Disclaimer: Jo, Sam and Phil are not mine.
Chapter 28:
"Jo, hey. How are you feeling?"
"Fine, yeah, like nothing ever happened."
"Good. Look, Sam, I've just come from ICU."
"What?"
"ICU. The intensive care uni…"
"Yeah I know what it is Phil. I mean what were you doing there?"
"Stuart was taken there, they couldn't stabilise him in the ambulance. He's not looking too good."
"What? He can't be, I only hit him."
"The head wound was very serious Sam. He lost a lot of blood. There's internal bleeding, putting pressure on his brain, and there's bruising around the brain too. He's in an induced coma while they try to reduce the swelling and stop the bleed."
"Will he be okay?" Jo asked, trying to sound worried, although finding it very hard after the ordeal he put her through.
"They don't know yet. They said the next 48 hours are critical. Sam, I'm sorry, I'm gonna have to take you down the station."
"What? What am I looking at Phil? How long?"
"You won't be going to prison Sam, you where saving a victim from an abductor. You didn't intend to for him to hit his head on the wall, did you?"
"No, of course I didn't. I can't say I'm terribly upset about it, it could have been the difference between me getting Jo out, and Stuart having both of us. But I didn't do it on purpose."
"I believe you. I had to ask though, you can see that can't you?"
'Yeah, yeah, I know how it is. Do I have to come now?"
"Yeah, I'm afraid so."
"Can I just have another five minutes with Sam, there's something I need to speak to her about."
"Yeah, I suppose I could just say it took longer to find you than I thought it would. I'll go back and check on Stuart and then I'll come and get you, okay?"
"Yeah, thanks Phil." Sam responded, grateful of his concern and understanding. Phil smiled at the two women before leaving to see Stuart again.
"Sam?"
"Yeah?"
"You can tell them if you want."
"What?"
"About him raping me. Tell them about when he tried to rape you, and that's why you didn't stop to see if he was okay, because you heard me and you didn't know what he was capable, you were scared if you didn't hurry he'd take you too."
"No, Jo. You need to report it if you feel it's right. I'll be all right. I don't want you to feel you have to tell them."
"I want to help you Sam, in what ever way I can."
"I want to help you too Jo, and the only way I can do that is by letting you report it when the time is right, not because of what's happening with me."
"But…"
"No Jo. You have to wait until it feels right for you. If it feels right for you. You can't be thinking about me, I'll be fine. You need to get over this in whatever way that works for you, and that won't be feeling pressurised into reporting it."
"Sam, please, I need to help you."
"No Jo. You need to help yourself. This is my problem, I know that I didn't intend to kill him, or seriously hurt him, justice will do it's job."
"Sam…"
"Jo. You can't. Accept that I'm doing what's right for you. What's right for both of us."
Jo sighed, knowing when she was beaten. "I love you Sam Nixon. No one else would do something like that."
"I love you too Jo. And I will do that for you any day. Jo…"
"Yeah?"
"Why don't we set a date?"
"What? I thought, I thought it was a bit soon to be thinking about a date. I thought we were gonna wait until we got to know each other a bit better."
"Oh, okay, yeah. If you think it's too soon."
"No, no, I didn't say that. I thought maybe it was too soon for you."
"Would I have suggested setting a date if I didn't want to?"
"No, probably not."
"Then what does that tell you, eh? This time that you've been taking away from me, ripped out of my clutches, it's made me realise just how much I love you. I've always known you mean a lot to me, but I've been overwhelmed by finding out the extent of my feelings for you. The further from my grip you are, the more I want you back. And I know you Jo, you're not gonna stop you're heroics, you're always gonna end up in a situation like this, endangering your life, it's what you do best."
The blonde received a small giggle for this comment.
"And I want to know that you're definitely gonna come back to me each time. You can't just go off and die if you're married, you'll have to come home to me every evening."
"Sam, please tell me that's not your only reason for wanting to marry me sooner. Because if it is, I hope you know that I would never leave you, married or not."
"Oh, well, there's also the small fact that I love you so much that I want to be with you as soon as possible, that I don't want to have to wait a moment longer to be your wife."
"Well, in that case, I suppose I'll have to agree to setting a date. It would be wrong of me to leave you feeling like that." Jo laughed, joking about with the woman she had grown so close to in such a short space of time.
"Ahem." Phil subtly coughed to make his presence known.
"Now?" Sam asked, tears forming in her eyes, not wanting to leave Jo.
"I'm sorry Sam."
"I'll come with you. The nurse said I'm fine."
Sam smiled; relieved the woman was coming to support her.