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As the morning sun glares through her hotel window, Layla lets out a small groan. Squinting her eyes at the bright light, she rolls over the other direction to avoid it. Slowly reopening her eyes, she's surprised to find that the other half of the bed empty. Sitting up, she glances around the room.
She had asked Jeff to wake her when he came in last night, but it seemed he hadn't. It was probably so late when he got in, that he decided to just let her sleep. But as she continued to look around for him, she found there was no sign of him anywhere. No change of clothes out, no use of the shower, nothing. Did he not come home last night?
Trying to figure out where he might be, her mind thinks back to the scratch marks that she had seen on his neck yesterday, and she can't help but wonder if maybe he had spent last night with someone else. But she quickly shakes off the thought. He just asked her to move in with him, he wouldn't do something like that, would he?
It's then that she hears a knock at her hotel room door, pulling her out of her thoughts. No doubt it's Jeff, she assumes. Standing up, she grabs her robe off the chair and slips it on as she goes to answer the door, ready to give him a piece of her mind. But when she opens it, she finds someone else standing there instead.
"Luke." Layla says rather surprised, quickly tying up her robe. "Have you seen Jeff? He didn't come back last night."
The older man, wearing a rather pained expression on his face, lets out a heavy sigh. Tilting her head slightly, somewhat confused by his behavior, Layla watches as he struggles to get out what he's trying to say.
"That's why I'm here. Layla... Jeff's in the hospital. He got into accident."
The words hit like a ton of bricks, her eyes sting with tears and she feels her legs start to buckle slightly underneath her. Reaching out, she immediately clutches onto the wooden door beside her, in order to stay upright as the impact of the news settles in.
Luke informs her on what he knows about the situation, which isn't much at the moment, then offers to drive her over to the hospital where Jeff is being treated at. She accepts the offer and tells him she'll meet him downstairs. Layla then hastily throws on a change of clothes before rushing out the door.
The ride is quiet and Layla impatiently fiddles with the hem of her sweater as she waits for them to get their. She does her best to try and stay calm, but her mind won't rest until she sees him. That coupled with an additional pang of guilt she feels for thinking that he had spent the night with another woman, makes the drive seem even more unbearably long.
They finally arrive and after getting through some red tape, are lead back to Jeff's room. As she enters, Layla inhales sharply when she sees him lying there in the hospital bed, cuts and bruises scattered about his body. Slowly making her way over to him, she places her hand on his and her thumb gently strokes his skin.
The doctors start to fill her in on his current condition and what they intend to do from here, but she honestly can't process half of it, she's still in to much shock to really comprehend what they're saying.
What she does know is that he is in a coma and that his injuries were sustained from a large fall. She still doesn't know how it happened, but she refuses to believe the news reports theories on the incident, so she does her best to avoid them.
While she's sitting with him, one of the nurses tell her that even when a patient is in a coma, that it is believed they can still hear what's going on around them. So she talks to him, tells him how much she needs him, and hopes somehow it will help him wake up. Sometimes, Layla even sings to him a bit too. She finds the music cathartic in processing her feelings and it helps her cope with the situation.
Layla stays at his bedside for the next three days, despite the concerned attempts of those around her to try to get her to go back to the hotel for awhile and get some rest. As tired as she is, she finds herself unable to really sleep anyway, other than just a couple of minutes here and there. So she really only leaves to shower and get a change of clothes, then she comes right back.
It starts to become a routine until on the fourth day, when the sound of the door startles the exhausted Layla and she scrambles to her feet, wiping away a few stray tears as she sees an unfamiliar woman enter the room with one of the nurses.
"Who is this?" The woman asks accusingly, turning to the male nurse beside her for answers.
Before he can answer, Layla steps forward to introduce herself. "Layla, Jeff's girlfriend." She informs the other woman. "And you must be Jeff's sister." Layla had heard she was coming. Jeff never talked about his family much, but he had mention his sister once or twice.
