The room was dark once again and Jack watched as Lisa let her eyes give in to the exhaustion and slowly shut, the tension in her expression slowly fading. Jack began humming to her in the silence, he didn't think about it, the sound just came instinctively, it was their wedding song, the song they had danced to at their "reception".

Watching her steady breathing Jack thinks about how for the past week he had been watching her just like this but in a completely different state of mind. Just a few hours ago everything was so uncertain, he had been struggling to maintain hope. He had been struggling to stay positive, not to assume the worst. Now, although watching her sleep she didn't look any different to before, but yet, she felt closer. Knowing that if he so much as prodded her she would probably open her eyes made Jack feel at ease once more. Somewhere in the far reaches of his mind there was a niggling worry she could slip back under in her sleep but he refused to entertain that thought. The doctors have checked everything and she's fine, he told himself, knowing it was the truth and entertaining any other ideas would be simply foolish.

Despite the unforgiving straight-backed chair Jack was more comfortable than he had been in ages, he had found his peace of mind once again. Sitting in the room, Lisa's hand softly returning his hold in her sleep, Jack's mind abandoned the turmoil he had become so accustomed to over the last week. He let his mind drift into the reaches of his subconscious, not focusing on any particular train of thought. It was half an hour later before the others arrived. Jack was brought out of his peaceful revere by a soft knock on the door. Glancing down at Lisa's resting form he quietly rose and opened the door, to be met by Amy, Ty, Lou, Georgie and Katie's expectant faces crowded around the doorway.

"Sorry we're so late, I had to track down Caleb to mind the kids" said Amy in a hushed voice, "and Lou had to talk our way around the visiting hours, I don't know how she managed it but here we are."

Before Jack could reply Georgie spoke, peering over his shoulder, "Oh, is Lisa asleep? Should we have waited 'til morning?"

"She, uh, dozed off about a half hour ago but she told me to wake her when you guys came…" Jack was hesitant, despite Lisa's warning he didn't want to wake her. She'd seemed so exhausted, she had fallen asleep in a matter of seconds.

"Oh Grandpa don't bother, she's probably exhausted!" Lou exclaimed. Amy elbowed her in the ribs to remind her to keep her voice down. "Oops, sorry." grimaced Lou.

Inclined to agree with Lou, Jack looked back at the bed, only to see Lisa blearily opening her eyes. Too late, he sighed inwardly. He watched her eyes slowly adjust and take in the scene before her. He saw her look from him, to the door which he had only opened a crack. He knew that she knew what he was thinking before she even spoke.

"Jack Bartlett," she attempted a stern voice but her voice was weak and the words came slowly, still, Jack knew she was more amused than annoyed. "You were going to send them home without waking me weren't you? I told you to wake me and they drove all the ways here-"

"I- no I… well-", before Jack could muster up an excuse Amy interrupted.

"Lisa! It's so good to see you, how are you feelin'?" she opened the door enough to slip past Jack to Lisa's side and the others crowded in, Ty flicking on the light before shutting the door.

"Not too bad, all things considered," smiled Lisa, rubbing her eyes and squinting in the light. "Jack, could you help me sit up here?"

"Sure Lis"

Amy stepped aside to allow Jack get to Lisa's side.

"Could you grab the pillows while I lift her up?" Jack asked Lou who was now standing on the opposite side of the bed.

"Of course," she quickly stepped forward to put her hands on the pillows while Jack tried to find the best way to get a hold on Lisa to sit her up without hurting her and without getting entangled in her IV lines.

"Ready?" he looked down at her for affirmation. Bracing her hands on the bed she gritted her teeth and nodded in response. Although he did his best to keep it smooth and Lou was quick to adjust the pillows, Jack could tell she was hurting, but she didn't make a sound besides a sharp intake of breath through her teeth. When she was sitting up again she closed her eyes for a few moments and took a few deep breaths, arms crossed over her ribs. Jack lay his hand on her forearm, at a loss of what else to do to comfort her.

