Harrison looked around the room, his movements restricted by the brace on his neck. It wasn't a pretty sight to wake up covered in casts and gauze with a needle poking a hole through his arm. At least his mother was by his side, face down on the bed beside him. She looked tormented even as she laid on the palms of her hand, her face to him with a finger touching his injured arm. His breathing was deep and slow, but each time he inhaled, the plastic end of the tubes in his nose scratched at his nostril, making him all the more agitated.

He didn't need a doctor to inform him that he had broken more than just a few bones because breathing made his ribs and spine ache; it was a wonder he was in so much pain. All of his right hand was swallowed up in a cast, with only his fingers getting a little bit of wiggle space. It didn't feel broken though, it felt destroyed. All he could remember was landing hard on the floor and hearing the bone snap as he did. The sides of his face felt swollen. There was nothing around for him to check his face.

No sound left his mouth but everything around him flooded into his consciousness. He didn't remember much of anything after the accident, just that Cassandra had been freezing cold when she tried to keep him warm. There had been blood. He could still smell it in the air, his blood soaking into him while Josephine just rode away. God, Cassandra must have been so terrified, and he still didn't remember if he had been any help to her at all. What if she was hurt as well, Harrison wondered to himself, his eyes falling back to his mother.

Trying his best to draw his mother's attention, he reached forward and wiggled his free finger against her own, his teeth clenched at the action that made his shoulders burn. It took a while, but it paid off in the end when his mother moved her fingers and turned her head up to look at him. Her eyes remained with his for such a long time that he was beginning to wonder if she fell asleep with her eyes open.

After her brain communicated with the rest of her body, she jerked up, throwing herself gently against him, making sure to lean only on the uninjured side of his body. Her laughter shook him a bit, but he laughed the ache away in his mind as he welcomed her touch. She was crying; he could feel her tears as they dropped on his neck. The small bandage of his left arm allowed him to raise it high enough to wrap his fingers around her elbow.

"My baby." She chuckled, wiped the tears from her eyes and palmed his face, lowering her head to rest against his. Her fingers busied themselves in his hair as she continued to smile at him, singing to him softly. She hadn't done that for a long time, he realised how much he missed it. He wanted to tell her so, but somehow, he still couldn't make out the words to do that. The next best idea was to tap against her arms to get her attention.

When she traced what he was pointing at, she kissed his head and sighed. "Your skull took a pretty good hit, and I have no idea, but somehow your jaw had to get some reconstruction. It's still healing. The injuries were so much the doctors didn't know if you would make it."

It surely felt like he wouldn't make it. His eyes made a desperate attempt to stay open while he consciously fought not to go back to sleep. His jaw felt disgustingly horrible if anything could be used to describe the throbbing on every area of his body. Nothing in his life had ever made him feel more helpless than in that moment when all that seemed to move on his were his fingers and eyes. He couldn't say a thing, couldn't tell his mother how much he wished she would stop crying.

Without more words said, she leaned forward to kiss his head, and his weakness took over; his eyelids began to fall over his eyes. He felt her breath across his cheeks when she whispered something to him that he couldn't pick.

He must have dozed off after that because when he woke up, his mother was at the far corner of the room, and a penlight flashed into his eyes. Still, even if he was irritated by the poking and prodding that woke him, what could he really do? He could only move one arm and not with the same energy and force that he wanted. He was sure if he pushed it, he would snap whatever bone was being held in place.

If his jaw was not being held together by whatever machine they placed in him, he was sure he could have deeply insulted the life out of the man. The door opened, and he looked out the side of his eye to see Cassandra strut in, giving his mother a quick hug. A smile stretched at his lips, but the ache made him stop halfway still he tried to call her.

She was alright. Josephine hadn't harmed her at all.

She must have seen him staring because she broke into a smile and moved forward to hold on to his hand, then subsequently pushed the doctor aside.

"Hey." Her voice was distant, but he leaned towards it anyway. Just seeing her was enough for him. "Don't try to talk, okay? All that matters right now is that you are awake. You are fine."

He smiled then, ignoring the pain, and she leaned forward and gently kissed him. He could only lay still when he would have loved to hug her and thank God for her life, but she didn't seem to care. Her lips moved over his face, then returned to settle on his lips before she laughed and leaned back to look at him.

"I love you."

His chest shook as he laughed, and he managed a nod. Maybe, she would realise that he was agreeing with her. She smiled at him and turned back to speak to the doctor, but he couldn't catch all that she said. When she looked back at him, he heard her ask him to cooperate with the doctor so they could make sure he was alright.

It took longer than he could handle, listening to the doctor speak about things he didn't want to understand. Although they thought he had gone back to sleep, he could hear them as they whispered questions between themselves from the other side of the room.

