Waking up was hard.

Everything about my body felt sore and tired and once again it was like my had had been stuffed with cotton wool. It was a fuzzy feeling.

But where was I? And more importantly, where was Malcom?

Was I still on the hard floor of my bathroom?

No, the soft linen under my fingers definitely suggested otherwise.

There were voices quietly talking next to me and I tried my best to listen to what they were saying.

I listened to them for a few seconds...

But that was impossible! My parents were in Europe!

Was I dead?

But that would mean my parents had to be dead too.

Finally, I was able to rip my eyes open.

"Mom? Dad?", I asked with a croaky voice and turned my head towards where the voices were coming from.

And there they were. Mom's face was red and swollen as if she had cried for the last few hours straight and even my dad who I had last seen cry a few years ago on my sister's death-day, had some tears sparkling in his eyes, while Charlie was sitting on his lap.

All three of them turned around and stared at me.

"Mommy, you're awake, finally. Why did it take so long. I have been wanting to tell you: I don't think I want a new backpack. I think whales are cool! I just wanted to let you know, just so you don't throw it away. I know you're silly like that sometimes, mommy.", he said, holding three stretched out fingers towards me. My gaze shifted to the backpack on his back. He was wearing the school uniform too.

I wanted to smile at him but my lips were dry and brittle.

My look shifted back to my parents that had gotten up and rushed towards my bed, coming as close as possible without touching me, as if they were scared to hurt me.

"What are you doing here?", I asked, my voice trembling. I hadn't even realized how much I had missed them. Tears started burning in my eyes.

Mom started crying again, and I wasn't sure whether they were tears of joy or not.

"You scared us so badly! We were in Scotland when Mr Black called us. He explained the situation to us and... -Oh, honey... We would have never left if we had known! We are so sorry we weren't here for you. We should have realized something was wrong... But that doesn't matter now. You and Charlie, you both will be just fine.", Mom cried, finally grabbing my hand, while dad had walked around the bed, grabbing my other, but mom sounded more as if she were talking to herself than us.

"I am so sorry.", I croaked, and dad petted my hand.

Only now I realized they were both still wearing sweatpants and an I-LOVE-Edinburgh T-shirt. My dad's hair was messy and stuck out from his head and my mom had clipped her short hair back.

She wasn't wearing any makeup and she was wearing two different-colored socks, while my dad wasn't wearing any at all.

They had definitely left in a hurry.

I felt a single tear rolling down my cheek and I squeezed my eyes shut. If I would start now, I probably wouldn't stop for the next two hours.

But still, seeing them here by my side was so overwhelming that it was hard to not let my feelings take over. It was like an empty hole in my heart had finally been filled again, but still my heart hurt so bad that it was hard to breathe.

"We know, sweetheart. We know that you were just trying to protect us, but we don't need your protection. We are your parents; you can tell us everything. You didn't need to go through all this all by yourself.", dad said when he realized my mom was sobbing too hard to continue talking.

"I know that now, really I do. But- How did you even get here so fast?", I asked when I finally trusted my voice enough again to talk, and my dad laughed a little.

"Sweetheart, you've been asleep for almost 12 hours, and the flight was merely 6. We've been here since 2 or 3 hours already.", he explained, and I nodded slightly, but my head started hammering from all the new information.

"Do you know about... everything?", I asked carefully, while I tried to keep my eyes open. The adrenalin rush from seeing my parents was receding, and the medications made me sleepy and slow, but at least they numbed the pain in my stomach.

"Well, if you are talking about the cancer, Malcolm, you dropping out of college and you being in the news, yes. Yes, we do.", my dad said dryly but his eyes twinkled amused, while my cheeks started turning red.

I had really hoped they hadn't seen what was written about me in these gossip-magazines.

"You have to tell me everything. I want to know if there's a chance on anymore grandchildren soon.", mom teased me, and it seemed like the thought of new grandchildren to spoil brightened up her mood.

I flushed even more, but still there was a slight pain in my chest.

I wasn't sure whether Damien would be on board with that.

He had made himself pretty clear that he didn't want anything to do with me anymore. He had been worried on the phone but that had only been because Malcolm had tried to kill me.

That didn't count.

But Charlie seemed excited about that idea too though.

"Am I going to have a baby brother? I can teach him how to swim and ride a bike. I would be a great older brother.", he said, puffing himself up.

"Before I have any more grandchildren, I would really like for my daughter to finish school first.", dad said in a strict voice, but I could tell he was only joking.

"I will. As soon as I get out of here I will apply to NYU again. I can work part time and go to the evening classes.", I promised but mom shushed me.

"You absolutely won't. All you need to do, is get some rest. There is enough time for you to get a degree.", mom responded with pursed lips and dad nodded.

"Exactly, and I think maybe we should leave now. There is a lot of people waiting to see you outside, and we've been here for more than two hours. It's the middle of the night and Charlie needs to get some sleep. We'll be back soon though to talk to your doctor, I want to make sure everything is going alright.", he said, and Charlie and I moaned at the same time.

