Sienna, King, and I raced to Jeremiah's room as soon as we stepped foot in the hospital. A tense silence filled the air as we took one rushed step after the other. King stopped in his tracks as we reached Jeremiah's room, Sienna and I bumping into him.

"Everything okay?" Sienna asked, concern lacing her tone.

King was looking through the window, Jeremiah visible and unconscious on the other side. There were IVs all in his arms and a tube hanging over the side of the bed. The machine next to his bed pumped air into his lungs through a tube in his mouth.

Jeremiah's parents looked concerned for their son for the first time since I'd met them. Miss Diamond was seated next to the bed. One of her hands held his while the other caressed his cheek. Mr. Diamond was standing next to her, his eyes locked on his unconscious son.

King cleared his throat and said, "I'm gonna be right back."

"I'm gonna check on him." Sienna started walking after him before she could even finish her sentence. "You gonna be good?"

"I'll be fine."

I took a deep breath and steeled myself before entering the room. The Diamonds turned to me, their piercing gazes adding to the already present tension. The silence was heavy as the machine beeped rhythmically in the background. I couldn't help but wince every time I heard the machine take an artificial breath.

"Did the doctor come with any updates?" I asked, my voice soft.

The pair shared a look, one that seemed like they weren't sure if they wanted to fill me in or not. My eyes darted between the two of them as I looked at them in anticipation. Another moment or two passed before they focused their attention back on Jeremiah.

There was an irritated edge to my tone as I said, "I know y'all don't like me because you've had an issue with me since the moment you met me, and honestly? I'm not big fans of yours either—"

I could tell Miss Diamond was offended by how her lips parted and her hand found her chest. "Excuse me?"

"But I am a big fan of Jeremiah's. I'm just trying to be here for him, and y'all are making that real difficult." I took a deep breath before I continued, "I wanna be on his team right now, even with everything, and I'd appreciate it if you would let me. We all love him, so can we support him now and go back to disliking each other later?"

I don't know why the Diamonds' dislike for me ran so deep, and I didn't care to, but I did want it to stop getting in the way. Jeremiah was right in front of us, tubes coming from almost everywhere imaginable, and they still tried to stonewall me. I wouldn't care on a normal day, but all I wanted now was to know how he was doing.

There was a beat before Mr. Diamond said, "He's stable. Dr. Musazi said all his brain scans looked good, and the coma is from the toll the blood loss and surgery took on him."

I couldn't help but notice his tone as he delved more into the specifics. It sounded as if he was reciting a prepared presentation for a boardroom. He was clear and concise; you would never guess he was talking about his child.

"I can stay with him if you want to get something from downstairs," I offered as I crossed over to the other side of the bed.

"I'm not eating hospital food, Jalen." Miss Diamond's hand dropped Jeremiah's. "We need to find a restaurant."

Mr. Diamond responded, "Oh, of course, we're not eating here." He gestured towards the door, his wife stepping in front of him.

"We need a hotel, too. I need to wash the hospital off of me."

I scoffed as they left the room, but they paid me no mind. They continued their conversation, their voices fading the further they got. It amazed me what their priorities were at the moment.

I pushed the Diamonds from my mind and focused on Jeremiah before grabbing a chair and sitting next to him. I chewed my bottom lip and held his hand, his fingers cool against mine. I kissed his knuckles before cupping his hand in mine in a vain attempt to warm him up.

"Where are Jalen and Brooke?" King was in the doorway, Sienna next to him, her arm hooked with his.

My head snapped up at his voice. "They left."

"They say where they went?" They crossed the room, King claiming the chair as Sienna settled on the arm.

"To get food and sleep, I think," I said with a disinterested shrug. My thumb ran over the curves of Jeremiah's knuckles as I continued, "I don't know. They were walking and talking."

"They give you any updates?" Sienna draped her arm over King's shoulders.

"Not without a fight," I said with an eye roll.

We settled in the quiet, the beeping monitors keeping it from total silence. King had pulled Sienna into his lap, his chin propped on her shoulder. He looked at Jeremiah, his eyebrows dipped, and lips pulled into a frown. I could see the guilt in his eyes, and no matter what Sienna or I told him, it wasn't going to go away. Sienna rested her cheek on King's head as she weaved her fingers with his.

