Frankie

Jordan and Marc Staal sat quietly outside of Frankie's room as her parents went inside to have their time with their daughter. Gwen had left awhile a go, with the persuasion of Mr. And Mrs. Ryan because she had classes early in the morning.

Jordan had been in Frankie's room for hours and refused to leave to change and rest or even eat. Marc had to drag him out of the room and tell him that the Ryan's wanted some alone time with their daughter.

Drew had woken up awhile ago, sustaining fewer injuries than Frankie. Just some bruises and cuts on his face when his side window crashed into the electrical post. Apparently, Drew ran a red light and Frankie's side was hit by another car.

"So I heard that you're dating Ava Hall. How did that happen?" Jordan asked, trying to make small talk to get his mind off of Frankie.

Although it bugged him a little that Marc was at Frankie's side before him, he was glad that someone was there for her. When he heard that Marc was there he couldn't help but feel jealous, he had a feeling that Marc liked Frankie despite Marc saying that he was joking around.

Marc shrugged, looking at his phone. "I dunno, it just happened," he replied distantly.

Looking at his older brother, Jordan noticed the troubled look on his face as he clutched his phone. "Are you okay?"

Laughing bitterly, Marc rested his head on the white wall of the hospital. "She's pregnant," he informed his brother and gave him a side look. "I just got off the phone with her a few minutes ago and she told me that she's pregnant."

Jordan was caught off guard. He didn’t expect to hear that from Marc. Out of all the Staal boys, Marc was the most religious and the most responsible. He wasn't the type to fool around and stayed in relationships. Even Eric fooled around before he started dating Tanya, but Marc, Marc wasn't like that.

"Congratulations. You're going to be a father," he said, still shocked.

Marc laughed bitterly again. "That's the thing; I'm not going to be a father."

"It's not yours?" Jordan asked, his eyebrows rising. He was surprised to hear, that his fantasy girl, was a cheater. It wasn't a secret that Jordan used to be in love with Ava, and that she was his fantasy girl since she was a teen.

"Its mine, but she's getting an abortion," said Marc. "She said that she wasn't ready to be a mother and our relationship wasn't stable enough to have a baby," he explained, excluding the part that Ava accused Marc of leaving her for Frankie.

Jordan didn't know what to say. He wished he could give his brother advice, but to be honest, he wasn't knowledgeable in the situation Marc was in. He was afraid to give Marc advice, in fear that he would say the wrong thing to Marc.

He thought that it was best that Marc spoke to their parents for guidance and if he couldn't, he should at least speak to Eric and Tanya. Maybe they could give him a little more insight on how to handle his situation.

Despite not knowing about his brother's relationship with the actress in great detail or knowing Ava at all, he was distraught to hear that she had chosen to abort the baby. The baby inside of her was a Staal and his future niece or nephew, that baby was family. He could only imagine what Marc was feeling.

"Maybe… maybe you could talk to her again. She probably just needed to calm down," he pressed on to his older brother.

"Ava's… Ava's stubborn," Marc explained and lifted his head to Frankie's door, as did Jordan's, when it opened.

Edith Ryan looked like she had been crying for days. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her face was blotched with tears and her nose was red as well. She looked like a mother truly in pain and suffering.

She smiled at the two boys and spoke softy, "Francesca's awake and she wants to see you Jordan."

Nodding, Jordan stood up and looked at Marc, who offered him and encouraging smile. "Thank you Mrs. Ryan," he gratefully said.

Edith just nodded and smiled before stepping aside to let him in.

Entering the room, he caught her father kissing Frankie on the forehead, whispering something to her and patting her head before nodding and Jordan and walked out of the room.

Jordan cautiously walked over to Frankie. Her right eye was swollen shut and it was a nice purple coloured bruise. She had stitches on her left eyebrow and a swollen lip with stitches just above her upper lift. It broke his heart to see her so broken.

Feeling uneasy under Jordan's gaze, she closed her left eye and sighed. When she heard that Jordan flew all the way to Pittsburgh from Buffalo despite having a game that day, she knew she had to see him. But now she was having second thoughts and felt extremely insecure with the way she looked.

"Hey," she greeted him hoarsely. "Don't you have a game?"

Sitting down, Jordan shook his head. "They let me off for family emergency. Helps that you're Gwen's best friend and Ray let me go. I have the rest of the road trip off."

"You have to go back," she urged him.

Jordan kept looking at her. From her broken leg to all the bandages that were exposed to him and her face.

Frankie sighed. "Broke my leg in three places, twelve stitches in total broken rib and a crushed chest," she listed off, knowing that Jordan was curious to what injuries she had.

He winced and looked at her sadly. "Are you okay? Does anything hurt?"

She slowly shook her head. "Everything hurts; they have me on morphine to help with the pain."

Jordan looked at his girlfriend with pain in his eyes. This was the second time he felt helpless. The second time he couldn't do anything to help her. He hated the feeling, yet it seemed like all he could do was comfort her.

Tears started to pool at the corner of his eyes. He turned his face to the side so that Frankie wouldn't see him crying. The last thing Frankie needed was to worry about him or to see him so weak. No, he needed to be strong for her. She needed someone to be strong for her.

"Jordan?" she asked her voice hoarse and scratchy. When he refused to look her in the eye Frankie slowly moved her hand over to his and squeezed it. "Hey, are you alright?"

Jordan looked at Frankie, his eyes bleary and shook his head. "No, Frankie I'm not. This is the second time I've watched you get hurt and I feel so useless," he admitted.

Frankie gave him a small smile and squeezed his hand again. "It's not your fault. What happened was mine and Drew's fault. I shouldn't have gotten into the car knowing that Drew was drunk and he shouldn't have been drinking. There's nothing you could have done," she tried to reassure him.

"But if I just stayed with you I could have stopped you from getting in the car."

"And what, give up your career to stay by my side?" Frankie retorted. "Are you listening to yourself? You can't protect me from everything and you most certainly can't give up hockey for some stupid little girl."

"Frankie, I love you."