When Zoey opened her eyes and looked around she had no idea how she got there. She knew she was in the hospital but why she didn't know. She looked around and saw Justin standing in the corner of the room by the door. Images of what happened earlier that day popped in to her head.
"Wh-what are you doing here?" Zoey stumbled terrified of what he might do to her.
"I'm here to see you babe. I was worried about you."
"Why? You put me in here."
"I called for an ambulance. I saved your life."
"You ruined my life. You ruined my life the second you hit me the first time; I just didn't know it until now." She told him quietly.
"Oh don't be so mellow dramatic. You're fine, you'll be here for a few days – week tops – and then you can come home and we can forget about all this."
Zoey stayed silent for a moment or two. "No. I'm not going home with you."
Justin walked forward and leaned in as close to Zoey as he could possibly get. "I think you'll find you will."
"Go away. I don't want you anywhere near me." She said weakly.
"Is that right? I don't believe you. I know deep down you love me and can't wait to get out of here so we can have a repeat of this morning." Justin said snidely.
"You mean when you raped me?"
"Oh shut up. There was no rape. You can't rape your girlfriend, you loved it. You're just too up on your high horse to admit it."
Zoey looked away. There was just no telling him. She wanted him to go away, she wanted a peaceful life and what she wanted mostly was for Mark to come crashing through that door and knock the bastard out. That's when she had an idea. With all the strength she had in her, she breathed in as much as she could and screamed as loudly as she possibly could. Justin immediately muffled her screams with his hand.
"Shut up! What the hell are you doing?" Justin hissed at her as the door opened and nurse Olivia walked in.
"Is everything okay in here?" she asked curiously eyeing Justin up and down, noticing his hand over her mouth.
He droped his hand and said with a smile, "Yes everything's fine. She's just woken up."
"Oh then I must page her doctor to inform him." She nodded, looking over at Zoey who gave her a look that told her that she needed help. Olivia took the hint and walked out, paging Mark a 911.
Justin looked at her with a face like thunder. "You EVER do that again and I swear to god I will make your life a living hell when you get back home. Is that clear?" he threatened leaning in to her closer and closer with every word getting more and more quiet.
Zoey could do nothing but remain quiet and nod. She turned her head away towards the glass window in time to see Mark and Derek running in the direction of her room. As Justin backed off, he smiled slyly at her. "Good girl. Don't you see it? If you obeyed the rules to begin with, none of this would have happened." He said, stroking her chin with his thumb. Zoey grimaced at his touch, which Justin saw straight away. "What's the problem Zoey? Can't stand the site of me anymore? Do you want your fancy man or something?"
That gave her the ammunition to scream at the top of her lungs. "MARK! HELP ME!"
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Mark heard the screaming again and yelled at Olivia to call security. Both he and Derek ran straight in to the room where Justin was standing over her yelling. "Shut the FUCK up! What did I tell you!" he swung his arm back and before he could bring it forward, Mark caught his arm in his hand.
"Not this asshole again? Didn't they fire you?" he asked cockily.
"Unfortunately for you not yet and unless you want a broken jaw to match that broken nose and black eye, I'd get the FUCK out of here!" he yelled dragging him out of Zoey's room, leaving Derek to comfort her.
Before another brawl could start up again, security had arrived along with the chief. "Thanks Sloan, we'll take him from here."
Mark nodded and ran over to Zoey where she lay sobbing with Derek holding her. Mark, wanting to take over so Derek could do the medical bit, sat on the side of her bed, put his arm round her and let her lean in to him, wrapping her arms round his waist. He kissed her head and rubbed her back, reassuring her that she was going to be okay.
"It's all looking good Zoey but you were out for a long time, I want to do an MRI to make sure there's no damage to the brain." Derek explained to her but mainly talking to Mark, as Zoey was incapable of saying anything remotely comprehensible. Mark just nodded, as tears started to blur his eyes and a lump had started to form in his throat. Derek put down the notes and left the room, closing the door behind them. He slumped against the door and let the tears that he had blinked back finally escape. Inside Zoey's room, Mark and Zoey lay on the bed together quietly crying together.
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Zoey and Mark had been lying together for the best part of an hour without either person saying anything to each other. They both remained silent until Zoey mumbled something in to Mark's chest.
"What was that?" He asked her.
Zoey sighed and said, "Thank you."
Mark frowned. "What for?"
"For everything. For looking out for me, for breaking his nose for me, for not taking advantage of me last night. Thank you for …being you."
"Well actually it was Derek who broke his nose, I just gave him a black eye." He said cheekily. "Listen, I told you Zoey, I'm not the same guy who left you in the restaurant 5 years ago. I'm not the same guy who slept with Derek's wife. Believe it or not Zoey, I'm a changed man and I would do anything to prove that to you."
Zoey stayed silent before whispering, "You already have."
"I have?"
"Yeah. When I saw you for the first time, I hated you so badly for what you did to me, what you did to Derek. I wanted to ruin your life like you did to us."
"And what a wonderful job you did of that." Mark said sarcastically but smiled to show he was joking.
"Yeah well, I had no intention of getting close to you again which is why I was so hesitant to have lunch with you that time when you hunted me down."
"You know I only hunted you down as you so put it because I wanted to explain myself to you."
"Explain yourself?" Zoey questioned looking up at him.
"Yeah, I wanted to tell you why I did the things I did."
Zoey rested her head against Mark's chest again. "Look, it's all in the past, can we just forget about it? Start again?"
"No Zoey. We can't because you think that I was a heartless prick who left you and two weeks later slept with my best friend's wife."
"Well yeah, 'cause you were."
Mark sighed. "Zoey, you can call me a prick 'cause let's face it, I was, but heartless? Zoey you lied to me about your age and that's what pissed me off. I watched you break down in floods of tears and my stupid pride wouldn't let me comfort you. I wanted to run back in there and hold you and tell you that it would be okay but I couldn't. I've been disappointed, let down and lied to by too many people and I was pissed off that girl I loved was one of them. Zoey I really really wanted to go back to you but I just couldn't."
"How does that not make you heartless? If I recall, you still walked away."
"I know and maybe that's what makes me heartless but … Zoey, I still cared about you. I still do … I haven't stopped caring."
"Mmm, I see that. Just you being here with me, talking to me about all this, it shows that you want to put things right. Mark, that takes guts, not everyone can do that."
The two of them laid together in a comfortable silence. Zoey took in everything he had just said. It then hit her. "You loved me?"
Mark's eyes widened as he realised what he had just admitted. "What?"
"You said, "the girl you loved". Unless another there was another girl, you just told me you loved me."
He sighed. "Look, there's no point lying, I did love you, I was in love with you. It's because I loved you that I've regretted everything that I ever did to hurt you …everyday."
Zoey sat up and looked in to his eyes where she saw just how sincere he was. She gave him a shy smile. Resting her head back on his chest, she said, "Really?"
Mark lifted her head up by her chin and looked in to her eyes so he could see the emotion that was already building. "Really."
They both smiled at each other and they both felt their bodies fill with love and affection for one another. Mark kissed her forehead and let his lips linger for a few seconds before moving away. "If I could start all over, I would never have let you go." He told her and leaned in towards her rosy lips, the ones that he had missed so much. As the two of them got nearer and nearer to each other, there was a knock at the door. They pulled apart quickly as Derek entered the room.
"Hey, sorry to interrupt but I need to do an MRI scan for Zoey. I assume everything is in check here?"
"Yeah." Mark said quietly, looking over at Zoey. "Everything's fine."