Chapter Twenty One

"Do we have to keep going over the same section over and over again?!" Lee snapped at Matt as he asked the band to run the song for what felt to Lee like the hundredth time.

"When everyone gets it right, we can stop." Matt insisted, starting to get frustrated with Lee, who'd been in a foul mood the whole day.

"I don't see the point; we know the words and we know the bloody dance routine." Lee argued.

"Well, you obviously don't otherwise we wouldn't have to keep redoing it." Matt sighed.

"I bloody did it right the first time!" Lee snapped, angrily putting his microphone back on the stand.

"You guys want to do the reunion tour, I'm just making sure that it's perfect, so that the four of you don't go out on stage unprepared." Matt argued back.

"Well, I'm not running it again." Lee smirked.

"Oh, c'mon Lee, just do as you're told." Steven sighed.

"Sometimes you are more hormonal than a pre-menstrual woman." Adrian said, rolling his eyes.

"Well, I'm done." Lee stated before quickly walking off stage and into the dressing room.

"I'll go after him." Nathan said sighing slightly. Nathan quickly walked into the dressing room, sighing when he saw Lee sitting on one of the sofas, watching the television.

"What's with you today?" Nathan asked impatiently.

"Not a lot." Lee replied dismissively. Nathan shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"Is this all because Chloe wasn't at the party last night?" Nathan asked.

"Nope." he said quickly.

"So, it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she's living with a guy then?" Nathan tried. Lee sighed and picked up the television remote and turned to face Nathan.

"You keep saying that I'm into Chloe, but maybe it's you. You're the one that keeps going on about her." Lee said defensively.

"You're such a child sometimes." Nathan sighed.

Lee shrugged and glanced back at the television frowning as he listened to the news announcer:

Police are appealing for witnesses after a young woman was stabbed in the Park late last night. The victim is said to be in her early twenties and of slim build. She is said to be in critical condition.

Lee gasped, the television remote falling out of his hand as a picture of the victim was displayed on the screen. He would recognise those deep blue eyes anywhere.

"It's Chloe." Lee whispered to Nathan.

"Huh?" Nathan frowned, glancing up from his phone screen to look at the television.

"Oh my god!" Nathan exclaimed.

"I have to go and see her." Lee said, quickly standing up, his legs feeling weak. He quickly steadied himself against the wall and took deep breaths, trying to calm down the intense fear that he was feeling. It felt like someone had stuck a screwdriver in his heart and was slowly twisting it. Nathan remained silent, not quite able to process what was going on.

Lee quickly walked through the corridors, hurrying out to the carpark.

"Where are you going, you can't just leave?!" Adrian called after him.

"Matt will go mental!" Adrian tried, not aware of the severity of the situation.

"You can cover my parts." Lee told him, as he carried on walking.

"Yeah right." Adrian laughed.

As soon as Lee reached the carpark he quickly climbed into his car, pulling away so fast that the tyres screamed against the tarmac. He made it to the hospital at record speed, desperately hoping that he'd chosen the correct hospital. All he could do was to pick the hospital closest to where Chloe had been stabbed and hope that he was correct. He ran into the A and E department, quickly resting his hands against the reception desk, trying to get his breath back.

"Is there a Chloe Evans here?" he asked the receptionist. She glanced up at him and typed on her computer.

"She's not long out of theatre, Room B." she said, sounding slightly disinterested. Lee nodded and quickly walked down the hallway, searching for her room. He quickly stopped as he walked past the window to Room B and saw Chloe lying motionless on the bed. Her eyes were closed tightly, her chest rising and falling very slowly. Lee leant against the window frame, suddenly feeling an overwhelming wave of relief to know that she was still alive. He couldn't bring himself to tear his eyes away from her, she looked so frail and vulnerable that he found himself longing to protect her.

"Are you one of her friends?" Lee heard a male voice from behind him. He quickly turned around and frowned as he stared at a young man. Lee quickly glanced down at the man's white shirt that was stained with blood.

"Yeah, I'm one of her friends." Lee eventually said.

"Danny." the man said, holding his hand out for Lee to shake.

"Lee." he said quietly, shaking Danny's hand.

"Did you see her picture on the news?" Danny asked. Lee nodded slowly.

"Yeah, that was me, she doesn't have any next of kin and her phone is broken so I was kind of hoping that someone would recognise her and do something to help her." Danny explained.

"Help her?" Lee frowned; not entirely sure what Danny was trying to say.

