Chapter 7:

It had been three days since Maxie had her heart attack. She was still in a coma, unresponsive to the doctors or family. There had been no word on any available heart transplants- and her family was beginning to lose faith. Mac and Georgie tried to be with her every minute possible, but Georgie also left to occasionally check on Dillon, and Mac was sometimes needed to help control the people on either side of quarantine. At first the doctors thought that they had found a way to cure everyone with a serum from Luke, but they quickly ran out. Those who were given it were slowly recovering, but there were still some in danger. Lulu- had not shown very much improvement at all after she was finally given the serum. Sam, Skye, Jesse, Sonny, Nikolas and Dillon had all began to improve. Lucky was still missing, and Elizabeth was growing anxious of not hearing from him. All the doctors were exhausted and it was becoming apparent that they didn't have much hope for the rest of the patients who hadn't received any treatment.

Patrick yawned as he walked over to Jesse's bed to check his vitals. Even though Patrick had himself given Jesse the antibodies to the virus, he wondered if that's really what had helped him recover. The minute Jesse had found out about Maxie- he began to improve. Patrick couldn't let him see Maxie until he was sure that he was no longer a carrier of the virus, Maxie was already in danger of losing her life, because of her heart, and they didn't need to add the threat of encephalitis to that. But in all his years as a doctor Patrick had learned the power that love could have on a patient. Sometimes patients in critical condition had shown miraculous improvement the minute a loved one was there to just hold their hand- even if it was for a second.

"You've shown a lot of improvement since yesterday Jesse, how do you feel on a scale from one to ten?" asked Patrick.

"7 or 8, do you think that I'm safe enough to go visit Maxie, I really need to see her, even if it's just for a moment" replied Jesse.

"Tell you what- I'm going to get some of your blood tested and if it comes up clean, I see no reason why you can't see her".

"Okay, thanks Patrick" said Jesse. Patrick had a nurse take a sample of Jesse's blood and then rush it to the lab to be tested. While he was having blood taken Jesse thought of Maxie and everything he was going to tell her when she woke up- because she would wake up- Jesse was holding on to faith with every fiber of his being. He knew Maxie, she was stubborn and strong, and he knew that she wasn't going to give up without a fight.

Four hours later Elizabeth walked into Jesse's room, to check his IV and temperature. "Hey Jesse, I'm glad to see you've come around, are you feeling better?" asked Elizabeth.

"I really want to get out of this bed and go see Maxie; I can't stand laying here in this hospital bed when she's struggling for her life. I feel completely helpless, it's the worst feeling that I've ever had" Jesse said.

"I know how you feel, no one has heard from Lucky yet, and I can't leave the hospital because of the quarantine, and I haven't seen Cameron in days. Jason and Carly went off to look for Lucky while they are looking for something that Robin and Patrick sent them out to get. They haven't been heard from in two days though, and to top it all off Tony Jones has come down with a fever, and his prognosis is not good. Everyone is worried about him, the hospital staff is going through a pretty rough time".

"How did this happen Elizabeth, how did everything fall apart, Do you know that the last time I spoke to Maxie, we were fighting, albeit that's a daily occurrence for us, but If I had known that something like this was about to happen, I would never have left her side, I hope she can forgive me when she wakes up".

"You know, I think you might be the only person who believes that Maxie is going to make a full recovery, Mac and Georgie aren't very optimistic given Maxie's past history".

"I have to believe she is going to be alright, I haven't told her how I feel about her, and I won't let her go until I have that opportunity- I would give her my heart if I could" said Jesse.

Just then Patrick walked in. "Jesse, I have some good news, your blood work came back negative. I can't let you go home, until the quarantine is over, but I see no reason to keep you from seeing Maxie".

"Are you serious? Can I go now and see her?" asked Jesse.

"Sure, but you need to be very careful and I don't want you to spend too much time there, you need your rest" said Patrick. "Elizabeth, you can take him off the IV now". Patrick left the room and Jesse immediately got out of bed as Elizabeth removed his IV. "I'm on my way to check on Maxie now, I'll take you with me" said Elizabeth. Jesse took a deep breath and followed Elizabeth.

As he walked through the ER he saw the chaos and destruction that had been caused by the outbreak. There were people in beds in the hall because there weren't enough rooms. The doctors walked around in protective gear as they visited each patient, everyone looked exhausted. Soon they reached Maxie's room. Mac and Georgie weren't around and as he walked into the room his heart sunk. In bed lay his beautiful Maxie. She looked peaceful, like she was only sleeping and would wake up soon. He pulled a chair up next to her bed and sat down. He grabbed her hand in his and kissed it.

Jesse held tightly to Maxie's hand as he asked "Elizabeth, can she hear me?"

"No one knows, but I'm sure it won't hurt to say something to her, she's seems stable, I'll leave you alone and I'll be back to check on her in a little bit" said Elizabeth, and then she left the room.

"Maxie, I am so sorry that I wasn't here for you, you must have been so scared" Jesse whispered as tears began to stream down his face. "I want you to know that when you come out of this- and you will- I will be the first person you see. And everyday after that for the rest of your life- if you'll have me- I will be the first thing you wake up to in the morning and the last before you go to bed at night. I never realized it before, but nothing in my life has ever mattered or been more important than you. I need you to be alright, for me, I won't let you leave me, not now, I need to see those gorgeous blue eyes". Jesse swept her hair away from her eyes and kissed her forehead. "Maxie" he whispered "I love you".