.

"Miss Evans. We meet again!"
"Officer Thomson." Tilly replied as the female policewoman entered her hospital room. It was the same lady who questioned her about the hotel damage after the Christmas ball.
"Good memory!" she replied with a smile.
Tilly grinned back, and shifted uncomfortably.
"How are you feeling?"
"Getting there, thanks."
"And how's that leg?"
"It's OK... I can still do the robot." Tilly joked back nervously.
"Well all is not lost then!" Officer Thomson was being very relaxed and friendly with her. "I suppose you know why I'm here?"
"Nothing to do with the Christmas ball?"
"Not this time... Unless you have anything you wish to tell me about that punch?"
Tilly shook her head, thinking of Bart.
"So..." She began as she sat down and folded her arms "who's car were you in, Tilly?"
"I knew you were going to ask me about that. I've been trying hard to remember but I just can't. The last thing I know was going for a run, then, waking up in here."
"Hmm..."
"I'm sorry. The doctor said things may come back to me over time. Apparently I hit my head pretty badly."

The officer sat back and put her pen down on her notebook.
"Does the name Craig Shilton mean anything to you?"
"No. Sorry. Who's that?"
"He's the person registered as owning the car you were in. He reported it as stolen that night."
"Doesn't ring a bell."
"Do you normally get into cars with strangers, Tilly?"
"No."
"So then it's safe to assume you knew the person who was driving?"
"I guess so... I really don't know..."

The officer looked at her suspiciously.
"This keeps happening to you doesn't it Miss Evans?"
"What?"
"Getting questioned for criminal activity, you not being able to remember?"
"It looks bad I know..."
"Yes, frankly it does. Be careful Miss Evans. As it stands, you look more and more like you are guilty of joyriding. And your friend, whoever they were, when they are caught, will be charged with stealing, dangerous driving and fleeing the scene of an accident."

"I accept all that. But... I'm sorry. I just can't remember. Please, have a look at my medical notes, talk to my doctor. It's as much of a mystery to me as to you. I would love to help. Whoever they were, they left me for dead. I was incredibly lucky to be looked after at the scene by random strangers. Whoever the driver was, I have no loyalty to them."
The police officer closed her notebook and stared Tilly straight in the eyes. She looked at her for so long that Tilly became really quite uncomfortable.
"Look, Officer Thomson. Really, I am sorry, I just don't remember. I don't know what else I can do. I am happy to be hypnotised if you think it will help. I have nothing to hide."
Officer Thomson smiled. "No that won't be necessary. You just call me when your memory returns." she replied, as she stood up, then said her goodbyes and left.

Tilly breathed a sigh of relief. Once the policewoman was safely in the lift, Bart's face appeared from around Tilly's hospital room door.
"All clear?"
"For now..." Tilly replied grumpily
"Thanks Tills, you were brilliant!" Bart exclaimed as he approached her with a smile.
"Listen Bart" Tilly began, her body language backing away from him "I did not enjoy that experience. This is not cool."
Bart grinned "I know. Sorry. Look, hopefully that's the end of it."
Tilly looked back at him, still grumpy, and rolled her eyes, their friendship was on very shaky ground.
Bart smiled and shrugged "Look, if you don't want to do it for me, do it for Miss Gilmore!" he teased.
"Hey!" Tilly reacted angrily "Let's just get one thing straight. Me doing this for you is not an admission of anything to do with her. I still don't know what you are talking about. I'm doing this to help you out. As a mate."
"Yeah, right..." he scoffed.
"Don't push me Bart. I mean it. Or I'll change my mind."
"Chill out Tills!" Bart replied as he pulled her close and gave her an affectionate kiss on the head. "Thanks darlin', I appreciate it."
Tilly was still not impressed "Sort yourself out Bart, I mean it. You're in too deep now. You've got to reign it in."

He flashed her another of his smiles, and gave her a wink as he breezed confidently out of her room. Tilly watched him go, then winced and shifted her position on the bed. She was uncomfortable. Everything was sore, achy or tired. Added to which, her mind was struggling to make sense of Jen's revelation, and she resented more than anything having to lie to the police for Bart.

