I've woken up a couple of minutes ago.

Apparently, I'm lying in a hospital bed.

The walls are white and so is the shiny floor. On my left side, a large window with its curtains open, allow me to see the sky. It should be somewhere around noon. Or afternoon, I don't really know: greyish white clouds obstruct the sun and prevent me from finding out. About three meters away, on my right, you can find the door, leading to a hallway, I suppose. Through a small glass window, built into that door, I see heads floating by once in awhile.

The left side of my body, especially the upper half, hurts like hell when I move. My normal clothes are gone and instead, I'm wearing a simple hospital gown. I'm not even sure if I'm wearing underwear, as lifting my gown, even reaching for it, hurts too gravely. In my left arm, a needle attached to a narrow tube runs to a bag, probably containing saline.

I just started to remember what exactly happened, when my room's door opens. Someone enters and stops walking, surprised, as soon as she sees me. Was I not supposed to be here then? After just a moment, she works away her confusion and she starts talking to me with a friendly smile. "Hello Giselle, my name is nurse Ana. I didn't expect you would wake up so soon. How do you feel?"

Considering the circumstances... "I feel fine, thank you."

Nurse Ana has short, brown and curly hair. Along with her petite figure, her eyes emit a prudent personality. She walks up to my bed and as she replaces the almost empty bag of saline for a new one, I feel the opportunity to ask her some questions. "Excuse me, but do you know what happened?"

She raises her eyebrows and she seems to get excited in a way. "Don't you remember?"

I quickly look around the room, like that would help me. "I'm not sure."

When nurse Ana is done exchanging the bags of fluid, she kneels beside my bed and leans in, like she's about to tell me a secret. "I didn't have a shift last night, but they told me you came in with a clean gunshot wound and an estimated blood loss of 30%."

I have no idea what that means, but I listen nevertheless.

"You underwent operation for an hour, nothing too serious, but you needed a blood transfusion." She leans in even more. "But you're famous!"

"What? Why?" What is she talking about?

"Everybody knows you were almost abducted twice and you escaped both times. Plus, this time five people or so from that human trafficking mafia the police were chasing got arrested. Police have got their hands full and the papers are expecting many more arrests in the near future!"

She pauses for an instant and looks a bit disappointed with my lack of excitement. "You practically took down an entire mafia."

That sounds a bit overreacted, but it's a lot to take in nonetheless. I'm not even sure if she's telling the truth. Maybe nurses like pranking disoriented patients, betting money on which nurse can tell the craziest stories.

She elegantly waves with her hand. "Well, you and that hero of a bodyguard of yours." She looks down and starts blushing.

Frank. He makes things even more complicated.

At first, I hesitate, as every second nurse Ana keeps talking, she brings me back to the chaos that my life has become. It would be nice to live in ignorance a little bit longer, but I have to ask her: "Is he all right?" Quickly I adjust my question. "Is Vicky all right? And what about Lisa?"

Nurse Ana's smile comforts me right away. "Don't worry, your friends are fine. A little shaken up, that's all." I feel a weight I didn't even know has been building up on my shoulders, ebb away.

"As for your bodyguard," Oh no. I quickly force myself into remembering if anything happened to him last night. Ana lays one of her graceful hands upon one of mine. "As I said, I wasn't there, but I heard that he wouldn't let you out of his sight, not even when an ER doctor wanted to examine him." For the third time, she leaned in and whispered. "He even pushed doctor Madison over one of the examination tables at the ER, because mr. Bodyguard refused to be examined while you got your blood transfusion. Poor doctor."

She told everything like it was the most romantic story she's ever encountered at the hospital. Mentally, I roll my eyes. Yeah, he has a more or less violent history of being impatient with people .

When I'm quiet for a while, she stands up. "I'm going to let the doctor know you're awake. Call me whenever you need something." She smiled at me one more time and I thank her before she leaves the room.

I didn't get two seconds after the nurse left, or the door opened again and Vicky walks in. She immediately walks towards me and she gives me a faint hug. "Are you alright? I was so worried, I thought you were going to die."

I swallow the pain, caused by her hug and reassure her. "Don't worry I'm fine. How's Lisa doing?"

Vicky takes a seat at the bedside and folds her hands together. "Surprisingly good, although I don't think she will be trusting any boy somewhere soon. Her parents are with her now."

I nod. Lisa is lucky, having both her parents taking care of her. Would my dad be informed about the things that have happened? That I'm in a hospital now?

"Have you heard about it?"

I look up. "Heard about what?"

Vicky takes her phone out of her front pocket, googles something and hands it over to me. My eyes jump to the header of a news article, written in big, bold letters. "Two times abducted, One time shot: girl takes down mafia"

I give Vicky her phone back. "Is this serious?"

She nods. "You're a minor, so the big papers left your name out, but the internet figured out pretty soon that you're the heroin they're talking about."

