A.N. Hi everyone, sorry for the delay! I've come down with a nasty cold which is not conducive to creative writing, so I've had to go slower. Despite that, I hope you all enjoy this latest chapter!

I don't own Flashpoint and have only borrowed the characters for entertainment.

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Sam's eyes blinked slowly, and for a moment, Ed just stood there like an idiot, staring at the friend that at one time he'd thought might be lost to him. A huge grin split his face as he finally unfroze and leaned forward, placing himself directly in Sam's view. "Hey there buddy. Boy is it good to see you! You had us worried there for a while, but I guess we were worrying for nothing, huh?"

Sam's eyes slowly moved to meet Ed's gaze and held it. Ed's breath caught at the intensity of that stare—a moment ago it had been clouded and confused, now it was focused and sure—because he could tell that Sam was still Sam. This was not a shell of the man Ed had come to know and respect, this was the actual person, living and breathing in front of him. Until that moment, Ed hadn't even realized the fear he'd had that Sam would be different—somehow altered by his experience.

Sam's eyes slipped closed and Ed panicked. "Whoa, no Samo. No sleeping on the job! That's pretty unprofessional!" He reached his hand forward to tap the man's face (the hand not still in a death grip), but was stopped when Sam spoke.

"How many times… do I haf' t' tell you… m'not… sleeping," he muttered, voice rough from his painfully dry throat.

Ed's grin widened at his friend's cheeky reply. "Well excuse me, but as long as those eyes are closed, it's pretty hard to tell if you're awake or not. Though actually, no, scratch that—I can tell you're awake because you're not snoring."

Sam's eyes opened to slits, pinning Ed with a disgruntled stare. "Liar."

"What's that? You calling your Team Leader a liar?" he demanded, glad for the banter that allowed him to pretend all was normal.

Sam nodded sagely, closing his eyes again. "Mhmm. Don't snore."

Ed was unable to respond to that, because just at that moment a nurse ran in. She took in the situation with an air of disbelief; no way should this patient be awake, but evidence to the contrary was right in front of her. She shook her head in wonder, turned to shout for more staff, then quickly moved to the spot beside Ed. With a cursory glance at the various machines that gave her information on the patient's status, she asked Ed, "How long ago did he wake up?"

"Just a few minutes ago," he told her, relieved that someone with medical expertise was there.

"Sir?" she asked, leaning closer to Sam. "Sir, how are you feeling? Are you in pain?"

Cracking one eye open to put a face to the new voice, he corrected her. "Sam."

She frowned in confusion. "I'm sorry?"

"Not 'sir.' Sir's m' father."

Her confusion cleared. "Ah, okay. So can you answer my questions Sam?" She almost reiterated them, but instead decided to see how good his short term recall was.

He sighed, closing his eyes again. "Considering… I was shot twice… and nearly fell to my death, I'd say pretty good." His voice got stronger as he continued. "I'm not in pain."

Ed opened his mouth to disagree, but Sam's eyes snapped open to glare at him. When Ed looked like he was going to ignore Sam's attempt at silencing him, the blond rolled his eyes and amended, "I'm currently not in a lot of pain. Though, when my muscles cramped, I was."

She nodded her understanding. "On a scale of one to ten?"

He thought about it for a moment. "Uh, four."

"Which really means six or seven," Ed translated for the nurse, knowing the injured officer would go for being stoic instead of honest.

The nurse shared a knowing look with Ed, but didn't say anything because Dr. Nile—along with several other nurses—arrived. They quickly ushered Ed out of the room, explaining they needed to run several tests and it would be easier without another person there. He didn't go far, though. He stood in the hall right outside the room and waited. Looking down at his left hand, he clenched and unclenched it several times, trying to get the blood flowing again. He stared at it for a long time, watching as the lines disappeared, before he slowly slid down the wall, coming to rest in a sitting position on the floor, his knees raised.

That's when the dam broke. He liked to pretend that he was stoic, liked to put the tough guy face forward as much as he could. He heard people walking by, but just then, he didn't care. As his shoulders started to shake, tears began slipping down his face and falling onto his shirt, taking with them all of the fear he'd been feeling from the moment Spike had yelled 'WAIT!' right up until the moment Sam's eyes had met his—just now—and he'd known that everything was going to be okay. As the terror of the last few days fell away, it was replaced with an overwhelming joy. He was indescribably happy that Sam was awake and seemed all right (all things considered). He now hoped that Sam would be able to talk some sense into Spike and help him get over his ridiculous feelings of guilt.

A hand touched his shoulder, causing him to startle. He glanced up and his eyes met the concerned gaze of a young woman. "Are you all right?" she asked.

He let out a choked laugh because she was mistaking his tears as a sign of bad news, when in actuality, they were just the opposite. "Yeah," he answered, wiping his face, "Yeah I'm all right."

