Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: Nothing witty this time. Let's just say I'm winging it with the morphine. I am very unsure about the dosage strength so… If it's wrong or something's off, forgive me.

Bittersweet Symphony

'Oh my god! What happened?!' Katie shouted in her mind. She was only able to breath through her nose as moving her mouth caused her tremendous pain. Looking around, she realized she was in a hospital room, and when she calmed down a little more, she turned her head and found a heart rate machine and realized she was hooked onto it. Needless to say, she was in shock and tried very hard to stay calm. When she tried to call out to someone, again she felt she couldn't move her mouth, something was preventing her from opening her jaw. Pain shot through her entire body, her jaw being the epicenter.

'My mouth,' she thought, 'Why can't I move my mouth?' She moved her head about, causing more pain to travel through her body and tried lifting her arms, only to find them incredibly, and unbelievably heavy. 'Damn, what's wrong with me?'

Unable to lift her hands, using her fingers, she dragged her right arm to the railing in search for a specific remote. Katie remembered after her knee surgery, the hospital had hooked up a remote to her I.V. bag that would allow morphine to be injected if she ever felt intense pain, and right at this moment, Katie felt like morphine sulfate would be her best friend in the entire universe if she could just find that little remote.

After a few seconds that seemed like hours to Katie, who was in tremendous pain, her hand finally found the little object she was looking for, 'Oh sweet, mama, I found you!' she exclaimed excitedly in her mind as she gripped the object with her weak hand and pressed the button. Laying her head back and closing her eyes, she expected to feel a wonderful and heavenly numbing sensation within seconds, but it never came. Confused, she tilted her head back up, straining her neck in the process, barely lifting her hand, she continued to press the button again, and again.

'Dammit!' she mentally shouted. Apparently this button wasn't linked to anything that would release morphine, 'Then what the hell does this goddamn button do?' She pressed it again.

After the 8th, possibly 10th time she pressed it, Katie angrily threw the remote over the railing and hit the bed, causing herself more unintentional pain. She closed her eyes again as tears seeped through, and gripped the bed sheets. Knowing she needed to calm herself down, Katie tried to focus on her breathing.

Not 30 seconds and a nurse came running in, who Katie vaguely recognized, and went directly to Katie's side.

"Katie? Can you hear me?" Amy asked, looking directly into Katie's eyes. The younger girl looked back and nodded her head vigorously. "Are you in a lot of pain?" Again, the younger girl nodded while she squirmed, closing her eyes tightly, emphasizing her pain. "Of course you are," Amy mumbled, upset with herself that she would ask such a seemingly absurd question, though in retrospect, it was common to ask that question, even if the answer was obvious, "Just hang on, I need to get Dr. Scandale." Quickly, Amy ran out of the door and frantically looked in each direction. Turning to her left, she found the doctor jogging toward her. Amy began to jog to meet the doctor halfway.

"She wake up?" Dr. Scandale asked. Both women jogged back toward the room.

"Yes, and she's hurting. Bad," Amy answered as both women hurried into the room to find Katie still laying in the bed, her knuckles almost white from gripping the blankets.

Without hesitation, Dr. Scandale looked at Katie and asked, "Are you allergic to any medications?" When Katie shook her head no, Dr. Scandale turned back at Amy and said, "Get me 5cc of Morphine Sulfate, and a piggy bag for the machine, STAT!"

The young nurse nodded and ran back out of the room. Dr. Scandale looked back at Katie, who she could tell was in pain. "Katie? Have you been awake long?" she asked, looking directly into Katie's eyes. The girl shook her head. "Do you remember how you got here?" Again, Katie shook her head. Dr. Scandale observed Katie's face, taking note that the girl's jaw was still swollen and that the bruises on her face were still dark, but not as before. The swelling around her forehead had gone down a lot, but there were still bumps that were slightly red. 'She is healing though,' Dr. Scandale mentally noted.

Just then, Amy came back in with a covered syringe, and an I.V. piggy bag, "Here, Doctor," she said as she handed her superior the syringe.

