𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 (𝐃𝐚𝐛𝐢 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫)

2

The pounding headache you awoke with had to have been one of the worst you'd ever experienced.  

You kept your eyes shut against the harsh light streaming through your window. The sun was oddly brighter than it normally was, or maybe it just seemed that way due to the effects of the alcohol and whatever drugs you'd taken the night before.

There was a smell in the air, one that was different than normal. Ami would normally have already been awake and cooking breakfast by the time you woke up, maybe she'd decided to sleep in after her late work night.

"Glad to see you awake." 

A voice came from beside your bed, and you were startled, your eyes flew open. When you moved, though, you felt a tug underneath your skin. You squinted against the light and soon came to realize that it had not come from the sun as you'd thought, but from the fluorescent bulbs in the fissure above you. This was not your room, and the person next to you was not Ami.

Your breaths began coming out in short spurts, panic overtaking your mind as memories of what you'd thought had been a hallucination rushed to the surface. There'd been blood, so much blood, and Ami-

She was dead.

You swore that you could feel your heart crack, the splintering pieces piercing your insides until a physical pain began to grow. She was dead, the only real friend you'd had. Ami had been forced to fight for her life while you'd been drinking away your stress and allowing yourself to be touched by strangers who held no value to you. Strangers you'd been using as a replacement for the one you couldn't have.

The person beside you spoke again, interrupting your thoughts. "I can tell from your face that you're pretty freaked out. Which is understandable."

You turned your head, surprised by the faint recognition that sparked inside of you when he spoke, and were met with the face of the number-two hero. Confusion made its way into the already overwhelming amount of emotions you were feeling.

You'd met Hawks briefly before, on your way in and out of the commission building, but never had he been so close to you, and you never would have considered the two of you to be close enough for him to be waiting for you to wake up in the hospital. You weren't close enough to anyone for that except for Ami. And the only other time you'd been in the hospital, she'd been in the bed next to you.

"What are you doing here?" You asked, sounding a little more shocked than you would've liked to.

"Well, after what happened I had to make sure you didn't die on me, right? That scratch on your arm was pretty bad, and it took forever for the doctors to get the poison out of your system."

Poison? You looked down at your left arm. It had been wrapped tightly with bandages. Your gaze traveled back to the hero beside you. "It was you, then? You were one of the people in the alley?"

His brows narrowed in confusion, "besides your attacker, I was the only one in the alley. I just happened to be doing a final patrol sweep over the area and happened across you."

That couldn't be right, you knew you'd heard someone else before he'd arrived. You shook your head and reached for red the button sitting atop the beds' armrest, "I think I'm gonna call in a doctor."

Hawks' hand reached out and wrapped around your wrist, stopping you just before the button could be pressed. With a small chuckle, he spoke once more. "I'm just in a bit of a rush and need to ask you a couple of questions. I promise it'll only take a few minutes, then I'll go out and get someone for you."

You stared at his hand, "let go of me."

He released his grip with an apologetic smile. "Sorry."