Don't Get Involved.

She stopped mid-sentence; Had she really been about to say something so predictable? "- I know I've never told you this, but I love you?" They say people can hear within a coma. He'd have taken the mickey about that one once he woke up, she knew him that well. No, better to stay mute on the subject. Although… The doctors also said that such jolts and revelations had caused people to surface before. She looked at his face, apparently peacefully asleep, actually in a pitched battle for survival, again according to the doctors. Her thoughts flitted in that direction. They could be making it all up for all she knew, the doctor's and Patrick, putting up a show to get her to say something stupid. She stopped that thought abruptly. What a stupid and horrifically selfish thing to think! Honestly, she'd promised herself she was going to stop this paranoid daydreaming years ago, before she believed herself and did something stupid. She never had done though.

"I'm sorry." She said out loud, knowing that he wouldn't have minded anyway. He was the one person she'd ever been able to share those thoughts with. He knew she never believed them, that she just reveled in the fantasy. "You can't help your fantasies," he'd once said. "They're built in."

"Are you thought-waffling again, Jo?" He mumbled. She looked at him quickly, in time to see an eye open slightly.
"Patrick?" She said breathlessly, her jaw starting to drop in disbelief as she engaged reality again. She saw light glint on the surface of his eye. Yes! He was there.

"Are you ok?" She asked, oblivious to her own banality.

"Surely you can do better than that." He replied, starting to turn his head towards her. He stopped abruptly, a sharp intake of breath and creasing brow making intense pain evident.

"Wait," she said, "don't move. I'll get a doctor." She rose quickly and half-ran to the door. In the corridor she stopped a nurse.
"He's awake!" She said quickly, only then noticing the figure of Shiela as she rose from her chair. "Oh, hello." She said rather awkwardly. They hadn't spoken since the night of the accident. Shiela followed the nurse into the room without replying. As Jo entered Sheila turned to the nurse.
"Is she allowed in here? She's not a relative you know."

"Mum, please…" Said Patrick. Shiela looked at him.

"Patrick, my love, we've been so worried. -Are you ok?" Jo thought she caught a hint of a smile on Patrick's lips and grinned to him herself.
"What are you smiling about, you stupid bitch?" Shouted Shiela suddenly, her voice cracking. She rose and moved towards Jo. "If it wasn't for you he wouldn't be here!" There were tears on her face, relief and anger. The nurse moved in front of her.
"Please Mrs. Murray, he's still very weak…" She stopped talking and turned her head towards the door, her face starting to register confusion as a strange noise rushed towards them.

The blast was heard 12 miles away, and of the estimated 247 people in the hospital only 28 emerged from the rubble. No one you know though.

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