Jim had willingly curled himself up on top of Abby’s chest and fallen asleep, unable to resist the temptation she was giving him.  He almost felt like she was his mother, trying to take care of him, despite the fact that he was a little bit older than Abby was.  With his injuries, and the pain of what he’d told her earlier, it was easy for his willpower to weaken and accept the situation.  He wasn’t sure if it was right to let Abby do this for him, but he couldn’t stop.  He was tired and sore from the previous day and almost naturally just collapsed on her, falling right asleep. 

Abby, herself, wasn’t entirely sure why she had acted the way she had.  She knew that Jim was married, and also knew that this was getting quite close to him.  She hadn’t even considered the implications, in case someone had seen her or had been around when she was trying to show him the affection she was showing him, but she didn’t care, at that point.  All she knew was that she wanted to protect him, even if it meant protecting him from his wife. 

Abby felt a sense of purpose after she’d found out everything from Jim that she’d just been told.  The fact that Ruby was so prejudiced against Larges did shock her quite a bit, and there was a part of her that was saddened that people could do that, but she knew from experience that people were like that.  People like Ruby were the reason that Abby lost her original home, and why the three girls she’d spent time with on campus had died.  The Anti-Large whatever-they-were-called were the reason for all her sadness and all of her grief.  She felt an obligation to protect her new friend from that.

She had never fallen asleep as she was lying on the ground with Jim.  All of her effort and concentration was on him, and making sure he was as comfortable as possible.  She slowed her breathing down, so he couldn’t get pushed off from her chest rising and falling.  The longer she stared down at him, the more she wanted to protect him.  The voice of reason was in the back of her head, telling her it was wrong to want to protect him from what she wanted to protect him from, but she was too caught up in the moment. 

Several hours passed by, and all she did was watch him, and occasionally graze her fingertip along his body, trying to comfort him, but not wake him.  She pondered the events of the past couple days, how far things had gone.  Never, in her entire life at the university, had one person made such an impact on her.  Jim’s arrival was doing a lot, not only for her, but for the entire campus.  Things were getting very interesting and little to any of them know, that in the near future, things would become far more interesting for everyone.

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Back in the Infirmary, Sarah was getting herself wrapped up by her assistant.  As the last touches were being made on her stomach and her arm, she sat on the side of the bed and took deep breaths, trying to process what had just happened and what would have happened were her assistant not to have come along.  As the bandages were finished and secured on her, she took a good look at her assistant, whom had a worried look on her face. 

“Thank you, Melinda.  Thank you…for stopping her and patching me up.”  Melinda, the secretary of the Infirmary, let out a brief smile and patted Sarah on the shoulder, happy to be of service.  She soon sat down on the bed, next to Sarah and wrapped her arm around her.  “You know I’d do anything for you, Sarah.  I knew that woman was trouble from the moment she’d stammered in.  I’m just sorry I didn’t get here sooner.  She got you pretty good!  Had I not gotten here when I did, you might very well not be sitting on this bed, but lying on it instead.”

Sarah was comforted by Melinda’s presence and nodded to her, laughing under her breath for a moment.  She was absolutely right.  Ruby wasn’t holding anything back when she’d attacked her.  Had Melinda not arrives, she might be gravely injured at this point.  She wasn’t too big on Melinda’s touchy-feely way of returning her gratitude, but that’s something she’d gotten used to, over the years.  Poor Melinda had never been able to grasp a husband, so Sarah let her hug on her every so often, to help her out a little.  Sarah then looked over at Ruby, who was still unconscious, on the ground.

“You’re right, Melinda, and you have my thanks for that.  You’re a good friend and co-worker.  For now, though, I think we need to do something about her.  She’s unconscious now, but when she wakes up, she’s probably going to be furious.  We need to restrain her before she can cause any more harm to anyone else.  Go get a straight jacket from my office.  I’ll have her on the bed by then.”  Melinda briefly tilted her head, slightly confused at the extremity of Sarah’s request, but followed it, all the same.  She quickly got up from the bed and headed out the door.

Sarah let out a yawn and pushed her hair back, above her forward for a moment, before getting up to move the hostile Ruby King.  She knew that Melinda didn’t approve of her suggestion of using a straight jacket.  Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t either, but this person was a threat to the entire campus.  Until she could get be straight with her, she had to be kept in the hospital.  Who knows what she’d do or scream about were she to get out of the Infirmary and around the others around campus…