Seth woke up a few hours later at the hospital. He looked around the room, unaware of where he was. It didn't help that his vision was blurry. He waited until it cleared up to figure out that he was in the hospital. His room was pretty big for only having him inside. He didn't think twice of it. His father probably requested a big room for him and maybe because he would have a lot of visitors. He looked around the room, nobody was there. Not his father, not Lo or Andrew. He did notice another bed. Was it empty? He turned his head a little more.

Nina.

Of course! Nina had fallen off the board also! He noticed that her eyes were closed and her chest was moving at a slow pace.

He heard the door open and nearly had a heart attack when he saw Lo and his dad staring at him.

They immediately went to hug him. Lo was on his right and Mr. Evans was on his left.

"I'm so relieved you're okay, son." Mr. Evans told him.

"Me too!" Lo agreed. "We were running late and when Mr. Evans called us and told us what happened, I got so worried! Then we rushed to the hospital." She kissed him on the cheek. "I'm happy you're okay. And Nina too. Well, I'll tell her when she wakes up and she hasn't yet so…" She trailed off.

"I'm sure she'll wake up soon." Seth assured her.

"What happened when you were underwater?" Mr. Evans told him. "How did you get your foot caught in seaweed?"

"After we fell underwater, the surfboard hit us, causing us to sink deeper into the ocean. Before we knew it, seaweed wrapped around our ankles. In the condition she was in, Nina was panicking and wasn't able to move and unwrap the seaweed off her ankle." Seth explained. "So I unwrapped it for her. It did take a lot of time and it was stuck on good. I was struggling to get it off of her. When it was off, I signaled for her to resurface to catch her breath. I watched her swim and then I had run out of breath. Next thing I know, I'm at the hospital next to Nina and glad to be okay." He smiled a bit to them.

"Oh Seth…" Lo hugged him again.

"You did a lot for that girl, Seth." Mr. Evans pointed out.

"Yeah, she needed the help, I mean…I trained with her a lot, which made her body sore and I felt like it was right to help her. She had trouble swimming to the surface."

"Poor thing…" Lo frowned.

"And back down."

"What?"

"She had swam back down to save you. I didn't see it but I'm sure she had trouble to do so if she had trouble before." Mr. Evans told him.

"It must have been hard for her to save me and bring me back to the shore then…"

"Nina didn't. I did."

Seth turned to his dad. "You did?"

"I thought you didn't swim after what happened to you." Lo wondered.

"Are you referring to the accident that my dad had been through?" Seth asked.

"Yeah."

"How do you know?"

"Daddy told me."

"Oh…wait, why did he tell you and not me?" Seth wondered.

Mr. Evans sighed. He was going to have to tell Seth the details of what happened sooner or later and this was a good time. "Because I wanted to tell you myself." He responded. "I was surfing a long time ago with my friends and I had fallen off my board." He took a deep breath. It was hard for him to remember this so he decided to wrap this up. "It was traumatic for me so ever since then, I'm been afraid to surf with the fear of falling into the water."

"Oh, I thought you had an accident…like something happened to you physically."

"No."

"I didn't think it was psychological." Seth looked down at his hands. "What made you swim into the water?"

"To save you and Nina of course." Mr. Evans replied instantly. "I felt this adrenaline. Was I going to let my fear take control? No. I was going to save my son and his friend. And that rush helped me conquer my fear."

"That's great to hear, Mr. Evans." Lo smiled.

"Thank you, Lauren." Mr. Evans took a deep breath. "Seth, let me ask you something…" He turned to Nina. "Do you love that girl?"

Seth hesitated to answer. Not because he was unsure but because he was baffled that his father would ask something like this.

Lo caught his hesitation and had a feeling that he still did.

"No." Seth answered. "I used to before but not anymore. She's so happy with Andrew so I don't want to come between them."

Lo was relieved at his answer.

Mr. Evans nodded. "I understand."

"Besides, I like Lo now and I hope to spend more time with her in the future." Seth confessed.

Lo smiled. She was really happy that he felt that way.

"Wow, I didn't know you felt that way." Mr. Evans nodded.

