The guys stepped back and let Katie's family take their place next to the bed.

"She's waking up." Jessica said quietly.

Tears were running down her cheeks.

"Don't cry anymore Jessica, everything is going to be fine now." Chris said patting her on the head.

Katie's eyes fluttered again, and they slowly opened. She looked around the room and saw Jessica standing on her left side, her brother and sister at the foot of the bed, and her parents on her right.

The guys turned around and walked toward the door. Katie needed to be with her family, and they did not want to get in the way. No one noticed them walking out of the hospital room.

Katie looked up to Jessica, who was still squeezing her hand.

"Where am I?" She asked quietly.

"You're in the hospital." Jessica said still crying.

"Wait, what? What happened?" She asked confused.

"You were in a car accident, and you've been in a coma all week." Jessica explained.

"What? Who was driving?"

"I was." Her dad answered. "You were in the passenger seat, and I was making a left turn when a drunk driver ran the red light and hit the side of the car."

"All I remember was that we were gonna go somewhere together…I don't even remember getting in the car." She said still confused.

"You're lucky you even remember that much. You turned your back when the car came at us, and you screamed. Your head hit the dashboard and the impact went straight to your spine." Her dad explained.

Katie sat there a moment thinking about it. Everything was so weird. It felt like she had just woke up from a strange dream and was trying to remember what had really happened.

"My whole body is aching, and my head hurts." She said.

"That's not a surprise." Kat said walking through the door.

"Who are you?" Katie asked not recognizing the woman.

"My name is Kat, I'm one of the doctors here." She explained.

"Oh."

"I know you all want to visit with Katie, but we have to run some tests. We'll need you all to leave the room." She informed them. "You may just want to leave the hospital completely and come back later."

With tears still streaming down their cheeks, everyone got up to leave. Katie's family was going to go back home for a little while, then come back later. But Jessica did not feel like driving home.

'I'll just wait, I've spent enough time here anyway.' She thought.

So she headed toward the door, and turned around once she reached it. She looked at her friend still lying in the hospital bed, and let out a sigh of relief. Her best friend was back.

Jessica left the room and walked down the hall and into the waiting area. She sat down in one of the chairs and began thinking.

She was so happy that Katie had finally woke up, but she could not stop crying. It had only been a week, but she felt like she lost so much time with her best friend.

'I wonder how long she has to stay here.' Jessica thought to herself. 'God, I hope everything is ok. Oh…I told my mom I wouldn't be that long. I should probably go call her.'

She got up and walked over to the front desk.

"Do you think I could use your phone?" She asked. "I don't have any change on me."

"Go ahead sweetie." The lady replied.

So Jessica picked up the phone and called home. She told her mom the good news, and said that she would be awhile longer.

"Maybe we'll stop by tonight." Her mom said.

"You should, Katie would be happy to see you."

They talked for a little longer before hanging up and Jessica walked back over to her seat in the waiting area.

She had missed her friend so much, not talking to her for a week was terrible. They talk on the phone almost every night, and there was nothing that Jessica couldn't tell Katie.

All week Jessica had to try to fight and keep her thoughts bottled up; she didn't have Katie there to listen. Katie was the only one who ever really listened to her when she was upset, until the guys came.

'Where did they go?' Jessica thought, just realizing their absence.

She had been so rapped up in everything that she didn't even notice them leave.

'They're gone.'

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"Do you think we should have told Jessica that we were coming back?" Joey asked.

"She didn't even notice us leaving. She needs time to be with her friend, we shouldn't get in the way." JC said.

"Yeah, but she might think we're a bunch of jerks now. We came to visit her friend and we left before she completely woke up." Joey explained.

"She won't think we're jerks. Like JC was saying, she's going to want to spend a lot of time with Katie, she doesn't need us there. We are not the people she wants to talk to right now." Lance said.

"Besides guys, we didn't go very far…we're sitting in our tour bus…in the parking lot." Chris added.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Joey said.

