[A/N: Not proofread. I'm too much of a lazy twat, sorry guys. Songs for the chapter:
- Maroon 5 // She Will Be Loved
- Gabrielle Aplin // Evaporate]

I didn't seem to land but when the feeling of falling ceased to be, I coughed and spluttered. Hands were squeezing my throat and forcing every inch of air out of my lungs until I noticed there was a tube inside my mouth, narrowing my airways and restricting my breathing.

My eyelids were clamped shut as if they had been drilled to stay that way. After an immense amount of effort, I willed them to open but they only let a sliver of light through. However, it was enough for my eyes to adjust to my surrounding which were white like my dream. Except there were shadows from the machines that surrounded me, lots of them, leering at me with daunting postures. They were stiff; some letting out monotonous beeps and others feeding my arms long tubes filled with red liquid.

A feeble groan escaped my lips which were chapped and broken. The rest of my skin was dry too, parched like sandpaper. My eyes flickered everywhere, desperately looking for anything familiar but the room itself was as foreign as a hospital bedroom.

Hospital!

My eyelids widened as much as they possibly could, stretching open like a mouth welcoming a yawn, although they were still only letting in a sliver of light. Then I realised that it was dark in the room and the only source of light was coming from the corridor outside and the machines surrounding me.

A soft snore broke the constant beeps resonating around me and my gaze slid to the left. A slumped figure lay slumped on a plastic chair that was drawn closely to my bed, their flat, greasy hair sticking up in all directions. My gaze trailed down their arm - the one that wasn't in a cast - along their hand which was tightly clasped around mine. I wasn't sure where my fingers started and where theirs ended because my vision was blurred, but a familiar flutter filled my chest.

Feebly, I attempted to detach myself from Tyler's vice grip but the only movement I could conjure up was to lift both our hands from his lap. The movement caused him to stir slightly and his eyelids flickered but it wasn't until I wriggled my fingers to manoeuvre them out of their interlinked state that one of his eyes cracked open a fraction.

"Mom, I told you I'm not leaving until she wakes up," He mumbled sleepily before closing his eyes.

I bit back a chuckle when his snores began again. What was it with guys and their ability to fall asleep in seconds? The attempt to laugh burned my throat so I lay still and continued to pull my fingers out of his slender ones.

"Stop touching me...I don't care if you think she's never going to wakes up. I'm not leaving her," Tyler lifted our hands to swat the air lazily. "I said stop touching me!"

Suddenly, the silent response made his entire body stiffen. In a nanosecond, his eyes flung open, wide and alert.

"Mom?" His voice was a mere echo that was drowned out by the consistent beeping sound.

In response, instead of retracting my hand from his, I wove my fingers between his and twitched them because squeezing required energy I just didn't have. Sea-green eyes scanned my impassive mask, drinking in my lifeless features which I willed to move but I couldn't summon the energy to muster a smile, so I used whatever strength I still had and concentrated on lifting my eyelids further up.

"Ash?" Tyler sounded terrified and rubbed his eyes with his forearm like the scene before him was too surreal. "Ashley?"

He leaned forward, barely hanging onto the edge of his seat and scanned my bewildered eyes with an expression that sent me reeling back.

"H-Holy shit, you're awake," He croaked in a hoarse voice. Then Tyler did something I never saw coming.

He began to cry.

His face crumpled like a piece of paper and his shoulders began to shake as violent sobs racked through him. Soon his heaving shoulders were followed by a gushing waterfall that seeped out of his tightly shut eyes. My chest tightened and all the air in my lungs was forced out in a shaky exhale. I heard the monotonous beeps pick up speed, beating faster as my heart fell at the sight of his tears.

"I t-thought you were going to d-die," He choked, studying my face through his teary eyes. He shut them and lifted his head up to the ceiling, letting the salty droplets race down his face in a diagonal path. They cut past his stubble and disappeared underneath his ears. "They said you might never...never w-wake up again."

