DISCLAIMER: I don't own this stuff

Chapter 14

Come on mom. You gotta wake up. I need you. Rose sniffed and wiped away tears for what seemed like the millionth time. She had visited the hospital every single day to check on her mom and ask if any progress had been made. It had been just over three weeks since Roxy had been admitted into the hospital. Three weeks since Rose had been able to actually talk to her mom. She was starting to worry.

"Oh don't worry. Some patients just take longer than others to recover. Your mom will be okay, sweetie." The nurse had said something along those lines every time Rose had been caught crying at her mother's bedside. She had frankly had enough of it.

"Yeah whatever. She will be fine. But not because you said so, but because I believe she will be." Rose stood up, thanked the nurse, and walked out to the lobby and waited until Porrim arrived to take her home. When she did, Rose got in the car, and had a mostly silent ride home, apart from the typical 'how were things?' and whatnot.

As they arrived home, Rose walked to her room, shutting the door, telling the Maryam's she just needed to be alone for a bit. Neither of them objected. Rose pulled out her laptop and began researching coma's a bit more. She typed in How long can a person be in a coma and waited for the results to pull up before clicking on a few of the top links. Overall, it seemed to be that most coma's didn't last more than a month, but have been known to last longer. Great, so basically, my mom is about to surpass the normal and enter into the 'vegetative state'. That can't be good. Rose sighed and continued to scroll through websites.

"Hey Kanaya," Porrim half-whispered at her sister, who was sitting at the kitchen table doing homework. "I need to talk to you."

The younger sibling put her homework down. "Yeah of course 'Rim. What is it?"

"Okay, so it's been almost a month since Roxy declared in a coma. It's not that I have a problem with taking Rose to see her mom every day, but at what point do we tell her there may not be a chance her mom will wake up?" Porrim put her head in her hands and sighed, her wavy hair falling on either side of her face.

Kanaya thought for a minute. "Is there a huge possibility she won't wake up? I mean, can't some people last years in a coma and walk away fine?"

"Well, technically yes." Porrim sat down in a chair. "However, after a month, they will talk to you about continuing or not continuing life support. Now, I know that is ultimately Rose's decision, but how long do we keep this up?"

"Do you have a better solution?" Kanaya sat forward in her chair.

The older sibling shifted. "Sort of. The only option besides keeping her mom on support is, unfortunately, to take her off and adopt Rose as our sister. It would be tough, but I am seeing that as the only logical option."

"No." The short haired girl shook her head. "Taking her off life support is not an option. I know it's probably not completely logical to keep her on, but this is Rose's Mother we are talking about. If I was in her situation and it was you, I would never take you off support. We keep her on until Rose makes her own decision."

"Kanaya, listen to me." Porrim's voice started getting a little louder. "I know you care for Rose, but this is NOT your decision, alright! It's-"

"Mine." Kanaya and Porrim both looked to see Rose standing in the archway to the kitchen, tears in her eyes once more. "It's my decision. I know what kind of problem my mom is in right now. I know how all this works, but I am not taking my mom off of life support. Not until there is concrete evidence proving my mom is not going to wake up."

Without another word, Kanaya got up from her seat and walked over to hug Rose, who then started sobbing on her shoulder. "Shhh. I know. I know it's hard to lose a parent. It's okay Rose. She will wake up. Just… just calm down okay." She started patting her friend's head.

"You're right. I just miss her so much." Rose sniffed, breaking away from Kanaya. "Thanks. I'm going to go take a shower I think."

"Alright." Kanaya smiled softly. "Call me if you need anything." She watched Rose walk off, then turned back to Porrim with a cross expression. "Now you've done it. That's the last thing we needed. How about we not talk about anything related to Rose's mom okay? Just forget about it. I know you're probably trying to help, but you're honestly not helping much okay?" Without waiting for a response, she stormed up to her room. locking the door behind her.

Kanaya slid down the door and cried, head between her knees. I don't know what to do. I feel like I want to help Rose out, but I have no way to. I'm so useless. She stayed there until she heard the shower turn off downstairs. Maybe I'll go and check on her. Make sure she's okay. She walked downstairs and knocked on Rose's closed door. "Rose? Are you in there? Do you need anything?"

"Yeah, actually. Can you come in for a second?" A muffled voice responded.

The girl shrugged and opened the door, stepping inside and closing it behind her. She saw Rose lying on the bed in her Captain America Pyjama bottoms and an oversized shirt that read 'Books are better than boys'. "Hey. What's up? You feeling any better?"

"Uh, a little I guess. I actually had a favor to ask of you. Could you sit here?" The blond patted a spot next to her on the bed, to which Kanaya obliged. "Okay, so this is probably going to sound weird, so it's okay if you say no."

Kanaya rolled her eyes. "Rose, we may have only been friends for a couple of months, but it's okay. I trust you. What's up?"

The other girl inhaled deeply. "Okay, so I've been having these nightmares every so often about Jack. They're pretty bad. So I was wondering… I was hoping you could sleep with me tonight. I know it sounds stupid, but being with someone I trust gives me less nightmares."

"No. It's not stupid at all. Of course I'll do it. Do you want me to stay in your room the rest of the evening? We can sit in here and talk and stuff." Kanay gave Rose a side hug.

Rose smiled. "Yeah that sounds great, though I'm kinda tired, so we may not actually be talking long. Thank you. This means a lot." The two sat in silence for a few more minutes before Rose spoke again. "One more thing. And this one you can definitely say no to. Or, rather, you can push me away if you don't want to."

Before Kanaya had a chance to wonder what Rose was talking about, she had found her friend's lips against her own, Rose's hands cupping her face. Her lips felt soft and tasted like the grape chapstick Rose always had with her. It didn't take long for Kanaya to kiss back, bracing Rose's back with her hands. I know this should feel wrong, that I shouldn't do this, but honestly, to hell with it. This is probably just a product of exhaustion and stress anyway. After what seemed like both an eternity and a mere second, the kiss was over, and Rose slumped back onto the bed.

"Thank you. Just what I needed." Rose fluttered her eyes closed, and her breathing evened.

Not wanting to wake her friend up, Kanaya carefully crawled into bed next to her, wrapped her arm around her, and closed her eyes as well, slowly drifting off into sleep, the taste of grape still subtle on her own lips.

See you all in a few weeks!

~Jane