Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, they belong to the BBC. If I did own them, this would have happened on TV ;)
Her breathing slowly began to reach its normal rate, and she attempted to lift her head, but whimpered when a pain shot down her neck and spine. A good half an hour had passed since they'd spun off the road and crashed, and Karen swore she must have passed out at least twice.
"Rob?" she called out to him; it was barely a whisper. She could not find any strength in her body to move nor speak. But he heard her.
"Karen?"
He managed to sit back up, he hadn't been hit as hard as her. He pushed against the blood-stained air bags that surrounded him, trying to find her hand.
"Karen, are you okay?"
"I-" she began, but felt too weak to be able to finish her cry for help. Rob eventually found her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.
"We'll be alright, where are you hurt?" he asked her in a soothing tone, trying to stay calm as possible. Karen didn't answer, just continued to inhale and exhale deeply; her forehead rested against the steering wheel. Rob turned to face her, and when he saw her, burst into tears. His Karen, his sweetheart Karen, flopped against the steering wheel, blood pouring from her right ear and both nostrils, her mouth partially open allowing a single stream of blood to trickle down her chin, and drip onto an air bag below. Her cheeks were red and scratched; her white blouse turned shades of pink and red; her skin pale and body lifeless. If it weren't for the heavy rise and fall of Karen's chest, Rob could've sworn she was dead. Tears ran down both of their cheeks.
"Oh my God Karen I-"
"It's okay" she interrupted him, not moving from the limp position she was in. Rob quickly got out the car – the door had broken off when they'd crashed into the tree. He jumped over the crushed car bonnet, unaware he'd broken his arm, and fell to the snow-covered ground in extreme pain. Taking another look at Karen through the windscreen, he got himself up and opened the car door on her side.
He reached out his hand and placed it on top of hers, "I am so sorry" he whispered. He lifted his hand to her cheek and gently touched a cut with the back of his hand. She winced in pain. "Sorry," he placed his hand back onto hers. "Come on beautiful, let me get you out at least"
Rob gently placed a hand on each of Karen's shoulders and pulled her slowly into a position in which he could pick her up and place her on the jacket he had lay on the snow. He then put her into the recovery position he had learnt in a first aid lesson back when he was just 13. Leaning down, he placed a kiss on her bruised forehead as she drifted off into another sleep.
Rob had called an ambulance soon after and they had both been rushed off to the hospital. Rob escaped with minor cuts, bruises and a broken arm. Karen however, had taken a serious blow to the head, and had broken her right leg. The head injury was really serious and they kept her in intensive care, closely monitoring her heart rate and brain activity every other minute. They had allowed Rob to sit in there with her, whilst she lay perfectly still on the crisp white sheets of the hospital bed, the only movement being the gentle rise and fall of her chest. Rob sat on a red armchair placed next to the bed with a sling on his arm and a bloody bandage wrapped around his head.
"She'll make it through, won't she?"
A nurse gave Rob an apologetic look, and crouched in front of him.
"It's 60 – 40," she explained, "60 she'll survive and 40 she won't. We're doing everything we can. That's all I'm really allowed to tell you". She again smiled apologetically and went back to the machines and technology she and another doctor were working on. He sighed, scared at the possibility of losing her. He knew it was likely she'd be fine, but his head wouldn't stop thinking 'what if she doesn't'. Rob stroked Karen's hand, and eventually fell asleep in the chair he was sat in, still holding her limp hand.
"Rob? Rob? Rob!" echoed through his head; as his eyes fluttered open the sound became clearer. "Rob!" a familiar voice called his name. A huge smiled plastered his face as he turned to his left to see Karen's pretty little face looking up, a radiant smile beaming up at him. "Hiya" she said, a laugh behind her words.
"Hi!" he sighed in relief, and leaned down to give her a small kiss on her lips, "You're okay!"
"Debatable," she joked slightly, "I'm alive, anyway. I'm on crutches for a month though, don't know how I'll manage that with my stair aerobics" (meaning having to rush up and down stairs at Waterloo Road all day, everyday) and giggled a little, not taking her eyes off Rob for a second. He laughed.
"Here you are in a hospital bed, covered in blood, glass stuck in your neck and a broken leg, and you're making jokes? You're turning into me!"
They both laughed a little, but soon both happy faces turned into straight, serious ones. They stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like forever, until Rob said: "I love you"
Karen kept her eyes locked on his, and whispered, "I love you too" and reached up her hand to cup his cheek, implying for him to kiss her. And he did. Just as he was about to sit back up into his chair, Karen flung her arms around his neck, stopping him from moving any further, their noses touching.
"I love you more"
"I love you more more"
"I love you even more!"
"That's not possible, Miss Fisher" and he kissed her again, through misty eyes. They hadn't really said those words to each other before, only when they had slipped out by accident. And now, they were saying them to each other over and over again, and he really meant it, every word of it.
