Chapter 37 - Dangerously Obsessed

Valerie groggily opened her eyes, her vision blurrier for a minute too long. She shifted in her bed which caused whoever was presence in the room to come closer and shush her. Blinking her eyes a few times she tried to speak, but her throat felt parched, making her sound like she had been sleeping a decade. Panic bubbling up in her she was relieved when her vision did get clearer and she was met with the sight of Ethan's charming smile.

"Rachel is getting a nurse." Ethan informed her, "She'll be right back." His tone calm and quiet.

She reached for his hand when he wanted to pull away, "G-Gabe?"

Smiling Ethan brushed her hair out of her face, "Your husband is down at the station, he'll be here as soon as possible. Just getting some unfished business out of the way." He gently patted her hand, "You're going to be okay. You've been out of it for maybe a day and a half."

She wanted to talk, but the sound didn't come out. She really needed some water to get rid of the dry feeling which caused her to render speechless. There were so many things she wanted to ask and the look Ethan threw her told her he was aware of that. He just didn't talk, she couldn't help but to think the worst because Mr. Charming was holding back.

"Valerie." Rachel moved to her other side quickly, softly running her fingers through her hair, "Mom and dad are on their way. Alexia and Stephen are also on their way." Rachel smiled and then trailed her eyes to the nurse who patiently waited, looking a lot nicer than the nurses Valerie had the honor to meet in her lifetime, "We'll let her do her thing while we'll give Gabriel a call. He wouldn't leave this room unless we promised him we'd call him the minute you opened your eyes."

Valerie nodded, she knew how protective her now husband was. She was certain Gabriel would threaten them to make the call or else. Just the thought made her smile. It caused the examination to go a lot smoother, the nurse was her most favorite person since she got to drink water. She helped Valerie fluff her pillow and making her feel like a queen even though her body felt like it was hit by a truck.

"Was I hit by a truck?" She asked the nurse.

The nurse didn't want to smile, she could tell the woman was keeping her face tight, "You were hit by a car. Your family will inform you about the details." The nurse gave her a gentle pat on her hand, "You'll be okay. I'm going to get the doctor, she'll answer any questions you might have."

"Thank you."

"Press the button if you need anything." The nurse reminded her for about the tenth time.

"I will."

When the door opened again her parents and Gabriel's parents burst through it. She was overwhelmed with all the people in the room. They all fawned over her, her mother crying and saying things through her tears which she couldn't even understand. She could tell they were all going through a lot, she was the one who got hit by the car but they had to deal with the stress of it. She knew Gabriel was probably worse. She needed to see him to see with her own eyes that Gabriel Starr was okay.

Alexia gestured to a guy who looked like a more relaxed version of Gabriel, "This is Ryan, Gabriel's older brother-"

"With the two girls." Valerie smiled, "Gabriel told me about you. I was looking forward to meeting them."

Alexia stepped aside to give Ryan some space. His warm smile lightened his whole face, he looked quite amused by her. She didn't understand why though. She was quite serious about meeting the girls. Gabriel had bought gifts to bribe them considering he had been busy with work and her. That was the truth. He was a workaholic, his free time he either spent at Ethan's or at his family house. With her in the picture his family got even less time with Gabriel. She couldn't say it was the same for her, because she always let her family stay at her place. Her father didn't leave his favorite chair, but he knew she loved him. Rachel and her mother didn't mind flying over and stay with her. Gabriel wasn't the type to have his family over for over a week and entertain them after work. She wanted that to change. She wanted the girls to have more time with their uncle.

"Yes, Zoe and Ella." Ryan told her, "They're at the hotel with their mom, Lauren. Lauren, by the way, really wanted to meet you too. When you're feeling better we'll come over again and you can officially meet them."

"That'd be great."

The family stayed until Gabriel pushed through the door, ignored everyone and demanded his spot at her right side. He brushed his fingers through her hair, leaned in and kissed her temple.

