(A/N: The beginning is the same as the original chapter 50 but there's a twist after so this is not a mistake ^^. Good reading!)

                                                                            *

Another month passed. I was grateful for every second I got to spend with Damon, even if it was in a hospital room because I knew that it would all end so soon now and that was the scariest thought to ever have so I pushed it away every time. Some days were good, we would watch a movie or a TV show and laugh together, or even dance in the room on the best days, but others were terrible. Sometimes, Damon would be in pain for a whole day, and not the kind of pain that’s ok to deal with like stepping on a lego or bite the inside of your cheek, no this pain it was… awful. He would chase us away and I would wait in the hall even though I knew it wouldn’t pass and I would have to go without even saying goodbye. I would hear him cry or scream and it would break my heart in a thousand pieces because there was nothing I could do. The doctors and nurses tried giving him morphine and other stuff but the pain was inside his brain so it was pretty much worthless. It would work one or two times though so it was better than nothing.

Every time it happened, every time he had one of his ‘crisis’, I would freak out so much I would cry. I always feared it meant the end of everything, the end of him forever and this was not something enjoyable to think about, to say the least. And then I would come back the next day and find him completely fine as if nothing had happened, and no need to say it was messing with my head.

Damon had had Katie on the phone. He hadn’t talked to her in a very long time but he felt he needed to because they had been together for a year after all and she deserved to know about him. So they talked and said their goodbyes. She wasn’t mad at all, about him being with me, she said she was happy he got to tell me he loved me before it was too late, and I couldn’t have agreed more.

This Tuesday, I woke up to the pouring rain. It was stupid and I knew it but every time it was raining, I would get worried that Damon had died. It must have been because of the movies: every time someone passes away or has a funeral, it rains. I quickly got dressed, put a little makeup on and rushed to the hospital, like every morning. I was allowed to stay the night only one time a week thanks to Anita.

I arrived at nine and saw that Damon’s parents weren’t here yet. They visited four times a week or so and usually stayed all day. Jenny and Seth came by often too, but mostly on the weekends because they had lives to get back to like college for my best friend and his band for my brother. They had actually gotten a few small gigs to play around town but I hadn’t been able to go see them play so far. A week ago, Damon had insisted for me to fill out the application forms for colleges, even though I still didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I had done it because, well, how can you resist Damon, seriously.

He was doing everything to make sure I would get back to my old life and I tried to pretend the best I could like I would but I knew it wasn’t going to happen that easily. I would need time. A lot of time to grieve.

“What are you thinking about?” Damon asked, taking me away from my thoughts.

This was one of the good days. He was smiling, looked perfectly fine and hot as hell, and could probably dance if we wanted to.

“I don’t know. So, what’s the plan for today?” I inquired, going to sit down next to the bed.

“First we will hug and kiss, then I will tell you how much I love you and then I was thinking maybe go outside for a walk.”

We were allowed to go outside as long as Damon stayed in his wheelchair and took his IV bag, or whatever the hell it was now, with him. But Anita only let us do it once every two weeks and I guess today was the day.

“Good plan.”

He scotched over to one side of the bed to let me lie down next to him and thus began the first part of today’s plan. We had only succeeded in going further three times: one where Anita said she would watch out for nurses or doctors because we would have hated to be caught doing it. A second time the one night I was allowed to stay in and Damon knew at what time his doctor was supposed to come by, and another under the same circumstance. Anita came in and interrupted our kisses by clearing her throat.

“Hey lovebirds. Time for the checkup.”

I came down from the bed and cloud 9 by the same occasion and let Anita do her job. Once she was done, we asked if we could go outside and she gave us a pass. Damon got dressed up and sat in his wheelchair that I rolled out of the room for the first time in two weeks. We took the elevator then I rolled him outside in the hospital park. The rain had stopped now and let place to a beautiful sun, which reassured me. I know, stupid. I walked around the park, pushing his wheelchair on the sandy path.

“Have I told you you look awesome and beautiful today?” Damon asked when I stopped to sit on a bench to be next to him.

“Nope but thank you. You don’t look so bad yourself.”

I kissed him and passed my hand through his hair, which earned me a moan of satisfaction, aka the most amazing sound ever.

“I love you.” Damon said when we broke our kiss, both out of breath.

“I love you too.”

“I have to tell you something though…”

Oh God. This did not sound good. Plus, a cloud had just passed in front of the sun, hiding it from us.