"Why are you so quiet J?" Lance asked.

The rest of the guys looked at Justin, who was sitting silently on the floor.

"I'm just thinking." He said looking up at them.

"About what?" JC questioned.

"About how weird this is. I mean, we've spent a week with this girl, and we don't know her. She doesn't even know we've been here and we haven't heard her say a word. It's just strange because the only things we know about her are what Jessica told us." He explained. "I guess I'm just thinking about how weird it's going to be to actually talk to her."

"This is really bothering you isn't it?" JC asked. "I can tell by your voice."

"Well, I wouldn't say it's bothering me. But when I think about the look on Jessica's face when the doctor said Katie might die, it makes me feel sick. And now I'm really happy that Katie woke up, and I don't even know her."

He was thinking quietly to himself. He felt like he knew Katie just because he spent so much time at the hospital with her and Jessica had said so many sweet things about her. He could tell that they had a wonderful friendship, just like the one he had with the guys.

Maybe that's what was bothering him…he couldn't imagine something like that ever happening to one of his best friends.

A knot grew in his stomach, and he felt very relieved that Katie was going to be ok.

"Well, don't worry about it Justin, we all feel the same way. Besides, Katie's awake now and Jessica's happy, those are the two important things." Lance said.

"Yeah, you're right." He said clearing his head of those thoughts. "How long should we wait before we go back in?"

* * * * * * * * * * * *

'I'm so glad that Katie's ok now.' Jessica was thinking to herself when Kat walked over to her.

"Have you been here all this time?" She asked, knowing that over an hour had passed since she sent them out of Katie's room.

"Yeah."

"You've just been sitting here by yourself?"

"Yep. Time goes by fast when you have a lot to think about." Jessica answered.

"Well, we still have more tests to run, but those aren't going to be until later tonight. So far, everything looks really good." Kat told her.

"Really?" Jessica asked.

"Yes. To our surprise, we took some x-rays and she doesn't have any broken bones. Her arms and legs didn't get thrown around too much, she was lucky. Plus, the car hit her back in a way that it didn't break anything, but she might have whiplash in her neck and spine. Her heart is working normally, and there's no notable brain damage. Also she didn't suffer from any memory loss, and her speech isn't slurred." Kat explained. "She's very weak though. She's going to have a hard time getting around, I mean, we're not even sure yet if she can walk normally. She needs to gain some strength before we test that. But some good news is, she's not paralyzed or anything of the sort. She can move her muscles just fine."

"You don't know how happy I am to hear you say that." Jessica said giving her a hug. "Thank you so much."

"I'm just doing my job." Kat said with a smile. "You can go visit her now if you want."

Jessica walked down the hallway and into Katie's room.

"Katie." She said running over to the side of the bed.

It was so nice to see Katie fully awake and sitting up.

"How are you feeling?" She asked.

"Well, my whole body is aching and I'm hungry…but besides that I’m fine."

Tears started forming in Jessica's eyes as she looked at her friend.

"Jess, you're crying." Katie said.

"Yeah."

"Why? You don't need to cry, I'm fine now. Everything's going to be just fine."

"I can't help it. It was like you were here, but you weren't. I was a nervous wreck all the time and I didn't want to leave your side. I was so scared, I didn't want to lose you."

"Aww, Jess." She said grabbing her hand. "I'm fine, and I'm not going anywhere for awhile."

"You don't know how happy I am to hear you talking again, I was so scared for you Katie. I've been here everyday but one, and everyday I cried. It's so nice to hear you talking."

"Well, we have a week to make up for, and we'll have to do a lot of talking."

The door to the room opened and Lance stepped into the room.

"Is now a good time?" He asked.

"Let me talk to her for a few more minutes, ok?"

"That's fine." He said walking back out the door.

"Jess, how hard did I hit my head?" Katie asked.

"Obviously, pretty hard, why?"

"Well, am I seeing things, or is there something you're not telling me?" She asked confused.

"Well, a lot can happen in a week."