Hours passed without any word, and slowly but surely, Vince had escaped completely into himself. The only person he would speak to at all was E's mom, and then it was only to answer a question or to make sure that she was okay. Shauna and Ari were called in to deal with the people waiting outside the hospital, but Vince couldn't be bothered to care. His agent and publicist came inside to talk to him, but he really didn't say anything. He only nodded and signed off on whatever statement Shauna wanted to release. Ari mentioned something about the movie but Turtle called him off. It didn't matter any way. Vince hadn't heard a single word.

Drama brought him another cup of coffee and handed over E's BlackBerry, which was buzzing with messages about things that didn't really matter and a few things that almost did. Turtle offered to sneak him in some weed, but Vince silently declined. He turned down his mother's pleas for him to eat or Turtle's mom's insistence that the boys take a walk. He did agree to go down to the chapel with E's mom to say a prayer, but he just say there while she had her words with God. And when they came back upstairs to wait for anything, something, from the surgeon, Vince went right back to his chair and sitting basically alone in silence.

Finally, after Ari had screamed at a poor nurse long enough, the chief of surgery had deigned them important enough to have a face-to-face conversation about Eric's condition. There were complications from his injuries that the doctors hadn't seen before paired with an adverse reaction to the medication he had been on. They were working hard to repair the damage, but Eric was going to be touch and go for the next twenty-four hours or so. Turtle asked the one question that they were all asking but couldn't bear to say. The surgeon assured him that E's chances for recovery were very good, but that was all he could really tell them at this point with any certainty.

It was only after twelve more hours, marking the three-day anniversary of Vince's arrival at the hospital, that they finally brought a sleeping Eric back down to his room. E's mom was ushered inside, Vince at her side, for another debriefing about his condition. He left briefly to tell them what little else they knew before closing the door to E's room and sitting quietly at his side. E's mom left a half hour later to call back to Queens to give Eric's only sister an update on his condition. Drama went down to the lobby with her and Shauna for protection, his eyes scanning the visitors in case any overly ambitious paparazzi decided to make their move.

When they were alone again, Vince went over and drew the blinds, not wanting anyone to watch him interact with his friend. He sat by Eric's side and started talking all over again, like he had before when he'd woken up the first time. When he ran out of things to talk about, he started reading from the script that Turtle had stashed in the bottom of his bag. He read the words that would soon appear on the screen, wondering if Eric would like the latest blockbuster that Ari had sent over. It seemed decent, but he never made a call without running it by E first. He kept waiting for Eric to sit up and tell him that he was overacting but that never came. He only heard the soft sigh of his breathing and the constant hum of the machines around him.

Turtle knocked on the door and stuck his head in. "Think I could get a minute with him, Vin?"

Vince closed his eyes and nodded, not really caring if Turtle had seen him holding his best friend's hand. "Yeah, I'll go get some more coffee," he said as he brushed past his friend. Turtle stopped and put his arm around him from the side, hugging him awkwardly. Vince understood that this was Turtle's way of telling him that he knew and that it was okay and that whatever happened, it would always be the four of them. "Need anything?"

"Nah, just a minute with our boy here, ya know?"

There was another nod before Vince was gone, leaving Turtle behind to talk to Eric. "Fuck," he muttered, slamming his hand against the wall. He didn't know why he was upset this time, just that he was feeling restless. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

"Vince, baby, c'mon, let's get you out of here," Ari attempted, but Vince shouldered his hand off him violently. Drama came over to try to appease him, but he proved as fruitless as Rita and Ari had.

It was only when E's mom returned that he calmed down, and then only so that she didn't have something else to worry about. "Vincent, what do you say that you take me for a walk?"

He followed Eric's mother for awhile as they wandered aimlessly, ignoring the probing looks from people surprised to see the famous Vincent Chase walking the halls of their humble hospital. He didn't seem to notice much other than Eric's mom's arm looped through his and the clicking sound of her heels on the tile floor and the sterile smell of isopropyl alcohol in the air. "Vincent, you can't keep doing this. They're all hurting too. It's not just you and me worried about Eric. Your mother is just trying to help, Johnny and Salvatore, too."

Drama and Turtle probably understood why he was this way, his mother too. Still, he knew that she was right and that it didn't excuse how he'd been treating everyone. He'd been the selfish prick the press made him out to be sometimes. "I'm sorry, you're right, it's just hard."

