The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the blinding white light, which slowly faded out to an equally white room. There was an incessant beeping noise in the background that only grew stronger as his attention came into focus. As he went to shift to look over to where the noise was coming from, an agonising sharp pain ripped through his body, a low groan escaping his mouth, fingers curled around the white sheets of the bed in his agony. It winded him, took any air from his lungs, leaving him laying there nearly breathless. It took a moment for Wolf to recover, but the feeling dulled slightly, though this time he was aware of it. Instead, he turned his head, eyes catching sight of the tubes running from his arms to the machine beside the bed.

The second thing he saw (because he wasn't acknowledging the rest of it for the sheer sake of his own sanity) was a curled up figure in an uncomfortable looking plastic chair. He couldn't see her face both from the hair that covered it and the way she was sitting (lying? He wasn't entirely sure), but he didn't have to see her face to know who it clothes were crumpled, a rather unusual state for her, giving the appearance she had been there for a while now.

He gave a cough, and then rather wished he hadn't the moment he did so. The figure in the chair stirred at the sound, and he was greeted by the sight of Sasha's blue eyes peering at him from under that mess of hair. It appeared she blinked once or twice, looking almost as groggy and disoriented as he felt, before she was sitting bolt upright, the last remnants of sleep disappearing the moment she seemed to realise he was awake. She seemed to half hover between standing and sitting for a moment, as if unsure what to do.

"Hey," he tried to say, but the word didn't quite come out, his voice rusty from disuse. Clearing his throat, which only served to bring another spasm of pain through him, he found himself trying again. "Guess I'm in need of someone to kiss me better, huh?"

This time, he managed to form the words, aiming for the long running joke between them that had stemmed from their time together on the Nathan James when either one had gotten hurt. It normally brought a laugh, or at least a small smile from Sasha, but this time, Wolf got neither. So it was more serious than he had previously thought then. She did slide the chair closer to his bed, the sound of plastic grating on the floor, her smaller hand wrapping around his fingers, though she didn't squeeze them like she normally would have, almost as if she was afraid of breaking him. She didn't have to worry about that. He already felt like he had been run over by a truck. Whatever she did probably wasn't going to make it any worse.

"You scared the absolute hell out of me," she told him quietly, and Wolf found himself once again looking briefly at those wires and tubes before he settled his gaze back staunchly on her. If he could help it, he'd rather not look at those. And at least his present company offered a very good excuse to not look at them. "Don't ever do that again, Wolf."

"Glad to know someone would miss me." Another attempt at a joke, to make it seem that it wasn't as bad as she thought, (really, from the sharp pains in his body, it probably was, but he didn't want her seeing that) but once again, it fell flat. This time, however, Sasha did squeeze his fingers a little tighter, as if she was afraid of letting him go, that he would disappear the minute she did. His heart stirred momentarily, her concern for him touching in a number of different ways. There had been too few people in his life that seemed to care the way Sasha did. Finding someone like her would have been like finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. "What happened?"

It was the question he had been wanting to ask but he wasn't entirely sure how she would have taken it. At least not until he'd proven he wasn't doing as badly as she thought, despite what the pain in his body was saying. No point in letting her know about that. Judging by the circles under her eyes, she had already lost enough sleep over this incident. Sasha was silent for a few moments after his questions, the pad of her thumb brushing lightly over the top of his hand, her action absentminded.

"Your helicopter was shot out of the sky," she finally told him, lips pressed into a thin line, and this time, Wolf noticed she wasn't looking at him. But despite that, even he couldn't miss the glimmer in her eyes as the light caught it. She didn't let them fall, though those tears did mist up her eyes. Hell, he probably would have openly cried if their situations had been reversed. But Sasha had a steel core, and she wiped the back of her free hand across her eyes. "The doctors… they didn't think…"

She choked up then, unable to go on, and Wolf felt his stomach knot itself up. She didn't need to say the words. They hadn't expected him to make it through this. Briefly, he wondered just how much damage he had sustained in the fall. He didn't want to look if he could help it, but there were some things that just couldn't be ignored.

"You broke your right femur, and cracked some ribs, along with several other bones, but you took a serious hit to the head," she continued, finding her voice once again, as if she knew what he had wanted to ask this time. That was just one of the many things he admired about that woman. She seemed to understand what he wanted before he even knew. "They weren't sure if you were going to wake up from your coma. I wasn't…"

"Hey now, I told you, I'm not going anywhere. Not until we actually have that real date you've been promising me," he told her, needing something, anything, to lighten the mood a little (no wonder she had been scared shitless), and this time, he was rewarded with a weak smile. "It's going to take a lot more than a helicopter crash for you to get rid of me, Sasha. I can't believe you thought I'd be taken out by something so simple."

She gave a half strangled snort at that, and he just gave her a winning grin in elbows came to rest on his bed, her hand still holding onto his A yawn escaped her then, and he was reminded of the fact that she had been no doubt sleeping in that chair. Distangling his hand from hers, he reached out, mindful not to bump any of the tubes, brushing her hair back from her face. She didn't blush, but then again, he couldn't remember a time when she ever had. Giddy school girl wasn't her style.

"Go home, Sasha," he said, letting his fingers trail across her cheek, before letting his hand fall back onto the bed. "Get some actual sleep. I'll be here when you come back. I don't think they're going to be letting me escape any time soon so you don't have to worry about me running away."

For a second, it looked like she was about to argue, but then she nodded, conceding to his wishes. He had a point, after all, and she was far too sensible, and tired, to argue with him. Pushing herself to her feet, she paused, those blue eyes he loved so much staring back down at him. And then she was bending down, pressing a gentle kiss on his cheekbone, before she moved to several of the other bruises that covered his face. They were feather light, and Wolf could barely feel them, but each one sent an electric shock through him. The last one she pressed against the corner of his mouth, before she straightened up again. The action had him almost as speechless as he had been when he had first woken up, but he still had enough snark in him to raise an eyebrow at her in question.

She gave a shrug for a moment, giving him what he could only describe as a shy smile. "Now you can stop complaining that no one kissed you better, Taylor. And maybe when you're out of here, I'll kiss the rest of the injuries better too."

"Is that a promise, Cooper?" he asked wryly, the huskiness in his voice having nothing to do with disuse this time around.

"Only if you behave," she told him, and Wolf couldn't help but laugh, though it had him wheezing in pain again. It had her hesitating, like she was deciding that maybe she wasn't going to go now, but he waved her off. It was probably better she wasn't around to give him a heart attack at the moment with such things. "I'll be back soon."

She gave him a gentle pat on the back of his hand before she turned, walking out of that hospital room, leaving him temporarily alone there with the beeping machines and the bright lights until she came back for him. But somehow the pain no longer seemed so bad anymore. When he closed his own eyes in order to get some more rest, he found himself falling asleep with a grin on his face and the thought of Sasha Cooper in his mind.