The nurses liked me a bit too much. Or maybe they liked the fact that my strong Viking friend kept popping by to visit and make sure I was okay. I saw the way they pretended to check my charts ten times an hour whenever he was there. Cameron never noticed, though. He was too busy telling me what to do, and blind to the way their eyes popped and their mouths dropped open whenever he flexed his biceps and tied his hair in a topknot. If it hadn’t hurt to, I’d have been laughing the whole duration of his visits. As soon as he disappeared down the corridors, I didn’t see the nurses again unless I pressed the buzzer. Damn horny women.

I didn’t know what I’d do without them.

They took no prisoners and suffered no fools. Whenever I tried to get out of their bed baths or avoid taking more pills, one single glare from them would have me cowering and giving in to whatever demands they made.

I was more grateful to them than I could ever express.

My parents kept asking when I could go home, but with just a few sly glances at Joan and my fairy godmother, they picked up on the fact that I wanted to stay in the hospital. It was mundane and time passed slowly, but I was close to Alex and Natalie, right where I needed to be. Two more days crawled by with a routine falling into place. I’d go and see Alex in the morning. Then I’d go back to my room and report to Danni. I’d eat. Get a bed bath—embarrassing as hell, I might add—and then I’d repeat the same thing in the afternoon.

Every day I spoke to Alex, but never quite with the same emotion as the first time. I read the newspaper to him, told him the latest football scores and tried to wind him up by letting him know that Leeds United were beating his team, Liverpool FC. Of course, they weren’t. They weren’t even in the same league, but desperate times called for far-fetched measures.

Natalie remained awake, but never really alert. She’d started to take in a little more food each day, but she was frail, weak, and exhausted.

We quickly fell into a reassuring routine where she would say little, and I would fill in the gaps when I felt she needed me to. Every morning the conversation would start the same way:

“Any signs of him waking?” I’d ask, hopeful.

“He still sleeps,” she’d reply, dejected.

“Lazy bastard,” I’d mutter before she would come and rescue me from the nurse and push me to the window. There we would sit, either in silence or reminiscing about a time when things weren’t so messed up.

I’d lost track of the days. As well as my sketchbooks, my mum had brought me playing cards as a way to keep the hours ticking by while I was in the isolation of my own room. I was thinking about entering the Solitaire World Championships next year, I was becoming that good. As a way to try to keep Natalie’s mind occupied, I’d challenged her to a game of Rummy. Mainly because it was the only one I knew how to play that involved other people.

We were sitting by the window, the sun still rising in the spring sky as another day began to come to life in front of us. The air outside was still. No wind blew, no trees shook, and the cloudless sky was a perfect blue. If I focused on the outside world instead of who was lying behind me fighting for his life, it was almost peaceful.

I had three fours and a same suit run of a king, queen and jack. All I needed now was another four, an ace or a ten, and victory would be mine. I picked up a card from the small table that sat in between us, keeping my poker face in place when the four of hearts stared back at me. Peeking up over the top of my cards, I gave her a look, only to see that her eyes had drifted to the window as she watched a small bird flutter furiously outside it, trying desperately to get in. Her eyes filled with tears, which happened a lot. But this time she managed a tired, sad smile, too.

Looking back at the winning card in my hand, I slowly let it fall down onto the pile of cards in between us, happy to let my victory go this time.

Natalie continued to look outside, a small tear trickling down her cheek as the bird continued to try to get in.

“Not today, little birdy,” she whispered to herself. “He might wake tomorrow.”

“You okay?” I asked.

She nodded, not taking her eyes away from it. “They always remind me of Alex.”

“Birds?”

“Yeah.”

I looked between the flighty thing and Natalie, confused as to what was passing between them. She sighed before she blinked away her tears, wiped the back of her hand over her cheeks, shuffled forward and looked down at the pile of cards in between us.

“A four,” she said, picking it up slowly.

“You need that?”

“Looks like I’ve just won.” Her eyes sparkled from the rays of sun that poured through the window, her tears lighting up her beautiful face in a way sadness shouldn’t be able to. She displayed a full winning hand on the table for me to see.

“Damn,” I croaked. “I can’t seem to catch a break.”

