Chapter Twenty Two

Lee stirred in the chair and slowly opened his eyes, frowning slightly when he realised that he wasn't in his bedroom. As he laid eyes on Chloe, his stomach plummeted as the events from yesterday suddenly came flooding back. She smiled at him as they locked eyes.

"You alright?" he asked her worriedly.

"Yes, did you get much sleep?" she asked.

"I got some." he told her, stretching in the chair.

"Thank you for staying, I feel bad." she said.

"It's fine, I don't mind." he reassured her. Lee fell silent for a moment, his brain spinning. He'd spent most of the night watching her as she slept, feeling comforted by watching her breathe. It had suddenly hit him last night, just how much she meant to him. He needed to be by her side always, making sure that she was safe. It was only when he thought that he was going to lose her that he realised how much he needed her. He sighed quietly to himself as he realised that Nathan had been right all along, he was madly in love with her and had no idea how to handle what he was feeling.

Images kept swirling around his head, his imagination running overtime about what Chloe may or may not have been through.

Lee knew that she didn't want to talk about what had happened to her, but he couldn't stand not knowing any more.

"Chloe, I need to know what happened." he said quietly.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because I keep imagining things, and I need to know." he said firmly.

"I was on my way to Kirstie's party and I got ambushed by someone. He tried to rob me, and I stupidly fought back so he stabbed me." she said quickly, trying to get the words out quickly before she got upset.

"So, it was a burglary then." Lee said thoughtfully.

"Yes, why?" Chloe frowned.

"No reason." he mumbled.

"No, what?" she insisted.

"Someone got raped there last week, I remember hearing about it on the news." he said, rambling slightly as he was too terrified to ask her the question that he was dying to know the answer to.

"Danny shouldn't let you go there on your own, that park isn't safe, especially at night." he continued.

"Please don't blame Danny, none of this is his fault." she said quickly.

"It kind of is though, it's his job to protect you." he said quietly.

"No, it's not, I can take care of myself." she countered.

"Yeah clearly." he muttered, feeling slightly frustrated that she didn't seem to grasp the severity of the situation. How easily her injuries could have been so much worse. Chloe rolled her eyes at him but decided not to argue. She knew that he was upset about what had happened, not that she understood why he would care.

"Chloe, promise me that nothing else happened." Lee said nervously.

"I promise." she said quietly.

"Thank god, I was so afraid that you'd been raped or something." he whispered.

"No, just stabbed." she sighed. Lee watched as she slowly shuffled over to the side of the bed and sat for a moment, slowly swinging her legs nervously. The two of them turned to the doorway as Chloe's nurse Paula walked in.

"How are you feeling this morning sweetheart?" Paula asked Chloe.

"A little better, I'm not so tired." Chloe told her.

"Well, your vitals look good." Paula said after she'd checked Chloe over.

"But we'll need to check your PCV again." she added. Chloe nodded and remained silent as Paula collected a small amount of blood from Chloe's arm.

"I'll go and run this, hopefully we should be able to get you home today." Paula smiled.

"Thank you." Chloe said softly.

"You can change into your clothes if you want too, it'll be more comfortable than the gown." Paula told her. Chloe glanced at Lee who smiled at her reassuringly, clearly sensing that Chloe suddenly felt tense.

"I don't have any clothes." Chloe admitted, her cheeks colouring.

"Yes of course the paramedics cut them off you didn't they. " Paula said, before quickly leaving the room to run the tests.

"I can go to your place and get you some?" Lee offered.

"No!" Chloe said sharply. She gazed at the ground, suddenly realising that whoever had robbed her and ran away with her bag was now in possession of everything that she owned, even her clothes. She literally had nothing, not even the photos of her family and the letter that her father had written for her. Things had been bad for her before, but now they were even worse. She didn't even have her blankets to keep her warm on the cold winter nights in the park.

"Oh, here comes boyfriend of the year." Lee muttered under his breath as Danny finally walked into the room.

"You look better." he smiled at Chloe as soon as he saw her.

"I'll be fine." she said smiling falsely.

"I couldn't find your stuff, by the time I finished the audition it was dark and there's not a hope in hell of finding anything in the dark." Danny quickly told her when she raised her eyebrow at him hopefully.