I let my head fall onto my cushion. "Heroin?" I look up, to the blank ceiling above me. "I got us into this mess in the first place. I should never have escaped my house to go to Lucas' place. If Frank wouldn't have come for us..." Vicky interrupts me. "If you wouldn't have come, Lisa and I would have got abducted. Nobody would've ever known what happened to us."

I think it over for a while. The police would never have arrived in time to save them. She's right. I had to go through this horrible experience to save two friends. That makes it worth it. Right?

Vicky reassuringly squeezes my hand before standing up. "Vicky, what about those arrests?"

She shakes her head. "I don't know a lot about it, only that they arrested four people."

"Thank you."

She walks away. "I'll see you soon." And with that, she leaves my room.

How long have I been awake? Ten, maybe fifteen minutes? It feels like I've been awake for ages. The mess surrounding my life manifests as a clog in my stomach and I feel like throwing up.

I miss my dad, who would comfort me, but I'm not sure if even he can fix this. I feel so painfully alone, just like the weeks after I first got abducted.

But when the door handle slowly twists, meaning someone will come into my room again, I wish nothing more than to be left alone. I can't handle anymore news, not for now.

With calm pace, he shuts the door and moves further inside the room. Beneath one of his eyes, he has a bruise.

A deep sigh escapes me and, unwillingly, warm tears start rolling over my cheeks. I feel goosebumps arise from all over my body and a chill flashes to the very end of my spine. The sluice of my emotions opens completely when I feel Frank's arms gently tighten around me.

I'm not sure if this is okay, for me to seek comfort with him, after everything that has happened. But I can't keep track anymore of all the things that make me trust him or not. The only thing that I trust for the moment, is my gut, and my gut is telling me that his warmth is pretty damn comforting and desperately needed.

I don't know how long I sobbed against his shoulder, but long enough for me to get a pounding headache.

At last, I wipe the salty moist off my cheeks and calm myself. "What now?" I ask.

Frank's chest keeps rising and falling in a rhythmic way for a while until he answers silently, close to my head: "Your dad is on his way from China, he'll be here tomorrow."

I didn't notice my face was hidden almost entirely behind my hair, until his hand pushes it back behind my ear.

My dad. I should be glad knowing he'll be back, but I'm not. I don't feel anything. Is there something wrong with me?

I disengage myself out of Frank's embrace. He looks at me for a while, before he stands up and walks towards a plate on a table I haven't even noticed being present in my room. He pours water into a glass."I never really had the chance to say sorry about lashing out at you the other night." He hands me the glass of water.

I almost forgot. That has also happened.

I take a sip.

Dammit, when did every aspect of my life started to get so messed up like this? I sigh. I can't be mad at him, he just saved my life for the second or third time, I'm not really keeping count. I hate the feeling, no the fact, that I owe him something, although he probably doesn't think that. I didn't ask to be saved. In fact, I think things would've turned out much better if my dad hadn't hired a bodyguard in the first place.

I turn my head away from him, facing to the window. I can't stay mad at him for lashing out at me yesterday. Was it just yesterday?

Not only because he came to help me when I needed him, but because I've been acting like a stubborn child. I should've just told Frank who I suspected to have drugged me at the party, like he asked me to, even though I turned out to be wrong. If I hadn't told Frank to get lost at the party, maybe I wouldn't even have been drugged in the first place.

How it all tires me.

I really just want to move on, so I drop the subject. "What happened to Lucas? Did he have anything to do with this business?"

Frank hesitates before answering. I think he didn't expect me asking about Lucas, probably one of the leasts of his concerns. He answers me, nonetheless. "I don't know anything about Lucas. The police haven't been successful in finding him." He clenches his jaw, but rapidly adds: "Yet."

Did Lucas fled? Or was he taken?

I don't know what to say about this either, so, again, I change the subject. I try sitting up a bit more straight. "What about you, Frank?"

He looks at me without blinking. "What about me?"

I wave with my hand. "You know, what are you going to do now? Are you going to leave?"

"Do you want me to?" Visibly, he immediately regretted his question. Frank puts his hands in his pockets and answers again. "I'll stay as long as your dad thinks I'll be needed."

Nothing seems to be making sense in my life recently, but this one aspect, this one little part, does. Amongst all the darkness and confusion, this I can see as clear as daylight.

"I think I need you."

And I meant it.

It wasn't even hard for me to admit, surprisingly and against what I initially thought. The air in the room feels warmer than it did before, but still pleasant.

Frank doesn't respond, but I don't mind. He just looks at me in a stare, like it has annoyed me many times throughout the past weeks, but this time is different: I don't have the irritating feeling like he can read my mind or that he knows everything about me. No, this time, it feels like we both know what the other person is thinking.

It's silent in the room, although it feels like a hundred thoughts are being exchanged.

Then he says what I felt he already let me know over and over again the past silent minutes. "Then I'll stay."