"Ethan." Alexis was surprised to see him so early when she entered into Kristina's hospital room the next morning. "How is she?"

"No change." Ethan stood up. "You can have a turn." He gestured to the chair he had vacated.

"Thanks." Alexis leaned down, looking at her daughter. "She looks so little."

"Small but powerful." Ethan assured her. "She made it through the night so she's going to keep going."

"That's for sure." Sonny stood in the door way. "The nurses at the station said that the doctors are on rounds and should be here in a few minutes to update us." He settled in beside Alexis.

"They were in and checked her already." Ethan told them. "They wouldn't tell me anything though."

"You can stay when they tell us." Alexis told him. "Have you been here all night?"

"Most of it." Ethan answered then settled in on the windowsill in the corner to wait in awkward silence with her parents. It wasn't too long until Matt and Steve showed up at the door.

"Well, she made it through the night." Steve started with that. "And we told you that that was the hardest part."

"Kristina had no episodes through the night so that is a good sign." Matt added. "Her body has started to heal already. The blood we've given her to replace the stuff she lost is starting to circulate more freely and her counts are improving. The next step is waiting for her to wake up. That could take time."

"Dr. Hunter and I are of two different opinions." Steve told them honestly. "While he feels that right now, Kristina won't remember if you are here or speaking with her, I do. Studies have been made for both sides."

"Because Kristina is on so many pain pills, I don't think that she'll remember much until we start decreasing her dosages." Matt defended. "And that's not for another day or so."

"And I think that the more she knows she has family around her the more she'll start to improve." Steve offered. "It's up to you guys."

"We'll be here." Alexis assured them.

"There are quite a few of us." Sonny looked around the room and at the other woman in the bed on the other side of the curtain. "She has three brothers and two sisters and several friends that will be here. Is there any way to get her into a larger private room?"

"We are trying." Matt assured him. "There is one opening up later on this morning and she's first on the list for it."

"Thank you very much Doctors." Alexis added.

"You can come in now." Epiphany announced to the crowd waiting around the waiting room. She had finished settling Kristina into her new room and her family had been waiting anxiously outside. Everyone in the family had showed up to wait for Kristina to wake up. Jason was splitting in between Sam and Sonny while Mike, Dante and Michael kept Morgan and Molly occupied. Ethan waited quietly on the outside of it all. "I've had housekeeping bring up extra chairs to put in there."

"Epiphany, I am going to apologize ahead of time." Alexis smiled weakly at her. "We are probably going to overrun you here until we know Kristina is going to be OK."

"As long as there's no trouble, you are all welcome." Epiphany eyed Sonny. She had yet to forgive him although she had seen some of the better things he had done.

Alexis and Sonny entered the room and took up residence near Kristina's bed. The rest of the family settled into the chairs that lined the wall and began the long wait. Michael watched Ethan as came in and settled on the window sill, staring intently at Kristina. He knew how close he and Kristina were and understood what must be going through his mind because it was going through his own. Michael walked over and leaned on the wall next to him.

"She's strong willed. You of anyone knows that." Michael grinned. "She's going to make it."

"There's no question mate." Ethan replied.

"Hi everyone." Carly came in the room followed closely by Luke, carrying big brown bags smelling of Kelly's. "We've brought food so you can avoid the cafeteria."

"Hi." Alexis smiled. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Carly set down the bags and went over to stand by Alexis, laying a hand on her shoulder. "How is she?"

"She made it through the night." Sonny answered.

"That's a start." Carly decided. She looked directly into Alexis's eyes. "How are you?"

"Scared." Alexis swallowed. There was something that told her Carly knew how she felt and she felt safe telling Carly that although she had told everyone else she was positively fine.

"I know." Carly smiled. "I've been where you are, praying and waiting for your child to open their eyes. It's going to be OK. You have to have that faith."

"Thanks." A tear slipped down Alexis' cheek. "I needed that reminder right now."

"Any time." Carly promised. "Come on, you need to eat. I don't care if you're not hungry." She shook her head when Alexis began to decline. "You need to keep up your strength."

"Alright." Alexis agreed, heading over to the table.

"Here you go." Mike brought Sonny a pate over. "Same thing she said to make Alexis eat." He nodded at Carly when Sonny shook his head. "Or I send her over."

"I'll eat." Sonny considered his choices and began to slowly eat the food without tasting it. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Mike looked down at Kristina and thought about the big batch of peanut butter cookies he was going to make her as soon as she woke up. He patted Sonny's arm and walked back to the chairs with the kids.

"Take a walk?" Luke asked from beside Ethan.

"Huh?" Ethan didn't hear him until Luke nudged his leg. "Sorry Luke."

"Take a walk? You look like you could use a break." Luke challenged him.

"I wish she could catch a break." Ethan sighed in frustration, sliding down from his seat. "I'm going to take a walk." He told Michael.

"I'll get you if she wakes up." Michael promised.

"How are you holding up?" Luke asked as they rounded the nurses station.

"I'm fine." Ethan replied.

"They all seem OK that you're there." Luke commented. "I thought maybe Natasha might give you a hard time."

"They've been too worried about Kristina to worry about me being there right now." Ethan decided.

"Well, if they start to give you a hard time, let me know." Luke told him. "I know that they haven't always been supportive of your relationship."

"No, they haven't." Ethan sat down and rubbed his eyes. "I don't care though. I'm not going anywhere. She has been there for me so much and she needs to know I'm here for her now."

"She knows." Luke promised.

"How's she doing?" Matt asked quietly as he came into the room much later into the night.

"No change." Alexis took a deep breath and pushed her hair back.

