"I'm sorry, Miss Evans, but we were too late," Dr. Tobias said.

And my world was shattering into millions and millions of pieces that stabbed through my heart...

I awoke with a start, gasping for breath. My clothes were sticking to me and I felt feverish. Everything around me was abnormally bright and white. Why couldn't I see? Had I gone blind? Had I gotten struck my lightening? Was I also dead?

Oh, if only...

It wasn't until I looked around me that I realized where I was.

I was not dead. I hadn't been struck by lightening, or at least I don't think I had. No. I was in a hospital bed, hooked up to a machine that was monitoring my heart rate. Looking at the beeping machine, I felt sick all of a sudden. I couldn't get up because there were tubes and needles going into my skin and if I made any sudden movements, I would yank them out.

I felt my head grow dizzy and a chill run through my body. I looked down at my hands and saw how incredibly sickly they looked against the stark white bedsheets that were covering me. I noted that they took on a blue-ish hue instead of my normal pale ivory.

I heard the sound of a door opening and looked up. Caleb walked in. When he saw that I was sitting up, a look of relief washed over his face.

"Damnit, Nicole. You're an idiot," he said, sitting down in the chair that was by the bedside.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You walked out in freezing rain in a really light jacket. You fainted outside. I found you thirty minutes later when I was on my way to the hospital," he replied.

"Oh," I said, feeling feverish again.

"You scared me half to death," he said.

"I'm fine," I muttered.

"You could have pneumonia," he told me.

"But I don't?" I asked.

"The doctors are running tests. You might have a mild case," he answered.

"Hmm..." I said.

"You're an idiot," he repeated. I looked at him.

"I'm sorry," I told him. He sighed and ran a hand over his tired face. He looked sickly pale under the hospital lights. The black of his clothing contrasted sharply with the white of everything else. I was really sick of all the white. It made me feel like I was in an insane asylum.

"What time is it?" I asked him. I guess the hospital didn't think it was important to put clocks inside the room. Maybe it was to make the patient feel like they had more time left than they really did.

"It's nearly four in the morning," he answered.

"You should go to sleep," I said. He shook his head.

"No," he said. "I can't."

I looked at him for a few long moments.

"Is Liam here?" I asked suddenly. His face grew paler, if that was even possible.

"Yes. He's in the oncology unit," he answered.

We fell silent for a few moments. The only sound in the room was that of the beeping machine, which was indicating that my heart rate was steady. I watched as the peaks went by and then disappeared.

"Caleb?" I asked, not taking my eyes off of the monitor. I didn't hear him respond, but I knew he was looking at me. I turned to face him slowly, raising my eyes so that they met his. Our gazes locked, electric blue in forest green. "Did I really scare you?" I asked in a quiet voice. He held my gaze for a moment longer before sighing. He leaned forward slightly, putting his lips to my forehead.

"You're an idiot," he whispered.

I felt my eyes well up slightly and the monitor began beeping more quickly as my heart rate increased. Caleb noticed this and pulled back, giving me my space. He had the decency to look down and not watch me as the silent tears fell from my eyes.

I was a mess.

"Can you call the doctor in?" I asked him after calming down a bit. He nodded and left the room. I leaned back against the pillows and closed my eyes.

"I'll be back soon," he said.

"You lied," I croaked into the emptiness.

The door opened and a tall, balding doctor walked in. He peered at me over his wire-framed glasses. Caleb hadn't walked in with him.

"Looks like you woke up. That's a good sign," the doctor said. I squinted to read his name tag. Dr. Kellogg.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, we're still running some blood tests, but from checking your heart rate and your breathing, you don't seem to have severe pneumonia in any case. You might have a mild case, which is very possible since you were out in the freezing rain for a prolonged period of time," he explained.

"I'm not going to die, am I?" I asked.

"Of course not!" Dr. Kellogg exclaimed. I sighed and leaned back against the pillow, closing my eyes. "Are you disappointed or relieved to hear that?" he asked after a few moments.

"I'm honestly not sure," I answered truthfully.

"Caleb's a good kid. I've had the pleasure of talking to him once or twice, even though I'm not his brother's doctor. He's brave, but he needs someone, too," he said.

"We all need someone. That doesn't mean we'll get them," I replied.

"You'll be fine, Nicole. Just rest up tonight and we'll send you off tomorrow with some medicine," he said. Then he turned the lights off and left the room, leaving me in the darkness, his words filling the space before me.

