Chris sped up to the hospital as soon as he could get away from work. He flew up to the reception desk, terror seizing him at his gut.
"Karen Fisher," he explained faintly, "I'm here to see her."
He was directed to go to the A + E ward, but was told to wait outside in the corridor. There were a few chairs outside and he heavily sat down on one of them.
He felt absolutely awful – even more so that he didn't even apologise to Karen for speaking to her in such a way before the accident had occurred.
He remembered very little about the accident in general. As soon as the cops had called him to tell him what had happened, he completely disconnected, blankly hung up and ran on autopilot till he knew he could leave.
A nurse came up to him after exiting the ward. "You can go in and see her now if you want." She smiled softly.
He shakily went in, and he was escorted to where she was lying in bed.
"How is she?" He asked the nurse.
"She sustained a minor fracture to her leg, but apart from that she's fine."
Really? He was quite surprised that she wasn't as badly hurt as the cops on the line made her out to be. He stood next to the bed she was in, finding a few tubes and wires going to and from her.
She was on a drip and even though he couldn't see it from under the blankets, he guessed her leg had been splinted or bandaged up.
Karen's eyes flew open, taking Chris completely by surprise. "I must be dreaming."
He smirked slightly. "No, but you are alive." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "How do you feel?"
"A bit achy, but I guess that's to be expected after having a broken leg."
"The nurse explained to me that you sustained a minor fracture, but I think you should take some time off so that it gets better."
She laughed a little. "Anything to make sure you stay in charge."
He pouted in mock offence. "Now that's not very nice." He was, however, glad she didn't lose her sense of humour. "No, I do want you to get better. You know I do."
She was taken aback at the fondness he so clearly conveyed to her, and she placed a hand on top of his. He didn't refuse her contact that time.
"I wanna apologise for the way I talked to you earlier," Chris started quietly, "you didn't deserve to be talked to like that, and just 'cause I wasn't feeling particularly good didn't mean I had to take it out on you."
She stroked him over the back of his hand softly with her thumb.
"I should've known you wanted to be by yourself earlier." She admitted. "It's just that usually you're such a chirpy person in the mornings that it didn't seem right for you to be so…so…"
"…Sulky?" He finished for her.
Karen smirked in amusement. "If you like."
"So what exactly did you do to end up in here?" He asked her teasingly, happy that they'd patched things up between them.
She shook her head sadly. "I remember very little about the incident."
"Y-you mean you can't remember any of it? At all?" He noted incredulously.
"I remember leaving the school to go to Jess and I remember waking up in here…but the time between then it just a complete blur."
"Sounds like you've got concussion." Chris replied blankly, wishing there was something he could've done to help or at least make it all better. "Do the doctors know that you can't remember a lot about it?"
She shrugged. "They haven't asked me anything like that. All they've said is for me to have my leg splinted, put in a cast and for me to stay in overnight."
He frowned in concern at that. "I guess you can't really question them. They're meant to know what they're doing and so maybe they'll ask you tomorrow. But the fact that you can't remember a lot about what had happened…that doesn't strike me as something that should be ignored."
She kept the stroking at his hand going. "I presume I'm going to miss out on us going out for a few hours after work then."
"No, of course not." Chris smirked playfully. "We can do that when you're better. Right now the important thing for you is to get some sleep and do what the doctors tell you to."
Karen drew in a small sigh.
"I know it'll mean you being off work for some time, but I'd rather you be at home getting better." He squeezed her at her shoulder in a comforting way, not knowing that inside it was doing incredible things to her.
She wished he could stay for longer – maybe even stay the night so he could watch over her. But he had a job to go back to the following day and he'd be extremely tired by the time he had to be in.
She watched him get his car keys out as he was starting to make a move to go. "Jess had her baby, by the way."
"She did?"
She nodded slowly. "A little girl. They've already been discharged."
"That's a good sign." He noted. "And that also means that she may be able to look after you when you're ready to be discharged from here."
She laughed to herself at his quip. "I'd like to see that happen."
"I'll give the nurses here my number," he explained, "so that when you're ready to come out, I can take you home. You're not going to have the full use of your leg for some time."
"Y-you'll do that?" She stated, incredulously. "You'll do that…for me?"
"Sure."
