Okay! Here is chapter 4! I know that it is already ten (when I am posting this it is) but oh well! At least I'm posting this at all! :) Enjoy it! Though, I forgot to reread it... so you will probably find a lot of errors in it... Sorry! Just didn't think to.

Reviewers:

KaiShurose: I knew it! You were threatening me! Well, even if Oz had died- and he obvisiouly did not die- I would have continued writing it. :D But, yes. It is good that Oz is alive. And you want to hug me for that? Well, I am extremely happy! Not only that, but that is the third time that you've reviewed for this story! Awesome! I give you a virtual cookie for that! :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Pandora Hearts or any of its characters or anything else mentioned. I do not make any money off of this.

Broken

Chapter 4 Breath

Several hours later, at three, Alice and Oscar left, Alice having to go somewhere and Oscar having to drive her. As they were leaving, Gil went to the nurse's station and signed the paper that said he would be there all night, and got the pass, before rushing back to Oz's room because, even that five minutes away from the boy was killing him.

Sighing, Gil glanced up from his book to glance at Oz's face for the millionth time that hour. He had been in the room alone now for an hour, as Oscar remembered he had to go to a meeting for an hour, and by the time he was finished, he would have to go pick up Alice up from where she was at, and by that time it would be too close to six for them to be able to go back the hospital, so he decided that he would drive by Oz's work and tell them that Oz was going on a medical leave- he had papers to back it up- so that it would be out of the way.

He glanced over at Oz- having gotten lost in thoughts-, realizing that since he had gotten there he had only left Oz's side for three reasons: one- bathroom, two- to sign in, and three- to get food. But, each time he rushed through it, just so that he could be back with Oz. Luckily, all this time without much interruptions let him be able to think so that he could tell the boy something.

And, sometime during the last five minutes he had an epiphany; he loved the boy.

-:-

He woke up to having no pain, which made him realize just how much pain he had been before. He tried to twitch his right hand, though a pain shot through his entire arm that was instantly numbed by something- the morphine.

Oz slowly opened his eyes, instantly blinking them against the bright lights in the room he was in. Glancing around, he noticed Gil sitting on the chair right next to his bed. The blond lightly cleared his throat, though it was loud in the silent room, making Gil look up from the book he was reading in surprise.

"Gil?" He managed to get out, his voice very scratchy.

"Oz! You're awake!" The older of the two said, joy in his voice. The blond glanced around the room trying to figure out where he was; when no answer came up- his mind was still somewhat fuzzy- he decided to make a fool of himself and ask.

"Where am I?" He asked, the man having to slightly lean forward to hear what was said.

"You are currently at the ICU in Mayfason Hospital." He said, making Oz's eyes widen. Why was he in the ICU? He decided to voice his question again, really curious; anyway, what was the worst the man could? Refuse to answer him? If he did, then he would just ask the doctor when he/she came in.

"Well, you remember what happened?" Gil asked, getting a strange look. "Have you woken up enough to remember what happened, or is your mind still dazed from the drugs?" Oz realized what he meant, and decided to say something.

"Yeah; I remember the crash." He said, making Gil nodded, continuing.

"Well, when the paramedics finally made it to the scene, they said that you had no heartbeat, so they shocked you back to life. Then, sometime after that and eleven your heart failed again. After you got out of surgery they didn't know what your condition would be like, so they put you here." Oz's eyes widened, and willed his heart to not change its pace as he knew that Gil could hear it.

"Oh." He said, as that was he could. He didn't know what else he could say, so he glanced around, hoping to find something to talk about. "You're the only one that is here?" He asked, tilting his head a little.

"Well, Oscar and Alice came here in the morning, but Alice wanted to tell the people at the orphanage you two always volunteer at, and Oscar had to drive her there; plus he had to go to a meeting, so he decided that after all that it would be too close to the end of visiting hours for them to come back so he is going to go to your work to tell them what happened." Gil explained, making Oz nod.

"Yeah; the engine on Alice's car died, so she had to put it in the shop." Oz said, remembering that night because he was the one who had to pick her up when it happened. "When do the visiting hours end?" He asked, wanting to know how much longer he would have with Gil, though he would tell said man that he was just curious.

"It closes at six, which was actually half an hour ago." He said after a glance at his watch. "The reason that I'm still here is that one person is allowed to stay all night, and since Oscar has to drive Alice he let me stay here." He explained, saying it before Oz even had time to think about the question.

"Okay!" Oz said, trying not to sound happy, but he was. It meant he got to spend more time with his beloved- the very same one who had rejected him just the day before. He forced his body to not make any indications that he was sad, though his heart was weeping- luckily, the monitor didn't alter its rhythm, as it couldn't sense tears.

But, Gil was Gil, and he could almost sense whenever something was wrong with the boy.

"What's wrong, Oz?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Eh, n-nothing!" The young Vessalius said quickly- so quickly he stuttered his words-, hoping that his companion would let it be, but knowing that he wouldn't.

"Oz." He said in a stern tone, making said boy gulp quietly. "Please, don't lie to me." His voice had a hint of sadness in it, making a rush of guilt fall onto the boy. How could he tell the man that it was because of him? He couldn't hurt him anymore.

