PRESENT
His head was throbbing, he could hear his heart beat inside his head. There was another beeping and some other noise he couldn`t identify right away. It sounded like somebody was…no way… was somebody snoring? His eyelids were fighting gravity for quite a while until they finally fluttered open. The room was only softly lit but it stung in his eyes anyway. It felt like he hadn`t been using them in a while. Also his throat felt incredibly dry and a little tried to open his eyes again this time knowing what to expect in terms of brightness. He saw a white ceiling with neon lamps. Slowly he turned his head and found the source of the other beeping, a heart monitor! Hospital! So it wasn`t a dream or hallucination or whatever…that really was him on the ground of that parking lot bleeding….he lifted his head a few inches and finally he discovered the origin of the snoring. Provenza sat upright in a plastic chair with his head dropping down to his chest in regular intervals. Andy smiled but then a sudden pain ripped through him and he groaned. The noise startled Louis and he rushed to his bedside immediately with a worried expression. "Next time you wanna sleep for 5 days in a row just ask for a vacation, damn it!" Despite the teasing Andy could see a wave of relief and emotion wash over his partners face! "5 days?", he asked hoarsely and therefore barely audible. Provenza grabbed a paper cup filled with water from the nightstand and helped Andy take a few sips. "What happened?" His voice was steadier now. "Some bastard shot you out of a moving car, turned out you were the object of a dare to get into the hottest gang in town. You passed out for almost 5 days. Lost a lot of blood and they couldn`t say how long your brain was without oxygen, nobody knew if and when you would wake up again…." Louis´ voice trailed off and Andy could see his concern. "So I´m a celebrity in gang territory now, hm, go figure!", he smirked. "You better not mention that to your girlfriend if you wanna make it out of that bed alive." "Girlfriend?" The older man sighed. "She was worried sick, although I told her, there wasn`t much oxygen in your brain to begin with. Spent every free minute here…she´s even more stubborn than you are, if that´s possible at all." There was a long pause in which Andy didn`t know what to say. "I´m sorry", Louis suddenly said sounding incredibly remorseful. That got him a questioning look. "Listen and listen good cause I´m only gonna say it once: I was wrong ok? Turns out you fools deserve each other after all…" "I´ll say!" Sharon stood in the door pulling her upper lip into her mouth with a bashful smile.