First off, a funny story. My favourite author is John Saul. (he's bloody amazing) Aaaanyway. I was reading a book by him, called Nightshade, about a week after I had finished writing this. Never read the book before in my life. Aaaand, one of the people starts to believe she's five, and the first half of the epilogue takes place in the same setting as this last chapter. I had to stop reading it to laugh in amazement. No wonder I consider him the God of writing.

Aaanyway, Thank you to everyone who has encouraged this story along, and favourited it along the way. To those that reviewed, thank you so much. And to those who support me on the site that cannot be named :P thank you loads. You made my night the other night.

Although I know she won't read this, thanks to 5A7AH for being the person I bounce ideas off of and telling me honestly if they're crap or not.

And I've got some ideas swirling for a new fic. I dunno when that will be coming out though.

And now:

Chapter 12: Sixty Minutes

Amy Barrett looked at her watch. She had already been here two hours. Amy always hated first days on the job. She always felt underproductive and a bit thick. Today, the first two hours had been spent telling her about what to expect when she worked there. Now she was just waiting for someone to take her on a tour of the floor and then she could finally start interacting with the patients. There was one woman she had caught a glimpse of as soon as she got on the unit. She was dying to know who that woman was, and was getting more and more impatient thinking about it.

After another ten minutes, the door opened and a harassed looking nurse walked in. "Sorry. We had a bit of a situation."

Amy just smiled. "That's alright."

"Right," said the nurse briskly. "My name is Ruth. Glad to have you here. Shall we start the tour?"

Amy nodded. Rachel showed her around the ward, introducing her to every single patient, except the one she wanted to know. Finally, at the very end of the tour, Ruth's voice dropped.

"There is one more person," Ruth said quietly, leading her over to a rocking chair where a woman sat, staring blankly out the window. Her hair was limp and scraggly, and deep hollows had formed in her cheeks. The woman's face was extremely pale, and she seemed so far away that Amy had to wonder if she even knew where she was. This was the woman who caught Amy's attention as soon as she walked in.

"This is Alex Drake," said Ruth. "She's total cares. You have to feed her, bathe her, dress her, and so forth. She can walk on her own, but she won't get up unless you help her." Ruth turned to the woman.

"Alex, can you stand up for me?" she asked kindly.

The woman didn't even blink. Unfazed by her lack of reaction, Ruth grabbed both of Alex's hands and pulled. Alex stood, the blanket tumbling to the floor. Even though Ruth was now standing in front of her, Alex's eyes did not move, giving her the appearance of looking straight through Ruth. Ruth continued to hold on to one of Alex's hands, leading her around the room in a circle. Alex followed meekly, never saying anything, never moving her eyes. "When you dress her, you're going to always have to put her in a button up blouse. She won't help you dress her at all. Her friends prefer it if she's at least in a nice blouse, but she can stay in jogging bottoms."

Ruth sat her back down in the chair, putting the blanket on the woman and folding her hands on her lap.

"We don't know if she even hears or sees us," Ruth said, leading Amy away from Alex. "We just act as though she does. She doesn't acknowledge anyone's presence, even her friends that come in."

"Catatonia?"

Ruth nodded. "The doctor thinks it's self-induced. He thinks she receded within herself to deal with pain. And then, once she was there, she forgot how to get back out. He doesn't think she even knows what her name is anymore."

They both stared at Alex for a moment before Ruth turned, continuing on the tour of the unit. "This is the nurse's station..."

Amy tuned her out, thinking about the woman, wondering what could have been so horrible that she had become like this.

~(*)~

Gene waited impatiently at the door of the unit, waiting for the staff to let him in. Not for the first time, he wondered why they had put her in a locked unit. It wasn't like she was just going to get up and go anywhere.

Adding to his impatience was the bear in his hands. It was his last ditch effort. For the past year, he had been visiting her almost every day, sometimes bringing trinkets with him, hoping to snap her out of what the doctors had termed 'catatonia.' Nothing had worked.

And then, today, he had been raiding his wardrobe, looking desperately for a suit when he had found the bear. He had promised himself that he would get rid of it. But now he couldn't. He had to give it to her. He had to see if that would fix her.

Finally, a nurse made her way to the doors. Gene sighed to himself. She was new. Great.

The woman looked at him disdainfully. "Visiting hours are over."

Gene just sighed. "Is Ruth there?"

The woman hesitated, and then nodded.

"Talk to her."

