CAT'S POV

I woke up in a cold hospital room. It was dark and my limbs hurt. They felt as if they didn't belong to my body. A steady beeping sound came from somewhere, but somehow I struggled to make it out. Was it behind me or in front of me? Was it somewhere above me? What happened?

A cold shiver ran down my spine as I thought of the last things I remembered. Blood, a lot of blood. Dave. Shots. So much blood. Oh my dear God, if you exist, please let them be alright.
I panicked. What happened to the guys? Brian? Matt? Oh God, Matt. He'd lost so much blood.
The monitor that was drawing my heart line suddenly beeped enormously fast.

"Miss?" the door swung open and a nurse of about my Mom's age made her way inside. "Please, don't panic. Everything is going to be alright. It's a good thing you woke up. How are you feeling? Dizzy? Sick?" I shook my head no. Didn't she understand? This wasn't about me. It was about my friends. I was alive, that had to be enough for the moment.

"Miss, are my friends alright? What happened after I blacked out?" I demanded to know, my voice sounding stronger and more urging than I thought it would. She threw me a pitiful look. I was sure they were referring to me as "the poor girl" or "the girl from that shooting" in the nursing room.

"Do you want me to give you another sedative?" She asked. "No but please, please tell me all you know about my case. Was anyone else admitted?" I urged. Couldn't she just answer to me like anyone else should?

"I'm afraid I don't know. I just started my shift. Wait, were you the one that came after the shooting at the old Westin?" She wasn't good at pretending I wasn't famous in the hospital yet, after a story like mine. I nodded. My guts clenched inside me. I didn't know what she would tell me. Were my friends still alive?

"You came here after the shooting. Three were found dead," the nurse whispered reverently. Wait, three? I felt hot tears sting my eyes. So that must mean ... Brian and... Matt. I swallowed. Matt.

"Two of them were police officers and the other one was the murderer. He wanted to kill everyone in the room, I was told." She whispered reverently.

My heart pounded faster and faster. That meant... "So can you tell me what happened to the others? Are they here?" It had to mean exactly that, right? So God existed, after all. I made a mental note to thank him later.

She must have sensed my urge. "I can look it up for you if you'd like. I mean, if you got their names, that is. And I'm actually supposed to... Well you know. Let's keep that a secret, okay?" She winked at me. Anything. If she told me she'd only be able to tell me after she severed off my finger I would have probably said yes, too. I just needed to know. It was so much more important than what was happening with me.

"Yeah, thank you so much. Look for Matthew Sanders please," I practically begged her.
"Alright sweetie, while I do that I'll have a doctor over. We think you might have a concussion in addition to your shock. If you feel fine we can release you tomorrow. I'll come by later."
"Thanks," I mouthed as the doctor entered my room. He was tall and slender with a thick accent, from India maybe.

"Hello, Miss Anderson. How are you feeling? Dizzy? Sick?" he greeted me with an enjoyable voice.

"Strangely fine," I replied. "It was kind of weird waking up, though. Like, there was this beeping sound and I couldn't make out where it was. Like I lost perception of space or something..."

He smiled. He had a warm, open smile. "That's a good sign," he explained, "it's a side effect of the sedative we're giving you to treat the shock. It's normal to have a messed-up perception of time as well." I nodded. "You're going to have to be on those pills for some more time," he added, "otherwise you could potentially pose a hazard to yourself or others after such an event." I nodded again. I was fine with taking whatever as long as I could get out.

"You're going to experience flashbacks. I'd suggest some therapy sessions with a psychologist, but we can talk about that later," the doctor said. He then proceeded to do some tests with me and found out I didn't have a concussion. I could be released first thing in the morning.

"Thank you, Doc," I said as he left.

Mere minutes later, the nurse came by again and slipped me a note with a room number. It was at the same floor I was at. Matt. My heart raced as I thought about him. I couldn't wait to see him. I hoped he was alright. I couldn't wait to tell him how much I love him. And I'm going to mean it, for the first time.

I snuck out of my bed, pulling the IV cord out of my vein. It hurt a lot and blood ran down my arm, but I couldn't care less.

