Chapter 6

"Ryan… you… I… I thought… you were dead." She said as tears welled up in her eyes again still covering her mouth.

"Is that why you crashed?" Nathan asked confused.

"No, after the crash" Zoë said as she exhaled looking utterly shocked. Horatio placed his hand on her upper arm and stroked it gently.

"It's okay sweetheart." Horatio said with caring eyes.

"Horatio, you held his head… you… you had our blood all over your hands." She said as she exhaled then looked back over to Ryan with soft eyes. Ryan's eyes dropped back down to her chest and she realised her shirt was still partially undone.

"Sorry Ryan." She said as she did the rest of her shirt up. She looked back up to him concentrating again. "I… I remember getting out of my seat and standing over you." Zoë said as if she was daydreaming, she said it calmly as her eyes glazed over as she began to remember the scene clearly. "I checked your head and then checked you over properly… you were just unconscious." Ryan stared at her, partially confused, partially worried about her.

"It's okay Zoë, over time, you'll remember more. Just lie back for me please sweet." Nathan said gently seeing she was very vulnerable and could snap at him at any minute, he didn't want to stress her out anymore. Nathan gently helped her lay back as she seemed to stare at the wall. Nathan got a page – their blood results were ready.

"Your blood results are ready; I'll be back in a few minutes." Nathan said as he left the room.

"You're okay sweetheart." Horatio said softly. Zoë blinked and snapped out of her daze and looked over to Horatio and then to Ryan.

"I'm so sorry." She said to him.

"You don't need to be. I'm sure it wasn't your fault." Ryan said reassuring her.

"I just wish I could remember what happened." Zoë said putting her head back.

"I'm sure you'll remember soon enough." Horatio said with a small reassuring smile, he knew Zoë was having a hard time; all he could do was reassure her.

"How are you feeling Mr. Wolfe?" Horatio asked as he turned to him.

"Pretty good considering we crashed, I've got a little bit of a sore face, probably from the air bag." Ryan said as he winched his bed up a little so he could sit up.

"Oh pretty boy, your face will heal soon enough." Zoë said with a widening smile, he turned and grinned back to her.

"You know, you two still haven't told me how that came around…" Horatio said with a smile.

"Well, Ryan was–"

"Zoë, I don't think this is the time or the place." Ryan interrupted as he eyed the door.

"I personally think it adds to the comedy value…" Zoë grinned at him as she opened her mouth to tell Horatio again she was interrupted before she could even say anything. Nathan walked back in reading the results.

"Well good news is that both of your blood work is fine, Ryan, you've got a little higher white blood cell count, but you're probably just fighting an infection." Nathan said as he continued to scan across the results.

"That makes sense, Zoë was bringing him in as he had a slight fever and was delirious after he collapsed this morning." Horatio added.

"I remember! We were in the lab! Eric came in and distracted us… we ended up teasing you." Zoë said with a grin widening.

"You collapsed, you came round and were not yourself, you refused to go to the hospital, but I insisted and we helped you out to my hummer… it gets hazy from there." Zoë said looking down again.

"Don't worry, it'll come back." Nathan said with a small smile.

"Zoë, I should be able to discharge you in a few hours if you're well from now on. So that means no jumping off the bed! But I'm not going to allow you to drive until I find out what caused the accident today." He said with a small smile. Just stared at him happy that she was going to be released, but annoyed at his comment.

"What?" She said lowering her eyebrows.

"I can't let you drive if I don't know what caused it, you could have passed out, or you could have fallen asleep?" Nathan questioned.

"Certainly not! I was wide awake and healthy this morning!" She said, not liking being accused.

"She was okay this morning." Horatio added. Nathan exhaled, then asked to put the ECG leads back on. After that he then looked over to Ryan. Zoë did her shirt up as much as she could.

"You're probably going to be here a little longer; I need to make sure you're okay." Nathan said to Ryan. Ryan gave him a nod.

"I'll be back a little later; you should both try and get some sleep." Nathan said as he exited.

"I'm just going to make a phone call, I'll be right back." Horatio said as he walked out of the room and phoned Alexx. Zoë waited for him to leave the room when she got back out of bed, pulled the leads off and walked over to Ryan.

"They said you need to rest." Ryan said as he looked up at her.

"I know." She said with a small smile as he raised an eyebrow to her and she leant on the safety bar.

