Hey everyone! This is my first Following fic. If you like what you read, please review! I do not write solely for reviews but I am also very critical of my own writing, so reviews to me are just the best affirmation that people are enjoying the story! So if you would like to read more, please drop a review on the way out! :)

This takes place in the third season. It can stand alone as a one shot without back story and you can just create your own, but if I take this farther (which I am planning on doing) then I'll be providing all of that later. For now, just take it and run with it!

. . . . .

There was pain, and there was panic. The former, in his current opinion, he would take over the latter any day. It hurt- it hurt to even open his eyes, but the feeling of rising panic that overcame him the second he was conscious was forcing him to. Because panic was something he had had enough of these days and he didn't know how much more of the feeling he could take.

The room he was in was bright and nauseating. His head was spinning, which made any thought he had cloudy. Even focusing his eyes proved to be a difficult task as the muscles in them screamed at any movement. His mind struggled to comprehend what he was seeing, but nothing was clicking.

Max. She was the first thought his head could put together, and was the first thing he saw when he could finally focus his eyes. They slowly shifted from her to the needle in his arm, stemming from the IV drip above him. His mind was working so slow, and he had a desire to rip out the IV. He needed his head clear, he needed to protect Max- he needed to protect himself to protect her. Looking up at it, he didn't know if what was in the IV was clouding his thoughts, or if he had suffered some brain damaging injury. But he was sure as hell about to find out when he ripped this goddamn thing out-

"Mike, hey-" Max's voice caught his attention and he looked over to her again with bleary, blinking eyes. "Hey, It's just me." She moved slowly over to him on the bed, sensing his confusion.

"Hey..." He breathed out quietly. Words weren't coming to him easily either yet. His throat burned with the effort of talking and his voice didn't sound like his own.

"How do you feel?" She asked softly.

There was a pause as he willed his throat to work again. "Terrible." He finally said, quietly and truthfully. "Where am I? How'd...?"

"Mercy West. Hold on, let me grab your nurse. You need more pain meds...You shouldn't even be up now, really."

"No," He said as harshly and loudly as be could. This caught her eye and she turned around, meeting his eyes. "I don't want anything. Please."

"Well, that's too bad, I'm not going to let you sit there in pain."

He made a feeble and laughable attempt at moving his hand towards the IV in his arm, only to realize there were restraints on his wrists. He looked down, confused at the sight of them.

"Yeah, you've tried talking us out of the drugs a few times already."

"Wait..." he said slowly, his brain trying to connect pieces that weren't making sense. "I've been awake before?"

"Only for a few minutes at a time. I don't know what you think, but you are in a lot of pain, and they're saying your heart is stressed, and their monitoring one of your head injuries. It's better for you to be out right now, okay?"

"My heart? What? What exactly happened to me?"

Max stared at him for a second, considering the right answer to tell him.

"I don't think we need to talk about that right now."

Her tone was full of pain and Mike, even in his altered state, knew to shut up for the moment. A silence fell over them as he tried to piece together anything he could remember, but it was all fuzzy.

"I just want to be able to think again." He said finally. He pulled against the restraints, but had no energy to fight and realized how tired he really was.

"See?" She questioned softly. "You dont have the energy to even move, so just relax okay? Don't try and play the hero. You already did that."

"I'm not." His eyes drifted towards hers. "I just hate this." A long silence, then- "I can't protect you, and..."

"I know." She cut him off sharply. "But you don't need to protect me right now. No ones here to hurt you. Or me."

He was quiet for a few seconds, looking at the wall sternly.

"I don't think you understand," He said quietly after some time. "I dont know what happened to me, but obviously it was nothing good. I'm not going to be able to 'relax'. I'm not going to let what happened to me happen to you-"

"It's not."

He shook his head, and it sent pain through every part of his body. He cringed visibly, and Max again had had enough.

"That's it." She reached for the call button for the nurse.

"Max, please..."

"I'm sorry." He knew she was, but it didn't matter.

"I want this to be over." He said softly, looking up at the ceiling.

And for a moment she didn't know if she was talking about the Carroll ordeal, or his life.

The nurse walked in, ready to administer him more pain meds, and according to Max, something that would render him unconscious again. In the very back of his head he knew half his thoughts were probably him being delusional, but he couldn't help it. He panicked completely. Suddenly he didn't even know where he was again, he had lost all thought and reason. He couldn't be put back out again, he just couldn't. He had to be awake, he had to protect her.