"Yeah, she's too proud to ask." Danny sighed, glancing in the window at his friend. He knew that Chloe couldn't go back to the park, at least not until she was fully recovered. She needed to be somewhere warm and safe with adequate meals for a change. As much as he would miss her company, Danny couldn't help but feel pleased that Lee was here, maybe he would be able to help her.

Lee frowned to himself again, he really couldn't figure this Danny guy out. It almost seemed like he was trying to ask something but wasn't making it clear what he wanted. Danny was living with Chloe; it was his responsibility to keep her safe and he'd failed.

"Speaking of helping her, how come you didn't manage to protect her, you walked away injury free?" Lee asked accusingly.

"I'd have taken the knife for her if I'd have been there." Lee continued quietly.

"Well, I wasn't there. I just found her afterwards." Danny said quickly.

"What?" Lee whispered. Danny opened his mouth to respond but Lee cut him off.

"You let her go to the Park on her own, that place is dodgy it's full of hookers and smack heads!" Lee exclaimed.

"Go there?" Danny frowned.

"Someone got raped there last week." Lee continued, his temper growing.

"Yeah Megan, we know her." Danny said sadly.

"She's one of the 'smack heads' you so politely described." Danny quickly added, gesturing inverted commas.

"You know her?" Lee frowned.

Danny gasped as he suddenly realised that whoever this Lee was, he clearly had no idea about Chloe's situation and the fact that she lived on a bench in the park.

"Yeah." Danny said quietly, his mouth suddenly very dry. He couldn't help but feel slightly uncomfortable, he'd just assumed that Chloe's friends knew her situation, but clearly, he was wrong.

"You do realise this is all your fault, if you hadn't let her go to the park on her own, she wouldn't be laying in that bed right now." Lee said angrily. The anger was slowly building in the pit of Lee's stomach, this man who was supposed to care about Chloe had let her down and now she was paying the price. He felt sick to his stomach as a thought suddenly popped into his head.

"And if she has been sexually assaulted then you'll have me to deal with." Lee warned him, his tone slightly aggressive.

Danny rolled his eyes and shook his head slowly, not in the mood for an argument. He had no idea who this Lee guy was or why he was suddenly acting like Chloe's protector, when he clearly didn't know her that well, otherwise he would know that she was homeless.

"I need to go and get cleaned up." Danny said quietly, glancing down at his shirt that was still covered in Chloe's blood. He closed his eyes for a moment, desperately trying to get the images out of his head. For as long as he lived, he would never forget the sight of her laying helplessly on the ground, in a pool of her own blood. Danny sighed to himself and quickly walked away.

Lee rolled his eyes as Danny walked away. He couldn't help but feel frustrated with him, if Chloe was his he would never leave her side at a time like this. Lee took a moment to compose his thoughts before he quickly walked into the room, his breath catching in his throat as he gazed at Chloe fondly. He crossed the room and perched beside her on the bed, taking her hand in his and gently stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. He slowly brought her hand up and gently rested it against his face, sighing deeply to himself.

"Oh Chloe." he whispered, slowly planting a soft kiss on her hand. Lee sat in silence, gazing at her, desperately wishing that he could do something to help her. She was the kindest person Lee had ever met; she didn't deserve the life she'd been given. He couldn't understand why anyone would want to do anything to hurt her.

I'm broken without you. he sang softly.

"Aww you have such a good voice." a voice said from behind him. Lee jumped and quickly let go of Chloe's hand. He turned behind him and smiled as he laid eyes on a nurse.

"You should audition for a show or something." she smiled at him, trying to fill the uncomfortable silence as she quickly picked up Chloe's clipboard from the end of her bed. Lee smiled at her, not entirely sure what to say. He watched intently as she checked Chloe's vitals.

"She will be okay, won't she?" he asked nervously, slightly afraid of her answer.

"She should be the surgery went well. And she's young which is good. But it's a long road to recovery. We'll keep her in overnight because she's quite anaemic, we need to keep giving her blood." she explained.

"I can give her some if she needs it." he said quickly.

"We already have a supply honey." she told him gently, smiling warmly at him.

Lee nodded slowly, unable to tear his eyes away from Chloe.

"The biggest thing is the psychological aspect." she said, smiling sympathetically at him.

"What?" Lee asked, finally turning to face her.

"She's been through a huge ordeal; it's going to take its toll. She'll need someone to look after her for a while." she explained.

"But luckily she has you and that will help, having someone that loves you makes all the difference." she added, when Lee didn't respond. Lee frowned at her as she quickly walked away, he couldn't understand what she was talking about.

"Wait...I'm not her boyfriend!" he called after her, suddenly joining the dots in his head. Lee sighed to himself and turned back to face Chloe, watching her closely.

