Chapter 4

Russell stayed with Julie while she slept, the same fear going through his mind; what if she did slip into the coma again? But as he watched her sleep he knew that was not a possibility. There was a big difference between Julie in a coma versus Julie asleep; that difference being the way she moved restlessly in the bed. She pulled at the blankets, and then kicked them away a few minutes later. She moved from laying on her right side to her left, even letting her arm hang off the edge of the bed. He tried not to laugh at her movements but he couldn't help it. His joy at watching her was short lived when the nurse shooed him away when visiting hours ended for the day.

Julie slept through the entire night, waking the next morning to bright sunshine spilling into her room and an energetic feeling flowing through her. The nurse brought her breakfast, checked her vitals then said "You have some visitors."

She motioned for them to come in and Julie's eyes filled with tears at the sight of Sara and Morgan stepping into the room.

"Long time no see," Sara joked while Morgan smiled meekly.

"More like an eternity," Julie said motioning for them to sit with her.

Sara took the chair by the bed and handed Julie a bag of clean clothes and her cell phone from home.

"Thank you," Julie sighed relieved scrambling out of bed and hobbling on shaky legs to the bathroom to change.

When she came back, she settled back in bed much more comfortable now and began checking her phone. There were over two hundred missed emails, calls and texts. She sighed and put the phone down not wanting to deal with all of that right now.

"So how do you feel?" Sara asked.

"Better," Julie said "ready to go home, if these people would ever let me leave."

"They will," Sara assured her.

"Well the sooner the better," Julie said "I have so much to do, cases to finish, Winthrop's ass to kick."

"Uh that's not gonna happen," Sara said "we're handling your cases and you know Russell's not gonna let you near Winthrop."

"Oh I'll find a way," Julie said determined.

Morgan let out a cross between a cry and a whimper at those words. Julie looked at her and saw tears in her eyes, and that she was hovering by the bed rather than sitting down.

"What's with her?" Julie asked Sara.

"She's been taking all this really hard," Sara said sadly of Morgan's distant emotional state the last month.

Julie remembered Russell telling her that Greg and Morgan had found her in the trunk of that car and imagined how scary that must have been for her friends.

"Morgan," Julie said gently "I'm o.k. now; I promise I won't do anything to Winthrop."

"You don't have to say that just to cheer me up," Morgan said "I know you want to hurt him, I do too, it's just, I don't want to see you get hurt again."

She hung her head to hide her tears but they wouldn't stop falling. It occurred to Julie just how difficult this was on everyone and that they really did care about her. She slipped out of the bed and went to Morgan, embracing her and letting her cry out the last month's worth of emotions she had been clinging too. When Morgan finished crying she looked at Julie and said very sternly "Don't scare us like that again o.k.?"

"I'll try," Julie said truthfully realizing how many close calls she had had with death in her three short years with LVPD.

Morgan nodded in understanding wiping away her tears.

"Hey now," Julie said "we have another girls weekend to plan don't we?"

Morgan smiled as Julie climbed back into bed and motioned for Morgan to sit with her. She sat cross legged on the edge of the bed while Sara scooted her chair closer and Julie used her phone to Google spa resorts.