Alex looked up from the microscope. He grinned, his heart leaping with joy and relief; the results that he had spent so long searching for, that seemed so unreachable and would normally be impossible to achieve; he had finally found them. All those sleepless nights and arguments. He had gotten through it. Alex took a sheet of paper and wrote down the treatment he used to cure the sickened cells. The same incurable sickness she suffered from. There's nothing to lose if Charlotte tries it now. She'll be cured, he prayed. She had to be.
Alex grabbed his coat off the hook beside the wooden door and looked out at the lab one last time. His note books and papers were sprawled over the tables, his sleeping bag laid out in the corner. This crammed workspace held so many sleepless nights and hard times in its essence. But it was worth it. He smiled and stuffed the paper note in his pocket, taking out his phone to tell Charlotte the good news. She was still mad at him for spending so much time at the lab and ignoring her, but he couldn't help it. The research became a drug that he was addicted to. He had to find out the cure. He couldn't face the fact that she would leave him otherwise.
Alex's feet were nearly too quick to keep up with. He had no time, he had to get the cure to her as quickly as possible. He jumped down the stairs and ran out into the street, holding his hand out for a taxi. With his free hand he called her. A few seconds passed and the dialling tone sounded "Hey this is Charlotte. Sorry I couldn't take your call right now. Leave a message." He cursed, and looked up, scouting for any nearby taxis, to which he found none in visible distance. He took to his feet jogging to the hospital, despite knowing how long the trek would take. "London is small. Don't worry, you will make it. London is small." he murmured repeatedly under his breath. Alex recalled the number, each time hoping for a different answer. "Hey this is Charlotte. Sorry I-" He took the phone away from his ear and swore again. "Come on. Pick up Charlotte." This time Alex took to his Messages, and started to type a text up. His heart felt like a heavy brick that weighed heavily against his chest as he wrote it. But in doing so his eyes were not on the road, and his attention was not as it should have been. Unsuspectingly, the tired and sleep-deprived nurse took a step into the road in an attempt to cross it. However, the busy roads of London engulfed him. A crash sounded as a dark blue Volvo ploughed into his side. It's front bent under the impact of Alex's body that tumbled over it in a powerful stride before it landed on to the concrete floor harshly.
He could taste the smoke and oil; he felt the fire burning close by. People screamed and yelled, but the sound of his own ears ringing were too loud to distinguish the words they had been saying.
As it often did in London, slow and heavy rain began to fall to the streets. Alex's skin tingled as the cold drops hit his cheeks, his body had become numb to the pain that had first hit him as the collision occurred, and his mind numb to feeling and thought. The muffled voices of people shouting around him were beginning to get quieter and it occurred to him that he was starting to loose grasp on the world. He fought against it; the heavy exhaustion that felt like a weight against his chest after all those sleepless nights. But, Alex couldn't bring him self to move a finger. He flinched, surely to close his eyes for a few moments wouldn't hurt him. A tear fell from one of his eyes as he shut them and let out a long breath. He wrapped his hand tightly around the note in his pocket as though it was the last course of action he would ever make. Silence sounded; the rain stopped pouring and the sirens paused. It was futile. Nothing could stop the freezing rain from seeping in through his coat to his skin and his warm, wet blood from seeping out.
Thank you for reading. This was actually originally an extract from one of my older stories with Robyn but we never got around to finishing it unfortunately. I hope you liked it.
