RPOV

It seemed like only moments later when Chatty the Nurse, who's name I still couldn't recall, came knocking. I could already hear Kris' father in the hall and he didn't sound pleased.

"Why in the hell is that nurse asking him if we can go in?" He asked no one in particular.

Great, he already seemed hostile with me. Just perfect.

"Oh hush, Dad. He is the one who has been here with her pretty much the whole time she's been in here," Sara quickly jumped in to defend me.

At least someone was on my side, that was reassuring. I finally stood, kissing Kris lightly on the forehead as I did. I walked to the door and wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans before opening it.

What greeted me really wasn't all that scary. There was Sara's familiar face smiling weakly at me. Standing with an arm around her was a woman in her mid-forties or early-fifties. She had the same emerald eyes as Kris and Sara, the same auburn hair too only in a slightly faded shade. It seemed a fair deduction that she was their mother, they were both her spitting image. That meant the man standing slightly in front of them, glaring at me with his arms folded over his chest would be dear old dad. Quite honestly he was a bit intimidating.

Sara and her mother stepped past me to enter the room, but her father pulled farther into the hall and closed the door to Kris' room, separating us for everyone else. Surely he wouldn't kill someone while they were in a hospital, right? Well at least I'd be in the right place if he decided to try.

"Listen Rob," he began. "I know my daughter loves you and wants you here so I won't ask you to leave, but I want to make it clear that I'm not happy about any of this and I think Kristina is ruining her life over you."

"With all due respect, sir, I think the person who put her in here is far more capable of ruining her life than I am."

"Well son, they didn't have any problems before you came along so I hope you think you're worth all of this trouble," he said, gesturing to the situation all around us before entering Kris' room.

I stood in the hall completely shocked. I knew that what he said wasn't entirely true, Kris and Steven had a huge problem long before I came along - they had an empty, loveless marriage. That's quite a problem if you ask me.

However, I couldn't help but feel I was to blame for some of this. Steven may not have loved Kris, but as far as I knew he had never hit her before. Not before I came into the picture anyway. But since then it had happened twice and both of those occasions were sparked by me.

I wasn't expecting a warm welcome from Kris' father, but I wasn't exactly expecting to be thrown in the mud like that either.

I needed a smoke, the fresh air probably wouldn't hurt either so I headed downstairs and stood just outside the entrance while I tried to clear my head.

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KPOV

The next time I woke up there were three faces hovering over me. My parents and Sara, Rob had really called them, just like he said he would. Yet now he was mysteriously absent from the room.

He said he didn't want to be anywhere else so where in the hell had he gone?

"Where's Rob?" I finally asked outloud.

Sara spoke up before anyone else even had a chance. "He went down to smoke…Plus, I think he's pretty scared now, he and Dad 'had words'."

I glared at my dad who only shrugged in response.

"Oh Krissy," my mom said as she stepped closer to me. "Don't worry about any of that right now, just worry about getting better, honey."

I knew she was sincere and only trying to help by calming the situation, but that just wasn't working for me at that moment.

"No, I need to know. What did you say to him, Dad?" I demanded answers.

"Nothing that isn't true, I just wanted to make sure he knew this mess is because of him."

"Are you kidding me?" I spat, anger quickly welling inside me. "You would rather blame Rob than admit that Steven is anything less than perfect, wouldn't you? Well look at my face, my arms, the fact that I can't even get up because my ribs are scattered. Just look at me! Rob didn't do this, it wasn't his hands pummeling me as I cried and begged him to stop. No, that was all the precious, perfect Steven. Not exactly the wonderful guy you thought he was, huh Dad?"

Tears were now running down my face despite how hard I had tried to hold them back. My little outburst cause the pain in my chest to flare and become nearly unbearable, but it was worth it. Rob felt bad enough as it was and he didn't deserve any of the blame. I refused to let anyone put an unjust guilt trip on him.

"Krissy, you really need to relax. Getting all worked up isn't going to help anything and it's really not good for you," my mother said as she stroked my hair and attempted to soothe me.