"How've you all been?" Lisa asked when she reopened her eyes, smiling at everyone crowded into the room. "Katie, Georgie, how's school going?"

"Pretty good" replied Katie.

"Crazy busy" said Georgie at the same time. Jack chuckled, settling back into the chair next to the bed. Lisa slipped her hand into his, letting them rest on the bedside, though she kept the other stationary on her torso.

"How's Cinders been doing?" Lisa directed her next question at Amy. Jack could see Lou smiling knowingly to herself and shaking her head slightly, just out of Lisa's eye line. He was pretty sure he knew why, too. She's not gonna give anyone else a chance to ask her anything. Diverting all the attention from herself, now why is that not surprising?

"Really good, he was… pretty spooked at first but he's much better now and I've been turning him out with the other horses during the day. I think he's missing you though."

"You think?" she smiled to herself, "Thank you for looking after him, Amy."

"It's no trouble. You just concentrate on getting better, you hear?"

Lisa nodded and Jack could almost see the dismissal for Amy's concern on the tip of her tongue.

"How are you doing Lisa?" Lou wasn't going to let her avoid the issue. "Are you hurting much?"

"I'm pretty sure they have me pumped full of painkillers… but I'm also pretty sure they're starting to wear off."

"Does your head hurt?" Jack asked, immediately concerned.

"No more than it has since I woke up earlier." Lisa assured him.

"What's up, then?" pressed Lou.

"Oh it's fine, just feeling my leg a bit more" Lisa dismissed their concern.

"Will I get a nurse?" Jack began to get up.

"No, no," Lisa pulled him back down by the hand, "It's fine, Jack. Really, it's fine" she didn't give him a chance to argue before she moved on to talk to Amy again. Jack shook his head, letting their conversation wash over him. Is it hypocritical for me to want her to be less stubborn? Probably…

A little while later his concerns were put to rest anyway as a nurse came in to check up on her and adjust her medication. The young night nurse seemed amused at the amount of people crowded into the little room. She busied herself around Lisa for a few minutes. She adjusted the IVs hanging next to the bed before carefully removing the bandage from around Lisa's head. Before she replaced the bandage with a smaller one, this one didn't extend past her hairline, Jack caught a glimpse of the long row of stitches on the back of Lisa's head from the surgery. The sight of the long incision reminded Jack of everything she'd gone through, and would have to go through before she recovered. She's strong, we can get through this.

Conversation continued after the nurse was finished. The others updated Lisa on all the happenings at Heartland and reassured her things were under control at Fairfield.

"You're going to be swamped in visitors for the next few weeks," Lou said, fingering the petals of a flower that was drooping down by her shoulder.

Jack suppressed a groan, he'd just about had enough of visitors and small talk. The others laughed and Jack realised he hadn't suppressed it as well as he thought.

"Oh look on the bright side," Lisa smiled, "Now that I'm awake you can avoid conversations entirely."

"Yeah, we all know Lisa's the social half of your duo, Jack." Ty quipped.

Jack couldn't help but smile. "That obvious, huh?"

"No, you're social-just not new people, or lots of people social" Lisa said.

"You're family social" Georgie put in.

"Exactly." Amy laughed, Georgie had hit the nail on the head.

Jack chuckled, lifting up Lisa's hand to kiss it softly. He was relieved to see she looked relaxed and happy, the stress that had been showing on her face before falling asleep earlier almost entirely vanished. He was glad she'd woken up to see the others. There was no doubt being around people made Lisa a lot more comfortable than it ever made Jack.

That said, this is nice, just family. Georgie's right. Who needs more than family anyways?

After an hour or so Jack noticed Lisa was beginning to tire. She wouldn't say anything but he could see her struggling to keep her eyes open and to concentrate on everything around her.

"You need to sleep Lis."

