Duane blamed Carly and told her that he wouldn't ever forgive her until she woke up. Carly prayed night and day for her recovery.

They tried to go on with thier lives while also keeping vigil at her bedside. The girls met daily to talk about the Nurse's Ball. They hoped that by talking around her she would disagree and wake up if for no reason than to disagree. Sometimes they would sit and talk about nothing all hoping she would wake up and join the conversation.

Kysela struggled with the decision of wether or not to call thier parents. She knew it was the right thing to do, but if Tunetha was avoiding something she knew having her parents here would driver her further away.

April 10, 2000

3:30 am

It was the first time since Tunetha had been brought to the hospital that she was alone. The Doctors had somehow convinced EVERYONE to go home. Tunetha was enjoying the silence she knew that all her friends loved her but good lord how they could talk. There were several times over the past month that she had tried to wake up just so she could tell them to shut the hell up!!!

Tunetha slowly woke up, her head hurt and she was extremly hungry. She tried calling for the nurse but couldn't get anything more than a whisper out. She tried again and this time her voice didn't fail her. The nurse came running in followed by Dr. Ross.

"your awake" he said "how do you feel??'

"my head is killing me and i'm starvacious" she told him

"starvacious??" he asked as he chuckled

"its the point after starving but before famished. so where is everyone??" she asked

"who??" Dr. Ross asked

"my friends, the group of people that never shut up" she told him looking at him like he was strange, she had heard his voice several times before begging her to wake up, telling her how miserable her friends were but now she was wondering if he was a Doctor. "who are you??"

"I'm Dr. Ross, I've been taking care of you. We sent your friends home. They looked like they could use the rest, they've been sitting with you for almost a month now"

"a month??"

"yep a month"

"do you want me to call her family and let them know she's okay Dr. Ross??" the nurse asked.

"please don't" Tunetha said

"why not??" the Dr asked

"I'd rather they rest, plus once I go home things will change. The anger will come back"

"are you sure, sweetie" the nurse asked Tunetha

"yes ma'am, I'm sure."

"alright then, let me go get you something to eat" the nurse told her as she left the room

"Could you send Nurse Corday in here to help her clean up??"

"yes sir" she said and she was gone

"what's wrong??" Tunetha asked the Dr as he pulled a chair to her bedside

"do you know what happened that landed you in here, more importantly do you know where here is???"

"yes, on both here is GH and getting beat up is why I'm here. What I don't understand is how a simple beating could land me in here for a month?!?"

"Well your body shut down, and you were in a coma."

"how was I able to hear everyone??"

"You wanted to hear everyone, were you afraid there'd be repurcussions to the attack??"

"yea, Carly and I were somewhere Sonny asked us not go. I knew he'd be mad, so are you saying I caused this coma"

"in a nutshell, yes"

"then why all those times I wanted to wake up I couldn't???"

"a larger part of you didn't want to, maybe its the same part of you that doesn't want us to call your friends and let them know you're okay and awake" he got up to leave

"yeah maybe."

Nurse Corday helped her get cleaned up and was walking her around the room when Nurse Green.

"already up and moving??" she asked as she put the tray of food down on the table

"yeah, I tried to convince her not to but she was adament" the other nurse explained "her ankle is still bothering her but other than that she is doing as well as expected"

"that's good, now come sit down and eat" the nurse told her sternly

"yes ma'am" she said as she slid back into bed.

Tunetha ate her food with zealous, the nurses were amazed by her recovery. She took a short nap and when she woke up she convinced the nurses to let her shower and sit in the chair by the window.

Tunetha enjoyed the hot shower, she let the hot water massage her sore muscles. Tunetha washed her hair loving the fact that she was able to do these menial things so soon after waking up. The nurse that was standing outside the shower just in case kept telling her that she was definetly a miracle. After her shower she changed into a pair of pajama bottems and a tank top, and combed out her hair. As she stepped out of the bathroom slowly and carefully she saw that it was already 7:45, she knew her friends would be her soon.

Nurse Green told her that when the Dr. convinced everyone to go home they told her they'd be back at 8:00 am.

She sat in the chair the nurse placed by the window and just stared, soaking in the peacefullness she got from looking at the clouds, knowing that as soon as her visitors got there it would be over. They'd be happy she woke up but mad that she hadn't allowed the nurse to call.