When He stole My Heart

By Two

By February, things had settled a bit. The media attention was still strong, but Emmy didn't have to fight off hordes of reporters anymore.

Danny's girlfriend, Lily, showed up once a week, dressed all in black and looking like she was going to a funeral. She always had sunglasses on, hiding her eyes, and tissues ready in case she needed to look upset.

She gave interviews talking about progress and updates that Emmy wasn’t sure where she was getting the information from. Neither her nor the doctors seemed to have made any comments in any regard to the progress she was talking about.

As a matter of fact – there was no progress. Danny was still lying in his hospital bed, hooked up to machines, and getting daily visits by doctors to see if anything changed or if they could do anything to improve the situation.

The visits from the other DW members had slightly decreased because they had just released a new album a few weeks prior and were busy promoting and fulfilling commitments they agreed to do months ago.

Despite their busy schedules, Emmy usually managed to spot one or two of them each day. She figured they tried to be here, but couldn't all find time together to come for a visit.

They usually didn’t stay long, and if she were honest, whenever she managed to get a sneak peek at one of them next to Danny’s bed, some of them didn’t look entirely comfortable.

Kal, for whatever reason, seemed to have the hardest time. While Z and Phoenix respectively didn’t seem to being doing too good either, they managed to get by with their bubbly and overly excited antics whenever they talked about something to Danny as if keeping him updated.

Rhim took a more serious approach, mostly talking about progress in songwriting and complaining about the music business in general, while Echo and Sol took a rather motherly attitude to all of this.

It was fascinating, and whenever Emmy had a chance to witness it, she always found herself amused.

Over the course of weeks, Emmy had become like an invisible ghost, her services of checking his vitals, changing dressings or the likes mostly coinciding with whenever someone came for a visit. In the beginning, she had stepped out of the room, giving them some privacy, but was quickly explained by almost all of them that this wasn’t necessary.

They almost seemed apologetic for keeping Emmy from doing her job. So eventually, she worked for herself doing what needed to be done with an audience that barely seemed to pay her any attention.

Not that she minded.

“I feel so bad,” Emmy heard Phoenix mumble behind her, and for a moment, she figured he was talking to her.

Out of all the six, Phoenix was the one who most often spoke to her as well as Danny. She figured he was just feeling strange to talk to someone without any reaction or form of response.

But it wasn’t just him who spoke to her in a somewhat open manner. It wasn’t like she’d be included in everything or like she who had in-depth conversations with any of them all of a sudden, but often enough they approached her for small-talk on their way to Danny or on the way out.

Sometimes you felt like they confided in you somewhat. Not in a big, revealing plenty of thing kind of way. And she surely weren’t naive enough to think it all had a deeper, more meaningful significance.

Emmy was Danny’s nurse and happened to be easily approachable. It wasn’t the first time that this happened to her. It sort of came with the job.

“What are you feeling bad about?” Emmy asked, checking the drop that was attached to Danny. It wasn’t as if he had caused the crash or had anything to do with what happened afterward.

“For not… For the fact that we go on as if it is absolutely normal and acceptable. We perform with six members, knowing fully well we are seven. We go on with our schedules and job and lives as if one of our members isn’t laying here, fighting for his life, not able to have any say about it.”

“Do you really think he would hold it against you if he were to wake up right now? Do you really think he’d go and be mad that you kept the show running? I don’t think he’d be mad. He’d understand that you can’t sit around this hospital room all day hoping to change something. And you have commitments. Commitments you made months ago, while he was still with you on stage. He will be the last one to hold it against you. He knows the business, knows that his condition wouldn’t change regardless whether you are here every minute of every day or once a week.”

Emmy went back to checking everything there was to check and were working in comfortable silence, having almost forgotten about Phoenix, or assuming he had left at some stage when she heard his voice again.

“Do you think he’ll be ok? That he’ll wake up again?”

And wasn’t that the question of the century? She couldn’t remember a day in the past few weeks and months when someone wasn’t asking this exact question. But no one had an actual answer to that, less alone her, seeing that her wasn’t even a doctor.

“I don’t know,” Emmy admitted truthfully. “But so far, nothing indicates he wouldn’t. Maybe he likes where he is right now and needs a bit longer,” she smiled at him softly.

Phoenix looked at Emmy surprised and for a moment thoughtful before showing her his infamous bunny grin that probably melted millions of hearts over the years.

“I think you are right, hm..,” he finally said, still smiling at Emmy softly and looking content, as if she had just given him the best news of the year.

“Doesn’t he look happy?” he asked a moment later.

Emmy looked at him curious for a moment, before her eyes shifted to Danny. He looked neutral if she were honest, peaceful really, not sad, but not smiling either. But if it made Phoenix feel better Emmy agreed nodding encouragingly.

Emmy saw him sit down next to Danny’s bed and looking at his big brother for a long while in silence, just smiling to himself and looking almost excitedly at the man in front of him.

After what felt like a while, Emmy was about to leave when she heard Phoenix all of a sudden speak again. It was obvious right from the start that he wasn’t talking to her but to Danny.

Emmy figured it would be another ‘update’ and weren’t disappointed when a moment later she heard Phoenix’s soft voice starting with “Did you know….”

With a smile on Emmys’ lip, she left the two alone, Phoenix probably realizing all of a sudden how many things he still needed to tell his big brother.

Everything would be alright – sooner or later. Emmy knew it, and Phoenix himself said so a moment later as well. And as long as Emmy both believed it her had no doubt that in fact she was right.