CHAPTER 40

"Doctor, I think she's coming back!" Katie heard a distinctly familiar voice as her head pounded unrelentlessly. She tried to open her eyes, but they were so heavy.

"Step aside, please." An unfamiliar voice neared, and then she felt someone felling her head and checking the tubes that had been attached to her body. She forced her eyes open, a little confusion in them.

"Wh-where am I?" Katie asked drowsily, seeing her entire family there. Her father held her mother's hand where they stood, just behind the doctor. In a chair by an open window sat Constance, her eyes red from the lack of sleep. Erin stood in the doorway, her cheeks stained with tears as she saw that her little sister was back.

"You, my dear, are one heck of a fighter." The doctor grinned down at Katie, "You've been in a coma for three days after suffering a head injury."

"May we have a few minutes, Doctor Klarr?" Her father asked, which immediately sent a surge of dread through Katie's body.

"Sure, just be sure that you don't overwhelm her." He grinned, exiting. Katie swallowed the lump in her throat, anticipating a great lecture that would soon turn into a fight. For once in her life, Katie was mistaken.

"We've been given a lot of time to think while you were gone, Katie." He began slowly, and she could tell he was on the verge of tears. "At first, we all pointed the finger at each other, claiming it were everyone else's fault but our own."

"Then we woke up, Katie." Her mom cut in, tear already flowing down her cheeks. "We, as a family, have made a lot of mistakes. Mistakes that we can't take back now, but ones that we can avoid making again."

"We've set up some appointments for counseling. We're going to figure out a way to be a real family again." Dad said quietly, biting back tears. Her sisters were nearly sobbing, which made her long to do the same.

"I love you, Daddy. I know you never meant to hurt anyone." She whispered, taking her dad's hand.

"And I never meant to make you feel like I didn't love you, Constance. I just never walked in your shoes and considered your feelings and I'm sorry." Erin spoke up.

"Erin, I love you." Constance responded, "You're my sister and I just can't stand the thought of you getting hurt. I know I need to let you make your own decisions without interfering, but sometimes its hard to watch you grow up so fast."

"Girls, I think we're already making progress. I know it may take some work and a lot of understanding, but we're going to get through this." Mom assured them.

"It's just a shame that something so horrible had to happen for us to open our eyes." Dad said in a low voice. Katie smiled, thinking, It wasn't so horrible. It had been an experience she could never forget.

They talked about the counseling sessions for a little while before the doctor ushered them out so that he could give Katie some pain killer for her headache. He claimed she needed rest, but Katie knew that she had everything she needed in the whole world. Well…almost everything.

*

"Hey, sorry it took me so long to get her, BC." A light voice came to Katie's snoozing ears and awoke her from her thoughts. It could only be one person, and it was the one person she had longed to see the most.

"Tipsy!" She exclaimed, sitting up and embracing her best friend, "You are never going to believe what I'm going to tell you…"

"I think I will." Tipsy laughed. "You, on the other hand, will not believe what I'm going to say." Katie furrowed her brow curiously.

"What?"

"Well, I got this really odd phone call a few hours ago from New York. Brooklyn, actually." She took a seat in the chair beside the bed.

"Who was calling you from there?" Katie asked incredulously, not hardly expecting the type of answer her friend was about to offer.

"So, he starts telling me about this dream he had, how he just had to find you. Naturally, I freaked out. I mean, how'd this guy get my number, right?" Jessica continued.

"Jess…"

"Well, long story short, I believed every word he said. I'm late because I had to pick him up from the airport. He's just outside…"

"Who is just outside!?" Katie practically yelled as Jessica began to laugh.

"Why don't ya see for yourself." She suggested, then waved someone in. Katie's mouth went absolutely dry at the sight. There he was, a tall, dark, muscular young man with slightly messy brown hair and stormy blue eyes that seemed to look right through her.

"Say somethin'." He smiled lightly, his hands in his pockets.

"I…I can't." She shook her head. "How…?"

"I guess I was heah all along, like Tip. I jus' didn't know until I dreamt ya up a few times the last week." He shrugged, obviously as baffled as she was.

"And Micah tells me I didn't even know ya in those dreams!" Jessica exclaimed, "I know that can't be right!"

"I know! I was so bummed!" Katie agreed, then turned her attention back to the boy. "Should I call you Micah…or Dibs?" She smiled jokingly.

"Da name's Micah McKlan…but my friends call me Dibs." He winked.

"How long are you in town for?"

"As long as it takes to make you mine." Katie melted right through the bed. How did she get so lucky?