Squeezing his hand, I closed my own eyes and blistering flames consumed me when the image of Tyler's burning car flickered across my mind. The memory of the accident returned to me, vivid and overwhelming and my frantic eyes started to notice things they hadn't before. Tyler's right arm was in a sling and was no longer crooked like the last time I had seen him, lying on the floor as I clumsily jumped from his totalled car. There was a plaster on his forehead, hidden behind his flat hair and it stretched all the way to his brow bone. He was hunched over and I wondered if he was wearing a brace to heal his broken ribs.

Relief swelled through my body when I failed to find any other injuries, startled that he hadn't suffered as badly as I had thought. My attention drifted from his bandage and I focused on the fact that my upper back, forearms and half my neck were covered in sterile bandages that felt sticky and uncomfortable. I wondered how bad my burns were and if I was going to suffer tissue scarring for the rest of my life.

Shaking the thoughts away, I concentrated on distributing my strength equally through my body, hoping to manage more movement beside twitching my fingers. Warm, wet tears pooled on my cheeks but strangely enough, I wasn't the one crying. Zeroing my gaze on Tyler, I managed to whimper at the beauty of his sea-green eyes which were inches from mine.

"You're r-really awake?" He breathed raggedly, his words broken like a child unable to control their sobs.

Unable to speak or nod, I tried to communicate through my eyes, blinking slowly to answer his question. A shaky smile stretched across his lips and his shoulder shook harder. His entire body trembled and I could feel it through our hands, tightly clasped as we clung to one another.

Eventually Tyler's sobs turned into sniffles which then turned into hiccups, but over the next few minutes he managed to compose himself. Slowly he released my fingers, leaving them cold and empty before they gently cupped my cheek to turn my head towards him. I winced as the movement sent a jolting pain through my head. Tyler grimaced and his smile faltered.

"I need to call the doctor," He realised, teary eyes wide as if he forget something important. Panic laced his voice as he jumped up. "I need to call Dr Wilson!"

The very same panic within him made my heart quicken. I didn't want him to leave me all alone. I had just gotten him back!

"S-Stay," I croaked, choking on the words as they shot past the tube in my throat.

Swallowing uncomfortably, I bit back the pain that shot through my scalp when I turned my head to face him.

"S-Stay," I repeated, slightly louder but the burning pain in my throat increased.

Tyler stopped stabbing the call button and turned to me, surprised that I could muster a single word. Still, I was alarmed when he strode over to me and sat down beside me.

"Always," He swiped his eyes and pushed back his shoulders. "I'm not going anywhere Ash."

Seconds later, the door slammed open and two doctors rushed in, switching on the lights before they circled my bed. When Tyler stood up, I shot him a panicked look but he nodded and cupped my cheek as if to reassure me that he wasn't leaving me.

Turning my attention back to the dark skinned doctor who hovered over me with a clipboard, I cowered away from her scrutiny. The other doctor fussed around me, scanning the machines before speaking words that made no sense to the lead doctor. The lead doctor scanned my body before her gaze landed on my eyes, registering the panic behind them.

"Don't worry Ashley, you've been comatose for almost eight days so we'll have to run some thorough checks now that you're awake." Her voice was smooth and factual, coaxing me to relax.

The one with long black hair and olive toned skin shook her head as she prodded at my burns, peeling away the bandages and wincing.

"These need changing Dr Wilson. Her skin is weeping and bloodied again."

The dark-skinned doctor, Dr Wilson, nodded and her dark eyes bored into mine.

"That can wait for the time being. We need to find out the extent of the damage done to her brain."

My eyes slid to Tyler who hovered in the far corner, watching the scene unfold around me. His gaze locked with mine and he smiled encouragingly although anxiety wavered off his tense shoulders like a bad odour. It left me on edge as Dr Wilson bombarded me with questions regarding my name, parents, school life, home address and other basic questions to make sure my memory was still intact. The entire time I focused on the abrupt disappearance of my long curls. They weren't pooled around my head like they usually were.

She delved into more detailed questions about the accident and I continued to grunt where necessary. Although there were a lot of blank spots in my memory I still remembered most of the accident. Once she was satisfied with my responses, another doctor came bustling into the room, rubbing his dark circles and eyeing the machines around me with a weary expression.

Dr Wilson backed away, scrawling notes on her clipboard and talking to the newcomer in a hushed tone. Then she turned back to me, eyes dark as ebony.