The older woman doesn't respond, just looks her up and down with a calculating gaze, assessing her. After a moment, she quickly comes to a consensus.
"I want this girl removed from my brother's room immediately." She instructs callously, flicking her wrist in dismissal.
The next thing Layla knows is that she's suddenly being escorted out of the room and out into the hall. The door then slammed behind her, sending a resounding echo down the empty corridor as Layla stood there in shock over what had just occurred. Had that really just happened? She was stunned and heartbroken over being kicked out of Jeff's room. But there was nothing she could do, family has every right to choose who is and is not allowed in when the patient is unconscious.
Not sure what to do now, she wanders out into the waiting room and takes a seat on the cold, hard chair. While out there, one of Jeff's usual nurses finds Layla in the waiting area, and when she hears about what happened, she takes pity on the poor girl and discreetly gives her updates on Jeff's condition whenever she can. The young musician is beyond grateful for the help.
It's on the fifth day that Jeff finally wakes up from the coma. His surroundings come to a shock to him at first, until he starts to remember what exactly happened that landed him here in the first place.
After waking, it isn't long before doctors and nurses come in to talk to him, check his vitals, and run a number of tests on him. They fill him in on the extent of his injuries and how he's lucky to even be alive. After everything is complete, before the doctor leaves, he notifies Jeff that he has a visitor waiting for him.
The man leaves, and a couple minutes later he can here footsteps outside his door. The beeping of the heart monitor he's attached to increases slightly as the door starts to open, but he quickly frowns upon seeing who it is.
"Little brother." The older woman greets, her voice lacking any warmth to it.
"Kate. What are you doing here?"
"I'm apparently still your emergency contact." She informs him as she shuts the door behind her.
He makes a quick mental note to change that as soon as possible.
His sister, dressed in a navy blue pant suit, steps further into the room and puts one hand on her hip. "According to the news reports, you tried to commit suicide." She shook her head and sighed. "But you couldn't even do that right. I'm not surprised, you've always been the family disappointment."
Jeff rolled his eyes and groaned. She wasn't even here for five minutes and they were already on that topic. He almost died, and yet here she was, once again doing what his family always did. They never understood his choices in picking a career involving music, considered it to be a career beneath them. Which was why, despite coming from money, Jeff had to put himself through college after making the mistake of telling his father he wanted to go into music. They never let him live it down when his short lived dream of being a musician didn't pan out.
"Glad to see you so concerned about my health." He replied sarcastically.
The woman let out a snort and waved off his comment.
"You seem disappointed to see me. Expecting someone else?"
"Yeah, actually..." He couldn't hide his crestfallen tone. He had hoped it would have been Layla who walked through the door.
The woman crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow at him. "What, that little doe-eyed brunette? I sent her away days ago." She states matter of factly, with a shrug of her shoulders.
Her comment made him quickly sit up in his bed, which he immediately regretted, as the wires attached to him pulled roughly at his skin. "You what!?" He practically yelled, but his voice came out strained from lack of use over the past week.
She let out an impatient huff of air. "Pfft. Oh please, don't be so dramatic. You'll have a new floozy to play with by next week and you'll have forgotten all about the girl."
Jeff's face hardens. "It's not like that with her." He defends. "I care about her."
"Of course you do." Kate patronized, with a fake smile.
His sister then shook her head and rolls her eyes. "But really Jeff, another musician? Because that really worked out so well for you last time with Jade St. John."
"Watch it." Jeff warned, knowing she was quickly entering dangerous territory.
"And now this one? What's the matter Jeff, dated all the women in this town and now you're just left scraping the bottom of the barrel?"
That comment against Layla was the last straw. He clenched his fist and narrowed his eyes at her.
"How's that loveless marriage of your's working out, sis?" He shot back, his trademark smirk playing out across his face. "Husband still cheating on you?"
She recoiled at the comment and glared at him. "At least I'm not the one out there disgracing the family name!"