Taking it, Dr. Scandale replied, "Thank you." She uncovered the syringe and flicked it with her finger, making sure to get all the air bubbles to the top, then pressed the plunger up slightly, releasing the air bubbles, taking care, knowing that if any large air bubbles were left, it could be harmful to any patient. Slowly, she turned back to Katie, "I'm going to inject you with a pain killer now, okay?" Katie nodded, the doctor continued, "Okay. This might sting a little, but pretty soon," she paused as she skillfully injected Katie's right arm, "You won't care." When she inject all the contents she carefully and quickly pulled out the syringe, covering the injection site with a ball of cotton and allowed Amy to place a band aid. She then covered the needle of the syringe and disposed of it in the nearby sharps container before looking back toward Katie with a gentle smile. Taking notice that the teen was already beginning to feel the effects of the drug, Dr. Scandale furrowed her eye brows and looked back at Amy and locked eyes with the nurse. Both professionals shared the same feelings of sadness at seeing this young girl suffer. Looking down at Katie again, Dr. Scandale gently said, "We're going to call your family now. I know Kyle has been driving himself crazy waiting for you to wake up." But Katie didn't respond, all the young girl did was blink a few times before closing her eyes completely and falling into a light sleep.

It truly pained Dr. Scandale to see Katie Singer in this position. She had met the girl only a few times, but had liked her. Not only was she the younger sister of one of her best nurses, but she was just a polite ball of energy, every time she had met the girl at some hospital function, or just when she would just randomly would visit her brother.

"I'm, um, going to call Kyle. Tell him Katie came out of her coma," Amy said, as she walked out of the room.

Dr. Scandale stood there for a moment, still looking down at Katie, tears building in her eyes. Quickly, however, she closed her eyes and rubbed away any water that had snuck out with the back of her hand. This whole situation, as little information as she had, reminded her of an incident more than 30 years earlier involving her little brother who was picked on simply because the bullies at their school had nothing better to do and just randomly picked him as their target, and was also badly beaten. Back then, Dr. Scandale couldn't do anything for her brother except cry and wish that karma could come back and bite those boys that had hurt her brother in the ass, but right now, she vowed to help Katie Singer in any way she could. Sure she didn't know the entire story behind why she was targeted for that kind of assault, all she knew was that it was a group of men that had beaten her, but she didn't care for the reason. All she cared about was taking care of and monitoring her patient, doing all she could in her power that the teenager will make a full recovery.

Just then, a young boy, taller than the doctor, ran in the room, having stains of spilled coffee in his shirt and pants, from the look of it, the spillage was recent. His eyes wide, his head darting between Katie and Dr. Scandale. He opened his mouth and made incoherent noises before shaking his head and finally speaking, "She woke up?"

Looking at the young boy, recognizing him from visiting Katie so many times this week and she smiled, "She did." He looked back at Katie, then back at the doctor with a confused face. At this, Dr. Scandale couldn't help but let out a small laugh, knowing the boy was confused that Katie was asleep and not awake as he had believed. "It's just a cat nap," Dr. Scandale clarified. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't have been able to, under law, discuss her patients with anyone as long as the patient was conscious, but she decided to go with her gut feeling, which has yet to fail her, with letting the young boy in on a little bit of confidential information, "I gave her a pain killer. It made her a little drowsy, but trust me, she did regain consciousness."

The boy, Tad, put the nearly empty cup of coffee on the table and walked to the chair next to the bed and sat, his eyes never once leaving Katie. Slowly he a hesitant hand on top of hers and leaned in. "Katie?" he whispered, "Katie, can you hear me?" Katie's eyes fluttered a little, opened about half way and stared directly at Tad before closing again. When she looked at him, Tad froze. An enormous lump grew in his throat yet he was so excited and felt the excitement in the pit of his stomach and couldn't help but allow the smile on his face to grow. He looked up at the doctor, his hand not leaving Katie's, and smiled even bigger.

Looking at the sight, it warmed Dr. Scandale's heart. Seeing them, Tad and Katie, in this position was a mirror imagine of herself and her brother all those years ago. "I'll leave you two alone," she said and walked off, fighting back tears of a memory, and of the scene before her.

Turning back to his friend, Tad moved his other hand and moved hair away from Katie's face, taking care not to touch her bruises or cuts. "Katie?" he whispered again.

A noise escaped Katie's lips and her entire body moved. Her eyes fluttered open again. At first, she looked around the room, seemingly confused, then turned and looked at Tad. The confused expression in her eyes still evident. Now, with the morphine in her veins, Katie couldn't really feel anything, nor could she completely comprehend things. All she knew was that she was in a hospital, she couldn't move her mouth, and Tad was next to her, holding her hand. 'And are those tears in his eyes?' Katie mentally asked herself, 'Was he crying? Why?' Katie looked at her friend, the corners of her lips barely forming a ghost of a smile, and she spoke, without moving her jaw of course, "Taaaad…" she said, her voice low and raspy, "So saaaaad."

