I haven't stolen them, I'm borrowing without permission, with every intention of giving them back (well, maybe!)

A few hours later as he tried to fight his way through the darkness towards the familiar voices, the voices Tom could hear around him had changed. The voices of his mother and comanding officer had been replaced by the voice of Doug Penhall.

"I'm tired of talking to myself buddy. People are gonna start thinking I'm crazy. Look, I'll make you a deal ok. You wake up and next time I'm in your car I won't put my feet on the dashboard. No? Ok, I'll chew with my mouth closed." he stopped and thought for a moment. "I'll actually chew!Ok maybe I just better not eat in your car huh? Right then,err I won't set you up on anymore blind dates? Come on Hanson, help me out here, there can be that much about me that bugs you."he looked thoughtfully down at his friend for a moment before saying "Final offer Tom, if you come back, I promise I will never let any harm come to you again." Dougs voice was eventualy joined by that of Judy Hoffs carrying yet another grotty paper cup full of vending machine coffee. She walked quietly in the room and closed the door softly behind her.

"Hey, open that" Doug said harshly as he whirled round.

"Sorry." Jude said puzzled as she opened the door.

"No one's shutting him in anywhere again, you got that?"

"Sure" she said nervously as she made her way to his side and held out one of the coffees to him."What are you doing?" Judy said trying to make her tone light.

"Talking to Tom" Doug said simply, turning his head to different angles and looking intently at his best friend's face. Judy looked at Doug with concern, the last month had been awful for all of them but he seemed to be taking it very hard.

"He looks better today, don't you think?" Jude said hopefully.

"Yeah, sure he does." Doug said unconvincingly.

"He will be alright Doug!"

"Why do people always say that when they know it's not true?"

"This is Hanson we're talking about, of course he is."

"Haven't we been assuming that for too long now?"

"Doug it's been a month, Harry was in here for nearly six".

"I don't mean just this. We've always taken it for granted that he's strong enough to cope with anything, and I think he showed us that we've been wrong the whole time."

Judy winced remembering watching Hanson tormenting Crane that night.

"He's all I've got left. My parents left me, Dorothy left me and Marta was taken from me. He's my best friend and if I lose him now I've got noone" Doug said struggling to keep his composure.

"Hey" Judy said, holding back her own hurt for his sake, "That's not true. You've got Clavo, he needs you, and you've got me"

"And me." came a familiar voice from the doorway. Doug and Judy spun round to see Harry stood in the doorway his troubled gazed fixed on Tom, his eyes retaining the same distant look they had for too long now. Wanting to erase the distance Judy walked over and hugged him.

"I'm so glad you're here."

"Hey, Iokage! What changed your mind" Doug said clapping him on the back.

"A good friend of mine said somethings that made me see sense" he said smiling faintly at Doug. "So how's he doing?"

"He's hanging in there." Jude said calmly.

"How you doing Iok?" Doug asked.

"I'm going to be Ok." Both Doug and Judy smiled as they looked at him, then all three turned towards the bed, trying to ingnore the constant noises from around the room.

"I hate the sound of these machines." Harry said nervously.

"It's alright Harry" Judy said taking his hand, realising how hard this must be for him. "Remember, we're here for Hanson."

"Yeah I know. God knows he's always been there for us. Funny isn't it," Harry continued, "Whenever we have problems he's the first one we turn to, but who does he turn to when he needs help?"

"It's like he's held us all together for the last few years" Judy began. "And he's still doing it now.Do you realise this is the first time that the four of us have been together for months" Judy said taking Doug and Harry's hands in each of hers.

"Do you remember how crazy he used to make us?" Harry said with a smile.

"God, he was so uptight and straight and so damn perfect!" Doug said pretending disgust

"Yeah" Jude said with a smile remembering the over eager kid of 21 she had met all those years ago, and how now at 25 he had grown into one of the most fun, caring and remarkable young men she had ever met. "He didn't think much to you at first either Doug" she said teasing him.

"I remember during the first few months in the programme he must have chewed my ear off about you for hours. 'He's sloppy, he's irresponsible, he's a screw up'" Harry said doing his best impression of the old Tom Hanson, who because of everything he'd been through, good and bad, was now well and truly gone.

"Yeah, but our Tom was always in there, you just had to get him to relax. Now I'd do anything to have him open his eyes and tell me to shut up" Doug said.

"Keep talking, see what happens" Harry suggested only half joking.

"If I talk at him anymore he'll probably jump up and punch me out" Doug quipped. The comfortable banter afforded the three young officers a slice of normality they desperatly needed.

"You didn't have to go to these lengths just to get us to hang out Tommy" Doug said.

"He hears you calling him Tommy and he will punch you out" Harry said grinning, all of them knowing how much he hated being addressed by the childhood version of his name.

Reacting to the sound of his friends voices, Tom's hands began to twich as he slowly began to come round. Then at hearing a slight murmer coming from his direction, Doug, Harry and Judy rushed over. As they saw his breathing begin to get deeper and his eyelids begin to twich, Judy's eyes lit up and she let out a yelp as she dashed from the room and instantly reappeared with Tom's doctor and an anxious Margaret Hanson hot on her heels. The doctor walked over and once again shone light into Tom's eyes. With a slight smile he turned to the others and said "He's starting to come around. Talk to him. It'll help with the disorientation."