She looked at her watch. It was only 8 o'clock, but she was utterly exhausted. She had suffered a major shock to the system, and had been working hard trying to rationalise the events of the previous two days. She was stressing about keeping up with her studies, plus her injured body was taking all her stamina to repair itself. It was all proving too much. She gently inched herself back down the bed until her head was supported by the pillows behind her, then she closed her eyes, just to rest them for a minute, but it was pointless, she quickly let sleep take her over.

Jen arrived at her room a little while later. She had been at the hospital since college finished but had not so far been able to get to see Tilly on her own. She had made herself scarce when the police and Bart arrived. She did not want them to see her. Visiting hours were over at 9pm so she knew she only had a few minutes left, and she desperately wanted to see Tilly. She approached her room, and was glad when she saw she was alone. She had a cover story sorted out in case someone saw her, brandishing some flowers from the teaching staff and a box of chocolates, she would claim she was dropping them off on behalf of everyone.

As she got closer she saw that Tilly was sleeping. She wasn't surprised, as she knew she would be exhausted. She paused at her bedside for a while, watching her. Jen thought she looked beautiful, even with all her cuts and bruises. In fact, after all she had been through Jen found her feelings for Tilly now were running even deeper. She decided it must have been because she was faced with the real possibility that Tilly could have been killed or seriously hurt, it made Jen value her even more. She looked her over, at the cut on her head, the injuries on her hands and arms, then she dropped her eyes down to the big cast on her leg, and let out a sigh. Tilly had really been through it.

Jen unloaded her gifts onto the bedside table. Next to the flowers and chocolate, she placed an extra gift, one just from her, and a note. She waited there by her bedside a little while longer, hoping she might wake, until she was asked to leave at the end of visiting hours by the nurse. She did so reluctantly, feeling defeated at not being able to talk to her. She desperately wanted to know if Tilly could remember their conversation, and how she felt about it, but that would have to wait for another time.

As she was leaving the hospital she walked past George and Esther at the main desk. They were talking to the receptionist, and didn't see her pass. They had arrived too late to visit, but were trying their best to talk the receptionist around.
"We're only five minutes late..." George wined
"Oh come on, please, we'll be two minutes, I promise!" Esther tried her luck
"Sorry, hospital policy. If I let you in, I have to let everyone in! Are you family?"
"No."
"Then visiting hours start after doctors rounds at 9 tomorrow morning." she recited, having said it many times before.
"But..." Esther started "she's not family, errr... she's my... girlfriend."
"What?" the lady replied.
"Yeah, she is, they are girlfriends, erm... together... you would let her boyfriend up if she had one I assume?" George was weighing in, backing Esther's story up.
"Well..."
"Well then you HAVE to let me see her. Otherwise I will report you for homophobic discrimination. We have just as many rights as the rest of you, and if you think..." Esther was on a roll.
"Ok... OK!" the receptionist replied. This was too much hassle for her, and she didn't like her job enough to worry about it "you have five minutes. Any longer and I'm calling security."
"Thank you!" they chorused together, as they giggled and ran to the lift.

Jen turned away. She knew Esther and Tilly were together, but every time she was reminded of it, it hurt a little more. Her heart was heavy, and she felt very low as she thought about how she had given Tilly up, how Tilly had moved on, how Jen had been such an idiot to let her go in the first place. She had no one to blame but herself. She swore that if she ever got a second chance with Tilly, she wouldn't squander it. But for now, for her own mental health, she knew she needed to move on, it wasn't healthy obsessing like this over somebody.

Unfortunately, It didn't really matter what she told herself, she knew she would return tomorrow night and try again. She couldn't help it.

The next morning, Tilly was woken early by the cleaners, and her head was throbbing. She had slept for hours, yet she still felt tired. Her mind kept turning everything over and over. She thought about the conversation with Jen, what Jen had said, what it meant, how it made her feel, and she always returned to the same conclusion. It was just words. It was all just words. It was easy enough for Jen to turn around and say it was all a mistake, but she had to realise there were consequences to her actions. Words alone couldn't fix the damage.

