“Jamie!”

She turned around and spotted Nick running her way with Rick hot on his heels and what appeared to be several officers. A sob broke lose as she ran towards him, happy to have this nightmare finally over. She couldn’t wait to hold him, to kiss him and tell him how much she loved him. She realized with dismay that she’d never told him that. It was silly and stupid and she should have told him the second that she realized what he meant to her, but she’d been tooSomething slammed into her, knocking her into the wall. She barely had time to register the thought when she found the heavy weight yanked away and Nick pulling her into his arms.

“Baby, are you okay?” he asked, cupping her face with shaky hands.

“Fine,” she lied in a hoarse whisper with a wobbly smile. Her head was killing her. Her neck ached and her throat burned with every breath she took. As Nick pulled her to her feet she idly wondered if she could use this as an excuse to drown her sorrows in ice cream.

“Jamie, you’re bleeding,” Nick said with an edge of panic laced in his voice.

She reached up and carefully touched the back of her head and winced at the slight sting. “It’s fine. Just a little cut.” She hoped at least. He’d probably think that she was a big baby, but she really didn’t want any stitches. The idea of a needle sliding through her skin was enough apparently to make her stomach hurt. Not that she was surprised considering the one and only time she had stitches she’d passed out on the doctor when he pulled the needle out of the sanitized package.

“Oh shit,” Nick muttered, drawing her attention.

Frowning, she followed his glance down to her stomach. It took a moment for all the blood to register in her mind. When it did the pain decided to make its presence known. She looked up in time to see the officers wrestle the bloodied letter opener from the still screeching Holly as she was slammed to the ground.

“Oh, that can’t be good,” she heard herself say hollowly as her legs gave out and everything went black.

Chapter 31

“Chocolate,” Jamie whispered and Nick couldn’t remember ever hearing a more beautiful word in his life. He chuckled in relief as he left his chair, ignoring the aches and pains that came along with sitting in the chair for three days straight and went to his little recluse’s side.

He cupped her face in one hand, careful of her oxygen tube, as he leaned in and pressed a kiss to her dry lips. “Welcome back, sweetheart,” he said softly.

“Did I go somewhere?” she asked sleepily, giving him a soft smile.

“It’s not important right now,” he said, unable to stop smiling. The last couple of days had been the worst days of his life. A few times it had been touch and go, but she pulled through. His little recluse was a fighter.

“I’m tired,” Jamie muttered around a yawn even as her eyes closed.

“That’s fine, baby. Go to sleep and I’ll be right here waiting when you wake up,” he whispered, pressing another kiss to her lips.

“Okay,” she mumbled. “With chocolate,” she added barely with it thanks to the pain killers in her system, he assumed.

Chuckling, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “A huge basket of chocolate, Jamie.”

******

“You lied,” Jamie said accusingly as the nurse fussed with her tubes and wires, but that adorable little glare never left his face.

“The doctor hasn’t cleared you for solids yet, but the second she does I’ll have a truck full of chocolate delivered,” he said, hoping to appease his grumpy little recluse.

Five days without sugar and she looked close to killing someone. Maybe he should sneak her in a chocolate milkshake or a Coke or something before she tried to escape from her bed, again. Her doctor thought he was kidding when he suggested she pump pure sugar into her body. He hadn’t been. In fact, he was pretty sure that she’d be a very pleasant patient once she got sugar into her system.

She looked up at him, pouting as she allowed her little chin to quiver as she said, “But I love you, doesn’t that mean anything?”

Grinning like a fool, he leaned over and kissed the tip of her nose. “It means everything, but until your doctor clears it you’re not getting any chocolate.” When she opened her mouth, probably to argue, he added, “Or sugar.”

“Big jerk,” she mumbled under her breath as she dropped back against the pillows.

“Yeah, but you love me,” he said, sitting next to her on the bed so that he was facing her. He carefully took her hand in his, nervous that he’d hurt her if he accidentally touched the IV’s in her hand.

She sighed heavily. “I suppose I do.”

“Does your stomach hurt, sweetheart?” he asked, raising her hand to his lips to press a soft kiss to her thankfully now warm skin. For a little while there it had been ice cold and he’d been scared to death that he was going to lose her. Thanks to surgery and donated blood she was going to pull through. Several times he had to fight back the urge to go hunt down the blood donors and get on his hands and knees and thank them. They’d never know what a precious gift they’d given him.

“Just sore,” she said, shifting her hand in his until she could entwine their fingers together.

He watched her look around the room curiously. “Are these all for me?” she asked, sounding unsure and shy and absolutely perfect.

“Yes,” he said, smiling when her glance turned predatory as she looked over the flowers, bowls of fruit, teddy bears and hundreds of cards that were taped all over the walls. “I had the nurses lock up the chocolate,” he said, chuckling when her bottom lip jutted out.

For a moment she didn’t speak and he was content to just sit there and enjoy being with her. He still couldn’t believe how close he’d come to losing her. If it hadn’t been for the fast thinking of the police officers she probably wouldn’t be here now. While he’d been too busy begging her to wake up, an officer applied pressure against her stomach and bought her a little more time.

When they loaded her into that ambulance he felt as though his heart was being ripped out of his chest. He wanted to ride with her, to hold her in his arms, but they wouldn’t let him. Rick and a few officers had to hold him back when they drove off with her. He would have killed the bastard, but he needed the man to take him to the hospital.

Once he made it to the hospital no one would tell him a damn thing because he wasn’t family. They ended up throwing him out a few times when he flipped out, but he came back each and every time demanding to see her. She was his and he’d be damned if he let anyone tell him otherwise.

When they called her ungrateful family in he’d had a hell of a time keeping it together. Thankfully Edward and Rick had the presence of mind to grab a hold of him before he could beat the shit out of her lying heartless father. The only one who seemed shaken was Jamie’s brother-in-law, which appeased him somewhat until he realized that the man had feelings for his little recluse. That was confirmed when he shook his head in disgust when her sister made a cruel comment that set Dana off.

Dana was one of the best women he knew. She was kind, considerate, liked everyone and everyone loved her. It took a lot for someone to upset her never mind piss her off, but Jamie’s sister had his best friend seeing red and going for her throat. Edward barely managed to grab his wife around the waist and yank her back, but that didn’t stop Dana from telling the woman in minute detail what she thought of her.

The only decent thing her father did as far as he was concerned was sign over Jamie’s medical proxy to him. Nick calmly thanked the man before he walked him outside. Once they were in the parking lot he decked the son of a bitch, breaking his nose in the process. He did it for all the years the bastard happily ignored his little recluse. While the man’s wife had treated Jamie like nothing because Jamie was the reminder of her husband’s infidelity her father had ignored her because she was the reminder of what he’d done to a sixteen year old girl who sure as hell didn’t know better. He also did it for keeping Jamie’s mother out of her life.

“Did my family visit while I was sleeping?”

She asked the same question every day and every day it nearly broke his heart. They only came once and that was to see how bad she was and to sign over her care to him while she was unable to do it for herself. Other than that they didn’t visit or call. They were done with her and it was all because of him.