Tad looked at Katie, his eyes wide and full of shock, he was speechless. His mouth hung open and tears finally began to fall from his eyes as he finally regained his voice, "Katie!" he exclaimed and brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed it. "God, we were so worried," he said through his tears, his voice cracking, "I came to see you. Every day, Katie. Kyle too. And your parents and Steve."

'Everyday? How long was I out?' Katie mentally thought.

The confusion she was feeling must have shown in her eyes as she looked at Tad because, after clearing his throat and wiping his eyes with his free hand, he looked back at Katie and said, "Katie, you've been unconscious for a week."

'WHAT THE HELL?!' Katie screamed in her mind, her eyes growing wide. She couldn't believe she had been in a coma for a week. But how did she get in one in the first place? Katie turned her head slightly away from Tad's gaze and began darting her eyes around the room before closing them, furrowing her eye brows in frustration at her inability to remember what had happened.

Trying desperately to recall the events, Katie slowed her breathing, tightened her grip on Tad's hand and relived her memory of the day of her date with Jessie. 'C'mon,' she mentally said. The morphine moving about was clouding her memory, but she tried on. She remembered picking up Jessie in her Jeep. Then there was dinner at Scabbia Ferro's with Russell as their waiter, 'Ha ha, he was such a smart ass,' she thought. Skimming over the dinner, her memory went to the play they saw, remembering Jessie holding her hand. Afterwards, she drove somewhere, 'But where did we go?' she mentally asked herself, 'We drove, I remember that. But where? Trees, lots of… Right! The park! The view…" Then she smiled when she remembered showing Jessie all her track & field memorabilia and simply wowing Jessie with it. Then of course, the inevitable kissing in the car. After all, it is always a little kinky to make out in cars; Katie smiled again. 'But then what happened?' she wondered. Again she tightened her grip on Tad's hand, knowing this would be the hardest to remember. Both because it must have been right before she blacked out, and also, most likely, her mind subconsciously is blocking it from her. Regardless, Katie dug into her mind, trying to recall the events. Bits and pieces flashing across her mind, remember four men yelling homophobic remarks toward her. Then running with Jessie… But then she stopped and then there was nothing else she could remember, no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't get her mind to recall those memories. Finally she gave up and relaxed her head in her pillow and opened her eyes again, looking around the room with fuzzy vision before turning her head slightly and landing her eyes on a fuzzy Tad.

Then a thought struck her; "Jeesss?" she said, expanding the name.

At this, Tad shifted almost uncomfortably, slightly lowering their hands from his face. Slightly leaning in, he began to speak, "Um, she, uh… She was here. A little while ago actually. But," he paused and gulped. In the back of his mind, he knew what happened. Just as he and Grace had gotten coffee, Jessie came running out tears in her eyes demanding for her and Grace to go. Needless to say, Tad was confused and when he asked why she'd want to leave when they had barely arrived, she couldn't give him a straight answer leaving him to believe that she couldn't handle the situation. "But she left," was all he said.

"Oh," Katie whispered.

A few minutes later, Katie had falling into a light sleep again and Tad had stayed right by her side. It had only been maybe 15 minutes, possibly even less since he'd walk into the room with her out of her coma, but he felt like a giant leap of time had passed, and he was happy. Then, suddenly, the entire Singer family, both parents and both brothers, came running into the room, each one of them, especially Martha Singer, looking frantic.

"Tad!" Liam Singer exclaimed, "She's awake?"

Standing up, Tad took Liam's hand and shook it, just as he always had since he and Katie became friends, "She woke up from her coma, but I guess the pain killer, or whatever, kind of knocked her out. But she is awake," Tad explained.

Then Katie began to stir and all noise and movement in the room stopped as she slowly opened her eyes and looked around, seeing fuzzy shapes, people shapes. Her vision took a few moments but eventually it cleared enough that Katie could clearly see the tear ridden faces of her parents and of her brothers. Though she was incredibly happy at seeing her family, and Tad, whom she always viewed as a third brother anyways since they'd known each other for years, there was a bit of disappointment and sadness that she didn't see Jessie. Still, the logical side of her, no matter how much morphine clouded her mind, she knew that Jessie would have been here had it not pained the younger girl to see Katie in that position. So for that, Katie didn't mind so much that her girlfriend wasn't there.

