Hey! Sorry for the (six day) wait, I planned to update sooner, but I struggled a bit with this chapter, so I would be extra grateful for reviews -hint hint- :)

Right, well this is the penultimate chapter, only one more to go, and it will probably mainly just be Rob and Jess fluff. But everyone loves a bit of fluff, right? ;)

Anyway, thank you to the few people who reviewed my last chapter! It was helpful :)

Enjoy!

Darkness. I don't know how long it took hold of me for. Its heavy weight crushed my body, cutting out all sight, all sound, and all feeling. Silence. The blackness covered everything, prohibiting even the smallest speck of light from shining through. It could have been seconds, minutes, or even hours that I was haunted by its gloom. I struggled against its weight, desperately needing to see even the faintest glimmer of light.

Feeling came back first. I mentally pushed the darkness away from me, hovering it above me until it no longer crushed my body, and slowly twitched my finger. No sudden movements or I would lose control of it again.

Sound came back next. Faint, distant mumblings, but still sound nonetheless. I concentrated on deciphering the message behind the noise, and although I struggled with the meaning, I discovered that the voice belonged to Rob. I was sure it was him. I knew that voice anywhere – the soft, silky voice that caused my heart to thrum frantically in my chest. His voice, mixed with the slightly louder mumblings of another voice. A faster voice, less low in pitch than Robs. I struggled more to match a face to this voice, although it sounded very familiar.

"She'll be alright," the voice comforted Rob, "Just give her time."

It suddenly hit me, that this was Dr Krantz's voice. Rob mumbled something which I could not decipher in reply, and let out a deep sigh.

"I'll leave you alone with her for a while," Krantz said, and I listened to his quiet footsteps as he walked away, followed by a familiar sound of a shutting door.

The darkness was slowly easing off, and I regained as much control as I was capable of. I twitched a few of my fingers, still holding the crushing weight above me, breathing slowly and deeply, and clenching my teeth whenever the weight fought back against my mental resistance.

I strained my ears, and discovered a faint, steady beeping sound coming every second from some sort of machinery. It relaxed me with its calm, steady beat, and made me more aware of the pace that time was passing.

I felt the weight of something press against my stomach – not crushing, like the frightening darkness, but gentle, as if something was resting there. It was comforting.

The minutes flew past, as I experimented with moving other parts of my body – slowly wriggling my toes and gently twitching my arm – and I realised that the darkness was almost completely gone, leaving my body feeling free to move without the heavy restraint of its weight.

I slowly lifted one eyelid, so that just the faintest crack of light shone through into my eye. Taking in my surroundings, I continued to fully open my eye, followed by my other eye, and looked down to the comfortable weight on my abdomen, to discover Rob's sleeping head, rested gently on my stomach.

I looked around the room at my surroundings, taking in the clean white walls, the gleaming floor, and the small, smooth tiles of the ceiling. I looked down at the crisp white sheets I was laying on, raking my fingers across them slowly, feeling the smooth material on my fingertips, and I realised I was laying on a hospital bed. I turned my attention to the steady beeping, and saw the machine at my side, monitoring my heartbeat.

I looked back to Rob. His long, dark eyelashes rimmed the bottom of his eyelids, matching the colour of his soft, tousled hair. His lips rested in a flat, relaxed line on his face, and I felt his head move slightly with every breath. He looked so tired and peaceful, but I couldn't resist reaching out to stroke his hair, and whispering his name in a croaky voice.

His eyes flicked open immediately, quickly finding my face, and he lifted his head up, to reach forwards and cup my chin in his warm hand.

"Thank god, you're awake," he breathed heavily. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I lied. Even though the pain was much less intense now, I could still feel it all up and down my leg, but I wasn't going to start complaining – I don't like showing weakness, and I was already annoyed at myself for passing out in the first place.

I forced a small smile onto my lips, and I stared into his pale blue eyes. They glistened wetly, the light reflecting off them, causing them to sparkle beautifully.

