Note: weekly update! This chapter is all in Mello's POV, setting the next events in place.

By the way, I am looking for a fic that has been deleted from FF, the title was "The new girl I think". If anyone has saved it before it was deleted, please pleaaaase let me know!

Have a nice week end!

Mello
He was here. Mail was here, with me. I could hear noises around me, voices, conversations, but I hardly could crack my eyes open. I still felt so tired although all I did was sleep...
I heard a man tell him that he could stay ten minutes... I wanted him to stay and never leave, I couldn't stand being alone, not knowing exactly what was going on with me, it scared me, because I couldn't move, and when my body would finally authorise the slightest move, the excruciating pain I felt almost made me faint. I knew I was on painkillers. Morphine. I knew the feeling. And it did hurt still. That was obviously bad, pretty bad.

But Mail was talking to me, and I wanted him to stay here and keep talking. I felt sane, hearing him chat about anything and everything. I didn't want to scream out of fear of being trapped in a body that didn't do what I wanted it to do. But soon he would be gone, so I had to reason myself. He'd be back tomorrow from what I could hear, I had to control my emotions at least, if I couldn't control my cognitive functions. No more panic, it didn't do any good. I could do that... breathe, wait for him to come back, just wait, it would get better, wouldn't it?

It did. I could, with so much effort, so much pain, utter his name. I wanted him to know I wasn't sleeping or unconscious. And little by little, my body finally allowed me more each day. When I finally could open my eyes fully, I had a hard time adjusting to the bright light of the room, but there he was, leant over me, staring, with this smile on his face that erased all my fears, just like that. He was so beautiful, it felt like seeing him for the first time again. I remembered the real first time I had seen him, those same eyes I fell for, but they were not mocking me... not anymore, not after all we had lived together... I smiled at the thought, but my dry lips cracked painfully. Carefully, he cleaned the blood, his hands touching my face tenderly. He was beautiful, really. Outside and inside.

To think of how far he was coming from, it takes a wonderful being to change like that...
"You're... beau...tiful." I tried to tell him, my voice coming out husky and pained.
He gave me one of his silly answers, and it settled me back in reality for good, the way he would make fun of anything, his little laughter, and everything about him, his scent, this tee shirt he was wearing that I knew...

But the reality came crashing stronger than I wanted it to, when I heard the man that was here everyday with Mail tell him that my parents would come to visit me tomorrow. I didn't want to see them if that meant not seeing Mail, and from what I was hearing, things were far from being great between them. I supposed that my parents had come already, they were my parents after all, and it was normal that they came back now that I was awake, although I felt a pinch of disappointment knowing that they hadn't even stayed by my side all this time... even if I wasn't exactly surprised. They hadn't even been there most of the time when I had come back to Germany during the holidays so...
But when I heard the man say that Mail couldn't come to visit me until they had left the country, I understood the full extent of the animosity that seemed to exist between him and my parents. I could feel tears sting my eyes, I just wanted them to stay in Germany and leave us the fuck alone... I remembered the way things had happened back in Berlin when they had learnt about our relationship, the insults and everything, it hadn't been pretty, but there was something more. I knew my parents could be really mean, and apparently Mail had had some trouble with them that I didn't know of.
I wanted to know, I needed to ask him, but he was already gone before I could say anything. My voice failed me at the worst time...

it was awful to have my mind now fully functioning, and my body not following.
Well, minus the morphine. When a dose was given to me, I had my brain wrapped in cotton for a moment before I could think straight. When it was like that, I wanted to endure the pain to be able to have my thoughts clear, but then, the pain was so unbearable that all I wanted was another shot.

But when my parents arrived the next day, I wished I could stay in that floating-on-a-cloud like state as long as they were here, because then I wouldn't have noticed the lack of worry in their behaviour. We weren't exactly on super good terms, but still... it hurt. My own parents didn't care that I was stuck here, in the state I was in. They entered the room, came by my bedside, and when my father tried to ask me how I felt, my mother cut him, telling me it was about time that I woke up. Seriously? Of course I had stayed unconscious on purpose, people do that to piss their parents off, huh?
I couldn't do much except listen to them, or more precisely my mother. All she had to say was related to me coming back to Berlin with them. Why? Why would I even want to follow them back there when they didn't care for me, and leave Mail behind? Even them knew that, so why bother trying to convince me?