"Dr Khan is an anaesthesiologist, he'll give you something for the pain then we'll let you rest for a few hours. Sound good?"

If I could muster a nod, I would have but instead I settled on a blinking rapidly to communicate my understanding. With a tight-lipped smile, she walked out of the room with the olive skinned doctor. Tyler hobbled after them, desperate for answers on my condition whereas I felt drained from the questions.

A blinding pain stabbed at brain, kicking repeatedly against my skull like a stampede of elephants. As it ebbed away, another wave followed and I bit back a scream. Dr Khan fiddled with the tubes around me, noticing my discomfort and picking up the pace as I clutched a fistful of the bed sheets.

Closing my eyes, a heaviness began to seep through my nerves, drawing me away from the sounds and smells of the room until all that surrounded me was empty darkness.

**

Tyler and I were completely alone in my room for the second time since I woke up from my coma six days ago and there seemed to be a wedge of silence between us, stretching as far as one horizon to another. Every moment we spent together was clouded by the presence of doctors fussing over me, prodding tubes into my arms or my mom's constant affection. She cried nonstop for hours after I woke up and hadn't left my bedside until I forced her to give me some space to breathe this evening. Her face crumpled for a second but I assured her with a quick 'I love you' before begging her to switch off the lights so I could sleep. I didn't really intend to sleep, but I couldn't handle the intensity of the lights in my room.

Everything was too bright, like there were spotlights beating down on me from every angle and it was driving me crazy. I was going crazy in here. The overwhelming affection, the blinding lights, the constant supervision, the worry, the tears, the painkillers, the numbness of it all, the initial shock, the oblivion concerning my head injury...all of it was rail roading me into a state of anxiety. Restlessness was diseasing my days until Dr Khan doubled my dose the other night and knocked me out stone cold for a few hours because Mom was panicking I wasn't getting any rest.

It felt like I was waking up from the worst hangover every morning, with a pounding headache that only worsened at the day progressed. This hospital was too clinical for my liking. The sharp smell of disinfectant, the rubbery gloves the doctors wore, the cardboard texture of the food I was forced to swallow - it was all too clinical and made my chest ache with homesickness. I felt like I was going to come undone and unravel, like my head would come away from my neck which would come away from my shoulders and so on, leaving me to float into the emptiness.

I was trying to be strong, but with a sharp pain shooting through my skull every second, I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep up the facade. Stay strong, Tyler reminded me every night when he kissed me goodnight before returning to his own hospital room. Hang in there munchkin, he'd force a smile as his mom dragged him out of my room.

He knew that I was losing it in this place. He always noticed the little things I couldn't conceal. He noticed the way I picked at the fraying skin around my nails when the doctor's poked needles inside me. He noticed the way I craned my head to the ceiling when they changed the dressing for my burns. He noticed the panicked look that graced my face whenever Mona or Blake took turns to keep me company. He noticed everything, but still he never says a word. Tyler was always quiet around me and more times than often, we just sat in silence, listening to the mediocre buzz of my mom's chatter as she babbled stories at the speed of light. She was the background noise to our silence, because this type of silence was loud. It was deafening.

As darkness blanketed the room, the only source light came from the pale moonlight that crept in between the cracks in my half closed blinds. They cast horizontal lines along the linoleum floor and some bathed Tyler's features. A strip covered his lips and one ran along his eyes, making them glow like cat eyes, sparkling and luminous.

He sat upright and rigid in the chair beside my bed, legs spread wide and arms bridging across his chest. Everything about him was hard, stiff and stationary except his fragile features which quivered as he gazed at my broken body. Tyler still thought I was asleep, but really, I was secretly peeking at him through the brittle locks that fell over my eyes as I hid away from him with heavy, even breaths that reinforced the falsity of my sleep. The dramatic way my chest rose and fell seemed to go unnoticed and I was grateful because I didn't know what to say to him. I mean, how could I speak over a silence so loud? He'd never hear me, that's for sure.

Reaching out, he clasped the hand that wasn't tucked under my head and rubbed it between his palms. Agony pulled his eyebrows down and I could feel each wave of his pain course through his fingertips into mine. Eventually, I couldn't deal with watching him like that, so I twitched my fingers, startling him.