"Not that your boyfriend deserves you anyway." Lee said quietly, sighing deeply to himself. As he sat gazing at her fondly, he couldn't resist reaching out and gently running the back of his fingers down her cheek.

"If only you were mine, I would have protected you." he whispered softly. Lee breathed a sigh of relief as Chloe's eyes slowly fluttered open. She glanced at him nervously for a moment, before a look of realisation crossed her face.

"What are you doing here?" Chloe said quietly.

"I saw that you'd been hurt on the news." Lee mumbled.

"I was on the news?" she frowned.

"Yeah, Danny wanted to track down your friends, I'm not really sure why though." he told her.

"He was probably just trying to help." she said thoughtfully. Chloe could feel Lee's eyes burning into her as she sat staring at her hands that were in place on her lap. She tried to focus on stopping them from trembling but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get control of it. Lee noticed her staring intensely at her hands, his stomach churning when he noticed they were trembling. The nurse's words were still ringing in his ears, he couldn't help but worry about the psychological impact that this would have on her. He couldn't stand the idea that she would be changed by this, he loved her the way she was and didn't want her to change. Lee hesitated for a moment before gently placing his hand on top of her hands. Chloe glanced up at him, trying to figure out why he was here. She could still hear his words, like they were on reply in her mind:

"If only you were mine, I would have protected you."

Her thoughts were swirling, she hadn't meant to pretend to be sleeping but she'd wanted to avoid speaking to him. The last time she saw Lee he was accusing her of betraying him by selling a story to the press and yet here he was, making sure that she was safe in her time of need.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" Lee asked her gently, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Didn't they say on the news?" she asked.

"No, just that you'd been stabbed." he told her.

"Well, that's what happened then." she said quickly.

"Chloe." Lee tried.

"I don't want to talk about it." she whispered. Lee nodded slowly. He desperately wanted to know what had happened to her, but he resisted the urge to keep asking questions.

"You can go if you want too." she added after a few moments of silence.

"I'm not leaving you." he told her quietly.

"I'll be fine, Danny will be back soon." she told him.

Lee scoffed sceptically.

"Besides you shouldn't be seen with me, I might sell another story." she said.

"I am sorry for accusing you of that. I know that it wasn't you." he said quietly.

"Finally." she muttered under her breath.

"I'm sorry." he told her again. She hesitated a moment before nodding slowly. Lee glanced down at her hands as she moved them out from under his and slowly lifted the corner of her hospital gown, gazing sadly at the large dressing in the middle of the left side of her abdomen. She brushed her fingers against the dressing, sighing sadly to herself. Lee gasped in horror as something in her suddenly changed and she angrily pressed hard against the dressing, crying out in pain as she did so.

"Chloe, what are you doing?!" he asked her.

"I shouldn't have fought back; it was so stupid." she said angrily.

"Chloe stop it." Lee said sternly, quickly taking both of her hands and holding them tightly to prevent her from hurting herself any further.

"Let go of me." she said sternly. Lee shook his head slowly and tightened his grip on her hands as Chloe tried to free them.

"Lee." she pleaded. His heart broke a little at the sadness in her voice, but he couldn't bring himself to let go of her, in case she hurt herself again. After a few moments, Chloe eventually stopped struggling, sighing as she admitted defeat. Chloe sat quietly, the flashbacks from last night suddenly swirling around her head. She glanced down at her bare neck, remembering the moment when he'd roughly ripped the chain off. Her eyes filled with tears as she thought about her parent's wedding rings that had always sat on the chain, close to her heart and now she would never see them again.

Lee seemed to sense that she had finally calmed down as he slowly let go of her hands, watching her closely in case she started to hurt herself again. He watched as the tears that she was trying to hold back slowly spilled down her cheeks. She placed her hands on either side of her and slowly sat forward, wincing slightly as she did so. She took a few deep breaths, trying to control the intense pain that was shooting in her abdomen. Chloe didn't even wipe her tears away, she just let them fall, too focused on the pain to care.

"It's maybe not a good idea to sit up." Lee said quickly, unable to stand seeing the pain on her face. She nodded and slowly sat back, gritting her teeth to stop herself from crying out. She carefully turned on her side, pulling the blankets up under her neck, trying to feel safe.

"Are you cold?" Lee asked her gently.

She shook her head slowly, finally wiping away her tears.

"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" he asked sadly. Lee glanced down at his hand as Chloe reached out to take it gently in hers. She quickly moved his hand towards her and hugged it tightly.

"You could stay with me until Danny comes back." she said quietly.