Less than a minute later, Ruth unlocked the door for him.

"Thanks Ruth," he said.

"No problem Mr. Hunt. I'll talk to her in a moment."

He nodded stiffly. "What's for dinner tonight?"

"Shepherd's pie."

"She likes that. I'll set my things down."

"You know where she is."

Gene nodded and walked down the corridor to her room, setting his things on her bed before going to the room where she sat.

He sat down in front of her. As usual, she stared straight through him. He hung his head, thinking.

Every day, seeing her like this reminded him of the trauma that he had undergone nearly a year ago. Of course, it wasn't only trauma for him. The fear of losing him is what had sent her over the edge. The guilt for causing this weighed on him every day.

He had thought he was a goner as the final letter was carved into his chest. Then she had come crashing through the door. Burrows had stabbed him as soon as the door fell to the floor. But in his rush, he had aimed far too high. The knife had punctured a lung, but had not even gotten close to the aorta. He remembered Alex shrieking in rage and then it had all gone black.

When he had woken up in hospital, he had asked for Alex. Surely she should be by his side, just like he'd be for her if she ended up in hospital. He noted how the doctors skirted his questions about her.

Finally, Ray had come in, and told him what had happened. She had been sectioned.

"She went mad as soon as he stabbed you, Guv. After he had dropped the knife, she jumped on him, knocking him down to the ground. She cuffed him, and that's when it went bad.

"Alex turned him over and pulled the knife out of your chest. You coughed, but she didn't even notice. She sat on his stomach and raised the knife above him. Alex was going to stab him, Guv. She kept ranting on about how he had to pay for what he'd done, how she needed revenge. Chris tried to stop her, but she slashed him. She didn't even recognise us by that point.

"Anyway, Chris backed away, his face all bloody cause that's where she got him. An ambulance crew was coming down the stairs to tend to you. I snuck up behind her and grabbed her, pinning her arms at her waist. She struggled for about ten seconds and then went limp.

"She said nothing back to the station. We had to take the scrote back, because Chris had to go to hospital too because of his face. Whenever I said anything to her, she didn't even look at me. She just stared straight ahead. As soon as we got to CID, I got the psychologist. He's the one who sectioned her."

She hadn't changed from that day. She didn't move, she didn't talk, she hardly blinked. She just stared into oblivion. And every day, he visited her, hoping for her to get better.

"Hey Bolls," he said softly, taking her hand. It was still warm and soft, and if he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine her sitting across from him, her hair and makeup done, smiling softly at him. However, when he opened his eyes, reality hit him.

She was extremely pale, and her hair was limp. Her face was devoid of any expression whatsoever, and her eyes were two hazel pits. It always made him shudder to look into them. She had slowly been growing skinnier, and now it was becoming more evident by the hollows in her cheeks.

"They have shepherd's pie tonight," he said. "I know we ate a lot of Italian, but you said once that it was one of your favourites. You ready to go to dinner?"

She said nothing, staring through him as though he didn't exist. Gene stood, pulling her arms to have her stand up. She stood, the blanket that was over her lap falling to the floor. Gene bent down and folded it up, hanging it over the back of her chair.

He grabbed her hand and started leading her to the canteen, remembering the first day he had done this. He had been convinced that all it would take to snap her out of this state would be his face.

"Gene!" said Barry, the cook. "How are you?"

"Not bad, Barry," he responded automatically. "How are you?"

"Doing well. How's Alex?" he asked, making it clear he was asking Alex herself. She said nothing, not even turning her head to acknowledge that he had spoken. "Two shepherd's pies?" Barry asked after an awkward silence.

"Just one tonight. I'm not hungry," Gene said.

Barry nodded and handed Gene a plate. Gene took it and headed over to the table that they always sat at. It was a reminder of the table that was considered 'theirs' in Luigi's.

He sat Alex down on the chair and sat down next to her. He took a small bit from the pie on the fork and pressed it gently against her lips. She opened her mouth and accepted the bite, eating it slowly.

Gene continued feeding her in this way until she stopped eating it. Usually, she would stop when the food was stone cold. Gene felt the top of the pie, and sure enough, it was. Sighing, he scraped the plate and put it to be washed. He pulled Alex up, looking at the clock. It was half seven. He smiled sadly. He could have a few more hours with her yet.

Gene led her back to her chair, facing it away from the window so he could talk to her. He sat her down in it and put the blanket back over her legs, folding her arms into her lap.

