Beeping. I could hear beeping. It was annoying. And bright lights were shining in my eyes, even though my eyes were closed.

“Milayna? Milayna, can you hear me?”

Of course I can, you nitwit. You’re yelling in my ear.

“Milayna, squeeze my hand if you can hear me. No response,” the man said.

No response? Wait. I squeezed his hand… didn’t I?

“Vitals are good. She’s breathing on her own. Heart rate is good. She’s fine.”

“What do you mean—she’s fine? She hasn’t woken up yet!”

Dad?

“This happens sometimes in these cases. Give it time. She’ll wake up when she’s ready.”

“How long?”

Mom?

“A day, maybe two. If it’s longer than that, we’ll start running some tests.”

What’s happened to me? Tests for what?

I felt myself drift off into a blissful cocoon of nothingness. Where everything was as it should be. Chay was still in love with me, and I was just an ordinary teenager who didn’t have demons trying to kill her. I liked it there better than my real life. I thought about staying.

***

When I opened my eyes, it was dark in the room. I could hear someone snoring close by, another shifting positions.

I squinted in the darkness and saw my parents sitting in two chairs by a window. Dad slouched in his chair. He looked uncomfortable but judging by his snores, he must’ve been comfortable enough to sleep okay. Mom was lying on her side in her chair… well, trying to. She kept turning and adjusting to get comfortable.

I didn’t want to wake them, so I tried to be quiet when I slid out of bed to go to the bathroom. Sirens blared, and I tripped over the wires hooked to me everywhere. My parents jumped up.

So much for quiet.

“Milayna,” they said in unison.

“Hi,” I said with a smile. I sat with my bare butt cheeks on the cold, tiled floor. Why did they have to make those hospital gowns so… open, anyway?

“Good morning, Milayna,” a portly nurse chirped when she walked into the room. A thin African American nurse followed her. I think I liked her best. She went to my bed and fiddled with some buttons on the end of it to make the horrible sirens stop blaring. She was my hero after that.

“Hi.”

“Do you know where you are?”

“Judging by the beautiful attire and atrocious smells, I’m going to guess the hospital,” I said.

The nurse smiled. “Do you remember what brought you here?”

“Well, I remember being on the wrong side of a fight with a river and a very big log, but after that, it’s a blur.”

“Who are those people over there?” The nurse pointed in the general direction of my parents.

“Um, the two with the ridiculous smiles on their faces are my parents. And the two of you are nurses, I think.” I smiled at my mom and dad. “What I want to know is how long I’ve been here and if Ben is okay?”

“You’ve been here four days and Ben is perfect, Milayna. You did good,” my mom told me, wiping her eyes with the back of her hands.

“Let’s get you up and back into bed. We need to get you untangled first.” I stood, leaning on the other nurse while she unplugged me. I was hooked up to heart monitors, blood pressure, oxygen, heart rate, had two IVs, and a bunch of other crap I didn’t know what they were and really didn’t care.

When I was back in bed and all plugged in again, the nurse showed me the red bracelet on my wrist. “Fall risk. You have to call us before you get up. The bed registers any shift in weight. You try to get up and the sirens blare. So do me a favor and call us first. Otherwise, you give us all migraines,” she said with a smile and patted my hand.

“Okay.” I nodded.

“Besides, you have one of these little numbers.” She held up a catheter bag. “You don’t need a bathroom. You don’t think you’ve been here four days and didn’t use the bathroom that entire time, do you?”

“Um, no. I guess not.” I felt my face burn with a blush.

Geez, lady. My dad is sitting over there! Just put down the pee bag and walk away.

“If you promise to call us whenever you need to get out of bed to use the restroom, I’ll talk to the doc about getting that taken out. Deal?” She looked at me and nodded her head.

I nodded back at her. “Deal.”

Happy with my compliance, the nurses left. “See you later for your labs,” one called over her shoulder.

I groaned.

I hate hospitals. Everyone seems to love inflicting pain and taking blood like a pack of hungry vampires.

“Ben’s really okay?” I asked my parents as soon as the nurses left.

“He’s great, Milayna. Worried about you. That was quite a tumble you took,” my dad said.

“Yeah. What’s broken?”

“Nothing. You just wouldn’t wake up. Everything is perfectly normal. Oh, except you have a broken rib or two.”

“Ah, that explains the butt load of pain in my side when I move,” I said. I looked at my mom. She was still crying. I raised an eyebrow. “Why are you crying? I thought everything was fine?”

“It is,” she blubbered.

“Okay.” I looked at her.

“I was just so worried.”

“Oh, never mind her.” My dad waved her off with his hand. “She’s been crying for the last four days. She’ll still be crying four days from now.”