"I'm okay." Valerie whispered to him.

Everyone started to quietly exit the room, giving them some privacy.

"You're not." Gabriel's tone told her he didn't want to be argued with, "You've bruised ribs and a broken leg. You're lucky you survived that hit."

"Gabriel, I'm alive that's all that matters."

He shook his head, not agreeing with her at all. When she looked closer at him she could tell he was burning with rage inside. His movement was stiff, his lips forming a tight line. His eyes not warm with contentment which she usually saw in his eyes. Well, contentment or lust, but she was sure she wouldn't see the latter in his eyes for a while now. There was nothing sexy about her, she was sure she looked like utter crap, felt like it too. She wouldn't say that out loud though, she didn't want to worry anybody. Ethan who didn't speak up before didn't want to alarm her. She could tell Gabriel wanted to do the same, but he couldn't keep it in. The words just spilled out.

"You could have died because that fucking bitch lost her damned mind." She witnessed his control slowly slipping away, the usual calm Gabriel gone within a split second, "I'm not letting her get away with this. They're going for attempted murder and I'll make sure it sticks. The best damned lawyer is going to make sure she's paying for what she did."

"Gabe calm down." Both of them snapped their attention to Ethan who walked in and closed the door behind him, "We could all hear you. I thought we agreed not talking about this in front of Valerie right now. She needs to focus on healing, she doesn't need the added stress."

Gabriel glared at his friend, it was the first time she saw her husband being that pissed at Ethan. She wanted him to calm down as well, but she knew there was no stopping him. The fear of losing her combined with the rage he felt toward whoever, her first guess would be Tiffany, tried to kill her was causing him to unravel. He needed time to rant and get it all out.

"It would cause her more stress not knowing why she's in that bed in the first place."

"True." She agreed with him, "I'd go nuts trying to figure out what happened. But I'm guessing Tiffany tried to kill me by running me over?"

"She paid an addict cash to hurt you. The detective told me Tiffany only wanted him to rough you up, I'm guessing the guy just got tired of waiting for the perfect opportunity. When you suddenly decided you couldn't wait until we arrived at the restaurant to talk to your sister he took his chance to get the job done faster."

She was sure Gabriel was also pissed at her for suddenly deciding to talk to Rachel, when she could have waited until they arrived at the restaurant to talk. He would never say that, but she knew it was playing on his mind. She couldn't even remember what she wanted to say to Rachel. It probably wasn't that important to begin with.

"Tiffany wanted to hurt me physically for getting married to you." She muttered, trying to process all of the information she just received without freaking out like her husband did.

"Seems like it." Ethan quietly confirmed.

"That's one dangerous obsession she has." Valerie whispered.

Gabriel stepped closer to her again and reached for her hand, gently holding it, "She is not getting away with this." He assured her, "The doctor said she wanted to talk to us, so we should probably wrap this up."

"Yes, we should probably end this meeting."

Ethan smiled at her, "You making jokes is great, Valerie."

She tightened her grip as much as she could on Gabriel's hand, "I told you guys, I'm fine."

"You're not." Gabriel rolled his eyes, "But you're going to be."

She trailed her eyes to him, "You should make sure Andrew Swift takes over my duties. It only can be him, I know you don't agree with me, but he is the most capable. Promise me, Gabriel. Only Andrew will be sitting in my chair for the time being."

"My God, Valerie, focus on getting better." Gabriel scolded her.

"I'll make sure Andrew is the only person sitting in your chair for now." Ethan muttered, sounding like he was biting back a laugh, "And Gabe is right, please focus on the healing and leave the rest to us."

When the doctor trailed in Ethan left the room to give them privacy. Gabriel did all the talking, taking charge which caused the doctor to sigh in exasperation while her eyes gleamed amusingly. While she had a lot of questions in mind, she didn't even need to speak up because he covered all the bases. The most important one, when he could take her home. She wanted to go home too, his home. It made her realize she wasn't that attached to her apartment as the thought she was. She wouldn't bring it up now, her family was probably staying at her apartment. She could imagine her mother preparing for her arrival. Her mother's efforts would be wasted, because she didn't want to go back there. She couldn't actually stay quiet about her apartment so she decided to speak up.

