Third Person POV

Art quickly straightened up when he heard the sound of the door opening and came face to face with Camille who had burst into the room without knocking.

Art braced himself for a tirade of accusations from Camille but to his pleasant surprise and relief none of it happened. Instead Camille made a slight bow to him and gave him just the hint of a smile.

"I couldn't come immediately after I heard the news," she said as she stepped forward towards AJ's bed. "I was stuck in my father's conference room talking with some businessmen with whom my father was trying to close a deal. My father is in Japan right now with AJ's father attending to their newly opened merger."

After Camille finished giving her excuses for not coming immediately to AJ's side after the accident, she said, "How is he doing? Has he come out of his unconscious state yet?"

"Unfortunately, no," Art replied. "If you wish to be alone with AJ, I can leave now and inform Prasert that AJ will no longer be by himself."

"Oh, no, no," Camille protested, "don't go, please. Since he's still in this level of consciousness, I'm just gonna leave now, but please let him know when he does regain consciousness that I came to see him."

"Of course I will," Art assured her.

"And hey," Camille said just before turning towards the door, "I believe he is in good hands right now. Just don't hurt him in any way or you will have me to contend with, you understand? AJ and I grew up together so we're like siblings. Even if I'm handing him over to you, I will still keep a close eye on him. So take good care of him, please."

"I will," Art said, his voice quivering with emotion. He had been expecting some kind of verbal war to happen with Camille's arrival but instead he felt like he had been given Camille's blessing.

As soon as Camille left the room, a nurse carrying a clipboard, a stethoscope carelessly slung across her shoulder and a sphygmomanometer peeking out of her uniform pocket, walked in. Art recognized her as the same nurse who had administered morphine earlier to AJ through his IV line.

Art bowed to her and the nurse explained, "I'm here to take his vital signs, especially his respiration rate. Morphine lowers a patient's respiration rate so I have to keep a close eye on that."

The nurse took AJ's blood pressure, scanned his temperature with the infrared forehead thermometer which she fished out of her other pocket, and then took his pulse and counted his respiration per minute. She wrote them all down on the paper attached to her clipboard and then turned to address Art.

"His vital signs are within normal limits but barely," she explained. "We will be monitoring them every shift to make sure that they stay within normal range."

"How soon will he recover?" Art badly needed to know.

"Well... seeing as he's very young... he's only eighteen..."

Art felt a twinge of guilt at the mention of AJ's age. What the hell was he doing getting involved with a mere kid.

The nurse continued, "... he should be back on his feet in about a week's time."

Art was not able to suppress a sigh. Seven days of waiting for AJ to be back on his feet was a long time to suffer through. He wanted to be by AJ's side every day but he had his acting career to take care of. Speaking of which, oh shit, he had promised Mr. Siripool that he would be back at the building by eight. He looked at his watch. It was nearly eight. Where was Prasert???

Art started pacing anxiously across the room.

"Art..."

Art's heart jumped to his throat. AJ was regaining consciousness.

He ran towards AJ and hugged him tightly.

"Uhh! uhh..." AJ was grimacing.

Oh no, Art had forgotten about AJ's broken rib. Art quickly straightened up.

"I'm sorry, AJ! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you!" Art exclaimed guiltily.

"Don't... leave... me... Art... please... stay... with... me..."

At that moment Prasert walked in carrying a brown paper bag with the Mumbai Spices logo on it.

"I brought you dinner," Prasert said to Art.

"I'm... hu... hungry..." AJ said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Let me run over to the nurses' station and let them know that you're awake. I'm also gonna ask them if it's alright for you to eat regular food already," Art offered, already heading out the door.

After a few minutes, Art came back carrying a cup of strawberry jello.

"The nurse told me that you cannot eat regular food yet but you can start out with this," Art said, peeling off the cover from the plastic cup. "They will come in to check on you soon."

Art noticed AJ's look of disappointment.

"I'm sorry, AJ," Art said, "I would love to share the food that Prasert brought from your restaurant but we have to follow medical orders. They are for your own good, you know that, don't you?"

Art pressed the bed control to raise AJ's head and then scooped out some of the jello with the small plastic spoon that the nurse had provided him and brought it to AJ's mouth.

AJ obediently opened his mouth and took the food offering. Art continued to scoop the contents of the plastic cup until AJ was able to eat everything from it.

"Thank... you... Art..." AJ had still some difficulty talking because talking caused him pain in his ribs.

"Don't mention it," Art replied, and without thinking planted a quick kiss on AJ's lips. Oh shit, he noticed Prasert's wide eyed look.

"I didn't see anything," Prasert said, quickly averting his face towards the wall.

Art was just about to take out the styropore box that contained his dinner from the brown paper bag when his phone started to ring. He fished his phone out of his pocket and saw that it was a number that he didn't recognize.

He was about to tap on 'Decline' when his instinct told him to take the call.

"Hello," Art said tentatively.

"Art! You better come back quick. Mr. Siripool is asking for you! He said that you're supposed to be back by now because it's past eight!"

"Please tell him I'm on my way!" Art said on his phone. "Tell him I'm stuck in traffic but will be there in a few minutes!"

"Who... was... that..."

"P'Mew," Art replied absentmindedly in his intense anxiety. He quickly picked up the brown bag that contained his dinner and rushed out the door, forgetting to say good bye to AJ and to Prasert.

AJ closed his eyes, his face grimacing in pain. Mew... how could AJ forget that name... Mew was Art's ex and clearly Art didn't seem to be over Mew yet......