"What's wrong?" I asked quickly before he could cut in and slip on an impassive mask.

Tyler forced a smile. "Nothing, how are you feeling? You've been asleep for a long while."

I didn't return his smile because I was annoyed that he was putting up a pretence. Honesty was supposed to be our thing, not fake smiles, bullshit words of encouragement and hand holding.

"Cut the crap Ty, what's wrong? I've been watching you for the past ten minutes."

Wide eyed like a deer caught in headlights, he let his mask drop and began to drink in the sight of my heavily bandaged burns. Uncomfortable under his sudden scrutiny, I pulled the bed sheets over my bandaged arms and tucked them under my chin.

"I can't help but feel responsible for the accident. What made me think I could teach you to drive after the trauma you suffered from your first accident?"

Tyler released my hands and ran his slender fingers through his dishevelled hair, massaging his scalp like he was fighting off a headache. With a heavy sigh, I turned on my side so that my entire body was facing him. Pain shot through every fibre of my body but I bit back a flinch and kept my facial expression hard and determined.

"Because unlike my mom and Dr Jillian, you took action to help me get over my recurring nightmares and guilt."

He pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled heavily. "And look where that got us."

I shook my head. "Seriously Tyler, you helped me overcome a fear and I'll never be able to repay you for that."

"Repay me for what? Giving you fucking third degree burns and a fucking head trauma that the doctor's still can't figure out?" Sea-green eyes flashed. "I nearly got you killed!"

"I nearly got us killed!" I snapped, suddenly furious that we were playing the blame game. "I panicked, pressed the brakes and your car got totalled. You should be yelling at me to pay you back the thousands of dollars your car cost not freaking taking the blame!"

Tyler's eyes hardened. "You think I give a flying fuck about that stupid car? Ashley, you could have been pronounced brain dead for god's sake!"

Averting my gaze, I focused on the strips of moonlight that skittered across the floor when the breeze outside blew the blinds back.

"I know but stop blaming yourself," My voice cracked. "Please?"

Registering the pain I was in, he moved from his seat on the plastic chair and slumped down onto the space beside me, taking great care not to disturbed my bandages. Playing with my fingers, he rubbed circles on my wrist which made my breath hitch.

"As long as you don't blame yourself then I'll do the same," He whispered quietly. "Deal?"

I nodded and accepted his help when he helped me scoot back and leaned me against the headboard. We stayed like that for a long time, shoulder to shoulder, leaning against each other with our eyes closed. It was nice to acknowledge his company and feel his strong presence. Tyler continued to trace patterns on my wrist like a fortune teller, although I don't think he was aware of the clock that his fingers drew. It was a strange trait but I didn't break the silence.

We were both at ease, breathing soundly, until he cleared his throat and blurted, "Did Dr Wilson tell you that your chance of waking up was decreasing each day during your coma because you'd suffered severe concussion after your first accident. If you've suffered a previous head injury, the next one is more likely to be serious."

"Really?" I mused, trying to keep my voice from wavering when I registered the thick emotion that coated his deep voice.

Tyler nodded and leaned back, staring at the ceiling with glassy eyes. The muscle in his jaw jumped, clenching and unclenching until I placed a hand on his shoulder to relax him.

"I'm fine now, aren't I?" I mustered a small smile.

"Yeah," He brought his head back down, turning it a fraction so that I could see his liquid eyes skirt the room. "Still, I thought you weren't going to make it."

Trying to lighten the mood, I barked a laugh, "You have such little faith in me Ty."

He didn't pick up on my dead humour and rubbed his eyes. I frowned and wondered, when was the last time he had slept?

"I put all my faith in Taylor and she didn't make it so I figured that I'd expect the worst to avoid the crushing disappointment. We both know I can't survive another loss. I've been through it once before...you know, the whole 'keeping optimistic' thing and I am not going down that road ever again. I'd rather brood about it in silence and expect the worst because at least that way I can mentally prepare myself. God knows what would happen to me if I lost you."

