.To Save A Life.

To Save A Life -- Chapter Three

I sat, uncomfortable, in stiff hospital chair. It was nearing about 2:00 in the morning. My elder brother, Kort, sat beside me. He'd arrived nearly an hour before and had insisted on waiting for the boy. I hadn't stopped arguing. Not once.

"What if he sues me?! I ran him over!" I said, glaring at Kort.

He sighed, shaking his head. "If he sues you, good luck. It's not my fault you can't see at night."

"He came out of nowhere!" I attempted to defend myself and my taxi. "And my stupid car never stops fast enough! I told you that when you bought it."

"Come on, Ave. Don't worry about him. Besides, it's polite to at least wait until he's out of surgery."

"What if he's some phsyco that escaped from an asylum?! Can't we get arrested for harboring him?! I think we can." I pushed the words out as fast as they would go.

Kort turned to face me. My blood ran cold. Too far, Avery.

"Avery. We don't know anything about him. He could have run from something seriously bad. He had a bullet wound." His normally warm caramel eyes were hardened to their extent.

"Sorry..." I muttered, looking down.

He sighed, running his hands through his dark hair. A doctor with blood spattered on his scrubs came out of a pair of double doors. "Miss?"

I weakly looked up. "Yes, sir?"

"I'd like to know where you found this boy." He crossed his arms. His were cold, though a different cold from Kort's. He was afraid of something.

"I found him in the road. I was driving home from work. He came out of nowhere. When I heard a gunshot, I panicked." I must've been shaking, because I felt Kort's warm hands upon my shoulders.

"Look, my little sister, here. She's been through a lot today. We're not from around here. Where we grew up, not much stuff happened. Especially anything exciting. She's really, really tired. So if you could save your little interrogation for later, we'd greatly appreciate it." He spoke each word in a clipped tone.

The doctor shied away. "Right." He soon left.

"I think you scared him away." I smiled, though only slightly.

"Eh." Kort shrugged.

They wheeled Project's stretcher through those same doors, and I watched him, his small, bandadged, vulnerable form on that stretcher. All the white seemed to swalllow him up. I got up and followed the nurses. Kort hesitantly did the same.

"Wait outside for me, please?" I asked, outside Project's room.

"Sure," he says, sitting down on the cold hospital floor. I walk inside.

I hadn't thought he would be awake, I assumed the surgery drugs would keep him down for at least another half hour. But no sooner had I sat down next to his bed, than his eyes opened.

"Hello, Avery."

"Oh my- Hi...Project."

"I'm all better, now, right?" he asked.

"I think so," I said, suddenly tired beyond my wildest dreams.

"Are you tired?" Captain friggin' ovious.

"Yes," I say on a yawn.

"Come here?" he asks, holding his blankets open for me to crawl under.

Why not? I asked myself, getting up. I crawled in next to his pleasent little form, snuggled there, in those warm covers. He stroked my hair. We fell asleep like that, that night. Him and I, alone in our white little world, safe and sound in that bed.

That was the first time I really began loving Project. It was just a little spark then , a little hoping flicker. But it grew soon enough.