Page 21 of Beauty and the Nerd

“Bathroom door was still locked. We’re in and we have the girl. She’s unconscious, has a contusion to her head, but she’s breathing normally. Found her phone as well, looks like it fell in the toilet when she went down,” the man stated, and Ben sagged a bit as relief flooded him.

“Get her out and then we’ll go in,” Jeffery said turning towards Ben with a nod before going to speak with her parents who were on the line and frantic.

Ben saw the fireman hand Emma out to another on the ladder, and he hurried over as a paramedic waited with a stretcher for them to get her down.

He wasn’t about to let anyone stop him from seeing her and took her hand into his as the paramedic slid an oxygen mask onto her face.

She looked tiny as she laid on the stretcher, a mark on her head that was growing darker, and he sent up a prayer that she’d be okay.

Jeffery turned to find Ben, let Emma’s parents speak to him but he stopped seeing him already beside her. He moved over towards Simon and relayed the Watkins’ question to him. Simon nodded, assuring him that his son wasn’t about to leave Emma’s side now and he stood back to see what happened.

“Ben is currently sitting with Emma as the paramedic checks on her, they just gave me a thumbs-up, which is a good sign,” Jeffery told Jack Watkins before adding, “Ben’s father drove him over after he received a text from Emma about the alarm.

He said Ben wasn’t likely to go anywhere before you got home Mr. Watkins. ”

“Thank you, we’ll be there as soon as we can,” Jack said before hanging up to get to the airport to find a flight home.

Jeffery watched the paramedic moving the stretcher towards the ambulance and headed to reach them as his men entered the house. He stopped next to Ben and put his hand on his shoulder. “Her parents are headed to the airport now; they wanted to know if you’d stay with Emma.”

“I wouldn’t go anywhere else right now,” he stated, looking over at his dad.

“Didn’t think you would,” he said before they heard a shout from the doorway.

“Let’s get her to the hospital,” Jeffery said as the second group of paramedics moved over to get the officer being brought out of the house.

“I’ll follow behind in the car,” Simon said, and Ben nodded before turning towards Jeffery with a request.

“If at all possible, can someone see if they can find the Anne of Green Gables, The Sequel dvd? We were going to watch it in the morning, and I don’t want whatever happened tonight to stop that,” he said, and he saw the surprise on all of the faces that’d overheard.

He didn’t give a damn what it looked like to any of them, he was watching the movie with Emma because she was going to be perfectly fine. She had to be.

“I’ll see what we can do,” Jeffery agreed letting him slip into the ambulance holding Emma’s hand in his as he brushed the hair from her face.

They were nearly to the hospital when she began to finally rouse, and he squeezed her hand tightly seeing the panic in her eyes. He shook his head when she reached up to take off the oxygen mask and leaned over kissing her forehead.

“Take it easy baby, just leave it on,” he said gently as the paramedic checked on her.

He hated being apart from her and moved into the bay once the doctor left to speak with the officer who’d accompanied them to the hospital.

He saw the line for oxygen she still had on and took her hands into his, kissing them as her eyes opened to meet his.

“You scared the hell out of me, baby. I was so worried when you didn’t respond, didn’t get my messages. I thought I’d lost you.”

“I remember waiting for you to text me, talking to the dispatcher at the police department,” Emma said keeping hold of his hand as he brushed the hair from her face, pressing a kiss to the bruising on her temple. “I put the flashlight up in the window but after that…”

“They found the flashlight on the floor, your phone fell in the toilet they think when you passed out, hit your head on the edge of it or the sink,” Ben said gently.

“Whoever broke in used some sort of gas through the heating system to make you and the police who’d come in to check the house over pass out. ”

“Who was it?” she asked, and he shook his head unsure.

He didn’t leave her side as they came in to take her upstairs for observation for the rest of the night and he slipped onto the bed, holding her as they waited for news from the police. It was nearly seven before Jeffery came into the room, handing over the dvd as Emma napped on his shoulder.

“The officers are fine, it was a basic formula homemade knock-out gas,” Jeffery said taking a seat on a stool. “I’ve spoken with her parents again. They should be here later this morning, about noon as long as the flight isn’t delayed.”

“Do you know who it was, why they went after Emma?” he asked, seeing the same security guard standing outside in the hallway as from earlier that morning.

“Emma’s father is in pharmaceuticals,” Jeffery said, and he nodded knowing that quite well.

It was why he was out of town so often and why Emma’s date nights with him meant so much to her.

“It seems that he recently took over a large portion of another representative’s coverage area as the company downsized, laying off some people in the process.

The person that broke into the house was the man whose area he was given.

He knew the most precious thing to Jack Watkins was his daughter and wanted to hurt him by hurting Emma.

He just didn’t realize that the locks in the house were far more solid than anticipated.

He was trying to take the door to her bedroom off the hinges when our officers caught him. ”

“So Emma’s safe?” he asked, and Jeffery nodded allowing Ben to relax the tiniest bit.

Jeffery left them alone certain he’d tell her what happened when she woke while he waited for her parents to arrive.

He ushered them from the airport and to the hospital, seeing the expression on Jack Watkins’ face when he reached his daughter.

The mixture of pain and anger told him they needed to make sure the man didn’t get let out any time soon or he’d be finding Jack Watkins in his precinct for murder.

“Emma, I’m so sorry, angel,” Jack said hugging her tightly as Ben paused the movie.

“I’m fine Dad, really,” Emma said letting her parents’ hugs go on far longer than normal. “Ben was able to help them get to me quickly; the doctor said I have a mild concussion but that’s it. Really, nothing lasting happened other than my phone likely getting ruined.”

“A phone is completely replaceable Emmy, you’re not,” Ben said shaking his head at her.

“Neither are you,” Jack said giving him a hug that made her smile.

“I know there’s no other man alive but me that would have been able to get her out of there safely, cared so much about doing it, or sat through the torture that is that movie up there,” he added pointing to the screen.

“You’re welcome at the house any time and I certainly hope you don’t go anywhere too far from her in the future. ”

“How about roughly seven miles down the road from me at college?” Emma said with a grin as Ben kissed her hand.

“What colleges are roughly seven miles apart?” Nicole questioned glancing between them.

“Columbia University and NYU,” she answered watching their eyes widen in surprise. “I got my acceptance for their second early decision group yesterday.”

“And I got mine to Columbia in December,” Ben added. “I don’t think I’d be able to be any farther away from her than that, especially now.”

“You got into NYU?” her dad said, and she nodded.

“The letter is at home on my desk, or at least it was,” she said not knowing what was moved in the upset last night.

“Congratulations angel, I knew you could do it,” her dad said giving her another hug.

“We’re so immensely proud of you Emma, and so glad you’re alright. That you had Ben to keep you safe,” her mom said sliding her hand on top of her and Ben’s joint ones, surrounding her with their love letting her relax despite being in the dumb hospital yet again.