"That's okay, we can go and look once I'm discharged, hopefully it'll be soon." she replied.

"You do realise it's unlikely that we'll find anything." Danny told her gently.

"I know, but I have to try." she said quietly.

"Wait, hold up!" Lee said sharply. Both Chloe and Danny turned to face him.

"You're not taking her back there." Lee said sternly. Danny glanced between the two of them, not entirely sure what to say. Chloe clearly still hadn't told Lee that she lived there.

"It's not up to you." Chloe told him.

"Are you mad, you almost died there and now you want to go back?!" Lee exclaimed.

"It's not happening." Lee added when they didn't respond.

"I want to see if I can find any of my things, and besides I can't avoid the park forever." Chloe argued, glancing at Danny awkwardly.

Lee shook his head angrily as she glared at him defiantly. In that moment he realised that it didn't matter what he said, she was determined to go anyway, and there was nothing he could do to stop her. The only thing that he could do was to go with her, so that at least he could protect her.

"Fine, but I'm coming with you." he sighed.

"I'll be fine, Danny will be with me." she said.

"I'm coming too." Lee said quickly. He didn't trust Danny to protect her, not after in Lee's mind, he'd failed her last time.

"I got you some clothes by the way." Danny said, trying to fill the silence. Chloe watched as he rummaged in his backpack and pulled out a carrier bag, gently handing it to her.

"I thought you said you couldn't find any of my stuff?" Chloe frowned.

"No, I didn't, I went to a shop." Danny told her. Chloe frowned to herself, she knew that Danny only just made enough from his busking to cover his food, so she couldn't understand how he had been able to afford to buy clothes. She quickly pulled out the clothes, frowning as she saw a pair of leggings, a jumper and some trainers. As soon as she saw them, she knew they wouldn't have been cheap.

"I tried to pick something warm." Danny told her.

Chloe nodded slowly and sighed when she saw that the price tags were still on them. A thought suddenly popped into her head:

"Did you steal these?" she asked nervously.

"No, they fell into my backpack." he said quietly.

"Danny, I don't want you getting into trouble for me." Chloe said sadly.

"It was the only option." Danny told her.

"This just gets better and better." Lee said angrily. Lee could feel himself becoming angry, first this man had failed to protect Chloe, then he'd abandoned her during her time of need and now he was a thief. Chloe deserved so much better.

"Lee stop it." Chloe warned, before he could say anymore. Danny was trying his best in what was an incredibly difficult situation for them both and the last thing Chloe wanted was for Lee to be nasty to him in the same way that he used to her.

The three of them fell silent as Paula walked back into the room.

"Your PCV is a lot better so the doctor is happy to discharge you." she told Chloe happily. Chloe nodded to show that she understood.

"You'll have a lot of meds to take and you'll need to change your dressings every day, so I'll go through all that with you now. I'll help you get dressed too, as it'll be sore." she explained. Lee and Danny silently left the room, to give Chloe some privacy. Lee turned his back on Chloe's room and leant against the window frame, his eyes burning into Danny who was perched on a chair across the other side of the corridor.

"You don't like me very much do you?" Danny asked when he couldn't stand the silence any longer.

"Nope." Lee said quickly.

"You shouldn't be so quick to judge, the situation is more complex than you think." Danny told him.

"I don't want you near her." Lee warned.

"What?" Danny frowned.

"I'm serious. She's innocent, kind and pure and I won't allow you to tarnish her." Lee said his tone soft but with an edge of aggression to it.

"I don't know who you think you are, you don't own her." Danny pointed out.

"She can make her own decisions." he quickly added.

"I know, but she's naive." Lee said quickly.

Danny nodded.

"I mean it though; you stay away from her. You don't want me as your enemy." Lee warned him. Danny opened his mouth to reply but quickly closed it when Paula came out of the room and walked over to them.

"I'll show you guys how to apply the dressings and her medication in case she forgets." she told them.

Chloe sighed to herself as she perched on the end of the bed, gazing down at herself wearing stolen clothes. She couldn't believe that she had fallen this far, her parents would be turning in their graves if they could see her now. Her eyes flickered up as Lee walked back into the room.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked her gently.

