Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Florence sat in room 234C of Saving Grace Memorial Hospital's intensive care unit, holding the hand of her former employer and on again, off again boyfriend, Fredrick Trumper. Florence had gotten a call that Freddie had been in a serious car accident, and taken the first flight out to go back to America. After all, what did she have to lose, Anatoly was gone now. That had been almost three months ago, and Freddie was still in a coma. Florence was beginning to wonder if he would ever wake up.

Freddie had been aware of Florence being in the room the past few times she'd come. He had tried to wake up or at least show some sign that he knew, but hadn't been able to. He vaguely remembered that he'd left a meeting after having an argument with someone there and hadn't been paying attention while driving, but didn't really remember much else.

Florence lightly squeezed Freddie's hand. "C'mon Freddie," she pleaded with him. "I know you're still in there." "These idiot doctors are trying to get me to give up on you," she said. "I won't do that, I promise, I'm not leaving you, not again, you can't push me away this time, Fredrick."

Hearing Florence's voice, Freddie tried to respond again. All he managed was to get the corner of his mouth to twitch slightly as he tried to smile, getting angry with himself for not being able to do anything else.

Florence noticed the small movement and smiled. "That's it," she encouraged. "That's good Freddie, that's good," It was small, but it was movement, a sign of life. "I brought the chess set you got while we were in Merano," she said. She knew there were some dark memories of that Italian city, but she couldn't forget the tantrum Freddie had thrown until she let him buy that set.

At the mention of the chess set, Freddie managed to smile, though it was only a small one. He remembered when he bought the set as well, too busy thinking about it that he didn't even realise the fingers on one of his hands twitch as if he were trying to reach for a piece.

"I thought you'd like to play when you were well," said Florence. "Thought you might even consider coming back out of retirement, competing against Anatoly for the world title again later this year, we could take the chess world by storm Freddie, bring back the golden era, like you said before."

At the mention of Anatoly, Freddie's monitor's beeped in response to his anger, Freddie frowning slightly.

"Shhhhhh, settle down Freddie," said Florence. "Don't worry, he's back in Russia where be belongs now."

Freddie slowly relaxed, the monitors going back to normal, blank look on his face again like it had been before he'd started responding.

"Freddie....." said Florence softly. "What happened in Merano......I'm sorry, you wake up, and I promise, I'll make things right between us...."

Freddie tried to respond, but wasn't able to again and got annoyed, his monitor beeping again.

"Easy Freddie easy," said Florence gently. "It's okay, you'll wake up when you're ready."

Freddie relaxed and drifted off, unconscious again.

"I don't know why you're still here," said a nurse rudely, checking the monitors. "He isn't going to wake up." Florence glared. "You don't know that!" she snapped, muttering something in her native language.

Freddie heard the nurse, though in the state he was in, the voices seemed far off and he was unable to respond to prove the nurse wrong.

Florence mumbled curses in Hungarian under her breath.

Freddie came around again a couple of hours later, worrying when he heard someone else in the room, unsure if it was Florence or not.

Florence sighed softly. "Freddie....." she shook her head, she didn't know what else to say.

Freddie moved his fingers slightly, stretching them out as if he was trying to reach for her.

Seeing the movement, Florence gently took his hand. "Here I am Freddie, I'm right here."

Freddie smiled slightly, his eyelids flickering a little as if he was trying to open them.

Florence smiled at seeing this, squeezing Freddie's hand. "C'mon Freddie, you can do it...."

Freddie stayed still for a bit before trying again, slowly managing to open his eyes a little.

Florence smiled. "Welcome back."