Jim had barely closed his eyes never mind slept he realised as he watched Tasha for any sign of life, any sign of anything. She was currently fighting off an infection that had caused her temperature to spike and her heart rate to become erratic which is what triggered all of the alarms and panic the previous day. Stan had warned him that if antibiotics were unsuccessful in treating the infection then they'd have to take her back to theatre to try and stem the spread.

Mike had just left after dropping off more clothes and food when Jim's message alert sounded with several messages enquiring after Tasha. His children, brother and sister-in-law had visited but there really wasn't anything that anyone could do to help Tasha or offer any comfort to Jim.

A nurse, Chloe, was caring for Tasha and seemed more concerned each time she checked on her and that is what she was doing while Jim watched on.

"I am going to call for the doctor," she told Jim. "Tasha's temperature is rising again."

Jim nodded and knew what that meant, that the infection wasn't under control and his beautiful and very sick girlfriend was going to be going back to theatre.

Within the hour he was watching Tasha being wheeled down a corridor and through heavy looking doors that led to the operating theatre leaving him to sit on a very uncomfortable chair in a hallway to wait.

The first hour seemed to drag, the second, even more so. The sight of the police appearing at the bottom of the corridor caused Jim to shake his head at their timing.
There was a younger officer with Masterson now and although he was introduced Jim didn't really register that information.

"Mr Maybury, I believe Miss Winters is back in theatre?"

"Yes," he replied glancing down at his watch. "We are just entering the third hour."

"Sir, I am really sorry to intrude at this time, but..."

"But?" queried Jim.

"But, this can't wait. I can confirm that Miss Winters' collision was not an accident."

"Go on," Jim said on a hard swallow of fear that every time he thought this thing couldn't get worse, it did.

"Our investigations have revealed that there was another car on the road. That car drove behind Miss Winters and appears to have forced your girlfriend off the road and through the barrier."

"Fuck!" cursed Jim.

"There's more...we have traced Miss Winters' movements and acquired some CCTV images that appear to show her car being tampered with when it was parked outside a convenience store."

"Tampered with?" asked Jim with nausea washing over him.

"Yes, tampered with. We have recently received the report on her car and the brakes were cut."

"Cut? Who, why? This makes no sense at all. Why would anyone hurt her?" Jim asked, pushing a hand through his unusually unkempt hair.

"Our investigation seems to suggest that the man we are looking for entered the country a few days before your girlfriend's accident..."

The sound of a phone ringing halted all conversation. Jim watched on as Masterson picked up his call and within seconds was walking down the corridor, presumably wanting some privacy. Jim's glance flitted between the theatre doors and the Sargent who was now returning with an expression that could only be described as grim.

"We have apprehended the other driver. He was attempting to leave the country but he was infiltrated near the airport. Mr Maybury, I don't know how to say this and I am hoping my colleague has somehow misunderstood this man's identity," Masterson said with a dark and sad expression on his face. "Are you familiar with a Samuel Bailey?"

Jim was beyond stunned, so much so that he fell back onto the seat behind him. Surely there must be a mistake if he was understanding things correctly, that the man suspected of being the driver of the other car, the one that ran Tasha off the road was her father.

"Mr Maybury?" Masterson said forcing Jim to refocus.

"Sorry, yes, he's Tasha's Dad.
The officer nodded sadly meaning that he was indeed saying that Tasha's Dad was behind this and that in turn meant Jim had taken his eye off that particular ball and missed this man still posing a danger to Tasha.

A young man coming out of theatre startled them all, especially when he made for Jim.

"I've been asked to update you. The infection was more advanced than we first thought. We're doing everything we can, but it might take a while...there was also some further internal bleeding which complicated things a little, but she's hanging in there."

With a final half-smile and pat to the shoulder the doctor left as quickly as he'd arrived.

"We will be questioning the suspect as soon as we're able to and we'll keep you informed," Masterson said flatly and then with a little softness entering his voice added, "I hope she pulls through the surgery."

Alone again Jim checked his phone hoping for some kind of distraction. He saw several missed calls from Katy Myers amongst others, but was in no mood to speak to anyone so slipped the phone back in his pocket and waited, again.

He was still sitting on the chair in the corridor, waiting for Tasha with his eyes shut and his head resting against the wall when he became aware of someone nearby. Opening his eyes slowly he was greeted by the site of Mickie carrying a cup of coffee in one hand and a leaflet on ovarian cancer in the other. She was also wearing a scarf on her head which seemed a little melodramatic, even for Mickie. She clearly noticed Jim's glance on her covered head.