"I do, honestly." Seth smiled happily over at Lo.

"Well, Seth, I'm happy that Lauren makes you happy." Mr. Evans stood from his chair. "I'm afraid we have to go, Seth. Visiting hours are over for today."

Lo kissed Seth on the cheek. "I'll be back tomorrow, okay?"

"First thing tomorrow." Mr. Evans agreed, then turned to Lo. "Lauren, I'll drive you back to the hotel."

"Okay." Lo went over to the door. "Bye, Seth!"

"Bye, Seth. Call me if there is anything." Mr. Evans told him.

"I will!" Seth assured with a smile. "Bye, dad! Bye, Lo!"

As Seth watched Lo and his dad leave the room, he let out a sigh. He hoped he wasn't going to stay in here too long. He wanted to get back to the hotel and surf.

"Are they gone?"

That voice made him jump. Who in the hell was that? He turned over and saw Nina's eyes open, staring at him. Oh right, the only person in the room with him.

"You're awake! This is great news! I'll let Giorgio and Andrew know right away!" Seth smiled and reached for his phone. "Oh, I'll have to let everyone else know too!"

"No!" She pleaded.

"Why?" His arm retreated back beside him. Didn't she want to see them? Where were they anyways? He thought they'd be sitting by her bed.

"Because…I don't think I can face them right now…after what I did." Nina replied, in a soft voice.

"Nina…"

"They told me not to go surf and I went behind their backs. They were only telling me to do what was best for me and I didn't listen…" Tears formed in her eyes. "I feel really bad for what I did for the sake of the hotel but I'm starting to regret it. I didn't know that I would feel this guilty…" Her voice started to crack. "They're not even here…"

"I'm sure they'll forgive you, Nina. They both love you." Seth assured her. "They might be angry, but they'll be happy you're okay." He told her. "How long were you awake anyways?" He wondered.

"Since Lo and Mr. Evans walked in."

"And you didn't bother to show them that you were awake?" Seth asked her, raising a brow.

"No." Nina answered. "Because if they knew, they'd tell Andrew and daddy and I-"

"Yeah yeah, I know." Seth interrupted with a growl. She had already explained it before, why did she feel the need to say it again?

Nina let out a sigh. She needed time to think about this. She couldn't deal with talking to Andrew or her dad right now. However, it would be great if she could talk to them and make all this regret she has been feeling go away. And it was making her feel sick.

Seth noticed she was pale. "You're pale." He told her. "Do you want me to get the nurse for you?" He asked her. When she didn't respond, he took this as a sign and assumed it would be good to get the nurse. He got out of bed and went to find her.

A couple of moments passed before someone came to the door.

"I've been waiting all this time for him to leave the room."

Nina snapped out of her daze, recognizing the voice. "A-Andrew?" She locked eyes with her boyfriend. He was standing at the door, looking at her with a pained expression. When she saw his expression, she had to look away. She couldn't see that expression knowing she caused it.

Andrew closed the door behind him and walked over to the bed. He sat down in the chair next to the bed and looked down at his hands.

He was being silent and that was scaring Nina. Her attention was on him and didn't even know that Seth was out of the room. "A-Andr-"

Andrew took a deep breath before letting it all out. "What were you thinking?" He asked her, looking at her straight in the eye. "We had asked you to stay in bed and rest because you needed it. Instead, you went to surf. Why didn't you just listen to us?! You risked your safety by doing that!" He snapped. "Why would you do something like that!?"

"B-Because…"

"I honestly don't even want to hear it." Andrew told her in a low voice, looking away. "Your father was furious when he saw you on the beach with Seth going to participate and then when we saw you fall into the water, we panicked. You had fallen into the water again, and with your condition, we were scared for you, scared you wouldn't be able to swim back to us. Thankfully, Mr. Evans brought you and Seth back to shore. The ambulance came right away and we were so worried for you, we wanted you to wake up right away." He took a deep breath and sighed.

"I-I'm sorry I made you feel that way." Nina told him, frowning. "I didn't want to do this to you or daddy but to save the hotel, I was going to do anything I could, and if that meant surfing with Seth, then I would do it."

