"Rachel's going to be late," Karen said after she responded to the message from the woman. "They made it all the way to the hospital before she realized she forgot her ID. They have to go back and get it. She wants to know if we need anything?"

"The largest cup of black coffee she can find," Roy replied. He tossed the magazine onto the bed trey and stood up from the chair. His body protested and he rolled his shoulders, trying to work out the kinks. "I don't know how she was able to stay here hour after hour sitting in this chair."

"Well being only 35 has a little bit to do with it," Karen told her husband, her eyes shining with mirth. She sent off Roy's request and had no shame is asking for one for herself. Hospital coffee just didn't cut it.

"Remember when he became ours?" He moved back to the hospital bed, staring down at his son. He and Karen had been foster parents to JC's mother when she was younger. When JC was five, she realized JC needed a stable family. He would never forget when she had come to them with a five year old JC in tow. He and Karen never hesitated. It hadn't mattered that they already a four year old and an infant at home. They immediately took him in and adopted him as soon as they could. He was no less his son than Tyler.

"He's certainly brought us challenges we never saw coming." Karen sat her phone down on the table and move to stand next to her husband. She leaned in to him when he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"I wouldn't change it for anything." Roy said.

"If he doesn't pull through," Karen's voice wobbled.

"He will," Roy said firmly. He pulled his wife into his arms and held her tight. "JC's strong. He's a fighter. He has plenty to live for. He will fight to come back."

"I'm worried about Rachel. If he doesn't make it...she's as much part of our family as JC. The two of them... they aggravate me so much. How two people can be so blind to what's in front of them I'll never know?"

"She's the reason I know JC won't give up. He won't leave her."

"I hope you're right." Karen took a seat in one of the chairs at JC's side. She reached for the drawing pad on the trey and pulled it out from under Roy's magazine. Rachel had left it behind the day before. Karen had already flipped through the pages. Her heart had broken when she had seen the drawing of Rachel looking out the window to the couples dancing. It had shattered when she saw the ones of her family members coupled up, sitting on a porch swing and the one of Rachel alone. When she had gotten hold of her tears, she had given her son a stern talking to. He was going to tell her how he felt when he woke up or else.

The drawing pad had dozens of photos. A favorite of hers was JC depicted as a superhero fighting off villains. Karen didn't know what his superhero name was, but his super power was music. There was a musical note centered on his chest and he was thwarting the villains with music. His mouth was open and notes were coming out. The villains had their arms crossed in front of their faces trying to block the onslaught. Another one that had tugged her heart strings was of JC laying in the hospital bed. He was still hooked up to the ventilator with the tubes coming out of his mouth. Off to the side, next to the heart monitor was a closet with the door open. Inside the closet was Superman's cape. The next drawing made her close the book and escape outside to the fresh air presented itself.

JC was in the middle of the page, dressed in what Karen guessed where silk pajamas with the button up long sleeve shirt. He had huge angel wings coming out of his back. He was walking up the stairs. Behind him, Rachel had drawn herself grabbing one of his hands as if to pull him back. In front of him stood the gates of Heaven. Conversation clouds came through the gate with sayings like, ‘Just wait until you hear him sing' and ‘He has the voice of an angel.' It had taken quite awhile before Karen was able to pull herself together and go back in to JC's room yesterday after she had seen the drawing.

Bypassing the drawings she already looked at, Karen smiled when she saw one of her and Roy. They were standing together staring out the window. On another page was Anita, JC's dayshift nurse. Rachel had drawn her fiddling with machines and tubes. Depicted on the wall behind her was a mirror. The reflection in the mirror was Wonder Woman at the machines. Karen hoped Rachel tore it out and gave it to the nurse. The next page was a photo of JC from the shoulders up. He was laughing. Karen could almost hear the sound as she stared at the paper.

The last one was a drawing of JC and Rachel. Karen had to flip the pad vertically to see it properly. They were drawn in the middle of the page with their arms wrapped around each other. Their heads were leaning against one another. Their smiles were huge. It warmed Karen's heart. She vowed to herself to make sure JC and Rachel both knew what they had. She sat the book on her lap and reached out taking JC's hand. "I'm telling you JC, this better make you see what's right in front of you. Whatever dance you two are doing, it's not worth it. Take the chance and tell her how you feel. I'm telling you. You won't be disappointed." She squeezed his hand and gasped loudly.

"What?" Roy turned away from the window.

