Chapter 18

The most striking thing Mara noticed when she woke up was that it was dark outside, which immediately led her to how long she had been out. She tried to move her head, but a throbbing pain dissuaded her from doing so.

"Argh," she groaned, and bring to move her hand to her head, but she realised she couldn't move it.

When she finally looked down and her eyes became used to the bright white light, she saw that her hand was trapped. Both her hands were trapped under her boys' head. Chris firmly gripped her right hand and he has fallen asleep on top of their joined hands. A frown twisted his attractive features as though he was having a nightmare. On the other side of her bed was William, who mirrored Chris' position. He was the first to stir and open his eyes.

His head rose up the moment he saw Mara was awake, and she croaked out a little "Sup?"

"Sup?" He asked in bewilderment, as if he couldn't believe the audacity. She had the nerve to pass out and when she woke up all she found to say was 'sup'? "Sup?" He repeated, his voice a little too high.

Mara just smiled and left him to process that she was okay, meanwhile she turned to Chris and slowly slipped her hand out from under his head and gently put her hand on his cheek and stroked it until his eyes fluttered open. He was faster than William and jerked awake, almost jumping off his chair when he saw her looking at him.

"Mara!" He cried out in relief. "Oh my god Mara, are you okay?!" He asked in panic.

"You scared the living shit out of us!" William interjected, drawing the attention back to him.

Mara wanted to laugh out of relief but her head spun a little and William and Chris suddenly began to shower her in questions, and relieved or reproachful comments; they made her swear to never do this ever again and almost drowned her in their overbearing worry, but she was so happy to see them agree on something that she simply smiled.

"Have you been crying?" She cut them off, biting her lower lip and shooting them a 'don't lie to me' look.

"No!"

"Certainly not!"

They answered at the same time, causing a fit of laughter to erupt from Mara and making it difficult even for them not to smile a little bit. The most dreadful part of this day was over. She first turned to her brother and reassured him.

"I'm fine, stop looking at me like I'm about to drop dead," she playfully scolded him. "Just tell me what happened to me."

"The doctor said you had a drop in blood pressure," he explained in a deep sigh. "That's why you collapsed, but then you hit your head on the ground and it knocked you out. You have a concussion, they didn't know when you'd wake up."

"We were ready to plant our tents here until you wake up," Chris added.

He still clutched her hand in his like it was his lifeline. Mara squeezed it to show him everything was fine now, and she felt his thumb trace patterns on the back of her hand. He looked so worried, so utterly wrecked by the idea of anything happening to her that she was brought to tears herself. But she blinked them back – now wasn't the moment.

"How long have you been here?" She questioned.

"About four or five hours," Will answered. "We never left."

"And you haven't even murdered each other!" She pointed out. "That's progress!"

"Awake for two minutes and already making bad jokes," Chris chuckled. "I'm gonna go tell the nurse you're back with the living."

Chris left the room. It was an excuse, he just wanted to give them time together, he was probably going to buy a coffee before going to find a nurse. William seemed to buy it though and immediately began to apologize profusely.

"Mara, I'm so sorry for everything that happened these last weeks, I've been a complete idiot and I handled this in the worst possible way, but I swear I didn't mean to hurt you, or Chris," William blurted out as soon as his friend stepped out of the door. "W-what happened, Mara?"

"I don't know what happened, I just- it's so blurry in my head, and I have a massive headache, worse than the hangover from last year's New Year party," she groaned, this time free to place a cold hand against her temple to sooth her pain.

Geez, she hoped Chris wouldn't take too long to call a nurse, because she needed some pain killers as soon as possible.

"Yeah I can't imagine what it feels like to hit your head on the concrete floor," he snickered. It was the kind of uncomfortable laughter which was somewhere between joy and emotional breakdown. "Shit, I thought you were dead for a sec'. And Chris was even worse than me, he didn't let anyone approach from you until the ambulance arrived, he kept checking to make sure you were still breathing."

"Worried about him?" Mara asked.

"I think we were both way past worry," he scoffed. "He kept asking to no on in particular 'can a healthy young girl just drop dead?!' and he screamed at the guys who asked questions he didn't have answers to."

The truth was that Christoffer's own heartbeat was so fast and loud he couldn't even properly take her pulse. It was a kind of panic he had never experienced before and he wasn't very eager for it to happen again.

