A/N: First of all, a Happy New Year to all my readers! Have a great 2006 and a fresh new start! Secondly, bad news. I've just started university this week so my life is back to its hectic schedule. But I will try and update my stories ASAP. So please don't slaughter me for the slow updates. And finally, thanks to all my reviewers

Thank you….AnimeGirl329, Armith-Greenleaf, chibiwolfgurl, Demon-horse99, Silver89Wolf, Kaycomon, Chibi Bishi, Ms. Hiwatari, brezzybrez, roze, kraxypirategurl, crimsonskye06, chibi Setsuna-chan, Black Cello, lil'angelgrl, Melody, HeartlessDevil, star sapphire, silent-lucidity, Shitza and Moonlight Kitten.

Chapter 17

When she finally woke up, pulling herself out of the welcoming abyss, she was lying on a hospital bed. Her eyes opened slowly tiredly and her eyes sights tried to focus on her surroundings. The bright sunlight spilling in from the window made her flinch and she turned her head to face away from the offending source of light. Her gaze studied the hospital room that was temporary hers for that moment, taking in the clean bed sheets, neatly arranged furniture and its scent of sterilizer.

Then she spotted Kai dozing on a cushioned chair by her bed. His head was rested on the bed pillowed by his folded arms, his face free of worries and exhaustion. He was still wearing what he wore on the night of the Autumn Dance. Smiling softly, she laid a frail hand upon his head and stroked his hair gently. Her touch stirred him. When he saw that she was awake, Kai was alert instantly.

"Jade." he said, his voice holding a tone of relief and concern. "How are you feeling?"

"Better, I think. What happened? Last thing I remember was the Autumn Dance. Was the punch spiked? Is that why I feel this way?" she whispered trying to laugh weakly. "That was a joke."

"We never got any punch. You were coughing out blood then you collapsed." he reminded her. "The doctor said you wore yourself out last night. You need plenty of rest."

She nodded, squeezing her eyes closed for a moment. Her head felt so heavy she wondered why it didn't sink through her pillow. Kai wrapped his hands around hers gently. His fingers were warm as they squeezed her hand in assurance.

"You'll be alright." he said. "You're not alone in this."

Her eyes opened and clouded green depths gazed back at him with love and gratefulness. "I know. I have you."

A soft knock on the door made them look up, breaking the sweet moment between them. Jade's parents stood at the door, watching her daughter from their perch with looks of concern.

"How's my baby doing?" Ivy asked softly.

As her parents stepped into the room, Kai quietly excused himself to leave them alone. He closed the door silently, making sure not to disturb the family reunion. Then from the hallway outside the room through the window, he watched as Ivy and Phillip embraced their beloved daughter, showering her with kisses and words of parental worry.

Two hours later found Kai standing alone in the hallway outside her room. A Styrofoam cup was cupped within his hands with steam still rising from the hot brown liquid the cup contained. Around him other relatives and families of other patients waited around to see their love ones. Two hours ago, Hilary and Tyson had dropped by to visit Jade. Hilary had brought balloons while Tyson had presented himself with chocolates. While they were here, the rest had paid a visit as well. The others being Tala, Tanya, Mariah, Ray, Mariam and Max had filled the room making it seem smaller than actual. Kai had felt out of place among them and had left them with his girlfriend while Jade's parents stood watching protectively. The get-well party had long left over an hour ago.

Then seeing as there was nothing more he could do, he had gone home, took a shower and changed into a fresh change of clothes for he has not returned home since Jade's admittance into the hospital. He wondered if his grandfather wondered of his over-night absence and not surprisingly, he was informed by Bernard that Voltaire had flown out of the country last night to attend to some business matters. The news did not faze him for he was used to his grandfather's neglection of him.

He promised himself he will not do the same to Jade. She did not deserve to go through what he went through all his life.

That same moment Phillip strode out of the room, looking weary and exhausted. It seemed to Kai the man had aged in the last few hours since Jade's collapse. As her father noticed him, he straightened.

"How is she, sir?" he asked.

"She's resting now." Phillip said. "Lots of rest. That's what the doctor said."

By an unspoken understanding between them, both males gazed back at the one person whom they share in common. Kai with a lover's love and Phillip with that of a father's love.

"She's strong." Phillip said after a minute of silence passed between them. "She'll pull through this."

"She'll." Kai agreed.

