Natalie opened her eyes slowly, "John?" she called in a weak voice. The paramedic stepped back to give them room. Natalie's wounds weren't life threatening so he felt comfortable in giving them a minute of privacy.

"I'm here." John said kneeling next to her and stroking her hair. He smiled as her eyes fluttered open. Those beautiful blue eyes were the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. After spending a week in hell to finally have her back was making John feel giddy. Running a hand over his face he tried to calm himself down.

Natalie looked up at John then around the room. Seeing Jessica, Rex and Bo nearby she smiled. "Uncle Bo." She said huskily and reached up a hand to him. "Long time no see." she said with a slight smile. Her smile disappeared as she caught sight of Cris being taken out of the room. "Cris? Is he...?" She whispered painfully.

John shook his head, "No he isn't dead. Not yet anyway. I don't know if he will make it," he said not wanting to tell her but understanding that she needed to know.

Natalie simply nodded. She had expected to feel sad or angry at Cris but she was numb. She struggled to sit up and groaned as a sharp burning pain shot through her arm. Looking down she remembered that she had been shot. "OWWW" she gasped out and John saw immediately calling for help.

"I bandaged the wound but your gonna need stitches." The paramedic said to Natalie, Checking her wound again.

Natalie grunted in pain. Clenching her teeth she was determined not to cry. She hated crying and had done far too much of it in the past week. "Why didn't you do stitch it up while I was unconscious?" She asked, grimacing again as he checked the tightly wrapped wound.

He shrugged and looked around at John, Bo, Jessica, and Rex. "You really need to go to the hospital for that." was all he said. Packing up his stuff he looked around and said, "I'm afraid that I have to insist that she Natalie go to the hospital now. She needs to have that stitched and get an X-ray to make sure she is ok." he said to John and Bo

Natalie nodded her assent too weak and confused to put up a fight. She clutched John's hand as she was loaded into the ambulance. John road in the ambulance with her to the hospital, not being able to bare another second away from her.

Jessica called Vicki from the car as she headed to the hospital with Rex and Bo. Vicki was so relieved that she had burst into tears on the phone. Once Jessica had gotten Vicki calmed down they arranged for Vicki to meet them at the hospital. Vicki called the rest of the family and they raced to the hospital to support their beloved Natalie.

An hour later Natalie sat in her hospital room awaiting the results of her x-rays. She had been stitched up and felt like she had been hit by a bus. She was still trying to process everything that had happened and her brain was on overload. John had been her rock. She didn't think that she could have made it through last week if it hadn't been for him. He love for him kept her strong, kept her will alive. He was off running an errand right now but had promised to be right back.

Since she had gotten back from x-ray there had been a steady stream of people in to see her. Vicki and Roxy had come first. She remembered the look on Roxy's face when she introduced John as her boyfriend. Though John had stayed at the hotel he had not met Roxy because he had been at the station the whole time. When he had been to Llanview before Roxy had been away with Nigel so he had not met her then either. Roxy had practically drooled on his lap! Natalie had a hard time holding back her laugh when she saw John blush bright red at her open admiration of his butt.

Michael came into the room breaking into her happy thoughts. She didn't know Michael very well, she had left town to get away from Cris not long after he had come to town, but he seemed like a nice guy. He was John's brother so that was definitely a plus in his favor. Natalie smiled at him, "So doc when can I get out of here?" She asked hopefully.

"Soon." Michael said. Looking at the x-rays in his hand he said, "There is no internal bleeding but you do have a cracked rib. You're going to be sore for a while." Michael said with a smile. He really liked Natalie a lot. She made John smile again and that made him very happy. "No strenuous activity for at least a week," he said with a wink laughing as Natalie blushed bright red.

"You mean no.." Natalie said embarrassed to be discussing this with John's brother.

Michael nodded, "that's right no sex," he said laughing. Getting serious he said, "Natalie if you need to talk to someone about what happened.." He began then trailed off, unsure how she would take what he was about to say. "Look I don't know what Cris did to you but it looked, when you came in, that he tried to force him self on you." Natalie started to say something but Michael interrupted her, "I just wanted you to know that you can talk to me. Anything you say to me stays between us."

Natalie was speechless at first. She was very touched by his words, "Thank you Michael," she said softly. Michael nodded and headed for the door, "Michael?" Natalie called to him as he was about to leave.

Michael turned around and looked at her, "yeah?"

"Is a week to early to find out if your pregnant?" Natalie asked softly.

Michael paled a bit asking, "Cris? Then he did..?"

Natalie shook her head empathetically and said, "no, but right before Cris grabbed me John and I... we... we..." Natalie sighed this was so hard to talk about with him. Deciding to just say it she said, "The condom broke so I might be pregnant. I just wanted to know if a week was to early to do the test."

Michael smiled widely, "I might be an uncle?" he said happily then, "well a week is a little early but sometimes we can tell, especially if its your first pregnancy. I'll just draw some blood see what I can do about finding out for you." He proceeded to draw some blood then looked at her for a minute.

"What?" Natalie asked, starting to feel self conscious.

"Nothing, just looking at the woman who makes my brother so happy." Michael said with a smile,

"He really loves you , you know. When you were missing. Well it was like he was missing a part of himself. Like he was broken. He wasn't even that bad when Caitlyn died and that's saying a lot."

"I know he does. He told me. I love him too. I never thought I could love again after Cris but John he showed me that I could. Even when I treated him like crap he still came back. He never gave up on me. He is the most amazing guy I know." Natalie said with a smile.

Michael nodded to show he understood what she meant. His brother was the best and he was glad that John found the woman who was perfect for him. "Well I'll get this to the lab," he said holding up the vial of blood.

"How long will the test take?" Natalie asked, praying that it wouldn't take long. She really wanted to get out of the hospital.

"About an hour." Michael replied, letting himself out he saw Vicki waiting in the hallway, telling her she could go in he proceeded to the lab.