, and seeing that I'll be leaving no time soon could this wait until later?"

"Sure, you get some rest while we go and check up on a few things. And maybe move you down a floor." Dr. Knight smiled looking down at Maria's untouched trey of food.

"Then I'll talk to you later." Dr. Ross smiled following Dr. Knight out of the room.

"Thanks...for nothing." Maria said to herself as he left the room.

*****************

"This is the best you could find?" Michael tugged at his tight shirt.

"Well the lost and found didn't have a really great selection. It was either that or a green polka-dotted shirt covered in dried up puke." Isabel pulled at the back of the shirt trying to stretch it out. "Better?"

"I can at least breath." He mumbled looking out into the hospital's hallway.

"We can't all go up there. Someone needs to have the getaway car ready." Max said pulling Michael back in the room at the sight of a familiar nurse.

"I'm going to get Maria." Michael stood in a huddle with Max, Isabel, and Liz.

"Okay, Liz and I will be waiting in the car. We'll be parked outside the emergency door-it's the only clear exit. Be careful." She looked both of them in the eye before walking out into the hall.

"Isabel will explain." Max tried to make Liz understand and planted a slow and deep kiss on her lips.

*******************

At the sensation of a hand on her Maria pulled herself out of her nap and opened her eyes.

"W-who are you?" She tried to fight with her one, uncasted arm but was held tightly by the dark man. "Help!" She screamed.

"Shhh." He put a hand on her mouth and slid the other hand on her forehead.

"What are you doing? Stop!" She yelled from under his hand, feeling intense pressure on her head.

******************

"There, look ICU." Michael past a few nurses and when the hallway was clear walked right into the ICU with Max close behind him.

"Why are the lights off?" Max asked reaching for the switch. The bright lights came on and revealed a strange man practically sitting on Maria with his hands on her head.

"You! Stop!" Michael ran to him and thrust the stranger to the floor.

"Ahhh!" Maria let out a loud, high-pitched scream as soon as his hands left her head.

"Agh!" The man groaned as Max tried to hold him down.

"I thought you were on our side!" Michael yelled as he fought on the floor with him.

"I'm not here to hurt you. You need to trust me." Michael went to throw a punch but was hindered by a gust of wind. "Listen to me! They have the answers-listen to them they know the truth." The stranger stood and forced the wind harder, so hard it knocked Michael and Max to the floor.

"Where'd he go?" Max said out of breath as his eyes dashed around the room. "And what the hell was he talking about?"

"Maria?" Michael ignored Max's confused mumblings and ran to Maria's bedside.

"Wait." Max quickly stood and came to Michael's side. He shut is eyes in deep concentration as he melted the white casts from Maria's body and put every bone back where it belonged.

"Maria? Wake up." Max pushed Michael's hands away and felt for a pulse. "She's alive." He said as he took her thumb in his hand and felt the ligaments mend.

"Michael!" Maria's body shot up from the bed and he caught her in his arms, hugging her tightly.

"I thought you were dead." He breathed in her cinnamon smell as her body shivered and pulled away meeting her eyes.

"Michael?" He voice was low and afraid. "Turn the lights on."

"They are on." He looked in her eyes and saw her dead dreary gaze as she ran one of her hands over his face.

"I hear you but…I can't see you."

******************

"Isabel, this way." Liz took Isabel's hand and they slowly made their way through the emergency room. The last thing they needed was to bring attention to themselves.

"Liz?" Isabel stopped in her tracks, almost tearing Liz's arm from her socket "What?" She turned to face Isabel, horrified as she covered her mouth with her free hand. "Oh, my God Liz." Liz followed her friend's gaze to a hospital curtain that had a small crack in it.