I was going to see the man I loved with all my heart.

MATT'S POV

I didn't pass out. The scenes kept replaying as I lay in the hospital bed.

I was almost sure Dave's dead eyes would always haunt me from that day on. It looked like he was staring right at me, watching me slowly bleed out of the wound on my arm, hoping that at least I'd die, too, so that none of us would get to have her.

I didn't do him that favor. I stared at his lifeless face with anger and that was when I knew I would make it. A life with Cat, without him posing a threat, now seemed closer than ever. I am going to make it, I told myself. I'm going to live. And I'm going to be with her finally.
I repeated that mantra over and over. It was keeping me awake.

Minutes later cops were practically everywhere. They immediately rushed Cat and me into an ambulance. It was only then that I passed out.

I woke up in the middle of the night, my arm hurting like hell. I had no feeling inside my fingers and my head hurt, too. My left eye was so swollen that it didn't even open and I didn't have to see myself to know it was a massive black eye.

Am I dead? I can't be, right? How long was I asleep?

Suddenly there was a movement at the door. "Who is this?" I asked, my voice sounding weak. Was it Cat? Or was I dead, after all, ready to see God or Satan or whoever it is that we go to when we leave this world?

"Matt?"
I knew the voice. I had to be hallucinating, it couldn't be. It was someone I held dear, someone I shared so much history with. Someone I left sad and bitter, and someone I was sad and bitter about, too.

"Are you awake?" She sounded concerned. Was this my Heaven? Was this what God had in stock for me? I decided I had to answer. "Yeah I am. Am I dead?"

The shadow moved closer. The red control light on the machine I was hooked to painted her shiny blond hair almost red. "Matt, I'm sorry. I knew. I tried to stop him but I couldn't. I didn't have any idea he'd do something as crazy as that," she murmured. She took my right hand, the one the IV was hooked to, and I let her. It felt comforting that someone was finally with me.

"Val," I whispered. "I missed you," she sobbed. I didn't know what to say. I didn't love her anymore. I might have missed the person she used to be. But not someone who was as crazy as working with Dave.

"I missed you so much," she repeated herself. "Val, I miss you. But you're not that you anymore," I whispered.
Just in that moment, the door swung open and we were greeted by a flashing light. I was blinded. Someone must have turned on the lights.

"Uh, what the hell is going on here?" Cat sounded pissed, but also defeated. Oh God, I thought, this scene must really make her uncomfortable.

I didn't know what to say, so I remained quiet. Now I understood why Val wanted to talk with me in the dark. Her face was in a terrible state. What had he done to her? Her lips were bloody and chopped. Both of her eyes were bloodshot, the right one way worse than the left one.

As she turned around to face Cat, I heard Cat sharply inhale.

"I'm sorry, Cat. I was just apologizing to Matt." She said calmly. "I knew he'd do something crazy. That is why I tried to talk him out of it. Well you can see how well that went." She left out a chuckle, motioning to her black eye. "I didn't want any of this to happen, I swear. All I wanted was to have Matt back..." her voice sounded weak as she mustered me. It was only then that I saw her bandaged arm. He must have beaten her up pretty bad. I felt incredibly sorry for her.

"He said we should just turn up at the wedding and try and talk to you two. I thought it was alright to do. I was desperate. It wasn't fair. But it didn't work. And I was defeated. But he said I had to help with something else. So I played along, planning to call the cops when he did it. I'm sorry, I thought it would save you."

Tears start running down her face at an astonishing pace. I threw Cat a questioning look before using my good arm to hug Val. "It's okay. You saved us." She didn't.

Val stared at our entwined fingers for a long time. "You know, I'm ready to let go now," she said, drying her eyes. "You guys fit so much better than we ever did, Matt. It hurts, but I wish you all the best."

Thus having said, she turned around and left. I could tell she was trying to look as gracious as she could, but her limping made it look tired, vain somehow.

Cat turned to face me. "You're alright," I whispered as I used my good hand to cup her face. "I'm so happy you are, too," she replied.
I smiled even though every single fiber of my face hurt.

"I love you, Matt," she said with a smile. "I love you, too," I replied happily.

Notes