Still Alive

Day 1 (Cont.)

Chris walked into the diner seating himself at a booth in the corner. He ordered he and Claire's usual and awaited her arrival. It wasn't long until a bright smiling face greeted him and sat across from him. The bright smile was quickly replaced by a softer one as Claire stated, "I heard about everything from Sherry... how are you Chris, honestly?"

He hesitated before saying his reply, "I-I've been better. The doctors say Piers should be fine, but when I look at him, I just don't know how they can be sure."

Their conversation was cut short as their food was brought out and Chris got to eating right away. Claire stared at her older brother, thinking of something, anything, she could say to him to ease his pain the way he had done for her time and time again. All she managed to say was a simple, "I'm sorry." Chris stared at her with a sad smile and love in his eyes not replying, but for Claire it did just fine as a reply.

The pair finished their food with much lighter conversation about how Claire was doing, what boy she was seeing now, and just generally what she'd been doing when Chris was away. Once they'd finished, Claire had paid before Chris had the chance to refuse. Before they parted ways once more, Claire had offered to go back to the hospital with Chris but, to no one's surprise, he politely refused.

Chris walked into the room expecting to see Piers still asleep but he instead found Piers weakly talking to his doctor. Chris would be lying if he said he didn't feel his heart aching for a moment when he thought about how Piers had awoken alone. The moment their gazes met, Piers' eye widened with joy and he meekly greeted the surprised Chris. The doctor wrapped up what he was telling Piers and made his exit with a polite nod to Chris.

Chris kneeled down by Piers and only managed to say, "I'm sorry, so sorry."

Piers simply replied by placing his hand on Chris' hair and saying, "I'm glad you're alright captain." Chris leaned into Piers' touch for just a moment before getting up and apologizing once more for not being there when Piers awoke.

"I should have never left." Chris mumbled, mostly to himself. A moment of silence fell over the two of them before Piers spoke no louder than a whisper,

"Will I be okay?"

The question had caught Chris so off guard that he fumbled before his reply saying, "I'll make sure of it, Nivans."

"I think I'm going to go back to sleep now, captain. Please... stay." Piers had said the last part much quieter and one could assume it was because of embarrassment for saying something he considered so weak. Piers had never felt more powerless in his entire life and what's worse was the fact that it was in front of his beloved captain. However, he just couldn't stand the thought of waking up scared and alone again.

Chris' heart broke hearing the small "please stay" come out of the young man in front of him and he quickly replied with a, "I won't leave until you want me to, Piers."

Hearing this made Piers relax and he quickly drifted off to sleep once more. Chris hated that Piers woke up all alone and he wished he could tell him he never left before that one small moment, but it would make no difference now. He found himself once again staring at Piers' lips breathing in and out. Chris longed to take away the pain that would surely follow Piers soon, to remove the bandages that covered his wounds and have there be nothing hiding under them. Exhaustion once again came back to haunt Chris so he fell down into his chair and fell asleep next to Piers once more.