It hadn't all been a vivid dream. The white roof of the ambulance came into view. My body shook against the stretcher beneath me as the sirens echoed in my ears. I turned to look to the side when I realised there was a neck brace on me. I wiggled my fingers and toes but couldn't see them to be sure they were actually moving.

"P-Parker – is he okay? What happened? What's wrong with me?" I asked frantically.

"Daisy, Daisy," one of the paramedics said, trying to calm me down. "He's fine. He's in the other ambulance. You're okay but we have to bring you in to hospital so the doctors can properly assess your injuries. Who can I call as your guardian?"

I gave them my mum's details. My whole body was aching and the throbbing in the side of my head was relentless. I was taken through the emergency department where several doctors took history and examined me. I saw Parker being wheeled into a different ED bay. In the bright lighting of the ED, his injuries looked even worse. The blood had started to dry around his mouth and nose and his face was swollen, black and blue.

My neck brace came off soon when they were sure I hadn't had a spinal injury. Then bloods were taken. X-rays. There were a couple of bad bruises and pain that would last weeks, but all in all, I was surprisingly okay considering what had happened. It was almost five by the time they moved me from the ED into the general medical ward. Room 9. My mum had been going out of her mind waiting for me in my room.

"We're going to keep you until tomorrow for observation, but otherwise you have no fractures or injuries that need intervention. Let a nurse know if the pain worsens, or if you start getting any strange headaches, change in your vision, confusion, anything like that," she smiled. I nodded. She let me know that Parker was in the room next to mine and that he'd just been brought up from ED as well.

My mum came to my bed, squeezing me tightly. "I'm so glad you're okay," she wept. She took both of my cheeks in her hands and looked at my face as the tears continued streaming down her face. I cried too, because seeing her cry made me cry. When she finally calmed down, she fired a million questions away at me. I finally convinced her to go take a toilet break, to get some food and water and that I was fine. Reluctantly, she agreed, but only if she could finally meet "the boy who's been picking you up for weeks and who got you into this mess." She promised she wouldn't grill him.

The throbbing in my back intensified as I pushed myself up from the hospital bed. I slipped on the hospital-issue slippers and entered the linoleum lined hallway that was bustling with nurses and doctors rushing back and forth. I ventured down to the room beside mine and peered inside. Parker was sitting in his bed, watching TV with a splint around his left forearm, as if nothing had happened. I let out a sigh of relief.

He glanced towards the door and saw me staring. "You're awake," he said. I walked over to his bedside.

"What'd the doctors say?" I asked him.

He held up his left arm. "It's a fracture. They're splinting it until the swelling comes down and they'll see if it needs a cast. Doesn't look too bad. I have a couple of rib fractures, but those just heal on their own so it's pain killers until then." There were a couple of small stitches across his lip, but all the blood was gone from his face. "This is going to scar," he said, noticing my stare.

"How are you feeling?"

"I feel fine. I am so sorry about what happened – I should've picked you up in the morning -"

I cut him off. "I'm fine. I just have a couple of bruises. Surprisingly resilient you know," I grinned.

"Your face looks horrible," he managed with a small smile.

"Gee. Thanks. You look just as bad." He scooted over in the bed and pat the space beside him.

"I can't let a girl stand. I'm a gentleman," he grinned. After all that'd happened in the day, I wasn't up for pretending like my feelings weren't there – pretending that in this moment I didn't want this. I clambered in beside him and fluffed the sheet over my legs.

"You sure you're feeling okay?" I asked.

"Yeah. I'm completely fine," he replied.

"Good. Because you have a lot of questions to answer!" I exclaimed. He laughed. "Why would you run off by yourself like an idiot? Why didn't you call the police?"

"Should you be harassing a patient like this?"

"Just answer the question," I laughed. "Seriously, did you brain just short circuit? That seemed like a horrible plan."

"They might've harmed you if they suspected something. I wanted to be sure you were okay before anything else." The heat rushed to my cheeks and I looked up at his bedside table.

"You could've told someone about your plan!"

"They would never have let me go off on my own."

"And for good reason. You have fractured ribs!"

"It all worked out didn't it? I just have to avoid breathing." I stared at him. "Breathing deeply," he corrected. "Although shallow breathing does hurt too." I couldn't help but laugh. He finally explained what'd happened.

They'd messaged him with my photo and instructions to a library where they'd left a note for him. He knew that it wasn't until he'd followed all their instructions that they'd give him a location, so he kept a tracker on him that once his family's security team realised he was missing or received a ransom note, they could start trying to find his location. "It was also backup in case they moved us both to a different location and they couldn't track us," he added.

It wasn't too hard to slip his bodyguards. The morning shift change happened at half past nine and it took at least ten minutes. Parker left through the window and took one of the cars from the garage. At the library, he was instructed to switch cars to one that'd had its keys in a glovebox.

The note led him to another that was stuck to the underside of a table at a busy diner. Taped to that was a sim card. Parker then went to the final location where a cheap cellphone was left for him to put the sim card into. They finally gave him my location when he texted the number as instructed.

"They sent me photos of me at each location...to let me know they were watching everything I did," he said.

"But the two guys were with me the whole time. Who took the photos?"

"Their accomplice. A man who'd been charged along with their father earlier this year," a man in a suit said, entering the hospital room. "Mr Lennox," he nodded in Parker's direction. Parker nodded back in acknowledgement.

"That's Michael, the head of my family's security," Parker explained.

"Possibly not for long given your performance today," he replied.

"You'll be fine," Parker replied. Michael informed us that the three perpetrators had been captured trying to flee the city. He then briefed the two bodyguards at the door and left. It was weird having two huge guys in black suits standing outside.

"You get used to them," Parker said. "Sort of."

"Still weird," I admitted.

"So, what did you think of my plan?"

"Fine. I guess you're not a complete dumbass."

Parker wrapped his good arm around me and squeezed tight, leaning over and pressing his lips against the side of my forehead.

Then he winced in pain because, against the doctor's advice, he'd moved too much.

--

yeah so, this is definitely longer than I expected because so many chapters are hella long so I have to split them into 2 parts

please drop me a vote if you enjoyed the chapter

yeah so i definitely know that some of y'all are gonna come @ me AGAIN for depriving u of a proper daisy x parker kiss (y'all already know i like fluffy romance) but TRUST me good things take time :'D

PSA: definitely expect more cute stuff coming up as the story comes to a close xoxo

love always,

daria xo