A/N: Thank you for your replies. They make my day! - ASL will be in bold.

Jack slowly opened his eyes and tried to take in his surroundings. The light was a little too harsh for his liking and the images were still a little blurred but he forced himself to keep his eyes open. He was in a hospital room and he had a tube down his throat. Again. This seemed like a very bad déjà-vu. The only different thing was that by his bed there was a tall Aussie who was staring at him with a worried face instead of a beautiful sleeping analyst. Then a thought struck him. Maybe it had been just a dream. A bad dream. Maybe he was waking up now for the first time and nothing he remembered had really happened. His mother wasn't in hospital again; the doctor had not said that he would be paralyzed for the rest of his life. Maybe he wasn't paralyzed and that had just been a sick joke of his traumatized mind…
Keeping guessing was bringing him nowhere so he breathed deeply and tried to move his legs. And his heart sank.

"It wasn't a dream." A soft, strained voice murmured.

Jack raised startled eyes towards the Australian. He had forgotten that Bobby was there. He had been so focused on proving to himself that his life hadn't drastically changed that he had forgotten that he wasn't alone in the room. And now Bobby had witnessed his sorry attempt at denying the reality. How did he know what he was thinking, anyhow? Was he so easy to read? Maybe Bobby knew him too well. Maybe a combination of both things. That didn't really matter. He trusted Bobby with himself. His friend wouldn't say anything to anyone. If that wasn't a dream, though, then what the heck had happened?

"What happened?" Jack signed.

Bobby pressed the button to call the nurse and then took a deep breath, trying to talk past the lump that had decided to take permanent residence in his throat.

"Someone tried to kill you. We stopped him just in time but the attack put your lungs and heart under too much stress. They stopped working. Now you're out of the woods but the doctor wants you to stay intubated for a couple of days to help your lungs."

Jack nodded almost imperceptibly, taking in everything Bobby had just told him. Someone had tried to kill him. That was unsettling… and, strange enough, quite interesting… However, first things first.

"What happened to my hand?"

Bobby lowered his gaze with a sheepish expression.

"That might have been my fault…"

Jack raised an eyebrow, silently inviting him to continue.

"I've been a little too impetuous in stopping your wannabe killer" He answered.

Jack tried to convey his gratefulness in his gaze. Frustrated at his impossibility to use his voice, he made a mental note to thank his friend properly later when he would not have a tube down his throat.

"Does Amy know?" He signed, then.

"No. Not yet."

"Do not tell her. I need to speak with her."

Bobby nodded and exited the room. Through the open door Jack could see two smart suited people standing in front of his room stopping a nurse and a doctor who wanted clearly enter Jack's room.
"Great. Just great. That'll be difficult to explain to Amy!" Jack thought, closing tiredly his eyes.

Jack had managed to convince Bobby to send away the two guards for a couple of hours. "You'll be more than enough." He had assured Bobby. Granted, if he had been able to effectively utter those words he would have been more convincing but luckily Bobby was a big brother too and he had perfectly understood his need not to worry his sister more than necessary. While he waited for his sister to arrive, he took the pen and the notepad Bobby had brought him and started writing what he wanted to say to Amy. This way, their "talk" would be easier, faster and a little less awkward. He hoped.

"Jack!" Amy cried the moment she stepped into her brother's room. "What happened?"

She rushed to her brother's side and Jack frowned, not liking what he was seeing. Large black shadows under her tired eyes and deep lines on her face, clearly caused by too much worry, too much grief and too little sleep, made her seem older than she was. Every doubt he had had about not telling her the truth vanished in that instant. She didn't need to know someone was trying to kill her brother. He decided to stick to the lie he had come up with in the past hour. His lungs had worsened because of a mild lung infection the doctors and he hadn't noticed before. Nothing to worry about. The ventilator was just a precaution. This would be his truth, what he had written on the notepad, what he had instructed Bobby and his doctor to tell if Amy asked. He grasped one of her hands and squeezed it tightly, drawing the young woman to him. He placed the notepad on her hands and kept his eyes on his sister's, trying to hide the concern he was feeling, trying to comfort her. "Darned tube!" She seemed to calm down a little and squeezed back his hand then she started reading her brother's message.

"I already know about mom." She said when she finished reading. "I called dad last night to know why they weren't here with you." She added softly, seeing the questioning look on her brother's face. "I wanted to go home to dad and mom for a couple of days but now I don't want to leave you. What if you worsen again?" She asked, her eyes bright and damp, the conflict clear in her face.

Jack shook gingerly his head then gestured to the notepad Amy was clutching tightly between her slightly trembling hands. She handed him the object and waited patiently while her brother wrote what he was unable to say.
"You go home. Help dad. He's alone. I'm not. Tell dad and mom that I'm sorry I'm not there with them and then give mom a hug and kiss for me. Please!" He wrote.

After having read the message, Amy stayed silent for what to Jack seemed like an eternity, her eyes shifting between her brother's face and the window. Then she nodded lowly, taking a deep breath.

"Ok, bro. I'll do as you want but I want to be updated on your conditions every day, twice a day." She said, her worried expression turning stern.

Jack nodded then pointed to a point behind Amy. She turned and saw the tall, lanky figure of Bobby.

"I guess that'll be my job for a little while, little sheila. Sparky is not exactly chatty these days."

He said with a kind smile, earning himself a small smile from Amy and a mock glare from Jack.