Joe and Dianne One Shots

Too Late to Apologise Part 3

Joe's POV

There's noise, a beeping sound coming from somewhere. That's odd I think, my alarm doesn't make that sound. It carries on and the faint throbbing in my head intensifies. Where am I? What's that noise? I try to open my eyes but the bright white light blinds me so I quickly close them again. Trying to sense my surroundings, I can hear the faint sound of talking in the distance and try to tune in to what they are saying. I can't make out most of the words but I do hear something about blood pressure ... and that's when it dawns on me ... the accident ... I must be in hospital. 

Oh god, what happened! I remember feeling the impact of a car hitting me, and then everything goes a little fuzzy. I try to open my eyes again but after a few seconds of staring at the stark white ceiling tiles, the brightness brings out my headache and I whimper a little as a wave of pain hits me. I can hear someone make their way over to me and mutter something about more painkillers, then almost instantly, I'm much more relaxed and sleepy. I notice a heaviness to my arm and wonder what it is, but sleeps takes me and I drift back off.

XXX

I wake again, this time the light is more manageable, so I am able to fully open my eyes and glance around the room. I am in little side room, with several machines whirring away, and a drip which I presume they are using to give me painkillers. I can see my leg is in a cast and wonder what damage has been done to it, the gentle ache in chest makes me think I've done something to my ribs and god knows what my face looks like. But this is all forgotten when I feel the weight against my side again and look down to see a fan of bright red hair spread over my arm. Dianne has fallen asleep in the chair next to me, leant over the side of the bed with her head resting against my arm. I debate over whether to wake her up as I don't know how long she's been able to sleep for, but I think of how scared she must be, especially with how things were left and know that waking her up is the right thing to do.

I gently nudge her head with my arm, careful not to move the rest of my body too much to avoid more pain, but this movement is enough to wake her up causing her to bolt upright and look at me, shock written across her face.

"Joe! Your awake"

"Hey, Baby" I reply my voice horse after not using it for a while.

"Let me call the nurse" she says pushing the call bell "oh and I need to let Zo and Alfie know that you're ok"

The next few moments are a blur of "look here, and follow this light with your eyes", "Do you have any sharp pain or numbness", "Do you have a headache", "I'm just going to check your vitals". Through it all I kept my eyes locked on Dianne, who still has a look of shock and relief on her face as if she never expected me to wake up, which just breaks my heart. After all of that the doctor says "Well Joe, it looks like you have a minor concussion which should clear up in a couple of weeks. As you may have noticed you were brought in with a badly broken leg which we have pinned and you also had a small laceration on the liver as a result of the impact, which caused significant internal bleeding. You seem to be recovering well so far, so we'll keep you up here in ICU for the rest of the day to monitor you, and then if all is good by this evening you should be able to go down onto to a normal ward to continue your recovery."

As the doctor leaves the room I notice the clock on the wall says it's nearly 11.30am. "Di, shouldn't you be in training?"

"Don't worry about that, I called and talked to the producers, they've got one of the other pros that's already been eliminated in with him today and I've sent them over the footage from the last few days so they can carry on practicing the routine. We all just want you to focus on getting better" She says with glassy eyes.

"Look Di, I'm so sorry I just stormed out like that, we should have talked about the situation like mature adults rather than me just getting in a strop. Getting the call after that must have been horrible"

"No Joe, I'm so sorry I made you feel like you couldn't talk to me about how you were feeling. I'm sorry if gave you any reason to think that I would ever cheat on you, you're my whole world and I don't know what I'd do if I lost you ... I nearly lost you, Joe." She sobs. Wincing slightly I shuffle to one side of the bed and gesture for her to join me on the bed. She gingerly climbs on and wraps an arm around me, crying into my chest.

I whisper into her ear "I'm not going anywhere for a long, long time Di. I'll always be here for you, I was just being stupid and jealous. I know you'd never cheat, and I'm really sorry I made you think I doubted you. I was tired of not spending any time with you, but I shouldn't take that out on you. It's your job, and I promise I do understand what's involved, I just can't pretend that it's not a lot harder than I imagined it would be"

She sniffles, lifting her head and gazing into my eyes "I love you so much Joe, thank you for putting up with me when I'm tired and stressed, I promise it will get better and I'll try to put some more time aside for us. I miss it to you know."

"I know, I love you so much babe" I say as we lean into a sweet kiss. I could tell Dianne was slightly hesitant in case she hurt me so I joked "I know the rest of me is pretty messed up, but my lips aren't" raising my eyebrows causing her to burst out laughing as we leant into another, more passionate kiss.