"You know when Jade was six, she brought back a wounded bird. It had a broke wing I think." Phillip said solemnly as though confiding a family secret to Kai. In a way he was. "She nursed it back to health. All by herself."

Kai wasn't surprised to hear that. Yet the knowledge of something so special, that her father would share that much to show his trust in him, to connect with him warmed his heart, making a soft gentle smile lighten up his face.

The man chuckled a little at the memory. "I kept telling her it ain't gonna make it but she was so stubborn. Just like her mother. And every time I told her that, she would start to pray for the little thing, that it will get well. My wife never did let me hear that end of it when it actually recovered."

"Yeah. Jade's special that way…" Kai said.

"Yes, she is." her father said, nodding mostly to himself. He paused for a moment. After a thought, he added quietly almost gravely. "When she was a kid, I remember she had a wish list once."

To that Kai couldn't help but smile for he recalled a time when she told him about it after Nicky had persuaded her to tell him. The one time that seemed almost perfect felt so long ago…

"She would list ten wishes on that list." Phillip continued. "I think wish number ten was…to have a pet pony. She had always loved animals. Horses especially. Then wish number nine was to have a star named after her. And number eight, well, is to be in two places at once." Kai smiled wearily to that, knowing well of the wish that has been granted and listened as the older man went on, speaking with fatherly fondness. "Her seventh wish was to see the Niagara Falls."

"What's her sixth wish?" Kai asked, curious to know.

"To have an ice-cream in winter." Mr. Summers smiled in amusement. "It's crazy I know but that's my Jade. Always thinking the weird stuffs."

"It's not crazy." the bluenette said softly, sharing his amusement. "Nor is it weird."

The man smiled and continued. "She loves Russia. She has always wanted to go there. Ever since her grandmother showed her pictures of Russia. That was her fifth wish. Her next wish's to…let me think…serve the church. I've tried to support that dream but it isn't easy. She goes away to do the work of some God who does not even see fit to spare the life of my girl…isn't easy."

If there was anything Kai understood better than anything else, it was human nature. All his life ever since his parents passed away, he was watched his grandfather conduct business and he has seen the best and the worst appear under the older Hiwatari's hand. It was only human nature to place the blame on others, even if it meant God. And there was no point in reasoning with him for the man now knew the grief and sorrow of seeing his only child fade away before his eyes. He needed a place, somewhere to vent it out. Better than letting him hurt himself.

But Jade…Jade was different. She had once told him she did not want a reason to blame God.

"What about her third wish?" Kai asked, gazing through the window in the ward at the pale girl that laid in the bed. She looked so tiny in the big white bed, fragile.

"Hm? Her third wish? That would be to…do something nice for the local orphanage, I guess."

Another wish accomplished.

"And her second wish?"

"To see a miracle." the man now too watched Jade and tears brimmed his eyes. "What I wouldn't give to see one right now for her."

Kai nodded understandingly. Sub-consciously, his hand touched the cross around his throat, praying silently, pleading to God to spare her. To give them more time together. To hear their pain. The pain he had felt when he lost the only two people who loved him and understood him. He did not want others to experience that pain too. He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them slowly. "What about number one?"

"Number one?" Phillips chuckled fondly at the memory of his ten year-old daughter running up to him, all smiles and laughter holding a piece of paper that contained all her wishes. "Ever since she was a child, her greatest wish has been to marry the one she loves in the church where her mother and I married. To walk down that aisle in a white dress to the one she loves, to marry him and live happily ever after…was her dream." Two tears escaped the strain of control the man tried to exert over himself and his voice broke as he started to weep. "It is all my fault. If I hadn't been so selfish, this wouldn't be happening to her. Not to her. My baby…"

Kai stared at the man, mildly amazed that he would blame himself for something that was beyond their control. And he knew he could not let Jade's father keep blaming himself for that. Jade has shown him that much. "It's not your fault, Mr. Summers. You didn't ask for this to happen to her. I didn't ask for this. There are things that we can't control. We can't blame ourselves for what is happening now. Right now all we can do for Jade is to be with her, support her. Pray for her."

Mr. Summers wiped away his tears, sniffing a little. He smiled at the boy who have changed his daughter's life so much, have given her so much meaning in her life. "You sound just like Jade."

Kai smiled back genuinely. "She has taught me a lot."

"I can see that." Phillip nodded.

