𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓, Miguel Diaz

S03:E02

•~3rd person P.O.V~•
Rachel sucked in a deep breath as she saw Carmen come back out of Miguel's room. She was nervous. Nervous that maybe he'd blame her. She was afraid. Afraid he'd blame and hate her. She was overthinking. Overthinking how her own brother had done this to the boy she loved.

The letter sat snugly in the front pocket of her hoodie, Rachel could almost feel the edges of it poking into her stomach. Carmen waved for her to come in but, as Rachel looked at Carmen's face, she remembered the tear-stained face she'd first seen when she'd gotten to the hospital.

The face that her brother caused. A face she could've prevented if she had been there. Rachel's body froze. Her mind was telling her to get up, to go see Miguel as she'd hoped for the past two weeks, but it was as if her body had pressed mute on her mind.

Carmen furrowed her eyebrows as Rachel stared up at her with wide eyes. It wasn't until they were filled with tears that Carmen made the connection that Rachel was worried. Carmen quickly sat in the seat next to Rachel, clasping her hands in hers.

"Rachel, sweetheart, what's wrong?" Rachel gulped.

"He's gonna be pissed at me," Rachel paused, realizing she'd just cussed in front of Miguel's mom, "sorry, Robby's my brother and all and I could've stopped it, I could've tried-" Carmen shook her head quickly.

"You can't blame yourself for what happened, do you know how many times I blamed myself? Thinking of all the possible things I could've done to prevent this?" Rachel gulped, she did that too. "You have to realize you can't change the past, this is a way to learn in the future." Rachel searched Carmen's eyes for any sign of her lying, but she wasn't. "Miggy doesn't know you're here, I just told him that a friend had been patiently waiting for him to wake up and she was here but if you wanna go home then-"

"No! I...I wanna see him." Carmen grinned as the two slowly stood. Carmen urged Rachel into the room as she fidgeted with her fingers.

"Rach?" Miguel whispered, he still had all of the bars and wires connected to him and it made the guilty feeling in her stomach grow tremendously.

"Hey, Miggy." She flashed him a smile. Miguel looked up at her through his hooded eyes. The doctors said he might be sleepy once he woke up, and he definitely looked tired.

"What," He gulped, his speech was slightly delayed, "are you..." Rachel understood what he was trying to ask, but it was a question she wasn't quite ready to answer.

"I've been here since the fight at school Miggy, well I missed about two hours because of the bitchy receptionist," Miguel chuckled a bit, the first smile since he came out of his coma appearing, "but I've been here ever since then." Rachel hesitantly placed her hand on top of Miguel's because she feared she might hurt him. And she didn't want to hurt him any more than she already had.

~

A day had passed and Miguel had been disconnected from the bars that straightened his spine and his head, but he was still connected to some cords. When Rachel told him she'd been there every day since the fight, he didn't really believe her.

That was until she ate dinner there, then showered at her house, then came back to the hospital with dessert for Miguel from Miguel's house, and then slept there in the chair to the left of his bed. Miguel kept asking "why are you here?" but Rachel never answered.

She'd do whatever else he asked her to do. She'd answer any other question he asked. Except for "where's Sensei?". She'd freeze up, her eyes would immediately look away from his face, and then find some excuse to leave the room or talk about something else.