Thank you guys so much for all the amazing reviews, I've never had so many for one fic/chapter and it really made my day. So special thanks and lots of hugs to lily moonlight, tina, saturn567, terriberri23, new-york-babeee, afrozenheart412, Country_Girl23, falling into heaven, LacytheDemonicDuck and monkeytoes94. You guys are all amazing and so I give you chapter 2, hope you enjoy it.

Also I apologise for any mistakes, I just got a new laptop and I'm still getting used to the new keyboard so apologies in advance.

Chapter 2

Don had been given a couple of days off to stay with Jess, the captain had been more than understanding over the last two months and Don would have to remember to thank him for it later. He'd barely left her side since she'd woken up, other than toilet breaks, a trip home to the shower and the brief times he'd left to let her family have the time they needed. Everyone from the lab had been there at some point yesterday and by the time everyone but him had left Jess had been a little overwhelmed. She'd fallen to sleep easily and Don had nodded off in the chair by her bedside only to be woken up by Joyce the next morning while the nurse was giving Jess her medication.

She seemed more relaxed than yesterday, a little more settled and he was pleased to see her looking just that little bit less fragile. The tubes and wires were gone, the last of them having been removed that morning. She was starting to look a little more like the Jess he was used to though he knew she was still far it. She was currently flicking through TV channels, mumbling something about crap television.

"There's nothing on," she finally gave up and put the remote down. "Think they'll let me out of here anytime soon?"

"No," was his blunt answer but he did sympathise with her. After the bombing that had landed him in here he'd been desperate to get out, to go home. She glared at him as she reached for the water beside her bed, struggling slightly but Don had already learned not to get it for her. Once she'd gotten enough of her strength back she'd given him an earful when he'd passed her the box of chocolates she'd been reaching for, claiming she was perfectly capable of doing it herself. He put it down to frustration; she didn't like not being able to do things for herself and now she was struggling with the basics. She managed to grab the glass and drink from it, stretching once again to put it back.

Don ran a hand through his hair as he sat back in his chair, it was a few seconds before he realised Jess was staring at him.

"You need to go home tonight," she stated her voice betraying the fact that she didn't want him to.

"No, I'm good," he told her and she shook her head.

"You've been here since I woke up Don, other than the hour you took to go get a shower and change this morning. You need a decent a decent night's sleep and you've got a far better chance of getting it if you go home and sleep in a bed."

"Not likely," he muttered and Jess reached for his hand.

"I'm not going to disappear if you go home and you're not working tomorrow so you can come right back in the morning. You can bring me breakfast too because I can't eat any more of that gloop they tried to tell me was food this morning," Jess told him and Don looked at her for several moments, considering the idea and not liking it. She was right though, he did need the sleep and he wouldn't have to be gone that long, six hours was plenty enough sleep for him.

"Alright, I'll go, but not until later," he said as he kissed the back of her hand. "And your dad should be here in about an hour so once he gets here I'll head down to your favourite sandwich shop and bring you back lunch."

"Sounds good," Jess replied quietly. "Can you pass me the chocolates Lindsay brought for me?" she asked and Don raised an eyebrow at her but got the chocolates for her anyway.

"Oh before I forget, Lindsay's gonna bring Lucy by this afternoon, just for a quick visit, she thought it might cheer you up," Don informed her and Jess smiled.

"It would," she said. "I bet she's got so big."

"She has but you'll see for yourself this afternoon," Don told her enjoying the first bit of excitement he'd seen from her since she'd woken up.

Leaving the hospital knowing he wouldn't be coming back until the following day was harder than he'd expected and he'd expected it to be very hard. It was so hard he had yet to manage to do it; he kept finding reasons not go yet, to put it off just a little while longer. He didn't want to go, he didn't like it and if he had his way he would be staying right where he was, unfortunately it seemed to be Jess getting her way on this occasion.

"I'm putting my foot down Don, or at least I would be if I could get up without falling and ruining the whole effect. You're leaving, go home, sleep, shower, eat, buy me breakfast and then you can come back, and don't think you can sleep for a couple of hours and then come back either, I don't want to see you for at least seven hours," she told him and held up a hand to cut off his protest. "That gives you enough time to drive, buy me breakfast, change and shower as well sleep and if I think you haven't done all of them I'll be sending you right back out."

He sighed. "Fine."

