Gentle Heart rubbed her eyes with the back of her paw as she strolled into the Hall of Heart's cafeteria. The others were already having breakfast or preparing for Caring Missions. Normally she'd have wanted to eat with her friends and take her time but now she just hoped to quickly eat on her own and then get back to Bright Heart.

As she was heading with a tray of food to a table by the back wall, she ended up getting waylaid but some of the others, most of them asking after her and Bright Heart's health.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Tenderheart asked her. She nodded. Tenderheart thought she looked tired and it didn't take much to guess why, though he was tactful enough not to say so out loud.

"Want to have breakfast with us?" Cheer Bear asked her, Swift Heart Rabbit who was standing next to her, nodded in encouraging agreement.

"Well, I-" But Gentle Heart had never been comfortable telling her friends no, especially when she thought she might hurt their feelings. So she ended up sitting at a table with Tenderheart on her right and Cheer and Swift Heart sitting across from them.

"How is he?" Tenderheart queried of her as she ate.

"He's doing well enough to have visitors." Gentle Heart said in her customary soft voice. "Grams and the cubs stopped by this morning."

"If that's the case maybe we ought to see him ourselves." Swift Heart said as the two Care Bears at the table nodded in clear agreement. Gentle Heart, after a moment's hesitation, nodded too. For some odd reason she wanted to be with Bright Heart by herself for a while longer. It was…strange.

After they finished up breakfast the four of them ventured back to Bright Heart's temporary residence.

"Bright Heart?" Tenderheart called as he approached the bed. Bright Heart smiled and waved.

"Hi everyone! How are you?" He tried to sit himself up by propping his back against the headboard, but Gentle Heart hurried over and softly pushed back down fearing that he might aggravate his ribs if he kept that up.

"It's not us who should be asked how we feel." Cheer pointed out. "The question should be, how are you?"

"I'm-" Bright Heart started to say 'fine' but a sharp twinge of pain worked its way up his spine as he shifted his broken leg, "I've been better." He admitted. "But it's not that bad."

"Sure…and next you'll be telling us that Grumpy's a bright ray of sunshine." Swift Heart drawled out, tongue-in-cheek. "There's nothing worse than a broken leg." She continued in complete seriousness. "Nothing. You just have to sit and lay around for weeks until it heals." She shuddered in undisguised horror, having sprained or broken her own legs on more than one occasion.

"Not everyone has the same outlook on running as you do." Bright Heart pointed out. "Though, I'll admit that it wont be fun for me not being able to do much by the way of inventing when I'm like this."

Swift Heart opened her mouth, Gentle Heart knew her well enough to guess that her next words would be something along the lines of 'if you hadn't been inventing in the first place, he wouldn't be in this condition now.'

"Is there anything we can get you?" Gentle Heart asked, cutting Swift Heart off before she had begun to give voice to her thought.

"Well I suppose I wouldn't mind having something to read as long as I'm here. But I'd rather have someone to talk to."

"We can help there." Cheer said brightly. "Is there anything in particular you want to talk about?"

"Hmm, let's see...Has anyone started working on a new boiler yet?" Gentle Heart smiled. It would be like him to ask about the project he had been working on, despite the fact that it was the cause of his injuries. She left most of the talking to Cheer and the others. For some reason most of what she wanted to say, she wanted to say in private.

She pulled on Tenderheart's arm. "Can I ask you a favor?" Tenderheart blinked. Usually she wasn't this upfront about that sort of thing…or anything come to think of it.

"What is it?" Gentle Heart shuffled her feet as she worked up the courage to ask.

"Do you think…could someone else cover my Caring Missions today?"

"This isn't like you, asking for a day off like that." Tenderheart pointed out. "Why do you-" He saw Gentle Heart's eyes darting back to the bed behind her and Tenderheart understood. "Well, Bright Heart does need someone to talk to." He admitted. "But I don't know-" For the second time in as many minutes, Tenderheart trailed off. Gentle Heart was looking up at him with her big, innocent and sincere eyes that Tenderheart just couldn't say no to. Loyal Heart and Proud Heart had been known to give their own variations of pleading and overly innocent, cute glances. Mostly they were done as a joke or simply as a tactic to get their way. Neither applied here. Gentle Heart couldn't be anything but sincere, and it showed in her eyes. That's what made her appeal impossible to refuse.