A few hours passed, brief conversations held here and there. Most of our time was shrouded in silence. Although the air was still heavy, the silence was comfortable. I think we all agreed on some level we had said all we needed to say, and now all we had to do was wait.

Our attention was pulled to the door when Dr. Musazi passed by the window. She grabbed hand sanitizer from outside the room before she entered and greeted us. She got a lackluster welcome, and a smile quirked her lips before she checked on Jeremiah.

Dr. Musazi cleared her throat before she said, "He's looking good, guys. His vitals have been stable for nearly twenty-four hours."

"Why's he still out, then?" King wrung his hands together as he waited for her answer.

"When we looked at his brain scans, we noticed very minimal swelling, most likely from oxygen deprivation. It's nothing to worry about, but if he doesn't wake within the next couple of days, we'll run some more tests."

"What happens if he doesn't wake up in the next couple days?" King asked.

"We have no reason to believe—"

"Yeah, but what if he doesn't?"

"King, he's gonna wake up," Sienna said as she stood up. "She just said it's nothing to worry about."

"She also just said there's swelling in his brain, Sienna!" There was panic behind his voice as he stood up.

I looked between the two, Jeremiah's hand still in mine. The King Courtney I knew was always collected, always confident. The only time I had ever seen him shaken was on our first double date, and even then, there was still a sureness to him.

"Minimal swelling," Sienna emphasized. "If the doctor's not worried, I don't think we need to be, either."

A beat passed before King turned to face Dr. Musazi. "What happens if he doesn't wake up in the next couple days?"

"We run tests," she said without missing a beat. "It's unlikely, but there could have been a small bleed that we didn't see on the first scan. He also could have hit his head, but that's also unlikely to be the cause at this point."

"And if you missed that stuff?"

"King," Sienna said as she grabbed his arm. "You're going to drive yourself crazy if you ask about all the "what ifs.""

"I'm already going crazy! He wouldn't be here if it weren't for me." King grunted before he abruptly turned on his heel and stormed out the door, Sienna on his heels.

I watched as they left before my eyes found Dr. Musazi. Her eyebrows were raised, her gaze on the tiled floor underneath her feet. She cleared her throat before she turned to me with a smile.

"Would you like to know the answer to his question?"

I looked from her to Jeremiah. The lights in the room his parents requested were dim, probably because they couldn't stand being somewhere that felt so sterile. He looked almost peaceful as the lampshades cast shadows on his face. You'd think he was asleep if it wasn't for the tube protruding from his mouth.

"No," I answered after a minute. My knuckle caressed Jeremiah's cheek as I said, "He looks so peaceful; I don't want to think about if he's not."

"Okay," she said with a slight nod. "But really, I have every reason to believe he's going to be okay."

I offered her a smile before she left the room.

The next three days passed agonizingly slow. We had settled into a rotation between King, Sienna, and I and Jeremiah's parents—we sat with Jeremiah throughout the day while his parents would stay with him through the night. That way, there was always a friendly face waiting for him to open his eyes.

Dr. Musazi took the tube out of Jeremiah's chest the day after his surgery. Two days after his operation, she took him off the ventilator. She was confident that his lungs were strong enough to support themselves again, especially with his chest clear of any blood. Today, they took him for more scans and found that the swelling in his brain had gone down completely.

With the good news of Jeremiah's improving condition, the Diamonds felt comfortable enough leaving him in the care of his team of doctors. They said their goodbyes before they left for the airport. I was even privileged enough to receive two curt nods before they left out.

King was still beside himself as he waited for Jeremiah to wake up. Sienna told me she tried talking to him multiple times over the last couple days, but nothing would relax him. She said the only thing that would calm him down at this point was his friend opening his eyes.

"I'm at a loss, Ara," Sienna said, her head dropped in her hands. "I've tried talking to King, I've tried having you talk to him, weed, sex—nothing works."

"He might just need a minute, Si," I said as I shook my head. "The only person that can get him to stop blaming himself is himself."

Sienna looked at me with a helpless expression. "I want to help him because I can't stand seeing him like this. And I know that's selfish, but you don't see him behind closed doors."

"Since when have you ever cared about being selfish?" I joked as I rubbed circles on her back.

"You right," Sienna said as she blew air through her nose. "You'd never guess it, but King's emotions take over if they're strong. And he has such an intense feeling of guilt, and it's eating him up."

"Is that why he's been hounding Baltimore PD for the past two days?"

