Alright everyone, I really apologize for the lateness. I had an accident of my own and got pretty banged up, which made typing pretty difficult for a while. Anyway, the new chapter is here. I know I said this would be the last one, but I just felt like what I wanted to say should be broken up into two different chapters. So you get this one now and when I get done editing the next, you get the conclusion. Thank you for your patience, and as always enjoy!

Sharon must have fallen asleep because the feeling of something touching her hair jolted her awake. As she sat up, Rusty's hand fell to the bed. She went from staring at the hand to looking at his face. His eyes were open and there was a half smile on his lips. "Oh my God! Rusty you're awake!"

"Hey," he said with a raspy voice.

She wasn't even sure that she was awake. Was this a dream? Was he really awake?

"Can I have some water?"

Instinctively, she grabbed a cup of water and helped him take a sip. "Thank you." He leaned back against the pillow, "You found me."

She snapped out of the denial she was feeling in time to grab his hand and answer his question. "Yes, I always will." She tried to smile, but she wasn't sure if she actually managed to. There were so many conflicting emotions and feelings running through her mind and her body right now that she wasn't sure what she was and was not doing.

Rusty had closed his eyes again, and she waited, sitting on the side of the bed to see if he would open them again. After a few minutes he did. "Sorry, I'm just sleepy."

"Just rest honey, everything is going to be all right." She bent forward and kissed his forehead, silently thanking God that he had woken up. There were so many questions she wanted to ask him, but they could wait. He was too weak to go through any of the details of the accident right now.

"I heard you, but I couldn't speak before…" His eyes were closed and his words faded out like he was back to sleep, but she pushed anyway.

"Heard what Rusty?"

"Stuff you said…wrong stuff…"

She tried to push him, but his grip on her hand loosened and she knew that he had fallen asleep again. She was left wracking her brain trying to think of what he could possibly be talking about, but she wasn't sure. It just brought more anxiety to her chest. Before she realized it, she was up pacing his room, trying to calm herself down.

Once she could breathe normally again, she pressed the nurse's call button. She wanted them to know that he had been awake, and she wanted reassurance from someone that everything was still ok with him. None of the monitors were going off, but that wasn't enough proof.

She needed more.

Rusty had been hearing Sharon's voice for a while, sometimes he could even feel her running her hands down his arm or through his hair, but he just couldn't make his eyes open. The words he thought he was saying to her, turned out to be only in his mind. He had tried so hard to just open his eyes so she would quit blaming herself. He wanted to comfort her because even though he couldn't see her face, he could hear the tears and emotion in her voice. He just wanted her to know that he was fine.

Finally, he had pried his eyes open for a few minutes. She was asleep though, sitting in the chair, her head resting on the bed. It wasn't a restful sleep and she was murmuring something he couldn't make out. The dark circles under her eyes and the tearstains on her cheeks made him sad. He struggled to lift his hand, but when he finally did, he ran his hand over her hair. That seemed to be the least intrusive way to wake her, and he hadn't expected her to jump. Every so often he wasn't able to keep his eyes open—even though he was trying—she seemed happy he was awake though, once she settled down.

The struggle of talking and keeping his eyes open was too hard, and before he could tell her everything that he wanted his mind slipped back into the incoherent world of dreams.

The dreams were more like flashbacks, and with each one the details of what had really happened came back to him in better detail and clarity.

The school newspaper had wanted someone to get pictures of the wildfire, and try to get some interviews of firefighters and other first responders. Since Rusty was "the new guy," he was volunteered by the editor to go out and do it. Plus, the editor liked to exploit the fact that his mom was a cop, he thought that would somehow let Rusty get closer to the action, but Rusty never planned to use that to his advantage, no matter what. That's just not who he was, and Sharon would have never approved anyway.

But Rusty had done as he was told, and he went to the command center that had been set up for the wildfire. Instead of trying to cross the police line to find some person high up in the brass to interview, he had stood with the other members of the press, and gotten what he needed. Satisfied with what he had, he decided to head out because he had heard people saying that the fire had changed directions, and the command center would be moving soon. Rusty did not want to be caught up in that chaos.

There were a lot of road closures, and the route he had taken to get up there, was no longer accessible, so he wound up on a road that was very unfamiliar. He wasn't speeding, but he was by no means going slow because he could see the fire getting closer and closer.

He was looking out the passenger window, down the hill when he saw something out of the corner of his eye run across the road. It was a shock and as he turned back to focus on the road he swerved, but he swerved too far left and then tried to correct back to the right. It was an overcorrection though, because the next thing he knew he was going down the hill and crashing into the rocks below.

Rusty jolted awake at the same time that in his dream he was crashing. He sat up straight, gasping for air and clutching his chest. Pain shot through his leg, and if Sharon hadn't of been right there beside him, he would have thought he was right back in the car with his leg pinned.

