CHAPTER TWELVE

Admissions

When Charlie woke again it was to a ray of sunshine that had somehow managed to shine directly into his eyes. With a pained sigh he turned his head to see Anna fast asleep beside him. He wasn't sure what to make of that, and was a little disturbed that she had apparently come in and crept into bed without him noticing.

Fully awake now, Charlie debated getting up and going for a bit of a walk, but decided against it when he saw a new notepad and pen lying on the nightstand. He struggled to a sitting position, and started to write.

A few hours later, Anna also woke up. "You're awake," she said sleepily.

"Yeah," Charlie said. "Thanks for this," he said with a vague motion toward the notepad.

"Oh, no problem. I figured you might need to write," she said, turning onto her stomach and propping herself onto her elbows to watch him. "You don't mind that I stayed here, do you?"

"No, of course not," Charlie said, turning his attention back to his equations but suddenly being far too distracted to work on them.

"So, we've been working together a long time now, right?" Anna said tentatively.

"Yeah. Six years now? I think."

"Something like that," she agreed with a nod. "And I think we work really well together."

"Of course," Charlie said with an uncertain look at her.

"Right," Anna said, nervously picking at her pillow and refusing to meet his eyes. "So I'm going to go ahead and completely ruin our friendship now."

"What?" Charlie said with a laugh. "What do you mean?"

"When you were shot, Charlie, I… I completely lost it. You have no idea."

"From the brief moments I was conscious you seemed pretty calm," Charlie disagreed. He had no idea where this conversation was going.

"On the outside, maybe. But I was freaking out. Literally beside myself." She frowned seriously and risked a peek at him. "I thought you were going to die, and I didn't know if I could live with that."

Charlie looked at her with uncertainty. "I really don't…"

"I'm in love with you, Charlie," Anna said before burying her head under her pillow in embarrassment. "Oh my god, I just said it," she exclaimed, her voice muffled.

Charlie just looked at her in amazement. "You're in love with me?" he repeated.

"Completely, head over heals," came Anna's muffled reply. "And it's totally ok that you don't feel that way about me. I just wanted to get it out there, you know, so in case…" She looked up at him for moment before covering her face with the pillow again.

Charlie was still looking at her with a slightly wide-eyed expression.

"Oh, I'm so mortified now," Anna muttered.

"I don't even… I don't know what to say," Charlie said. "Except, please don't be embarrassed. You don't have to be embarrassed. I'm…" He reached over and pulled the pillow away from her face. "I don't know what to do about that," he said softly.

"You don't have to do anything," Anna said. "But don't make fun of me. And don't say anything to Kate and Jimmy Dean. They'll never let me live it down."

"It can't be that bad to be in love with me," Charlie said, looking down at his hands for a moment before looking over at her. "Can it?"

"Oh, no," she said with a stricken expression. "That isn't what I meant."

"Ok," he said, before impulsively leaning forward and kissing her gently. "That really hurt," he said, smiling sheepishly. "I'm… I don't know if I love you, but I certainly like you a whole lot. So, if that's something you would like to… I don't know," he shrugged helplessly. "I don't know what I'm saying."

Anna smiled. "I'll take it," she said.

"Good," Charlie said. "I'm going to take a shower, and then I'm going to find some breakfast. I'm starving."

CHAPTER TWELVE: Uncertainty