Disclaimer: I own NOTHING from The Covenant… I only own my OC's. Thanks!


…Chapter Seven…
…The Kiss…

Thirty five minutes had passed, but to Reid it felt like an eternity, wondering if Riley was doing okay. He would never forgive himself, if he knew something was really wrong with her. He just sat in the chair, looking down at the ground when Tim sat next to him. "Thank you, for letting me know what happened to Riley."

"You're welcome." Reid looked over at him. "I just want her to be alright."

"You're worried about her?"

"Yeah… I don't know what I would do, if anything ever happened to her. I don't even know what to do right now."

Tim leaned over to Reid and whispered in his ear. "Do you have feelings for my daughter?"

"I think so." he slightly nodded. "I mean, ever since she came back, all these feelings for her has been bubbling up to the surface. Feelings I never knew existed." he said honestly.

Tim smiled. "I know both of you have been friends since forever… so, if you ever wanted to take her out or be with her, then you have my blessing."

"Really?"

"Yes, really… I know she's been with Pogue off and on through out the years, but I always knew in my heart that you've always been the 'one' for her."

Reid nodded. "Thank you, that means a lot to me."

"No problem."

Ten minutes later, a doctor came into the waiting room. "Is this the party for Riley Andrews?"

Reid stood up, before Tim stood to his feet. "Yes."

"Okay… I'm Dr. Evans. I've been examining her."

"How is she?" Tim asked. "I'm her father."

"Besides the brusing on her back, she sustained a concussion, lost a little bit of blood from the gash on the back of her head, so we stitched that up, and she has minor bruising on the side of her ribs, but she's resting now… all of you can go see her."

"Where is she?" asked Reid.

"On this floor, exam room number four." said Dr. Evans, looking at Riley's chart.

"When can my daughter come home?" Tim asked.

"Tomorrow, so that way we can observe her over night, but other than that, she'll make a full recovery."

"Thanks, Doc." Reid said as Dr. Evans walked out of the waiting room. "Well, I'm going to go see Kat."

Reid started walking out of the room, with the guys following behind him. He found exam room number four and walked in, over to Riley's side of the bed, as the rest of the guys walked in her room. Riley was laying there with her eyes closed and hooked up to machines, with gauze wrapped around her head.

Reid grabbed her hand to hold it and Pogue noticed the way that Reid was looking at her. It wasn't no best friend type of thing either. The look on his face was full of worry and concern. Plus the way he was looking at her, was full of love.

Riley's started to move around a few minutes later, then she softly whispered "Reid…"

He gently squeezed her hand. "I'm right here." he reached over with his other hand to move the hair out of her face.

Her eyes started to flutter. When she opened them, she looked around and saw eyes looking at her with concern. She looked back at Reid. "Where am I?" she saw her dad out of the corner of he eye. "Dad… what are you doing here?"

"You're in the hospital, Peanut."

"Okay… how did I get here?"

"I brought you… do you remember anything?" questioned Reid.

"Uh, I remember you looking at my bruises."

"Yeah, then you fainted. You also had a gash on the back of your head that was bleeding."

"Oh." was all that Riley could say.

Around seven pm, a middle aged nurse came into the room. "I'm sorry guys but visiting hours are over. Only one person is allowed to stay with Miss Andrews tonight.

"What time do you open tomorrow?" asked Pogue.

"Seven… so Miss Andrews, who do you pick?"

"Reid."

The nurse nodded and Caleb gave Riley a kiss on her forehead. "We'll see you after school."

Riley nodded. "Okay."

"Yeah… I'll get all of your information, grab your new uniforms, and whatever else you will need." offered Tyler.

"Thank you."

"Why can't I stay with you?" Pogue asked, making Reid roll his eyes. Before Riley could give him an answer, his phone was ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at it. "It's Kate."

Riley shook her head and scoffed. "That's why."

A few minutes later, the guys and her dad said their 'goodbyes' and left the hospital. Reid looked over at Riley. "Thanks, for letting me stay with you."

"You're welcome."

"Well, honestly… I was going to stay with you anyway."

"Well… good."

