Disclaimer: I do not own Josef, Mick or anyone else that you may recognize. Riley and all of the others that come out of my head are of course mine. No copy write infringement is intended

Chapter 12

I woke up in a hospital listening to all of the machines around me beep. My whole body hurt. I wanted nothing more than to fall back asleep. I picked my head up and was able to look over myself. My right arm and left leg were both in casts. My other arm was covered in bruises. It hurt like hell to breath. I had no idea what time it was, or what day it was, or even where I was at this point. The last thing I remember was being locked into a small room and listening to Charlie yelling. I tried one more time to look around the room. There was nothing familiar at all. I had no idea what I should do at this point.

It was then that I looked at the chair next to my bed. I have to say that I was rather surprised at what or rather who I saw there. I watched him for a few minutes, and as I was starting to lie my head back down he opened his eyes. He looked over at me and smiled. I was so glad to see him, glad to know that someone was here with me.

"Riley, it is so good to see you finally awake. Your brother just left a few hours ago. Your whole family has been very worried about you. They were so glad to have you back home and know that you were going to be alright." Mick smiled at me and spoke softly. I was grateful; I could already feel my head start to hurt. "I should go and get the doctors, let them know that you are awake." I nodded and he walked out of the room.

Mick walked back in a few minutes later followed by a doctor and three nurses. They came, drew all sorts of blood, poked around, and asked me some questions. I swear I was exhausted by the time they were done. They finally left and I closed my eyes. I heard Mick laugh a little in the back ground. There was one thing I still needed to know, but I was just so damn tired.

"Mick…" It was taking a lot out of me to talk at this point. "Mick, has …he been …here …at all?" I really didn't know whether I really wanted the answer or not. I felt like I had put him through so much trouble, but I wanted to talk to him so badly.

"Yeah, Riley, he has been here almost every minute of every hour. I sent him home last night; he hadn't slept in a few days. You have been out of it for a while. You were at the hospital in Miami for two days until they figured you were stable enough to be moved. You have been back in LA for the past three days. Your body went through a lot of stress. Josef has had the best doctors available working to get you better. I will probably call him tonight, and let him know that you woke up. I can pretty much guarantee that he will be here tomorrow morning when you wake up." I couldn't help but smile. I was happy that he had been here and I was slightly cheered by the thought of him being here tomorrow. Mick looked at me and smiled. "Go to sleep, Riley. I will stay for a little while, but you need to get some sleep." I nodded, grateful that I didn't have to vocalize my want to have someone I trusted close by. I fell back into a dreamless sleep relatively easily.

I woke up the next morning and was still sore as hell. It took me a while to open my eyes and look around. The blinds were pulled and there was very little sunlight coming into my room. I reached over and grabbed the remote to my bed. I slowly raised myself into a seated position. Just as I was finishing the one person I had been waiting to see for I guess almost two weeks now was waiting in the door way for me. He looked at me and I smiled. He smiled back at me but it didn't quite reach his eyes. He walked over and sat down in the chair that Mick had been occupying the night before. He looked back up at me and we sat there. I don't know how long it took for someone to say something or to look away. We both needed the sight of the other person, to convince ourselves that all of this was real.

"I don't…" I began.

"Riley, I …" Josef started at the same time. I smiled and looked back at him.

"You go first." I laughed a little, I was nervous. I could tell that he was nervous as well.

"Riley, I am so sorry. I don't know how I can ever make all of this up to you. I am truly sorry." I could tell that he had more that he wanted to say, but wouldn't. Josef had already let his guard down around me more than I had ever hoped he would. I knew now he had started to regain his control, I wouldn't get much more out of him.

"I am so grateful to you, for everything. I should be the one making this up to you, not the other way around." As I spoke, he looked at me, his astonishment written clear on his face.

"Riley, you have nothing to apologize for." I could tell he was uncomfortable. Neither of us really knew what to say to the other person. I didn't know how to act around him; hell, I didn't know how to react around anyone at this point. "Well, I should probably go. Now that you are awake, I am sure that you will have other visitors that you would much rather be with. Either Mick or I will be around for a while, though. We aren't going to leave you alone right now. Neither of us wants to take the risk of you getting hurt again." I nodded and he left.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. I fell asleep for a while after Josef left. Adian and my parents were here for most of the day. My family left around seven that night and it was now almost nine. I hadn't seen anything from Mick or Josef all day. I was nervous without one of them close by. I realized that I didn't like being alone for any length of time. There was a knock on the door and when I looked up, Beth was standing there. I felt a wave of relief flood through me. If Beth was here, Mick couldn't be that far away.

"It's good to see you awake again, girl. How are you feeling?" I was glad Beth was here. She had such an easy air around her. True, I didn't know her well, but I was comfortable with her, I always had been.

"I guess I'm alright. Everything seems so weird right now. Even more than before, I don't know who I can and cannot trust. I don't know where to go from here. Every time a new doctor or nurse comes in, I am so sure that something awful is going to happen again. My family was here for the day, and I didn't know how to talk to them. They asked me what happened and I felt like I couldn't tell them anything. Josef was here earlier, but I didn't know how to talk to him anymore. The whole situation felt so forced. I just feel so alone, so isolated." By that point, I was practically sobbing. I hadn't meant to unload all of this on to Beth, but I just couldn't hold it in any more. I was terrified all the time. I didn't know how I was going to face going home when they finally let me out of the hospital. I just didn't know what I was doing anymore. Beth came over and sat next to me on the bed. She put her arm around me and I eventually cried myself to sleep in her arms.