"I brought something for you today, Bolly," he said gently. She gave no notice that she had heard, and he got up, going to her room and grabbing the bear. He sat back down across from her, holding it in front of her.

"It's Mr. Tiddles," he explained, unsure of what she knew and what she didn't. "When I found you, you loved this bear. You thought you were five, mind, but you loved it. I would order pizza for it in Luigi's because you thought it could eat. When it didn't eat anything, you made me take the pizza home. I'd throw it out and tell you the next day that Mr. Tiddles had eaten it."

He smiled, remembering, and tucked it in between her arms so that she was holding it.

"You nearly killed me because I took you away from the Price house without it. I was going to get rid of it, once we were sure you were better. After a year or so, I thought. It's been a year Bolls, but I'm not getting rid of it. I'm going to put this in your room and see if it helps you at all."

He sat, struggling to get the next few words out.

"We miss you. I miss you. Chris and Shaz don't care that you slashed him across the cheek. They understand, Bolly. They just want you back...I just want you back."

He looked at her hopefully, but she continued to stare right through him, as though he hadn't spoken at all.

Clenching his jaw, he steeled himself against the horror that sat in front of him. Beautiful, ballsy Alex Drake had turned into this. He had considered more than once not coming back. It was taking a toll on him. But he always talked himself out of it. What if Alex came back after he had stopped coming? He wanted to be there to witness it.

So he kept coming, living on hope. He knew the nurses whispered that she would never get better, but he had to believe, somehow, she would. She'd come back to him. He was sure of it.

He looked at the clock again. It was almost nine. They stretched the visiting hours for him, but even that had a limit. He was asked to leave at 9.15 every single night. At first, he had fought, but now he just accepted it.

"C'mon Alex," he said, grabbing her hands and pulling her up. He fixed the blanket and pulled her back to her room.

He changed her into pyjamas in silence. Every day when he changed her, he saw the scars that had faded to white across her chest. It always reminded him of the matching letters across his own chest. The only difference between their scars was that Gene had one more, the one that was supposed to end his life. Shaking his head to rid himself of the memories, he lay her down on the bed and tucked her in, putting the bear next to her.

"You want to hear a story, Alex?" he asked.

She stared up at the ceiling.

"Here's a good one. 'Once upon a time, there was a King. He ruled over the land of Fenchurch. This was a special King. Instead of sitting on his arse all day, he went out and solved the crimes that occurred in the kingdom. The rest of the royal family helped him as well. There were loads of princes, but there was only one princess.'"

Gene stopped, wishing, waiting for her to interject into the story her questions about the princess. She said nothing. Gene took a deep breath and continued.

"The princess's name was Alex, and she was extremely pretty..."

~(*)~

Ruth paused by the door of Alex's room, prepared to ask Gene to leave. He had gotten better about it over the months, and there was rarely a day when she had to ask him anymore. However, when she got there, she heard his voice speaking. He never spoke to her after putting her to bed. Usually he'd just whisper a goodbye and leave. Ruth decided to wait by the door and listen.

Alex lay in her normal position, staring at the ceiling, a bear beside her. Gene was sitting on a chair, talking.

"And every day, even though the princess doesn't remember him, the king still visits her. Because he knows she'll get better one day. One day, he'll get to take her for Dover Sole."

Gene ended, tucking Alex in again and brushing a kiss on her forehead before noticing Ruth and looking at his watch. He smiled guiltily when he realised the time. "Sorry. I'm just on my way out."

Ruth said nothing. A lump had formed in her throat from his tenderness toward Alex. He was never going to give up hope. And though it was false hope, it was beautiful to see. She wondered how many more years he would do this before he gave up, but something inside her answered the question. He would do it forever.

~(*)~

As Gene walked out of the hospital, he lit a cigarette. Staring, he remembered what Burrows had once said to him.

"So much can happen in sixty minutes. It's the difference between life and death, winning everything and losing everything."

And Gene realised that this was true. He had lost everything that was Alex in just an hour, and now, even though he hoped, it was rapidly becoming apparent that she was not going to come back. He stared into the sky for a moment, almost wishing she was dead. That she had not survived Burrows' attack. At least then, she'd be at peace, not in this horrible state, needing someone to even help her get dressed.

He dropped the cigarette on the ground, staring into the clouds that dripped their tears down on him, mourning with him. He didn't want to come back. But he knew he would.

After all, a lot could happen in sixty minutes.

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