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay… I guess, but I don't like this IV sticking into my arm."

Reid laughed. "Okay… well, I'm staying with you till you leave tomorrow. So, you're stuck with me."

"Lucky me." she said sarcastically. "So, what exactly happened?"

"Well… I was coming over to tell you something and I heard noises coming from your room. I went in to check it out and saw Abbott, slamming you into the wall."

"Oh… I remember some of it."

Reid laced his fingers with hers. "You don't need to worry about him anymore."

"No?"

He shook his head. "Nope."

"What if he does try to bother me?"

He kissed the back of her hand, making her stomach flips with butterflies. "He won't… because I'm never leaving your side. I just don't want anything to happen to you." he smiled at her. "I wanna keep you safe." he kissed the back of her hand again.

She nodded. "Um… are you going to school tomorrow?"

"Nope… like I said I'm not leaving your side. I'm also changing my classes so I can be in there with you."

"Reid, won't you get sick of me?"

"Nope… never." he shook his head.

"What if I get sick of you?"

"That's impossible… I'm Reid Garwin." he said making Riley laugh, talking about himself in the third person.

Then she immediately grabbed her side in pain and whined "Reid… don't make me laugh, it hurts."

He laughed. "I'll try, but there is no guarantees."

She giggled a little bit, grabbed her side, and whined again. "Damn it." she looked over at Reid and he had a serious look on his face. "What?"

"In all seriousness… when I saw Aaron touching you the way he was, I just wanted to kill him, but I just kicked his ass out of there. I wanted to make sure you were okay." he paused to take a deep breath. "When you fainted and I saw blood coming from your head… I thought I lost you."

Riley reached over to put her hand on his face. "Reid, you'll never lose me."

"I hope not." he shook his head. "Because if that were to ever happen or if I couldn't protect you or save you, I don't know if I could live with myself." he looked into her eyes, wanting to say something, but he looked away. "Okay… let's watch some TV."

She nodded. "Uh, okay." Reid grabbed the remote. "Reid, try not to find something that will make me laugh."

He smiled. "I'll try." after channel surfing, he found something. "Here… we can watch football."

"Cool… who are you going for, The Cowboys or The Cardinals?"

"I'll go for the Cardinals." he said, looking at the score.

"Okay, then I'll go for the Cowboys."

"Deal."

"Hey Reid?"

"Yeah?"

"Why… are you so good to me?"

"You really want to know?" he got up from his seat.

"Yeah."

"Ever since you came back into my life… I've been feeling different towards you."

"Like how?"

He leaned over to her, inches away from her lips. "Like I want to do this…" then he planted his lips softly on hers and kissed her. Riley was kissing him back, wrapping her arms around his neck, almost pulling him on top of her.

A few seconds later, there was a knock on her door. They broke from their kiss and as Reid was sitting back down in the recliner, a nurse walked in. "Hello… my name is: Marie. I'll be your nurse for the night."

"Hi, Marie… I'm Riley and this is my Reid… I mean, this is Reid." Riley wanted to slap herself, but instead, she bit her lip to be quiet.

"Hello there." Reid waved at Marie.

Marie looked at the machines, checked her IV and gave her some pain killers into her IV. "Everything looks good… I'll be back to check on you later." then Marie walked out of the room.

Riley looked over at Reid. "What was that?"

"The Cardinals made a touchdown." he chuckled. "Your Cowboys are going down!"

She carefully reached over, smacked him in the arm. "You know what I'm talking about."

He looked over at her. "Did it bother you?"

"No… you just surprised me, that's all."

"In a good way or a bad way?"

"Good… I mean, as long as we've been friends, I have never kissed you and it wasn't even weird. It felt…"

He leaned up to her, inches away from her lips. "It felt… right?" she nodded and Reid softly kissed her again. A few minutes later, Reid stopped kissing her. "Let's… uh, finish watching the game."

"Alrighty then."

After a while, the drugs kicked in and Riley passed out. Reid looked over and saw her sleeping so peacefully. He smiled at her, covered her up with the blanket, turned off the lights, then watched TV until he fell asleep himself in the recliner.