"That's exactly why," she said with a head nod. "He needs to feel like he's doing something to help right now."

"At least his mind is focused on something."

"I guess," she shrugged. "I'm hungry, though. You hungry?"

Almost as if on cue, my stomach growled. "I could go for some food."

Sienna nodded once before she stood. "Bet. I'll be back in a minute."

The familiar beeping of Jeremiah's heartbeat spliced through the silence as I sat alone. My eyes traced over the familiar lines of his face, something I found myself doing a lot these past few days. He somehow looked well-rested, as if getting shot and falling into a coma was all he needed to get rid of the bags under his eyes.

I rolled his hand over in mine as I bit my lip, my gaze never leaving his face. I felt if I looked away, even if only for a second, something could go wrong. I had been sitting at his bedside for the past three days with bated breath, just waiting for the other shoe to drop. King might've been on to something when he asked for a rundown.

I grabbed the pot of lip balm I grabbed from the gift shop and rubbed some on Jeremiah's lips. "I need you to wake up now. Dr. Musazi said that if you don't wake up by tomorrow morning, she's gonna run different tests to see what the issue is, which means that something could be wrong."

I bit my lip as I peeked over my shoulder. It felt weird talking to my comatose boyfriend like he was awake and responsive, but a couple different doctors who've worked on Jeremiah's case said it was beneficial—for both him and me.

"And if something's wrong, J...I don't want "I'm done with you" to be the last thing I said to you." I took a deep breath as my leg bounced. "You'd probably tell me that nothing's wrong, that all your tests came back good and to stop worrying, but you're still not awake, so I don't know what to think."

I placed a kiss on his knuckles and tucked his hand under my chin. Dr. Musazi said everything was fine, and I wanted to believe that, but I can tell that she's started to get concerned. And if the doctor's getting concerned, that's all I needed to let my mind start wandering.

Pleading bled into my tone as I whispered, "Wake up, baby."

My cheek rested atop Jeremiah's hand on the bed as I waited for Sienna to get back with the food. She texted me that she ended up grabbing something for King too, so she stopped by the police station to check in on him. I didn't mind the alone time, and I knew King needed her way more than I did right now.

Dr. Musazi made another round, an inquisitive look on her face as she looked over Jeremiah. Her lips pouted as she read over the chart clipped at the end of the bed.

Dr. Musazi turned to me, a crease in her brow. "This is a little premature, but I'm gonna take a blood sample to make sure there's not an infection we may have missed."

I nodded. My teeth clamped onto my bottom lip as I watched her head over to a cabinet and grab what she needed to draw blood. I watched as her nimble fingers prepared the needles and the tube used for blood collection.

I was so focused on what Dr. Musazi was doing that I almost missed Jeremiah's fingers twitching under mine. Almost.

I whipped my head around, my fingers curling tighter around his. I watched as his features scrunched up, and he peeled his eyes open. He squinted, his eyes adjusting to the light before his eyes found my hand in his, then my hopeful face.

"Ki—" Jeremiah coughed, his voice hoarse from not using it for a few days. "Kiara, what—"

I interrupted him as I launched out of my seat and engulfed him in a hug, an uncontrollable smile breaking out on my face. His hand rested lazily on my back, but I could tell he was giving it everything he had.

"And you're always worried about me being on the streets at night." I smiled into his neck and squeezed him tighter, which earned a pained grunt from him. "Sorry!"

Jeremiah's hoarse voice teased, "You can never just say hello, can you?"

I rolled my eyes, my lips still stretched into a grin. I leaned forward and placed a lingering kiss on Jeremiah's lips, my smile stretching even wider as I pulled away for a moment. I looked into his deep brown eyes that were filled with so much life before I kissed him four more times, each lasting a little longer than the one before it.

"Hi," I said once I finally pulled away.

"Hi," he whispered back with that lopsided smile of his.

I kissed him again. "I missed that smile."

Dr. Musazi cleared her throat, catching Jeremiah and I's attention. My smile turned sheepish as I looked at her, a sweet smile on her face as she moved towards the bed.

"Mr. Diamond, you have quite the troop," she said with a small laugh.

"My dad was here, wasn't he?" Jeremiah grimaced as I nodded in confirmation.

Dr. Musazi let out a chuckle before she filled Jeremiah in on his condition. I excused myself from the room as I called King to let him know the good news and hopefully give him some peace of mind.