Sharon was beside him shushing him and saying, "It's ok. You are ok. I'm here with you." She just kept repeating it over and over until he finally calmed down and could breathe properly again.

When reality was clear to him again, Rusty felt mildly embarrassed, but Sharon showed no signs of disappointment or anything but love and concern on her face.

"Are you in pain?" she asked carefully, and he realized that he was still clutching his leg with both hands.

He managed to nod his head in the affirmative.

"Ok, try to loosen your grip," she said moving her hands to his and gently pulling until he let loose, "I will go get the nurse."

As Sharon pulled her hands from his to leave and find the nurse, he was finally able to form words. "Please don't leave."

Sharon stopped dead in her tracks, and turned back to face him. "Ok, I'm here." She made her way back to him, and sat on the edge of his bed, careful to avoid his hurting leg. She reached across and pressed the red button, to call for the nurse, and then she grabbed his right hand, giving it a little squeeze. "I'm not going anywhere."

Sharon sat there in silence studying Rusty's face, trying to decipher what was going through his mind. His grip on her hand was tight and his eyes were looking at anything but her, but she could see the pain and the fear in his eyes. She just wasn't sure what the fear was about.

There was no time to ask because the nurse came in and started tending to Rusty and asking him questions about how he felt and what not. Sharon could see that he was obviously holding something back, and the nurse seemed to notice it too. Gloria, the nurse, added some pain medicine into his IV and then told them both that the doctor would be back around shortly and then she made her exit with the promise of food being delivered soon.

Rusty crinkled his nose up at the promise and Sharon giggled and thanked Gloria. She moved back to sit on the bed and ruffled Rusty's hair, "If you want I could have someone bring you some food. Maybe, Lieutenant Provenza or Andrea?"

"Yeah, maybe. Let's just see, I'm not really hungry anyway."

"Ok. We will see."

She was wondering how to broach either what he had been trying to tell her before he fell asleep last time, or the subject of the crash and what had happened, when he started the conversation for her.

"I don't—I'm not sure that I got to tell you before I fell asleep," he finally relaxed and laid back on the bed, but still held onto Sharon's hand, "but it—what I was trying to say is I could hear you. Before I woke up I mean."

Ok, so he could hear her...

"Rusty—I'm not sure what you mean?" She could hear the uncertainty in her own voice, and she mentally scolded herself. The last thing that she needed was for him to feel that things were anymore unstable than they currently were, and mostly she didn't want him thinking that she was toeing the edge of a mental breakdown—like she felt she was.

"You kept telling me that you were sorry and that it was your fault. There was also something you said about being late, and that you know that I hate when people are late. But mom, listen, it wasn't your fault, it was mine or the animal or whatever, and you found me." She was shaking her head no the whole time, but she allowed him to finish. "If it weren't for you, I would be dead, and this isn't the first time those words have been true."

Oh this boy. As hard as she tried, she couldn't keep the tears from welling up in her eyes. Every bit of training and all the years of keeping up her mask, were useless, they always failed her when it came to Rusty. He had wiggled his way into her heart a long time ago, and just thinking of all the times she had almost lost him was enough to kill her, she was sure of it. That's why she refused to do it. She refused to get overwhelmed by all of those feelings right now because that was something she reserved for very private and very alone times—times that she knew no one would see just how much it had hurt her, times that she was sure she would have the space she needed to pull it together before she faced anyone.

Now was not one of those times, no matter what her heart felt or what Rusty said, now was not one of those times. She forced herself to focus on the fact that he was right there in front of her. She could still hold him in her arms, and she could still make sure that he accomplished anything that he wanted to. Those were the things she forced herself to focus on as she began to speak.

"Honey, I made you a promise a long time ago, and I never plan to break it." She managed a small smile, they both understood what she was struggling to say. "If you hadn't of kept your head and given me the details you did, then it would be a different story, and I am so proud that you did that and that you called me when you did." She pulled him into a tight hug, and he squeezed her tighter.

"I learned to keep my cool from you, you know?" She could hear the smile in his voice and her heart lightened just a little bit as she hummed her acknowledgment.

"You scared me, you know?" She whispered as she held him close.

"I scared myself...I love you, mom."

"I love you too." As she released him, and wiped her eyes in the process she said, "Can you tell me what happened and why in the world you were even in that area with the fire so close?"

They both knew that the details would be the only thing that helped ease her mind. So, Rusty told her as much as he could remember. He also told her most of it he remembered from his dreams, but that he was almost positive that the dreams were true. Sharon listened and tried to rationalize the whole situation as it was told to her. Just as she was about to ask some follow up questions the doctor came in the room and the discussion was tabled for a while.