"After the police rescued Miss Ansela Mckade and Mr. Jovon Phim from the kidnappers,who were later identified to be a Lukas Russell, who later died in the fire he set to the building, and Former popular model,Skylar Anderson, the police found the body of  Bridget Tyson in the basement an old bungalow where it was confirmed that Miss Ansela Mckade was held hostage before she escaped. Skylar Anderson confessed to her crimes and claims that Miss Mckade took everything from her. The court hearing date was set. . ."

The door to the room opened and there stood Jovon. His dark hair looked tousled and his hazel eyes held exhaustion. Annie just stared at him in awe while he closed the door. Even looking a mess, Jovon was still breathtaking.

Annie reached for the TV remote and muted the it, as Jovon came to stand beside the bed.

"You called for me?"

"Yes." She waved her hand to the chair beside the bed. "Please have a seat, my neck hurts from staring up at you."

Jovon sunk into the chair, keeping his face void of any emotion. "What  is so urgent that you ask me to be here before noon?"

"I want to you ask you some questions but before I do, promise me that you would be honest with me even if it's going to hurt me."

"I promise."

Annie took a deep breath as she dropped her gaze to her swollen belly. "Did you mean what you said that day?"

"I said a lot of things that day, so you have to be specific about what exactly."

Ah! He was playing dumb as if he didn't know what she was talking about.

"The part about loving me. Did you mean it?"

He didn't say anything for few seconds which made her heart drop. Perhaps, he'd gotten tired of waiting for her and had decided that he had had enough of her.

"Annie, look at me."

Annie took a deep breath and exhaled heavily before lifting her gaze to his. What she saw there nearly brought her to her knees- if she was standing anyway.

"I meant it when I said I loved you." His gaze was unwavering. "You're were and will always be the best thing that ever happened to me. I was just a fool to let you go. I am not saying this just for you to accept me back. I mean every word."

Just as Annie started to ask another question, the door opened and Annie saw a dark haired lady closing the door behind her with her foot, and she started to ask who the hell she was until she saw the gun. Fear tightened her gut.

"Celine?"

Annie's heard whipped around to stare at Jovon in surprise. He knew her?

"Hi, Jovon." Celine smiled weakly. Her dark hair was swept up in a messy bun and her face looked pale and sunken. Dark circles took a permanent resident under her eyes, while her clothes looked dirty and torn in some places.

Jovon instantly realized what he missed when he saw her that first time. Her belly. She was no longer pregnant. Celine was 'Angela', who came to visit Annie under false pretenses.

God! He was such a fool to have missed it.

"How do I look, Jovon? Is this what you like?" She smiled,a half crazed yet completely calm expression- that freaked him out-on her face.

"You don't look like the Celine I knew."

"Of course not. You seemed to like slim damsel in distress. This is the Celine you need. So why do you run away from me? I can be whatever you need. Whoever you need. All you need to do is to realise I'm not going anywhere. But since you keep playing with me, I'll have to punish you again."

"W-what do you mean again?" Annie asked, half afraid to know and half nervous about the gun.

"Oh, Jovon. I did so much for you." She wiped her forehead with her free hand. "Why do you think I approached you first? It was because I was in love with you. Who do you think provided Bridget with the nurse uniform? Who do you think introduced Bridget to Lukas and Skylar? It was me. I got myself pregnant so I could be close to you. It was so easy to give the baby away after, because I know you wouldn't want another man's child. I had someone kill Meredith with the hope that this bitch would resent you and let you go. See what I do for you,Jovon?"

And he thought Lukas was insane and manipulative.

"You were behind majority of the killings. You were the lady I saw in the pictures with Jovon." Annie summed up.

"Yes, of course. I even tracked Jovon's whereabouts. I followed you to your hotel, sat two tables away from you while you spew your spinless gut to the detectives.

"I tried to show you how much I loved you after I met you at the beach. And you Annie," she pointed the gun at her. "I once asked you what you have that I didn't have. Remember?"

Annie gasped. "It wasn't a dream. You really said that to me."

