Chapter Forty-One
Cam
It took a few days, but I finally came out of the drug-induced sleep to find Alex sitting next to my bed holding my hand.
"Hey, you're here." I smiled as she stood up and leaned over me.
"Of course, I've been waiting for you to wake up so we could talk." She smiled back.
"Where's Tesla?" I asked, suddenly worried that no one had checked on her and unsure of exactly how long I'd been out.
"Don't worry. Chief went and got her, she's at the station with the guys," Alex said as she brushed a stray piece of hair off of my forehead. "Everything's under control."
"What about Leo? He's probably seriously pissed at me," I said, furrowing my brow.
"No, actually I'm grateful that you created a ton of positive publicity, Cam," Leo said. I turned my head and saw him standing in the doorway smiling. "There's no way we could have generated this much interest in the business had you not played the hero."
"I didn't do it to generate business," I said, rolling my eyes. "And I'm not a hero."
"Of course, you are," Alex said as she took my hand and squeezed it. "You saved Liz and I, and you kept Victor from burning down that building."
"And now everyone thinks that kind of security comes standard with CSC services." Leo grinned.
"That's insane," I said, shaking my head.
"Nope, that's good publicity!" Leo replied. "I was able to play it up at Metzler's announcement that he's running for office, and the phone's been ringing off the hook ever since."
"You're an opportunist, Leo." I laughed.
"I'm pragmatic and a damn good businessman, if I do say so myself," Leo replied. "Look, I just wanted to stop in and see if you needed anything. They said you're probably going to be out of here in a few days, but that it's going to be a long slow recovery. Take it easy, will ya? I'll take care of business, and then when you're feeling up to it, you can come in and we'll talk about how we're going to handle this expansion."
"I'm not quite out of the clutches of death and you're talking business," I laughed and then winced.
"Hey, like I said, pragmatic." Leo grinned as he leaned over and gripped my shoulder. The look in his eyes was serious as he said, "I'm glad you're okay, Cam. Don't ever scare me like that again, you hear me?"
I nodded and smiled up at him as I bent my arm and gripped his hand.
"I gotta run; I have a date with a girl I met at the Metzler shindig," Leo said smiling at Alex and I. "Maybe I'll get as lucky as you two seem to have gotten."
After Leo left, Alex busied herself with straightening my blankets and getting me propped up so that I could watch television. She'd brought her books with her and sat studying while I flipped through channels. Occasionally, she'd look up and smile at me, but neither of us said much. I wasn't entirely sure what to say, and I wasn't sure if she wanted to talk about what had happened.
Around dinnertime, Alex left to go check on Liz. They'd moved her to the detox unit so that she could get the drugs out of her system, but it was a slow painful process of withdrawing given the fact that Liz had been using incredibly potent drugs for quite awhile. When Alex returned, she looked pale and worried.
"How was your visit with Liz?" I asked. Alex shook her head and bit her lip. "Is she okay?"
"She's...struggling," Alex said as she sat down. "I didn't know things had gotten so bad. How could I not have known?"
"Addicts are good at hiding things," I said, reaching out and taking her hand. "You can't blame yourself."
"I do though," she said, looking down at the floor. "She can't go back to school after the cheating charges were found to be true. I feel guilty."
"Guilty that you weren't cheating?" I asked. "Liz made her own bed, now she's got to lie in it."
"Wow, harsh, Connor," she said with a look of surprise. "I'd have thought you'd be a little more forgiving after what's happened."
"Why should I be more forgiving? I'm the one who almost died!" I said, wincing as I felt the pull of stitches in my side. "And that asshole almost killed you, too. Don't forget."
"Like I would ever forget," she said, standing up and walking to the end of the bed. "Cam, he said that you'd treated him badly and humiliated him. That's why he wanted revenge."
"I didn't treat that asshole badly, he was a fuck-up who couldn't fit in!" I shouted.
"And you're such a choir boy, aren't you?" she said, shaking her head. "You're a bossy, know-it-all who thinks that he can simply buy his way out of problems and make people like him."
"What are you talking about?" I said, confused by the sudden shift in her attitude.
"You paid my rent and my tuition and you didn't even ask me if I wanted you to!" she shouted. "You had every opportunity to tell me what you were planning to do, and instead you hid it and just did what you wanted to without consulting me!"
"I was doing you a favor!" I shouted back. A nurse came and stuck her head in the door and asked us to keep our voices down. Sheepishly, I nodded and then looked back at Alex, who was standing at the foot of my bed with an angry look on her face.
"You treated me like I didn't matter," she said. "Like you could just buy me off and I'd be happy. Why didn't you talk to me about what you were planning to do?"
"Because you hate people with money!" I said, looking up at her helplessly. "And I was afraid that if I brought it up, you would dump me!"
"But you thought that paying my bills in secret was a good way to avoid that?" she asked incredulously.
"I didn't...I...shit..." I said, shaking my head as I looked away from her.
"You didn't what?" she demanded.
"I didn't want you to be mad at me and I didn't want you to leave," I said, looking up at her as the raw emotion spilled out. "I haven't felt what I feel with you since Quinn died, and I didn't want to lose you. I want you to stay, Alex. Please. I'm sorry."
Confusion flashed across Alex's face as she listened to me confess my feelings. I watched her as she wrestled with whatever it was she was feeling before she spoke again.
"I don't want to leave you, Cam," she said softly as she moved around the bed and rested her hand on mine. "But you can't buy me. I don't like what money does to people. I don't like the way it changes them and makes them forget what's really important, and I thought you'd forgotten. I thought you were trying to buy me."
"I was just trying to help out," I said as I took her hand. "I knew how worried you were about Liz, and I didn't want you to have to worry about getting kicked out of school or your apartment while you waited for them to find you innocent. I knew they would. Cheating isn't you, Alex."
"You should have talked to me," she said.
"I know, I promise it won't happen again," I said, squeezing her hand. "Please stay."
Alex smiled as she leaned over and kissed me, then nodded. I wanted to pull her into my arms, but the minute I stretched out to her, I felt a sharp pain in my side and winced. Alex stood up and slid onto the bed next to me so that I could wrap one arm around her without having to stretch.
"Is this better?" she asked, looking up at me with a smile.
"Indeed it is," I said as I kissed her forehead. "We'll always find a way."