"He squeezed my hand!" Karen exclaimed. "He squeezed my hand!" She tightened her hold on her son's hand and was reward when his hand squeezed hers again. "That's it JC. I knew you were a fighter. Come on," she coaxed. "You've been sleeping long enough."

"I'm going to get Anita," Roy said and quickly left the room.

"Oh sweetie," Karen could feel the tears building in her eyes. There was finally relief starting to build. She'd been on edge from the moment she caught the breaking news story on her Facebook feed.

"I hear someone is finally ready to join us?" Anita said with a smile as she walked in the room with Roy behind her.

"He keeps squeezing my hand," Karen explained. She watched Anita make note of the monitors as she logged into the computer. When she looked back at JC, she laughed seeing his eyes opened in tiny slits. "Oh there you are!" She squeezed his hand watching as he struggled to fully open his eyes. She barely noticed Roy moving next to her.

"Hello JC," Anita took her position at the empty side of JC's bed. "My name is Anita. I know this might seem a little confusing for you." She watched as he made eye contact with her before his gaze flittered back to his parents. She frowned when his heart rate started to rise. It wasn't abnormal. Patients were often confused when they woke.

"JC it's okay," Karen said calmly. "You're in the hospital. Your father and I are here." She watched as he grew more and more agitated, his eyes flickering around. She placed a comforting hand on his forehead and leaned closer. "Look at me, JC," she said firmly and waited until he brought his gaze back to hers. "You were shot and the bullet did a lot of damage." She paused when his head started moving back and forth, the movement small. It was then she noticed his mouth trying to move. "Don't try to talk sweetie. We'll get you some water as soon as you calm down. I promise. Everything is okay."

JC continued to shake his head. He squeezed his mother's hand as tight as he could. His eyes flickered around the room again. No one else was there. When he met his mother's gaze, he tried to plead with her to understand. It was frustrating. The words wouldn't form. He couldn't get his brain to work. Everything seemed fuzzy around the edges. He hurt. His throat felt like sandpaper every time he swallowed. His lips felt dry and cracked.

"Calm down, son," Roy rested a comforting hand on JC's knee. Anita slipped from the bedside to the phone where she paged the doctor. "What's he trying to say?" He asked.

"I'm not sure," Karen said leaned closer. "What do you need?"

His gaze shot to the door when it opened. A doctor walked through. JC struggled to move in the bed.

"No no," Karen said and placed a firm hand on JC's shoulders, careful of any wounds. "You were shot JC. You had surgery. You have a lot of injuries. Do not move. Lay still."

"Ray..." his tried to whisper. The words caught in his throat and came out broken.

"What?" Karen asked turned her head to catch what JC was trying to say.

"Ra...ch..." JC whispered.

"Rachel?" Karen repeated looking at JC. "Oh sweetie..."

In all the confusion he was feeling, JC felt his heart drop. The last thing he remembered was laying on the ground in pain with Rachel leaning over him. He had been struggling to stay awake. There had been another gun shot. Right? Why couldn't he remember what happened? Why wasn't she here?

"We need to get him calmed down," the doctor said. "After the reaction he had from the anesthesia, I'm not going to risk a sedative."

"Sweetie," Karen started. "Look at me." She put her hand back on his head, her thumb running back and forth over his forehead. "You need to calm down, okay? Rachel is okay. I promise you."

"That's right, JC," Anita spoke up, her voice soft and comforting. She laid her hand on his arm, careful of the IV catheter. "Rachel is okay. She's been camped out by your side from the moment you arrived. She spent the days and nights talking herself hoarse."

"Lance took her home yesterday." Roy said, he gave JC's knee a comforting squeeze.

"She was so worn down, running on fumes. She was a couple hours away from being a patient herself," Anita continued.

"We finally got her to leave. Lance took her home to his house where he forced her to eat and sleep. They were coming back this morning. They should be coming soon."

"She's... okay..." JC's eyes flicked to his mom, then to his dad. At their nods, he relaxed into his bed.

"You saved her."

*~*

"Are you okay?" Lance asked taking a seat next to his sister after Matt left.

"No," Rachel shook her head. She looked at Lance, her eyes filled with tears. "How could he do that?"

Lance shrugged his shoulders, frowning. "Guess he was trying to do anything he could to save his marriage."

"Why didn't he tell us what was going on?"

"He was freaked out. He was trying to stay afloat. He was just trying to buy himself time before the inevitable. You know stuff like that doesn't stay hidden, especially in LA. It was only a matter of time before Renee found out."

"What have I done?" Rachel whispered.

"You didn't do anything," Lance said.