"You'd risk your own safety to save this hotel?" Baumer hissed.

"Well ya, it means a lot to me." She admitted. Even though Baumer looked far from happy, she couldn't help but smile. "It's where we met." She had a lot of happy memories with him and they all happened at that hotel.

Baumer's face softened. She was right, it's where they met. He didn't know it meant that much to her. He didn't know he meant that much to her. "When had you made the decision to do this?" He wondered. "Go compete in the competition." He clarified.

"When I was in the hospital before." Nina answered. "Asking you and daddy to leave the hospital was one way of allowing me to sneak out. I knew from the start what I was going to do." She cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, Andrew. I had so many memories at that hotel and I didn't want to see it get taken away."

Baumer stayed silent. So she knew from the start that she was going to go compete. Had he been so concerning about her wellbeing that she couldn't talk to him about this? Was he not open for her to talk about this with him? She must have had to keep that all in. He grabbed her hand and kissed it. "I'm sorry, Nina." He whispered.

"You don't have to be sorry!" Nina reassured him. When she saw that he was crying, she pulled her hand away from him and wrapped her arms around him. It had caused her pain to do that sudden movement of leaning forward, but she didn't care. "I'm sorry, Andrew. I love you."

Baumer wrapped his arms around her, crying into her shoulder. "I love you too." He sobbed. "Please don't ever do that again." He begged. He didn't want to see her hurt ever again. It caused him pain to see her in the hospital because of a surfing accident.

"I promise." Nina reassured him. "I won't surf if I'm injured ever again. I won't cause you this pain ever again. I won't make you go through this ever again."

Baumer buried his face into her shoulder. That was so reassuring to him.

Nina could feel him getting calmer in her arms. "Do you want to stay here?"

"Yes." Came his immediate reply. Baumer crawled onto the bed and lay next to Nina. They were facing each other and he was holding her in his arms carefully. "Rest up." He kissed her forehead.

"I will." Nina smiled and closed her eyes.

.

.

.

"NINA!"

Nina opened her eyes. "Daddy?"

"Hey, Nina. Are you still pale?"

Nina struggled to sit up. She came face to face with Giorgio, Seth and the nurse.

Baumer sat up. He wanted Nina to rest but they just stormed in here. They have the right of course but still.

"Nina, are you feeling okay?" The nurse asked her. "Seth told me you were pale and came rushing to find me."

"I'm alright now." Nina responded. She turned to Seth. "Thank you for getting her." She honestly didn't notice him leave the room.

Seth smiled at her. "Anytime." He then went over to his bed and climbed back in.

Mr. Botticelli put his arms around her. "Just like your mother, doing what you believe is right."

Nina put her arms around her father. "I'm sorry, daddy."

"And don't you ever do something like that again."

"I promise I won't." Nina reassured him.

"Good." Mr. Botticelli kissed her forehead, smiling. "Because if you do…" His smile disappeared. "…there will be dire consequences." He told her in a serious tone.

Nina blinked and nodded.

"She better not." The nurse chimed in.

"I promise I won't."

"Good." The nurse smiled at her. "Now, it is late and Nina and Seth should rest. Technically, you're both not supposed to be here but because you're her father and boyfriend, I let it slide."

"Oh um, can they both stay?" Nina asked. "Andrew was staying but can daddy stay too?"

"Sure. I don't mind." The nurse accepted her request. She made her way towards the door. "I'll be around, don't hesitate to call me if there is anything."

"We'll keep that in mind!"

The nurse left the room and Nina laid back down on the bed. She yawned and got comfortable.

Andrew also laid back down and held her in his arms.

Mr. Botticelli went to sleep on the couch. He got comfortable and fell asleep before wishing everyone a good night.

A.N: Hey everyone!

It's been a while that I updated and I have been having a bit of writers block. I don't even know how and when I'm going to end the story. I have to think about it, I mean, it might even be the next chapter for all I know. XD

Anyways, I hope you're enjoying the story so far and I will be updating soon!

Tsukasa