The Dead Of Night

Return To The Hospital

Quick AN: I know it's been a really long time since I last posted and if you're reading this chapter you are an awesome and truly dedicated reader. And if you are reading this quick author's note than you are a truly stupendous fan and I am truly thankful to have you reading my story. As always I'd love to have some feed back and hear what you think. And without further a deiu - the story!

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I was already at the library on the article finder when Sophie showed up. She came over to me and slumped her bag down beside me to announce her arrival. I glanced up at her and grinned, her pale cheeks were aflame from the cold and her mousy hair gone wild from the wind. She pulled herself up to the chair beside me, at the second machine.

"I was really surprised when you called me." She told me with a grin, " You don't usually want to hang with anyone."

I stopped typing and looked down at my fingers, my grin fading away. She was right. I didn't usually reach out to my so-called friends often because I was always in my 'own world' where I could see Janson...even now, I was still in my own world in a way. "Hey." Sophie said reaching over and grabbing my hand, and I was comforted by the coldness of her touch. "I'm glad you called, I like spending time with you."

Feeling a little better, but like I was going to have to make more of a commitment to spending time with Sophie, I resumed searching through the articles containing the name 'Janson O'Donnell.' There were only a few and I sent them through to the printer. "So you like the idea then?" I asked.

"To do a piece for the school paper about individuals in our town's history? Yeah, I thought it was a great idea. I'm not sure how many students will be interested but I know some of the teachers will love it.' She smiled. "Where'd you come up with the idea?"

I ran up and grabbed the articles from the printer and mumbled as I sat down, "Oh. This friend just kind of suggested it." Realizing Sophie was among my few friends I sat up straight and said, "My cousin actually. They did something like that at her school apparently."

"That's cool." Sophie said with an encouraging smile. She glanced at the articles I printed off before I could shove them into my backpack. "Janson O'Donnell; that sounds real familiar, huh?" She smiled.

"I know, he came up a couple times..." I said noncommittally."I was thinking I'd head back to the hospital to visit that Andrew kid. Mr. Attler told me he'd be going home soon and I wanted to wish him good luck."

"That's great." Sophie chirped. "Why'd you wig out before? You booked it out of the room the moment the photo was taken."

I didn't know how to answer, I didn't even know myself why I'd run off like that. "Crowds, I guess." I managed. "There were a lot of people there before, but when he opened his eyes everyone was pushing in and talking and it was really overwhelming."

Sophie nodded and turned in her seat to look at me sympathetically. "And you were only just recovering from the cold shock." I nodded unsure how I should respond to that, when Sophie leaned over and wrapped her arms around me. "I'm so glad you're alright." She mumbled into my hair.

Surprised by the sudden closeness I slowly raised up my arms and patted her on the back. After a moment I hugged her back, feeling comforted even though I hadn't told her everything about Zack, and Janson, or even the ravine incident. "Hey, speaking of which do you think we should put Andrew in our paper?"

"He'd be a perfect addition to the article for sure!" Sophie said with enthusiasm, pulling out of the hug. "It would make for a really great, inspirational ending too!"