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"Excuse me..."
Adam, Rob and Stephanie all looked up to see a female doctor standing over them. Eyeing the two men, she spoke.
"You are the two gentlemen who brought in Amy Dumas?"
"Yes," Adam replied as he unconsciously stood up. He met the woman's eyes gravely, holding his breath as he expected the worst. What if Amy had been raped, or needed a transfusion and had a rare blood type, or...
"I'm Dr. Wallace, one of the physicians who attended to her...She's resting now. However, she appears to have gone into shock."
"Oh, God," Stephanie breathed, one hand flying up to her mouth.
"Is she going to be all right?" Adam asked fearfully.
"Well, she's suffered quite a lot of trauma," Dr. Wallace said. "The injury on her back is quite ghastly. That's not a word I would normally use to describe it, but in my twelve years of emergency attending, I have never seen something quite so...unthinkable."
The tall blond man and Stephanie exchanged quick glances as Van Dam continued to eye the doctor.
"What...what do you mean?" Adam finally managed to ask.
The woman sighed sadly. "The attacker didn't quite stab your friend," she explained. "He scrawled his initials into the small of her back."
Stephanie let out an audible gasp as Adam gaped at the physician with horrified, widened green eyes.
"Oh, my God..."
"She required some stitches," the doctor continued. "Thirteen of them to be exact. The wounds should heal okay."
A few minutes later, the physician left the three standing together in the waiting room after letting them know which room Amy was in. She told them they were welcome to visit her any time.
Rob shook his head, his eyes serious.
"I...noticed something strange about the knife wounds in her back," he admitted. "But I didn't realize-"
Adam raked a hand through his hair as he was consumed by intense hatred for Paul Levesque. The bastard may not have raped Amy, but he had violated her horribly. He had basically claimed the redhead as his "property" by scrawling "PL" on her body. God... The horror of such an action was nearly too much for his sane mind to comprehend.
As the trio made their way to the injured diva's hospital room, the blond man tried to steel himself for what to expect.
Adam's heart lurched in his chest at the sight of the redhead. She was lying on her right side on the hospital bed, the sheets drawn loosely over her her hips, as though to deliberately avoid contact with the bruised flesh of her lower back. The area Levesque had so viciously cut was draped with bandages, and, thankfully, no traces of blood seemed to have seeped through the dressing.
Stephanie McMahon's big blue eyes began to fill with tears at the sight of the other woman's misery, and she reached a hand over to clutch Rob's. After a moment, she tentatively walked around to the other side of the bed, where she leaned over to come face-to-face with the redhead.
"A-Amy?"
The other diva raised her slightly hooded eyes, opening them wider when she saw the brunette. "Stephanie?"
"Hey," Stephanie said, forcing her tears not to fall for her friend's benefit. "How are you?"
"Hanging in there," Amy replied. "I...hurt a little."
"That's no surprise, considering what happened," the brunette said softly. "Umm...Rob and Adam are here with me to see you, too."
Upon her words, the two men came over from the other side, where the redhead could see them. Her hazel orbs raised, and she instantly met the warm green eyes of the taller of the two.
"Hi..." Adam managed to say softly. He knelt down by her bedside and reached over to gently grasp one of her hands as he eyed her tenderly. "...Ames," he began, swallowing hard for what he was about to ask her, "what happened back at the arena tonight?"
Her eyes met and locked with his for a beat, then she shifted her gaze away as she took a deep breath and spoke. "Paul attacked me...H-he's bitter over the fact that I ended it with him."
"What? You mean you and he-"
"We dated for awhile," the redhead explained. "And it was good for awhile, but...after his surgery..." She looked up to meet the tall blond man's concerned but now rapt gaze again. "...he just...changed. H-he became controlling - verbally and physically abusive..."
Stephanie nodded slowly, as she was in complete comprehension with the other woman and had felt exactly the same way about the man with whom she'd had such a long-running storyline. At her side, Rob Van Dam wrapped an arm around his girlfriend and ran his hand gently up and down her waist.
"I finally got tired of his abuse and got up the nerve to leave him," Amy continued. "But I...did a damn good job of hiding the bruises, and..." Her hazel eyes filled with unshed tears. "...I filed a restraining order against him, but that doesn't stop him. B-Besides, we w-work for the same company, so it's impossible that we won't run into each other."
Adam couldn't believe it. Amy had been with Paul Levesque? And it had obviously been a secret, as he nor any of the redhead's other friends - other than Stephanie, apparently - had known. He had always wondered why the redhead never seemed to date, why the two of them had never become closer - he'd wanted to get closer to her, but she never seemed to open herself to what he wanted. She'd been so good at hiding everything - not only her secret relationship, but the after-effects as well. His heart went out to the young woman. She had been a close friend for so long, and it actually hurt him that she had gone through stuff with Levesque and not asked him for help.
"Ames..." the Canadian finally said. "...I'm so sorry. I'm sorry you went through all of that, and I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you, and-"
"Don't be silly, Adam," the redhead interrupted as she pulled her hand out of his and reached over to touch his cheek, "you didn't know - how could you? This was my fault, all my fault...I kept everything from everyone."
Stephanie and Rob exchanged morose glances, and the brunette sniffled a bit as more tears sprang to her eyes. Her boyfriend tightened his grip around her waist.
"But I should have been a better friend - we all should have," the blond man protested. "We...I should have seen the warning signs. Amy, I promise you...I'm going to protect you. That bastard will never lay a hand on you again - not if I have anything to say about it..."