"Gabriel."

He was seeing the doctor off and immediately walked back to her, "Hm?"

"When I'm allowed to leave I want to go to your place."

"There are so many things on your mind right now." He sounded as exasperated as the doctor.

"I needed to tell you because mom is going to go all out at my place when I don't feel like going there."

"I see." A smile spread across his face, "I'll take care of things. You should get some rest."

"You should make sure Zoe and Ella get their gifts."

He chuckled and leaned in, pressing a firm kiss to her lips, "Could you please stop worrying about these things and get some rest?" He asked her, "Ethan and Rachel will be at my side this entire time. They're quite capable, you know."

She smiled and settled in as much as she could. She knew they were quite capable, but she couldn't turn off her brain. It was working overtime now she was awake and realized she left so many things unfinished like that.

***

When she woke up at night again Gabriel was right there, in a seat right beside her while typing away at his laptop. Workaholic. Smiling she reached for him and tugged his sleeve.

"I'd like some soup."

He looked startled then his face softened while his eyes gleamed, "I think I can manage that."

He reached for his phone and was ready to make the order. It made her laugh, but laughing hurt like hell. Her body wasn't okay, even though she kept telling everyone that she was fine, she actually wasn't. Gabriel knew that too. It was probably why he took charge.

"I'm glad I have you." She whispered to him.

She could have sworn she saw his eyes moisten up, but he turned his back to her and started rapidly talking, making an order. She then realized he made the order at some fancy restaurant and called Ethan to go pick it up and deliver it at the hospital. It was too much, she didn't want people to go out of their way to make her happy.

"Gabriel, I could have eaten whatever the hospital has." She told him when he ended the call.

"Dinner was like two hours ago." He told her, "I'm sure you don't want something from the vending machine. Nothing in there looked appetizing." He sat down again and smirked at her, "And I'm sure you'd want some pumpkin soup."

She knew he more or less demanded the restaurant made her pumpkin soup. She didn't want to know what he was paying for it. She could probably make it way cheaper and have a whole pot.

"Thank you."

Gabriel leaned back in his chair, unbuttoning the first three buttons of his shirt and rolling up his sleeves, "Ryan is bringing the girls over tomorrow morning. Then he and his family will head back home. The girls need to go to school and Ryan and Lauren do have work."

She giggled, finally understanding the complicated friendship Gabriel had with Parker.

"What's so funny?" Gabriel asked, curiosity vivid in his eyes.

"I finally understand why you love Ryan Parker." She bit her lip, trying to hide a grin which threatened to spread across her face, "Ryan reminds you of Ryan. I mean Ryan's smile is quite similar to Ryan's. So charming." She trailed off.

"You lost me there." Gabriel told her, "But I do not love Ryan Parker, don't ever say that to me again. Sick or not I'm going to ignore you for the rest of the night."

She could hear the smile in his voice so she knew he was joking around.

"Fine, I won't mention it again." She promised him, still humored by the idea, "Things just make more sense to me now."

Gabriel made sure to leave out an exaggerated sigh and grabbed his laptop again, "I'm ignoring you starting now." He told her, typing away at his laptop.

He had probably tons of emails to respond to, she would let him get some work done without teasing him about his love for Ryan. A few minutes later Ethan delivered her soup, but didn't stay over. She could tell it physically hurt him to leave the room, but he was giving them some time alone. While she sipped her soup Gabriel started telling her about everything which was going on at work. It wasn't something the average person would talk about after waking up from an accident, but weirdly enough it calmed her down. Since she slept so much she didn't feel tired at all and stayed up talking to Gabriel. They avoided serious subjects, but it was nice spending some alone time with him.