"He wouldn't want you doing this to yourself. I know that's hard, especially since I know how bad Eric would be if it were you in that bad. Honestly, I'm not sure which would be harder on him. Eric has always needed you, Vince. I know that people think it's the other way around, but I've always known better. You need each other."

"Always have, always will," Vince conceded. "I just...it's more now."

"I know," she said softly. "Eric told me."

His eyes flashed to hers. "What do you mean?"

"That's what we were talking about when Eric had his seizure," she finally admitted. She hadn't wanted to tell Vince that they had been fighting when her son had started to fight for his life, but the truth was that they had been angry with each other. "He told me that things had changed between you, that there were a lot of things he needed to tell me. He was trying to make sense of everything, and I didn't want to hear it. I'm a Catholic, Vincent, my faith teaches me that it's a mortal sin. I was upset, we were fighting. He got really upset, and now the last thing I could have ever said to my son was that these feelings he is having...for you...were wrong."

He turned away Eric's mother angrily, letting a stream of curse words fly under his breath. "Your son just told you the hardest fucking thing we have ever had to deal with in our life and you tell him that it's wrong?" he sneered in a whisper. His head understood but his heart couldn't make sense of it. "I know that a lot of people are going to say it's not right, but for once, Eric actually didn't care. He just cared about how he felt. I love your son, do you understand that? I know what it means. Maybe you're going to condemn us, and I could deal with that if it was just me. But I know how much Eric loves you."

His thoughts were unorganized, and he knew that he wasn't really making any sense. His emotions had always ruled his words and dealing with Eric's mom after that fight wasn't any different. "You are absolutely right," she told him. Tears welled in her blue eyes, but she wouldn't let them fall. She had to be strong for Eric, for both of her boys, right now. "I know that you love Eric and that he loves you. I just know how hard this is going to be and I wanted more for my son. I wanted him to have an easier life than his father and I ever had back in Queens. You've both worked so hard to get to this place."

"I won't let E go down for this," Vince promised her, pushing down his angry feelings to look her in the eyes. "Even if it means walking away from everything so that he can keep his career, I'll do it. He means that much to me."

Eric's mother looked at him solemnly and nodded before Drama came jogging around the corner. "Bro, E's awake!" he shouted as soon as he saw Vince. "Come on, he's asking for you."

Vincent rushed past his brother, his friends and their mothers before bursting into E's room. He dropped to his knees beside Eric's bed as E struggled to keep his eyes open. "Vin," he whispered. "You left."

"Never, E," he assured him softly. "How you feeling?"

"Like fucking death," he answered. "I guess I wasn't so far off."

A doctor came in and pushed Vince out of the room again before going to check on his vitals and take him back down for another round of tests. Vince came out and apologized to everyone, his eyes lingering on his mother. Eric's mother didn't say anything further about the fight that she'd had with Eric. Vince was still a little upset at her for putting E through it in the first place. Rita sat between her boys as they both kept their eyes fixed at the end of the hallway, waiting for a peak of Eric's return. Turtle made some crack about Vince, which caused the movie star to crack a genuine smile for the first time in awhile and flip him off. Rita elbowed her son in the ribs, while Turtle's mom smacked him on the back of the head and reminded him yet again that they were in public.

The surgeon came back down, a clipboard on his hip. "Mrs. Murphy, I have more news about your son," he announced. "Everything is looking stable again. We're going to keep him in close observation, but I have reason to believe that everything is going to be perfectly fine. We're going to bring Eric back down soon. He is asking to see Mr. Chase first."

"Vincent, you go ahead and wait for him," Eric's mom prodded him, nudging him toward the door. This was her way of apologizing, and maybe someday, they would both be able to forget what had happened today. Mrs. Murphy might never get over the fact that her religion deemed them both as sinners, but he really didn't care. You don't get to choose who you fall in love with, and even if he could, Vincent still would have chosen Eric every single time.

This thought was on his mind when they rolled Eric back into the room and transferred him into the bed. A kind nurse tucked the blankets up around Eric's shoulders and smiled over at Vince affectionately. She was an older woman with a kind smile and had been the one taking care of Eric for most of his stay. She seemed to notice that there was something deeper here than a friendship but didn't feel the need to speculate. "I'll be back in awhile to check on you, just ring if you need me."