"Good," Jess replied, the stern look leaving her face. He knew she didn't want him to go any more than he did and it was only making it harder to actually go. He hovered in the room for a moment before Jess rolled her eyes. "Go Don."

"Alright, I'm going," he stated and leant over the bed to kiss her. It was light and quick and not nearly enough for him but that fragile look had yet to go away and it made him far too wary of hurting her, which he knew was irrational but he couldn't help it. "I'll see you in the morning."

She nodded her head and he swore if she looked any more teary eyed then he was planting his butt back in that chair and staying there, foot down or not. She gave him a small smile though and told him to go again; reluctantly he managed to drag himself out of the room not even daring to look back as he left. He was in the car by the time he was able to take a deep breath and convince himself he wasn't going to go back in.

He'd lost so much time with her, he'd thought he lost her a few times and wasted what time he'd already had. It had made him realise things, things he'd already known on some level and things he needed to tell her because she had a right to know and because it would have killed him if he'd lost her and she hadn't known. It had to wait though, he didn't want to tell her while she was still in the hospital, more or less stuck in her bed and resisting the urge to cry far more often than he liked.

Once she was out though he would tell her, he would tell her everything, this was his second chance, there was no way he was wasting it. He started the car and drove back to his apartment, throwing a microwave dinner into the microwave and heading though to his bedroom. He grabbed the black duffel bag from his closet and threw it on his bed, going through the things of Jess's that he had at his place so he could take some of them to her tomorrow, she'd probably feel a little better if she had some of her own things around her.

Despite being tired Jess had struggled to fall asleep but thankfully once she'd managed it she didn't wake up again until morning. A nurse had come in with her meds and left again telling her breakfast would be along shortly which Jess had turned down. She'd managed to get to the bathroom with a little help from the nurse and returned to her bed feeling pleased with herself because her legs had seemed far less shaky. She'd flicked through TV channels again leaving one on more for background noise than anything and instead grabbed one of the magazines Stella had brought for her. It seemed like forever before Don arrived almost exactly seven hours after he left.

"Hey," he said as he kissed her quickly and handed her the bag with a breakfast sandwich in it. She ate that while he put his black duffel bag on the end of her bed and started taking stuff out of it. "I know Stella and Lindsay bought you a lot of the stuff you needed but I brought your book that you left at my place, your shampoo, a bunch of other things that I found in my bathroom cabinet and some clothes."

"Good, I can get out of this hospital gown then," she said as she reached for her sweat pants that he was holding up. He gave them to her along with her baggy blue top and then pulled out his huge grey hoodie that she always wore when she cold at his place. She pulled it into her, it smelled like him, as well as it being big and cosy, it was the secret reason she loved to wear it. "Aren't you eating?" she asked surprised when he sat down in the chair beside her bed without food.

"I had mine on the way here, you didn't think it was going to just sit in the bag next to me did you?" he joked and she smiled and shook her head.

"Of course not, what was I thinking?" she questioned rhetorically as she finished the remainder of her sandwich and then tried to get out of the bed to change. Don moved to close the blinds on the window and door as she stood by herself, shaky but doing it alone. She leaned against the bed to pull on the sweat pants which was the hardest part and then changed into the top and hoodie before climbing back into the bed feeling very victorious. "That was hard work," she sighed.

"You're getting better though, you wouldn't have been able to do that yesterday," Don commented and she nodded her head. It was strange how being able to get changed without any help felt like such a big achievement.

"The nurse reckons I'll be strong enough to start physiotherapy tomorrow, nothing big but she thinks making a start will be a good idea," Jess told him and Don nodded.

"It'll be good to get you moving around again," he said as he looked over her.

"I'm fine Don," she told him quietly. "I might not be a hundred percent but I'm getting there."

"I know," he replied as he stood up and kissed her.

"And I'll be fine when you leave again tonight," she stated and almost had to laugh at the look on his face. "You're going home again, you have work in the morning and you need your sleep," she continued, as much as she didn't like the idea that she wouldn't see him all night and then all day she knew he had to leave. He couldn't be here all the time and besides, her brothers were planning on spending most of the day with her tomorrow, she had a feeling it was because they knew Don had to work but she hadn't questioned them.

"I could ask the Captain to give me a couple more days off," he suggested and she shook her head.

"Save them for when I get out of here."

TBC

Next chapter: The road to recovery isn't quiet so easy.