"I thought I'd get used to it," she said with a tight smile. "How's Tasha?" she asked, but seemed strange, although if she had been told she had ovarian cancer and would need chemotherapy it was no wonder.

Jim was in no mood to talk so simply shrugged at her questioning of Tasha's wellbeing.

Unfortunately, Mickie had no problem talking and was doing enough for the two of them. Jim tuned much of it out but did pick up on references to 'whatever happens' and 'doctors only being able to do so much' which caused a deep scowl to mar Jim's face but then Mickie seemed to change tac, confusing him further.

"Jim, we have been through so much and I have my own battle ahead but I will always be here to support you," she told him and then taking his hand in hers continued. "You need to go home take a break from this. I'm worried about you so why don't you let me take you home, back to mine if you can't face yours, let me take care of you?"

Jim was staring wide eyed and disbelievingly at Mickie's persistence and audacity to intrude and that was really what her presence felt like to him now, an intrusion on his time with Tasha, whatever time they might have left, whether that was an hour, a day, a week, a month or another thirty or forty years and there really was no place for Mickie in any of those scenarios and he was going to leave her in no doubt about that.

"Mickie, this is over, us. We were friends, but I think that was through circumstance more than anything else. I should have cut you off when you and Bobby split and even without doing that I should never have allowed any more to happen between us, certainly not a casual sexual relationship that I knew meant considerably more to you than me and for that I apologise."

"No, it wasn't like that," Mickie protested tearfully.

"It was, for me. You were never more than a very casual friend with benefits. I love Tasha and I need her to be well and happy and you make her unhappy so we are done. I am sorry that you are sick, I really am Mickie, but I can't be the person to help you through that, no matter what happens with Tasha."

Before Mickie could offer any other comment Jim was getting to his feet and walking towards the theatre doors.

"You should go. Goodbye Mickie," Jim said with real finality as he turned his back on her to wait for news on Tasha.

Eventually, after what seemed like a lifetime Stan appeared through the double doors Jim still stood before.

"You know you don't have to shadow me quite so closely, don't you?" he smiled before giving Jim some news on Tasha. "She is one tough cookie and has come through relatively unscathed. The infection had spread and we needed to do quite a tidy up in there and some of the work we'd already done needed some reworking," he smiled and then turned more serious. "Tasha's body has been through a lot and the truth is that it is still in shock and struggling to fight everything which is why she has been sedated and will remain that way for a while, the same with the ventilator, plus her punctured lung that is finding it hard to re-inflate needs the help. We have removed her spleen which you can live without but obviously it's not something we'd do unless it was necessary."

"But she's ok, she'll come round and be ok?" Jim asked a little desperately.

"Like I say she's been through a lot. Let's get her through tonight and then tomorrow and then we'll have a better idea how she'd fairing, ok?"

Jim nodded and thought that if Tasha survived this he might never let her out of his sight again because he couldn't do this again, feel like this again.

"We're going to keep her in recovery for a little while and then we'll take her back to her room, ok?" Stan asked but no reply was necessary

Jim's phone began to vibrate almost constantly as Stan left him alone, again. Pulling his phone from his pocket he saw more calls from Katy but many more from Amanda and then a text from his former wife too.

<Call me, there's something you need to know, something Katy Myers knows>

Rather than text he called Amanda and found his call was answered on the first ring.

"Thank goodness you're picking up your messages. How's Tasha?" Amanda asked.

"Not good but hanging on in there, but I thought you had something I needed to know," he bristled.

"I do, but not over the phone. I have Katy with me, we're heading to you at the hospital right now," she began but was quickly cut off.

"Amanda," he snapped but she was unfazed.

"Jim, look, trust me, you need to hear this but not over the phone," she said and hung up leaving Jim a little startled and then he laughed, loudly because not only had Amanda just found her dominant side with him she had called him Jim, not Mr Maybury.

He immediately thought of Tasha and how funny she would find this new, forceful Amanda. Briefly he smiled as he thought that Amanda's behaviour was more Tasha like than anything else and wondered if she was also being moulded and influenced by the very sassy, smart and beautiful girl he intended to marry and then his smile became a frown as he realised that their plans to head to Vegas were unlikely to materialise.