"I took off Lance. I didn't give JC a chance to explain. I just left. I ignored his phone calls and text messages. I deleted them without listening or reading. He had no idea... He had no idea what was going on."

"It's not your fault." Lance said firmly.

"I must have hurt him. Oh God," she buried her face in her hands. This whole time she was consumed with the hurt she was feeling. She had disregarded everyone's words about JC. Melissa had told her he looked like shit. Matt had told her he was in a bad place. Not to mention what Jimmy and Lance had told her and what she saw for herself when she had finally come face to face with him. She should have realized something was wrong.  

"You were hurting too," Lance wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into him. "This is such a fucked up situation Rachel. Nobody won. Not you. Not JC. Not Matt or Renee. Not even Addison."

"How am I supposed to face him knowing what I did?"

"Oh no," Lance said, shaking his head. "You are going back to that hospital. You were just as manipulated as his words on that voicemail."

The ringing of Rachel's phone broke up the conversation. Her bag lay on the coffee table in front of her where she laid it after leading Matt into the room. She reached for the bag and withdrew her phone from inside. Her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach. "It's Karen."

"Answer it." Lance told her. "We were supposed to be there already. She's probably just checking in wondering where we are."

Rachel swallowed roughly and tapped the button on her phone and put it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Rachel!"

Rachel's hand immediately sought Lance's and gripped it tightly hearing Karen's tearful voice. Her eyes filled with tears. "Karen? What's wrong? What's going on?"

"It's JC." Karen cried. "Oh he woke up!"

"What?" Rachel gasped, unable to believe what she was hearing. She could feel Lance's gaze on her, but she was unable to look at him.

"He woke up! He's awake." Karen laughed through her tears. She turned away from the window to look back at JC. He was sleeping now. The doctor had told them to not expect him to be really alert for the next day or so. He'd wake up in spurts. There would be confusion and they'd have to repeat a lot of information they had told him previously. "Rachel? Are you there?" Karen asked when she didn't hear any response from the woman.

"I'm here... I can't... I don't..."

"I know you wanted to be here," Karen told her. "It was rough for him coming out of it. His heart rate started rising and his blood pressure. He was getting agitated. A couple of times he actually tried to sit up. I was finally able to understand what was going on. He was worried about you. He was trying to say your name. He thought something happened to you. We finally got him calmed down. Doctor says everything looks really good. Now that JC's awake, the prognosis really turned around."

"He's okay?" Rachel whispered unable to comprehend.

"He's okay, Rachel. He's truly okay."

"What's going on?" Lance asked immediately when Rachel hung up the phone. "What did Karen say? Is JC okay?"

"He's awake," Rachel whispered, turning to look at Lance. "He's awake." The sobs broke free and she buried her face in her hands and cried. She let herself be pulled into Lance's embrace.

"This is good news!" Lance exclaimed, laughter bubbling up. "This is amazing! Why the hell did you make it seem like it was bad news? Jesus Rachel, the way you reacted I thought something bad happened." He could feel the weight lifting from his shoulders. "Did something happen?"

"He was agitated. He tried to get up from the bed."

"Maybe he was scared and didn't know what was going on?"

"It's because I wasn't there," Rachel said. "He was trying to say my name. He was agitated because he thought something had happened to me; that I got hurt."

"Shhh," Lance pulled Rachel back in to a hug. "It's okay."

"It's not," Rachel lifted her head to meet Lance's eyes. "I wasn't there. I wasn't there when he needed me."

"Come on, if you had stayed by his bed for one more hour, you would have been put in a matching gown and room. You needed to take a break. You needed to eat something. You needed to sleep," Lance reasoned with her.  "You were about ready to fall out of that chair. You had nothing left to give."

"I should have been back. I should have been there when he woke up. If I hadn't forgotten my ID. If Matt-"

Lance cut his sister off. "If Matt hadn't come over, you wouldn't have the answers to the questions you had. I'm sorry you weren't there when JC woke up. In a perfect world, you would have been the first person he saw. But he wasn't alone, okay? His parents were there."

"He wanted me."

Lance chuckled. "He's gonna have you for the next 60 years because you're gonna clear this mess up. You're gonna tell him how you feel. Then you and JC are gonna give me more nieces and nephews to spoil."

Rachel couldn't help but laugh. "You make it sound so easy."

"It is easy." Lance gripped her upper arms giving her a small shake. "You've been in love with him forever. He's been in love with you for just as long. The man just took a bullet for you. For God's sake Rachel, put him out of his misery."