AUTHOR'S NOTE: HELLO EVERYONE AND WELCOME BACK TO THIS FIC. I HOPE THIS CHAPTER WILL BE RECEIVED WELL AS AT TIMES IT HAS BEEN VERY HARD FOR ME TO WRITE BUT EVENTUALLY I GREW TO LOVE IT AND I HOPE YOU WILL TOO. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION.

HOW FAR ANGER CAN GO, chapter 6.

The magic of that moment was suddenly broken by the loud and powerful shot of a gun that turned that quiet place in a chaotic confusion with a panicking crowd running all over the place, scared to death. Julie and Blake tried their best not to get overwhelmed by the crowd as much as they could. They Blake held Julie's hand in a tight grip as people kept running against them over and over again. But it was inevitable, their fingers unexpectedly uncrossed and in a matter of seconds they lost each other's sight. Another shot was heard briefly afterwards and as soon as the policemen arrived, the terrified people were thrown outside the restaurant and got lost among all the others.

It was a frightful mess: people kept screaming as they were brought outside, they were scared and worried about their families or friends who weren't out yet and the thought that probably someone had been shot was shivering.

When one of the policemen approached Julie to take her out, she was absolutely convinced that Blake was behind her but as soon as she was outside and turned back to Blake she realized that she was wrong, that he was not there. She looked around and started to panic, unable to find him among the maddened crowd in which she had floundered back in to find him, in vain.

She tried to make room looking for a policeman and ask about Blake and when she finally saw one he told her that he was probably still inside. Julie was terrified to death and struggled to escape from the policeman's grip and go in to look for him, but the policeman was stronger and stopped her. Despite everything, she tried with all of herself anyway to convince him to let her go by telling him that she was his girlfriend and needed to know about him.

Hearing her desperate words, a man approached her. It was another policeman that kindly invited her to follow him.

- "Do you know where Blake is?... I mean Mr. Edwards" she asked helplessly

- "I'm afraid so" he sighed

- "What do you mea …"

Julie couldn't finish to speak for she suddenly saw remotely a man's shape laid down. She looked at the policeman puzzled and with terrified eyes, hoping that it wasn't meaning what she was thinking. The man sadly nodded and couldn't prevent her from making herself room among the crowd and rush there. Unfortunately, Blake was the one who had been shot, and the blow had hit him in his stomach, that was why he was on the floor bleeding copiously.

Julie fell on the floor next to him in a desperate gesture and couldn't stop the flow of her tears. With all the strength she could gather, she torn a flap from her dress to cover his wound and kept calling his name hoping that he would open his eyes.

"Wake up Blake, wake up, open your eyes! Don't leave me, Blackie, if I lose you I ... please, wake up" her loud attempts turned into sobbing whispers as she held him to her chest in pain.

Several minutes later an ambulance arrived, Blake was put on stretchers and they took him and Julie to the hospital.

It was confirmed he had to go through an operation, it wasn't too risky, but the bullet had hit him in depth. The operation lasted a couple of hours during which Julie waited outside the room, agonizing and scared about Blake's health. She anxiously moved her ankle and walked back and forth along the corridor waiting for someone to finally come out of the operating room. When the doctor came out she was just miserable. Her eyes were swollen and she barely managed to speak to him:

- "Is he fine?" was all she could mumble between her breathless tears

- "Fortunately it was successful. We removed it just in time though. Had we arrived some minutes later, it would have descended deeper and it would have been extremely risky for him"

She held her breath and put a hand on her mouth to silence her crying. The doctor hadn't realized how painful his sentence must have been to her, he hadn't thought twice before telling her the brutal truth.

- "Where is he?"

- "He's in that room, a doctor is visiting him"

- "What for?"

- "If there are no particular complications it would be better for him to be sent home"

- "Can I …?"

- "Go there?" the doctor finished her sentence, "he'll be happy to see you" he gave her permission nodding with his head.

His voice spoke in a less cold way for he tried to make up for his previous mistake.

Julie was allowed to enter the room and when she silently approached Blake, she saw his bust was almost interely medicated. The doctor left them alone and told her that they could go home whenever they felt like it, that he was awake.

She came closer and sat on the edge of the bed. Then gently ran her thumb on the back of his hand to let him know that she was there. He recognized the delicate touch and slowly turned his hand to allow hers to slid over it in a caress. Then slightly opened his eyes. He weakly smiled at her and she smiled him back, preferring to let her tears overwhelm her wet cheeks rather than leave his hand.

- "How are you feeling?" she whispered in a soft voice

- "Good. Now that you're here" he smiled again and weakly squeezed her hand before turning his head and fall back asleep for several minutes.

It was heartbreaking to know what he had been through but she was so proud of his resilience.

