It had been two days since I had woken up from my induced coma, and I felt my strength return with every day. I could now walk to the other side of the room without any support, and I could probably walk further if I tried. My vision had got a lot better, and I could see things that were close to my face clearly. I was also able to talk easier, after drinking a lot more water, my mouth had slowly become moist again, and I think that was a huge part of the problem. I could say most words, even supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, but I only said it once as I had to catch my breath after attempting to say it; it took a lot of damn effort. I was able to say a lot of words now without a stutter, like yes, no, food, drink, shower, toilet and things like that, but I wasn't able to have fluent conversations yet.

Fabricio had picked up every single card and read it to me, and held up every single bouquet of flowers that were dotted around my room close to my face so I could see them clearly and appreciate them better, telling me who each was from. Each morning, although there had only been two so far, he turned up with a fresh bouquet of flowers. Yesterdays were orange spray chrysanthemums, orange germini and orange lilies, and today's were a bouquet of roses in pink, white, dark red and bright red.

He refused to read me the card he wrote for me though, saying he was too embarrassed. I didn't understand why he was being such a baby, why would I possibly care what it said in it. The only thing that would weird me out was if it asked me to marry him or have his babies in it. I decided then that I would really try and train my eyes to be able to read properly, so I could read the card myself, and not have to rely on him.

I got so many visitors though, each bringing more flowers and more chocolates! I was on strict orders by the doctor to stay away from chocolates for now as they wouldn't help my throat and would be really sticky in my throat, so there was just a huge pile that had been gathering and was added to every single hour pretty much of chocolates. I had no idea how I was supposed to eat them all, but I would at least try some of them. Each of the people had to visit me one by one, on strict doctor's orders, meaning Fabricio would have to leave the room. When he left, I tried to get them to read his card out to me, but I guess he had threatened them not to, because every single one, even Nadia refused. Nadia's visits were my favourite, I would say Fabricio's were, but he didn't 'visit' he lived there with me practically, so he didn't count. I loved when Nadia came, as she would shuffle onto the bed next to me, and bring her laptop so we could watch films on it. We only watched ones with not much of a storyline, that were easy to follow, and this happened to be the cartoon version of Sleeping Beauty, kind of ironic, right?

When Loretta visited yesterday she decided to paint my toenails a bright, hot pink, and matched my fingernails, gossiping with me and telling me about how Nadia and Dimitri were caught by Rico making out behind one of the bushes in the garden, and how it was really funny because Rico ran into the living room shouting it out to all of them, followed by Dimitri who punched him in the face, and they had a fight. She also told me how her birthday was, and when I tried to apologise for missing it, she told me I was absolutely ridiculous. It was the first time I had said sorry in a long time, because usually I was never sorry for anything, I had no one to be sorry too, and I was always confident in every decision I made. To be honest, there was no reason for me to apologise here, but I tried to anyway. She just told me that we would have to party double as hard on my birthday. Shit. My birthday. It was the 12th of December, and my birthday was quickly coming up, I hated birthdays, and I think I would hate it even more in the state I was in... God, I just hope I am better by the time it comes around.

Loretta was an easy visitor, because she just chatted and chatted, but many of the men who visited weren't very talkative on their own. They would be loud in groups, but that is when there is someone having another conversation with them. Even Rico, who didn't take to me too kindly at the start because I knocked him out, came to visit. He smiled really warmly at me, and told me that we would do something fun when this was all over. Most of the men would just say some niceties and put their hand on my hand, arm, or shoulder in a reassuring way, but that was all that was needed. To be honest, even if they just texted me, I wouldn't have minded. I really appreciated the gesture. Who is this new me? With feelings and shit? Actually appreciating gestures?

Donna was another of my favourite visitors. I loved the energy she gave to the room when she bustled around, tidying everything up, muttering under her breath about how untidy Fabricio was when she opened the dresser and folded up all his clothes. She would change the water of some of the bouquets of flowers, and would get rid of any dead ones. She also started on the huge pile of chocolates, thank God. After bustling around, she would sit and she would sing me a lullaby, and more often than not, it would send me to sleep.

When Dimitri visited, I asked him about Nadia, and he went completely red and started apologising, but I held my hand up to stop him and I said I was happy for them both. I really was. Nadia had been alone for so long, and although she had me, I wasn't exactly a 'boyfriend', and I was over here in Italy, whilst she was in London, although I wondered what would happen if they did get together fully, because both of them pretty much had to live in their home-countries. Maybe Nadia would run the company from Italy, I mean, that was the only logical idea, or just move on from the company and hand it over to someone else. I guess I would find out one day.

The twins were pretty funny when they visited, and they managed to somehow both come in at the same time, but I guess they looked the exact same, so the nurses probably assumed they had left and were going back in when the second twin entered. They always joked around with me and managed to always make me laugh, even though it hurt slightly, and I would wince. They were almost always chased out by an angry Fabricio, who would change his tone completely when he turned around to me, checking if I was okay.

I feel like I had seen a completely different side to him, and I felt like my dance with death had turned me into a completely different person. I felt actual feelings. I felt frustration, sadness, and a weird warm, fuzzy feeling when he came close, and I could smell his musky scent, which swirled around my nose...

Another three days passed and I was able to walk all the way down the main corridor, with the nurses, doctors, patients and other healthcare staff cheering me on as I went, but the cheer I heard over all of them was Fabricio, who was always the thing I was walking towards, and he would look at me with a huge smile on his face, and wide, kind, bright green eyes that made me feel all tingly inside, even more so when I would fall into his arms at the end, and he would help me into the wheelchair next to him. I definitely found I was getting a spring back in my step, and everything was improving. My eyesight was basically as good as new, and I could basically speak full sentences now, only stuttering a couple of times.

Every night, Fabricio would unfold the bed, make it up, and sleep in it. It was a lot lower that my hospital bed, and it looked really uncomfortable, but he managed to always sleep in it, and even though I told him to go home and sleep in his own bed, he always said no. Part of me wanted him to say no, I liked the comfort he gave me, I felt safe with him, and when I would wake in the middle of the night from a nightmare about being dead, or stabbed, or punched senseless, he was either awake and calming me down, or I could just look over the edge of my bed down at him peacefully sleeping, and find my own peace and drift off back to sleep. It always seemed slightly weird, the boss of bosses, who owned the whole of Italy and who knows where else, who had all the money anyone could ever need, who everyone was absolutely terrified of, would lie next to me on a fold-out bed, and be the kindest, most amazing guy, helping me through my recovery.

The doctors came by the next morning, did one or two tests on me, and then told me they were discharging me. They signed the papers, and handed Fabricio a few prescription drugs that I was to take, and they left, saying I could leave whenever my stuff was together. They had already told me they expected me to make a full recovery, though it would be a long haul, and quite a while before I was able to run a 5k, let alone do all the flips and tricks, and get into fights.

Fabricio quickly went around the room and stuffed his clothes messily into a duffel bag, as well as his book, that he had been reading out loud to me, telling me that he would have some people come in later and gather all the flowers and chocolates. He helped me get changed into some of his clothes, as he forgot to bring me some of my own. They were baggy, but super soft and comfortable. He helped me into my wheelchair, as the walk all the way to the car would probably be too much, and wheeled me out of the door. When he was packing his things, I took the card from him from my bedside, and stuffed it under my jumper, and as he was concentrating on wheeling me around and not bumping me into anything, which he was really bad at by the way, I sneakily read it.