Drake walked in, awkwardly grasping a bunch of flowers. He smiled shakily but every line in his face, his expression clearly showed his grief.
"Hi Kris. How are you?"
I shook my head absently and he set the flowers down with the others.
Drake Browning sat in the visitor's chair and ran his hand through his hair. He drew a shaky breath. "I can't believe she's gone. I never thought-" he ground to a halt.
I have never seen a grown man cry. The man who is your father; to see him cry is a sad sight. He sat in the chair, holding his head in his hands and sobbing. Sobbing loudly.
I lay back in my bed and shut my eyes. I couldn't cry no more. I had cried all through the night.
He stopped and wiped his face with a tissue. "I..." he stumbled over the words.
I opened my eyes and focused on the flowers.
"I'm going to take you back to Australia as soon as you two are better."
I shook my head. "No."
He stood and paced, wiping his face. "What?"
"I'm not going. I have one last thing to do." I said softly.
He paused and looked at me intently, his face fallen. "What's that? Kris, Jessica is dead. Jamie is on the brink."
That made no relevance to the situation.
"I want to take you back as soon as possible. So you can recuperate." he began pacing again.
I shook my head again, a huge headache coming on. "No." I watched the steady drip, drip, drip of the IV.
He just stood there, looking lost.
"I've got to do this one last thing, Drake. Please."
He sighed and looked to the ceiling. "I can never stop you, Kris, you know that. Jessica always listened, but you never did." he stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Okay."
"Thank you..." I breathed, my medication working. My eyelids felt heavy.
He walked over and kissed me on the forehead. "I'll see you later."
I nodded slightly and fell ...