"He won't be allowed to leave the country as long as he is filed for rape, you know that." The lawyer stated to my parents.
I had understood that the man that had been around the previous days when Mail visited me was my lawyer, but somehow I hadn't registered it like him being here to defend me. In my mind it was something related to the accident, I didn't really process the situation until now so he could be a lawyer or anything else, only Mail's presence counted. But maybe I should have paid a lot more attention and asked some questions to him, before the truth got shoved in my face without preparation. Rape? What the fuck?! When?! Who?! Was that a sick joke?!
I tried to sit in the bed, my whole body protesting for the pain I inflicted it, but the lawyer tried to calm me down.
"Don't worry." he simply whispered, pushing me back down on the bed. Sure, I had no reason to worry...

I looked at my mother, she seemed totally unfazed. Not a single sign of emotion, if not for the constant annoyance she adorned each time she was dealing with me. I suddenly realised how much I hated her.
"You know it's not serious." she told the lawyer, "Do you think we're stupid enough to believe anything else than this being a way to keep him here in the US?"
"You think what you want Madam. Mihael isn't leaving the country for now, so you really should stop with your constant plead. He can't leave."
I could tell that he was starting to get nervous with my mother's insistence.

It made sense. The rape complaint I mean. Was it Mail? In any case, I was somehow relieved that they couldn't take me with them. Now I was awake and could speak for myself, but Mail had probably done his best to keep me here as long as I couldn't. I didn't need to be a genius to know that if he had gone that far, it was because he didn't have a choice. Damn, the things he had done... the things he had gone through...

"I want to see Mail." I whispered, articulating painfully, making sure I was heard.
"Nein! Diese kleine Hure-" (No, this little whore-) my mother began, but the lawyer cut her: "Madam. Please."
She gave him a dark look, but she actually shut up. The lawyer could obviously understand, and maybe even speak German. Which made sense, if Mail was involved, he had probably made sure of that. Oh God, how I loved him...

"I don't think we need to resort to insults." he added, but his cell phone rang, preventing him to speak further.
He went in the corridor for some privacy, and came back a few minutes later, the silence in my room being unbearable, my parents not even saying a word to me. They felt like strangers. My mother had her eyes glued to the door, but she didn't have time to say a word when it opened and the lawyer came back, he spoke right away.
"Mrs Keehl, Mr Keehl, I will ask you to leave now, I need to speak with my client."
"But I... we..." My mother protested, but he pushed them out.
"Wait for my call tomorrow, until that, you're not allowed any visit." he stated, my mother reddening with anger and turning around to face him.
"What?! Do you know who I am?! I will visit when I want-"
"No you won't." he cut her abruptly, "Mihael is in a state where he can decide for himself, and I'll keep you informed, should he decide that he wants to see you. You are his parents, but he's legally able to refuse your presence here since the matter in his hands and mines does not concern you in the slightest. You were his legal representatives as long as he was unconscious, as stipulated in his insurance contract, but now you're out of the equation." he looked at me, and I shook my head, or at least tried to, but I wanted them all to know that I didn't want to see my parents again.

Once they were gone for good, the lawyer approached a chair and sat next to my bed.
"Thank you..." I murmured. I was glad that he had had the nerve to throw them out, because I was exhausted, and completely devastated by my parents' attitude.
"You're welcome. I'm not supposed to make any judgement but... oh well, let's get to the good news! The complaint has been abandoned. You're totally free, and innocent of course. Mrs Jeevas has made her homework early this morning, as soon as Dr Zimmerman signed the papers stating you had recovered your full mental capacities."
"Mrs Jeevas?" I would have opened wide eyes if I had been able to.
"She was the plaintiff, yes. But it was only a way to keep you here. Your parents understood that, but they couldn't do anything anyway, as much as they tried. Listen, this is only between you and me, I'm not supposed to be discussing this with you, false statement, when it comes to criminal pursuits, is very severely punished. I'm pretty sure that you won't be suing her though." he chuckled.
"Of course not... But... if they knew, why didn't they attack her? I mean... that's totally something they would do..."
"It wasn't in their best interest." the lawyer didn't explain further but somehow I felt like he wasn't telling me everything he knew, "So, now, as I said, you can decide for yourself, you're a free man, you're legal, your parents have no say in the matter, and from what I have understood, you're not really happy with your parents' presence, and definitely not planning to go back to Germany. You can refuse their visits from now on, and you can even see Mail as much as you want, well, depending on what the doctor will say, that is, because you're still weak. But if you want my advice, you should talk to your parents. Their insistence about bringing you back to Germany isn't innocent, and I have witnessed it myself that it's not out of parental worry so... don't send them back to Berlin yet, they may have a few things to tell you."
"I want to see Mail." I didn't want my parents, but I knew that something was up. They were the quibbling kind, and they could have gotten at Mail for revenge purposes, through his mother, but they hadn't although they hated him. They were preparing something. But what? What could they possibly want? They were ashamed of me, I was far away, what more could they want? I knew that somehow, I would have to have a word about that with them...