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Dan can hear voices beside his hospital bed. He feels too tired to open his eyes and see who they belong to.
The first one he recognizes is his sister's, for a second he fears that the other visitor is Nathan Barley again, but the voice soon reveals itself to be Jones. Eventually the sounds start to become words in his mind.
"...I'm moving, with the contract for Nathan's series I'll be able to rent a place just for me" Claire said.
"You don't have to, I'm happy to let you have the room. In fact I hardly used it, most of the time I ended up sleeping on the couch, you just made it official."
"Uh thanks, but I want to leave, it's better this way."
"Is it because of the noise?"
“Well I’ll admit I’ve never really gotten used to it, but it’s mostly because of him. I’m so mad at him for all the shit he’s done and I think distance is good for both of us.”
“I get it.”
“So... can I ask you a personal question?”
“Sure.”
“Why do you let my brother live with you in general? I’ve never understood that.”
“I don’t know, he needed a place to stay and I had a couch.”
“A lot of people need a couch a lot more than my idiot brother.”
“I know.”
“Can I ask you an even more personal question?”
There was a small pause, and then Jones said:
“Sure.”
“Are you in love with my brother?”
Dan is a little tempted to open his eyes to see the expression on Jones’ face at that moment, but he doesn’t.
After a long pause Jones says:
“Yeah, I guess I am.”
“Good, I mean for you it sucks because my brother is a disaster, but I’m glad he has you. Other than me I think you’re the only person in his life he likes.”
“Thanks I guess.”
“And who knows, maybe you can help him stop being such a jerk, the power of love and all that.”
“There’s always hope.”
Jones and Claire laugh together and Dan thinks that love doesn’t fix anything, but he likes the sound he hears, and slowly over the next few minutes he continues to hear the voices of the only two people in the world who made life bearable lulling him back to sleep.