The bird outside caught my eye again just before it flew away, only to do a U-turn in the sky and head straight back towards us. It hit the window with an almighty thud, making Natalie gasp and her hands rise to her mouth as we watched the bird’s wings flutter and struggle, somersaulting in a wild spin before it did the same thing again, bashing its head straight into the glass pane.

Natalie sat upright. I stared on in confusion.

A silence descended over us.

Then the beeping sound of a monitor took over as it picked up a faster pace.

Our heads both spun around to stare at Alex’s still body. I don’t know why I didn’t look at his face first, but my eyes drifted straight to his hands. The little finger of the one closest to me rose ever so slightly before it fell back down again.

My eyes widened, my whole body rippling with goosebumps as I stared, unblinking, unable to even breathe for fear of it being an illusion.

It did it again.

“Natalie,” I whispered. “Did you see that?”

She didn’t answer me. The silence was thick, heavy, and filled with suspense.

“Did you see that?” I asked again.

“Yes,” she answered in a strangled whisper.

The bird hit the window again, harder this time, but our eyes remained locked on Alex. When I saw his lips part, my body froze, too scared to move for fear of it being a hallucination.

“Oh my…” Natalie breathed.

“… God,” I finished for her.

“B-bird,” Alex finally croaked, his voice barely qualifying as a sound, his diluted voice raspy, harsh, and sore.

“Alex,” Natalie gasped.

His eyes began to flutter. Slow and steady, like he was ripping stitches from his lashes as he struggled to see the world again for the very first time. Then he looked up at the ceiling, his body still once more as he lay motionless, unmoving, and at peace.

Natalie’s breath caught in the back of her throat before she jumped up from her seat, practically kicking the table out of the way as she stumbled on weak legs to his bedside, grabbed his hand and pulled it close to her chest.

“Alex?” she sobbed, repeating his name over and over again as her tears fell with force and her fingers worried his hand frantically.

“B...bird…” he mouthed, so quietly it was almost silent.

“That’s right. You heard it.”

Alex closed his eyes slowly, taking far too long to open them again before he released the air in his chest through a tired sigh.

“The bird is here,” she breathed down on him. “Did it wake you?”

“Yes,” he breathed, dumping the weight of a thousand unspoken words from his body.

“Oh,” she gasped, smacking her lips together as a huge grin of relief broke free on her face. “Oh, thank you, Lizzy.”

Lizzy…

Say hi to them for me. Tell them I miss them.

The memory of the voice that kept me company while I’d been sleeping made goosebumps break out across my skin.

Lizzy…

Could it be?

My own eyes filled with tears as I turned the wheels of my chair in their direction, sat back and watched the magic before me. You only have to see real magic once in your life to finally be certain that it exists. Right then, I knew. I knew all of it was real.

It’s funny what you do in situations like that. I suppose I should have been sobbing alongside Natalie. I should have been pushing myself forward with all the strength I had to get to a buzzer and call for a nurse. I should have been crying out that I’d heard Lizzy, too. But nothing felt right. My voice didn’t need to be heard above the happy sobs, the gasps of breaths, and the whispered I love yous. In truth, I was happy letting the relief wash over me, and all I could do was sit back in my chair and smile the most genuine smile I’d released since the accident.

Laughter started to rumble in my chest, forcing my shoulders to bounce as I watched Natalie kiss his hand over and over again as Alex stared up at the ceiling, his mouth moving and his words barely audible. He was awake, but still not fully present. That didn’t matter.

He was alive.

The motherfucker was alive.

I knew he could do it. I knew he’d never leave her behind.

“Natalie,” Alex eventually breathed out, the word filled with reverence, longing, desire and relief.

She leaned over, stroking his hair as tenderly as she could as she stared deep into his eyes. “I’m here, baby,” she whispered as her tears rained down. “I’m here.”

“Here,” he repeated.

“Right here.” Her eyes searched his, her chin trembling as she slowly came back to life as much as Alex himself was doing. “Never leaving you. Not now, not tomorrow. I’m with you forever. Always here.”

“I… made it,” Alex whispered.

“Of course you did. You’re Alex Law. The man who always finds his way back eventually.”

“Here,” he whispered again.

“With me.” Natalie beamed as the tears tore down her cheeks.

“Love… you,” he said as his sucked in a breath, the truth of his words making a small tear fall from the corner of his eye.

