Note: I'm finally back to this story and I will be updating only this one until it's complete. I won't post any new story until I only have Lithium ongoing.
Expect at least a weekly update, but I shall post more often depending on how my novel is progressing.

In case you wondered what I was doing all this time leaving TSFMS aside, I worked on my novel, completed The Zoo Hypothesis and Negative (that you can find on my profile), and fought writer's block.

I needed to re-read a few chapters before I got back to it, and realised that there were many typos but I don't feel like correcting them, too much work for now. So, sorry for the typos :)

Matt
Laid in my bed, naked under the sheets, my mother sending me to get some more rest when we got home from the hospital, I was in heaven. The worry was put aside, swept under the carpet of bliss I was floating on now. Mihael was awake, and I had seen him. He had even held my hand, even if the gesture had been faint. It was so much to me...
I had cried when I had been forced to leave after the ten minutes I had been allotted, but the promise that I could probably see him again tomorrow helped me to accept to exit his room.
Now I was supposed to sleep when my whole body felt the excitement of the situation. That was impossible.
For some reason, the excitement reached my nether regions, unexpectedly. Maybe it was the happiness, maybe all this time of abstinence, when sex was as far from my thoughts as possible, was making my body want some relief.
Whatever it was, I was soon stroking myself, reaching completion at the thought of Mihael's lips wrapped around me, and it left me sobbing, when all I could see was his chapped lips and bruises.

I got up and took a shower, then logged in on my instant messenger, Jeremy immediately contacting me. Did the guy ever sleep?
I told him what had happened this morning, but for once, he was a lot less chatty than usual. Not that I minded, because as nice as the guy was, he was on me way too much. Of course he had helped me a lot, and I should be grateful, but... I couldn't explain it, it was just too much. And... it was probably an awful thing to say but I only needed Mihael, and I had him back, so I didn't need Jeremy. There was no place for him in my life.

I heard my mother in the kitchen and decided to join her.
She was baking pancakes, the coffee running, and her face as she turned to greet me with a smiling 'good morning' on her lips carried me back to the times when everything was just normal. We had only been separated for two hours or so but she just made this morning a regular one, and it felt good. My father joined, adjusting his wristwatch, his hair still damp, smelling of aftershave, that same scent I'd smelled for as far as I could remember, the cheap supermarket one you could see the add of on TV. The ad itself hadn't been changed for fifteen years at least.

I grabbed the freshly made coffee, pouring it in the three cups already on the dining room table. It was funny to think that the table was set for three, when my mother had no reason to think that I'd be there so early. Or maybe she had reasons, ones that only mothers have...
I hugged her with one arm as she kissed my cheek, walking past me to deposit the plate of pancakes on the table, still holding the coffee pot with the other. I caught my father staring when I left the coffee pot on the table, and I knew that no matter what had happened, what was happening, the love he felt for his family would never change. He may not agree with what my mother had done, but there was still so much pride and love in his eyes that I knew that my world was still standing strong.
All I wanted now was for Mihael to sit at this table with us again, and feel part of my family. His was so fucked-up, so not a family... but he had one waiting for him here.

I tried to keep myself busy the whole day, but it was pretty difficult to keep my mind off the looping trailer in my mind: Mihael would soon be better, he would get out of the hospital and we'd be together again as if nothing had happened. I gave up trying to read, watch TV or anything else when my mother came back from work, practically begging her to let me help with dinner.

She sent me to bed early, in case I'd be able to see Mihael the next day, but I could see in her eyes that she had no hope for me to really sleep. I went in my bedroom anyway, not wanting to make her upset. The mood of my parents, and mine, was so good, I didn't want to ruin it. Everything looked brighter after so much pain and stress, it was a strange feeling to be so light-hearted now, almost forgetting how bad we had had it until now.

I had ten minutes, again.
For understandable reasons, being stress-free had let me sleep soundly for once, and when the call ringing my cue to go to the hospital came, at the exact same time as the day before, I was already showered, dressed and ready to go.
Mihael's state was only barely better. It was still heart-wrenching to see him bandaged from head to toes, almost unable to move, if not for the slight pressure on my hand when I took his, but this time, the faint murmuring of my name gave me a lot more reasons to want to stay with him when the ten minutes were over.
I know that I was being unreasonable for wanting to make him speak more than this, because it had probably taken all of his strength to do it, but there was so much I wanted to hear...

