Here's the next installment. Short but sweet. Enjoy. Next up will probably be Con a Con but no definite date for when that'll be finished.

Chapter 21

Jason stood outside Sam's hospital room as Patrick examined her. She was brought out of surgery five days before and still hadn't woken up. The talented neurosurgeon assured him that it was normal for Sam to take her time waking up.

"She could be out for another week," he had told him. He knew it was meant to reassure him but Jason had felt like snapping his neck.

There was no way he could watch Sam lying in bed for much longer. He was already out of his mind with worry.

"Well?" Jason asked Patrick when the doctor exited Sam's room.

Patrick looked at him and smirked. "She's recovering nicely. I think she'll wake up soon."

"How soon?" Jason needed clarification.

The doctor shrugged. "A few hours to a day," he replied.

"What about her memory?" Alexis piped up for the first time since she had arrived two hours before.

Patrick turned to her and grinned. "It should be intact. She shouldn't be forgetting anything anymore."

Nikolas, who was sitting beside his aunt, raised an eyebrow. "Should?" He repeated and his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Patrick grimaced. "As always, there are no guarantees in medicine."

Jason muttered a curse under his breath as he ran a frustrated hand through his hair. He looked back at Sam's sleeping form. From this distance, it appeared as if she was resting peacefully. He was grateful that her skin tone was normal. Last time she had been deathly pale.

Drake gripped his shoulder. "Waiting is the hardest part but I really believe she'll be fine."

"I don't like hospitals," Jason declared and then looked back at Sam. "I especially don't like it when Sam is the patient. Every time she's in here, she seems to lose something."

Her baby, her brother, the ability to conceive, and her memory were among the many things she had lost. When she came to visit Elizabeth after Jake was born and overheard the conversation between himself and the nurse, she must have felt like she had lost him.

"Well, she'll be gaining her memory this time," Patrick spoke positively but Jason didn't have the strength to nod in agreement. History was against them and he never did well with optimism.

He liked to be prepared. Most often, for the worst possibility. The idea that Sam might not come back from the surgery scared the hell out of him and that kind of helpless fear paralyzed him.

"Sam has survived worse than this," Alexis reminded him gently. "She will bounce back. In time, she'll be back better than ever."

Her opinion rarely mattered to him but he found himself feeling a burst of hope flow through his veins at her maternal pep talk.

"Do you really believe that?" He was still unsure.

"I know it," Alexis declared, and scrunched her nose in disgust at the possibility that she was wrong. It was like the thought that things never went the way she wanted them never entered her mind.

Maxie, who was leaning against the wall outside Sam's room, glanced at him. "After everything she's been through," the young girl began incredulously as she came up beside him and chuckled wistfully as she glanced back at the strong, willful woman who had quickly become her best friend. "Do you really think Sam is going to let a tumor cut her down?"

The girl shook her head insistently. "She'll be up and talking a mile a minute before we know it."

That remark brought a smile to Jason's face. He might need to be committed later on but he couldn't wait to hear Sam's rambling again. It would be music to his ears.

Sam was aware of the strong, warm hand wrapped familiarly around her smaller one as she slowly opened her eyes. The light in the room was too bright for her to handle and she squeezed her eyes shut quickly to block out the harsh, painful rays, exhaling slowly, unaware of the light whimper that escaped her throat as she did so.

The hand tightened around hers briefly and then loosened just as quickly. "Sam?" He sounded uncertain as he called her name and she nodded slowly to indicate that she was indeed awake.

"Jason?" She murmured softly.

He let out a deep breath as he brought her hand to his mouth, placing soft kisses along her palm. "Thank God." The relief in his voice brought tears to her eyes.

When she opened her eyes again, she could see him, peering down at her in concern and happiness.

"How long was I out?" Sam looked around the room curiously. She sensed that it had taken longer than expected for her to wake up and judging by the worry lines on his face and relief swimming in his eyes, her instincts were still right on the mark.

"I'll tell you everything," his voice was very calm and precise, which made Sam nervous. "Tell me what you remember first."

Sam closed her eyes briefly. Experiences and memories that had been lost to her for so long were now flooding back, and she relived every emotion, experience and loss that she couldn't remember before. Despite all the pain and misery she had been through, she found herself smiling when she opened her eyes again.

"I remember everything," she declared proudly, unashamed of her past for the first time in years. Tears swam in her eyes as she looked up at him. "I also remember how you helped me through it all."

She tightened her grip on the hand that he had wrapped around hers. "Thank you," she said sincerely and smiled sweetly at him.

That smile was what made Jason lean forward quickly and capture her mouth with his; kissing her with all the pent-up emotion he had been holding in for the past week. When the kiss ended, he pulled away, but only far enough so that he could see her face.

Sam gulped at the glint in his eyes. She knew what that look meant. She had seen it so many times before, staring down at her in a dimly lit bedroom.

"You're welcome," he told her passionately and then his eyes grew serious. "But don't ever scare me like that again."

"I'll do my best," she vowed and planted a firm kiss on his mouth before leaning back in her bed.

"We're going to need to talk about things," Jason's voice interrupted her attempt at going back to sleep.

She glanced at him and nodded in understanding. "I know," she acknowledged.

"I want to know where we stand."

Her eyes popped open and she glared at him. "I just woke up from brain surgery. I'm a little wiped out."

"You've been awake for twenty minutes," he pointed out.

"Well, waking up from a coma takes a lot out of a girl," Sam shot back with a wink, yawning immediately afterwards. "Serious talk will have to wait for tomorrow."

"I'd wait forever," he said silently but she was already back asleep.