He stared back at me for a few seconds, his hand still cupping my chin, before pulling away, stating that he was going to get a doctor. I groaned out loud when he said this, and Rob looked at me with a small smirk, before leaving the room.

Well, this sucked. I had managed to get myself hospitalised. I had been getting real good at that over the past few years.

I thought back to what had happened. The last thing I remembered was the searing pain in my leg, echoing throughout my whole body. It was definitely a lot better now. I mean, it still hurt, but it was bearable.

And Rob was fine. That's what mattered most to me. And, if I had heard his voice correctly earlier, so was Krantz. But what had happened with all the police and FBI agents? What happened to Azar, and all his other creepy terrorist companions?

I suppressed a moan at the frustration of not knowing, and my mind buzzed with curiosity. Had people been hurt? Hurt because of me?

A lump rose in my throat as I considered this. Okay, people must have been hurt, if the noise of all the gunshots yesterday was any indication. But was it the right people being hurt? What if Azar and his friends had been strong enough to take them down? So many innocent deaths...

I clenched my teeth, and immediately steered away from that thought. I tried not to think about any of it. I wouldn't let myself get worked up about it until I knew for certain what had happened. I would have to ask Rob.

Unfortunately though, when Rob returned to the room, I couldn't immediately ask him, because he entered with a man dressed in a white gown, a surgical mask pulled down around his neck – the doctor.

"Hello there, Jessica," he greeted politely, striding towards the end of the hospital bed, "Nice to see you awake."

I forced another small smile, and watched as he picked up the clipboard attached to the end of the bed, and started reading it. Rob came back over to my side, and sat down in the chair next to me, reaching out to take my hand in his. He squeezed it gently, his eyes locking on my face, and I weakly squeezed it back.

"So, Jessica," the doctor asked, looking up from the clipboard, "How are you feeling?"

"Um, fine, I guess," I said awkwardly. Well, what are you meant to say after you've just been shot? Oh, sure, I'm great thanks, never felt better. I don't think so.

He nodded to himself, and grabbed a pen from his pocket to make some notes on the clipboard. "Good. Well, we stitched up that nasty cut on your arm, and removed the bullet from your leg earlier when you were still unconscious, and although you did lose a lot of blood, it seems you should make a full recovery." He looked up at my face again. "Although, I must say, you are a very lucky young lady. The bullet almost penetrated your femoral artery. I very much doubt that you would be here now if that were the case."

Rob's hand tightened around mind as he said this, and I couldn't help but tighten my grip too. We had been so close to losing each other. And although I knew I was okay, and Rob was here, I needed his physical touch to fully assure me.

"So, if I'm going to be okay and everything, when can I go home?" I asked.

"Oh," the doctor said, placing the clipboard back on the end of my bed. "Well, we'd like to keep you here for one more night. Just to be sure there are no complications."

Damn.

"Oh, and when we do discharge you, I'm afraid you're going to have to wear a cast on that leg for a couple of weeks."

Double damn.

I suppressed the urge to argue, and instead nodded compliantly. After asking if I needed anything, and checking I was comfortable, the doctor left the room with a polite goodbye, leaving just me and Rob.

And the next thing I knew, Rob's lips were pressed up against mine in a soft, warm kiss.

It was as if everything else in the world just melted away, leaving only me and Rob, our lips moving gently together, my hands finding their way into his soft hair. My mind went blank - as it tends to do when Rob kisses me – and the only think I could think about was the way his lips made me feel. Which was, incredibly loved. I sighed gently in contentment, all my problems and worries gone from my mind.

Well, that is, until I remembered the questions that I had been thinking over earlier.

"Rob," I breathed, trying to pull away to speak, only to be pulled back.

"Mmm?" he mumbled questioningly.

I tried to remember what I had been about to ask, which was proving to be difficult, especially with his lips still moving against mine.

I slowly pulled away again, and fortunately, Rob didn't pull me back this time.

Or, unfortunately, I guess, depending on how you look at it.

