Oh dear Lord how terrible have i been in posting this! I've just not been in a CSI mood lately. But i'm determined to finish this for those of your still reading. I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Chapter Seven

Greg wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting there staring into space when he heard a voice call his name. He turned and saw Cath standing in the doorway, a paper bag in her hand. A nervous look crossed her face, dreading the answer to her next question.

"What's happened?"

She walked further into the room and placed the lunch bag onto the bedside table next to Greg before putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Greg?" Cath tried again. "Greg, she's not..."

She left the question unanswered as she kneels down in front of him.

"No."

He replied before briefly telling her what had happened.

"They said they'd tell me anything as soon as they knew."

Cath nodded at that.

"She's still fighting, that's the main thing. Try not to think about it until you know anything more."

"I know, I know. It's just..."

"Just what?"

She asked gently. There was obviously something else bothering him. He struggled for a moment with the words, then started to speak.

"All this time...nearly two decades of friendship, and I never realised, never noticed how much she means to me...how much I really love her." He looked at Cath. "I love her. What am I supposed to do with that? What am I going to do? What do I do? What if she...?"

Inwardly Cath smiled at that, men were certainly slow but at nearly two decades he was certainly one of the slowest.

"Greg listen to me. She's going to make it. Believe that. And when she's back from surgery tell her. Tell her how you feel."

Greg nodded, taking a breath to pull himself together. Cath stayed with him for half an hour until she was needed back at work which left him alone for long, slow hours before he heard anything. He was standing by the window when they wheeled her back in. He turned and moved quickly over to her side as they pushed the bed back into place and reconnected all the machines back up. The Doctor turned to look into Greg's eager, earnest face, needing answers.

"Well...?"

Greg questioned, feeling like he'd been waiting too long for an answer.

"We managed to fix the problem with her heart and she's stable, however…" He paused for a moment figuring out how to put it. "We've had some problems getting her to respond to us."

Greg looked perplexed.

"Which means?"

"She's in a coma."

Greg exhaled, looking at the floor. How much more could she go through? A coma could mean anything, she may never wake up, he thought scared. The Doctor seemed to realise his train of thought and spoke.

"Most coma's tend to only last a few days and I think that maybe the case here so don't start worrying that she maybe like this for years. In cases like these there's not much we can do but wait, however, we have found a high success rate when families have helped."

"How? I'll do anything?"

"Talk to her, talk about anything, old memories, holidays, play her favourite music, read her favourite books to her, do anything that's linked with her life that may help bring her round."

Greg nodded his head in acknowledgement at this, going over in his head everything he could think of. And when Nick arrived to see how they were doing he told Greg he'd give him a lift home; Greg was too tired to be driving himself anywhere and he knew it. Nick even persuaded him to stay long enough for a shower and was happy when Greg fell asleep on the sofa while Nick was making coffee.

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The next day, after Greg had reprimanded Nick for letting him sleep so long before ringing the hospital and checking on Beth's progress, Nick dropped Greg back off at the hospital. Upon entering her room he heard her Doctor, Michael, talking to her and he paused in the doorway, lowering the bag in his hand to the floor.

"Looks like you'll have to postpone going back to Africa, eh Beth? Can't say I'm disappointed in that, I didn't want you to go back in the first place."

He said, placing her chart back on the end if the bed. Greg frowned at what he'd said. What was he talking about?

"Hey Doc, what did you mean by that? About her going back to Africa?"

The Doctor frowned at him.

"You didn't know? She was planning on going back, handed in her notice just after Christmas."

"But she's only just got back from Africa, why would she be leaving again? I thought she liked working here?"

"She does. She said there were other reasons but didn't go into anything specific. I got the feeling she was running away from something, she hasn't been herself lately. Quiet, withdrawn – I think it may have been to do with some guy."

Greg looked confused as the Doctor left to continue his rounds, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze as he went past. Greg looked at the floor; he'd noticed a change, but not having seen her lately he hadn't been able to see the extent of it. Picking up the bag, he moved over to the bed and put the bag on the chair as he leant over the bed and gave Beth a quick kiss on the forehead.

"Hey, I'm back. I've brought some of your things with me." He started emptying the bag of items as he continued to talk. "Sorry I've been away from you for so long. I guess I hadn't realised how tired I'd become, it's probably a good thing because it means I'll be fresh and awake for when you wake up. Look, I've brought your favourite music with me," he said as he placed the stereo and CD's on the table at the end of her bed. "I thought it might cheer you up. Wake you up." He added quietly. He fished out a couple of her favourite books, placing them on the bedside table, and lastly pulled out some photo frames with pictures of her family and friends to scatter about the room. Satisfied with himself, he picked a CD and placed it into the stereo. Sarah McLachlan's soothing voice started to fill the room as Greg sat back into his seat.

"I thought I'd start with this, knowing how much you love her voice. Personally I'd prefer something with a bit more kick in it, but I don't think the staff would appreciate it." He said with a smirk. "Or you, for that matter."

He continued to talk, for hours it seemed, about anything and everything. Just like the Doctor had said.

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A couple hours in, a nurse gently tapped on the door to get his attention. With a smile, she spoke.

"Mr. Miller's on the phone."

With a nod, Greg rose and followed her outside towards the desk.

"Do they know about the coma yet?"

He asked before he picked up the receiver.

"Yes, they rang yesterday while you were home."

He nodded, then answered.

"Hey, it's Greg."

"Ah, Greg. How are you holding up?"

"Okay. I hear they told you about the relapse."

