Ria awoke the next morning to find Loker asleep at her bedside. That's gonna hurt later, she thought to herself as she looked at the awkward way he had twisted himself into the chair, trying to get comfortable. Looking at the clock on the wall, she noted that it was nearly 8 a.m. Her head was throbbing and she found herself wishing someone would bring her something – anything – to eat because she was starving. Debating on calling the nurse but not wanting to disturb Loker from his slumber, she sat there quietly until Gillian walked in a few minutes later.

"Hey, you're awake." Gillian said with a smile of surprise on her face. "How are you feeling?"

She smiled upon seeing Gillian, glad there was someone there to talk to. "Gillian. I'm glad you're here. And in answer to your question, I'm sore. Very, very sore. And my head is killing me. And I'm starving. What's a girl gotta do to get some breakfast around here?"

Gillian chuckled. "Well, you're in luck. I passed the breakfast trays in the hall, so yours should be here in just a moment." She looked over to where Loker was still sleeping in the chair. "Wanna have a little fun?" She asked Torres, with a mischievous grin on her face.

"What'd you have in mind?"

Gillian walked over to stand right beside Loker's chair and brought her hands close to his ear, clapping them together once in an extremely loud fashion. He awoke and jolted out of the chair in a panic, then relaxed and began to glare at the two girls who were laughing hysterically at his reaction.

"So not funny." He muttered, rubbing a kink out of his neck.

"I thought it was." Ria laughed and he turned to her, suddenly smiling, only just fully realizing that she was awake and talking.

"Hey! How are you feeling?"

"Starving. I haven't eaten since yesterday at lunch, since my fancy Italian dinner was so rudely interrupted." She replied in a joking tone. "Do me a favor and go see what the holdup is on my breakfast."

Loker left the room to do just that and Gillian sat down in the seat that he had been occupying. "I'm glad to see you're in such good spirits after everything that's happened. We were all pretty worried about you."

Ria gave her a small smile, appreciating not for the first time how fortunate she was to have truly caring friends. "Well, I still don't remember any of it. What exactly happened?"

"Well, we're still not entirely sure. Lightman dropped me off this morning before heading down to the police station to help find the guy that hit you." A shadow crossed Ria's face, but since Gillian was glancing in another direction at the time, she didn't get to see it or question her about it. She continued on, "It's pretty normal to not have memories of the accident, considering how severe it was. You might never remember the accident or the hours leading up to it." Ria nodded upon hearing that– she had heard of this happening before and frankly, she wasn't sure she wanted to remember it anyways.

Loker reentered the room at that point, followed closely by a nurse carrying a tray. Ria got excited until the nurse set down a bowl in front of her.

"Ugh. Oatmeal, really?"

"Just until we can be sure you're ready for something a little more solid." The nurse told her with an indulging smile. "How's the pain?"

"Hurts." Ria said around a mouthful of oatmeal. Unappetizing or not, she was starving and would eat just about anything.

"Well that's to be expected. We'll get you started on a higher dose of pain medication after breakfast and that should help."

No sooner did the nurse leave the room than Eva and Reynolds walked in. Noticing their entrance as she downed the last spoonful of oatmeal, she gave them a smile as they approached and hugged her.

"Hey, what are you doing here? You should be in school." Ria admonished her sister, though the smile on her face implied she was glad to see her.

"Well, for one, my big sister's laid up in the hospital after some maniac hit her, which my teachers will find as a perfectly acceptable excuse as to why I couldn't possibly do my homework." She stated in a roguish manner. "And for two, it's a Saturday."

"Oh." Ria laughed at her mistake.

"So how are ya?"

"Great – minus the pounding headache and the fact that I just had the blandest food I've ever eaten in my life."

"Even worse than that time –?"

"Yep."

"Wow, that's bad."

"Definitely. But not worse than that one summer –"

"Oh, I don't think there's anything worse than –"

"Definitely not."

The unfinished sentences between the two sisters left everyone else in the dark, wondering what memories they were sharing. Noticing that everyone was watching them, Ria thought it best to change the conversation before they started asking questions.

"Just so you know, I fully expect one of you guys to sneak me in a burger for lunch. There's no way I'm eating another bowl of that oatmeal." She told them all in a completely serious tone. Then, with a grin on her face, "Actually, you might wanna make a sign-up sheet for however long I'm stuck here for."

"A sign-up sheet?" Loker asked her, one eyebrow raised in a question, wondering where this was going.

"Yep. I'm relying on my wonderful friends to establish a schedule of who's gonna bring me in something good to eat every day."

They laughed, and Loker replied "So not gonna happen. But I'll think of you when I'm enjoying my chicken alfredo and apple pie while you're eating chicken soup with apple sauce for dessert." She gave him a mock glare and the conversation between Ria and her visitors continued on like that for an hour before Emily stopped by. She had Zoe in tow, who stood in the doorway waiting as her daughter set a vase of flowers on the night stand and gave Ria a hug. She greeted everyone in the room, then explained that she couldn't stay.

"We're headed out of town to visit a college that I'm interested in, but I wanted to stop by and see you first."

"Thanks, that's very sweet of you. And thanks for the flowers. I love daffodils."

"Sure. No problem. Your room looked a little drab, so I asked dad and he said he remembered you mentioning liking them once when you were dating that Karl Dupree guy." She waved goodbye and left the room with Zoe, leaving an awkward silence in the room behind her.

"Awkward." Ria said in a sort of sing-songy voice to break the tension. And it worked – everybody laughed.

But then, of course, Loker couldn't ignore his insane curiosity that bugged him every time the subject came up. "So… you never did say why you two broke up…" He tried to nudge her into finally spilling the story.

But all he got was "Nope. And I don't intend to." and a snarky grin. The conversation continued on for a while with him trying to convince her to spill the details and Gillian eventually taking up her side insisting 'a girl's gotta have her secrets'. Reynolds and Eva decided to remain neutral because even though they were just as curious, they thought Loker was digging himself into a hole just fine all by himself and didn't need their help.

The nurse came and went, upping Ria's pain meds in the process. She was feeling rather tired and wanted to rest again, but being grateful for the company, she didn't want to kick her friends out. As it turns out, Gillian got a call from Lightman and she didn't have to.