From the little he could make out of their conversations, Harrison knew that he would be struggling with complications from the accident for a while. At least he was sure that he wasn't paralysed. He had wiggled his toes about six times just to make sure. He was going to walk, but his breathing would be wrecked for a while. The doctor had mentioned some damage had been done to his lungs and rubs, it wasn't life-threatening, but it was consequential. It turned out that his twisty vision was going to be phenomenal for only a week or less. Even more, he was now a man without a spleen. The thing was useless to him.

He turned his head a little to the right then spotted the blue-black uniform of the police officer stationed at his door. His brows wrinkled as he thought about the million reasons police officers would be outside his room. Just then, his mind finally clicked on the point that Josephine wasn't in prison or somewhere locked up to suffer. She was still out there, and she planned on coming back at some point. He groaned inwardly; all he wanted was for it to be over.

"Harrison? Are you awake?"

He couldn't speak because his jaw was shut, so he opted for shaking his head as slowly as the brace around his neck would allow him, then he turned back to his mother.

"Look, you are awake now, and by next week or so, all these things would be of you. With speedy recovery, and therapy you will be back home, resting in your own bed and in your own room. After that, you will get back to work, and you will never do something as dumb as that again. blink if you understand."

He believed her statement deserved a laugh, but he could do the former, so he stuck with the latter. She smiled at him then walked the doctor out of the room, with Cassandra staying behind to speak to him. The fact that he couldn't reply or input stung, but he was alive, so what he got, he accepted with joy.

"Sorry about all the fuss around here when you woke up. It's just that you have been in a coma for a while, and it was just a few days after your latest surgery that you began to show signs of recuperation. A lot has happened while you took a little nap, so if you want me to make your ears bleed with all the news, then blink for me, and I'll get started."

He blinked. Cassandra beamed and stretched beside him, lifting her legs up on the bed, she made sure there was enough space between her body and his.

"Well, it turns out that Harrison didn't come here to win me back but because Josephine paid off his debt and blackmailed him to. When she finally decided that she couldn't wait for him to do such a small job, she decided that killing me herself would make things faster. I am so sorry about that part, though; the whole car thing was my fault."

It really wasn't. He thought, but he could only manage a moan and a shake of his head.

"Your mom really stepped up with everything concerning your office. The woman wasn't playing around, if you saw her, you would have shone with pride."

She reached forward with her right hand and lifted something off his chest. His confusion lasted a second before he took in the shape of the medallion. He didn't remember having it on him when the car hit. Cassandra must have picked it up from his house.

"I don't know if you remember, but you kind of asked if we would have gotten married at some point." Harrison's brows raised in surprise, and she nodded, mirroring his wide-eyed stare with her own. "Mmhm. You were out of it, and I told you so. You said your mom thought you would make a handsome groom, but I wasn't too certain that I wouldn't drive you crazy."

He smiled, his words coming out as groans as he laughed at how silly the entire thing sounded. Cassandra kissed, him muttering against his lips. "I am going to hold you to that. If you still think you can survive me after you leave the hospital, then be prepared to put up with me for a while."

"Mmhmm."

"And as for Josephine," her voice grew sombre. "I am going to make sure she doesn't escape. Do you hear me? She is going to pay for everything. I need you to trust me on that."

He did trust her, but he didn't want her killing herself to bring Josephine down. He brushed his fingers against hers and forced another smile through the smashing pain in his jaw. With a hasty smile of her own, she crawled up the bed to kiss him then hopped off.

"There is more to tell, so you stay right here and rest, and I am going to happily grab a milky cup of coffee to bump up all my excitement. I love you."

He nodded weakly then closed his eyes just as the door shut behind her. He was awake by the grace of God, his mother was happy, and his soon to be fiancée was elated. Harrison couldn't remember saying anything about marriage, but he was glad he didn't scare her off with his adrenaline-fueled reminiscing.

The door slid open and shut, but he didn't open his eyes, he kept them closed, waiting for Cassandra to sit beside him, but nothing happened for a long while. Then, before he opened his eyes, a palm rested on his cheek just before another soft kiss touched his lips. His eyes jumped open and clashed with Josephine's wet eyes. Before she could notice what he was doing, he began to squeeze the panic button underneath his fingers, moaning when he tried to call out for help. His heartbeat was racing on the monitor and in his chest.

She said nothing, just gave him a smile and began to walk around the bed in her nurse costume till she got to the drip attached to his arm. She drew out an injection filled with a liquid into the drip, with a snarky smile on her face.

"Don't worry." She whispered, coming to him again and kissing him. "If we can't live together. Then we'll die."

And his heart kicked into overdrive.