"I think we should go now," my father mumbled coldly and walked out the door.

Well that had turned out to be a lovely visit. My mom apologized and Sara gave me a quick hug while handing me a small gift bag.

"Don't open it until we're gone and Rob is back," she ordered and I nodded in agreement.

I sat the bag on the nightstand then laid my head back against the cool pillow and tried not to move…or breathe. My little rant had kicked my ass thoroughly. The pain became all consuming. I knew I must have a morphine button around somewhere and I wanted to use it, desperately, but I knew it would knock me right out and I needed to see Rob before that could happen.

Moments later he quietly entered the room and promptly returned to what was becoming his spot. I was pretty sure I noticed a butt groove forming in that chair in his backside's exact likeness.

"Oooh, what's in the bag?" he asked excitedly, like a kid on Christmas, as he grabbed it off the nightstand and peeked inside.

This earned a wide smile from me. "I don't know actually. It's from Sara, she said it's for both of us so you can go ahead and open it…I don't think I have it in me to sit up again."

He frowned a bit, knowing I was in pain, but that didn't slow him down much. He cautiously open the bag and tore the tissue paper out of the way revealing a framed photo. One of the pictures Sara had taken at the Kings of Leon concert. In it I was looking over at her, wearing a huge smile on my face, while Rob was staring down at me lovingly. It was beautiful and it truly captured how both of us felt that night.

"Sara took this?" Rob asked after looking the picture over for quite some time. "I don't even remember her taking pictures."

"Yeah, well it would appear that your attention was elsewhere," I winked.

"It certainly was. That night was wonderful, I'm just sorry the memory is tarnished now."

"Maybe for you, but it isn't for me. Ten years from now when I look back at that night all I'm going to remember is being there with you and how great it felt to be in your arms and how amazing it was when you sang to me. That's all that matters."

"I'm glad you think so," he smiled, blushing slightly, and placed the picture on the nightstand, turning it so I could easily see it.

I took a deep breath and winced at the pain it cause.

"I'm gonna get a nurse in here to get you some pain meds," Rob said as he stood to leave the room.

I held up a hand to stop him. "Not yet, we need to talk about what my dad said you first."

He groaned loudly. "No, really we don't, there's nothing to say about it. No big deal."

"What he said was wrong, Rob, and we both know that."

"It was just what he thinks and he's entitled to that. I didn't expect him to like me anyway. All we can hope is that he'll come around eventually. And your mom seemed nice enough, even apologized on his behalf. It was unnecessary, but still a nice gesture," he was rambling now, I could see there was something he was trying to say, but wouldn't…

"Whatever you want to say just spit it out already. I'm in too much pain for all this waiting."

"Well your dad did say something else I found kind of interesting…"

"Really? What was that?" Oh god, what else could there be? I was starting to think my dad was really insistent in ruining things with Rob for me.

"He uh…he said that you…that you love me." He looked at me nervously, like maybe I was going to deny the accusation.

"And?" I asked flatly.

"If that's true then why does he know it before me?"

"I guess it's pretty obvious if even he can pick up on it so you, of all people, should have had an idea," I teased.

"But you've never said it."

"Neither have you. I wanted to say it when it was right then there was just never an appropriate time I guess."

"Now seems like a fine time, just as good as any. I'll even man up and go first…I love you, Kris, so much." He finished with a sigh, like a huge weight had been lifted from him, and squeezed my hand tightly.

"I love you, too," I smiled. The words came out effortlessly, with no holding back, and it was then that I realized how long I had been wanting to say them. "And don't you doubt for a second that you weren't worth everything I went through. I'd do it all over again to be with you."

He stood to gently cupped my face with his hands and placed a chaste kiss on my lips before resting his forehead against my own. Suddenly I wasn't aware of the pain anymore. Everything just felt right.

A/N: Aww the first 'I love you's, how sweet :) They're still not in clear though, it won't be all sunshine and roses yet. There's some more Steven drama coming up in the next chapter…