What's Love Got To Do With It?

10.

He looked so fragile. The way he was lying so still in that bed with all those things attached to him... it made her even feel worse than she already did. It was her fault that he almost got killed, so she would do anything to make him better.

It had been a week now. A week since she had brought him into the hospital. There had been a guardian angel that made sure that he was lying here in this bed instead of being buried. The moment she had heard that even though it could take a while FP would be fine, it felt like the universe had send her a miracle. As if they had listened to her prayers to spare his life.

The last few days he had opened his eyes for nothing more than an hour, before falling asleep again. She had missed it every single time. It was enough reason for Alice to be there every single day, waiting for him to recover. He had been her guardian angel and now she was going to be his.

His eyes fluttered open and this time he consciously registered where he was. Everything was bright, way too bright. When he tried to move his arm, he felt that someone was holding his hand. She was sitting there. The woman whom he took a bullet for.

"Hey, there you are." Alice smiled sweetly, her eyes glossing over as for the first time in eight days he looked back at her, showing her a sign of life.

"Alice? What are you doing here?" His voice was rough, as he hadn't had any water for some time.

He hadn't even expected her to be here, to hold his hand, to look at him like that just because he was alive. The last time he recalled waking up she hadn't been there right? A doctor was, or hadn't he noticed her presence?

"I had to be there when you woke up, which I knew you would." Her free hand stroke through his dark locks and he contently leant into that touch.

FP stayed silent. Though she said she was confident he would wake up again, he was certain that moment in her arms, that would have been it. He had given up. He would have been okay if his life would have ended while keeping her safe.

His eyes glossed over as he looked at her, the sun shining on her blonde locks through the blinds of the hospital room. She looked like an angel. He had been so close to never seeing her ever again that he was counting his lucky stars that he was still here. Not because he had a lot to loose, but because being alive meant seeing more of her.

"You saved my life. You jumped in front of me and saved my life." Alice said quietly, after they had been silent for a while, just looking at one another.

She hadn't even planned on recalling the night of the Black Hood revelation, but as she looked at him she couldn't think of anyone else but the moment he jumped in front of her.

"I was just doing my job." FP smiled weakly. What else was he supposed to say? That it was an act out of love? That he thought she deserved to be alive more than he did?  Alice squeezed his hand in response, smiling a little by his modesty.

"Was that it? Just your job?" She dared to ask him, suddenly changing the vibe in the room to a more heavy one. And though she knew the answer, she wanted to hear it out of his mouth. She wanted him to tell her why he had saved her life.

But FP couldn't. Not yet. Not when he was still so fragile. Not if he had no idea if she wanted to be with him the same way he wanted to be with her. And how could he drop a bomb like that on her after her husband turned out to be a serial killer? No. Now wasn't the time. He couldn't be the one to break her even more and he couldn't bare her being the one to break a part of him that he didn't even knew he had.

"I— I don't know. Al..." He stuttered and let out a big sigh, wanting to slap himself in the face for being so bad with this.

But Alice wasn't going to push him. It looked like one more word from her that would string a chord was opening wounds that she didn't want to touch. Not without his permission. Instead, she cleared her throat and held onto his hand tighter.