Jeff let out a laugh of derision, "Ha, some family. Our mother abandoned us as kids, and our father remarried some blonde bimbo who couldn't even bother to remember our names. Money is the only prestige this family has left."
But before the conversation could go any further, the door to his room flew open and Layla came barreling inside, where she immediately came over and wrapped her arms around him. The gesture completely caught Jeff off guard, but once he recovered from the initial shock, he slipped his arms around her and rested his chin on top of her head.
"Layla." He said fondly, a smile slowly forming on his lips as he stroked her hair.
"I'm not hurting you am I?" She asked cautiously, pulling back slightly to look up at him, a hint of worry in the tone of her voice.
He gives a slight chuckle and shakes his head. "No, you're not." Layla gives a small nod before embracing him once more.
Kate watches the sight of the two of them together with a look of disgust and disapproval on her face, before letting out a loud, annoyed, huff and exiting the room.
"So... that's your sister." Layla says after the woman leaves.
"Yep."
Layla hesitates a moment, trying to find the best way to phrase it. "She's... Uh. Um..."
"A Bitch." He replied bluntly.
Layla can't help the laugh that escapes her mouth. "Jeff!" She scolds softy.
He shrugs his shoulders. "What? She is."
Once their laughter dies down, and the room goes quiet, Layla lightly leans against his shoulder, breathes him in and lets out a heavy but relieved sigh. Jeff can feel her body suddenly relax, as all the worry and tension leave her upon seeing that he's okay. He hadn't noticed it before, but her eyes were red and puffy from crying, and she looked completely exhausted. Had she gotten any sleep since what happened?
It was all just so strange. He was so used to people hating him, that seeing someone genuinely care about him was such an unfamiliar sight. He'd forgotten what it was like.
After a moment, Layla gets up, pulling Jeff from his thoughts, and she grabs the chair from the corner of the room. She then pulls it up beside his bed and takes a seat.
The sight reminds Jeff of the time not that long ago, when the situations were reversed. Where Layla was the one in the hospital bed and he was the one waiting in the chair, after she had overdosed last year at a party.
He turns and finds that she's just staring at him, with a sad smile on her face. Jeff tilts his head slightly in confusion. "What?"
Her eyes are wet with unshed tears she's trying to hold back. She reaches forward and wraps her fingers around some the fabric of his hospital gown and swallowed hard. "I was so scared that you would never wake up." She chokes out, finally letting her tears fall. "I-I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't." Her gaze then falls to the floor.
Jeff gives a small smile and leans closer to her. He brushes a strand of hair out of her eyes and tucks it behind her ear, then gently cups his hands around her face and tilts her chin up so that she's looking at him. "Hey." He says softly. "Listen to me. I'm right here, I'm not going anywhere. It's going to take a lot more than a couple of broken bones and bruises to stop Jeff Fordham. Alright?
He gives a cocky smirk at the last part and Layla chuckles slightly and nods.
Jeff sees her start to relax again and he smiles. "Good." Then he remembers something. "Oh, I liked your song by the way. Is it new?" Jeff asks curiously.
"Huh?" Layla looks up at him, a bit surprised and confused at first by his question. But then she recalls what the nurse had said about patients being able to still hear things while in a coma and suddenly it makes sense. Layla nods." Yeah, it is actually." The song is about him, she wrote it while waiting for him to wake up.
Jeff then notices as Layla covers her mouth and stifles a small yawn, as the exhaustion starts to finally catch up with her.
"Get some sleep." He suggests.
"Not yet. You just woke up." She argues sleepily, resting her elbows on the edge of his bed.
The corner of his lips turn up slightly in amusement. Jeff can tell she's going to fall asleep any minute, but he plays along anyway and let her think she's won. "Alright."
Layla gives a triumphant smirk just before nodding off. Jeff chuckles quietly and shakes his head. Despite having been in a sleeping for about five days straight, he too finds himself rather tired and it isn't long before he joins her in getting some shut eye.