Never giving up on you - Completed.

4.

Caity

'Dr. Miller said that if the antibiotical IV treatment finishes tomorrow, and I'll keep doing this well, I can go home in three days,' Austin said, plucking on his IV while slouching over the comfortable chair near the window. I stopped making his bed and looked at him. 'Bet that would be a relief to you.' His eyes met mine and I shook my head before continuing my work.

'That's good news,' I answered, ignoring his last remark.

'Yeah...' He rested his face in his hand and stared out of the window. I threw his pillow back on the bed and looked around the room; all possible surfaces were covered with comics, a laptop, an open notebook with texts scribbled on the papers, well wishing cards, flowers...

'These are pretty,' I said without thinking, softly touching the white petals of the roses on his nightstand.

'My stepmom send them.'

'All the way from Costa Rica?' He looked up to me and smirked, shaking his head.

'Ofcourse not all the way from Costa Rica. You can order online, remember?' I only noticed the little wrinkles near his eyes when he laughed for the first time now, and they made his face even more gentle than I thought was possible. I blushed and turned away from him, washing my hands at the small sink.

'Hey, do you think I-' He was cut off when two people came bursting into his room, rushing over to him before I even had the chance to hold them back.

'Carlile!' A ginger guy almost jumped on Austin, who flinched and leant back to avoid collision between the guy and the wound on his chest.

'Alan, please, be careful!,' the dark haired one said. I recognized him from being in Austin's band when they had just started, and I remembered his name was Tino or something. He highfived Austin and pulled the other guy away from him. 'The dude's only been operated twelve days ago.'

'Sorry,' the ginger said. His eyes then fell on me. 'Oh, hi nurse.' I managed a smile and waved, making my way out of the room.

'Caity?' Austin's voice made me turn around.

'Yeah?'

'Do you think I can go downstairs for a while? This room is killing me...' I contemplated his request, wondering if I could let him go downstairs with only the supervision of his two friends.

'I don't know Austin, you-'

'We'll take good care of him, we've done this before,' Tino said. His dark eyes were friendly and amidst his trimmed beard, a wide smile formed on his lips, making me know for sure he had recognized me too.

'We did. Multiple times. We're used to Austin being in the hospital,' ginger said.

'Alan...' Austin rolled his eyes in annoyance and I sighed. Everything better than having these goofballs under my watch...

'Fine. But only if you go in a wheelchair, walking all the way down would be too much. And you need to be back in an hour and a half for your next shot of antibiotics.'

'Okay.' Austin smiled at me and I left the room, hearing the ginger say: 'Is she always that strict?' I smiled lightly and went to see my other patients, which I felt I had almost neglected because of spending too long in Austin's room without a reason.

&

Every bad memory I had of Austin seemed to disappear as soon as I was near him, talking to him, seeing him smile. His presence had such an influence on me, that I always felt breathless when I was around him. He was still the goofy guy he had been five years ago, but with more maturity and wisdom, and I knew he had been through a lot the past years. Still, my heart ached as soon as I was home and thought about what had happened between us and I could only be mad at myself for falling for him all over again. I saw it happening, I knew it, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.