That was why he had felt death was his best option; he was just too weak to face the pain his existence caused.

"It's not important." He said after a moment, trying to keep all the emotions he was feeling out of his voice. He barely succeeded, but that only made the man more suspicious. But, Gil didn't have a chance to get the boy on his lie as, at that moment, the doctor came in, making his hourly check.

"You're awake!" The doctor said in surprise. Oz glanced over at him, just blinking while he wondered who the man was. "Oh, I am Dr. Petrivotch; I've been taking care of you since you got here, and will be your doctor before you are taken out of the ICU." He said, Oz nodding in response. "Now, I'm going to quickly do a quick check-up to see how you are, and then, depending on what I find depends on how fast you can get out of the ICU."

"Okay!" Oz said, already eager to get out of that room. The doctor laughed a little, going to quickly wash his hands and put on gloves.

"Do you want me to go outside while you do this?" Gil asked, already standing up.

"If you will; it will help me aplenty." The doctor said, making the Nightray nod his head and walk out of the room into the hallway. "Okay, Mr. Vessalius, are you in any pain?" Oz shook his head. "Okay; let us check your right arm. Are you aware of how bad you were when you got here?"

"Well, all that I found out was why I was put in the ICU; I gleaned that I had gone through surgery, but I don't know why." Oz admitted.

"Well, your right arm- and your right leg- had many major breaks, and there were only two options with how many there were: either amputate your arm- and leg- or do surgery to fix them. Because you were unconscious and they wanted to get you into surgery as soon as they possibly could, they chose to reset the bones." He then went on to explain all the rest of his injuries, which made Oz widen his eyes. Wow- a lot of broken bones.

"Okay then; are you able to move your right hand? Is there any pain when you do it?" Petrivotch asked, making Oz try to move his hand.

"Whenever I do move my hand, there is a pain up and down my arm." Oz said, glad that Gil wasn't in the room; him saying that would worry the man, and he didn't want that.

"Okay; that is understandable. I'm going to sling it, that way you can sit up." The doctor said, quickly doing that.

About twenty minutes later, the doctor was finished with his procedure.

"That took a while." Oz said, about to stretch, until a pain in his side stopped him.

"Yeah; I was expecting it to take a little while, as it was the first check up that was done with you awake." He said, nodding. During the little checkup, he had raised Oz's bed, telling the boy how to do it so that he didn't need to rely on anyone for it.

"So, do you think that I'll be able to leave the ICU soon?" He asked, wanting to know.

"Well, from what I saw it looks like you'll be able to leave the ICU tonight; I'm going to estimate about nine." He said after a quick glance at his watch; it was already six thirty. Oz sighed, knowing it would feel like an eternity while he was waiting for nine to come.

"That's so far away." He said, almost complaining and making Petrivotch laugh.

"Well, it's only an estimation; you might leave sooner, but I need to look at your charts again and get a room ready, so, just because of that last part it might also be later. Just sometime tonight." Oz nodded, understanding what he meant. "Well, I'll be off now; I have a lot of things I have to do. I'm also going to send Mr. Nightray back in." Oz nodded, kinda watching the doctor walk out of the room. He stared out towards the wall that was opposite the door, almost dazed in thought. A lot had changed too quickly, and all he could do was try to get his mind wrapped around it all.

"Oz?" He heard, making him blink and turn his head to look at Gil, who was next to his bed. When did he get there? "Is something wrong?" Oz nearly burst out laughing, as he was soon going to lose count on how many times he was asked that- just by Gil.

"No; I was just thinking." He admitted, smiling.

"Well, the doctor told me, on his way out, that he was going to finish his rounds, and then he was going to go and work on getting you moved out of here. He said that after he finished the paper work and told some nurses to prepare a room he'd come back and tell us how long it'd be." Gil said, making Oz nod.

"I already can't wait." He said, leaning his head back and closing his eyes; he might have woken up not too terribly long ago, but he was feeling slightly tired. Petrivotch had told him that the morphine would do that.

"So, before the doctor came in were talking about what was wrong with you." Gil said, hoping that approaching it this way would get more answers out of the boy. What Oz was thinking was that he was glad that his eyes were already closed when he was asked that, because they would have closed.

"It's nothing, Gil." He said, a slight exasperation in his voice. Couldn't he just let it go?

"No; because I know that yesterday, after you told me- what you did, I was interrupted in what I was saying." He saw the boy freeze, but other than that there was no indication that he had gotten it correct.

"There was more?" He asked, not opening his eyes. There was a slight disbelief in his voice, but there was also sadness.

"Yeah; I didn't quite know how I felt, so I didn't know how to respond to you." He admitted, a slight blush appearing. At first it went unnoticed, until Oz opened his eyes to glance at the man.

"You're blushing!" He said, unable to stop himself from teasing the man.

"B-be quiet." He said, his blush rising.

"Aw, am I embarrassing little Gil?" He said, his teasing increasing.

"A-anyway!" Gil managed, trying to get out of the teasing by switching the topic.

But, in the end he'd take the teasing Oz over the depressed Oz because, either way, he was the culprit, and he didn't want the young Vessalius to be hurt.

So, did I keep them in character? Hope I did. Please review and tell me what you think! :)