[3rd Day Awake From The Coma]
The rhythmic beep of the cardiac monitor was the only sound in Room 412 until the heavy double doors at the end of the hall swung open with a familiar, chaotic energy. Ethan, who had been sitting on the edge of Annie's bed helping her organize her charcoal pencils, looked up just in time to see Ellie and Riley march in.
Ellie was carrying a stack of textbooks so high it obscured her chin, while Riley followed behind, looking significantly less burdened with only a single backpack slung over one shoulder and a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Alright, break it up, you two," Ellie announced, dropping the tower of books onto the rolling meal table with a thunderous thud that made Annie jump. "The vacation is over. Well, for one of you, at least."
Annie looked at the mountain of paper with a mixture of dread and curiosity. "Is that... for me?"
"Half of it is," Ellie said, pulling out a chair and sitting down with the authority of a drill sergeant. She turned her sharp gaze toward Ethan. "The other half is for the love-sick puppy currently squatting in this hospital room. Ethan, I just talked to Mr. Henderson. Do you have any idea how many assignments you've missed in the last fifteen weeks?"
Ethan groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. "El, not now. I'm busy."
"Busy doing what? Watching the IV drip?" Ellie snapped, though her eyes softened with a bit of humor. "Your grades haven't just slipped; they've plummeted off a cliff, hit every jagged rock on the way down, and are currently drowning in a lake of failure. Annie has a doctor's note and a legitimate coma as an excuse. You? You're just a loon who refused to leave the building."
Riley let out a sharp bark of a laugh, leaning against the doorframe. "She's right, man. The school secretary asked if you'd moved to a different country. I told her you'd just transitioned into a permanent furniture fixture in the neuro-wing."
Ethan felt his ears turn a deep shade of crimson. He tried to focus on Annie's hand, but he could feel her amused gaze on him. "I've been... occupied. Keeping my priorities straight."
"Keeping your priorities straight doesn't pay for the police academy," Ellie countered, sliding a thick packet of Calculus worksheets toward him. "You're lucky Dylan hasn't kicked you out for being a distraction. You've spent fifteen weeks acting like a love-sick puppy, staring at her like she's the only source of oxygen in the room. It's sweet, really, but it's also pathetic."
The "love-sick puppy" comment hit Ethan like a physical blow. Usually, he would have fired back with a witty remark about Ellie's own social life, but today, the word love felt heavy. It felt dangerous.
Ethan's heart did a slow, painful roll in his chest. Just last night, Annie had remembered the poem. She had remembered the night he told her he wouldn't let anyone hurt her. But the bridge between protecting someone and loving them was a vast, terrifying expanse, especially when the person across from you was still missing eight months of her soul.
He hadn't told anyone- not even his mother, that he had officially dropped the "L-word" to a girl who, for the last few days, hadn't even known about their relationship. Hearing Ellie throw the word around so casually made him feel exposed, like a secret had been shouted in a crowded hallway.
"I'm not a puppy," Ethan grumbled, his voice dropping an octave as he felt the heat crawl up his neck.
"Oh, please," Riley chimed in, stepping closer to the bed and giving Annie a wink. "You should see him when you're asleep, Annie. He gets this look. It's like he's waiting for the sun to rise, but the sun is just you breathing. It's honestly gross. It makes me want to go buy a Hallmark card and then set it on fire."
Annie looked from Riley to Ethan, her head tilting slightly. She saw the way Ethan wouldn't meet her eyes, the way his jaw was tight and his shoulders were hunched. She saw the flustered, raw vulnerability that he usually kept buried under layers of leather-jacket bravado.
"Ethan?" Annie asked softly.
Ethan finally looked at her, and the panic in his green eyes was unmistakable. He was terrified. He was terrified that Ellie's big mouth had pushed things too far, too fast.
He had made a vow to wait, to let Annie find her own way back to him, but love was a massive weight to drop on someone who was still struggling to remember her own phone number. To him, the word was a tether. To her, he feared it might feel like a chain.
"Don't listen to them," Ethan said, his voice a bit too fast. "They're just bored because football season is ending and they have nothing better to do than harass us."
"We're not harassing," Ellie said, her tone shifting to something a bit more sincere. She reached out and patted Ethan's arm. "We're just worried. You've sacrificed a lot, Ethan. We don't want you to lose your future because you were too busy guarding someone else's."
She turned back to Annie. "And you. I brought your AP Lit stuff. I know you can't remember the last few books we read, but I figured it might help spark something. Or at least give you an excuse to tell Riley to shut up when he gets too annoying."
"I appreciate it, Ellie," Annie said, her fingers grazing the edge of the textbook. She looked back at Ethan, her gaze lingering on his flushed face. "But maybe Ethan should take a break and go to the library? Or the cafeteria? If his grades are that bad, I'd feel terrible if I was the reason he didn't get into the academy."
"No," Ethan said instantly, the word coming out sharper than he intended. He softened it with a shaky breath. "No. I can do the work here. I'm not leaving."
Riley let out a whistle. "See? Puppy. I'm telling you, Annie, if you told him to go fetch a stick from the parking lot, he'd be back in thirty seconds with his tongue hanging out."
"Riley, if you don't shut up, I'm going to use this Calculus book to illustrate the laws of physics on your head," Ethan snapped, but the edge was gone, replaced by a weary sort of embarrassment.
Ellie stood up, dusting off her hands. "Alright, we'll leave you to your 'study date.' Ethan, if that packet isn't half-finished by tomorrow morning, I'm telling your mom you've been spending your time playing games on your phone instead of studying."
"You wouldn't," Ethan narrowed his eyes.
"Try me," Ellie smirked. She leaned over and gave Annie a quick, careful hug. "I'm glad you're awake, even if you don't remember our secret handshake yet. We'll get there."
"Thanks, Ellie," Annie whispered.
Riley hovered by the bed for a second longer than necessary, his eyes scanning Annie with that same "researcher" glint. "Get some rest, Honey. And Ethan? Trynotto drool on her homework. It's unprofessional."
With a final wave and a chorus of bickering, the twins exited the room, their voices fading down the hallway until the only sound left was the hum of the machines and the rustle of paper.
The silence that followed was thick. Ethan stared at the Calculus packet like it contained a death warrant. He felt Annie watching him, and he knew he couldn't hide the flush in his cheeks anymore.
"Ethan?" she said quietly.
"I know," he muttered, still looking at the page. "They're a lot to deal with."
"Do you really love me?"
The question was so direct, so Annie-like, that it made Ethan's heart stop. He finally looked up. She wasn't looking at him with fear or confusion. She was looking at him with a deep, searching intensity- the kind of look that saw through the varsity jacket and the tough-guy act and went straight to the core.
Ethan swallowed, his pulse hammering in his ears. He realized there was no point in lying. Not now. Not after everything.
"I do," he said, his voice a low, steady vow. "And I know that's a lot to hear right now. I know you're still finding your way back. You don't have to say it back. You don't even have to believe it yet. But yeah... Ellie's right. I'm a love-sick puppy. And I'm not going anywhere."
Annie looked down at her hands, then back at him, a tiny, tentative smile touching her lips. "I don't think you're a puppy, Ethan."
"No?"
"No," she whispered. "I think you're more like a lighthouse. And I'm still just trying to find the shore."
Ethan felt the tension in his shoulders dissolve. He reached out, taking her hand and squeezing it gently.
"Then I'll keep the light on as long as you need, babydoll. Now, let's see how many of these math problems I can get wrong before you start making fun of me."