Hello everyone, thanks for bearing with me. As you may have noticed i have updated all of the previous chapter hopefully making them better! You don't have to re-read them but it may give you something to do between now ant the next update which hopefull won't be too long!

Thanks for reading and please review!

Chapter 9

Waking up

CPOV:

As Jude closed the door the true feeling of loneliness engulfed me. All I wanted now, more than anything, was to hold Sephy in my arms and for her to tell me that I was being stupid and everything would be alright. But this was a childish fantasy, Sephy may never be coming back, my heart lurched at the thought and my breath caught in my throat. The other large problem that was facing me at the moment was that Jude was right and the LM would be after me and soon. I had no idea what to do but one thing was certain, I had spent way too much time being idle and now was the time for action.

I jumped in the shower for a few minutes and then dressed myself in clean clothes. Blue jeans, a light coloured t-shirt and a black hoody to ward off the cold. I then reached under the bed and pulled out my black rucksack that I had put my possessions in when I had left prison. I spent the next half an hour searching the run-down flat from top to bottom, pulling open every possible drawer and cupboard looking for items that would help me with the task that I now knew I had to carry out.

At the end of my search I studied the collection of items I had accumulated. There was a small collection of essential food, all the money I could scrounge up which totalled at about £70, the cable from the stained telephone, a change of clothes, a sharp knife from the kitchen and a ball of string that from the look of it had been there before Sephy had moved in. I added a fresh looking notebook and pen that Sephy must have bought with her from her parent's house and stuffed all of these things into my battered backpack. I took one final look around the flat and on a final whim grabbed a day old newspaper off the coffee table as I left the depressing room for hopefully the last time.

SPOV: As soon as I managed to speak all of the blurry bodies in the room stopped what they were doing and gathered around my bed. I blinked a few more times and finally managed to bring them all into focus, the only man in the room was closest to me. There were two more women that stood either side of the bed I appeared to be lying on. As I lay there trying to take in as much as possible I could hear the continued movements of the strangers in my room. The initial exertion on my voice had rendered me voiceless once again and all I could do was to look and listen to the unfamiliar surroundings I found myself in. The two women in the room seemed to be operating under the instruction if the man although I couldn't distinguish exactly what he was saying.

I opened my mouth again for another go at talking and to my relief it worked again "Where am I?"
I managed to choke out. The man, who hadn't left my side, moved his face fractionally closer to mine so that I could hear him clearly.
"Sephy, you are in Meadowview Hospital. You sustained a nasty injury and contracted an infection from it. You have been unconscious for a number of days but you are defiantly out of the woods and should be back to yourself soon." All of this was said with a slow deliberate voice that made it seem much less scary that it truly was.

Out of this speech a few of the facts began to cement themselves in my brain. I have been unconscious for days? I was in a hospital? And then forgetting all the facts the question began to emerge seeming to breed like bacteria in my head for too quickly for me to acknowledge all of them. As a result they seemed to tumble from my mouth in a rush all at once almost certainly making no sense to anyone else. "Where is Callum?" "How did I injure myself?" "What happened?"

As I spoke I became aware of a burning sensation in my left hand but I pushed it to the back of my mind. There were more important things I had to work out right now. I looked expectantly up at the person next to me who I now had to assume was my doctor looking for some answers.

"We have tried to contact Callum but the phone in your apartment appears to have been disconnected. As for the other questions I think it is better if you talk those through with one of our Psyche Specialists.
If that was meant to placate me in anyway the doctor was severely mistaken. It only bought more questions into my head such as why did I need to talk to a psyche specialist?

With one last reassuring smile the doctor left with one of the nurses. The second nurse stayed pressing buttons below the bleeping monitor that was next to my bed. After a few moments I couldn't stay quiet any longer and turned to the nurse next to me

"I am going to be ok aren't I?" I asked in a small pathetic voice. The response was a warm smile and the nurse saying

"Yes, your injury wasn't really that bad, there are just a few things that the psyche consult wants to talk through with you but there is nothing to worry about". I felt relief at first but soon realised how empty these words were, I could have been on my death bed and she would have told me the same thing. The nurse turned to smile at me once more and then left and all of a sudden I realised how alone I was.

CPOV: I drained my fourth cup of coffee and looked out at the rain washed street that was on the other side of the grubby glass window I was sat behind.

I was sitting in an internet Café just outside of Meadowview with resolve I had not had since it had been drilled into me in LM training. I had finally woken up and realised what had to be done. As I fidgeted my foot knocked against the bag at my feet and bought my mind sharply to the task that I had to carry out.

On the screen in front was The Daily Bugle website although I wasn't paying much attention to it. My focus, instead, was on the large suburban house opposite the café. For the last three hours I had been recording all the comings and goings of the premises and the security I could see that protected it.

All of this information was being scribbled down on the napkin to my right. An unmarked white van pulled up to the gates, spent a few seconds conversing with the intercom and the sailed through. I picked up my pen to writes this down as a waitress came over to the counter I was seated at holding a coffee pot.

"Want another refill?" She asked in a bored voice, I nodded without looking at her and continued to pretend to browse the screen in front of me. After two more hours of the same routine the same waitress returned to my table

"We're closing, you have to leave" she told me in an annoyed voice as though customers were nothing but an irritation in this café.
"Okay, thanks" I replied, my voice hoarse from lack of use. Placing some of the money I had taken from Sephy's apartment on the counter I got up and left.

The night had darkened quickly but this would be to my advantage. I walked once quickly once around the block before returning to the café. As I had hoped it was now deserted. Pulling up the hood of my jacket I settled myself down on the concrete step. I was not going to move for some time.