Mrs Hanson stood by the bed stroking Tom's hair and calling to him as the others looked on. "Come on honey, wake up." she was saying.

Relief flooding over him, Doug watched the scene before him and found himself thinking that he wouldn't be surprised if Tom had answered "I don't want to go to school ma!" or something like that. He fought back his laughter and made a mental note to tease him about it at the first opportunity.

Tom struggled to focus his eyes in the direction of the voices he had heard under the bright hospital light. He was unable to make out the figures surrounding him and suddenly became confused and distressed that he didn't know where he was. He gagged as he tried to breath past the respirator tube that was obsructing his throat.

"Stay calm, it's ok! Doug said taking hold of the hand Mrs Hanson wasn't already clutching for dear life. He turned his confused and distressed eyes towards his mother who did her best to calm him, tears of relief running down her cheeks.

"Stay still baby." she was saying. His vision was limited to the imedeate area around the bed, and his wide frightened eyes began to search for the voices that he had followed back from the darkness.

"Tom, I'm so sorry." Doug said, squeezing his hand. Tom's eyes met his and to Doug's relief he squeezed back.

"I'm sorry, I'll have to ask some of you to step outside for a moment. The respirator is going to have to be removed and it's not going to be pleasant", the doctor said appologeticaly. As Doug and Mrs Hanson stood up Tom's hands clamped down on both of theirs in panic.

"It's ok Mrs Hanson you can stay where you are" the doctor said.

"It's ok Tom, I'll see you very soon" Doug said as he moved towards the others by the door.

A little while later Mrs Hanson called the group back in. They were relieved as they saw their friends face clearly for the first time in weeks, it was also a huge relief not to hear the constant wheezing of his laboured breaths.

"They've had to put him on alot of painkillers", she told them, "So he's drifting in and out, but you can talk to him" she continued as she led them in. She walked over to her son and gently pressed his hand. "Tom, honey wake up."

"What's going on?" he asked groggily, his voice cracked and hoarse.

"You're in the hospital Tommy. Don't worry everything's going to be fine now."

"Where's Harry? Is he ok?" he asked as he stuggled to open his heavy eyes.

"Right here Tom" came Harry's voice. "It's good to have you back."

"Doug and Judy are here too" Margaret said softly as her son's eyes began to clear and focus on her.

"Not funny Thomas!" Doug said smiling from ear to ear unable to surpress his relief. Tom smilied sleepily at him and then turned to focus on Judy.

"Hey" she said smiling warmly down on him. "Missed you"

"You want anything?" Doug asked enthusiastically, happy at finally being able to do something for his partner.

"Kinda thirsty"

"Sure. I'll get you some water. Don't worry" he said as he filled a cup from the jug of water on the table. "I won't spill like last time, I promise. Anyway it's..."

"Doug?" Tom said his voice still so quiet they had to strain slightly to hear him.

"What? You need the doctor? More blankets? What?"

"Shut up!" Tom said, his eyes only half open and half a smile on his face.

"You have no idea how good it is to hear you say that" Judy laughed as Doug helped him take small sips of water.

"Someone should call Fuller" Harry said

Harry and Judy looked at each other in silent understanding. Then Hoffs turned to Doug and said "You stay here with Mrs Hason. I'll call the Chapel and let everyone know the good news." Then she turned to Tom smiling and said "We'll see you later"

"Yeah, don't go anywhere!" Harry quipped

"Where am I going?" Tom replied, his voice growing stronger.

"Nowhere for awhile Hanson." Jude replied trying not to laugh quickly planting a soft kiss on the corner of his mouth. She turned to Doug and said "Take care of them" then followed Harry into the hallway.

"Jump Street Chapel?" came the voice of Sal Banducci as he picked up the reciever.

"Sal? You're fielding calls?"

"Someones got to."

"Nevermind" Judy said unable to keep her exhuberance under control. "Sal he's awake!"

"Hanson?"

"No, Tutankamun!" She said sarcastically "Of course Hanson"

"When?"

"Not long. About 10- 15 minutes ago."

"Can we see him?"

"For a little while. He's still pretty sleepy and you can't keep his attention for long, but the docs say we can talk to him for a few minutes. They're taking him for tests soon, so you'd better make it quick"

"Have you told Harry?"

"Harry's here!" she said smiling at her partner stood beside her.

"I had a feeling he would be. Ok I'll get Fuller and we'll be there as soon as we can"

"See you soon Sal" and hung up the reciever.

As soon as he had put the phone down Blowfish raced at top speed into Fuller's office. In his eagerness to spread the news he forgot to knock and burst through the door like a hurricane. Fuller looked up from his desk with a look like death as he made eye contact with Sal.

"Don't you know how to knock Sal?" he said clearly irritated.

"Sorry, sir. But Judy just phoned from the hospital".

Fuller's expression turned from angry to scared in a split second, as he feared the worst.

"Hanson's awake!"

"What!" Fuller said jumping up from his desk as if he was twenty years younger than his 44 years.

"Tom's awake". Sal smiled and he and Fuller, relieved and elated threw their arms around one another as they jumped about the office. This was followed by an uncomfortable silence as the moment passed and they came to their senses.

"So I guess we better get to the hospital" Sal said giving an uncomfortable cough.

"You want a ride?" Fuller replied

Sal smiled as the two men left the office and headed for the parking lot.

Once again thank you for being so encouraging with your reviews. I've got three endings in mind for this story so bear with me while I decide. :0)