It Was Supposed to Blossom

CHAPTER SEVEN

Ryan POV
If it wasn't for the exhaustion I was experiencing right now, I would try to pry Lilly from the cruel hands of that stranger, but I couldn't do anything. I was forced to watch, helpless and powerless, as the blade was lowered to Lilly's face. I felt more pain than all the times they've physically tortured me.
But Lilly wasn't going to back down. She stared her opponent back down, with an odd look in her eyes, as if she had accepted her death, decided to die in her own undefeated way.
I couldn't watch. As I closed my eyes, suddenly the warehouse doors were flung open and a whole squad of policemen flooded the room. "Hands up!" barked one of them, aiming a pistol directly at the kidnapper.
Startled, the kidnapper backed away from Lilly, dropped the knife and put his hands up. While he was apprehended and taken to a police car, they handled the other two, now conscious and started tagging things with evidence markers.
Another person appeared after the police. The familiar face made my lips move into words. "Shawn!"
"Ryan!" He immediately comes forth, sizing up my wounds that were ultimately less major than Lilly's. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." I say weakly. "But...how did you know where I was?"
"When they called Lilly for ransom, she phoned me up and we decided to go to the warehouse together. Somehow, I couldn't reach the police for so long. I told her to wait for me, but I guess she didn't."
I gripped his arm and he helped me to my feet. "Woah." I stumble slightly, my head feeling really woozy.
Shawn surveys me. "You may have had a concussion. Come on. Let's get you to the hospital."
"Lilly too." I tell him. "I think she bruised her jaw and twisted her ankle. She's really hurt."
"Let's go." He helps Lilly up and I wince. When the man dropped her knife, it left a long, deep scar on her right cheek.
"Shawn, I don't need any help." She says, lightly pushing him away. "I'm...fine..." Lilly's ankle suddenly bends like plasticine and she falls into me. Even though I'm so tired, I pull her up and let her head rest on my shoulder.
We head to the car and ride to the hospital in silence. When we get there, Lilly gets put into a different ward. While all my wounds are treated, I keep thinking about Lilly. She went in fearlessly, brought the ransom, fought them all and got injured because of...me. I felt so grateful, yet guilt was weighing me down and seeping into my conscious like poison. Then the doctor jams a needle into my arm and I black out.
When I come to, my sprained arm is slung in a cast and my head is bandaged up too. A nurse, who is gently dabbing antiseptic onto my cut knees, quietly packs up her kit, pours me a glassful of water and leaves the ward.
I gulp down the liquid thirstily and look round. I have to find Lilly and see how she is. As I make to get up, my knees and head hurt so badly I have to sink back onto the pillows.
Just then, the curtain is drawn back and Lilly appears.
"Lilly!" I scramble to a seated position.
"Are you OK?" Hesitantly, she sits down next to my bed. I see her ankle in a cast, a long bandage on her cheek and instantly feel terrible.
"I'm fine. But look at you...this was all because of me." I couldn't bear to look at her properly, but after a while, raise my head. "I'm so sorry, Lilly."
"Don't be silly. It wasn't your fault."
"Still." I press on. "You came in alone, brought ransom, fought all of them and got injured. I...I don't know what to say." My voice drops an octave. "Thank you doesn't come close."
"Well." shrugs Lilly, sitting back. There's an uncertain silence for a while.
"This is a secret between us and Shawn, right?" asks Lilly.
"Of course." I nod. "Are you being discharged today too?"
"Yeah. We have to take our statements and then we can go home. You need to sleep. And stay hydrated." She hands me the glass and I drink thirstily.
"But what about the-"
"The kiss?" She fills in. I'm taken aback by the boldness, the matter-of-fact tone. "Ryan, if I said I didn't feel anything then, I would be lying. I'm just so confused...and my career is at its peak. I'm...not ready for a relationship right now. OK?"
"All right." I say. But I knew the coded words. Lilly has never been exposed to healthy relationships growing up, and I know she always runs away from potential relationships.
Lilly leans forth and puts her forehead on mine, so close that I can feel her warm breath on my skin. Her fingers slide down my neck, come to rest on my collarbone. I close my eyes. What I wouldn't do to hold her close and never let her go, ever.
But she pulls away abruptly and the moment is lost. "See you."
"Bye." And she pulls the curtain tightly shut.