'Seth, I know I said I was bored, but I was never and never will be bored enough to here more of this.' Sandy, although he was happy to be last free of drugs that continually put him to sleep, was now wishing sleep would come more easily. For the last fifteen minutes Seth had been retelling the story of his favourite DVD to his father: he was playing the parts of ten different characters single-handedly, and his attempts to make each character sound unique by using a different voice was proving both amusing and painful to hear.

'How about you continue tomorrow?' Sandy said hopefully, and then:

'Seth! Be careful of your mother. She doesn't know how lucky she is being asleep right now..' Seth had nearly whacked Kirsten's sleeping face with his hand as he acted out a scene where one character bashed another to death with a saucepan. Just then Ryan ran into the room with Marissa in tow.

'You've got visitors.' Ryan didn't even want to ask what Seth was doing and so just looked at him, eyebrows raised.

'Ohhhh I just got the Ryan look that has the power to turn mere mortals like myself into stone.' Seth froze in such a position that a nurse wheeling a patient past in a wheel chair increased her pace, worried her patient's health would suffer if he caught a glimpse of the bizarre sight

'Hi Marissa, how are….oh my god, Seth wake up your mother.' Into the ward walked Julie Cooper, wearing a bright pink dress and matching shoes. She held a basket in one hand and a huge envelope in the other.

'Julie! Well, here's a sight for sore eyes!' Julie smiled sweetly at him and proceeded to sit on Kirsten's bed.

'I'm so sorry to hear about what happened- apparently you were quite the knight in the shining armour, Sandy.'

'How does she know about that?' Sandy looked sharply at Seth and Ryan who both shrugged.

'Oh god, has that old woman been let loose?' said Sandy suddenly.

'Ah, could be. I haven't heard of any new accidents caused by her in her wheelchair recently.' Marissa looked at Ryan questioningly and so he explained to her that Mrs Clapham had had some problems with the control of her wheelchair, culminating in running over one of the nurses as she walked down the corridor.

Kirsten had opened her eyes when she felt someone sit on her leg, but closed them again when she saw who it was. However as Julie shifted her weight and put more pressure on Kirsten's knee she couldn't help but comment.

'Julie, you're squashing my leg.'

'Kirsten! I'm so glad to see you're awake. Oh dear, I hope those cuts won't scar.' She examined the marks on Kirsten's face: 'They would look awful.' Kirsten smiled grimly, noticing Sandy roll his eyes.

'We're just going to…' Ryan indicated the door where Seth was already headed.

'Yeah, well, get better soon. It's weird not having you around.' Said Marissa, and then followed Ryan and Seth out of the ward.

'It certainly is. Newport without the-Kirsten and Sandy is just not the same. Here's a card from all the girls.' She presented the card to Kirsten who attempted, and failed, to look pleased.

'And here's a personal token from myself.' She put the basket down on the floor in front of her, and after glancing at her watch, said: 'I've got to dash- business appointment. Kirsten the nurse I had a quick chat with said you'd be out tomorrow so I'll see you then. Bye bye.' Kirsten smiled blankly and Sandy waved at her, a disbelieving expression on his face:

'A business appointment? Julie?' He turned to Kirsten, expecting the same disbelief from her.

'Sandy, why aren't you coming out tomorrow? Why do you have to stay in here? I thought you were off sedatives.' The same look that he had seen the day had entered her eyes: a scared, anxious one.

He wished he had been given a little longer before telling her- she still hadn't recovered completely and no one could predict how yet another distressing piece of information would affect her. He tried to speak in as much of a carefree way as he could manage:

'Oh, they're just making some checks on my leg. Y'know, just normal procedures…' he couldn't bear to lie to those haunted blue eyes: '…they think my leg may be infected and they might have to operate again. If the worst happens they may have to….do...something to stop the infection spreading. Or if the extreme worst happens, it may have already spread.' She continued to stare at him, almost disbelieving:

'Baby, I can't feel my leg. And that's quite a bad sign…but it could be just a few broken nerves; the likelihood is that I'll regain feeling of it very soon. But just in case…I'm going to have to stay in here for a while.' He stopped at looked down at his sheet, not wanting to meet her gaze. But she said nothing.

For the last 36 hours Kirsten had been slowly rebuilding her shattered mind, and now the safety and peace she felt by being with her husband had disappeared. The one thing holding her together was now breaking as well.

'No, Sandy.' She whispered. 'Please..' she had neither the will or strength to say more, and Sandy reached out to her, trying to connect with her.

'Baby, come on…don't go again. Kirsten, look at me.' She turned face towards him and the look he saw there was almost painful for him to see.

'It's ok. It's going to be fine.' He strained to reach across to her bed but couldn't quite reach. Then, Kirsten withdrew her own arm from under the sheet and stretched it out to meet his. He grasped her trembling fingers and continued to look into her eyes, hoping to appear strong so that she may gain some strength from him.

'I love you. And nothing that could happen in here is going to ruin that.' Kirsten said nothing but her shaking hand gripped his more tightly, as if she never wanted to break apart.

Ok…so sorry if you thought all the sad bits in this story had ended, and if you think it's getting a bit over-depressing please say, because I could just delete the second half of this chapter!

Thanks for the reviews