Paper Planes Back Home

ARRIVAL, II . FOUR

The plan is in motion.

"Ricky requested that I pay an extra visit to Gianna tonight, as there is something he needs to do," Anna told Aaron over the phone late that afternoon. "Her parents won't be around. You have at least a half-hour window . . .

Don't get caught, or I swear to God."

It's a little past nine in the evening when Aaron makes an appearance at the side wing hallway leading to Gianna's room. Seeing Ricky leave the hospital premises ten minutes earlier means the coast is clear, so he slips into a nearby restroom and puts a borrowed scrub suit on.

"I left a bag at the nurses' station under your name." Aaron could almost hear the struggle in Anna's voice. He knew that any moment she could just blurt out 'What am I even doing?' to him and he would understand. If some people gave others an extra mile, he considered Anna's help equivalent to a thousand. "It's a scrub suit and a face mask we use. Put it on for extra precaution, just in case things don't go as planned."

In the future, Aaron supposes he could tell this story to Gianna and laugh about the ridiculous lengths he had to go through just to see her for half an hour. Never in his life had he imagined stealthily sneaking inside hospital rooms dressed like a nurse, but he figures what his father told him once was true: "A man who resolves that he will never do anything stupid for love is, himself, stupid."

He doesn't really count the stupid decisions he makes in a given day (mainly because he thinks they are necessary, not stupid), but as he walks down the hall toward 1126 and sees Ricky cross his line of sight, only one thing runs through his head. Yep, this is stupid all right.

Ricky must have seen him in his periphery, because he turns his head to look at Aaron's direction before he reaches for the door to 1126. Aaron's first instinct is to reach for the door nearest him, and in a mere second, he finds himself in 1127.

"Hey," he hears someone say. Aaron heaves a deep breath and plasters himself against the closed door, only then realizing that the patient in 1127 is awake.

"I just got checked by Nurse Lee," the patient informs him. "Is there anyth—"

"No, I'm not a—" Aaron stops to catch himself, for a split second considering keeping up the act. He decides, however, that lying might get him into even more trouble, what with his very limited medical knowledge. Sighing, he just comes out with it straight. "I'm not really a nurse, I'm sorry."

Skylar straightens himself up, looks at Aaron with curiosity.

"I'm not here to hurt you or anything like that," Aaron continues defensively, tugging at the mask to reveal his face. "I just really wanted to see my girl."

"And . . . you came into the wrong room?"

Another sigh. "Well, her family and I are not exactly on good terms. I was just trying to sneak in for a little while, but her fiancé just came back."

The room grows silent, with Aaron having nothing else he readily wants to reveal, and Skylar feeling like he has some sort of strange affiliation with the fake nurse in front of him.

"She isn't two-timing you, is she?" Skylar asks candidly.

"No, no. She's . . . it's a complicated story."

Skylar nods, then shrugs. "As you can see, I have all the time in the world and could use a little company. If you don't want to talk about your girl, we could probably pull things out of a hat or something."

Aaron smiles at the indirect invitation to stay and steps forward with his hand out. "My name is Aaron. Aaron Taylor."

"Skylar Levin." He takes Aaron's hand in a firm handshake. "You can take a seat if you want . . . might take a little time before you're able to accomplish what you came for."