"Rob, what happened to everyone? I mean, all the fighting last night? Was anyone hurt? And what happened to Azar and all his friends? Where are they?" The questions tumbled from my mouth before I had the chance to slow down and re-phrase into something less jumbled.

He smiled and reached up to brush some of my hair from my eyes. "Mastriani, relax."

I slumped back against the pillows behind me, and took a deep breath to steady myself.

"So what happened?" I asked again, calmer this time.

He hesitated, and then sighed. "Well, I won't lie to you," he started, eyeing me cautiously, "A few people were hurt pretty bad. But no one died, okay? So don't get worked up about it."

I nodded again, waiting for him to continue. I still felt a twinge of guilt for causing innocent people pain, but it was better than them being dead.

"And, Azar and all the rest are locked up far away from here." he said, reaching out to stroke my face with his thumb, "The FBI are still deciding on what to do with them. But you don't have to worry about it. They won't hurt you again."

Just as I was about to lean in and continue where our kissing session had left off, satisfied that my questions had been answered, Mom, Dad, Douglas, Tasha, and –to my surprise – Ruth and Mike came spilling in through the door.

"Jessica!" my Mom practically screamed, "Oh, thanks goodness you're okay! Why didn't you tell anyone when Dr. Kranzt called you?! You could have been killed!"

I ignored her, and instead focused on Ruth and Mike. Why were they here? They were meant to be in New York.

"Jeez, you've only been back a month and you've already managed to get yourself shot?" Ruth said as she came over to stand on the opposite side of my bed to Rob.

Oh, well, that was great. No "Thank god you're alive," or anything. Not even so much as a "How you doing?"

"Shut up. What are you and Mike doing back here anyway? You're meant to be in New York."

"Oh." she said, reaching up to tuck a blond curl behind her ear, "Well of course I came to see you, Jess, you almost died. What sort of a crap best friend would I be if I didn't? And, well, Mike wanted to come too."

I smiled, feeling a wave of affection for them both. I had missed Ruth a lot, actually, over the past month, and it was nice to finally see her again.

"Besides," she continued, "School's getting tiring. We thought we'd take a little break."

She smiled at me, before moving backwards to let my mother stand beside me. She seemed to have calmed down a bit now, and was much less frantic.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, staring down at my face.

"I'm fine, Mom, really."

"Good.", she said, reaching out to adjust my sheets, "Well, we have to get back to the restaurant, but we're going to have a long talk about this, do you understand me young lady?"

"Yes," I sighed. Great. I sure wasn't looking forward to that conversation.

And then my mother left the room, soon followed by my dad, who kissed me on the forehead, and whisped "See ya' kiddo."

Then, after a lengthy discussion with Ruth and Mike, explaining to them every detail of what happened, they excused themselves too.

Douglas and Tasha stayed the longest, talking with me and Rob until I could see the sun setting behind the hills through the large hospital windows.

"Well, we better get back," Doug yawned, turning to Tasha, who nodded in agreement.

"I guess we'll see you soon, Jess" he said, coming over to the side of my bed, and kissing me on the cheek. And then, he leant over towards my ear, and whispered, too quiet for anyone but me to hear, "I'm so glad you're okay."

I smiled, and watched as he and Tasha left the room, the door closing with a faint click.

And then, once again, it was just me and Rob. Exactly how I liked it.

As the light from the windows slowly disappeared, to be replaced by the blackness of the night, I started to feel extremely tired, my eyelids drooping heavily over my eyes.

I tried to argue with Rob, when he insisted that he would stay in the hospital with me for the night, but eventually I dropped it and gave up – I was kind of grateful for the company anyway.

So instead, I wrapped myself up in the warm sheets, with Rob's hand loosely gripped around mine, and drifted off into a peaceful sleep, basking in a very pleasant feeling. A feeling that I hadn't felt for a while now.

The feeling that, from now on, things we're going to be alright.

C'mon guys, review :) I've had 400 visitors but only 24 reviews. And at the end of the next chapter, I'll ask your views on whether or not I should do any more stories, or a sequel or anything. :) Thanks for reading!, x