“I love you isn’t enough,” she told him. “I’m nothing without you. Nothing. Don’t you ever leave me for that long ever again.”

Alex slowly shut his eyes for a few seconds before he let them flutter open again. His body relaxed, his chest caving in on itself as he blew out a strangled breath and stared up at the ceiling. “Lizzy.”

Natalie ran her hand through his hair again, her eyes searching his face in confusion. “Lizzy?”

He let his eyes fall back to Natalie, another tear falling down his cheek. “She… she says hi.”

I wasn’t a medical expert. I had no idea what was meant to happen after someone came out of a coma, but I guess somewhere in the back of my mind, I’d expected it to be a slower process than what was happening right before my eyes. A switch had been flicked in Alex’s mind. On. Off. Back on again. It looked as simple as that. He was groggy, too still for me to believe he was really awake, but the spark of light had returned to his eyes as he stared up at Natalie’s relieved face and whispered words of love to her. Words he’d been wanting to say since the moment his world went black, dragging him under into a peaceful sleep while his body healed itself.

The doctors and nurses were in and out of the room quickly, and I was soon asked to leave. Natalie wasn’t going to be removed no matter how hard they tried. I went back to my room, ate my lunch and picked up the phone to call Danni.

She was the first person I wanted to tell the good news to. She was the only one I had in mind to exhale my relief on. Danni, somewhere along the line, had become my strength.

“Marcus,” she answered, her face appearing before me as bright, beautiful, and inspiring as ever.

“Want to know a secret?” I asked her hoarsely.

She furrowed her brow, not hiding her curiosity as she bit her plump lip and gave me a small nod. “Always.”

“Over the last few months, I’ve learned a lot about life. About love. About friendships and all that other jazz. I feel like my whole insides have opened up, kinda bloomed like a flower, you know? It sounds cheesy to say it out loud, but it’s true. Everything I thought I knew wasn’t enough. I thought my heart was pretty big before I met you. Now I’ve realised it might have been, but it wasn’t… open.” I swallowed harshly, watching the confusion bounce around on her face as she studied me. “It was guarded by this need to be what everyone else needed me to be. Funny. Light. Supportive. Strong. I wanted to be like my dad—the backbone of the family. I wanted to be the golden child for my mum—strong, perfect, funny, the one she was proud of. I wanted to be the National Guard for Sammy’s life—a bit of a hero. I wanted her to see me the way I saw my dad. Like nothing could faze me.”

“You wanted to be a martyr,” Danni suggested.

“Maybe.” I nodded.

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” I answered, shrugging a shoulder. “Why do some people like strawberries and other people hate them? Why do some people have empathy and others have none? Sometimes we’re just the way we are, and we don’t have an explanation for it.”

“But now you feel different?”

“Yeah.” A weak smile tugged at my mouth, and I stared deep into her shining eyes of light. “Because of you.”

Her teeth worried at her lip as she gazed back at me. “What have I done?”

“Been there. Made me look at myself. Made me look at life. Opened me up.”

“I’m glad I could help.”

“You made me fucking glow.”

Danni’s smile grew wider, a silence passing between us that said so much, but still left us both guessing what the other was thinking.

“You want to know another secret?” I asked.

“Always.”

“Alex is awake.”

Her gasp was loud and harsh, the impact of it hitting the back of her throat like a steel truck. “Is he… Is he…?”

“He’s fucking great,” I told her through a small, nervous laugh.

“He’s really back?”

“He’s back.” I cleared my throat and tensed my jaw, shuffling around on my arse as I let the news sink in with Danni and tried not to let her see me swallowing down my emotion.

Her questions came to me thick and fast in true Danni style. Had he spoken? Was Natalie okay? What had the doctors and nurses said? I tried to answer what I knew, but after being ushered out of the room, I was as much in the dark as she was. Eventually, after a lot of tears from her, and a massive case of throat ache from me, I began to say my goodbyes to her, promising I would call again in a couple of hours.

“Danni?” I said, just before she pressed the button to end the call.

“Yeah?”

“You are killing it out there in Rome, aren’t you? Promise me you haven’t let this whole accident taint your view on everything.”