"Max, please, please don't let them. He's going to find us, he's going to find you, he's going to-"

"Mike, it's fine, you're not thinking clearly, you need to calm down. I'll be right here-" She looked quickly towards the nurse, apologetically. "He's delusional, I'm sorry."

"I am not. Please don't let them do this to me. Please."

"I'm sorry, Mike."

Then there was nothing.

. . . .

The steady beep of his cardiac monitor brought him back. This time he knew better than to open his eyes. He laid there quietly for a while, attempting desperately to arrange his thoughts but not succeeding.

"I know you're awake." A soft voice rang out across the room. His eyes snapped open, the muscles in them once again protesting in pain.

"There you are," She said with a smile at him. He didn't return it and he didn't say anything. He felt almost betrayed, among other things. They couldn't keep him here drugged foreve- he was useless like this, and he hated it.

"How are you feeling?"

No answer. By the look on his face Max knew immediately, with relief, that he must remember the last time he had been awake. She could deal with an angry Weston, but not a potentially brain damaged Weston, and the fact that he finally remembered being awake was progress. This was what the doctors had been looking for the last few days. Still, she couldn't help feeling bad for him, because she knew she wouldn't like what they were doing either if she was in his spot.

"I'm so sorry." She said quietly as the smile disappeared and she reached a hand out to stroke his hair. He flinched away unconsciously at the sudden movement, causing a spasm of pain to shoot across his face again.

"I didn't mean to do that, sorry," He mumbled, almost embarrassed.

"No, it's okay...I should have gone slower." She paused and swallowed hard, not knowing how to approach him now. "Can I touch you?"

He nodded slowly, looking into her eyes now.

"This isn't all going to go away in a day, you know," She said softly as she put her hand on his cheek.

Silence. They sat like that for quite some time, with Max running her fingers through his hair softly, hoping it eased some of the pain in his head. It didn't, of course. At some point she reached for his hand, awkwardly running into the restraints that were still around his wrist.

"So. Uh, you remember being awake before?" She finally asked. Another nod, as he turned things over in his head slowly.

"Just the one time. I think. I don't know... " He shook his head. "Maybe if you stopped giving me all these meds I could remember things."

She decided to ignore the last comment.

"Well good," she said with a small smile. "It may not seem like it, but that is progress at least."

Mike looked around the room hesitantly. "Has Ryan been here at all?"

"Oh course...he hasn't left the hospital. But you always seem to wake up when he's getting food or something. He's grabbing me dinner right now."

He suddenly realized he had no idea what time it was, followed by the fact that he didn't even know what day it was.

"How long have I been out for?"

"4 and a half days." She said grimly, closing her eyes tightly.

Silence again. Surprisingly, he was the one to break it first this time.

"How have you been, Max? You okay?" He asked it very quietly, almost as if he was afraid to ask.

She seemed taken aback by the question, as if no one had voiced a concern about her well being in quite some time. "Um...fine. Worried about you..." She smiled a little inside, triumphantly. He was finally done being an ass. For now.

"Besides that."

"I mean. I'm alright. Wasn't the easiest past couple of days..." She trailed off, looking elsewhere than at him.

"I'm sorry." He looked toward the ceiling. "I really am." More silence, and then- "I would have have a better apology but I can't even put two thoughts together in my head, and-"

"Hey. Stop." She made his eyes meet hers before she continued. "You have nothing to be sorry for... What are you even apologizing for?" At first she assumed it was about his stubbornness with the meds, but she could tell it was turning into something bigger.

"For... getting involved with you. I know you don't want to be with someone who keeps putting their life in danger, so I understand if-"

"Mike, stop it."

"No. I'm sorry. But I can't promise you that this will be the the last time I'm hurt, or even almost killed, and-"

"You're up." Ryan had appeared suddenly, leaning casually against the door frame.

Mike looked at Max to let her know this conversation is definitely not over and then slowly up at Ryan. The sight of Ryan brought him back to the reality of the situation more than anything. He wasn't safe, Ryan wasn't safe, and Max wasn't safe. No, this wasn't over- this was far, far from over.

But God, he wished more than anything it could be.