“What did they ask?” Madeline wanted to know as Justin walked back into the room. Justin shrugged and offered her a sigh.

“This and that,” he replied pulling up the nearest chair over to the bed. Madeline sighed in response and raised an eyebrow in his direction.

“This and that?” she repeated, not believing him, “That seems a bit random.”

“It was,” Justin agreed, wondering if he should tell her the truth. But why should he? She had kept years of secrets from him.

“What ever you say,” Madeline shrugged and leaned back in her chair. She didn’t believe a word that had passed his lips, knowing that there was something more he wasn’t divulging to her, she knew him too well.

“If there was more I’d tell you Maddie,” he said after some silence and looking at her. She looked back with doubt filling her eyes.

“Would you?” she asked and crossing her arms over her chest, “You’ve always been known not to tell me things.”

“Really?” he asked, amusement filling his features as he leant forward in his chair and glared at her, “I always thought that was your role.” She sat up straight then, becoming closed off and quiet like she had been before…

“I never hid things from you Justin,” she replied icily, “You know that, all those times you had it coming. I think you should leave.” She cast her eyes to the door and he shook his head.

“No Mads, I can’t just leave,” he argued, but she refused to hear it.

“I think you can. You’ve proven your point okay? I was a horrible person back then. Isn’t that what you came back to say?” she asked glaring at him.

“No I came back because he needs me here,” Justin countered and she snorted with a roll of her eyes.

“That’s what you want everyone else to believe but I know you better than any of them,” she answered, “I know the real reason you came back and I suggest you leave before I reveal that secret to the world.”

Madeline sighed softly as Justin got up and left the room, the tears in her eyes finally falling. She didn’t care if anyone saw her, things had finally taken their toll on her, and she was tired of being strong when she wasn’t.

Justin’s words had hit home for her, in a strong way. He was right, she had kept a lot of secrets from him, but he had kept some from her too. The only reason she had done what she had was because it was what things had called for at the time.

“Oh Josh,” she whispered and looked at the bed where he lay, “I can’t do this anymore. I need you here with me. Please just come back so we can pull through this together.”

She knew he couldn’t respond to what she was saying, but somehow she hoped he could hear her. He had been there with her when things had gotten rough, he had been the strong one back then and now it was her turn. But she was failing.

She continued to cry softly, letting her imagination run wild. Going back to a time when everything seemed perfect in her life. When she and JC were happy, when she was happy. Then her mind led her back to the part when she was not happy, just like today, glooming on a past she wished to forget.

She sat up and shook her head of the memories and wiped her eyes with the edge of her sweater before there was a knock on the door.

“Maddie?” she looked towards the door and smiled as she saw his sister standing by the door with a weak smile on her face before entering the room.

“Hi Heater,” she managed to squeak standing up and hugging the other woman. “I’m glad you finally made it, when did you get in?”

“Yesterday,” Heather confirmed and hugged Madeline back tightly, “I wanted to come as soon as I could but flights were booked solid and then as soon as I got in there were these police officers who wanted to question me.” Madeline smiled and nodded with a sigh.

“Yeah, they did that to your mom, dad and Tyler when they got here a few days ago,” Madeline confirmed and shook her head, “They’re really annoying.”

“Yeah I gathered, they kept asking the strangest questions,” Heather commented and looked at her brother, “How’s he doing?”

“Okay I guess. No improvement,” Madeline said and looked over to the bed as well. Heather smiled sadly and walked over to her brother’s side before giving him a soft hug.

“Hey Josh, guess what I came,” Heather chuckled and kissed his bandaged forehead although he couldn’t feel or hear anything. “And so did mom and pop and Ty and we’re not going anywhere ok? We’re going to stick around with Maddie and keep her safe, so don’t you worry.” Heather smoothes the hair down on her brother’s head and stepped away, sitting in the empty seat vacated by Justin before speaking, “So I saw Justin out there.”

“Yeah, he decided he needed to be here,” Madeline shrugged and Heather rolled her eyes at the comment.

“Yeah after all this time and after what happened?” Heather commented, “Don’t you find that odd?”

“Yeah, but they are best friends Heather,” Madeline pointed out and Heather nodded.

“Yeah but that was before, well before you know,” Heather said quietly and Madeline nodded. She knew exactly what Heather meant.

“Yeah it was,” she answered, knowing she couldn’t argue with that.

“So what changed? Had they been speaking again before all this?” Heather asked, she hadn’t been in touch as often as she wanted to the past few weeks, being busy with school and all. That Madeline sad because after all that had happened she and Heather had bonded, Heather was the only one of the family who knew what had really happened.

“No, they weren’t,” Madeline clarified and looked out the window behind the bed. “I called him and thought he should know what had happened, but he said he couldn’t get a flight out of New York.”

“But obviously he did,” Heather observed and Madeline nodded.

“Yeah he did,” Madeline replied, she closed her eyes and took a breath in.

“Maddie are you alright?” Heather asked noticing Madeline had gone into a soft trance of some sort, as if trying to figure out some words to say.

Madeline nodded and opened her eyes before turning to face Heather, “I saw who was driving the car that hit him.”