After a while the awkwardness between Jane and Daria dies down and Daria returns to her usual sarcastic mono-tone.
"Hey, well girls," Trent says inbetween conversation, "I might head off now, leave you two to yourselves for a while. I'll wait for you out the front Daria," he says, and heads out the door leaving Jane and Daria looking at each other funnily.
"I swear he knows something," Daria says scrunching up her eyes in annoyance.
"Who cares. We're amigos," Jane says, laughing.
"Sure we are," Daria whispers.
Trent had shut the door behind him when he left which meant that unless any particularly nosy nurses burst in suddenly they would not be disturbed.
Jane couldn't get up off the bed, she was too weak and sick at the moment but that didn't mean that the two best friends couldn't do a whole heap of other things.
Sinking herself into Jane's arms Daria breathes in her scent. Newly replaced with that harsh hospital smell, sanitiser and the metallic smell of paint which, although it wasn't as strong after two nights in the hospital would probably never go away completely.
"Mmmh, Daria, gee I missed you," Jane mutters in her ear.
"Me too Jane," Daria whispers back.
Forcing herself out of Jane's warm arms Daria reaches down and slips her boots off. She can almost feel Jane's smirk from the hospital bed as she stands up again.
Jane rolls over onto the other side of the bed and Daria lays down next to her. Jane takes her hand and leans her head onto Daria's shoulder.
Daria wriggled her shoulder around in a small fit of pleasure, placing her hand onto Jane's stomach. She tenderly stroked it, enjoying the sensation of her breathing under her own hands.
Her breathing was too fast and hagged for it to be classified as the breaths of a healthy person but right in that moment Daria wasn't too worried about that. As long as Jane and Daria could be together like this, for as long as they both wanted, it was all that mattered.
The sound of a knock at the door startles them both into action. Jane shoves Daria off the bed and she plunks back down onto the bed, closing her eyes in a pretense of being asleep. Daria flops onto the small, hard chair that was next to the bed and tries to look composed.
The door opens a little and a kind voice pops out, "Jane? Jane?" it says inquiringly, "I know you have visitors right now but do you mind if I just pop in?"
It must be the friendly nurse that Jane had told Daria and Trent a little about before.
A quiet groan comes from the bed, so realistic sounding that even Daria could have been fooled into thinking that Jane had actually been resting.
The nurse took the slight groan as a yes or just did not care either way. The door opens fully and in comes a large yet youthful woman.
"Oh! Hello, sorry, you must be... Daria! That's right, Jane's best friend, my, my she has told me a lot about you."
"Enough for you to guess who I am by my appearance I assume then," Daria replies, as silkily as ever.
To her ultimate surprise, the nurse looks directly at Daria, with a small smile, and says quietly, "Yes, I guess so."
Jane was sitting up again by then and she is smiling, evidently happy about the nurse coming in.
"Do you feel any better?" asks the nurse, looking over at a clipboard which was placed on the bedside table.
"Yes, a little," Jane says quietly and Daria feels a sudden burst of sadness and pain at these words. They made Jane, and her situation feel suddenly weak and helpless.
"No doubt having visitors would lighten your mood also?" The nurse asks, with a slight cheeky tone of voice.
Jane laughs slightly but does not reply.
"Anyway I'll come back in soon, after your guests are gone, you know what to do if you need anything, Jane deary," she says kindly, and adds, "Don't you worry we're taking good care of her, she'll be out of here in no time." She finds it necessary to wink at Daria after saying this making her feel extremely uncomfortable.
"Shouldn't you be telling her family members that?" Daria asks pointedly.
"Oh, of course... Them too."
When the nurse had left Daria turned to Jane and grimaced. Jane just grinned back at her.
"Oh lighten up a little Daria, she doesn't mean anything by it."
"No I'm sure she didn't. She could have layed off on the winking though.
"Your sense of humour never seems to come out in awkward situations such as this does it?" Jane asks, more of a rhetorical question.
"Well, I should probably leave now. Trent's waiting."
"And so he is. And will be for the next ten minutes," Jane exclaims rather loudly, grabbing Daria by the waist and pulling her onto the bed, next to her. Daria's inner wishes were too strong for her to resist and she let herself be pulled into Jane's body.
Their disagreement forgotten for the time being Daria and Jane spend the next ten minutes in one of the most intimate ways a couple can.
Daria felt alive at Jane's touch, she who had helped her through the beginning of high school at Lawndale, and still was. They wrapped their arms around each other's waists and kissed passionately. Daria could feel Jane's body shivering with pleasure underneath her hands. It gave her the best feeling in the world. One that could only be shared between the two of them. By then Daria's green jacket had been ripped off and Jane stripped off into the light cotton pyjamas the hospital provides to their patients as underwear for the dressing gowns.
With a lack of clothing they could explore each other's bodies almost unprohibited. Daria reached down to Jane's shirt and slowly undid the first button. Then the next. And the next after that. And finally down to the last one where she drew in her breath and froze. Jane reached up to her face and put a firm finger over her glasses and they slid off. This seemed to give Daria the courage to undo the final button on Jane's shirt. Underneath, sure wasn't wearing a bra, was her bare skin. Unaffected by the sun, or by anyone.
"Jane," Daria whispers, breaking up at the sight of what was under the shirt.
Although the shirt was undone, Daria only had a view of a straight line of skin from the middle of her nape to right down to her belly button. Absentmindedly she traced her finger down the line, feeling Jane's skin shiver under her.
Quite suddenly Jane reached up and undid Daria's top button. Looking up at her face she hesitated for a second, before seeing the slight nod of Daria's head.
Part of her wanted Jane to just rip her shirt off and for the two of them to kiss, breasts against breasts, full on, passionate but the rest of her was terrified. Not sure what about, but terrified all the same. Daria had never been one to trust intimately and Jane was the one she trusted the most. This was one sure way of possibly destroying that trust and she was terrified of that. In the end her inner desires, and something more sexual than emotional overcame her fear and she let her best friend take her somewhere else. They were together though. They would get through everything together too.
"Daria." One single word was uttered after they had broken apart, out of breath but infinitely happy.
"Yes, Jane?" Daria, replies back, somewhat nervously.
"I love you."
"You what?" Daria shouts back, without thinking at all first.
Jane's eyes blur with tears, she knew it was stupid thinking that this wouldn't have ended up happening if she told Daria that she loved her. Deep down inside Daria knew that she loved Jane.
"Do y-you love me?" she asks.
"Do you?" Jane asks again.
"Well, tell me, Daria! I'm sick of this. You being all banded together and not able to admit anything or trust anyone and I'm stood up. I love you Daria..." Jane cries out.
Inside Daria burns with guilt for the sadness, which she had been building up for a while now, that she had brought upon the person that, although she wasn't ready to admit it, she loved and trusted the most.