It was dawn when Blake felt good enough to leave the hospital, he was leaning on Julie to walk as they went outside and she drove him home. As they arrived she put him to bed to make him sleep, she knew this was the thing he needed the most. She made sure that Blake was comfortable, added pillows in case he needed them, covered him with a soft, warm blanket and never stopped asking him whether he needed anything else.

When she felt she could, she was walking out of the bedroom to prepare a cup of tea when Blake stopped her:

- "I don't want you to be worried about me but ... could you please stay here?" his voice sounded tired and weak

Julie felt somewhat guilty to have thought of leaving him for a while, his words had touched her deeply and she immediately came back to him, trying to hold in her tears. When she settled next to him she held his hand and caressed it.

- "I'm frightened. I know this sounds silly but I can't get the image of that gun out of my mind" he explained

She understandingly shook her head with a reassuring, sweet smile.

- "I'm not going anywhere, my love" she reassured him and planted a kiss on his forehead.

She helped him to settle his head on her chest and then cuddled him brushing his hair with her fingers while softly singing him to sleep in a soothing voice, until he fell peacefully asleep. When she realized it she felt glad that she had managed to calm him down a little but even if he was sleeping she did not close her eyes even for a minute, she wanted to be ready for his every need.

During that long night, despite all her attempts, she could not prevent herself from getting tormented by the thought of who could have been the mind behind that attack: surely it hadn't just happened but had been well planned in every detail. And what if they were supposed to be the victims of it? If that had been the case, she didn't exclude the option that it might have been Patricia, not surprising since she had failed her goal the last time. Although she didn't think she could have gone that far with it. After all it was her ex-boyfriend. Or worse: what if it was addressed to her? But worrying Blake with it wouldn't have helped at all, he only needed to rest and distract from what had just happened so she never told him a thing about it.

The following days Blake wasn't allowed to get up from the bed, his wound was still hurting, and Julie didn't want him to tire. She prepared him breakfast, lunch and dinner and they always got to eat together in the bedroom. And she took such good care of everything he needed. She cleaned his wound and medicated it again whenever he needed but every time she looked at the wound she couldn't avoid thinking back to that night and grow more and more suspicious about Patricia.

Despite the bad situation, she was happy to take care of Blake and be able to thank him back for all the help he had given her, she tried her very best to never leave him alone, to care about his every necessity and also to keep him distracted from his pain making him smile, making him laugh. Blake did just the same wanting to relieve her pain. Seeing him suffering was certainly being hard to handle all by herself and whenever possible he reassured her that thanks to her loving care he was feeling better and better every day.

The doctor had told them that after a full week of convalescence Blake should have tried to get up and that day was eventually arrived. The night before Blake told Julie about his worries: he was afraid he couldn't have managed to walk anymore. It wasn't for his stomach, but mostly for his leg that had been injured as well at the shot. Julie promised him that she would have done everything possible to help him and that she would have been by his side every step of the way.

When the morning came, Blake was evidently anxious. Julie tried to calm him down, and they waited for the best time of the day to try: they chose sunset, so that they could reach the window in a few steps and look at the sun coming down the trees.

When the moment came Blake just said "Okay, let's give it a try!"

Julie got surprised at his sudden determination. She helped him to raise his back from the pillows and put his legs out the bed. "We will do it together" she smiled while holding his hands as his feet touched the floor. He was so focused on her sweet words that he got up the way he used to, completely forgetting about his wound. As a consequence, as soon as he stood upright, he felt a very strong pain at his violently stretched wound that made him bent down while his weak legs didn't sustain him at all. If it wasn't for Julie he would have heavily fallen on the ground but fortunately she was there and sustained him with all her strength when his legs couldn't.

Stubborn as he was, despite that bad start, Blake didn't give up and was ready to try again.

He placed his arm around Julie to lean on her while she was holding him tight and encouraged him at every step he took.

One after the other, they finally arrived at the window, leaned on the sill and watched the sunset with a moved smile on their faces.

- "I'm so proud of you, hun" she whispered and kissed his shoulder

Looking at the beautiful view outside Blake suggested that they would have climbed the mountain in front of them and enjoyed sunset from there as soon as possible. Julie agreed with a smile and after a while brought him back in bed.

That little step towards Blake's recover was a great result for him. His wound was still hurting a lot and he was afraid he had to give up his contract with Hogarth since despite his improvements doctors warned him that a slow recover was expected.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I WANT TO THANK EVERYONE WHO TOOK SOME TIME TO READ THIS CHAPTER BUT AS YOU'VE SEEN, SOMETHING MORE THAN SHEER FLUFF ABOUT THEM HAS HAPPENED. I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF IT WITH A REVIEW AND HOPEFULLY GET SOME INSPIRATION BY YOUR WORDS. SEE YOU SOON!