She blinked, a moment dragged out to stall her answer, before she flashed her pearly whites at me and gave me a nod. “I’m killing it. Just for you.”

“Love it, baby.”

“Love…” she paused, swallowing down whatever it was she was going to say. “Yeah.” She smiled. “Loving it, too.”

Natalie came to see me later that afternoon after she’d been forced to leave Alex alone with some of the doctors. I had the small television on in the background while she sat at the end of my bed, trying to avoid knocking my casts or hitting any buttons she shouldn’t hit.

“Does he know about Nicholas?” I asked her, my eyes quickly flicking up to the door as my fairy godmother nurse came in to drop off a jug of water before she flashed me a smile and walked back out again.

“I told him,” Natalie started, pulling my attention back to her. “But he said he already knew.”

“He already knew?”

“A lot of things played out in his head while he was asleep, he said. He remembers the moments just before the crash. Your voice. The screaming. The panic. Alex said he felt his dad go the moment his car made impact with that wall. He felt the connection between the two of them break. Like the snapping of a band or something.”

“Wow,” I mouthed. “And how does he feel about it?”

“I don’t think he’ll tell me the truth on that one.”

“Why not?”

“Because he’s always wanted to hate his father. There’s something inside him that makes him feel like he’s betraying me by loving him.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“That’s why I tried to show him I would never make him choose between Nicholas and me again. I would always try to bridge that gap. Only now I can’t.”

“I hope, for Nicholas’ sake, he’s made it to Hell. ‘Cause if he’s somehow been sent to Heaven, Lizzy is going to give him an eternity full of shit on behalf of both of you.”

Natalie looked up at me through tired eyes. “Do you believe in those kind of things, Marcus?”

“The afterlife?”

“Yeah.”

“I think it would be a shitty world if we didn’t believe in that kind of magic, don’t you?”

She smiled, her fingers twisting together in her lap. “Do you really think Lizzy spoke to him?”

I chose not to tell her what I thought I’d heard while I was out of it. That moment and the message from Lizzy belonged to Alex and Nat alone.

“I think the important question here is, do you think Lizzy spoke to him?”

“I think I would be a shitty sister if I didn’t believe in her special kind of magic, don’t you?”

“Abso-friggin-lutely.” I grinned. “So don’t be a shitty sister.”

“Good plan.” Her eyes danced with tears again. Natalie was fragile right there and then. She was broken, tired from trying to be strong and aching from the weight of the worries that had been heaving on her shoulders.

“You know what else you shouldn’t be?”

“What’s that?” she asked innocently.

“A shitty girlfriend who forgets how to take care of herself and ends up becoming too weak to take care of her boyfriend.” I raised a brow, making sure my voice was soft and sincere, even if it did hold a bit of a lecturing tone to it. “He’s going to need you over the next few weeks and months, Nat. He’s going to need you now more than ever. With Nicholas gone…”

“… I’m all he has,” she finished for me.

“No.” I shook my head to disagree. “He has us. All of us. But you’ll be all he wants.”

Nat tilted her head to one side, her eyes narrowing as she studied me. “When did you get so incredible, Marcus?”

“Please,” I scoffed. “I’ve always been this way. You’re only just seeing it now because of those Alex Law tinted glasses you’ve always had on.”

She gave me a small laugh before she looked back down into her lap again. “I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you, too.” I did. I fucking did. She was a soul mate of sorts, only a different kind from the one she used to be. Natalie was someone I couldn’t live without, even if I had tried to push her away. She was someone so pure and innocent, so grounded and raw… I needed her in my life to remind myself that good people did exist. In fact, I needed her to remind me that I was surrounded by so many of them. Danni. Alex. Paul. Suzie. Sammy. My Parents. Cameron.

I was a lucky bastard, and once I was back to full health I was going to live my life like it was full… because it was full now. It was hearty. It was a meaty life filled with so much love and passion from those who had taken me into their hearts. I was going to get better.

“Time for us to work on getting stronger then, right?” Natalie said, looking up at me one last time with a smile on her face.

“Is this where we play Rocky music and have a montage of our strength training flash across the screens of our lives?” I laughed.

“I’m game if you are.”

I grinned, curling my bicep and coaxing a laugh out of her. “I’m going to whoop your arse, Drago.”

“Go for it.” She winked.