Still Believing That You're Waiting For Me

The Kindness of Strangers

Shane is on his way back home from a hard day of work with his friend Kier.

"Shane, you need to lighten up. You always look like you're depressed." Kier tells his friend.

"I know, it feels like a lifetime ago since I was generally happy. It's like my whole life I'm just tolerating everything." Shane explains.

Kier gives him a sad look for a moment. "Is this somehow also because of that Drew guy you knew when you were in the orphanage?" He checks. "It's beginning to feel like you've just made him up to punish yourself. What for? I still have no idea." Kier continues.

"He's not made up, I still have a photo of us together when we were kids." Shane sullenly explains.

"Yeah right!" Kier scoffs. "Shane, don't take this the wrong way but you need to just suck it up and just get over it. You're one of my best friends but it's almost like you're still mourning your old orphanage friend. The chances are, whoever he is, wherever he is and whatever he is doing, he's long forgotten you." Kier tries, being as careful as he can to stop before he ends up upsetting his friend.

"He doesn't know that I'm still looking for him." Shane admits.

"This is beyond grasping at straws. You haven't heard from each other for a whole decade." Kier continues.

"Just drop it." Shane murmurs, looking around and spotting someone getting very close to the rail on the bridge they're walking on.

Both men notice this and watch for a while as an extremely drunk woman waddles right up against the barrier. She takes a moment to stare at the water, dropping the bottle of alcohol and watching how it hits the water.

"Hey, are you okay?" Shane checks.

The woman looks over her shoulder with a wry and bitter chuckle. "What's it to you?" She hisses with a soft weak voice, slurring slightly from how intoxicated she is.

"I just can't watch you do this." Shane pleads.

"Then walk away, it's all everyone else does." The woman mutters.

"I can't do that." Shane tells her.

The woman glares hatefully at them. "Why the fuck not?" She snaps at him.

This is when Kier steps up. "Please, I know it gets hard but you have to pull through-"

"-Do you know anything about me? What I've been through?" The woman yells, straining her voice. "I thought so!"

"Please excuse Kier, he's a little shallow." Shane instantly saves, slowly stepping closer to the woman to bring her away from the edge.

"Stay the hell back!" She screams at him. "I'll jump! I mean it!"

Shane stops and takes off his jacket, shivering at the cold and wondering how she can wear a dress in this weather. "If you jump, I'll dive in straight after you to pull you to safety." Shane tells her, ignoring a nudge in the side from Kier.

"You're just saying that." The woman growls.

"Don't make him prove it, Shane's many things but he's not a liar." Kier defends.

The woman looks a little distant for a moment before simply leaning far enough towards the water to fall gracefully.

Shane and Kier both scream for her to stop but by the time they both get to the rail, she's just hit the water.

"Kier, call an ambulance now!" Shane tells him, taking off his glasses as he starts doing as he's warned and diving in after her.

"SHANE!" Kier screams.

Shane ignores the panic in Kier's voice, feeling the air leaving his body when he reaches the freezing water.

He doesn't let this affect him and spots the woman underneath him, bubbles of air leaving her mouth and nose as she lets herself sink.

He instantly swims deeper catching the woman. The water makes it a lot easier to carry her back to the surface.

Shane holds her head steadily above water as he swims to the nearest land. When he gets there, he brings them both far enough from the water to stop the tide reaching them.

He trembles at the cold and checks that she's still breathing. When he feels that she's not breathing, he instantly starts doing CPR on her.

With a gurgle, she chokes up some of the water.

"Hey, stay with me!" Shane checks, lightly tapping the woman's cheek to keep her conscious.

"Who a-are y-you?" She shivers, her teeth chattering twice as much as Shane's.

"I'm no one special. I did tell you I'd dive in after you." Shane forces a reassuring smile.

This makes the woman try to push him off her. "L-leave me a-alone!" She shrieks, kicking and hitting Shane.

"Please calm down. I'm here for you." Shane reassures.

"No one's ever been there for me!" The woman screams.

"I am, I promise." Shane tells her.

"Shane! You're okay! Don't you dare do something like that again!" Kier yells at his friend, wrapping the shivering man in his jacket. Shane doesn't accept it and wraps it around the woman, ignoring Kier pleading him to stop being selfless.

Soon the sight of flashing blue lights reassures Shane, although the woman has passed out from the cold. The paramedics guide Shane into the back of the ambulance while they bring the woman in, lying her down on the bed. Shane gets wrapped up in a thermal blanket to bring the colour back to his face.

"Her again!" One of the paramedics sighs.

"She's got problems but we've got a job to do." An older one warns.

"What?" Shane gasps.

"Thanks for saving her but we should really be glad that you're not too frozen." One of them smiles warmly at Shane.

"Who is she? How do you know her?" He asks carefully.

They all roll their eyes. "She's our most popular suicidal nut case." One of them mutters.

"Couldn't you just sign her up for therapy or something?" He checks.

"Oh, believe me, she's never opened up. All therapy is completely wasted on her." One of them tells him.

Shane can't help but look at her sympathetically. "That's a real shame."

"Don't get too sorry, she's beyond our help, that's for sure."