When I woke up next I heard voices in the background. Whoever it was, they were in the room with me. It was a man and a woman. Whoever they were, they were talking about me. I was too tired to look and see who it was at this point and I wanted to see what they were saying.

"You don't understand do you? She fell asleep crying in my arms." Ok, so I was assuming that the woman was Beth. "Josef, I think she needs to be moved out of the hospital and she needs us to be here with her at all times. She isn't totally there right now. Psychologically, she just can't handle all of the stress. All of the new faces, everyone always trying to get information out of her, she shouldn't have to deal with this right now." I didn't know whether to be insulted by Beth's accusation that I couldn't handle anything right now or relieved. I heard Josef sigh. I could imagine him pacing back and forth in the small confines of the hospital room. I heard him mumble something but I couldn't make out what it was.

I decided that I should probably 'wake up' at this point. I tried to move and felt the strain throughout my body. The groan alerted Beth and Josef to the fact that I was awake. I opened my eyes and looked over to where Beth stood. I smiled at her, slightly embarrassed for the fact that I had broken down so completely earlier. Beth walked over to me and sat down with me again.

"Are you feeling a little bit better?" She spoke softly and I could hear the compassion in her voice. I nodded and she relaxed a little bit. "I am going to go and see what sort of food I can get a hold of for you." She then looked over at Josef and addressed him. "Why don't you stay here, Josef. You guys haven't really had a chance to talk yet." With that she walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her. I looked over at Josef and met his eyes for a moment before looking away.

I didn't know how to talk to him. I didn't know what he wanted to here and I just couldn't stand the wall that had formed between us. I wanted nothing more than to be able to crawl into his arms and know that I was safe, but I couldn't do that now could I? I was surprised when he walked over to the bed and sat down in the chair next to me.

"Riley, I… God I don't know where to start here. First off, I know I said this earlier, but I don't know what I can ever do to make you feel safe, but I will regain your trust. If I had been paying more attention, I don't know what I could have done, but I like to think that I should have been able to do something." I started to say something but he cut me off. "Just let me finish please. I can only imagine how hard all of this is for you. In order to start to regain your trust, you can go home tomorrow. I will pay for your doctors and a few select nurses to take care of you at your apartment."

As he said this I started to cry. I thanked him for the offer. I didn't know how to tell him that I would rather be here in the hospital with all of the chaos and strangers than at my own apartment. I was touched beyond belief at his offer but I just couldn't take it. Maybe I could talk to Beth, and she could find somewhere else for me to stay. Unfortunately Josef seemed to pick up on the reasons behind my tears.

"If you would rather stay here, that's fine." I could sense the confusion in his voice. He couldn't understand why I would possibly want to stay here. With my actions, I had practically refused his offer for help. After everything he had just said, he probably took it as a sign that I wasn't going to be able to forgive him. That was the farthest thing from the truth. He was the last person to blame for everything that had happened. Seeing his reaction, I started to cry even harder. With this, Josef got up and walked out of the room. I watched him as he waited outside of my room for Beth to return. She walked back up to the door and the two of them talked.

When they were done Josef left and Beth came in carrying a tray of food. She set the food down on my bed and handed me a glass of water. Once I had gotten myself under control, I started to pick at the food.

"So, Josef told me that when he offered you home care you burst into tears." I looked over at her and saw that she had a smile on her face. I smiled sheepishly back at her. "Don't worry, I talked to him and we are going to set up a room at Mick's for you to stay at for a little while."

"Thank you Beth. Can you apologize to Josef for me? I think he was a little hurt by my reaction. I didn't mean to hurt him, just the thought of going home, I don't know if I can handle it right now."

"It's already taken care of. I told him that you probably were scared to go home and that you should stay with Mick and me. He actually asked me to apologize to you for over reacting. He went to talk to the doctors and I already called Mick. They should be setting up the room soon and you should be able to leave by tomorrow morning." Beth's phone rang and she stepped out to answer it. I was so happy that I was going to be able to leave. I didn't know what to say to Beth, Mick, or especially Josef. Beth walked back into the room a few minutes later.

"That was Mick on the phone. He wanted to let me know that your room would be ready first thing tomorrow morning and that he would also be coming to stay with you here tonight while Josef finished up the room." We sat in silence for a while. After about an hour, I started to yawn. Beth told me to get some sleep and I lay back down. It didn't take me long to drift into sleep.

I was actually able to sleep the night through and woke up a little after 7:30 the next morning. Mick and Beth were both there when I woke up. Beth brought over the food that she had grabbed for me and I ate while the two of them took care of checking me out. At 9:00, everything was taken care of and I was placed into a wheel chair, ready to leave. I had a cast on my leg, one on my arm and was still covered in other small bandages, but I was the happiest that I had been in a long time. I was going home, or at least as close as I was going to be able to for the time being.

A/N: Wow I was able to get this written much faster than I thought. Hope you like it because I start class again tomorrow and probably won't be able to update again until the end of the week. Leave me reviews and let me know what you think, I thrive on them!!!