"Yes...yes. We were just ringing up to check that everything was, well, that it hadn't got worse."

"No, she's the same – I'm uh, playing her favourite music for her and talking to her, the Doctors said it could help."

"Good lad. I thought I'd also let you know that the storms clearing up, they said we should be able to catch a plane back to arrive early new years day."

"That's good news. I'll let Beth know."

"Keep well, lad. The missus wants a quick word."

"Okay."

He sighed as he waited for Mrs. Miller to come onto the line. There was something he wanted to ask her, something he wanted to get off his chest.

"Greg, I just wanted to check you were okay, and that my baby was still okay."

"She's okay, she's gonna be okay, and don't worry about me, I'm fine. I'm just focusing on Beth getting better."

"I can hear Sarah McLachlan in the background."

"Yeah, I'm playing it for her. I know it's her favourite. Mrs. Miller?"

"What is it Greg?"

She asked gently, hearing that he obviously had something on his mind.

"Has Beth um...has she mentioned about going back to Africa?"

"No, why do you ask?"

"It's just, she handed her notice in before, well, before all of this happened, I didn't know if she'd said anything to you – because her Doctor said he thought it had something to do with a guy, but I didn't even know she was seeing anyone."

Mrs. Miller felt her heart go out to the lad. He certainly was slow on the uptake, and for a moment she battled with telling him the truth or not, he sounded so miserable, bless him.

"Tell me something, how would you feel if it was to do with someone, some guy she'd met?"

"I don't know, it...I don't know if I really want to say this but I think...I feel jealous."

He didn't know why he was telling her this, maybe from the emotional strain he'd been under, it was making him vulnerable.

"Why? Why jealous? Is it because she's your best friend and you feel overprotective?"

She held her breath, hoping for the answer she was looking for.

"Well, yeah, but no – it's not just that it...Mrs. Miller I think I'm in love with her. I don't know what to do about it."

Mrs. Miller smiled.

"Of course you are."

"And it makes me mad to think that someone could have pushed her away enough for her to want to leave the country again."

She took a breath, knowing that what she was about to say would cause him great pain, but he needed to be told.

"Oh, my darling boy. I love you but you are slow at times. The bloke the Doctor was talking about...was you."

He let this information sink in, and he frowned, his head feeling light.

"Greg, she's been in love with you ever since she was a little girl. I don't want you to be mad at yourself, she hid it well. But I think these last couple months, everything she saw out in Africa, it made her realise how short life was and how not a moment should be wasted."

"Why didn't she tell me...?"

"I think because she didn't want to ruin the friendship you've always had. Opening yourself up like that to a person you know so well can go horribly wrong and ruin a friendship if the other person doesn't feel the same. She didn't know you were in love with her."

"Neither did I until yesterday." He said with a small nervous laugh. Mrs. Miller laughed along with him. "I don't know what to do with it. I've never felt like this before. I mean, it must have been so hard for her lately, I've been completely oblivious to her feelings, feelings I didn't even recognise without hindsight, it must have hurt her so much – I've been treating her like I always did, like one of the lads. What should I do?"

"Tell her. Tell her now. Tell her when she wakes."

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After the phone call, he went back to his bedside vigil, he played more music, he chatted to her about their times together – good times, bad times, games, fights. He'd forgotten how much they used to get up to until he was flicking through one of her photo albums of childhood memories. People came and visited, Doctors and nurses came and went, but still he stayed, awake or asleep, talking or in silence. It wasn't until he looked up at the clock and realised he'd lost track of the time. It was 11.30 at night on New Years Eve. He looked out and saw staff and patients gathered outside chatting and laughing and joking, and he looked back to Beth, laying still on the bed and a memory came to him.

"You know, in all this time that I've known you, I've never won a bet against you, isn't that something? In all these years. And then I realised that it's been quite a while since our last bet as well so I figured now seems as good a time as any.

"So...I'm gonna bet ya...a years supply of drinks, that's alcoholic by the way, that you won't wake up before new years eve. You got that? That you 'won't' wake up in the next half an hour. Prove me wrong sweetheart, don't break the cycle of a lifetime by losing this bet, prove me wrong, wake up. You won't want to have to buy me drinks for the rest of this new year so go and win this bet. Please."

He took her hand and silently willed her to win the bet over and over, and when he heard the staff counting down the last 10 seconds he held his breath and forced back the sheen of tears in his eyes as he realised it wasn't going to happen this time. A few minutes passed in silence as he composed himself, he wasn't going to lose control. Then he gave her a small smile.

"You always were the stubborn type."

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A slight shaking awoke him up a few hours later and he opened his eyes, blinking to adjust to the light and wondering when he'd fallen asleep.

"Greg?"

He looked up. Beth's parents were standing over him, looking between him and their daughter in the bed.

"You're here." He said, pulling himself up into a sitting position. "What time is it?"

"Just gone half seven."

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he tried to wake his brain up. Beth's mother looked at him.

"Greg, go home. Get some sleep. You look like you need it."

"I'm fine, really."

"Greg," Beth's father said. "Why don't you go home, freshen yourself up, so we can spend some time with our daughter. We'll ring if anything happens. Okay?"

Greg nodded, understanding.

"Sure."

He gathered his things together as he spoke.

"I'll be back in a few hours, is there anything you'd like me to bring you back?"

"No we're fine Greg, darling."

Beth's mother said as she gave Greg a kiss on the forehead before he left.

So, any comments, questions? I hope you enjoyed it and want more.