Tenderheart sighed. "There's no resisting the Bambi eyes," he thought to himself as he nodded. "All right, you can stay." Gentle Heart's whole face lit up. "Just try not to wear yourself out." He admonished. Gentle Heart nodded eagerly and hugged him briefly, whispering a quick thanks in his ear as she hurried away.

Looking at a clock on the wall, Tenderheart realized that it was about time he started handing out the caring assignments for the day. "Swift Heart, Cheer Bear, come on. It's time to go."

After bidding their good-byes, Cheer and Swift Heart filed out of the room, Tenderheart threw one last glance over his shoulder as he followed them, closing the door behind him.

"Shouldn't you be leaving too?" Bright Heart asked Gentle Heart after the others left. She shook her head.

"No, someone else will handle my Caring Missions today." She was about to add "So I can stay with you," but her mouth refused to comply. Why did she feel so tongue-tied?

Bright Heart didn't notice her situation. "I'm glad to have the company of course, but I'm not sure if it's such a good idea. You've already been up all night staying here. Do you really think you should spend your whole day here too?"

"I want to be here." Gentle Heart said softly. "If you don't want me to-" Bright Heart shook his head.

"That's not it." He said. "It's really great that you're willing to stay with me, but I don't want to cause you any trouble or-" Gentle Heart giggled. He raised an eyebrow. "What's so funny?" She tried to wave the question aside but was too busy laughing with mirth for the matter to drop. "Come on, what is it?" Bright Heart asked again.

"It's just that…" Gentle Heart was laughing so much she had to lean against the bedpost for support. "That's just what I told you when I was stuck in bed…" And she set off laughing again. Bright Heart did recall Gentle Heart having told him something along those lines back when No Heart was interfering with her sleep. It was pretty funny, now that he stopped to think about it.

Bright Heart started laughing to. He didn't think it was all that funny but he soon found that he couldn't stop. "She has a great laugh," Bright Heart thought to himself. It was the kind that invited everyone to laugh with her. She didn't get to use it nearly often enough.

If anyone had walked in just then they'd be awfully confused at seeing Gentle Heart and Bright Heart laughing like loons at apparently nothing. Eventually, both of them had to stop; Bright Heart's ribs were starting to ache and so were Gentle Heart's sides.

Bright Heart smiled as he saw Gentle Heart take a seat and wait for her laughs to subside. Whispering too low for her to hear, he repeated the thought he'd had only moments before.

"She has a really great laugh…"

Take Care Bear had stopped in shortly after that. As Gentle Heart had predicted earlier, Take Care was none too happy that she had stayed up all night, against Take Care's instructions.

She let the matter drop though, once she started checking Bright Heart over. "What did you do to your bandages?" She asked him as she redid the bandages covering his ribs.

"Nothing…We were just laughing and I guess the bandages got undone." Bright Heart answered. Take Care regarded him critically.

"Laughing that much? She had either have to have told the greatest joke ever or started tickling you with a feather-duster. Since I'm assuming neither happened," She shot a glance towards Gentle Heart who blushed under the scrutiny, "Then you shouldn't have been laughing so hard." Since that didn't call for a reply, none was given. Bright Heart just winced as Take Care finished bandaging his ribs.

"There." She said, wiping her brow. "Finished. That ought to hold you over for a while. Drink this." She added, offering him a glass of water and two pills. Bright Heart swallowed the pills, grimaced, and took a drink of water. "Those will relieve most of the pain you've been feeling, but you may feel a bit drowsy." Take Care warned him. "But it's nothing to worry about."

"As for you," She turned back to the lamb; who gave a guilty start. Take Care sighed. "I guess you can stay. But you had better turn in early and get a good-nights sleep or so help me I'll come back with enough Valium until you're sleepier than Bedtime. Got it?" Gentle Heart nodded. "Good. Have fun you two." She said as she made her way to the door. "And try not to give stare gooey-eyed at each other all night, hmm?" She laughed as she made her joke, but looking at the embarrassed look on their faces, Take Care wondered if it had been a joke to them.