Sick, pained, and barely able to see straight, Luis Alcazar was climbing over the railing of the bed. Or at least he was trying to climb out of the bed. His muscles were weak and sore. Spasms tore through his back and his legs. Even if his brother were right there to hold him down on the bed, he wouldn't have been able to fight against him. He was just too weak.

"Elizabeth!" The name sounded louder in his head than he knew it actually was coming from his lips. "Elizabeth!"

"Luis, lay down." Lorenzo looked up to his brother, but he didn't move. He was holding Elizabeth, keeping her from dropping to the floor. "It's not the same illness. She has no fever. She's exhausted, Luis."

"Why are you just sitting there? Get her some help, Lorenzo." Luis propped his head against the railing and wondered when they had even raised them. The last time he was awake and aware, his bed had been as open as Diego's. His nephew could have rolled out of the bed if he wanted. Luis couldn't even sit up.

"Where did these come from?" Luis gripped the bars as tightly as he could, which wasn't very tightly at all. "When did they lock me in this prison?"

"It's not a prison, Luis." Lorenzo rolled his eyes and carefully picked Elizabeth up from the floor. He sat her gently in the chair in the middle of the room, then went to the door. "You were convulsing with your pain. They're there to make sure you don't fall out of bed."

"It's a prison," he groaned. "I've been in plenty to know what they feel like. And what are you doing, hermano? Why are you at the door instead of getting help? Would you just let the woman I love die?"

"She's not going to die, Luis. You're exaggerating the situation, as you often tend to do since your miraculous reanimation from the dead." Lorenzo stepped out of the door, just one foot, then quickly came back inside. He rushed to the side of Luis's bed and pushed the call button. "There is no staff in the hallway, and she needs to lie down."

"She'll die with the rest of us." Luis rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. "I've doomed her, Lorenzo. My love has doomed her."

"Again, you're exaggerating, Luis. There is nothing wrong with her that a little rest won't repair. And you should have heard the excitement in her voice. Excitement that not just her son would soon get a cure, but that you would as well. And Diego, too. Excited that not just her family, but our family would survive this epidemic. So, don't start talking to me of curses and doom. You're delirious, again."

With his talk of delirium, Luis believed that it was his brother who was delirious. What was this talk of a cure? The doctors here didn't know what they were doing. They didn't know how to fix any of them, and they would die together. But, Elizabeth—His precious Elizabeth—She deserved better. Luis had done enough in his life that he deserved the death that coming back to Port Charles would bring him, but Cameron and Elizabeth deserved better. They deserved their lives.

She looked so peaceful, so at ease. The same as she did when he watched her sleep at night. The nights where he would get up in the night to care for Cameron if he awoke from a nightmare so as not to disturb that perfect peacefulness and beauty. Every other time that Luis had seen her since coming into the hospital, she looked haggard and weary. Her little body was delicate and her heart, as much love and fire as it contained, could only do so much before it told her to stop. To care for herself.

God willing, and Elizabeth allowing, Luis would take her away from all of this. He would give her the life that she deserved. She had told him about her painting, had even drawn a few pictures for him. She was talented, and even if she didn't want to pursue painting professionally, she deserved the opportunity to have it as a hobby. She deserved the chance to have a hobby, at all.

"She could be Mrs. Alcazar," he muttered. Luis reached out weakly through the bars, his fingers stretching and wiggling towards her. "She would make a lovely Mrs. Alcazar, Lorenzo. And she could care for her son and not worry about everyone else in the world. She would never have to go through this again."

"Luis, you're babbling. You don't babble."

"I am not babbling, Lorenzo. I'm musing." He let out a heavy breath. "Lower the bars, Lorenzo. Lower the bars and bring her to me. Let me hold her." He looked up at his brother. "She sleeps better when I hold her."

"I'm almost positive that she needs more than sleep, Luis. She's probably dehydrated. She needs treatment from the doctors."

"Then, they can come and treat her here. Right now, Lorenzo, she needs rest. You said so yourself. Her body is weak and tired from all that she has done here today. Please, Lorenzo, I haven't asked you for anything since coming to Port Charles. In the last year, I've not asked anything of you. If not for me, brother, then do it for her. Lower these bars and let her rest."

Lorenzo took in a deep breath that rose his shoulders, then slowly let his body fall. He looked back and forth from Luis to Elizabeth. Would he have done the same thing if Diego asked that his girlfriend be put in bed with him? If his girlfriend were even there? Probably not, but Luis didn't care. What he did with Diego was his business. All that mattered was that he brought Elizabeth to him.

Finally, with a look of apprehension, Lorenzo put down one side of the bars on Luis's bed. He went to the chair and lifted Elizabeth into his arms. She moaned slightly and curled against him. Then, as though she knew it was not Luis that held her so closely, she turned away. Lorenzo laid her on the bed, and Luis moved over until his back was crushed against the bars. Lorenzo rose the other rack of bars again, then stood back, obviously still unsure about this decision.

Luis realized that, for the first time, his body seemed to ache less. That could have been attributed to the drugs that he had been given, but he preferred to believe that it was because of Elizabeth. It was because she was with him, the beautiful angel that had saved his heart. She was no saving his body, as well. Lorenzo had told him that it was her decision, in the end, to allow the doctors to cleanse his system of the Oxycontin, and she may have felt guilty about his pain. And in his agony, he had mistakenly blamed her for this when she was out of the room. Said that she was torturing him worse than Brenda had ever done. But lying with her beside him, Luis knew the truth. She had saved him, and he could not hate her for that.

"I love you," he whispered as he weakly brushed her hair out of her face, pushing it back behind her ear. "And if you allow me, I will make your life the best that it can be. If we all survive this, I'll bring you into my family, and maybe we can have one of our own. I love you, and forgive me, Elizabeth, for all of your pain. I'd take it, along with mine, if I could. I love you." Luis kissed her forehead and said once more, "I love you."

And Elizabeth unconsciously curled against him, moving into his warmth and love.

Sam was aware, for the first time in quite sometime. She didn't know how long, but it felt like a long time. And the first thing she noted was that Jason wasn't at her side. Selfishly, she wanted him to be there, holding her hand through it all. Logically, she knew he wasn't good at that sort of thing.

That didn't stop her from wishing it however.