CHAP 7

Disclaimer: I do not own CSI:NY or the characters, only Amy.

CSI:NYCSI:NYCSI:NYCSI:NYCSI:NYCSI:NY

It was dark in the room when Amy opened her eyes. It took a while to realise she wasn't dreaming, she was in fact in a hospital room. She breathed a sigh of relief; they had been found. Still just lying in the bed staring at the ceiling she thought back to what she remembered before waking up here. She felt chills run down her spine as she could still feel the damp cold air from the warehouse; the cold that had seeped into her body all the way into her bones. She took another deep breath just to reassure herself that she could breathe at ease now.

The last memories she had from the warehouse were of Susan's sobs growing fainter and her attempts of yelling for her to not to fall asleep, but obviously in vain.

She looked around the darkened room; the only light was coming from the window out towards the hospital corridor. And slumped in a chair, too small for him, was Don, she was surprised to see him and that his snoring hadn't woken her sooner. She carefully pulled her self up to a more upright position and felt her head pounding as if she was hung-over. She waited a few seconds until the pounding subsided, she then looked around finding an empty Kleenex box which she quietly picked up and threw at the sleeping figure in the chair.

"Knock it off…", he mumbled, but raised his head as Amy snorted to cover up her laughter, "Hi there…how you feeling?", he pulled the chair closer to the bed.

"Tired and a bit sore", she looked down at her arms that were rolled up in bandages, she smiled at him, "You guys found us".

"Yeah, sorry it took so long", he took her hand in his, "you really scared us you know; we thought we'd never see you again".

"I was scared too…", she gripped his hand more tightly, "how's Susan? She's ok right?"

He nodded and she felt relieved. They sat in a comfortable silence, her hand still in his, but with a soft knock at the door he removed his hand from hers.

"You're awake, I'm glad you're ok Amy", Stella entered the room followed by Hawkes, Lindsay and Danny. As hugs and greetings were exchanged Amy was given a short version of how they found the guy, why he did it and how they found them.

"Mac sends his regards; he's with the DA making sure there are no holes in the prosecution, we don't want him getting out of this because of a technicality or a plea mental instability"

"Good, that's good…", Amy was feeling clear and had started fidgeting with the edge of her sheet, "can someone find out when I can get out of here?"

Hawkes headed to the door, "I'll go see".

As Danny and Lindsay sat on the edge of Amy's bed making small talk Stella took a seat next to Don, she took one look at him and he sighed, she didn't even have to say a word, he knew what she was getting at, "I know Stell…"

"Well I don't think you do Don, you could have lost her forever, not many people get second chances like this. It's a sign don't you think?", she nudged him with her elbow.

But before Don could begin to explain that now wasn't a good time Hawkes returned with Doctor. Furrows, he wore glasses and had grey hair and the kind of smile you saw on sweet old grandfathers on TV.

"Eager to leave Mrs.Flack? Well I see no harm in that, you suffered only from mild hypothermia and looking at your vital signs and the fact that you're quite alert I think it's safe to discharge you."

"Thank you…"

"But, it's bed rest, no heavy activities and wait a week until you go back to work, agreed?", he looked sternly at Amy making her feel like she was six years old and promising not to eat any sweets before dinner, "yes, of course".

He scribbled on her chart, "and make sure your husband there gets some rest too, you've been out of it for about two days now and he's been here the whole time, that's not healthy young man", he said to Don as he pointed his pen at him. "Good day to you all".

Danny sniggered as the doctor left the room, "young man" he said pointing with a mock stern look at Don.

Stella laughed along with the others, "well I guess that's good news then", she picked up her bag, "I'll tell Mac you'll be back in the lab in a week, take care of her Don".

"I will, see you guys tomorrow", their three colleagues left leaving them alone once again.

"Two days! I've been lying here asleep for two days!" she felt flabbergasted, she just assumed she been asleep through the night, "and you've been here the whole time?"

He was pulling out a bag from under the bed, "yeah well……here, I got some cloths for you. I'll go fill out your discharge papers while you change, as your husband I'm allowed to do that", he smiled, his mood was much lighter now that he knew she was awake and given the ok to go home.

She opened the bag and pulled out the cloths, smiling she thought it was real sweet of him to have sat by her side for almost two days. Pulling on a comfy cardigan a thought struck her, would an 'only friend' have done that?

"You decent?", Don was poking his head through the door with his eyes closed.

"Yes, ready to go?"

The warm air in the car made Amy sleepy again, she couldn't wait to curl up in her own bed. She stole a glance at Don who was looking at the traffic, "what won't you do for me?" she asked quietly.

Without looking at her he smiled, "fly, hate flying".

"Ok, but seriously, you've done so much for me, why?"

"I want to, and I care about you. I was able to help you and I did", still with is eyes on the road.

"You care about me?"

"Of course I do, we all do, you know that"

"Yeah, but it wasn't Mac or Stella who sat by my side for almost two days waiting for me to wake up", she didn't know what she wanted him to say, maybe she wanted him to confess the feelings she had, the same feelings she hoped he also had.

He was quiet for a while, contemplating his answer, "as your husband I was the only one they were allowed to give information to about your condition", he hoped that that answer would satisfy her.