"Thanks, Gladys," Vince replied without ever breaking the gaze Eric had on him. "Yo."

"Yo," E said with a smile.

"You alright, E?"

Eric shook his head before shrugging. "Fuck if I know, doc says I'm going to be," he managed despite how sore his throat still was. Everything was still coming out hoarse, just when he needed strength in his voice most. "Vin, I told my mom."

"I know," he assured him, rubbing his hand over E's arm soothingly. "It's fine, we'll deal with it later. You can't get upset like that again. I won't have you scaring me like that again."

"I don't know why I told her or even what I told her," he said, ignoring what Vince had just said. "There isn't really even anything to tell her yet, is there? I mean, what do I say? Sorry about those grandkids that you wanted, but I'm into dudes now."

"Dudes?"

"Dude, you, whatever," Eric muttered. "God, even like this, it's all about stroking your ego?"

"I can think of a few things else I'd rather you stroke when you're up to it."

Eric started to laugh before grasping his side in pain. He reached out and punched Vince on the shoulder, the impact surprisingly hard given his current state. "You asshole, I'm not supposed to laugh," he moaned in pain. "Vince, I'm serious, we have to figure things out before we get out of here."

"You said you needed time. I'm giving you time."

"Well, I don't need time. I don't know what I need."

Vince moved closer and pressed his cool forehead against E's warm forearm. "You need me," he said softly, knowing that it was true. "You need to get better. You need to walk out of here with me so we can figure out how we're going to do this. Together."

"I should be so fucking pissed at you."

"Furious," Vince agreed. "I mean, you still can be if you want. I'm pretty good at getting you over being mad at me, and since the situation has changed, I can activate a whole new arsenal of tools. I know a few that have worked pretty well for me in the past, in fact."

"Vince, I'm not just another one of your girls," Eric reminded him uselessly. That much was obvious at this point. "You can't just buy me a sparkling piece of jewelry and soothe over the fact that you're disappearing for a few weeks or you used the wrong choice of words or you accidentally fell into some girl's pussy."

Vince chortled at E's last example before looking at him seriously. "E, first of all, I don't think a diamond pendant is up your alley. I was thinking more about those Armani cuff links that you liked so much a few weeks ago or maybe a new Rolex," he pondered aloud. "If that doesn't work, I can always go for something bigger. You liked when I bought you that car, didn't you? As for saying the wrong thing, I'm probably going to do that. I do that. A lot. You know that. But I'll always apologize and you'll forgive me because you know when I mean something and when I don't."

"And the girls?"

"There is no one else after you, E," Vincent said genuinely. He threaded his fingers through Eric's and looked down at with him all the heartfelt sincerity he could muster. It was the smile that had caused screaming girls all over the world to swoon, but it was all directed at Eric Murphy. "I mean it, E, I love you."

It was the first time he had said it outright like that, but it seemed to be the only way to convince Eric that he was being honest about this. That he meant it more than any line in any script he had ever said. No one could have written a story like this. It would be the best work of his life, a real-life love story between a manager and a super star, two roughnecks from Queens, a couple of guys who just happened to get lucky to find their best friend and the love of their life in the same person.

"I love you, too," Eric said after what seemed like an eternity. "You need to tell Ari. And Shauna. And the guys. Oh, God, Turtle is going to die. And Johnny...What about your mom?"

"Well, I think that Turtle might already know, though I'm not sure. Johnny will find a way to be okay with it. It might not be what he expected, but at least it will leave more girls for them," Vince joked. "As for my mom, E, I won't lie to you. She's not going to like it. That's fine, I can deal with that."

"Ari is going to kill me."

"He'll have to go through me first," Vince reminded him protectively. Even as friends, that had always been their promise to each other. They would always have the other's back, and you didn't fight one without expecting the other. "Ari wants me as his client, so he'll deal with it. Shauna too."

"You need to think about getting back to Canada."

"Not going anywhere, E," he shot back automatically. "Ari has talked to them. I have at least a week. They're not going to fire me if they want to finish thing. It would take too long to recast and do reshoots. If you're doing better tomorrow, I might even let you talk to Ari. For now, though, you need to not worry about it. You need to focus on your recovery."