The news of Cassandra's engagement hit him harder than any news he'd been given so far, and Andrew felt his chest tighten. Cassandra had gotten engaged? How could that be? She had already been engaged to him, and he would have needed to be involved for them to get engaged again. The only real possibility was that she had gotten engaged to someone else, and even that didn't make sense. He knew Cassandra, knew that she loved him, and knew that she would never abandon him just for getting injured. He sun the idea over and over in his mind, but nothing about it felt right. He looked up, and Abigail was still standing in the doorway. She didn't seem able to leave him so easily now that she had told him news that could have broken him.

"How?" he stammered, trying to process what Abigail had told him. "Who could she be be engaged to?"

With a sigh, Abigail returned to the seat at his bedside. Andrew couldn't really hold his head up for long without hurting himself, but he did managed to flip onto his side so that he could see Abigail more easily. He waited for some kind of explanation, but for one of the first times that he could remember, Abigail was silent. She picked at the hem of her shirt, and every few seconds she took a deep breath that turned into a sigh. Finally, she gathered herself enough to speak.

"I don't know why they haven't told you anything," she said cryptically. "I really, really don't know, and I didn't want to be the one who had to do it. I'm not good at this kind of thing, and I kind of ramble when I'm nervous and I honestly probably have about as many questions as you do, but... Look, someone has to tell you, it's only fair."

"Tell me what?" Andrew asked, unable to think of anything she would be more afraid to tell him than that Cassandra, the love of his life, had gotten engaged to someone else at the first sign that he might not be perfectly healthy.

"You didn't just pass out or something, Andrew," she said, shaking her head. "I mean, you did pass out, but it's not like it was yesterday or even a few days ago. You've been out for a long time, Andrew. Like, coma long."

"I've been... in a coma?" he said, and though his voice was hesitant, his mind was working overtime. It actually made some sense, he realized as his head spun. His muscles certainly felt as if they hadn't been used in ages, and there was really no way that Abigail could have redone his whole apartment in just a few days. Cassandra's engagement still felt too soon, but it also made at least a little more sense now that he knew he had been gone for a long time.

"Please don't freak out," Abigail said, and her eyes were bright with the beginnings of tears. "I know it's a lot, and I know it's scary, but you're awake again. You're back now, and that's amazing, and I really, really want you to try and focus on that."

"Okay," Andrew said softly, his throat tight. He didn't think he could do it, but the more he thought about the situation, the more horrible he realized it must have been for Abigail, and even for Cassandra. He could put on a brave face for her. He owed it to her after everything that she had been through for him.

"Okay?" Abigail brightened.

"Okay," Andrew said, and he would have nodded, but his neck still hurt a bit when he moved it. "I'll try to be positive. I really will. But please, I need to know what happened. I need to know how long it's been and whether Cassandra has really moved on. I have to know these things, or I'm not going to be able to process any of this."

"Right," Abigail said. "I was just expecting... I mean, that was big news. I would have freaked out. Heck, I've been freaking out ever since I got the call saying that things had changed and you might be waking up, and that was good news."

"I'm freaking out, I promise you," Andrew said, and though he showed no outward signs of that being true, it absolutely was. This was a lot for anyone to process, even someone with as even a temper as Andrew.

"That's just like you," Abigail said with a sad, weary smile. "You would never be able to tell, not from looking at you."

Andrew didn't know what to say to that, but he didn't have to say anything at all. Abigail launched straight into an explanation of the car accident that had landed him broken in the hospital. She talked a lot about the moment, and about how everyone, including Cassandra, had grieved when they heard he might not be waking up. She talked a lot about what those first awful moments had felt like for everyone who was there, and how they had seemed to go on forever, but she didn't mention how long it had been. She confirmed that Cassandra had gotten engaged, but she didn't tell the story of how it had happened, likely to spare Andrew's feelings. In everything she said, there was one important factor missing: time.

"It's been so hard without you," Abigail said, wrapping up her tale without even answering how long it had been. She was crossing her arms in a way that he assumed was meant to look tough, but in reality mostly looked like she was hugging herself.

"For how long?" he asked, looking her in the eye. "You never said how long it's been."

Abigail sighed heavily, as if she had been hoping he wouldn't notice. "I know. I didn't want to say."

"I need to know."

"Three years," she said, looking up at him and shaking her head. "It's been three years since I last saw you awake."