“Is it bad?” I asked.

A big smile flashed on Damon’s face while he shook his head, tears swimming in his eyes. My heart was jumping in my chest with this stupid feeling I had learnt to push away: hope. Foolish hope.

“They developed a medicine Leah. Doctor Suarez came by to talk to me yesterday and explained it all to me. It’s risky, very risky and there isn’t a big chance that it will work but they want to test it on me.”

Tears started streaming down my cheeks uncontrollably.

“So there’s…”

“Hope.” He completed. “There’s still a little hope that I might make it.”

“Oh my god.”

We hugged each other for minutes long, crying in each other’s arms. This was a miracle. Could a miracle really happen though? Could he actually be cured and make it?

“When are they going to test it?” I asked when I had calmed down a little.

“Tonight. They don’t want to waste any time. I wanted to talk to you about it first and… I don’t know, maybe say goodbye in case it doesn’t work.”

“No.” I said firmly.

“What?”

“No. We are not saying goodbye. I refuse to say goodbye to you if there is hope you can make it.”

He looked into my eyes for a few seconds then kissed me and the conversation was over. Hope. There was hope.

                                                                       *

“What time is it?” I asked yet again.

“I don’t know Leah, I don’t think Damon is supposed to wake up yet.” Jenny answered.

I looked at her, then at Seth and back to Damon, still keeping his eyes closed on his bed. He has a huge bandage around his head from the surgery and the heart monitor was beeping regularly. We had been waiting for three hours straight now for him to wake up even though the doctors and Anita among the nurses had told us it would take days. It was still good news to know that he had gotten out of the surgery alive. Doctor Suarez came by right after it to tell us that Damon was alive but that his heart had stopped for a few minutes during surgery. Luckily, they had brought him back to life and they were now waiting for me to wake up. Everyone was praying, hoping, and/or crying. Damon’s mother was mouthing some prayers, sitting on a chair opposite Damon’s bed, his father was silent and staring at the ground, probably praying too.

Mathew barged in the room, followed by Jeremy and Kara.

“Is he awake yet?” He inquired, before taking one look at the bad and sighing.

“Not yet.”

Kara took my hand, smiling a little at me to try to reassure me, and I sighed again. This was not the ideal situation, but it was still better than not having hope that he would wake up at all. We just had to be patient. He would wake up eventually. Right?

                                                         *

“Get a doctor!!” I heard shouting and opened my eyes, a little confused at first.

When had I fallen asleep? My back hurt from the uncomfortable chair and I felt someone was shaking my arm. It too a few seconds for me to be completely awake and to realize it was Jenny, tears threatening to roll down her cheeks.

“Leah!! Leah, he’s awake!!”

The words rang in my head as I jumped to my feet to run towards his room. We had been kicked out for the night and had invaded the waiting room for two days now. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me and barged in the room. Damon was blinking rapidly while a bunch of doctors were taking care of him. One was moving a flashlight in front of his eyes, another checking his arm or something, and I waited behind them even if I wanted to push them all to hug him, to feel him. He was awake. Damon was awake. His mother rushed to my side to hug me. She was crying too. Then she released me and I looked back at Damon. Our eyes locked and the most beautiful sight was offered to my eyes. He smiled, as wide as he could since he had just woken up form heavy surgery.

“Leah!” He said.

This was it, I couldn’t contain myself anymore and I cleared myself a way between the crowd of doctors.

“You’re awake.” I cried more, saying those words out loud.

“God I love you.” He answered.

I rushed to hug him even tough the doctors were trying to stop me and kissed him and never had I ever felt this intense happiness spread inside my bones and entire body. The most enormous feeling of relief washed over me as I felt his lips against mine, his heart beating, his heavy breathing and his familiar scent.

“You’re alive.” I repeated.

“I still had to bug you a little more. I couldn’t just let you live without having to ride on an elephant.”

“Ms, you have to go now while we take care of him; You’ll be able to talk to him more in a few minutes but please let us do our job.” One of the doctors said, grabbing my arm to push me away.

“Sorry…”

They finished their job while I was wiping the tears from my eyes and hugging everyone in the room who were crying too. This surely was the best day of my life. Damon was alive. He was fine. I had had this stupid fear that he would wake up but not recognize us or wake up but wouldn’t be able to talk but he seemed just as fine as he had been before, minus the disease in his brain I hoped.