Chapter Seven Joey paced up and down the corridor of the hospital as he waited on news on how the surgery went. They had been in the operating room for almost an hour and a half and he was starting to worry, even though the doctor had told him it would take a while to do the procedure. He looked up at the clock on the wall before glancing down at his watch to make sure the times were correct.

He walked to the pay phone, punching in his calling card number and dialing JC's number after that. He knew it was later over in the States, but he needed to hear someone's voice. "This is Melissa."

"Liss..can I talk to one of the guys?" he asked as he leaned up against the wall, his eyes staying glued on the clock in front of him.

"Hang on and I'll get Justin..I think JC is outside playing with Katherine right now," she said as she shuffled around in the background. It wasn't long before Justin's voice came through the receiver. "This is Justin."

"J..is Katherine OK?" Joey asked, not knowing anything else to say. He didn't want to admit to the younger man that he was only calling because he was scared to death at that very moment.

"She hasn't changed since you called about two hours earlier and asked," Justin said, understanding completely that Joey was probably a nervous wreck at the hospital by himself. "Have you heard anything?"

"No one will let me know anything. I think the nurses here are getting mad at me or don't understand English cause they just raise their eyebrows up every time that I look at them."

"Just take a deep breath and calm down."

"I'm trying, Justin..its just hard to think about being calm when she's in there right now..there are so many things that could go wrong.." he started but was cut off when Lance's deep voice filled his ear.

"You need to pull yourself together and start thinking positive. After all, isn't that what you're always telling Samara to do?"

Joey blushed slightly from being called out by his friend. "I know, Lance.. I'm just freaking out right now."

"I would have never guessed that. I have someone here that wants to tell you something."

"OK," Joey said, smiling when he knew that Katherine's soft voice would be the next that he heard. "Hi sweetie."

"Daddy..I love you," she said before making a kissing noise into the phone, causing him to chuckle and return the sound.

"I love you too sweetheart. I'm going to go..tell Uncle Jace that I'll call later on."

"Bye bye, Daddy," she said before the line went dead in his ear. He hung the phone up before walking towards the waiting area and sitting down in the chairs. His fingers drummed on the wooden frame that supported the chair as he settled his gaze on the TV, which he couldn't understand. After another ten minutes of listening to the people on the screen talk in the foreign language, someone tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around to see the doctor standing behind him, still in his scrubs.

"How did everything go?" Joey asked as he jumped up out of the chair and walked behind it to stand in front of the doctor.

"She made it through OK..we think it was a success but we won't know for another two weeks. I'm going to need the two of you to stay in Paris that way we can monitor her progress."

"That's fine," he said, mentally starting to make plans of getting the guys to come over and bring Katherine along. "Can I see her?"

"She's in recovery right now," the doctor said as he took off his glasses. "In about another hour you'll be able to see her..she should be fully awake by then."

"Thank you so much, Dr. Jacques," Joey said before shaking his hand and watching in relief as the doctor walked down the corridor. Some of his stress was relieved knowing that Samara had made it through the operation without any complications, but he knew that she still wasn't out of harm's way.

*A Week Later*

"Katherine Dawn! Get off of there!" Joey yelled running towards his daughter, who was stacked on an unstable suitcase that was next to a table. He picked her up before handing her to JC and pointing towards the door. "Get her out of this room..she's driving me crazy and Sam needs to rest."

"Fine," JC said, grabbing the hotel key to the suit they were all staying in and walking out the door, putting Katherine down once the two of them were out in the hall. All of the guys had flown over to be with Joey during this waiting period, knowing that he needed them around to emotionally lean on.

JC had slowly began to get absorbed in his thoughts, taking his attention away from Katherine who was skipping down the concrete sidewalk. 'I wonder how things will be once we go back to the US?' he silently thought, wondering if Joey and Samara would be able to go back to being normal. His head jerked up suddenly when the sound of Katherine crying alerted him out of his thoughts. "Aww sweetie, are you OK?"

Katherine looked up at him from her place on the sidewalk as she sniffled, trying to hold back her tears. "It hurts."

He sat down beside her and began examining her knees, which were scraped up and slightly bleeding. He stood up and picked her up with him, holding her so that her head rested on his shoulder, not caring that her tears were soaking into his new shirt. "We're gonna get you back to the hotel so you can get all cleaned up and fixed."

He knew that it was an accident, but he still felt horrible for not trying to protect her. He stroked her hair as they walked into the suit, the sniffling girl immediately catching the attention of everyone who was present.

"What happened?" Joey cried as he ran over and took his daughter out of JC's arms.

"She was skipping down the sidewalk and fell," JC said as he wet a paper towel and brought it over, wiping away the little amount of blood that had begun to dry. "You feeling better, sweetie?"

"Kiss it," she said as she pouted and looked around at all the guys who were gathered around her. They each chuckled before quickly pressing their lips to each knee, causing her to smile up at them. "All better."

Joey kissed her forehead before carrying her into his bedroom and laying her down on the bed. "You get some sleep baby. I'm going to go check on your mommy."

"OK," she said, her tired eyes all ready beginning to slowly close before he had even made it out the door. He walked into the room next to where Katherine was and sat down on the edge of the bed, his hand reaching up to brush back the brown hair that had fallen over Samara's face. "Are you OK, baby?"

"I'm fine, Joe..why was Katherine crying?" Samara asked, trying to sit up but knew her body was too weak to be moving around that much.

"She just had an accident..she's asleep right now and all better," Joey said, reciting the words that Katherine had told all the guys. "We're going to go get some food..I'll bring you back something because you need to eat. I'm going to leave Katherine here because she's out cold right now and I think Lance said he's going to stay just in case you need something."

"He doesn't have to do that," she said stubbornly not liking it that people were having to cater to her every need. "I can take care of myself."

"Sweetie..don't take this the wrong way," he said bending over and kissing her softly on the lips. "But you can't even sit up right now..I don't think that comes close to being able to take care of yourself."

"Smart ass," she mumbled before winking at him as he walked out of the door, closing it behind him. She curled her knees up before wincing when a small amount of pain shot through her whole body from just a slight movement. She had known before she had went through with the operation that there would be side effects, but she hadn't imagined that the pain would be this great. Her whole body was weak and all she felt like doing was sleeping. But if this was the price she had to pay to get better, she was willing to pay it.

Chapter Eight