Chloe nodded and placed her hands on the bed, using it for support as she slowly stood up. Her legs shook as she stood motionless, trying to get used to supporting her own weight. Whenever she moved her hands from the bed, she wobbled and had to quickly grab it again. Lee could see that she was struggling so he moved to her side and gently wrapped his arm around her waist, holding her body against his to support her weight.

"Are you sure you can walk?" he asked her, as she took a few careful steps.

"Um hum." she squeaked, clearly in a lot of pain.

"Do you want me to carry you?" Lee offered.

"No, it's okay, I can do this." she said stubbornly.

"Just don't let me fall." she quickly added when she wobbled again.

"I won't, we'll just take it slowly." he told her.

Chloe sighed in relief when after what felt like an age, they finally reached the car park. Lee quickly took his keys out of his pocket and unlocked his car, his arm still wrapped around Chloe.

"Is that your car?!" Danny exclaimed from behind them when he noticed Lee's car.

"Yep." Lee said sharply.

"Wow." Danny breathed.

"There's only two seats though so you'll have to walk." Lee told him shortly.

"I'll see you at the park then." Danny said to Chloe before quickly walking away, clearly keen to escape the tense atmosphere. Before Chloe could protest Lee picked her up and gently placed her in the passenger seat. Chloe quickly put on her seatbelt as Lee walked around the other side of the car and climbed in. The two of them remained silent as Lee pulled away, Chloe took deep breaths, still trying to recover from the exertion of walking through the hospital. She placed her elbow against the car door and rested her head against her fist, struggling to keep her eyes open.

"I really don't know what you see in that Danny guy." Lee said.

"You should cut him some slack; you hardly know him." Chloe sighed.

"I know enough." he said quickly.

"No, you don't, you have no idea." she argued.

"You're right, I have no idea why you don't seem to matter to him." he snapped.

"What are you talking about?" she frowned.

"Firstly, he let you go to the Park alone, at night and then he disappeared all night, if I hadn't been there, you would have been alone in the hospital." he pointed out.

"Well, I'm sorry for being such an inconvenience." she snapped.

"That's not what I meant; the point is he didn't care enough to be by your side." he said quickly.

"He had an audition, I spoke to him about it before you got to the hospital, I didn't want him to miss it." she explained.

"It means a lot to him; he really needs to get work." she added.

"He doesn't have a job?" he frowned.

"No, he goes busking, the audition was for a part in a theatre show." she told him.

"So that's why he has to steal, because he doesn't even have a bloody job!" Lee exclaimed incredulously.

"Well yeah." Chloe said, sighing sadly as she glanced down at her clothes and felt another wave of guilt.

"You need to get away far away from him Chlo." he told her.

"I can't." she mumbled.

"Why not?" he frowned.

"Chloe?" he asked again when she didn't respond.

Chloe remained silent, unsure what to say to him. She couldn't bring herself to tell him her living situation, she was too ashamed.

"Please tell me it's not because you're in love with him?" he tried again.

"No of course not." she said quickly.

"Because you deserve so much better." he added thoughtfully.

"I don't deserve anything; I'm sitting here in stolen clothes." she whispered.

"Yeah, well that's your boyfriend's fault." he said quickly.

"He's not my boyfriend." she told him.

"What?" he frowned.

"We're just friends." she said.

"But you live together." he frowned.

"Yes, but we are still just friends." she insisted.

"Good." Lee whispered, suddenly feeling a huge wave of relief.

"Good?" Chloe asked.

"It'll be easier to keep him away from you if you are just friends." he told her.

"Who said anything about keeping him away from me?" she frowned.

"I've already warned him to stay away from you." he told her.

"It bothers me, you being around someone like him." he said quietly when Chloe fell silent, staring at him in disbelief.

"It has nothing to do with you." she snapped.

"I'm just trying to look out for you." he said.

"Well don't, I need Danny, he's the only person who understands me, so stay out of it." she said sternly.

Lee frowned at her words, not sure what she meant by that, but he decided not to push her as at that moment they pulled up at the park. Chloe sighed as she gazed out of the car window at the park, the memories from that fateful night swirling around her head. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths, desperately trying to steady her nerves.

"Are you sure you're ready to do this?" Lee asked worriedly, watching her closely.

"I don't have a choice." she whispered.