For now, she decided to indulge in the moment, "What's… Wroonng?… Men… Don't… Cryyy." The corners of her mouth formed into a tiny, ghost of a smile. Everyone was able to see the humor behind her eyes.

"Crazy Kaitlyn. Always gotta be making jokes," Steve said with a small chuckle.

"She wouldn't be her if she didn't" Kyle added.

"That's a Singer for ya," Liam said.

Tad stood still for a moment, his head tilted and leaning downward looking at Katie, their eyes meeting. The corner of one side of his mouth cocked upward and formed a crooked smile as he softly said, "Wouldn't have her any other way."

Several hours later, much past visiting hours, the Singer family, plus Tad, had decided to call it a night. It was nice being able to visit Katie and having her actually respond, if even by simple blinks of her eyes or nods as talking hurt her a bit. Right before they left, Steve Singer had mentioned to his father about the upcoming case involving his sister. The information didn't quite settle well with his father, but Liam Singer knew it needed to be done. He cringed slightly at the thought of having to explain to his wife the deal that was made involving Kenny Murray and a pending civil trial that will surely be the talk of the town. And possibly reach the metropolitan city of Chicago. Though he wasn't sure he would want that kind of media attention for his family, he knew that these men that had the intension of killing his daughter needed to pay dearly.

After her family had left, Katie settled into her bed making herself comfortable, or as comfortable as she could be, considering her right arm and left leg were in a cast and her jaw was wired shut. It almost annoyed her that she wasn't able to talk much since, as anyone who knew her would confirm, Katie Singer loved to talk. However, knowing about the pending trial, it made Katie nervous. She didn't care if she was outed, she was open about her sexuality anyways, but what she was mainly worried about was Jessie. She didn't want Jessie getting any negative attention because of this. Knowing that her younger girlfriend was emotionally fragile, Katie knew that the circus that would ensue might be too much for Jessie and her family. But as her brother said, it was necessary to see those men would pay for their crimes. 'Besides,' Katie thought to herself, 'I'm probably not the first person they've attacked.' It was a very possible truth.

Spending several minutes, possibly a half hour, Katie couldn't find sleep. The morphine, though dulling the pain immensely, didn't help her sleep. She couldn't shake this feeling that something was wrong. There was a terrible rock in her belly and her mind seemed a bit cloudy. Not in the drugged sense, just simply a feeling that seemed like it wanted to haunt her. Sighing out of her nose, Katie closed her eyes again and leaned her head in her pillow trying to count sheep.

It didn't work. Frustrated, Katie shot her eyes open and brought up her left hand slightly and formed her hand into a fist, slamming it onto the bed. Immediately she regretted the action as pain short through her arm. Katie shut her eyes tight, sealing in tears of pain, refusing to let them out.

After a few moments, the sharp pain subsided and Katie opened her eyes, which were slightly glazed over and had a tint of irritation. 'It's pointless,' she thought, 'I'm not going to sleep. I was asleep for a week so I don't really need to catch up.' Not knowing what to do or how to solve her problem, she kept glancing around the room. 'I wonder how Jessie's doing?' she thought.

Finally, she turned her head almost completely to her left and settled. When she focused her eyes, she noticed something she hadn't noticed before; a note. It was odd that no one else had noticed it either. 'They were just busy being happy that I woke up,' Katie mentally reasoned. Slowly, and almost painfully, Katie reached out with her left hand to the small table that stood next to her bed. Her arm was heavy and her hand was shaky but after a few moments, some long and painful seconds, Katie reached and grabbed the note between her index and middle fingers and brought it slowly back to herself. There were small beads of sweat on her forehead. It amazed her that such a simply act like reaching of a paper would require such effort and would be so difficult.

For a few moments, Katie just laid there, her eyes closed while her head spun. She clutched the letter in her hand as it lay on her abdomen. It was very surprising that doing such a simply task wore her out so much. After a couple minutes, Katie could finally focus again and the room stopped feeling like it was spinning.

Using her one good arm, she brought up the note and immediately recognized the hand writing. It was a note from Jessie, which made Katie smile. Slowly, yet eagerly, Katie began to unfold the note, having only slight difficulty as she was only using her left hand, being right handed. It was difficult, and annoying, but Katie did manage to finally open the letter which had been folded a bit too neatly. 'Jessie and her neuroticism,' Katie thought, and smiled thinking of her girlfriend's quirkiness.

