The moment you were waiting for… (Who am I kidding, I was waiting for writing this the whole time myself) Claire-Sleeping Beauty-McLeod wakes up.

She wakes up, but Alex keeps writing anyway. Why? Maybe he became kind of writing-addicted, just like me… Anyway he's not the only one…

-11-

Finally this nightmare is over!!

I don't think I'll ever be able to explain how I'm feeling right now! This is the best gift I could've ever received for my birthday…

I know there are a lot of long and hard months in front of us. You'll still be in hospital for a while, and then you'll have to carry on your physio, as when you were expecting Charlotte, but now I know the worst part is behind us, or at least it is for me, as you were unconscious!

I can hardly wait for the moment I'll have you again at home with me!!

I promise I'll work for both us, I'll do my best for making up for the lost time of work, even if I know it will be hard 'cause I didn't work so much in the last two months…

It feels so good to see you sleeping without wondering if you'll ever wake up and when… I could watch you sleeping for days and days… but I figure I should sleep for a while myself… Tomorrow morning Tess will relieve me and I'll have to get back to work…

I wonder if they'll let you use a cell-phone… I hope I get to call you…

I'm so thrilled I actually saw you awake, even if only for a few minutes, that I'm starting to blabber senseless things!

Sometimes I feel like waking you up to check on you, just to make sure it's true and I'm not dreaming, but the doctors say you need as much rest as possible, and we both know it'll be very hard to make you rest once you get home!

I don't even know why I'm writing a letter, I know in a while I'll be able to talk to you directly, but I have to pour my heart out now… The alternative would be talking to myself, and in this case I'd be even more crazy!

And I also have the feeling that I wouldn't be able to talk to you calmly, at least not now, I would only tire you out with my own anxiety…

On one hand I'd like so much to stay here with you, but on the other hand I can't wait to be back at Drovers and celebrate with the others. Moreover I miss Charlotte. As of now I have spent more than three days in a row here, I don't want her forget me!

Anyhow I was thinking that I should consider the option of locking you up at home. In the last year you've been twice in this hospital! And for months each time, not for a simple flu! If we add the physio months, you've actually been injured more than healthy! And I was the idiot still competing at rodeos…

Silly Alex fell sound asleep while he was writing another letter. By now I can't count how many letters he has written!

Anyway when Nick dropped me here I forced that idiot of yours to stop this one and sent him home with his brother. I don't think he has slept in a proper bed in at least four days!

He made me promise I'd give this letter to you as soon as you woke up or he wouldn't leave!

I envy him a little bit in this, because by writing, he has found a way to pour his heart out.

I tried to do the same, but then Alex put a stop to it because my letters were excessively depressing!

He's used to putting everything as a joke, and he somehow succeeded even in this case, despite the fact he was as worried as I was, but I just couldn't do it…

I also have the feeling everyone should hate me for the way I have acted in the past two months, I was very very pig-headed, I felt like I was under so much pressure… I had so many things going on in my life… just when I was not worried anymore because of my health I had to worry because of yours!

Anyhow, luckily, now it is all sorted out and we can tell the world that Claire McLeod will come back more hardened than ever!

Probably as soon as you wake up I'll have to report every single detail of what happened at Drovers while you weren't there, so it's useless to write it all now, but there are so many thing I'd like to tell you…

In the last weeks I would have liked so badly an older sister's advices… but right now I can't think, like usually happens when a deep worry is over and all stress and tiredness relapse on one's back.

Anyway I have to tell you at least one thing…

Lately Nick has stayed very close, he came by here often to help and comfort me. He was the only one who could actually cheer me up. With him I felt more relaxed than I could have ever imagined in these circumstances and now I know that having him close to me really makes me feel good, when we don't waist our energies hurting each other.

Maybe this could be the right time, this time we could be on the same wavelength, who knows…

Right now the only thing I know is that I've never felt so positive, relaxed and hopeful, and this is not only due to your waking up, even if it helped a lot.

I can't wait to tell you everything, so I leave you and I'm going to take a nap, until you'll wake.

See you later, I love you

Tess

Since Claire is awake, there's no reason for me to keep this going, so there will be just one more letter.