Chris went back to his place once he gave the ward sister his number and left the hospital.
He didn't realise how late it had gotten, and he didn't even know if the young girl he let stay the previous night was still there.
His question was answered when he felt two hands on him, at each of his arms, and then press him up against the wall.
"Why are you late?" Two piercing blue eyes bore into his softer orbs.
"I had to see someone." He explained, feeling their grip loosen. "They weren't very well."
He switched the lights on, allowing the room to be flooded in a dimly soft glow and for her to withdrew from him.
"Was it just an excuse to get out of talking to me," she wanted to know, "or were you up to something else?"
"No!" He frowned. "Why would I wanna get out of talking to you? If you know me and you wanted to see me for a reason, then that's not something I should condone."
It fell silent between them.
Eventually she spoke: "Maybe you didn't wanna talk to me."
He felt that comment hit him somewhat. He didn't realise that hearing such a remark from someone who he barely knew hurt so much. "Ok, so what about me do you know?"
She asked him about a relationship he had with her mum. They were both quite young at the time, and the relationship itself was of one that didn't last. "…And so my mum had me when she was 12. She didn't seem to wanna talk about you a lot."
Chris inched closer to her from his sitting position.
"We were both really young." He admitted. "A-a relationship like the sort we had just couldn't go on."
"She told me you weren't father material."
He wasn't sure what hurt more – being accused of not wanting to talk to her or being labelled as an unfit father.
He didn't know where the assumption of him not being able to raise a child had come from. It wasn't as though he wouldn't have been up to the job of it.
"I'm eighteen years old," she placed her hand on top of his, "and I feel that I should blame you for not being there for me when you should've been."
He watched her get up from her sitting position and she got her jacket back on. He knew full well that she was going to go back onto the streets, earn money in the most squalid of ways and forget all about him – maybe even hold a grudge against him for the rest of her life.
That was no way for a girl of her age to carry on – especially when she happened to be of his making.
She glanced over at him, an icy glint in her eyes as she made to leave.
"I can understand why you blame me." He spoke up, making to go over to her and prompting her to loosen her hold on the door latch. "But I'm here now. You've come to see me."
"But you can't be my dad if my mum said – "
"I don't care what your mum said about me," Chris pushed the door closed again, "you're mine and I want you to stay."
To him, it was clear that his ex had made up a few lies in her time about him. Maybe she felt so bad as she was pregnant at such an early age. He wasn't sure, but for whatever reason, it wasn't very nice.
She shivered as he softly cupped her face and skimmed his thumb over one carefully rounded cheekbone. The touch sent warm shocks to her spine and moved down. It was so soothing and paternal.
"I'm asking you to stay."
She shakily placed a hand around his arm, squeezing the firm muscle at his bicep. For a male of his age, he was incredibly fit.
She nodded slowly. "I'll stay with you."
Hesitantly, he took her into an embrace, and she wrapped her arms around his waist.
Their bodies pressed together, and they must've stayed like that for a few minutes – simply holding each other there and taking in each other's closeness.
He wasn't sure what he felt for her, but he could safely say he didn't love her. Not as of yet, anyway. They had to bond some more before any of that came about.
"You should think about going to bed." He supposed.
She nodded slowly, and she sat down on the bed with him following. She cupped his face, caressing the soft, dewy skin as he wrapped his arms around her again. Contact like that was obviously something that felt right to them at that point.
He felt her hand rub him down his back, and it was touch that made him relax against her. He closed his eyes and drew in a small sigh from the relaxing tempo.
What had happened was something he never, ever thought would happen.
She pulled away from him and slipped in amongst the blankets. Her eyes took on a softer appearance and she gave him a small kiss on his cheek.
"Go to sleep now." Chris didn't know why he should even be telling a girl at her age to go to sleep, but there was a clear protectiveness towards her that he quickly adopted. Maybe it was due to the fact that he'd lost her the first time and he didn't want to lose her again.
Her eyes softly closed and he watched her slip into a very deep sleep.
She obviously found that no problem now that she'd gotten what she came for.
He leant over her, moving her dark bangs out of the way so he could kiss her on her forehead.
She was so pretty, and looked all the more beautiful when she was peacefully sleeping. "Sleep well, princess."