When Steve, EJ and Anna arrived on the third floor, Anna was touched to see Roman there. Since Bo and Hope were the investigating cops on the case, Roman must have been there for pure support.

"Roman…" Anna begged, rushing to her ex-husband. "Is Tony okay?"

Roman just shook his head tersely, too upset to say anything.

"Oh, my God!"

Anna rushed to Room 305 to see Lexie and Kayla in his room, surrounded by paramedics, using electric paddles on Tony.

"NO…OH NOOOH!!!" Anna cried out.

"What is going on?" Stefano was there, having returned to see the chaos. "What is happening to my son?"

As a quick afterthought, one of the paramedics pulled the blinds on the room, shutting out Tony's fight for life. "No…" Anna ran to the window, feeling like those closed blinds shut out her last connection to Tony. "Please…I never even got a chance to say I love you…I love you…"

"It's all right, Anna," Roman assured her. "He knows. He knows…"

Suddenly, the room swam in front of her eyes dizzily. She was just aware of Roman's strong arms catching her before all went black.

-----------------------------------

"Anna…Anna…"

Once more, Anna had been lost in that unreal fog, pulled back to cruel reality.

EJ was sitting beside her. She had been placed on a sofa in the lounge area.

"Here, Anna…" EJ offered her a glass of water. "You must drink this."

"Tony!? Is he…?"

EJ nodded with a reassuring smile.

"He gave us a scare, but Lexie and Kayla pulled him out of it."

Anna seriously wondered how much more she could take. When she thought that Tony was dying, she felt as if she were dying with him.

"I need to see him."

"Kayla really thinks he shouldn't have any visitors right now. That last time was a little too close."

"What happened?" Anna cried out. "Tony had been asleep when I left. Lexie told me he had been doing better. What made him get so bad so fast?"

EJ shook his head, bemused. "I'm not sure. Nicole had been in his room, visiting with him. Suddenly, he just took a turn for the worst."

Again, that cold creeping suspicion crossed Anna's mind.

"EJ…why is Nicole so interested in Tony?"

"How do you mean?"

"I mean that twice now she's been in his room when I thought it was policy that only close family members should be with him right now."

"Well, she is close. Tony's the godfather of our child; and I've noticed Nicole and Tony have been spending a lot of time together as of late."

"Oh, really…" Anna huffed. "And that doesn't bother you?"

"Why should it?"

Anna had no concrete answer to his question. As it was, their conversation was cut short when Nicole and Phillip Kiriakis entered the hospital lounge.

"This is so horrible…" Nicole volunteered in an innocent tone that Anna didn't quite believe. "Poor Tony. I hope he's going to be okay."

"We all hope so, sweetheart," EJ answered, admiring her with adoring eyes. "Why don't you call the house and check on Sydney. I worry about us being away from her for so long."

"That's a good idea," Nicole nodded, seeming all too relieved to leave.

Upset as Anna was, she noticed considerable hostility between EJ and Phillip.

"I'll just see how Tony's doing now." EJ abruptly stood up. "Anna, may I get you anything?"

Anna shook her head. Only a miracle…

Once EJ had left, Phillip Kiriakis approached her, his expression morose.

"I'm so sorry, Anna. What happened to Tony was an accident. You have to believe me!"

Anna studied the young man in front of her. He looked as if he were expecting her to lash out at him. She knew of the swirling accusations and suspicion against Phillip after his confrontation with Tony at the pier. But she was so confused. Since when had Tony had any hostilities with Phillip?

"I really don't understand…" she ventured, looking up at him. "What was going on with you and Tony?"

Phillip's expression became closed off.

"It was business," he answered shortly.

"What sort of business would Tony have with you?"

"I really can't get into it right now."

That pushed Anna's buttons.

"Phillip, I am a wife who is watching her husband fight for his life! Whatever business it was, it can't have been so damned important."

Phillip sighed. "We were in competition over a business venture, that's all."

"A business…?" Anna strained her memory. "Wait a minute, this isn't about Nick Fallon's project, is it?"

Phillip's silence gave her the answer.

"Tony and you were in a shoving match over that silly project?"

"It was a project worth millions of dollars."

"I DON'T CARE!!!" Anna raged before getting hold of herself.

But then she began to question the matter. She'd heard Tony mention that project a few times casually in the past. But when had he become so obsessed about it to the point of violence? Why was he so obsessed? She thought that he had wanted to gain his financial independence through their advertising company. And even so, fighting over a business project was unlike Tony. He could be brutally savage when it came to boardroom meetings and business deals, but he wasn't a thug about it.

"Anyway, I'm sorry…"

Anna glanced at Phillip, almost having forgotten he was there.

"It doesn't matter. As long as Tony lives, that's all. That's all that matters."

"Anna?" Roman appeared in the lounge. "You can go see Tony now."

Standing up suddenly, the room began to spin again.

"Here, let me help you." Roman took her by the arm, leading her to the elevator. "You know maybe you have low blood sugar or something. Can I get you something to eat?"

"I can't possibly choke down anything right now."

"Lady, this is the first time I've ever known you not to have an appetite…in all the years I've known you."