A few moments later, the door opened once more. I squinted in the darkness to see who it was. From the light coming from the hallway, I saw that it was Caleb. I blinked as he made his way over to me. I felt him gently slide into the bed next to me.

I looked at him, now able to see his face in the darkness. It held no expression, but like always, his eyes raged on and on. I felt a lump form in my throat and I leaned back, resing my head on his chest. I could hear the steady thump-thump-thump of his heartbeat under my head. I felt him stroke my arm occasionally with his hand.

"Do you think Liam is going to get better?" I asked him after a few long moments.

"I don't know," he sighed. "I don't know."

Silence fell between us once more. I pondered at the situation. Here we were, two broken people that were lifetimes away, but so physically close. I found that ever since I had met Caleb, it was all right for me to feel terrible about what happened, because he was hurting, too. We were both hurting. But it was nice to know that I wasn't the only one.

"I met him my freshman year of high school," I said. I felt Caleb tense a little underneath me, but I continued my story. "He was a drug addict and he partied way too hard, even for a fifteen year old. I had lost my mother two years prior in a drunk driving accident. I had been living with my father and his new wife, my stepmother. It was horrible. My father blamed me for my mother's death and my stepmother wished I didn't serve as the bitter memory of her existence. I don't know why, but for some reason, their words affected me. I found that I couldn't sleep at night because I started to believe that it really was my fault. That somehow, it was my fault she was out drinking and that it was my fault she ran that red light and got hit by a truck," I explained.

I felt my heart bleed open and it hurt terribly. But I kept going.

"I stopped sleeping at night all together in high school. I would sneak out and go to the beach and just look out over the ocean, wondering where it led to and if I could possibly swim away with the currents. Then I met him. And he was a messed up kid who came from a bad family. And he couldn't sleep at night either. And so we kept each other company. Seven years of my life he kept me company. And eventually we fell in love and he completely changed who he was. He proposed to me exactly a year ago and we had set the date of our marriage to be on New Year's," I recounted.

My hand found the ring on my left finger. I twirled it around, nervous about telling him the next part. I had only ever recounted the story a few times when I had to explain it to Steve, Jaime, and chose to tell Oliver. It had been so long since I spoke the words out loud. As I twirled the ring around my finger, I could feel my hands shake and warm tears prick the corners of my eyes.

"A few days after he had proposed to me, he had gotten a call that he needed to fly out to camp in Texas. He had joined the army so that he could pay for his college tuition since his parents had left him no money behind. He had some training in Texas for a few months and he told me he would be back. There was a storm, though. A really bad storm and on his way to the airport, his car..." I choked. I felt Caleb's grip around my waist tighten.

"You don't have to say it," he said quietly. I shook my head, letting the tears fall.

"I have to," I squeaked.

After a few moments, I regained composure once again.

"There had been another car coming towards him while he was crossing over a bridge. He didn't see it because of the downpour and because the person didn't have their headlights on. He saw the car at the last minute and swerved, but because of the slippery road, the car didn't stop at the edge of the bridge but fell over instead. The person driving the car managed to jump into the water and pull him out, but there had been too much damage. The collision with the side of the bridge had been too strong and he had lost a lot of blood. The doctors took him into surgery right away, but it was too late. He was gone," I said.

I felt oddly at peace after telling Caleb. I didn't know why. I still felt like there was an enormous burden on me and my heart still ached painfully. But my mind was at rest.

"I loved him so much. I still do. And every time I close my eyes, I see his face and I just...it just hurts because I know he's gone forever," I whispered.

Caleb leaned down and pressed his lips on the top of my head. I felt a few more tears leak out of my eyes, falling onto his shirt and creating dark stains.

"Try to sleep now. The doctor says you need rest," he said to me. He made a movement to get out of the bed, but I held on.

"Don't. Not yet," I said. He looked down at me with those storming green eyes of his.

"Ok. I'll be here," he said softly, kissing the top of my head again.

It took me a while to fall asleep. It wasn't until I saw the first rays of sunlight that exhaustion took over completely. Then, I fell into my tormenting world of the past, sleeping restlessly despite Caleb's comforting presence.

______________________________________________________________________

A/N: A bit short, I know. Sorry! I put everything I wanted for the chapter in there. Now you know exactly what happened to Levi. Caleb's story will be up next.

Are you guys happy that Nicole told Caleb what happened? What do you think will happen when they wake up?

Leave me a comment! And as always, vote! I asked for 60 votes last time. I got 86. You rock! Let's set the goal a bit higher at 65 votes. =)

XOXO