JC opened his eyes for the first time in ages and looked around him, and the first thing that went through his mind was panic. Was Maddie okay?

            “Josh?” it was his mother’s voice that came from somewhere beside him. He moved his eyes in the direction and tried to move his body but realised he couldn’t.

            “Mom?” his voice came out raspy, as if he hadn’t used it in ages, “Where’s Maddie? Is she?”

            “Thank God you finally woke up,” his mother said and soon her face came into view, she looked much older than he remembered. “Roy? Can you go get Maddie and the doctors?”

            “Dad?” he asked and tried to look at his father but all he heard was a door closing. “Where am I mom?”

            “You’re in the hospital honey,” Karen replied trying to calm his nerves and soothing back his hair, “Are you feeling alright?”

            “I don’t know,” he whispered “Can I have some water?”

“Sure honey,’ Karen smiled and reached behind her to produce a glass of water and helped him drink it.

“Thanks,’ he said gratefully and tried to sit up and winced in pain, “Why can’t I sit up?”

            “Hang on honey let me help you,” Karen smiled and gently helped him into a sitting position before the door burst open. His eyes darted to the door in hope, but his gaze fell as he saw a man in a white coat rushing towards him.

            “When did he wake up? How long has been sitting?” the doctor asked, ignoring JC and turning to his mother.

            “Just a few minutes ago,” Karen replied and looked over the man’s shoulder, “He’s just sat up.”

            “Okay,” the doctor nodded and turned to JC, “How you feeling son?”

            “I’m doing great,” JC replied, because in fact he was. He just had a twang of pain…

            “No pain or anything? Dizziness?” the doctor asked and he shrugged.

            “Just a bit of pain in my left leg,” JC replied and the doctor nodded.

            “Well that’s expected, it’s broken,” the doctor explained, “What about your sides? Any pain?”

            “Just a tad,” he replied in honesty as the pain caught up to him. He winced and the doctor looked at him in sympathy before helping him to sit forward so he could examine the bruises.

            “Well I’m afraid that’s because the bruises you incurred from the accident haven’t gone away and the swelling is still there,’ the doctor explained and allowed him to lie back, “Luckily no internal injures.”

            “How bad was I damaged?” JC asked and the doctor smiled slightly.

            “Apart from the broken leg and coma?” he asked and JC nodded, “Nothing, which I’d say makes you pretty damn lucky.”

            “That’s cool,” he nodded and looked around him for the first time, “Where’s Maddie? I want to see her, know she’s alright.”

            “She’s…” his mother began but was interrupted as the door opened again. He looked up and let out a sigh of relief as Madeline hurried into the room and towards the bed, pushing the doctor out of the way and hugging him furiously.

            “Thank God,” she whispered, “Thank God you finally woke up.”

            Justin paced up and down his room, waiting for something to happen. He had been afraid to go out since Johnny had told him that Madeline wanted to go public that he’d stayed indoors. So here he was, pacing and waiting for something to happen.

            He knew something was bound to happen sometimes soon, he just didn’t know what. When his phone shrilly rang in his jeans pocket, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

            “Hello?” he asked shakily answering the phone without looking at the caller ID, and hoping the person on the other end would tell him something good.

            “Justin?” His heart leapt into his throat at the sound of the voice. Madeline never called him, not since they’d broken up and now…

            “Madeline?” he asked, his tone softening, “What’s wrong?”

            “Justin,” Madeline began again and paused. Justin stopped pacing and nervously sat on his bed waiting for her to continue. “Justin…”

            “What is it Maddie? Are you alright?” he asked with concern, “Is…?”

            “Justin he woke up,” Madeline cut through his words abruptly. He took a deep breath in, wondering if he was hearing things.

            “What? When?” he asked in shock, rubbing his temples.

            “Josh just woke up, an hour or so ago,” Madeline answered, “He wanted you to know.”

            “Do the others know?”  Justin asked and heard silence on the other end, “Maddie?”

            “Yeah Johnny told them,” Madeline replied quickly as if she wanted to move on to something different. Justin wondered when Johnny had found out. “He was here in the waiting room when it happened.”

            “Oh,” Justin answered and felt his heart clench up, “Why didn’t he tell me himself? Why you?”

            “I wanted to let you know myself,” Madeline replied, “I thought you deserved to know. Also Josh asked that I called you myself and told you.”

            “He did?” Justin wondered out aloud, “And is he alright? No bad side effects and stuff?”

            “Nope, just a broken leg and some bruises,” she replied, Justin could hear the smile in her voice.

            “Well that’s good,” Justin answered, their conversation seemed odd now that JC had woken up, “I guess I’d better let you get back to him.”

            “Okay,” Madeline said and silence once again met his ears. “Uh Justin?”

            “Yeah Maddie?” he asked.

            “Why don’t you come by? I’m sure he’d love to see you,” Madeline said, Justin sighed and shook his head.

            “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he replied and stood up, “But thanks anyways.”

            “That’s ok,” she said a little sadly, “But if you change your mind…”

            “Yeah I know,” Justin said.

