It Never Ends

"I haven't really slept much, I'll be fine. You're the one that probably needs the rest more than me." She said.

"You haven't slept much?" John asked, making sure he heard her right.

He knew why, it was his fault but he didn't like the fact that everything was starting to take a physical toll on Elle.

"No, you need to sleep. I'll get one of the nurse's to give you a sleeping pill if you need one. You shouldn't be driving and risk getting into a car crash after passing out due to exhaustion."

Elle looked at John blankly. "I have three kids and hold how many job titles at once? I am sure I will be fine without a little bit of sleep. I'll be fine."

"Elle, I know I'm the last person who should be asking anything of you but please do yourself a favor and get at least some sleep. Please." John said.

"A lot's going on, sleep isn't coming too easily for me." Elle said.

"That would be why they created sleeping pills, to help you sleep. You can't be doing all you're doing on top of all that stress with no sleep." John said.

"I can manage, really. Just get some rest, John...please." Elle said.

John sighed heavily. Elle really knew how to be stubborn when she wanted to be, she was damn good at it.

"Alright fine." John said as he lied down on the bed and rested his head on the pillow.

Elle nodded her head, curling up in the chair she was in, glad John let it go.

(Oy, I have to be at job orientation in the morning. So, I'm going to make an attempt to get some sleep early. Night! )

"Good night Elle." John said before he closed his eyes.

(Okay, good luck with that. Good night! )

"Night John." Elle said.

John let out one last yawn before he fell into a deep sleep for the night.

Elle's eyes turned to John when he fell asleep. She let out a low sigh at the sight of him. He looked so..peaceful and it almost pained Elle to see him just because she felt herself torn. She wanted to care but at the same time, she really didn't. Elle shook the thoughts out of her head, not even willing to go through the inner conflict with herself at the moment.

John felt the sun shine in from the window on him and his eyes slowly started to flutter open. Once the blurriness of waking up was away he looked over at the clock on the bedside table and noticed it was almost noon. He blinked then rubbed his eyes, he hasn't slept that late in a long time. Right now he was usually going to the gym so it was weird to not be doing the schedule he was used to. John couldn't wait to get out of the hospital but understood why he had to be there for the time being.

Sleep wasn't an easy thing to come by for Elle. It really wasn't. She had dozed on and off throughout the night. She really wanted to leave, but couldn't really fathom the possible look on John's face when she saw that she wasn't there when he woke up. Why that mattered to her? Well...yeah, she was pissed at him, but she couldn't deny that she still loved him. She had just fallen asleep not that long ago and was curled up in the chair, her head resting on her arms which laid on the arms of the chair.

A nurse had come in to see how he was and John asked her to get a blanket to put over Elle, to at least make it a bit more comfortable for her to sleep. When the nurse left John stared at Elle. He was happy she stayed the night even though it couldn't have been easy for her. That was one of the good things about Elle, she always cared about other people even if it hurt. She was too good for him, John sometimes thought. He then sighed and continued lying in the bed as he waited for Elle to wake up.

Elle felt the blanket on her and she shifted. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked around the room through bleary eyes. She stretched out some, groaning a bit as she did so from being curled up like that on the chair. Yawning her eyes regained focus and she saw John was up.

"Oh..you're up..hey.." She said.

John nodded and chuckled softly.

"Yeah, I've been up for a little while. Good morning." John said.

"Morning." Elle said, getting up to stretch a bit more. Maybe sleeping on that chair wasn't such a good idea.

A look of concern was now shown on John's face as he watched Elle stretch. He could tell sleeping in that chair had done it's damage. When he looked over on the side table he noticed his wallet and cell phone then grabbed his wallet. A massage would help with the aching her body was obviously feeling. She deserved a spa day after all the crap he had put her through anyway. After grabbing his credit card John held it out to Elle.

"Here, go to the spa with it and enjoy yourself." John said.

Elle looked at the credit card John held out and shook her head. "No, I'll be fine. Thanks though, but it's not necessary, really."

"It is necessary, I don't want your back messed up because you wanted to stay with me. At least do something to get your mind off of things and relax. Take my mom too, you both deserve something special since I went and fucked things up." John said.

Elle sighed, knowing she couldn't back out or say 'no' to John when he mentioned his mother. "Fine...thanks..." She said, reaching over to take his card and slip in into her purse.

"You don't have to if you don't want...I was just trying to do something to help you. I know it's not going to make you forgive me for everything and now I'm off the hook but I just thought it would be nice for you two to enjoy an hour without thinking about all of this." John said.

"I think it's something your mother deserves and would enjoy doing, that's what I'm doing it. Really doesn't have anything to do with me." Elle shrugged.