Capturing Ella

Chapter 50 - Joe

4:18pm, the next day

The doctor's had already given Ella the all clear from the coma drug. All of the drug has been worked out of her system and her heart rate, body temperature and blood pressure had returned to normal. Her breathing was consistent and she had started to move a bit more even though she remained asleep. In the early hours of this morning she seemed to have surfaced a bit more in what looked like a nightmare, mumbling something incoherent before squeezing my hand and then nothing. However, whilst they couldn't perform an ultrasound as it wasn't strictly medical needs – something Maui was tight about – they put a heart rate monitor on Ella's stomach and managed to find the heartbeat for the baby so we knew the baby was fine. I had never been more relieved when I heard the sturdy beat of my child but I wished more than anything Ella would have been there to hear it with me. But she was getting there at least.

I had met the majority of her family by myself, explaining to them all what had happened to her and how she ended up as bad as she did. However, I didn't tell them that we were together and we were Soulfinders, and I most definitely didn't tell them that we were also expecting a baby. I was brave – but really not that brave. I think I've met all but one of the brothers, the other one stuck in Colorado doing the American side of the paperwork for the FBI for Ella, so if she wants too she can fly back over there as soon as she can. Xav, who knew everything, told Vick that she'd stay over here for a while as she won't have medical clearance to fly for a while so at least it gave us time to work it all out.

Smiling down at her, I held her hand a bit tighter. The drip had been taken out of both hands (one provided saline solution, the others medicines but she was now only on one in her hand, and she was managing to hold my hand back slightly. Not firmly, but there was some muscle control there. My Dad cleared his throat as he watched me check up on Ella. Not wanting to seem so clingy and desperate for her to resurface, I checked the vitals on the screen but not once did I let go of Ella's hand.

'I'm so glad you found your girl, even if she is a bit roughed up at the moment,' Mum said for what was probably the eighteenth hundredth time in the last two hours. They had come to visit me but when I told them about Ella, and announced that we were Soulfinder's they sat in the room, lingering like a bad smell as if she'd wake up any time soon. I mean – Mum even squealed when I kissed her forehead when I came back into the room but that wasn't enough to wake her.

'Thanks,'

'Look, we should be going now. Visiting hours are over now but you call us the second she wakes up – I want to meet her properly, you hear!'

'Darling, leave him alone. And Emma probably won't be up for meeting you when you're this excited as she's just come out of a coma,' Dad explained to Mum, holding her hand.

'It's Ella.' I corrected Dad, knowing the look Ella would have given him if she was up, despite the fact it was a sincere mistake. Apparently I wasn't speaking properly and was murmuring everything I was saying – I was still in "shock" – so I must have murmured her name and he misheard it for Emma. Awkward.

'Oh, yeah, Ella. I'm so happy for you son, she seems like a wonderful young lady. We'll let you two rest now, but do call us when she wakes up and we'll be in the next day,' Dad explained. About ten minutes later I manage to usher them out of the ward, both of them kissing my cheek and telling me to tell them the second Ella woke up. I slowly walked back into Ella's room, rubbing my eyes completely shattered but not wanting to rest in case Ella woke up alone. I turned around the corner of the room to find Ella laying on her side, looking at the door, her eyes open and shining, but looked slightly glazed over too.