Celine laughed. "I warned you, didn't I? But you. . . you just wouldn't listen. You wouldn't listen to me." Her eyes narrowed, her gun hand wavered. "I would do anything for you. Kill anyone for you. All you had to do was ask."

Jovon felt his throat close up at how he'd been foolish once again. And now, Annie's life was in danger for the second time because of him. Jovon swallows hard, wracking his brain for a plan. There was nothing he could use as a weapon or shield.
One look at Annie's pale face had him making up his mind in two fault seconds, and then he reached for Annie's hand and squeezed it.

His shaking limbs wanted to panic. One wrong move. . . Just one wrong move could make Celine pull the trigger, and Annie and their baby would be killed. Jovon wasn't so sure he could handle loosing them both.

Annie seemed to have registered the determined look on his face, horror briefly flickered across her face as she gave a shake of her head. Jovon ignored her.

"No." Jovon's voice rose an octave. "No one would be killing anyone anymore." He moved to get between Annie and the gun.

"Jovon!" Annie nearly leapt from her skin trying to get him to move. She winced from the protrusion of her belly that rendered her ability to move useless. To protect the one she loved.

"How cute, Annie? He's trying to protect you." She snickered. "But it's not Jovon I want gone. I just want to punish him." She raised the gun to Jovon's chest. "I wanted to protect you. I had a plan to help you escape from Lukas and Skylar's evil plans. Who do you think called the police about your abduction? I dreamed of making you mine. To keep you with me forever while I carry your babies. Build our own solid little family, but you fell in love with another."

"Cel-"

"You're right. I love Annie." Jovon cut her off as if he was not the least concerned she held a gun. "I love her and I will always love her. I won't let anything happen to her or my baby."

"Jovon." Annie pleaded reaching out for him, but her hand didn't even reach halfway. "Jovon. . ."

Celine frowned. "What?" She snarled. "You love her? You piece of shit." Celine raised the gun to point at Jovon's head and Annie's heart dropped. "I will kill you."

"No, Celine. No!" Annie pleaded and struggled to get up. "If you want me, you can have me. All of me. If you kill him I have nothing left. I'll be nothing. I'll die too."

Her lips curled. "Now that you mentioned it, I've changed my mind. If I won't have him, then nobody will. You'll suffer from the rest your miserable life."

Annie whimpered. "No one has to die. I'll leave him I promise you."
"But he loves you. I have no use for him if his heart is tainted." She shook her head. "He'll never be completely mine. So it'll be good if we both never have him."

She positioned to fire the weapon.

"No!" Annie yelled.

The door opened.

The gun went off.

Then Jovon dropped to the ground.

Annie ripped tubes and needles from her arm, falling to the floor on her knees to get to Jovon, completely ignoring the pain trying to cripple her.

He was laying on his side, his eyes closed. One out-flung hand held a fistful of Celine's shirt. His mouth was opened a little. Annie pressed her fingers against his flushed skin. The skin was clammy and cold. She felt the rhythmic flutter of a pulse under her fingers. Faint and slow but there.

Low on his side a bullet hole oozed slowly, the dark blood spreading out on the white tiles, staining it a bright red.

She heard the police reading Celine her rights as they cuffed her. She felt the paramedics push her aside gently as they lifted Jovon's still body on the gurney they wheeled in. All she could see was the blood staining her fingers, staining the floor. Jovon's blood. His precious. warm blood.

Annie puked her guts out.

*                           *                           *

The world around Jovon shook like some prolonged earthquake. Someone was sitting on his chest, while another tormenter stuck a skewer in his side and twisted. A banshee perched on the battle-ments and wailed about coming disaster. Someone moaned piteously. Oh, maybe that was Jovon. He tried to close his mouth, and bit his tongue.

Somehow, the sudden sharp pain helped. The world around him came into focus a little. The banshee became voices, rising and falling at close range. Jovon blinked sticky
eyes and found himself staring upward at a white roof. A blurry unfamiliar faces loomed over him, and he caught a glimpse of an IV bag hanging behind the man.

Hospital.

He didn't remember getting hurt. Didn't remember anything much. There was a lot of cotton in his brain. That noise wasn't helping. He tried to sit up a little and someone's
hand pressed his shoulder down.