"I don't want to go! I want to stay with mommy!", Charlie complained, while I said: "Dad. You need to stop looking over everyone's shoulder while they're working. I am alive, so they have obviously done a great job so far.", I groaned.

Dad did this all the time. Whenever I had gone to the doctor, he had insisted on seeing all the documents and test results.

But I guess I couldn't blame him. If doctor Thomas hadn't been so great and if I had known even the slightest thing about medicine, I would have done the same thing with Charlie too.

Despite Charlie's complaints, my parents had eft with him, but before they closed the door, I called out my parents' names once again, and they turned around.

"Thank you for being here. I missed you."

More than they'd ever know...

Yes, I loved Charlie and Damien and everyone else and I wouldn't have made it without them, but no one could ever replace my parents.

My mom was close to tears again and I could see that she was close to running back to me to continue covering my face and hands in kisses, but my dad grabbed her hand.

"She needs rest.", he said and then they left.

The next persons to come and visit me, were Clary and Celia, after them followed Derek and Jared, Graham, Mr and Mrs Black and my doctor.

They all looked just as tired as I felt. I wasn't severely injured. My head hurt like hell, there were a few minor cuts on my hands, my jaw was black and blue and my voice sounded like a broken lawnmower. But other than that, I was fine.

Except for one thing.

Every time the door opened, I secretly hoped it would be Damien stepping over the threshold, but even though it was never the case, I was too scared to ask the others about him.

I was too worried that they would answer me that he didn't want to see me, and the further the night went along, the more likely it seemed to be this way.

When my doctor left and the door opened again, I snapped from my half-sleep.

It wasn't Damien coming in but probably the last person that I had expected to show up here.

"Talia?", I asked with a hoarse voice, not sure whether I was maybe having a nightmare.

She flushed a little before shutting the door behind her, as if she were embarrassed to have shown up here.

In general, she looked like she wasn't even sure what on earth she was doing here and for a second I thought she might turn around and leave again, but then se slowly came closer.

"Uhm... Hi.", she said and when I didn't respond she rolled her eyes.

"Listen, I am not here because I was worried about you or anything. I just came to ask you for a favor.", she said and arrived at my bed.

She was just as moody as the last time I had seen her and for some reason that made me smile a little. Some things would never change.

"Well, what do you want?", I asked suspiciously, and she grabbed into her jeans pocket, pulling out something small and round.

"I want you to give this back to Damien."

I gasped a little. "Is that-?"

She nodded but avoided eye contact with me. Then she gave the ring to me and our eyes met. An awkward silence fell upon us before she finally started to speak again, while I observed her carefully.

Her hair was still shiny and the slight blush on her face made her look even more angelic but the vicious glaring in her eyes had gone.

"I should have given it back as soon as he broke up with me. It was never meant for me anyways."

She shrugged but I could see the pain in her eyes.

And then I realized that she loved him too. Behind all the sassiness, she was just as scared and hurt as I was.

And I knew what it was like to have your heart broken.

I took the ring but then I frowned.

"Why me?"; I asked, and she shrugged again.

"I need time before I'll talk to him. I knew that he never loved me. He just tolerated me, because of my father, but I guess I still hoped he'd change his mind. But now that's over. He loves you- Even though I really can't understand why.", she said, and I wasn't quite sure whether she was joking or not. Probably not though.

Still, I was shook by her words.

"He- he loves me?", whispered in disbelieve and she rolled her eyes again.

"Of course, he does. Everyone can see that. I saw you too at the gala dancing, even then I knew he liked you. But that's really not what I wanted to talk about. I just wanted to let you know that I've convinced my dad to let this go. All the documents have been burned. It's over."

Suspiciously I eyed her.

Was this a joke?

But she didn't seem like she was joking.

"You did?", I asked, and she nodded.

"I love Damien. But that also means that I have to do what's best for him, and I realize that my father has gone too far.", she said, and I was surprised that she admitted her feelings so openly to me.

When I had first met her, I hadn't even though it were possible that this girl was capable of loving anyone.

"So, what are you going to do now? Have you talked to Graham at all?", I asked, and she flushed a little again.

"No, not yet. I feel so bad for what happened... If I had had any idea... Anyways. I should get going."

Quickly she turned around but before she could leave, I grabbed her hand.

"Thank you.", I said, and she put it off, but I could have sworn I saw her smiling a little while she turned around.

Damien had always told me how she wasn't so bad if you got to know her properly and until two minutes ago I had thought he was crazy but maybe she wasn't so horrible after all. I had to admit that one of the reasons I hadn't want to believe the Black brothers about her, was that I had been jealous.

But now I realized that maybe we weren't so different after all..

She had hidden her true feelings behind anger and malignity, while I had hidden my feelings by lying to myself and others to not have to deal with them.

Maybe I could get her to teach me that death-glare she was so good at, because that was a skill I could certainly make use of when I would finally dare to go outside again.