Once the note was opened, Katie began to early read it, only to find the first three words had made her heart stop beating. For a moment, all Katie could do was simply stare at those three words, "I'm sorry, but…" Katie knew from experience that those words never meant anything good, not in that order and especially not in letter form. Swallowing the enormous lump in her throat, Katie began to breath hard and continued reading, her eyes stinging more and more with each word.

_______________________________________________________________

After visiting Katie and leaving the letter, the heaviness in Jessie's chest consumed her into darkness. Her eyes weren't a bright crystal blue anymore, they were simply a shadow of their former glory. Jessie's once porcelain skin was now ghastly and pale. She was in her attic, and sat on the side of her bed, facing her book case just staring, not at the piece of furniture, but through it, all while in the dark with only the moonlight outside giving any bit of light into the room. It was almost as if she wasn't even looking at anything in general, but just staring into nothing. 'Because that's what I am,' Jessie thought, 'Nothing.'

It wasn't that she was nothing without Katie. It would be insane for Jessie to say that as it was much more complicated than that. Jessie did something she never wanted to do, she hurt Katie in many ways. She was responsible for Katie's injuries and now, once Katie wakes up, she would be responsible for her heart break. For Jessie to do this to someone who loves her, it was unforgivable. 'I deserve this,' Jessie mentally affirmed 'This, what I'm feeling. It's all me.'

A street light outside turned on and illuminated the book case giving it color and almost personality as the shadows and light formed an almost demented, yet saddened expression and just seemed to stare at Jessie. Was it mocking her? Was it telling her how Katie will feel once she reads the letter?

Shaking her head almost violently, Jessie exclaimed, "No!" then slammed her fists into the bed beside her thighs. Her head was tilted downward and her eyes looked piercingly at her book case, staring at the face that was staring back at her. A wind outside blew and moved branches from the tree in front of the window. The shadows of the branches made the face on the book case move. It seemed like it was crying. Was it crying? Or was it laughing?

"It's laughing," Jessie said out loud. Clenching her jaw, Jessie growled out, "Stop laughing at me." The wind outside blew again, and once again the face on the book case moved and slightly shifted bringing the mouth down. "What? Did I hurt your feelings?" Jessie asked almost sarcastically. Then the wind stopped and the face changed yet again. This time, the eyes looked right into Jessie's and the expression was seemingly accusing her. It was too much for Jessie as she jumped up and sprung to her feet, "I know!" she shouted, "I know! It's my fault! It's my damn fault!" She held out her right arm and pointed at the face in the book case, "You know it! I know it," she exclaimed as her hand went to her chest, "Stop telling me!"

Jessie turned around, putting her hands to her face and rubbed her eyes and her temples. That pesky boulder in her stomach, that damn lump in her throat; it was all irksome! She turned back to face the book case, and there it was still, The Face. It still looked at her accusing her, The Face was still accusing her. "Isn't it enough?" she asked while taking slow steps toward it, "Isn't it enough I admitted it? Just stop looking at me!" She stopped moving and looked. Still, The Face had not changed its expression. "Stop," Jessie said low, "Looking," she began walking again, "At," she was almost there, "ME!" she screamed as she grabbed onto the corner and knocked the entire thing over and began to kick the side all the while, hot tears were streaming down her face. "There! See?!" she screamed looking down at the back of the book case.

Turning around, she saw on an old clothing rack The Face had moved. It changed its expression but it was still there, taunting her. It was among old clothes belonging to Lily and just kept staring at her, this Face. Jessie clenched her fists and her jaw and stared hard at The Face, which just simply looked back at her and, with the help of the wind blowing the branches outside, grinned at her. With a scream, Jessie ran at the rack, grabbing several pieces of clothes, she ripped them off and threw them about, not caring where they landed before grabbing the rack and knocked it to the ground.

TBC…

Author's Note: Sorry it's a little short, though not much shorter than my first couple chapters, haha. But oh man… Jessie isn't crazy, per se. She's just incredibly pissed/angry/sad/anxious. She just doesn't know what to do and she's pretty much broken her own heart. Oh and this chapter is totally dedicated to WonderousPlaceForAnEcho for leaving me such awesome reviews that kicked me back into gear! Must admit, one of her reviews kind of gave me the ending so… Hehe.