"I'm so sorry Ryan, I feel so guilty… I don't remember what happened though!" She said as she looked at him. She gently stroked his arm.

"Zoë, I'm okay, you don't need to feel guilty! We came out of it alive and well." He said trying to reassure her, placing his hand over hers. Zoë gave a small forced smile and nodded. She leant over and placed a delicate kiss on his cheek. She pulled back and he could see that she was highly distressed, but could feel his cheek tingling with a warm sensation. He wanted her to kiss him again, but on the lips.

"Look, this wasn't your fault. We're okay, that's all that matters. Okay?" Ryan said as he very gently placed his hand on her cheek and gently stroked her cheek with his thumb. She looked at him and gave him a nod with a better smile.

"I'm so happy that you're okay." She said with a proper smile as she gently placed a hand over his arm that was currently still holding her face. She gently rubbed it with her thumb.

"And I'm happy that you're okay." He said looking back to her, her eyes studied him and then looked down at his open shirt. He dropped his hand from her face with a smile.

"Do you want to change my nick name from pretty boy to something more like… Mr Muscle?" He said with a very cheeky grin as he noticed her glance at his bare chest.

"Erm… I'm happy with pretty boy." She said with a cheeky grin back at him.

"Really? Nothing like sexy or stud or perhaps even sexy stud come to mind?" He said looking at her with a gleaming cheeky grin.

"Hmm… I still quite like the name pretty boy…" She said with a smile as she swiped a bit of hair from his forehead. The door opened and Horatio stepped back in and stared at Zoë with his hands on his hips, raising his eyebrows at her.

"Okay, okay I'm going back to the bed." Zoë said with a small cheeky grin hoping that he wouldn't be too mad with her. He walked over to the window with a small smile.

"And what are you going to do?" Horatio questioned as he looked outside.

"Rest" Zoë said with a grin.

"You got it in one!" Horatio said with his smile widening.

"I'm just going to make another call, I'll be right back – stay in bed this time!" He said with a stern but light expression as he walked out. He got himself a coffee then rang Eric to make sure he was okay at the lab. Zoë quickly fell asleep and Ryan soon after. Horatio walked in 20 minutes after he left along with Nathan who gently undid her top to attach the leads on again. He had her top almost completely undone when he attached the first few leads as Horatio looked out of the window. He went to attach the 3rd when Zoë woke up feeling something move on her chest. In lightning fast moves Zoë's right hand had grabbed a hold of his tie and her left came up and grabbed his throat. She pulled with her right hand forcing his throat further into her left hand. Horatio turned around to see what the noise was and his eyes widened as he rushed over to them. She quickly studied Nathan and released him once she realised who she had a hold of.

"Nathan… I'm… I'm so sorry. I thought someone… I'm really very sorry." Nathan loosened his tie and cleared his throat.

"I'm so sorry." She said feeling very guilty.

"Don't worry…" he said as he cleared his throat again.

"I understand… just remind me never to attach ECG leads again while you sleep…" He said with a small smile and red face. She put her hand to her mouth in shock.

"I… I didn't mean to–"

"Seriously, don't worry Zoë, I completely understand. It's good to know that you don't stop protecting yourself!" He said with a smile. She looked over to Horatio who was stunned.

"Horatio, I–"

"Don't worry; I'm sure I'd react the same if someone was fiddling around with me while I slept!" Horatio said trying to not look at her open top.

"Jesus Christ… you boys have had enough of seeing me with my shirt open! How embarrassing." She said as she covered herself again as Nathan wrote down a few things and then excused himself.

She then glanced over to Ryan to make sure she hadn't woken him. Horatio took a deep breath and turned around to look back out of the window as Zoë relaxed again. He lost himself in deep thought and Zoë could see that. She closed her eyes knowing that he'd be there for some time. She fell asleep and was assaulted with flash-backs of the crash again, she had been asleep for about 50 minutes when the flash-backs began. She shifted in her sleep catching Horatio's attention. He came over to her bed and glanced up to Ryan who was sleeping peacefully. Zoë's eyes shot open and she took a deep breath.

"Sweetheart, you're okay. It was just a dream." Horatio softly said. She looked over to Ryan and then back over to Horatio.

"Horatio, I saw how it happened. I saw how the crash happened…" She said as she swallowed and took a deep breath, raising her eyebrows.