I said I would take a break, and obviously, I'm not, but more on that at the end.

Evan had been at Connor's side whenever he could. He mostly just sat there, giving Jared occasional updates. Jared didn't care much about Connor, but if Connor stayed in this state for much longer, Evan would suffer. As much as he hated to admit it, Jared didn't exactly have other friends.

After school Evan went to the hospital, often times staying overnight. It went on for three days. Then a week. By the time two weeks had passed and nothing had changed, there was discussion of death. Cynthia visited too, as well as Zoe.

It wasn't until Connor had been unconscious for two weeks and three days that Larry stopped by. Evan walked into the hospital room, and there he was, sitting by Connor's side like nothing had happened.

"Oh, Evan." Evan stayed in the doorway, mumbling a hello. "I should be leaving now anyway." Larry stood up and Evan found his courage.

"Don't you feel bad?" Evan watched the older man stop in his tracks. "This is all... this never would have happened if you were a good dad."

"Well none of this is my fault, Connor is the one who overdosed."

"They haven't even told you?" Evan walked across the room, picking up a paper from Connor's bedside table. "Just... read it."

"I feel guilty enough, I won't let you humiliate me." Larry turned to leave.

"You've already done that yourself," Evan said quietly.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Evan stayed quiet as Larry's tone increased in threat level. "I thought so."

***

Now, two days later. Evan, Cynthia, and Zoe were all there, holding out hope, sort of just staring at anything and everything they could, never gazing at Connor for more than a few seconds. It was unsettling. Evan remembered the days when he would have been thrilled to have Zoe Murphy sitting next to him. Now it was just an everyday occurrence.

Evan forced himself to look at Connor. His beautiful eyes were darting back and forth between people, and he looked....Wait.

His eyes.

They were open.

He was awake.

"Connor," Evan breathed. Zoe and Cynthia turned to look at Evan's face, pure shock and joy. They looked at Connor and all three started to talk at once.

***

Connor had a headache. He was in a bright room. The memories came flooding back. His dad. Passing out in the orchard. There were people around him, he heard them breathing.

Connor forced himself to open his eyes. The room had a lot of drab, white, furniture. On his left side was Zoe and Evan, and to the right was his mother. None of them was looking directly at him. Zoe was on her phone, his mother stared at the door, probably lost in thought, and Evan had his eyes closed.

Connor looked between them. Of course his dad wasn't there, it would be stupid to expect. He wondered why his mother was with him though. He thought maybe they had finally gotten a divorce, but he had no time to ponder. He heard Evan say his name.

They had finally noticed he was awake. Connor was still sort of disoriented, but they all started talking over each other. "Ev," Connor said, barely able to get words out. He supposed not having water for... however long it had been would do that to a guy.

The three of them went quiet. "Connor," Evan said again. "Y-you... I'm sorry, are you... okay?" Connor opened his mouth to speak but said nothing. For one, he didn't really know if he was okay. Besides, he couldn't get any more words out in his state. With his family – or at least the people that he cared about – surrounding him, Connor felt, for the first time in a long time, safe.