She shot him a small smile gratefully, "You're probably right"

"Oh Lisa I'm sorry, you're sure to be exhausted and here we are keeping you up." Lou said apologetically.

"No, not at all, it was great to see all of you" Lisa assured her.

"Either way, we'll get out of your hair now. Jack?" Ty looked at Jack, an unspoken question in his eyes.

"Jack, you should go home tonight, get some proper rest." said Lisa, seeing the look.

"No, Lis you-"

"Will be just fine" she cut in imploringly. "Go home, please. You're not spending another night in that chair on my account."

Before Jack could argue his point, Ty cut in, "Come on Jack, it makes sense, if you're sure Lisa?" Lisa nodded.

"You can come back first thing in the morning." Ty bargained.

"Exactly." Lisa said. Jack didn't want to agree, but Lisa had made up her mind now, there wasn't much hope of convincing her, or any of the others for that matter.

"Oh alright." he sighed in defeat. "But don't think you can get rid of me that easily, I'll be back first thing in the morning"

"If it's your idea of first thing, don't even think about waking me. I'd like the sun to be up first, thank you very much." Lisa leaned over to kiss him, wincing slightly but a smile still playing on her lips and Jack cupped her chin in his palm.

"We'll, uh, wait downstairs, for you, Grandpa" said Lou, sensing they wanted a moment to themselves.

"Yep," agreed Ty reaching out to squeeze Lisa's hand. "Bye Lisa, you rest up now."

After a chorus of goodbye's and a whole round of hugs from the girls (with a few intermittent winces that Lisa tried her best to cover, only Jack felt her hand tighten on his each time) they all ushered themselves out the door as fast as they had entered.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay?" Jack tried one last time, he didn't want to abandon her for the night.

"I am positive, Jack. Now go home and get a decent night's sleep, to ease my conscience at the very least."

"Will I lower the bed for you?" Jack reached for the control.

"Please"

After ensuring she was comfortable Jack finally picked up his coat and hat. He leaned in for one last, lingering kiss goodbye.

"I will see you in the morning."

"Bright and early" Jack grinned in return.

"I meant what I said about the sun being up first. Wake me up before then and I may have to file for divorce."

"And I'd like to see you try" Jack chuckled from the doorway as he dimmed the lights.

"Just try me." There was a pause, "I love you"

"I love you too Lis." As he shut the door and made his way down to the lobby to the others Jack thought to himself. I just hope she's exhausted enough to fall asleep right away. 'Cause if I know Lisa she'll keep herself up all night trying to process everything I told her earlier. Maybe I should have stayed…if she wasn't so damn stubborn… Please Lis, for my sake, just go to sleep.


As exhausted as Lisa was and even though she couldn't even hold her eyes open, sleep evaded her. It wasn't pain that was keeping her awake though, the nurse had taken care of that, her previous pain was now just a dull ache. No, it was her thoughts depriving her of some well needed sleep.

It's my own damn fault. If I could just stop thinking long enough to fall asleep.

She couldn't stop though, her thoughts had found their way back to what she had been avoiding since she woke up. She desperately ran her constructed version of the accident through her mind, the version her mind had created on hearing Jack's account. But it was no good, she knew what she was making herself see wasn't real.

If I could just remember the tiniest part of that day, of what happened. Would it help? Would it benefit me in any way? Maybe it's just as well I can't remember, I won't be able to ride for long enough as it is, do I really need memories of a fall making me fear it? Sure, I've had my fair share of falls, but never bad enough that I can't even remember it happening, or the week after it for that matter. Still, a blank space where a day should be is just frustrating. Oh I should have asked Jack to stay…no, no he needed to go home.

Lisa hated the ache she felt now that Jack was gone, it made her feel like a child. She just couldn't help wanting him there to squeeze her hand, to reassure her.

I can deal with this on my own for the night. I am perfectly capable of handling my own thoughts.

Despite this resolute decision though, sleep continued to evade her long into the night.