“I don’t know what’s the matter with me,” Donna moaned as she sat in her robe on the toilet lid, while CJ, perched on the edge of the tub, applied Neosporin to her wrists.

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” CJ said in a perfectly casual tone. “You’ve had a hell of a day and you need some sleep. That’s all. We’ll giggle at how punchy you were in the morning.”

Donna was silent for a moment. “How did you guys find out? That I was in the thing?”

“Josh started to wonder about you after you’d been gone for a while,” CJ said, thinking back to what was only a few hours ago, but felt like weeks ago. “Somehow he got in touch with a detective friend of Sam’s at MPDC, who pieced it together over the next few hours. I’m actually a little fuzzy on the beginning. Sam came and told Toby and me after Linden — that’s the detective — after Linden called back saying he thought you might be inside.”

CJ couldn’t tell how much of that Donna had processed, but she nodded. “And how was he...I mean...was Josh OK? During?”

CJ tilted her head from side to side as she wrapped Donna’s wrist. “Yeah. I mean he was worried, of course. Of course he was worried. We all were. But he was fine, you know. No...episodes or anything like that. You would have been really proud of him.”

Donna smiled a little at that.

“But you scared the hell out of him, so don’t expect to be let out of his sight much for the next little while,” CJ said as she finished wrapping Donna’s wrist and clapped her very gently on the forearm. Donna nodded. She’d already seen a little of his overprotectiveness flare up at the hospital. “Let me dry your hair a little. It’s still pretty wet and I don’t want you to get sick.”

For the next five minutes Donna stared into space while CJ ran the dryer through her hair. The silence wasn’t awkward, because they couldn’t have easily talked anyway, but Donna just felt...different to CJ. She didn’t see how one night of sleep was going to fix all that. But they’d figure out the rest in the morning.

“OK,” CJ said, as she wrapped the cord around the dryer handle and put it back in the drawer. “We’re just not going to ask tonight why, if Josh has a dryer, his hair is always so out of control.”

“He needs to keep it shorter,” Donna mumbled. “It’s much more manageable at the length it is now. When he lets it gets long it just gets a mind of its own.”

“Much like Josh,” CJ said as they came out of the bathroom and headed for the bedroom.

Josh bumped into them coming out of the bedroom and looked like he’d been caught burglarizing the place.

“Um...I turned the bed back for you,” Josh offered shyly.

“Does that come with a chocolate on the pillow?” CJ snickered.

“Not for you, it doesn’t.”

“Thank you,” Donna whispered. She and Josh found themselves staring at each other, oblivious of CJ.

“Okay, Ethel, if you’ll just wait in there with the other girls, she’s just gonna change now,” CJ said, guiding Donna into the bedroom.

Josh snapped out of his reverie and looked at CJ for a second. “Whatever,” he moaned as CJ pulled the door closed with Donna on the other side.

“‘I turned the bed back for you’?” CJ mimicked quietly.

“What? I did! I was being nice!” Josh defended.

“I know what it’s called, I’m asking where the hell you learned it,” CJ hissed.

“Nowhere, I’ve always been nice. I’m always nice!” he whined as quietly as he could.

“What’s going on?” Toby and Sam stuck their heads around the corner.

“Josh was just making the claim that he’s naturally nice,” CJ said.

“You’re about as naturally nice as Sam is naturally a real manly man,” Toby said.

“Hey!” Sam and Josh responded in unison.

“Shut up, Tea Boy.”

They could hear struggling on the other side of the door.

“Donna, you all right in there?” Josh said into the wood of the door.

“Yes,” Donna responded, but the struggling sounds continued.

“Are you sure you don’t need help changing?” Josh asked the door again.

“No,” Donna said.

Josh turned around to see three sets of wide eyes staring at him and three mouths agape.

“What? I was...I meant you, CJ, God!”

“Oh for God’s sake, the two of you are a PR nightmare waiting to happen,” CJ moaned.

“CJ, I can’t get this thing over my head!” Donna whined.

“Coming,” CJ called. She shoved Josh in the general direction of Sam and Toby. “Go away,” she ordered, before opening the bedroom door and slipping inside.

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

“Let me tell you why I can never be seen in public with either of you again,” Toby explained as the three of them headed back to the living room. “Between girly teas, and picking out dining tables that work with a certain space, and the fact that you apparently keep smelly soaps and shampoos on hand, I’m afraid the two of you are just a half-step off from being WOMEN.”

“There’s nothing girly about tea,” Sam insisted for the millionth time as he crumpled into the leather club chair.

“And those smelly soaps were Donna’s,” Josh argued as he flopped onto the sofa.

“This is half the problem. Smelly soaps are for girls. Neither of you ever have girlfriends, so you shouldn’t have smelly soaps in your apartments. Men don’t give a damn whether a dining room table works with a space, I mean, I don’t even know what the hell that means! We want somewhere to sit when we eat the food that we hunted and killed. Any table will do, but we don’t even need that. The floor, the kitchen sink, whatever. We’re not particular. And tea is for old women, and...I don’t know, and the British, it’s late and I’ve had several cups of coffee in the last 20 minutes,” Toby finished and let out a long, frustrated breath.

“There are times that I don’t understand how Andi can keep from throwing herself at you,” Sam said.

“Well with that kind of charm, what woman could resist?” Josh looked at Sam with his best straight face.

“He is, after all, the Master of All Manly Things, you know,” Sam shot back.