His words made me lapse into silence and we sat in silence, deep in our thoughts because how exactly was I supposed to reply to something like that?

Tyler thought I was going to die.

I wondered, for a brief moment, exactly how much it would have crushed him if I hadn't made it out of my coma. Shuddering at the thought, my chest ached at the idea of Tyler returning to the dark places I had found him at the start of senior year. He didn't deserve to suffer with even more grief than I did. We had already received our fair share - enough to last us a lifetime actually. Thinking back to the hazy details I could still remember from the accident, I wondered if I was conscious by the time they wheeled me into the ambulance. I can't seem to remember anything after throwing myself over Tyler's body and telling him I loved him, certain that I wasn't going to survive the crash.

Clearing my throat, I broke the silence. "How many days were you unconscious for?"

He turned his head to the side as studied my face before replying.

"I woke up the day after the accident, completely disorientated and on a lot of pain meds. I couldn't breathe properly because of this," Tyler lifted his shirt and showed me the set of bandages and a metal brace that caged his ribs.

My fingers traced the bruised skin above his bandages and Tyler inhaled sharply so I retracted my hand, terrified that I had hurt him.

"I'm sorry," I apologised as a stone dropped inside my stomach. I picked at the fraying skin around my thumb.

"Don't worry about it," He smiled softly before continuing, "After I woke up, it took me a few minutes to register the shock, but after that all I could think about was seeing you so I tried to get out of bed but they held me back. I tried to fight Dr Wilson off but the surrounding nurses restrained me and injected me with something that made me pass out for the entire night."

My eyes ran over his prominent jawline and I itched to trace the red scar that ran along his forehead and cut through his eyebrow. I don't understand why he took the bandage off so quickly, only that it itched a lot and was a pain in the butt.

"When I woke up the next morning, my mom was crying all over my dad and Rosemary was standing by the door. I asked for you but nobody would tell me anything and I couldn't figure out why. They made it seem like you hadn't survived the crash so I tried to get up and find you," Tyler paused before continuing in a vehement tone that scared me. "Mom called the nurses and they injected me again."

"Seriously?" I breathed and he nodded, angry and desperate for my touch. I leaned against his shoulder and bit back a cry of pain when my head began to throb.

Our hands found each other on top of the bed sheets and he clasped my fingers tight like he was scared I was going to disappear completely.

"The third day, I was delirious with worry. Your mom visited me and explained to me that you were in a coma..." Tyler trailed off, struggling to keep his voice strong as it dwindled into a whisper. "Somehow, she bribed a nurse to put me in a wheelchair and she took me to see you."

I smiled, grateful that my mom had offered Tyler kindness and comfort when he needed it most - when he needed me and I wasn't there.

"You looked like hell," He shuddered, pausing to collect his thoughts. "It didn't even look like you were in a coma because you looked the way you do when I wake up next to you - effortlessly beautiful. Your face was untouched but your arms and neck were red and...cracked...and bleeding...and, oh it was bad Ash. Really bad."

He trailed off again, hunching his shoulders as he ran a hand through his hair. With a flinch, I turned away so he couldn't see my broken grimace. Pursing my quivering lips, I inhaled through my nose to ease the tight feeling in my chest. He had seen my burns in their horrifying glory: bleeding and broken, cracked and glistening, weeping and when they were just...just...awful to look at.

"Dr Wilson came in and didn't even bat an eyelash that I was beside you. She just worked around me as they poked and prodded needles into you but you didn't wake up. They tried everything Ash, but still, you didn't wake up. Then they stopped focusing on the damage to your brain for the next few days and treated your cuts and burns."

He broke off and chewed the inside of his cheek whilst I picked at my cuticles, desperately trying to distract myself from the stone lodged in my throat. Large and scratchy, it restricted my breathing until a burn filled my screaming lungs. I was struggling to understand how he must have felt because if our roles had been reversed, I probably would have dropped to my knees to break into a thousand pieces.

I couldn't bear the thought of waking up to suddenly discover Tyler in a coma, or worse: dead.

"I'm sorry I put you through all that," I whispered quietly when he hung his head low.

"Don't be. Your mom told me what you did for me." Tyler whispered back after a long moment of silence. "I barely remember anything about the accident but she explained why you were burnt so badly and what you did...for me."

