Pleading and begging

A few weeks had passed since Max and Jack had successfully helped find the Joker. They had discovered that he had been the one who was responsible for the crash that landed Damian, Jack and Laila in the hospital and that he had been ordered to do so by none other than Olivia. Since then a lot had happened.

Damian and Jack were formally discharged from the hospital and were doing great. Both of them had picked up their work as usual, with Jack having taken a permanent position as a bodyguard for the Stephens residence. But unfortunately, the person he had primarily been hired to protect, was currently unavailable for protecting. Because even though everything had gone well with Laila's surgery and her vitals were looking good, Laila had yet to open her eyes, making it impossible for her to be discharged

While all her functions appeared to be normal and baby Dominic was growing like cabbage in his mother's unconscious body, nothing seemed to be able to wake her. No amount of pleading, begging, touches or outbursts of anger caused any change in her situation. Not even a spike in her brainwaves. It was as though she was in a deep dream, unable to come out of it. This had caused great sadness and anger for Maria, Noah, Steve and all those who loved her. Forcing them to focus their energy elsewhere as they waited for her to wake up on her own, praying that this day would come sooner rather than later. One thing that gave them comfort, was that Laila appeared to be peaceful and her situation though not improving, did remain stable. Allowing them to believe that things would indeed resolve on their own, even if the doctors told them that the chances of Laila waking up were becoming less with each day she remained unconscious. 

Despite Laila seemingly not reacting to their presence, everyone visited her whenever they could. Some more often than others, but her one steady visitor, not skipping a single day, was of course Noah. For him his daily visits of Laila became a thing he would do regardless of whether it was visiting hours or if his schedule allowed it. If he could help it, he would be by her side 24/7. Eating, sleeping and working right next to her. His dedication to stay by her side had not gone unnoticed by Maria and Steve, nor the parents of either side, who had taken it upon themselves to make sure that Noah wouldn't entirely glue himself to Laila's bed.

They would ensure that Noah wouldn't leave important meetings unattended and would at least leave Laila's side once a day to go home, rest, get a change of clothes or take a shower, whichever he needed in that moment. During that time Maria, Laila's or Noah's parents would be the ones to stay by Laila's side in his stead. Although many had offered, Noah only agreed to these five people as these people were the ones closest to Laila or with the most amount of time available to take over without it interrupting their day to day lives too much. 

Another thing that kept everyone including Noah busy, was the consequences of the Joker's confession and the trials of Harrold and Olivia. With Steve by now being fully recovered, he had decided that he would manage most of the I.E. affairs until Laila's situation improved and the matter with those responsible was settled. He made sure that Noah was only involved with things that needed his direct input or if Steve himself needed his opinion before going forward with something. Most meetings were therefore headed by Steve and the direct management was handled by him as well, whereas Noah tried to do more of the paperwork and emails, which could be handled from anywhere and didn't require him to be physically present but still unburden Steve a bit.

This on paper seemed like a balance that would work for both sides and gave Noah ample time to set some things into motion to get even with the people who caused Laila's current state. But reality proved that it was harder than Steve initially thought it would be. Although for Steve this arrangement was not just to help Noah, but also a way for him to repay the favour of Noah taking on everything when he was unable to work and in recovery, he was also given a tough lesson of reality. With each day he was at the I.E. headquarters by himself, he felt more guilty and indebted to his friend for making him do all of this on his own for so long. He hadn't realized how much work Noah had taken on by himself until now, until he was in a similar position. But back then Steve had done far less than Noah was doing for him now. But no matter what, Steve had no intention of backing down or letting Noah take on more of the work. He had other things he needed to handle.

The main thing being arranging his own set of punishments for the Joker, Olivia and Harrold for all that they had put his loved ones through.