She merely nodded, a little disappointed, that conversation could have lead to some interesting revelations. She looked out the window with a frown as the car stopped, "where are we?"

"They haven't cleaned out your building since the fire, so that only left one option really, my place", he got out of the car.

His apartment looked a lot like she thought it would, brown worn leather furniture and shelves filled with photos and books, cosy yet manly.

"You hungry?", he called from the kitchen, she walked from the living room into the kitchen finding him looking through the cupboards, "tho' it looks like we have to order take out, Chinese or Japanese?"

Twenty minutes later they sat bunched in the couch with several take away boxes littering the small coffee table, playing "guess what".

"Here, what's this?", she took a piece of 'unagi' and feed it to Don who had his eyes closed. Trying real hard to hold in her laughter she watched him chew it and swallow, "is it something with chicken?", he said.

She doubled over laughing and in between breaths, "you, you…ate the…eel!", her laughter increased as he started spitting into an empty takeout box and almost emptying a whole bottle of beer. She was still laughing when he flung a piece of deep fried pork at her in which she stopped abruptly, "Hey!". Grabbing the nearest box she flung its contents at him, the contents being cold noodles with some kind of meat in it. The food fight ended only when most of the containers were empty and they were drenched in various Japanese dishes.

Don lay on the floor having slid off the couch during the fight and Amy sat on the other side of the coffee table. She crawled over to him looking down at him, "you have shrimp in your hair you know that right?", she smiled a wicked smile.

"And you have what I think is Tonjiru soup in yours and it's dripping on me"

"We smell tasty anyway", she shook her head a little to let more drops of the soup fall onto his face.

Her eyes locked with his, those eyes, the eyes that seemed to have all the answers to her every problem, those eyes told her what she unknowingly knew; she cared about him too.

She dipped down and briefly let her lips meet with his, pulling back the expression on his face was frozen.

"I care about you too", she said quietly before pulling herself up, she offered her hand out to Don and helped him up.

"Let's clean up the worst of this mess and then head for bed", she went to the kitchen to get a cloth, leaving him standing there.

She had beaten him to it, he had been laying there on the floor looking up at her, feeling drops of soup falling down on him. His gaze had gone from her eyes to her lips and his mind emptied completely except from the urge to kiss her. But it didn't matter who kissed who first, they had kissed.

He was standing on the same spot when Amy called for him, "do you have any cleaning stuff?"

He walked into the kitchen, "What was that? And you said you care about me too, what do you mean when you say 'care'?"

"The same as when you say you care about me I suppose…", she replied acting nonchalantly as she continued opening and closing different cupboards. Finding what she was looking for she handed him a cloth and went back into the living room, she hid it but she was dying to know what he would respond to what she said, hopefully she had put him on the spot.

He followed her back into the room, walking up to her he took the cleaning product and cloth from her and put it down on the table, putting his hands on her shoulders, "I say 'care' but…I mean something else", his voice was soft and meaningful.

She smiled slyly, "same here".

"What are you trying to say then?"

"What are you trying to say?"

They stood staring at each other, waiting for the other to answer. Then, after a minute of the staring game they smiled, realising neither of them wanted to take the first step.

"I think I say 'care' because there isn't a word for what I really mean, but I know that I have…fallen for you …hard", she looked down at the floor, she said it, it was out there.

Moving his hands from her shoulders to her chin, tilting it to meet his eyes he smiled at her, "there are no words for it…", he leaned in and kissed her, not the swift kind they had just had on the floor, a passionate kiss. Running his hands around her waist she put her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.

When they broke apart they both had grins on their faces.

Amy yawned, though she tried to hide it.

"You must be tired, come on let's get you to bed. We'll continue this tomorrow"

He lent her a large t-shirt and let her change in peace but even though he had left the room the smile on her face didn't fade away, feeling really giddy she wanted to scream like a happy teenager but restrained herself.

"Here you go, jump in", he pulled down the cover for her.

"You're not going to sleep on the couch are you?"

"Only got one bed room", he said pulling an extra pillow out of the wardrobe.

"Don don't be silly, the couch reeks of take away. This is a double bed, besides, we're a "married couple" we're expected to sleep in the same bed.", jumping onto the bed and pulling the cover up she watched him standing there.

He looked at her, could he control himself lying so close to her? Did she even want him to try and control himself? Whatever it was he wasn't going to miss this opportunity to be close to her. He went and changed into a t-shirt and boxers.

When he got back her eyes were already closed. He slipped under the covers slowly as not to disturb her, but once in place she turned around, now facing him and moved closer.

He kissed her on her forehead at which her eyes fluttered open and with a smile kissed him on the lips, "who knew this would happen when we got married", she said with an even bigger smile.

"Yeah, who knew", with a last kiss they fell asleep, enjoying the best sleep any of them had had in weeks.

CSI:NYCSI:NYCSI:NYCSI:NYCSI:NYCSI:NY

AN: What will the people at work say? Stella going to say, "I knew it!"? What happens when a month passes and it's time to get that annulment?

A 'happily ever after'? Perhaps… or not! hahahaha.

((Review so I know people are actually reading the story))