~

He had taken her to the hospital when she fainted and her pulse had almost become non-existent. Her eyes had gone wide and it scared him half to death when she bent over and hit the ground. He was so scared for her, her eyes were getting foggy and she kept looking at him like she could see right through him. He kept asking her what was wrong, what had happened, and then he was telling her over and over again that everything was going to be okay. When her eyes started closing he was yelling at her not to, not to leave him. What had surprised him the most was yelling at her that he loved her. When he had done that, her eyes were completely closed and her breathing had slowed a lot.

He picked her up and practically threw her into the cab of his pick-up, and sped all the way to the hospital. He had pulled up in the emergency parking lot, carried her inside, and yelled for help and that she was unconscious. Doctors and nurses came rushing at them from all different directions; he hated them briefly for taking her out of his arms. He quickly came over that feeling and was worried about how she was doing.

They kept asking him questions and all he could say was that she had just randomly fainted. No, he wasn't her family, that he yes was with her when she fainted, that no he wasn't her boyfriend, that he was just a friend. They automatically had her in a room running tests and figuring out why she had fainted. He waited out in the hall until they came out and said that they were done and she was stable. He thanked the doctors and nurses, then went and sat with her in the recliner by her hospital bed. After a little while of listening to the constant beeping of her heart machine, he dozed off.

~

She woke up with a bright light shining in her eyes, she was blinded by it. She blinked rapidly hoping it would tone down the brightness, which it did. She heard the sound of beeping really loud in her ears. She tried to look to her right but it hurt too much and she realized there was something on her face. She reached up to feel it, noticing it was an oxygen mask. Why did she have it on? How come it hurts to move her head? Where was she? All these thought along with others kept running through her mind. She could tell that she was laying down in a hospital bed, with an I.V. in her arm and machines beeping out her heartbeats. She looked around with her eyes looking to see where she was. She could see flowers everywhere and a window to her right. She looked to her left and saw a door and saw some kind of chair just on the edge of her peripheral vision. She tried to turn her head to see it, she managed a small turn, but she wasn't expecting what she saw. She gasped and her mouth almost dropped open.

The last thing she expected to see was Derek asleep in a recliner, snoring like crazy. She giggled softly and he jerked awake. When he looked over at her, he smiled so big she thought his cheeks would turn white. He leaned over her and asked, "How are you feeling?"

She opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out. She didn't know what to tell him she wasn't feeling anything if she stayed still, but if she moved she was in pain. "I.......... feel..... nothing...... at the moment." She rushed out the last words, because she was finding it hard to talk. There were so many things she wanted to ask him though, like why she was here, or what had happened? So many things that her head started to hurt slightly. Thinking it was just a normal headache she didn't tell him about it, not wanting to make him worry anymore about her than he already was. She didn't have to have him tell her, she could see it in his honey-brown eyes. She just stared into his eyes feeling like she could fly with the way he was looking at her.

~

Her eyes, he just couldn't seem to stop staring into them, they were so silvery-blue that he thought he could drown in those eyes. He felt as if he was falling toward her, so he stood up quickly and walked to the end of her bed, letting go of her hand in the process. The look she gave him was a look of hurt; he sighed and braced himself against the railing at the bottom of her bed. He looked up at her, into her eyes, and asked, "Do you remember anything that happened at all?" When she looked as if she was struggling to answer, he instantly regretted asking her. When she waved her hand as if to say a little bit, he asked her if that's what she was trying to say, and she gave a thumb-up, he couldn't help but smile at her.

He was about to ask her if she remembered the race that they had when someone banged on the door. He looked to the door then to her and held a finger to his lips. He walked to the door quietly and slowly opened it to a small enough crack that he could see out of it. When he looked at who was standing outside the door he nearly threw the door opened and jumped at him. Derek opened it enough to where his body was blocking the entrance into the room, his jaw tensed as he asked, "Adam, could you bang any louder or harder to where the door would have fallen off its hinges?"

Adam looked at him as if he was the craziest man on the planet. "Well, excuse me for worrying about my little sister." He stood on his tip-toes trying to look over his shoulder. "Can you let me in to see Jasey, come on man seriously? You don't have to protect her from me okay?"

Reluctantly, Derek let him in silently promising himself that he would protect her no matter what the penalty is, surprising himself in the process.

Adam quickly walked to his sister's side when he stepped in the room. He brushed the hair from her face and said that everything was going to be okay, and kissed the top of her forehead just like he would do when they were kids and she would get sick, scared, or injured. Derek had a small moment of jealousy when he saw Adam do that, but he quickly fought it down mentally kicking himself for being jealous over his best-friend who was Jasey's brother. He had been best friends with Adam since they were kids and he wasn't going to mess up their friendship now. However something about Jasey, he couldn't shake; he hadn't been able to shake her off since he was 10 years old. There's just always been something about her that he was drawn to and he didn't know how to respond to that. Every time he was around her whether it was in public or private, his feelings towards her got so big they always threatened to choke him, or his heart would swell so much he thought it would explode out of his chest if he didn't leave right away.

He stood in the corner of the room looking at her, watching her, watching the way she lit up around her brother, the way he made her smile, and giggle. He blocked out all sound and was only focused on watching her, watching her reactions, watching her when she blushed, smiled, or the way her eyes shined so bright.

It wasn't until she whispered "I love you", to her brother that he couldn't support himself anymore. His knees went out from underneath him and he slid to the floor using the wall for support, so he wouldn't just fall down on the ground and worry anybody, especially Jasey.

~

Adam kept assuring her that everything was going to be okay, he told her that when the hospital called his cell phone, the first thing he did was get in the jeep and drive here. He said that when he got here, he went to the main office and demanded to see her. He told her that he was so glad and grateful to Derek that he brought her to the hospital as soon as she fainted. While he was talking, she kept noticing that his voice kept getting scratchy and he was trying to clear his throat multiple times. Silently sending thanks to her mother, who passed away when she was 8 years old, kept demanding that she and her brother learn sign language.

When he was clearing his throat for the sixth time she signed him for him to go get a drink of water and to get something to eat. After arguing with her for a while, he finally gave up on her stubbornness and complied. Just before he left he kissed the top of her forehead as she whispered "I love you," to him for the third time since he had gotten there. He ruffled her hair before leaving and blew her a kiss to make her smile as he walked out the door.

Although she knew Adam would be right back, she couldn't help the hurt as he left. She stared at the door for a few more seconds before trying to look around the room again. She slowly turned her head to her right, as she did so she saw a couch and dry erase board with her name on it and some other words that she couldn't read. She saw the window and the recliner chair that Derek had fallen asleep in earlier. When she saw the chair she started to wonder where Derek had disappeared to while Adam was there. Slowly glancing back over the room she saw someone sitting on the floor in the dark corner on the far side of her hospital room. She squinted trying to make out who it was when she heard Derek's voice say, "It's okay I just needed to sit for a little bit, and I wasn't going to interrupt you and Adam's conversation. Now was I?"