Tasha was back in her room while Jim watched over her and absorbed the details of the last few hours. A nurse came in and offered him a pillow and blanket making him check the time that revealed it was three in the morning. He wondered why time went so slowly here. It felt like a lifetime had passed since they'd first arrived just a few days before. He remembered that first week when Tasha had flown to L.A. from New York, those days had flown by.

Taking Tasha's hand in his Jim wondered just how he was going to tell her everything that had happened when she finally woke up. He assumed she would know that she had been in some kind of accident when she came to in a hospital, but the rest was like the plot from a TV mini-series, not that he'd have commissioned the series because it seemed a little implausible and yet it was real, it was what had happened to Tasha. The police had been back to see him, after Amanda and Katy, the latter had been doing what she did best by digging around after meeting with Tasha a few days before. What she had dug up was Mickie's cancer diagnosis, or lack thereof, it had all been a big, fat lie, no cancer, no illness, no nothing and worse still no sign of Mickie, but at least the police were looking for her now. The police had come back asking for information about Mickie who Samuel Bailey had immediately incriminated when questioned. Mickie's investigator, Michael Rose had made contact with her parents but they had made it clear that they were more than happy to take money for pretty much anything and Mickie had then cut a deal for Tasha's Dad to travel to The States on forged documents to intervene with Jim and Tasha's wedding plans. Jim had told the police exactly what he knew in relationship to Mickie and Michael Rose, but without going into detail about Tasha's childhood and relationship with her parents. The police were now hunting for Mickie.

Jim squeezed Tasha's hand a little tighter as he questioned why he hadn't suspected some involvement in this from Mickie or at least been suspicious of her 'illness'. If he had he could have kept her onside, maybe even kept her close by until the police gathered evidence and now she would be behind bars along with Tasha's father. This whole mess was likely to break her heart when she found out about it, but he just hoped it didn't break her.

Over the next few days Jim seemed to settle into a routine of sorts. Mike arrived each morning, early, with clothes and food. He would quickly wash and change and then attempt to eat something whilst talking to Tasha until Bobby arrived. They spent about half an hour together and then he would head off to work leaving Jim to wait for Stan to arrive with an update, the most recent update being that Tasha was stable and her sedation was being reduced. By lunchtime there had usually been a couple of visitors, Jim's family, Sara, Amanda, Abby, Sandra, Juan, Philip, Lizzie, Pippa, Dan or Celia and Paul. Whoever came in the morning knew they'd had their turn for the day as Jim rotated visitors and then at the end of evening visiting he sent everyone away, settling down for the night shift when it was just the two of them. He even attempted lying next to Tasha a couple of times, just to be close, so that if she could sense his presence she wouldn't feel lonely or alone, but he worried that he was going to lie on something he shouldn't so those moments were fleeting.

Everyone had been kind and genuinely concerned for Tasha and Jim, although Paul was clearly holding Jim responsible for Tasha having almost died and in fairness Jim blamed himself so he could understand where the other man was coming from. Having said that the barbed digs were beginning to piss his off, but for now he was biting his tongue because he knew Tasha wouldn't want him to fight fire with fire where her grandfather was concerned.

The nurse was doing another round of checks on Tasha, possibly the last one of her shift and explained that with the reducing sedation schedule Stan had suggested Tasha was now at zero sedation which presumably meant she could wake up at any time. Even after the nurse had left and a new one had come onto shift Jim found himself staring at Tasha, more so than usual, hoping and praying to see some sign of consciousness.

The police arrived just before lunchtime, still with no news of Mickie's whereabouts but seemed to be aware of the change in Tasha's medication meaning they'd spoken to Stan. Jim assured them that Tasha was still unconscious and pointed out that after such a traumatic accident she might not remember anything. Masterson agreed but insisted he'd still need to speak to her, just in case. With irritation at being away from Tasha Jim found himself giving the police a few pointers on just what they should be doing in their unsuccessful pursuit of Mickie before he saw Stan entering her room which is when he excused himself and returned to Tasha.

With everything still stable and all signs looking positive a couple of hours later he continued to watch and wait and then he saw a movement. Tasha's finger moved, he was sure of it, although it wouldn't be the first time he had imagined movement and then, as he stood over Tasha looking down at her apparently lifeless body he saw her eyes twitching erratically as if she was dreaming or attempting to open them.