Previously:
"Thanks," I whispered and ended the call 'Oh god, Catherine! What happened to you? '.
Vincents POV
It took me 10 minutes to drive back to the hospital that I had just left an hour ago.
I ran the 200 meters from the parking lot to the reception and breathlessly asked for Catherine.
"Sir, I need to know your name and the full name of the patient."
"Uhhm, sure" in my eyes this was a waste of time, because all I wanted to do was seeing Catherine again.
"I´m Dr. Vincent Keller and I need to see Catherine Chandler."
"Ok, Dr. Keller, Catherine Chandler is in room 546, fifth floor, on the …!"
"Yes, thank you, I know where this is!" I interrupted her, left and headed for the stairs.
On the fifth floor I searched for her room and tried to catch my breath.
The first person I saw was Dr. Aaron Keller, standing next to the only bed in the room. It shouldn´t surprise me, since he worked at the ICU.
My nephew looked up from his notepad. "Vincent?!"
To look at Catherine pained me. She was pale and looked almost lifeless.
She looked so vulnerable, fragile and I feared for her life in that moment.
I needed to know, what had happened to her.
Aaron sensed my question, before I had to ask him.
"She had a very serious car accident! Vincent, she has five broken ribs and a concussion!
She just came out of surgery and we didn´t try to wake her up yet."
Suddenly light sobs from the corner of the room caught my attention, I turned around and faced Tess.
"She is going to be alright, is she?" Tess voice was raw from crying.
The look on her face, her sadness, her fear for Catherines life mirrored my own feelings, I sat down next to her and she hugged me.
"She will be fine, Tess. All she needs right now is time to recover.
Do you know how this happened?"
"The accident happened on the way from her apartment to mine. I think…, I think she was on her way to visit me. I just heard the paramedics and when I was trying to find out what had happened, all I could see was the leftover of her car, stuck under the looked… horrible!"
We waited for hours, Catherine didn´t wake up. Tess fell asleep on the couch in the waiting room, it was 1 am by now and the hallways on the hospital were empty.
"Tess?" I carefully tried to wake her up, and she looked confused for a second, before she asked:"What happened? Did she wake up?"
"No, she is still asleep and they don´t expect her to wake up. At least not till the morning. There is nothing to do for us right now and I suggest you go home and try to catch some sleep.
I´ll call you if we get news on her condition, ok?"
She hesitated for a second but finally agreed.
Although I could go home as well, sleep for some hours and come back in the morning, I decided to stay.
It was dark in her room when I came back and only a light shimmer radiate from the monitor on the left side of her bed.
I sat down next to the bed and carefully caressed her hand with my fingers.
"Catherine! Please wake up. We need you here, ok?! Yesterday you hesitated and walked away. But even if you aren´t sure, I am. I am in love with you, Catherine."
I softly kissed her hand and couldn´t stop some silent tears from running down my cheeks.
My thoughts drifted of and somehow I fell asleep, holding her hand in mine, next to my head on the blanked.
Catherines POV
At first everything was black, then I heard a voice and after trying several times, I could finally open my eyes. My lids were heavy and the temptation to close them was huge because I was blinded by sunlight.
But I was too curious and eager to find out where I was, so that I fought the urgency to go back to sleep and took a look around in my room.
I felt a warm touch at my hand and looked down.
"Catherine!" Vincent smiled brightly and I was unbelievably happy to see him.
His voice was deeper than usual, a little hoarse and his hair was a mess.
"And who are you?" that wasn´t usually the time o joke but now I was a woman on a mission.
"Wait, what? You don´t remember me?" he was shocked, of coarse.
"Well, should I ?! So, who are you?" I couldn´t suppress a little smile and he immediately caught me, but played along.
"Let´s say, I am the man who just told you about… 4 hours ago, that he is in love with you but you probably missed that because you were asleep.
And… I am the one you kissed… last night."
"So we are more than just friends?" I didn´t expect him to label this, us. Hell, I didn´t even know what we were, myself.
He blushed a little:" And you are sure, that you don´t remember anything?"
"I told you, I remember bits and pieces. I remember… the accident, I remember us kissing, and the first time we met, when you opened the door with only a towel around your waist!
I enjoyed teasing him far too much for my own good.
"Very funny Ms. Chandler" now he was the one, teasing me.
"So: how are you?" his tone changed and he became serious.
"I feel a little… sore. And, like I´m about to develop a serious headache."
"How much do you remember about the accident?" he would ask eventually and I better told him now than later.
We talked for a while, and I told him everything.
"My Relationship with Manuel… whatever we had, it´s over." Honestly, it felt good to say it out loud.
"How long will I have to stay here?"
"You just came here and want to leave already?"
"What! I hate hospitals!" I laughed
"About one more days, I guess?! But don´t worry. Tess will come and visit and I´ll try to be around too. Of coarse only if you want me to.
During the morning Vincent had to leave and Tess came to visit.
"Don´t ever shock me like this again!"
"Good to see you too, Tess!"
She hugged me tightly, overly exited to see me. "Tess, will you let go of me, please! You … are… hurting me!"
She immediately let go of me and murmured ´sorry´ silently.
"So, were you on your way to my apartment when the accident happed?"
"I´m sorry, Tess. I just had to get away from home, Vincent still at work, I was angry and somehow… I just didn´t see the truck coming." I hesitated for a second, but I knew that I could trust Tess.
"Can you… do me a favour? I need my stuff and right now I can´t stand facing Manuel. At least not now!"
"Where will you stay? I hate to break it to you, but Joe asked me to spend the holidays with him in Spain and we´ll leave on Friday. "
"I just need my stuff. I guess, I´m gonna stay with Vincent, until I find myself a new apartment."
"Speaking of the devil…!" Tess exclaimed, when Vincent came back.
"I guess I better leave you two lovebirds alone!"
"Tess!" I scolded her.
"What?! I´m serious!"" we started laughing and Tess left Vincent and me alone.
Suddenly Vincent leaned over and kissed me passionately.
"Wow, what was that for?"
"I have news! You, Ms. Chandler, are allowed to leave the hospital today!"
He was right: this was good news for a change.
Hey guys! Thanks for your fantastic comments. I feel that this story is more interensante with each passing chapter. What do you think of this chapter? In this chapter I have loved. Please review