"Don't try to move," a voice said over the din. "You're going to be fine. Just lie still and let us help you. You're going to make it worse if you move."

The warning was unnecessary. Just the tightening of his muscles, thinking about sitting up, almost made him pass out. The skewer guy upgraded to white-hot pokers.
Shit. Maybe he was hurt enough for a hospital room. He wished he could remember what happened.

He shifted his arm, trying to reach out. Someone pushed his hand down, and wrapped a Velcro strap around his wrist. Bastards. He turned his head a little, but the
world was still blurry. Maybe he hit his head or something. He blinked hard and tried to say something, anything.

"You're going to be fine," the voice repeated. "Take it easy and hang in there."

There was something else he should remember. Jovon tried to shut out the noise and the pain and concentrate. Something important, vital. Something he had to tell
someone. It skittered across the surface of his thoughts. He couldn't grab onto it.

Something life and love.

He slid a little as the gurney turned sharply. There was a controlled bounce or two, and then they stopped. Jovon on his bed was slid rapidly feet-first, with attendants
b

eside him. He rolled out down the hallway, and got a brief whiff of night air before he passed through a set of doors. A new face bent over him as they moved.

"Hey, Jovon," the face said. "You're going to be fine. We'll take good care of you, okay. Everything's going to be fine."

It would be more reassuring if they didn't feel the need to keep saying that. He realized he couldn't talk because something was pressing on his face. He reached up with his untethered hand and shoved the mask off his face. "Annie" he said.

Or tried to say.

It sounded more like a grunt. He turned his face to escape the hands trying to muzzle him again, and said it louder. "Annie!"

Then Alix's face came into focus. He said "Annie," again. Whatever he was supposed to remember, to tell someone, that was the vital part.

"Annie. . .needs. . ." Alix put a finger on his lips.

"Hush," she said. "Annie is okay, he's safe, she'll be here shortly. You saved her. You protected her and the baby. Annie is fine."

Jovon felt himself go limp. He didn't fight the mask sliding back over his face. He'd lost sight of Alix, but as always she'd given him what he needed.

Annie was safe.

Whatever Jovon was supposed to do, he'd done it. He was being lifted, jostled, and the pain in his side flared. He let himself go under.

*******

Three hours later, Annie drank her fifth cup of water and wished she could stand long enough to pace back to and from the window. It
still looked out on a well-lit, mostly-empty parking lot. Just like the last twenty times she'd looked out there.

Nothing changed, nothing moved.

At least her stained hospital gown was almost dry.

The cops had insisted Annie get a medical check-up. That had been hell, sitting isolated in a little curtained alcove waiting for someone to come look at her, while whoknew-what was happening with Jovon upstairs.

After fifteen minutes she'd gone AWOL,looking for answers. She'd made it to the surgical waiting room without anyone spotting her. Alix was there, and she told him Jovon was still in surgery. No news was good news. She'd let herself be steered back downstairs into her room. Alix had sworn she'd keep her
updated.

Her own injuries were judged minor.
Like she hadn't told them that all along. The cops swabbed her hands for traces, and the doctor put a couple of stitches in a little cut on
her left thumb, and hooked her up on a new set of needles and tubes. which would have been fine without them, but she'd given up arguing.

Someone found her another pair of gown to replace her soaked ones. She'd made them let him keep the gown by her side, just in case. . .

Then two hours of giving statements. She'd gone through it all three times, with both the State cop and a sheriff's deputy giving her the same look of disbelief. They made her show them the where she sat, where Jovon was standing to have made the leap. She didn't care. By then she just wanted out.

They'd finally let her come up here, back to the waiting room in a wheel chair with the promise not to move out of it to the doctors. The surgeon had not yet appeared. Annie had gotten restless and got out the wheel chair and paced.

"Annie." Alix's voice was a little sharp from where she sat on one of the hard plastic chairs. "Aren't you tired? Could you just sit still as you were told!"

When Susan beside her laid an
admonishing hand on her arm she sighed and added, "When you pace, those freaking flip flops squeak and snap, and it's driving me crazy."