"Are you the one we've had trouble keeping out of the hospital? The one with the SRU officer that was brought in a week ago?" Her lips quirked up in a smile.

Ed returned her smile with one of his own. "Guilty." He stood. "So I've gotten a reputation huh?"

She nodded and whispered conspiratorially, "Your friend is the talk of the break room, and the fact that you're willing to stick around for him for so long hasn't gone unnoticed. If you weren't married," she gestured towards his ring, "I think you'd have gotten several proposals by now."

He raised his eyebrows at that, and she continued teasingly, "Though maybe not. I think most of the ladies have been holding out until he wakes up to propose to him."

Ed scoffed. "They'll change their minds the moment they speak with him and he's no longer just a pretty face."

"Oh no! He's more than a pretty face to them! Oh sure, he's handsome and single, but there's so much more."

Ed was dubious. "You haven't even met him."

"We don't need to. We've already learned a lot about him: he's a young but talented officer that was injured while protecting innocent people, he fought to protect and serve his country, and we can tell that he's definitely a good man and friend, because if he wasn't, you and your teammates wouldn't be hanging around so much," she finished with an air of finality, daring him to dispute the proof she regarded as irrefutable. "We've all been rooting for him, and I'm happy to hear he's awake."

He laughed, amazed; even while asleep, Sam was still able to charm the hearts of those around him. He raised his hands in surrender, grateful to this woman for helping him to regain his footing. "Okay, I get it, and you're right. It's nice to know that we've had unknown supporters throughout this mess, and I'm glad we've been able to give you an interesting topic of conversation." He held out his hand, "I'm Ed."

"Rebecca." She clasped his hand in return.

The door to Sam's room opened and Dr. Nile stepped out. He nodded to Rebecca, then turned to Ed. "Well I have to say that I'm impressed. He has no spinal injury or paralysis, and he's already asking us when he gets to leave." He shared a smile with Ed, knowing how worried the man had been these past few days, and how happy he must be to hear this news.

"That's wonderful, Doctor. I'll set him straight about leaving here—I expect that won't be for awhile?"

The doctor nodded. "I can't tell you exactly when, and I don't even feel comfortable giving you an educated guess, because my educated guess as to when he would wake up was tomorrow at the earliest. At this point, I'd say we'll just have to take it one day at a time, though I expect he'll be out of here sooner rather than later."

"What about his injuries? How are his ribs and lungs?"

"Healing. Slowly, but they're healing. He did aggravate the wounds during his spasm when he woke up, but we've changed his pain medication in hopes that that won't happen again. Now, if you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask them. You can always locate me through the nurse's station."

"Thank you doctor. Thanks for putting up with me. I know that hasn't been easy." Ed smiled, unrepentant, and reached out to shake hands with the man.

"My pleasure, Ed. I hope you can get some rest now." He hurried off to attend to his many other patients.

Rebecca waved as she, too, walked away to return to her duties, leaving Ed alone in the hallway.

Gathering himself, he headed outside to catch some fresh air and call the people anxiously waiting for news on Sam.

Once there and settled on a bench, he pulled out his phone. He knew he should probably call Greg or Natalie first, but he didn't have Natalie's number, and there was someone else who needed the good news more—plus, he could call under the pretense that he was looking for Natalie's number.

The phone rang only once before it was answered, telling Ed that the person hadn't been asleep even though it was two in the morning. "What's up Ed?"

"Hey Spike, do you have Sam's sister's number? I need to reach her."

There was a pause. "Yeah, what's happened? Is Sam okay?"

Ed let a huge smile spread across his face, hoping Spike would be able to hear it in his voice. "Sam is absolutely okay. He's more than okay, in fact; he's awake and talking and doesn't have any memory problems or paralysis. He had trouble right as he was waking up—his muscles cramped and that wasn't pretty, but he's doing all right now."

There was an even longer pause this time, and Ed could picture the Italian, eyes closed, letting that wonderful information sink in. "Spike? You still there?"

"Yeah Ed, I'm here. I can call Nat for you. And Wordy. You call the Sarge and he can call Jules. Have you gotten any sleep buddy?"

Had he gotten any sleep? Well, no, but had Spike? "Nope, hospital chairs are not conducive to a good night's sleep."

"You should go home then. I'll come over and relieve you just as soon as I can."

Ed smiled. A master manipulator he was not, except when it really mattered. "Okay Spike, thanks. That'd be great."

He called Greg next. He was happy to hear that the Boss had been sleeping, though he felt guilty having awakened him. Greg was quick to reassure him that he was glad for the call, saying he'd be able to sleep much better now. They were not on shift that day, so he assured Ed that he'd stop by at some point. After making sure that Ed would be going home soon, he hung up, promising that he'd call Jules right away.

Task accomplished, he went back inside and took the long way back to Sam's room, stretching his legs.