XxXxXxXxX

She was floating. Her body seemed to have lost all the weight it has once carried and it was now floating brokenly; floating in the air… floating through space… floating everywhere.

She liked it when she was floating, in this newly found state of elevation her mere mortal flesh couldn't be mortified with pain and her soul couldn't be bothered by being scared… she just floated and floated without a definite course.

Sometimes while she was moving at great speed through the air she would hear voices, they echoed all around her; eternally soft and carrying a deep sorrow she couldn't quite comprehend.

All the voices were oddly familiar and sometimes she felt like discontinuing floating so she could walk to them, so she could answer their call; but doing that meant that she would start feeling again and she didn't want that… no, not at all.

Just to think about it provoked a chill to run through her broken body and she would suddenly start to feel a severe cold that burned down to her bones. It was almost like being back there in the dark cold, bleeding and hurting and that wouldn't do.

No, floating was so much better and if she could, she would float forever…

XxXxXxXxXxX

"Do you want to talk about it?

Shaking his head and refusing to lift his face from the palms of both his hands, Ted groaned under his breath something along the lines that he was fine and left it there.

He didn't want to talk about it and he didn't think he needed to elaborate on a reason why; what he wanted was to be left alone.

His wish had been granted for at least half an hour and he took that precious time to let his brain work in overdrive, elaborating on all the scenarios that Maryse could have lived in the past twenty-four hours or so, studying and analyzing them.

It was easy, the mind was an amazing thing and as it turned out, in times of despair it could come up with some macabre thoughts that could made the toughest of toughest tremble.

The doctors first report on Maryse's condition didn't help his wandering mind; two fractured ribs, multiple lacerations on her arms, face and back, abrasions in her neck that only meant she was strangled and the worse of all, a bad case of hypothermia that was developed after she was left in the woods unconscious.

The last one was the one the doctors feared the most. Ted couldn't remember the specific details but they said something about her body temperatures getting so low that they decreased cellular activity in her body and ultimately it could lead her to suffer a brain death.

That was why he had barely found a pulse on her back in the woods… because she barely had one.

"Did the results come back already?"

Clearing his throat and finally lifting his face up, Ted looked at his friend Cody through eyes that felt heavy and sensitive. He was just there, looking as if he wanted to be anywhere but there and asking him that.

"Which one?" He asked, his voice just a raspy whisper.

Cody scratched his head and looked everywhere but to Ted. "You know… both."

Clenching his jaw, Ted inhaled deeply. "Well, the neurologist did the test but they are still waiting on the results. Either way, they need to do two of those tests by two different neurologists and with at least a day apart… just to make sure."

Yup, that much he was sure. A hospital wouldn't declare a patient brain dead until they were a hundred percent sure and even if she was… dead, they all needed to wait on her family to know how to proceed.

They were already on their way according to Natalya, just a sister and a brother though because her parents were trying to get the papers to legally enter the country.

"As for the other one… it came back negative. There is no physical evidence that she was sexually assaulted." And God, little as it was that has been a weigh lifted off from his shoulders.

It was bad already that he had to imagine everything that Maryse went through to add to that being raped by that good for nothing piece of trash.

If it would have come back positive, Ted would have gone straight to that police station to kill Mike with his own two hands. Yeah, he would end up taken into custody and they would probably put him behind bars for murder; but he was almost in a point where he didn't care.

He just needed to release the anger and frustration that was eating him inside out and the only way he could do that was getting his hands on Mike and unfortunately, chances of that happening were basically zero.

God helped him, but that was the only way he could relieve the tumult of emotions raging inside of him.

"You know, I won't even pretend to know how you are feeling. I only know that if anyone would do to Lay what he did to Maryse, I would be out of my mind."

Pursing his lips and moving his eyes to the wall in front of him, Ted swallowed hard down. "Trust me, out of your mind is little compared to this." After saying that he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "It's just… if I wouldn't have gone to her at the club this wouldn't be happening right now. She would be fine and smiling and not laying in that bed…"

"Ted, this is not your fault. You were there when Brie said what happened and according to her this wasn't the first time Mike put his hands on Maryse… you can't blame yourself for this."

"No, it is my fault… and I should have known what was going on… I should have known but I didn't… I couldn't even keep her safe."

Before Cody could respond to that, someone started to call Ted's name out loud and when he looked up he saw Nikki running towards him. He knew it was Nikki because Brie, the other one had an ugly bruise in her face that distinguished her away from her twin.

"Ted, Ted!"

"What is it?" He said a bit alarmed as he got up to his feet. "Is it Maryse?"

Still running to him and throwing her hands around his neck once she was in front of him, the black haired Diva let out a sob that didn't help his worry.

"What happened?" He asked in a whisper as the woman hung from his neck, but he was not sure if he wanted to know the answer.

Yeah, from his affair with Maryse being a top guarded secret, everyone knew about it now and he was the one people came to when they wanted to know about the French Canadian.

"The results came back and the doctor said she has brain activity. Ted, she is not dead!"

Blowing out a breath of relief and automatically resting his hand on top of Nikki's head, Ted closed his eyes and mumbled a huge thank to the Lord above. He has been almost prepared to receive the worst news he could ever hear and that he didn't was making him feel as if his heart was beating with renewed forces.

"I want to see her." He said and Maryse's friend pulled away from him.

"Yeah, go and see her. I'm going to call the others to tell them." She said, wiping at the tears in her eyes.

Moving as if he was walking in a dream and with Cody's voice telling him something from behind, Ted made it to his former lover's room and took a long look at her.

She was just like he left her, laying unconsciously in her hospital bed while numerous machines connected to her body beeped continuously.

If he didn't know any better and if he turned a deaf ear to those beeps, he could imagine that she was peacefully sleeping; but the bruises in her face and the dark marks imprinted in her neck were a silent reminder of the hell she has gone through.

But God, she was alive and that was all that mattered.

Walking to her and sitting by her side, Ted grabbed her limp hand in his and brought it to his lips to kiss it. Once that was done he intertwined his fingers with hers and gave her a light squeeze.

"Ryse, I don't know if you can hear me… but it case you do I just want to tell you that I love you."

Maryse didn't respond nor did she move by his words.

"Do you remember first time I told you that? We were stuck in Newark with that huge storm that paralyzed all the flights from leaving the airport and you were getting impatient. I mean no major shopping to do, no spas or beauty salons to go and a lot of time to kill. You hated it there, but I loved it. I had you all by myself and going around town just to catch a movie in the theaters felt like heaven to me."

Still no response.

"I told you after the movie, it was just us walking down the street and God, you looked so beautiful smiling and looking at me in that way you had that I had to tell you. I've loved you since then, maybe even since before… and not even a single day has passed without me feeling like that."

Using his other hand to run it through her hair, Ted looked at her face. There was no perceptible change in her. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was even… but then, when he was going to keep talking he felt it, an almost imperceptible squeeze to his hand.

Opening his eyes as big as he could, Ted gulped down. Did he imagine that?

"Maryse… can you hear me?"

For a while there was nothing and he was starting to feel sure that he did imagine it; but then he felt it again and when he looked down she was indeed squeezing his hand… she was responding to him…

TBC