"I love Jade, Mr. Summers, more than I've ever loved anyone else. I promise I'll not abandon her. You have my word that I'll do everything in my power to save her." Kai vowed grimly.

Phillip glanced at the teenage boy, surprised to hear words filled with so much devotion and affection spoken with wisdom coming from one so young. And for that he was glad. "Thank you, Kai for making her happy, for making her life worth living for. You have no idea what you mean to her."

"No." Kai whispered, his eyes fixed on the one girl who meant so much to them. "You have no idea what she is to me. Jade…Jade is my world."

After another painful round of check-up sessions, Jade found time to slumber, taking a light nap to regain the little of the strength and energy she had left. Her parents had came to see how she was doing and they had dropped off some of her stuffs to keep her occupied. She knew they had been in the hospital since the previous day for they looked exhausted. On her insistence, they had gone home to rest but with a promise to be back in the evening.

Yet as time approached three in the afternoon, she couldn't help but gaze at the closed door of her room, waiting…simply waiting for someone. Knowing that she was to be expecting a visitor.

At five past three, the door opened quietly and Kai glanced in carefully, not wanting to interrupt a medical examination. When he saw she was alone, he stepped in with a bouquet of flowers in his hand.

"Hey." he greeted as he strolled over to her.

"Kai." she said, smiling softly at him. Her heart swelled with her overflowing love for him. "I knew you would be coming."

He laid the flowers, white lilies on the table next to her bed. "Don't tell me you have psychic powers now." he jested lightly, crimson eyes concentrated on her lovingly.

"No. I just had a…feeling that you would come. I was right." Jade beamed triumphantly. "Oooh, flowers! For me?"

"Yeah. Bernard sends his love and best of wishes to you." he said, glad to hear her sound more like her usual old self. He touched her hand, cuddling it as he kissed her cheek tenderly. "How have you been doing?"

She lifted a shoulder and let it fall. "Better. You?"

"Pretty good." he said as he sat on her bed next to her.

"Good." Jade gave his hand an assuring squeeze before she released it to reach for something under her pillow. "I have something for you." She pulled out a black covered book and handed it to him carefully. Noticing the dubious look on his perplexed face, she laughed a little. "Don't worry. It's not a Bible."

"Okay…" Kai muttered, turning the book over in his hand. He realized now it was too thin to be Bible.

"It was my grandmother's." she explained, indicating the book. "It's got quotes from our favorite books, quotes by famous people. Her thoughts…She gave it to me before she passed away. Go on. Read it."

He flipped to the first page and read from the first sentence written on the page. "'What is a friend? It's a single soul dwelling in two bodies.' Aristotle." pausing he glanced at her. "He said that?"

"Yup…" she nodded and urged him to continue reading.

"Okay…" he schemed through the page and found another passage in the book. "'Find out who you are and do it on purpose.'"

"Dolly Parton." she said.

Intrigued, he turned to another page and read the contents loudly for her to hear as well. "'Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited.'"

"'It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and it is not resentful.'" she recited by memory, closing her eyes. "'Love takes no pleasure in other people's sins, but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse. To trust. To hope. And to endure whatever comes.' 1st Corinthians chapter 13. It's one of my favorites. "

"It's beautiful." he murmured, feeling the ring of her words echo within him, pulling at his heart. He closed the book and rested it on his lap as she opened her eyes and gazed at him thoughtfully.

"You know what I figured out today?" she said.

"What?"

"I figured that us being here today wasn't a mistake or a fluke. That God has a bigger plan for us. Bigger than what we had. Like you were sent to me because I'm sick…you're here to help me through all this."

"I will get you through this." Kai whispered as he lifted a hand to caress her pale cheek. "I promise."

Jade smiled at him, at his face that was filled with so much emotion for her, for them. She cupped her hand over his, nuzzling her cheek softly as she gazed at him with loving tenderness. "You're my angel, Kai."

He lifted her lips to his and kissed her gently. The moment stretched into what seemed like forever to them. And when they broke the kiss, she saw the shimmering tears in his eyes. They touched her deeply, filling her soul with an aching core that was both bitter sweet at the same time. Only he could make her…feel this way. Feel the pain of love yet the joy and warmth of it as well.

Yes, he was her angel.

A/N: Okay, okay. This is a short chappie I know. But I just thought the whole chapter was pretty sweet and touching where I left off. So yeah….sorry for the very long wait.