The bed dipped as he shifted his entire body around to face me. Cross legged and leaning forward, he gazed at me with bright eyes, sweeping me off my feet with the intensity behind them. I felt inclined to mimic his position but I didn't want to disturb my burns. I didn't want him to talk about them either. I didn't want to see them or believe that they were there. I didn't want to think about how I'd never get to wear a strapless dress or tie my hair up again. My deformities were scratching away my self esteem and I wanted to believe that it didn't matter.

But it did to me, a lot.

Don't get me wrong, it was a selfless act to cover his body with mine and I didn't regret the consequences but being permanently scarred was emotionally draining. How was I going to deal with the scars for the rest of my life? They were a reminder that I failed. I failed to learn how to drive and to overcome my fear completely.

I felt extremely unattractive with skin that was broken, bloodied and weeping with moist crusts although Tyler's eyes bored into mine, scanning my entire face with awe and admiration.

"Whenever I see your burns I'm reminded of how far you went to save my life, how you nearly died just to drag me out of the burning car and how you covered your body with mine just so that I wasn't the one to get burned. You could have left me in the car but you didn't. I remember telling you to leave me, to save yourself, to run for your life; but you didn't." Tyler's fingers brushed the bandage around my neck. "You fought against all rational thoughts and did everything you could to minimise my injuries. So whenever I see these bandages, these cuts, and that face you make whenever your burns are mentions...I fall in love with you all over again. I fall even harder than I did that first day I met you when you had two pigtails and those hideous brown dungarees."

My breath got caught in my throat like a bubble that wouldn't pop and I inhaled sharply when his fingers tilted my chin up. Forced to meet his gaze, my insides plunged and flipped repeatedly at the softness that dulled the harsh green and blue in his iris. They searched my eyes, flickering between them quickly.

"Really?" I choked.

He smiled tenderly and rubbed his thumb along my cheek.

"Really really."

My chest tightened to the point that I gasped to fill my lungs with air. Tyler chuckled and dragged his thumb along my bottom lip. Leaning towards me, his kissed me slowly and languidly, committing the moment to memory.

"You're so beautiful Ashley Rose, and you don't even know it," He murmured as our breaths mingled together.

Taking a ragged breath, I sighed into his mouth and let him kiss me again and again and again until my lips were swollen from the effort of keeping up with him.

He was strong and certain about his feelings for me. And in that moment, I truly felt beautiful

To Tyler I wasn't broken, burned or battered the way I was to my mom and my friends. I was simply me, just plain old Ashley. I was the kid who earned the nickname munchkin because I've been a head shorter than him since eighth grade. The girl who used to be all knees and elbows and glasses, with the tendency to blush at his heated gaze or suggestive winks. The clumsy idiot who broke her arm twice on the right swing at the park. Simply the dumbass who let an eight year old Tyler catch her when she jumped off a tree and then bawled her eyes out when she scarred her knee after he dropped her. I was the giggly girl who he gave all the red Skittles to after shyly offering her a bite of his banana cake. The girl who watched movies with him way past midnight during his twin's sleepovers, cuddling together in the dark whilst ten, boy-crazed girls were fast asleep upstairs.

To Tyler, I was his little munchkin - with or without burns or a stupid head injury.

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[A/N: I don't mean to be lazy but I was brain dead whilst writing this and I have to get ready for a concert that starts in less than two hours eeeeekkk!! Literally so excited, I can't wait to get inside the mosh pit...although last time I got a couple strands of my hair pulled out. It hurt like a bitch. And I got shoved so hard that my Dr Marten boot came off and got lost and I only found it at the end of the gig when everyone hit the bar  -.-

Chapter 64: Who Even Wears Clothes To Bed?

Some of you were asking for my Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. I'd say Twitter is my life and I'm on it more than Wattpad so if you want more of an insight on the shit I get up to, here you are:

Twitter: @Kaddy_Dee
Instagram: @kaddy_dee
Snapchat: kaddydee 

See you tomorrow if a hangover doesn't ruin my life and keep me bed ridden for all eternity.
- Kaddy]