But the thing about a big life event like the one she had just been through, when fundamental life forces are threatened, is that you realise what's important and what matters. After everything they had been through, all the ups and downs, it was still there, the connection, the spark, the irresistible attraction, whatever it was between them. Tilly couldn't deny it. But to move forwards, Tilly needed to allow herself to invest her emotions in Jen again, open herself up, let her guard down. Be vulnerable and open to getting hurt. It was the only way. If you are going to do it, to love somebody, you have to do it properly, no half measures. And Tilly wasn't sure she could. It was scary, allowing somebody else in. Giving yourself to another person like that. You hand over to them the ability to hurt you and crush you. Tilly did that once before and it didn't go well for her. she wasn't sure she could trust Jen not to break her heart again. So far, she was just talk. And that was easy. Jen needed to prove to her, with actions too, that she meant it when she said she loved her. Tilly wasn't about to be anyone's sucker, no matter how much she liked them. She had too much self respect for that.

She sighed. Enough thinking about Jen. She picked up a text book and tried to study, but it was no good. She couldn't get past it. It was driving her crazy. She needed to break the cycle, to focus on her future. Jen was too unreliable, too selfish, too confusing.

Jen arrived back at the hospital at the same time again that night, to try to talk to Tilly. She had no cover story this time, and cursed herself for not thinking it through properly and leaving all the gifts the last time she was here.

She approached Tilly's room carefully, checking for other people, then hung back when she saw most of her friends were piled on her bed in her room with her. They appeared fairly settled in, watching a movie together. She looked at Tilly. She seemed carefree and happy, amongst all her friends. She didn't appear as if her mind was anywhere near as troubled as Jen's was. Maybe she hadn't given Jen's confession another thought, or, maybe she couldn't even remember it.

As it turned out, and unbeknownst to Jen, Tilly was simply enjoying the diversion. When her friends were there she allowed herself a welcome break from thinking about her.

"Good news!" Tilly's Dad said, as he entered the room cheerfully "I've just spoken to the nurse, and they are letting you come home after doctors rounds tomorrow, if he is pleased with your progress!"
Jen craned her neck forwards to try to listen into the rest of the conversation in the room but was startled by a voice behind her.

"You can go in, you know..."
Jen spun around to see the nurse from the first night stood behind her.
"oh no... I'm... I've got to go actually..."
"are you sure, dear?"
"Yes, I'd better go. Thank you." Jen said shyly as she smiled, and then turned back in the direction of the lift again.

Once she had been discovered she was keen to get out of there again. She had to accept it. It was simply not going to happen tonight.

The next morning, Tilly was up early, packing up her room, eager to close this chapter and move on with getting better, getting back on with her life once more. Her parents were helping her load her things into bags and boxes, amazed at how easily she had accrued a seemingly bottomless pit of random objects in her short few days in hospital.
"Do you want these darling?" her mother asked, as she picked up some magazines
"No thanks, you can chuck them..."
"What about this thing!?" she asked as she held up Jen's present.
"Where did that come from?" Tilly replied.
"I have no idea, it was just here at the back of the table, behind the flowers."
"Can I see?" Tilly asked, holding her hand out.
"Oh look, there's a note with it."
Tilly reached forwards and grabbed it. It was a perfectly square white box with a bow on top. She wondered how she hadn't noticed it before now. She sat on the edge of the bed and undid the bow, then caught her breath as she lifted the lid off. Inside the box, completely on its own, wrapped in a bow, there was something that made Tilly's heart skip a beat.

A cauliflower.

Instantly she knew. It had to be from Jen. It had to be. Tilly was surprised, but she couldn't deny it, her natural reaction was that she was pleased. She giggled, then she turned the note around and read it.

Because you don't like grapes... X

She giggled again, she couldn't help herself, then self-consciously looked around. She felt foolish for doing so. Of course Jen wasn't there to see her open it, but weirdly she expected to see her. Tilly was not sure when she had done so, but somehow Jen had been there. She had dropped it off for her. She found that knowledge touching, and felt herself smiling more.