            “We’ll be here for a few more days then I’m taking him home,” she answered, “So come before then.”

            “I will. Goodbye Maddie,” Justin said knowing he probably wouldn’t drop by.

            “Good bye Justin.” And the phone went dead.

            Madeline sighed heavily and snapped the phone shut before taking in another breath and pushing the door to room 202 open. She allowed a smile to take its place on her face as she entered and saw her fiancée sitting up and chatting animatedly with his sister.

            He had been awake for a few hours now, and without any major complications other than a broken leg and a few bruises here and there. Madeline smiled, knowing that one less burden was off her shoulders, for now. Madeline was glad that Heather hadn’t blown a fuse on her as the two day mark for her to tell the cops the truth had swiftly flown passed without notice. But Madeline supposed this was because of all the commotion that had happened in the past few hours with JC waking up, Heather had been to preoccupied to noticed.

            “Hey,” JC smiled noticing her for the first time as she walked up to the bed, “So did you tell the guys?” His eyes shimmered with hope and Madeline wondered what to tell him about Justin’s abrupt behaviour.

            “Uh, yeah I just talked to Justin actually,” she answered and noticed Heather roll her eyes as she said this.

            “And?” JC asked, wanting to see his best friend as soon as he could.

            “He promised to drop by soon,” Madeline lied and leaned forward to kiss him lightly on the lips, “He’s busy with press stuff.”

            “Yeah I heard the press was going crazy about the accident,” JC nodded and brushed a piece of hair out of her eyes before turning to Heather, “Thanks for the update Heather.” Heather grinned at her brother and patted his arm.

            “Not a problem Josh,” she smiled and backed out the room, “Now I’m gonna look for the terror we call Tyler and we’ll be back. Don’t do anything crazy ok?”

            “We won’t,” JC laughed, and it was a laugh from his belly as Heather shut the door behind her. “So has it really been that crazy?”

            “No not really,” Madeline lied again, not wanting to upset him further and sat beside him on the bed, “Just a few rumours.” His eyes flared with concern as he looked at her.

            “Just a few?” he asked and she nodded.

            “Yeah, but Johnny and Justin are handling all that,” she said and smiled at him, “Johnny spoke to Chris and he said he’ll drop by in about an hour.”

            “Okay,” he nodded and leaned forward to take her hand, “You don’t have to be worried anymore baby, I’m alright.” She looked into his eyes and smiled at him with a small nod.

            “I know,” she answered in a small whisper and glanced at him, “But what if…” he cut her off with a shake of his head.

            “What if nothing baby,” he smiled and kissed her forehead before continuing, “I’m awake now alright? And you have nothing to worry about because I’m gonna be okay.”

            It had been a good few hours since Madeline had been called back into the room on account of the fact that the victim had woken up, and the only sign Sandy had seen of her was when she had stepped out of the room a few hours later talking into the phone. Sandy would have gone up to talk to her, but as soon as she stood up out of the rickety chair she was sitting in, Madeline ended her conversation and hurried back into the room. Sighing, Sandy say back down.

            “Don’t worry Sands,” Dale assured her placing a hand on her shoulder as she cradled her head in her hands, “She’s just happy he’s awake, I’m sure she’ll remember we were talking to her and come back out. Once everything has clamed down.”

            “I hope so Dale,” Sandy said and shook her head, “It’s just that…”

            “Sergeant Sullivan?” Sandy looked up in mid-sentence and noticed the victim’s girlfriend standing before them looking happier than Sandy remembered.

            “Yes?” Sandy asked and slowly stood up, wiping her hands on the front of her dark blue pants.

            “Uh, can we, uh, talk?” the woman asked looking over her shoulder for a moment and back at the door, “Perhaps in another empty room?”

            Sandy nodded and motioned for them to move into the closest room, “Sure. Come on Dale.” Dale nodded and followed the two women into the room, shutting the door behind them for more privacy. “What did you want to talk about?”

            “Well…” she moved from foot to foot before continuing, “I heard that before Josh woke up you were talking with Maddie and she was telling you some stuff. I was wondering if I could, um, finish the conversation off perhaps, on her behalf.” She looked hopefully at Sandy and Dale who both gave her encouraging smiles.

            “Sure,” Sandy nodded and motioned for Dale to pull out a pen and paper to start taking notes. “Well Miss Chasez, uh, can we ask what happened between Miss James and Mr Timberlake to make him so angry at her and your brother?” The young woman shifted her eyes to the door before answering and took in a deep breath.

            “Well…” she began and pushed away a strand of loose hair from her eyes, “From what I was told, Josh was just helping Maddie out. She didn’t want it at the time, I mean Justin was so different back then and, well Maddie might tell you differently, but he still is to me. So she just asked Josh to help her out, and he agreed as a favour, but he never knew that Justin didn’t know. I guess you could say it was that that sort of fizzled out their relationship.”

            “What didn’t she want Miss Chasez that caused all these problems?” Sandy asked confused at the woman’s blabbering and noticed her eyes change to a darker shade of blue.

            “Uh,” the woman looked away, refusing to meet anyone’s gaze before she spoke. “The baby.”