I joined my father at his atelier, after we had had breakfast, everything happening just like the day before, and I suspected my mother to know exactly what I needed, as she made everything regular, simple and normal. We had had so many bumps, so many unexpected events, running from one place to another, fighting, trying to solve problems and find help, she was now providing stability like the anchor that she was. I realised how much we needed her, even when we didn't even realise it. She knew way before my father or me what we needed.

By the end of the day, I felt a feeling of accomplishment I had never felt before, looking at the car I had repaired almost alone, my father only giving me tips and instructions. I slept even better that night, totally exhausted by work.

Mihael was slowly recovering, I could see the progress day after day, and even if it was frustrating, I learnt to respect those ten minutes. To cherish them even. I changed, little by little, my thoughts going from the eagerness of being with him to trying to know what I could bring him. I could see I had egoistically been in a state of mind where I only took as much as I could each time I visited him, when Mihael was the one that needed to receive the most.
There wasn't much I could do in ten minutes, so I just talked to him, telling him about working with my dad, what the weather was like, nothing important, just harmless small talk. I wanted to make him feel safe, and as light-hearted as me, so he would know everything was okay now.
I forbid him to talk because I knew it put a great strain on him, but the day he could finally open his lids fully, allowing me to see those beautiful eyes of him again, I was the one who was unable to speak. It suddenly made me realise, for good, that he was awake. He had been looking as in a semi-conscious state during all this time and now he was looking at me, for real. He was even trying to smile, but his dry lips cracked, drawing blood.

I dabbed them, laughing and crying at the same time, trying not to hurt him as I cupped his cheek with my other hand, the one that wasn't fully covered by gauze, staring into his eyes, catching up with the lack of seeing them for weeks.
"You're... beau...tiful." Mihael croaked, making me cry even more.
"Yeah, snot and tears are so sexy..." I chuckled, slowly caressing his cheek with my thumb.
It killed me to see the lawyer arrive when my ten minutes were over, but when he told me that I wouldn't be able to see Mihael the next day, I really died.

"Mr and Mrs Keehl will come to visit him tomorrow, and even if they're unlikely to be here so early, I can't take the risk. But you can visit him again as soon as I am sure that they have left the country."
"And what if they don't leave the country?" I asked, but the way the lawyer grimaced, I knew that I'd have to champ at the bit while those bastards would make their appearance, when they had no need, no right even, to be here.
It was even harder to think of Mihael in their presence when I saw tears in his eyes. He was devastated. He didn't know what had happened lately, I hadn't told him, and I knew that no one had, not even the lawyer. He had no idea that his parents had tried to repatriate him to Berlin, the way they had acted, that my mother had filed a complaint for rape against him... but he would know very soon, I supposed. Maybe I should have prepared him to what was coming...
"Will you be here when his parents are?"
"I won't leave him alone, I'm his lawyer, don't worry about that. I'll make sure that they don't do anything stupid." the man reassured me.
I left the hospital, my chest feeling heavy. All this mess was far from being over, and even if I tried to tell myself that they were only visiting as parents whose son had fully awoken after a terrible accident, a part of me knew that if they were crossing the Atlantic sea again, it was for a reason that had nothing to do with worry or care.

I kept on making mistakes at the garage. My father was trying to cheer me up but there was nothing that could keep my thoughts away from Mihael's parents. I was scared. I knew that he could talk, and tell them that he didn't want to go, and the complaint was still effective anyway so he couldn't leave the country, being concerned by a criminal investigation. But still... something was so wrong and I didn't know what. The Keehls were so eager to bring him back to Germany, then they didn't care for the state he was in, then they tried again by bribing Dr Zimmerman, then they disappeared, then they were coming again.

All the rage, the hurt, the determination I had felt before, back when Mihael's parents had talked to me in that café, weeks ago, trying to keep me away from the hospital so they could go on with their plan of bringing Mihael back to Germany, came back to me.
They weren't doing all of that by pride or anything like that, they had a motive and I was sure of that. It was the Mafia, and even if I didn't know what to expect, even if I was facing people that had no hesitation playing with people's lives, I would fight.
I had few people on my side, my own parents, who were a great moral support but couldn't do much more, Jeremy eventually. The ones that could actually be helpful didn't want to raise a finger, by fear, which wasn't really reassuring, because if they were that scared, it made it obvious that I wasn't going against a single mosquito, but a full hornet nest. Problem was, for now I didn't even know what the danger was.