I laughed. My ribs quickly informed me they didn’t like laughter.

My mom slapped my dad on the arm and gave him the death glare before grinning at him. “I will not.”

“When can I go home?”

“Probably a day or two, Milayna. You just woke up from a coma. They aren’t going to let you just walk out of here.”

I sighed. “Dad, I don’t think passing out for four days constitutes a coma.”

“Actually, it does,” a man said.

Heart meet toes.

I would’ve swore—on a stack of Holy Bibles—that Adonis himself had just walked into my hospital room. I swear my eyes did that thing that happens in cartoons when they zoom out before they snap back into the character’s head. Because the man was… whoa. Hot, handsome, beautiful, sexy, gorgeous, all that and a big bag of freakin’ chips. I was afraid my heart monitor was going to go berserk.

Oh, man, please let this be my doctor. Please, please, please. He is gorgeous. No, not gorgeous. He’s underwear model gorgeous. I bet he looks good in his under–

“Milayna?” he asked

“Oh… um… sorry… what?” Oh, wow, underwear-model-doctor even had a great voice.

“I was saying that it’s not uncommon for drowning victims to suffer a coma. Also, your head injury could have played a part in it. A coma is, simply stated, a deep and extended state of unconsciousness that can result from an injury to the head. I understand you were hit quite hard in the head by the log, or by lack of oxygen, near drowning for example.”

“Oh. Ok.” I couldn’t stop staring at him. And I wasn’t sure I was capable of stringing together anything more than one-syllable words. He was going to think I was brain damaged at this rate.

“I’m Doctor Grayson. It’s nice to meet you, Milayna.” He held his hand out to shake mine.

I wonder what he’d do if I hugged him instead?

“Same.” I smiled and shook his hand, deciding that throwing myself at him might not make the best first impression.

“I’ll be in later to check on you.” He looked at something on his clipboard, made a note, looked up, and smiled. “I’ll see you in a bit.” He left and, oh man, he looked almost as good from the back as he did from the front.

Wow, God did an excellent job on that one.

***

I was just on the edge of sleep. Someone brushed their lips across my knuckles. Just a whisper of a kiss.

“Chay?”

He put my hand down and patted it.

“No. It’s Xavier, Milayna. How are you feeling?”

Whoops. Well, kinda stupid right this second.

My eyes flew open. “I’m sorry. I… it’s… well, I was…” I stopped and tried to come up with something to say. Nothing came. I blew out a breath.

“It’s okay.” Xavier smiled. “I just stopped by to make sure you were okay. Do you need anything?”

“No.”

“Not even these?” He held up crosswords, word searches, and trashy tabloids.

“Oh! Yeah, those I need. I definitely need those.” I reached out, my fingers twiddling, grabbing for the magazines. “I’m dying of boredom in here. There’re only so many game shows you can watch before you are officially declared insane.”

Xavier laughed. “I’ll remember that. I wouldn’t want to go over my quota.”

“Exactly.” I smoothed my hand over the top of the magazines. “Thank you for these, Xavier.”

“I like that.”

I looked up at him. “What?”

“The way you say my name,” he said.

“Ah. Xav… um–”

“It’s okay, Milayna. You don’t have to say anything.” He bent down and placed a soft kiss on my forehead. “Enjoy the magazines. I’ll see you in a couple of days when they spring you.”

“Okay.”

“Later,” he said, waving as he walked out the door.

“See ya,” I whispered in the empty room.

***

I wasn’t quite awake, but I could hear someone in my room. I wasn’t scared. I knew it was probably a nurse. Then I thought it might be the sexy-underwear-model doctor. I smiled inwardly at the thought and pictured him in nothing but his underwear and a stethoscope. Yeah, that was medical care at its finest.

I opened my eyes just the teensiest bit, just a slit, so I could watch him without him knowing it. That was when all thoughts of nurses and underwear-model-doctors or otherwise vanished. Because standing against the wall closest to the door was a man wearing jeans and a black hoodie. One shoulder propped against the wall, his thumb was hooked through the belt loop of his low-riding jeans. His ankles crossed casually, he looked down at the floor. His hood was pulled up, but I knew who it was. I could tell by how he stood. I’d know him anywhere.

Chay.

I tensed, holding my breath. The oxygen monitor picked up on the fact I wasn’t breathing, and a piercing wail filled the room. Chay’s head darted in my direction, and he pushed off the wall. I sat up.

“Chay, don’t go. Please.” I took in a few deep breaths so the monitor would shut up. Thankfully, the room turned quiet. “Chay. I know it’s you. I saw your face. Please don’t leave. Please.”

He stood with his back to me. He flipped the hood of his sweatshirt off. I thought he was going to turn around. That he’d stay.

How stupid I was.