"Well, we're starting to settle in for the night." Matt started, checking her monitors. "I can see you've started the same." It was only Sonny, Alexis, Sam, Michael, Dante and Ethan left.

"I sent the kids home with Carly for the night." Alexis told him.

"You should really consider the same." Matt told them. "She is still not showing signs of waking up."

"Is that a bad thing?" Dante asked.

"No." Matt answered honestly. "Considering the damage done to Kristina and the amount of pain killers she is on, I don't expect her to wake up for a little while yet. That is why I think that you should all go home again and get some rest. It's going to be another long day tomorrow." He reminded them.

"I think that maybe Matt is right." Sam told her mother gently.

"When she wakes up." Sonny started to ask the question that he had been bothered by but didn't want to scare the kids. "When she wakes up will she be OK?"

"Like I told you before, the bullets didn't affect her spine and we've already seen a decrease in the swelling around the major organs, so she should be fine. Obviously, she won't be able to move much, but it's important that she doesn't so she doesn't hurt herself or tear anything." Matt told him calmly. "She will most likely be disorientated and confused."

"She's going to be scared." Ethan said aloud before he thought and they all looked at him. "Sorry."

"You're right." Michael agreed with him.

"Well, things look good here." Matt decided. "I am on call tonight. I'm going to head down to try and get some sleep but if anything happens I'll be here first and call you immediately."

"Thank you Dr. Hunter." Sam smiled. "I think then we should all head home and we'll see each other in the morning."

"Come on." Sonny stood up and helped Alexis up. "It'll be OK. Dr. Hunter is close and we can be back in minutes."

"I'll give you a ride." Dante told Michael. "Sam, you can come with us."

"I'll take Alexis." Sonny told them.

"You want a ride?" Michael turned to Ethan, who still sat on the window sill.

"Nah, thanks Mate." Ethan shook his head. "I'm going to stay on for a bit."

"You'll call if she wakes?" Alexis asked him after a minute during which she decided she wasn't going to argue.

"I will." Ethan told her.

"Thank you." Alexis told him. The family headed out of the room followed by Matt. Ethan stood up and stretched, making his way to sit at Kristina's bedside. He rested his elbows on the bed next to her and rested his head on his hands. He stared at her and sighed.

"You've got to wake up soon and let us all know you're OK Krissy." Ethan told her honestly. "I need you to tell me awesome I am. How smart I am. How handsome. You're the only one that does." He grinned. "You're the only person in this world who makes me feel good about being me. Bottom line here is that I need you to wake up. I need to see your smile. It's been too long without seeing your smile."

"Ethan?" Elizabeth stuck her head in the dimmed room much later. The lone light over the bed cast an eerie glow over the room.

"Hey." Ethan was still sitting in the same place her family had left him hours before.

"I brought you a pillow and a blanket since it doesn't look like you are leaving any time soon." Elizabeth brought them over. "You should try and sleep a little."

"I'm good." Ethan told her.

"Ethan, I've been asking and from what I can tell, you've been here for nearly 24 hours now." Elizabeth said. "I know you care about Kristina, but it's going to be no good if you're too tired to stay awake when she does wake up."

"I know." Ethan sighed. "I'm not going to leave her though."

"I figured." Elizabeth headed over to the door. "That's why I had housekeeping bring in this." She wheeled in a folded up cot. "IT's small and lumpy and totally uncomfortable, but you need something other than that chair to sleep on. Because you need to sleep." She pushed down either end and quickly made up the bed. She set it up directly behind the chair he was sitting in and wedged it up against the wall. "There. Don't make me get mean." She grinned. "Get some sleep."

"Is Ethan still here?" Lucky asked Elizabeth at the nurses station.

"Yeah. He hasn't left since yesterday, pretty much after she was brought in." Elizabeth sighed. "I got him a cot and told him he has to sleep. When I peeked in a little bit ago he was lying down. What are you doing here so late?"

"I'm on nights and there was a mugging. I came to interview the victim. I figured he'd still be here, so I came up to check on him." Lucky explained.

"Have he and Kristina begun dating?" Elizabeth asked. "I knew they were friends but I didn't know that close."

"He and Kristina have a very close relationship." Lucky shrugged. "I don't know what it's classified as, but I'm pretty sure the feelings run deep."

"You don't spend hours at someone's bedside if there's no feelings." Elizabeth sighed.

"Thanks for making him sleep." Lucky decided it was time to go. "Let me know if anything changes?"

"I will." Elizabeth nodded as he headed to the elevator.

"Cowboy." Luke greeted when Lucky came onto the Haunted Star.

"Hey Dad." Lucky smiled. Luke was in his element, standing behind the bar with a bottle of whiskey at his hand, a cigar clamped tightly between his lips and stacks of bills in front of him. "Good take tonight?"

"Nope." Luke shook his head. "Bad high rollers after we closed. You just missed them. What are you doing here so early in the morning?"

"I just came from the hospital. Ethan's still there." Lucky supplied.

"I figured that's why he wasn't behind my tables tonight." Luke shrugged. "How is he?"

"He's tired but won't leave. Elizabeth is making him sleep." Lucky shared. "I thought I'd grab a bag for him so he didn't have to stay in the same clothes at least. I'll take it to him in the morning at the end of my shift."

"You know the way." Luke waved his cigar. "No change in the lovely Miss Corrinthos?" He asked as Lucky headed towards the door.

"She still hasn't woken up. I don't think you'll see Ethan before she does." Lucky theorized.

"Tell him I'll swing by later tomorrow." Luke sighed thoughtfully.