Been Hit Before - Brian Quinn

Stitches.

I had been at the emergency room for a little over two hours now. I had already seen a doctor and I had been told that I was going to need stitches, so now the waiting game had begun. I was awfully nervous, there was nothing in the world I hated more than needles, and I had never needed stitches before so I was imagining the worst - thus working myself up.

"I didn't know what you liked so I got you both." Brian returned, holding both a can of soda and lemonade in each hand. "I figured which one you didn't want, I'd drink. So which is your poison?" He asked, holding them both up.

"That one" I pointed to the lemonade. Thanking him as he passed me the cool can. "You know, I appreciate you staying here with me and all, but you must have something better to do than to sit in the emergency room with a stranger for hours on end." I giggled, yet wincing when the movement affected the pain in my head. Brian looked over at me with concern on his face.

"I just can't help but feel responsible for this happening. It happened outside of our offices. That kind of stuff never usually happens there, and the one time it did, you were the unlucky one." He opened the top of his can, taking a sip of his soda.

"I don't want you to feel guilty, or to be here out of a guilt. If it wasn't me, then it would have been someone else. You're not responsible at all. If anything, you guys turned up at the right time."

"Well sometimes a guy can't help but feel bad." He looked towards me. "And I'm not here out of guilt, I want to make sure that you're okay. You're obviously new to New York."

"Well thank you." I looked back towards him. There was no use on fighting him being here, he had made it more than clear that he was going to stay. I just didn't want him to think of me as a nuisance. I still wanted the job after all, the last thing I wanted to do was make him sick of me already.

"So.. Where are you from?" He began to question.

"Somewhere far away from here." I exhaled, looking ahead of me. It's not that I purposely went out of my way to be rude, I just wasn't here to make friends. I had came here for an interview, to hopefully gain a new job in a new place. I was being work orientated. The last thing that I wanted to work on was my social life, especially after just being mugged.

"Alright.." Brian replied quietly, tapping his fingers on the side of his can.

"Serena Tate?" A nurse called from down the hall.

"Well, that's me." I announced as I stood up from my seat. "Again.. Thank you for coming, I appreciate that. And thanks for the drink." I placed the can into the trash, before making my way to where the nurse had called me from.

6 stitches and a huge white band aid on the side of my head later, I emerged from the cubicle to see Brian still sat in the same chairs that we had both been sat in. Upon seeing me, he stood up, knowing I had to walk past him anyway.

"What's the damage?" He asked, looking at the dressing on my head.

"6 stitches." I answered, watching his face clench up at my answer.

"Nice." He tried not to smile, when I knew deep down that he wanted to. I looked beyond ridiculous.

"I didn't expect for you to still be here when I got out." I said as we walked out of the main entrance, the sun beginning to get noticeably lower, shining directly into my eyes.

"Well.. They took your purse, I didn't want to leave you with no way of getting home." He replied, making me realize that I hadn't even thought that part through. My phone, passport and credit card were all in that bag. I was almost 900 miles away from my hometown. So essentially - I was screwed.

"Could today get any worse?" I groaned.

"It could, but I won't let it." He replied very smoothly. "Come on." He said, gesturing for me to follow him.

"Where are we going?" I asked, as he once again lead me to his jeep.

"Food. You must be as hungry as I am." He was right, I was starving, we had been here for hours, but that wouldn't solve all of the problems that I was going to be facing.

"Brian.. I need to find a way of getting home.." I said, before he got into the car. "I had my plane ticket, cards and phone in that bag."

"So let's go and eat, call up the card companies in the car on the way there and cancel your cards. And get a refund on your flight while we're at it." He answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which I guess it was, but when you're in a city that you have no idea about, with no cash or way of contacting anybody for help, the obvious answers are the last thing that your mind travels to. You're just going to panic.

After sitting in the car on the journey to get food, I had managed to cancel all of the cards that had I had on me, but Brian and I had clearly not thought through the whole refunding of the plane ticket. A - I would have already missed the flight. And B - I couldn't have refunded it anyway when I had just canceled my card.

Pulling into a drive thru - of course the classiest of options - Brian turned to me as he ordered his food. After letting him know what I wanted, we pulled up into the parking spaces awaiting our food to be taken over to his car.

"So.. You have anybody in New York that you can stay with? Any relatives close by?" He asked.

"Nope." I said, shaking my head. "No one."

"I'll pay for your hotel room tonight, don't worry so much." He replied.

"Are you sure?" I asked, feeling bad for him to suggest such a thing after he had already done so much for me already.

"You think I'm just going to leave you on the streets all night?" He laughed a little as he looked at me. "You're right. You're definitely not from New York."

"I'll reimburse you everything for today as soon as I go and pick my card up tomorrow."

"Don't worry about that, honestly." He leant his hands against his steering wheel, before an employee of the food joint knocked on his window, handing him our meals after he wound his window down. "Just think of it as your new boss giving you a favor." He said as he smiled towards me. It took a moment for the penny to drop, but when it did I had to question him.

"My new boss? You mean I got the job?" I asked, smiling at at least one good outcome of today.

"Well, Murray, Joe and I want you working for us, and Sal is easily persuaded, so I'd like to say that you did"

"Oh my gosh, thank you so much. You litterally have no idea on how much you just turned my day around."

"I mean, I think I have a bit of an idea" he chuckled slightly as he pointed to the bandaged area on my head.