My very first A2A story, please be nice, and reviews and constructive criticism would be super :)
He didn't know why he came here every day. He didn't know why he brought her flowers every week on a Friday either, especially when she couldn't see them and didn't know they were there. He didn't know why he held her hand or asked her advice. He knew she couldn't feel the brief contact of his hand on hers or answer him back. And he definitely didn't know why he didn't tell Chris and Shaz.
They noticed. They noticed he didn't come into Luigi's as early, if at all. They noticed how much pressure he was under now, how he looked at Alex's desk as though asking her to help him. She wasn't there.
Every day he would ask the nurses how she was and if there was any change. There never was. Sometimes he imagined she squeezed his hand or her eyes moved beneath her eyelids. They didn't. The doctors told him there was still brain activity and therefore there was still hope. Keep talking... she might wake up...
Guilty, he felt guilty. She was right about King Douglas Lane, he should've listened. She was always bloody right. Why hadn't he trusted her? If he had maybe she wouldn't have been shot...
Alex had been in a coma for six weeks, five days and 23 hours. Not that he was counting. Time moved slowly on. Cases came and went. Things happened. He kept visiting her, kept on talking to her, kept asking her doctors and her nurses if there was any change. There never was.
He wasn't there when she finally woke up. He couldn't believe it when her nurse told him Alex was awake. He felt tense, nervous. Would she remember him sitting by her bedside every night? Did she remember him begging her to wake up, to help him? He thought about not going in to see her. But Shaz had gone home to Essex for the weekend and Chris was, well... Chris and he didn't want Alex to think they didn't care about her, that they weren't thinking about her. So he bought a bunch of grapes and a balloon that said 'Get Well Soon!' He talked again to her doctor and to her nurse. His heart lurched. She'd only said one word since she'd come round, "Gene..."
Of course that's what she'd say. The nurse showed him in. Now she was awake, still drowsy from the drugs, she seemed paler somehow. Her eyes were even bigger and shinier and greener than he remembered. She blinked, still groggy. And she just looked at him and this time, she said his name.
"Ray..?"