"This is the first time I've been so damned scared."

Roman gave her a reassuring hug just before the elevator arrived.

"Tony's conscious right now," Lexie informed her, once they arrived at Room 305. "We had to do emergency surgery on him, but he's come out from the anesthesia. He still can't talk, but I know he wants to see you." The doctor didn't have to tell her twice!

Anna rushed into Tony's room. He still looked agonized and miserable, but he was breathing.

"Tony, don't you dare scare me like that ever again!" she cried out, unable to help herself.

Her husband rewarded her with a weak smile, still unable to disguise the pain in his eyes.

Maybe it was the relief of seeing Tony alive, but she felt more dizzy and tired than ever. Going to the small hospital closet at the right side of the room, she found a thick pillow and placed it along the side of his bed, wedged between the bed railing and the armrest of a nearby chair.

"I see you're going to misbehave if I leave you alone for a minute…" she lectured crossly as she adjusted her position, half lying and half sitting across the chair and the pillow. "And I'll have you know that if I survive this torture device of a chair, I'm getting a deluxe package at the spa with a big hunky Swedish masseuse with hands of magic, Mister! And I don't want to hear any complaints about it either."

As she laid her head against the pillow, she noticed Tony was trying to move the fingers of his right hand. Taking his hand in her own, she squeezed it tightly.

"I love you, do you know that?" she said softly. "That's why you have to get well. You have to."

Closing her eyes, she held on to Tony's hand, listening to the beeping of the heart rate monitor…and once more returned to the fog…

-----------------------------------

A horrible groan woke Anna up.

"Tony?" she asked, even before opening her eyes.

"The anesthesia's wearing off a bit." Anna was startled to see Kayla in the room, and she wondered just how long she'd been asleep. Tony was also awake, seeming more active than she'd seen him before. "He's doing much better. Seems like the emergency surgery we did on the damage to his heart did the trick. He's going to be in pain though."

"But he's going to live?"

"I can't make any promises, but things are definitely looking better."

Tony released Anna's hand and even pointed to a notepad and pen.

"Tony!" Anna exclaimed as she reached for the stuff. "You can move around now. That's wonderful!"

With an effort, Tony began to scrawl on the paper. LOVE U, the note said.

"I love you too, Tony..." Anna swore. "So much. All of this has just been a horrible nightmare, but we'll get through it. I know we will."

Then Tony wrote...EJ.

"EJ?" You want to see him?"

Tony nodded.

"I'll see if he's outside," Kayla volunteered.

Anna didn't like the idea of Tony seeing his brother. Something bad had been going on before she got back to Salem. Something that had to do with Nicole. She didn't like it.

"Um, Kayla? Could I speak to you a second?"

"Of course."

"Outside?"

Kayla looked a little confused. "Sure."

"I'll be back in a second, lover..." Anna promised, kissing Tony on the cheek before following Kayla out into the hall.

Once they were alone, she felt she could speak freely.

"I really don't think it's a good idea for Tony to see EJ right now."

Kayla shrugged. "I don't see why he can't have visitors if he wants."

"Look..." Anna glanced down the hallway before speaking. She saw EJ pacing up and down the hall, coffee cup in hand. And there was Nicole, staring at her from across the room with a bizarre intensity. Anna didn't understand it, but she was certain that she had to stop whatever was going on. "When I first came into Tony's room, Nicole was there. And Tony's heart rate monitor was going berserk. It seemed as if he were about to have a stroke or something."

Kayla wrinkled her brow with curiosity.

"What do you think was going on?"

"I have no idea. But I just worry about other people upsetting him, especially Stefano. And if EJ's allowed to see him, then you know Stefano's going to demand to see him. And I just don't think Tony needs anyone upsetting him right now after all that happened before. Something's going on that I don't know about. All I know is that it was stressing Tony out, endangering his life."

Kayla looked skeptical.

"Please..." Anna begged. "Could you just let me be the only visitor for a while? Just until we know he's going to be okay? Maybe I'm being overprotective but...I don't need to tell you what it's like to be afraid for your husband's life. I don't need to tell you what it's like to be here like this."

Kayla's eyes darkened with painful memories before she nodded her head. "I understand. If that's what you want, sure."

"Thank you."

"Okay, I'll be back in a few."

With that, Anna returned to Tony's room.

"Sorry, Kayla doesn't think you're up to visitors, after all. Looks like you're stuck with just me, Mister."

He underlined EJ on the notepad, following it with an explanation point.

"Patience is a virtue, Count Dimera. You'll see EJ when you're better. Right now, your health is the only important thing."

He sighed petulantly, throwing the notepad down on the floor in disgust.

"Now don't be a bad boy, Tony..." Anna soothed, sitting beside him and stroking his hair. "Though it's nice to see you're getting your hot temper back. But you'll just have to accept that right now I'm the boss. Hmmm, I rather like the sound of that."

Despite his annoyance, Tony could not help but smile a little, a small sparkle in his eye.

Anna took his hand and brought it to her lips. She could feel him brush his fingertip softly against her cheek. And for the first time since that plane from Chicago, she felt like she could breathe again.