CHAPTER 22:

James woke up, lying flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling. Sunlight was beginning to enter the room. He yawned and rolled over on his side, expecting Jen to still be asleep next to him. She wasn't there. Instead, there was a familiar, yellow sticky note.

Gone to Hospital by cab…I love you, ~Jen~

James sighed glumly. He had been hoping to wake up next to her and talk. James shook his head and got out of bed. He dressed himself and decided to go to the hospital right away.

"Well…I don't know, I guess it was a bit of a break, I suppose." Jen replied. Cooper shrugged. He wondered what James had had in mind when he took Jen home yesterday. Now he knew, and he didn't even have to ask as Jen straight up told him what they had been up to. Cooper figured it was bound to have happened.

"I see. The doctors came in earlier and checked on Fiona but they said nothing had changed. I don't know, but I think she might just be…"

"Be what?" Jen glared at Cooper straight in the eyes.

"In a possible vegetative state." He replied bluntly.

"Oh…" Jen looked back and forth between Cooper and Fiona. She had been turned onto her side by the nurses so she wouldn't get bed sores. Jen sighed. "I'm not giving up. And I realise that you don't know her, so you wouldn't understand and…" Jen stopped short when the door suddenly opened. James smile faded as he walked into the room. He sensed that Cooper and Jen had been arguing.

"Cooper." James greeted him calmly before standing next to Jen. Cooper smiled awkwardly and decided to leave the pair of them alone.

"I'm getting some breakfast, I'll be back."

"Right." James responded quietly. "You left early." He whispered to Jen.

"I know. I just…it was one thing being away from here, but I had to get back."

"Don't you think they would call you if anything happened?"
"Yes but…things can change very quickly and who knows, maybe she'd wake up and then die and I'd never get to speak to her again." Jen reached down and grabbed James' hand and gave it a soft squeeze. He returned it gently. James hoped Fiona would make it, but he had his doubts eating away him from the inside.

2 Weeks Later…

"Jen, let's go get lunch in the cafeteria. Cooper can stay here and I'll bring him back something." James ordered. Jen sighed at him. She was perfectly content remaining in the room, reading her book. She set the novel down and followed James. Cooper then took a seat and began rooting through his own journal that he kept. He began writing about what had happened in the past two weeks, which was nothing more than Jen and James arguing, Fiona not doing anything and the feeling of helplessness when it came down to Fiona's recovery.

"James, I'm not hungry."

"Jen, you have to eat something or soon enough you'll be in a bed here for malnutrition."

"You don't understand…"

"What isn't there to understand? I get it: she's your best friend and because of a man who you knew had a history of being violent, she's in a coma. And you're beating yourself up about it because you feel guilty that you didn't give her full warning about him."

"I…" Jen stopped herself short. All she and James had been doing was arguing back and forth, trying to prove the same points over and over again. She sighed inwardly and began eating her lunch.

Cooper sat back in his chair, writing the last sentence of his entry in his journal. He was content with his entry and he sat his pen down on the table. When he looked over the paragraph, he looked over the top of his book to be staring straight into the deep blue eyes of the comatose woman on the bed.

"H-h-hey…you're the...guy…who…stole my car…in…V-V-Venezuela!"