"He was furious because I was allowed to get into the ambulance with you and not him. They only let family come. But he jumped in his car and followed us to the hospital and he hasn't moved since."

"It almost sounds like you're defending him now, what did I miss? Have you bonded over my unconscious body?" She asked in complete astonishment.

William chuckled, disregarding his sister's cringe-worthy humour, and proceeded to explain. The good thing was that after about forty minutes of throwing the blame on each other, they finally began to see that they were both a bit responsible for what happened, and they talked most of it out, at least, they weren't going to jump at each other's throat for Mara's sake.

"Besides," he added. "There's something else I need to tell you- about Chris... and you," he said uncomfortably.

Mara raised an eyebrow to show that she wasn't satisfied with the outcome of this conversation.

"Will... I'm only telling you this because I want you to understand once and for all that we're not fooling around just to mess with you, and not because I feel obliged to justify myself. I'm in love with Chris, and no amount of sulking on your part is going to change this. Do yourself a favor and stop acting like a baby. He's your best friend, and you're his. You miss each other, I know it just like I miss spending time with you two, together."

William opened his mouth to answer but someone cleared their throat and Mara and Will turned to the door. It stood half open and Chris was leaned against the door frame, staring at his feet and trying to conceal the smirk growing on his face. He knocked against the wooden door frame.

"I- ugh, I brought the nurse," he said with a hint of a grin on his face.

A middle aged woman walked in confidently, with a board and papers she was going through as she stepped inside. She smiled kindly.

"Why hello there, Miss... Magnusson?" She asked, reading the papers. "How are you feeling?"

She proceeded to examine her while Mara explained that she was fine apart from her headache, but the woman said it was normal and that it should go away in a few hours.

"We're going to keep you here until morning, and if you're feeling good then you can go home. But not on your own," she added to the two boys who assured her Mara would be looked after. She then proceeded to give her pain killers.

"What triggered my blood pressure drop?" Mara asked.

"It can have many reasons, like sleep deprivation, high levels of stress, prolonged negative feelings like anger, frustration or disappointment. If you're not eating enough or overworking yourself it can play a role too," she explained. "Feels familiar?" She asked.

A round of agreement from the three teenagers answered her and she smiled fondly.

"It's gonna be alright. Whatever happened, you can work it out now. You gave them a fright you know?" She giggled, pointing to Will and Chris with her chin.

The meds were kicking in, Mara could feel it – everything seemed a little bit brighter and the number of shits she was giving about the situation she was in was slowly decreasing.

"I'll leave you now. You two should go home, she's going to fall asleep as soon as the morphine kicks in. I'll call you when she wakes up in the morning," she informed them.

But not even a tornado could have moved them, they would not leave Mara even for a second. The nurse left after making sure Mara was al right, and Chris sat back down on his chair.

"I'll grab a coffee, I'll need it if we're going to stay here all night," William said.

Someone has to tell these boys that they suck at making discrete exits, Mara had rarely seen anything lacking in subtlety as much as their dumb excuses to leave the room.

"You guys are so subtle!" Mara teased Chris, who winced a little.

"Yeah, talking about subtlety, I never had a girl faint to get my attention, it was a little dramatic don't you agree?" He asked, leaning in and placing a kiss in her palm. He felt the urge to kiss every last square centimetre of her body now that he was sure she was fine.

"If you want to say something say it now because I can feel my eyelids getting heavier by the second," Mara murmured tiredly. "I've never been high before, but that must be how it feels like," she giggled.

"I don't know, I'm still recovering from hearing you tell your brother to stick it and that you loved me," he sniggered in a mixture of unease and happiness. That was a foreign feeling. "Do you?" He asked Mara, swallowing down thickly.

"Ask me again when I'm off the morphine," Mara requested, barely whispering and feeling her eyes close by themselves. "I'm glad- I'm... glad- you and- Will..." she tried to say something before drifting off, but the end of her sentence died down.

William, who has been waiting behind the door for a couple minutes now, finally stepped in.

"You haven't told her?" He asked Chris.

"Nah," he said, his eyes not leaving Mara's sleeping form. "We can tell her tomorrow."

Will has brought back two coffees which he set down on the table at the end of the bed. Chris stood up and went to hug his best friend.

"I'm glad to have you back, bro," Chris said, patting Will's shoulder.

"Me too, man, me too," Will laughed and returned the hug.