"God, my head hurts!" Petra moaned, rolling on her side and jerking the pillow under her head, she wrapped it around her face. It was the middle of the night and Damien wasn't sure why he was still there.

"Don't suffocate yourself," he sighed, reaching over from where he sat by her bed and grabbing the pillow, trying to take it away from her, but she held on tightly.

"Stop it," she whined like some child until he succeeded in removing the object from her clutch. She then moaned and pulled the clean, white sheets over her head, hiding from him.

"What's the matter?" He said tugging the linen sheets down, forcefully, so that he could see her.

"I don't want to lay in this bed anymore," she moaned, stretching her arms out over the mattress, "my head feels groggy from all the drugs they've given me though, I want to get out of this damn hospital, and my face is swollen up. I look like a mess."

He frowned, letting his eyes travel around her face. Her forehead was definitely swollen and red, but as usual she always seemed to look perfect.

"Why are you here any ways?" She barked at him. "I'd have thought that you would have just dumped me off here and left, never giving a second thought about it."

"I had to make sure you were all right, obviously," he replied with a thin smile.

"Yeah right," she muttered sarcastically as if she were arguing with him over it. "What do you want, Damien?"

"Admit it," he grinned at her, "you're happy that I'm here. I can see it in the way you're hiding that smile"

"Don't flatter yourself," she snapped at him, her face flushing with red as she hid the smile away further with a frown, "I'd rather be alone in a pitch black cave for a hundred years than be alone with you for one moment!"

Damien laughed at her, smiling to himself, "It's interesting how these damned drugs make people more angry than they've ever been. Apparently, I tried to kill my sister's fiancee when I was on them."

"I'm not angry," she smiled at him, sitting up and leaning towards him. Damien stared into her eyes, curiously. They were foggy looking. She probably wouldn't even remember this conversation by the next day. "I'm not angry at all," she leaned in closer and kissed him.

It wasn't even a second later that he broke free by grinning, carefully pulling away from her, but apparently not too carefully because she hit or rather punched him in the jaw, hard. He bit back the pain, opening his eyes to look at her hard. Now she was crying. For goodness sake's these drugs put a person through hell. He wouldn't blame her for any of it because the exact same thing had already happened to him not too long ago.

He sighed sympathetically, immediately forgiving her for hitting him for no reason, "Petra, love, why are you crying?"

She looked up at him, sighing irritatedly, shaking her head. "I have loved you for so long," she began to speak words that she'd never even let come to mind if she weren't on the drugs as the tears filled her eyes once more, "but you can't get over her, even though she's long gone." Here she burst into tears, whimpering helplessly, "H-how is it that every man wants me except you? I can't live like this any longer! I hate myself so much. Everyone hates me! I-I can't think of a single person who doesn't."

Damien bit his lip. "Petra I don't hate you, you know that. Okay, sometimes I don't let all my feeling show and it may look that way, but darling you can't hate yourself because you'll never be able to change. Your power is a great burden with little to no rewards, but trust me on this I'll never ever leave your side."

"But," she said solemnly, "you'll also never ever love me the way I love you."

His mouth twitched involuntarily, "No, I don't think so. Don't you remember when we were kids you made me use my power on myself to never fall in love with you. Besides, I'll never get over her, you're right. Nevertheless, you and I are all each other have. No one else knows our pain and everyone else despises us, so-"

"That's not true though is it!" She interrupted him with a scream, "You have Dane and you have Amon and there are plenty of people who admire you Damien as the king's chief advisor. Don't you dare lie to me!"

"I do have Dane," he agreed with her, "but-"

"But nothing Damien," she hissed, "there was a time when people loathed you as much as they loathe me, but not anymore. You cannot deny it. I cannot walk out into public without trash being thrown at me, without some stranger accidentally touching me! There's too much hatred, my father and mother, even my own siblings. You are right that you are all that I have and that is only because you commanded yourself to be immune to me. I should just lock myself in some closet and die!"

Damien sighed. She was making his heart ache for her because he knew that she was right. He was no longer hated as much as he was once before. Watching her cry, he slid up onto the bed and laid beside her, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "I never really comprehended how bad things had gotten for you. I-I hadn't seen you in so long and then you just showed up out of the bleu."

"You've changed a lot,'' she muttered as her breathing became slower. She was falling asleep.

"How so?" Damien yawned. He was about to fall asleep as well.

She gave a faint laugh, "You're only half as bad as you used to be. . ."

"What do you mean by that?" He sighed heavily.

"You can't see it?" She smiled as her voice dropped to a whisper, "You aren't nearly as selfish or cruel and you hardly use your power over people anymore." She paused to lift her lids and look at him, "What's made you change?"

"But yet like I said, we haven't seen each other in a long time," Damien paused to make his point clearer, "surely it's too soon for you to be saying things like that."

"And," Damien could barely hear her now, "now you're just avoiding the question."

"What question?" Damien laughed a little.

When she didn't answer he peeked open one eye to look in her direction, finding her fast asleep. He smiled to himself, knowing that she wouldn't remember a word of this conversation in the morning. In fact she wouldn't even remember that Damien had been there setting up the perfect opportunity. He'd wake up before her and sneak out. He had only come to make sure that she was all right and now that he knew she was he could leave. There was no reason for him to try to comfort her any further. They weren't friends anymore or at least to her they couldn't be because if she leaned on him too much she might end up loosing her own balance. He understood that quite well, but at that moment all he wanted was the rest he had been deprived of for the past four nights.