Back in Town

Chapter 14: Post Trauma - Day Seven

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*Flashback – Month Seven*

"Auntie Liv, can I ask you a question?" said Tom from where he sat next to her on the floor, playing video games together.

"Of course, Tommy boy, what is it?" Liv said, her eyes not glancing away from the screen.

He rolled his eyes. "Well first, can you please stop calling me Tommy boy? But that's not the question I wanted to ask."

"Nope, never will. On your wedding day, one day, I plan on calling you Tommy boy. But what's your question?"

"Do you love Hardy?" Tom asked.

Liv's eyebrow went up, but she wasn't able to answer the question before there was a knock at the door. Liv paused the game from her controller and hopped up, jogging to the door. She opened it to find David, Ellie's father, on the other side.

"What's up, Dad? I thought you were out with your friends tonight? It's why Ellie asked me to watch the boys."

"Liv, sweetie—Ellie called me and asked me to come over. She said you should get to the hospital. Hardy's been stabbed," David said as he came into the house.

"What!?" She quickly turned in a circle, trying to gather her thoughts enough to think about what to do next. She grabbed her keys, jacket, and purse. "Um, Fred's already in bed, Tom's allowed to stay up another half hour before bed. I'll, um, I just—"

"Go, sweetie—go on," David said and ushered her out the door quickly.

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"Jesus, Ellie—you could have given your father a bit more information—" Liv panted as she entered the A&E room, relieved to see Alec sitting on the edge of a bed, his whole lower torso being wrapped in gauze. She came up quickly, standing beside the nurse. "Are you okay?" She asked, her eyes focusing quickly between the gauze and his face.

Alec growled out a response, "I told her not to call you. I'm fine."

"DI Hardy was lucky," the nurse commented. "Had the knife struck an inch higher, there wouldn't have been much use for his pacemaker anymore."

"Alec! What happened!?" Liv sat down gently on the bed by him and ran one hand through his hair while the other clasped his hand.

"We were chasing a suspect," Alec started to explain, but stopped with a grunt and the nurse pulled the gauze tight on her last time around.

"He was chasing on foot, I had the car. But Alec caught up to him down an alley before I could get there. By the time I arrived, Alec was down in a pool of blood. Uniform caught up with the assailant and arrested him," Ellie finished the story.

The nurse had finished and left to get Alec's paperwork. Alec was trying to get his shirt back on, unsuccessfully due to the pain of moving and twisting his body. "Come here, you twit—let me help you." Liv sighed and took the shirt from him, holding it out for him to put one arm, then the other, into. She then buttoned it for him as he sat with shoulders slumped forward.

He sighed and fiddled with the hem of her jumper as she worked at the buttons, mumbling towards her, "Thank you for coming."

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*Present Day*

Alec stood from his chair, still feeling the pull of the scar building up around the knife wound he had received just a little over a month prior. He slowly walked to the window and gazed out a few minutes before walking back to the bedside and sitting down in the chair with a sigh.

He reached out for her hand, slipping his fingers between her own as he had multiple times every day now for seven days. "I hope you can hear me, Liv. I miss you desperately, darlin'. It's definitely worse than when you went to London. Worse than when I'm buried in work for days on end. You're here, but you're not, and it feels like torture. Please wake up for me, love. Let me so those beautiful eyes and hear your voice again." He paused, staring at her, hoping that maybe she would actually do what he had asked. But there was nothing, no sign of recognition, but then he saw out of the corner of his eye a blip on the EEG machine. It had been a steady stream of low brain activity, some low spikes when music was being played, but when he had spoke to her that time, it had hopped up more than he had seen in days.

"Liv, can you hear me? It's me, Alec. Can you hear me love?" He squeezed her hand and another spike went up on the machine.

Alec quickly called the nurse in. The nurse said it was an encouraging sign, but that it could be her dreaming, or just a blip—but Alec felt more hope than he had in days.

-*-*-

"I'm here to check on you," Liv said as Alec weakly slid the door open.

"You don't have to do that. I can manage. The nurse was just by to change the bandages," Alec mumbled, but turned and walked towards the kitchen, allowing her entrance. She closed the door behind her and followed to find him putting on a kettle of water. She saw his hand tremble as the strength to hold up the full kettle pulled at the muscles in his torso.

"Right," she said slowly. "You can manage. And tell me, Alec Hardy, if I were the one in your situation, would you have even left me home alone?"

He cleared his throat as he mulled over the question. "Hmm, probably not," he said as he approached and wrapped his arms around her waist, letting them loosely rest on her hips.

"Well then, stop complaining," she said before leaning in and giving him a gentle kiss.

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*Present Day*

The rest of the night, Alec noted that there seemed to be more brain activity than he had seen since the entire time she had been in the hospital. It was as if she was slowly waking up. He played her favorite songs, whispered in her ear, even sang quietly to her when he knew no one else could hear. He was hesitant to leave that night, feeling as if he should be there to keep her company now more than ever. The nurses let him stay an hour later, but eventually shooed him out with the promise that they would check on her more frequently and that he would receive a call if there were any significant changes.

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