“So I hear,” Josh couldn’t help but grin.

The bedroom door opened and Donna and CJ emerged. Donna was wearing an oversized sweatshirt and gray knit pajama pants, with thick, warm socks. She looked much better than she had when the group had first seen her at the hospital, but the shoulder bandage was clearly visible with the large neck of the sweatshirt. She had pulled the shirt to the left side a little, because her shoulder had been too tender to let the shirt lie on the wound.

“Where is the stuff from the hospital?” CJ asked.

“Kitchen counter,” Sam said. CJ nodded and went in that direction.

Josh was staring at Donna. “Is that my Harvard sweatshirt?”

Donna’s eyes grew wide and she looked down at what she was wearing like she was remembering for the first time. She looked back up with a perfectly innocent expression.

“No.”

“It is! That’s my Harvard sweatshirt!”

“No, this is my Harvard sweatshirt.”

“Donna, that is my favorite sweatshirt. I’ve been missing that sweatshirt!”

“Well, you must be missing one like it Joshua, because this is my Harvard sweatshirt. I’ve had this shirt for years.”

“I’ve been missing that shirt for years!”

“One like it, maybe.”

“Where’d you get it?”

“Hmm?” She was stalling now.

Josh’s face spread into a knowing grin. “Where’d you get YOUR Harvard sweatshirt?”

Beat. “Harvard.”

Damn. “And it’s too big for you.”

“I like it big.”

“You STOLE my Harvard sweatshirt.”

“No.”

“Out of my very home.”

“No.”

“Take this,” CJ came back with a pill and a glass of water. Donna didn’t even question what it was, just downed it and handed the water back to CJ.

“Saved by the bell,” Josh admonished.

“I’m going to bed now,” she said. The guys stood up and donned their coats, as did CJ.

“Go,” CJ said. “Josh will check on you before he hits the couch.” She hugged Donna lightly around the waist.

“Thanks for coming tonight, all of you,” Donna said.

“You would’ve come for us, wouldn’t you?” Sam said as he leaned down to kiss her on the cheek. “Get some sleep. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

Donna and Toby found themselves staring awkwardly at each other for a moment. Finally, Toby leaned forward quickly and planted a light kiss on Donna’s cheek. “Good night, Donna,” he said, and headed for the door.

Donna looked over at Josh and raised her eyebrows silently. Josh just shook his head in amazement before waving her back toward the bedroom. He walked the group to the door.

“We got her back,” Sam said quietly, standing in the open door frame. Josh nodded. Sam hugged him briefly, slapping him on the back. “We’ll worry about the rest of it in the morning,” he said.

“I think I’m gonna worry about the rest of it tonight,” Josh admitted.

“Don’t,” Sam said. “Won’t change anything. We’ll all be strong for her, remember?” And with a tired grin he stepped out into the hall.

Toby simply clapped Josh on the shoulder and stepped into the hall without a word.

“Do you have a nightlight? She might want one,” CJ said.

“Yes, mom.”

“You’ll call me if she needs anything that it would be completely and utterly inappropriate for you to provide?”

“Yes, CJ.”

“The stuff from the hospital is on the counter, including the sling, if she wants it. Don’t mess too much with the paperwork; I organized it so it makes sense.”

“Thank you, Claudia Jean,” Josh said softly, then kissed her on the cheek.

“There’s a lot of that going around tonight,” CJ said as she threw the ends of her scarf over her shoulder and cast a sidelong glance at Toby. “We’ll talk to you tomorrow,” she said, stepping out into the hallway.

“Good night,” Josh said, and closed the door as his friends turned to go.

He locked up and picked up Donna’s water on the way back to the bedroom. Donna was already under the covers in the middle of the bed, looking unusually small.

“What the hell is with this comforter?” she asked.

Josh stopped short. “What? I liked it.”

“Too much going on,” she said, scrunching up her nose. “Stripes and circles and...swirly things,” she said with a yawn. “It’s so busy I don’t know how I’ll ever get to sleep.”

“Somehow I think the Vicodin will help with that,” Josh said as he set the water on the nightstand. He sat down on her left side, and reached across her to turn off the lamp.

“Leave it on,” she said.

“I have a nightlight—” he started.

“Which I got for you,” she said, her eyelids drooping. “Leave it on.”

“’Kay,” he said and dropped his left hand to pick up her right, which was lying by her side. “You need anything?”

“Nuh-uh,” she said, yawning again. “Thank you, Joshua.”

“Stop saying that,” he whispered as he leaned forward and kissed her cheek once again. “Good night.”

He stood up, a little regretfully, but she kept hold of his hand. He looked at her wordlessly for a moment as her eyelids continued to droop. She turned onto her right, uninjured shoulder, away from him, but tugged on his hand as she did.

With a silent sigh and a fleeting thought as to how dead CJ would kill him if she found out, he climbed in behind Donna. She pulled him closer to her by tugging his arm around her, and he scooted as close as he could without hurting her shoulder.

They were silent for a moment, and then he felt her breath hitch.

“Donna?” he said softly. “Would it...do...you want to talk about it?”

Donna shook her head no, throat too strained with emotion to answer.

“Okay,” he said. “Then go to sleep.”

“Stay,” she whispered drowsily after a few moments.

He leaned up and kissed her lightly on the temple. “I will. Go to sleep,” he whispered.

It was another minute or two before her breath evened out, and Josh finally allowed himself to close his eyes.