"Your friends are strange Tilly, I'll never understand your generation." Her mother commented, looking at the gift.
"Yes they are..." Tilly replied with a grin still plastered on her face.
"I'll get your Dad to bring the car around, love." her mother called over her shoulder as she left the room "I'll just take these things downstairs."
"OK..." Tilly replied carelessly, absentmindedly even, not really paying any attention. She was sat, still looking at the box and the note, smiling broadly.

Just then the nurse entered her room.
"Right... Miss Evans... You are going home today I understand." She had a bag full of clothes in one hand and some official looking forms in the other.
"I'll need you to fill these out please..."
"Ok..." Tilly replied, still lost in a daydream.
"And these are the clothes you came in with..."
Tilly looked up as the nurse handed her the plastic bag. She took it from her and looked inside, instantly recognising her running clothes. They were all torn and bloody. She picked through them, then stopped when she saw an item of clothing that didn't belong to her. It was Jen's hoodie intertwined amongst everything else.
"Where did this come from?" she asked, as she struggled to place it.
"Anything you were wearing when you came in, ends up in that bag. You must have had it on."

Tilly's face looked confused as she tried to figure out where she knew the top from. Then it struck her, Jen was wearing it at the flat when they had their conversation, before the crash. Slowly, painstakingly, she started to piece it all together. Why on earth would she have come in wearing Jen's hoodie? She knew when she had left Jen's flat that Jen had been wearing it herself. She definitely did not borrow it from her, she would have remembered.

Suddenly the penny dropped.

"Holy shit!" she said out loud, clasping her hand to her mouth involuntarily as she did so. Jen had been with her at the crash! All of a sudden the seemingly random flashes of dreamlike memories slotted into place, finally making sense to her.
"What is it honey?" The nurse asked.
"oh!" Tilly corrected, as the significance of her realisation hit her fully. "Er... nothing... sorry"

The nurse looked at her affectionately. She was a plump, motherly woman with red rosy cheeks and a husky laugh, which she let rip almost constantly, punctuating most of her sentences.
"We'll miss you Tilly." she said "we always like it when we get teenagers in, you bring a little bit of life into the building, do you know what I mean!?"
Tilly smiled "awww... that's nice of you to say so... thanks for looking after me so well..."
They shared a smile.
"And its not every day we get a patient with their very own guardian angel in here..." the nurse teased, digging her in the ribs.
Tilly giggled, confused.
"What do you mean?"
"You, dear!"
"How so?"

"Your mysterious angel lady who hovered around, visiting every day but never actually going into your room."

"What? Who?"
"You didn't know? She was here every day, sometimes twice, she stood out there by the desk, but never went in to talk to you."
"What did she look like?" Tilly's heart was beating out of her chest.
"Tall, long black hair, thick fringe, pretty, well spoken."
Tilly was floored.

"Do you know her?"
"Yes, yes I think I do..." It couldn't be anyone else. Tilly stood still, slowly shaking her head while she processed this latest revelation.
"Well" began the nurse with a chuckle, bringing Tilly out of her daydream "when you see her, put in a good word for the night porter, Gary. He was all set to ask her out tonight!" she said, before she erupted into one of her trademark husky laughs, then turned and left the room, echoing down the corridor as she left.

Tilly sat back down on the bed. She felt like she had been hit by a freight train. It was like an onslaught of information, flipping everything on its head, completely changing her understanding of how things were. Jen had been here, every day, and even more incredible, she had been at the crash? She was shocked. All of a sudden she wasn't sure what to think. But she couldn't help but smile. She had been told that she had been attended to by random strangers at the crash site. Now it seemed Jen had been there. It made her flashes of memories from that period of time make more sense.

But, most importantly, here Jen was showing that she was more than just talk, that she did really care.

She opened the box again, took a big breath, and then sighed slowly, a frown on her forehead. Her mother arrived back at the entrance to her room and looked at her, sat on the edge of the bed, clearly deep in thought.
"Are you OK, love?"

"Yeah... Yes!" she replied, snapping to attention.

"Come on then, your dads waiting, let's go. Your life's been on hold for long enough don't you think?"

Tilly smiled, picked up her crutches and headed for the door.

"I couldn't agree more, mum"