Annie realized it was driving her crazy too. She slipped them off and stuffed them into the nearest trash. Her bare feet would survive a hospital floor.

"I didn't mean..." Alix began more softly, and then she stopped and looked up.

A doctor stood in the doorway, dressed in clean scrubs. "Family of Jovon Phim?" he said.

All three of them stepped forward eagerly. So eagerly that the doctor
stepped back and said, "Um. All of you?"

"I'm his sister." Susan said, but she kept her hand on Alix's arm. "How's Jovon?"

"He's in recovery," the doctor said. "Surgery went fairly well. I'd be happy to give you the details in private."

"This is also my sister and that's his girlfriend." Susan said. "Anything you tell me, I'm going to tell them. Can we just cut out the middleman?"

The doctor looked at them speculatively, and then sighed. "Okay. Jovon lost a lot of blood, and the bullet damaged several loops of bowel, which we either closed or
removed. Otherwise it was a relatively simple wound. He had a couple of cuts that needed cleaning and suturing, and we did a CT scan for possible head trauma, due to the
bruising on his face. The CT was clean."

"So he's going to be okay," Annie said with relief.

"He should be." The doctor's enthusiasm was a little too subdued for Annie's piece of mind.

"But?"

"There's always a chance of infection, whenever a bowel loop is damaged. We have a drain in and we're monitoring, but it will be a few days until we know whether we're
in the clear. . There were a few patchy areas on his chest films. That puts him at risk for pneumonia. I've got him on oxygen and antibiotics, but that's another wait-and-see situation. And he came in pretty shocky, low temp, low blood pressure, slow heart rate. We've transfused him and he seems stable, but he's not completely out of the woods yet. We're monitoring blood pressure, kidney function, and so on. "

"Can we see him?" Alix asked.

"He'll be in ICU, once he gets out of recovery," the doctor said. "We allow one visitor at a time, for ten minutes each hour. We need to keep the ward clear for the nurses. We don't send ICU visitors home at night, if you choose to wait in the lounge, but Jovon will be sleeping for the next few hours at least. You might want to make one quick visit, and then get some rest yourself. Then you all can come back tomorrow."

"We'll all go and wait," Susan said firmly. "Where is it?"

"One floor up," the doctor said. "Left off the elevator."

"Doctor," Annie said quickly. "I'm not trying to be difficult or insult you but I just want to know. This is a pretty small hospital. You probably don't see a lot of emergency cases. Is there anything Jovon needs that he can't get here? If he needs to transfer elsewhere,we can afford it. Just tell me."

The doctor nodded. "I'm not insulted. You're right; we're small. If your friend was a tiny preemie baby or someone with major metabolic problems, we'd be airlifting him out.
But the one thing we do see here is trauma. Car accidents, farm machinery, even accidental gunshots. His case is pretty straightforward. He may have complications, but I don't think it's anything a bigger hospital would handle better. Beside, we treated you here too."

Annie tried to judge the truth of that.

The doctor looked back calmly. Annie nodded. "All right. Thank you."

"Up and to the left," the doctor repeated. "And find some shoes."

It was another hour before a nurse came out to tell them that Jovon could have his first visitor. Annie pushed Susan forward. "Go, already." Because if Annie went there first, she wasn't sure of how she would react to seeing him hooked up with tubes and needles.

To know that she was one of the reasons why he was battling death right now was enough guilt.

Susan came back after ten minutes and sat between Alix and Ian. "He's
sleeping," she said. "They have him on oxygen and tubes and he looks like shit, but he's sleeping quietly."

"You don't think..." Annie said. "Head trauma, low oxygen and all. He's not in a coma?"

"I don't know," Susan said. "What's the difference between sleeping and a coma? But he woke up once on the way out of your room. Before the surgery." She smiled wanly at them.

Annie nodded as she stared down at her clasped hands. She felt Alix's arms go around her and her head was placed on a soft shoulder. She clenched her hands tighter in her laps, fighting to keep the tears at bay. But one thought about Jovon leaping at Celine and dropping to the floor, unmoving, broke that spell.

The dam of tears broke.