Poor thing, he thought sadly.  She had to be in terrible pain from the gunshot and winced as he recalled Dr. Roberts having said the bullet had lodged itself just above her pectoral muscle.  That had to hurt like all bloody hell.  The diva had been through an awful lot - too much, and he knew they had administered painkillers to her as well.

"Mr. Copeland?"  He looked up at the sound of the nurse's soft voice.  When she realized that Amy was sound asleep, she lowered her voice another couple of notches.  "I'm sorry to disturb you, but visiting hours are over for the night."

The tall blond man lifted his left arm to check the time on his watch, yawned and stood up.  He gazed longingly one last time at Amy, reluctant to leave her.  Lowering his lips to her forehead, he placed a tender kiss there before turning and following the nurse out of the room.

As Adam made his way back to the waiting room and his friends, a surge of anger welled up inside of him.  He actually wished Paul Levesque were right there at that very moment - even in the hospital.  He knew he would smash the guy's face in.  The bastard... His angel could have died!

"Adam..."  Jay called to him softly, and to the taller man, his best friend sounded strangely far, far away.  He saw Jay stand up and go directly to him.  "You were in there an awful long time..."

Adam suddenly realized that Torrie Wilson was also right in front of him.  As she stared with worry up into his face, her blue eyes still red-rimmed from all the crying she'd done, she spoke to him, sounding far away as well.

"How is she?"

And then, suddenly, Stephanie and Shane approached.  From what he could faintly hear the elder McMahon saying, the two of them had gone outside to make a crucial phone call.  Shane's voice, like Jay's and Torrie's, also sounded very distant, and Adam suddenly knew what tunnel hearing felt like.

It seemed as though everyone was speaking at once, bombarding him with their strangely far-off speech.  It went on a couple of minutes, until Adam felt as though he couldn't take it anymore.  For the first time in his life, he found himself actually wishing he were deaf.  He clamped both hands against his ears in a feeble attempt to drown out all the strangely distant, distorted voices of the people who were his friends.

"Shut up!  Everyone just shut up!" the blond Canadian shouted, and each of them seemed to flinch and stare up at him with shock.  Nearby, the same nurse who had come to Amy's room to let him know visiting hours were over, stared his way.

"Please..." Adam said, lowering his voice.  "Everyone, just..."  He sighed, shaking his head.  "I need to get out of here."  Then, to the shock of the remaining six of the group, he turned and walked briskly down the hall.

He didn't come back.

*

They all looked at one another, each of them surprised, even shocked, in their own individual way.  Adam had just stormed out of the hospital, and they'd all stood or sat there, unsure as to what to do.

Finally, Torrie was the one to break the silence between the six of them.  "Shouldn't we do something?  Shouldn't we at least go after him?"  She swung her blue eyes to Shane first, then to Stephanie, Jay, Kurt, and finally, Nora.

"No...I think we should all just leave him alone for now," Jay said.  "He's just trying to deal with what happened to Amy."

"But she's going to be all right, Jay," Nora said from his left side.

"I know that, sweetie...and Adam knows that, too," he added as he shifted his gaze back to Torrie briefly as he addressed both blondes.  "But it's a lot to swallow."

Kurt nodded.  "Oh, it's true," he stated, not meaning to make light of the situation in using his in-ring persona's catchphrase.  "Let's just all leave him be for the time being.  He'll be all right."

Stephanie blinked as she listened to all of this in silence.  Her heart nearly sank as she thought about her former boyfriend - and how emotionally torn up he must be feeling right about now.