Helenium

6. Caden

Being knocked to the ground isn't high on my priorities list, especially on my first day back in town. Yet, here I am stretched out on the concrete with some old guy passed out on top of me. 'Please don't let it have been a heart attack.'

I hear a groan coming from the older man. 'Thank god. Don't let anyone see this.' The last thing I need is for someone to comment on this and for it to spread over the town.

"Oh my god." I hear a male's voice coming from near my feet, one which I haven't heard since I left town, right after I left the academy. "Well, this is not the sight I thought I would see when you said you were coming back."

I tilt my head slightly only to feel a sharp pain at the back of my head, probably from when it hit the concrete. "Shut up, Nole." I motion to the guy who's still lying on me and has made no move to get up or sign that he's even conscious. "Care to lend me a hand?"

The smile on my friend's face gets bigger makes me want to punch him. "You, no." He gazes down at the man lying on top of me, and the amused smile on his face turns into a frown. "Him, I will help." He picks up the older man, dropping one of his arms around the old guys back so he's able to hold him upright while moving him so he'll be able to move.

I get up and dust myself off before moving to help Nole, so we're taking the brunt of the old guy's weight. With the older man's arm around my neck, I'm able to do a closer inspection of him, and I make one hell of an observation. "Holy shit. He's not old at all."

Nole gives me this look, which I've seen on his face many times while growing up and each time when he thought that someone was crazy, mainly me. "You only noticing that now?"

"I didn't know." The two of us move him inside the library, the hardest part is trying to get through the door. "The only thing I saw was a mop of white hair before and after he fell on me."

"Sure, if you say so." With the door closed behind us, he begins leading me towards the back. "There's a couple of soft chairs at the back we can put him, for now." As we pass everyone in the library, I can't help but notice that we're getting some odd and worried looks, including a worried look from the old woman behind the desk.

"Is this a normal occurrence here?" I do my best to keep my steps equal to one of his, which isn't easy since he's a foot taller than me.

"You referring to him passing out or people in general?" Nole navigates the library with ease, managing to avoid isles with people in them.

"Both." I keep my hand wrapped around the young man's hand that's resting beside my neck.

"We get the odd elderly who overworks themselves." He turns down another aisle and I can already see the chairs he had mentioned. "This guy here hasn't done this in about a year, so I'm guessing whatever did it this time, was pretty bad."

"He's never told you what causes it?" We move so we're able to place him down on the chair, not as carefully as we probably should have, but he doesn't make any noise in protest so he's probably fine.

"Not that I can remember like I said it was a year ago." He looks at me, a smirk making its way onto his face. "If you want to know, I guess you'll just have to ask him when he wakes up."

It takes me maybe a second to figure out what he's planning. "No way, I've got other things to do today." My gaze moves over the form sleeping on the chair, as he shifts around as if he's trying to get comfortable. "If you want someone to play nurse, then find someone else." I return my gaze to Nole. "I'll see you later. I've got to check-in and let the chief know that I'm in town."

From the look on his face, I can tell that he's not convinced about my act of not caring and the truth is he's right to doubt me, I do care. The urge to know what had caused the young man to pass out suddenly as if he was struck by lightning is enough to convince me that I shouldn't leave. "Damn it all to hell." The smirk on Nole's face is making me want to smack him or at least throw something at him. "One hour."

Nole smiles in triumph, which was only more annoying. "That's fine. Just try to keep the noise down." He turns and walks away. "We are a library after all."

'Damn ass bear.' I run my fingers through my hair in frustration. 'I hope the Captain won't be too pissed if I end up running a few minutes late.' I look over to the young man who despite all the noise and moving him around, he slept through it all. Letting out a tired sigh. 'I guess I should find something to read while sleeping beauty gets his shut-eye.'

I walk around some of the nearby shelves to find something that will interest me. I spare a glance at sleeping beauty only to see that he hasn't moved since I walked away. 'Somebody's tired.' I grab a couple of books from a nearby shelf, not bothering to check what the titles are or what they're about, before going to sit down.

Sleeping beauty hasn't moved, his bag which I didn't notice before is hanging over the arm of the chair and looks like it's only seconds from choking him. 'How the hell did neither of us notice it?' I put the books down on the empty chair, before trying to move the bag so it wouldn't choke him the next time he moved.

'Come on.' After a couple of hard minutes of trying, I'm finely able to wiggle it enough that it's no longer tangled around his neck. 'There you go.' I place the bag down on the floor so it's leaning up against the chair. It's only after I sit down, that I realize there's an old teddy bear on the side of the bag and I could swear that it's staring at me. 'That's not creepy at all.'

I open up the first book and begin reading. Every once in awhile I raise my gaze over the book to check on sleeping beauty, who's still sleeping and if it wasn't for his chest rising and falling it would be easy to believe that he's dead or possibly a vampire. Though the second one's unlikely with how little he's wearing to cover his skin from the sun. 'Come on sleeping beauty you can't sleep here all day and I've got things to do.'

I look down at my watch to see that I have less than half an hour to make it to my appointment. "Shit." I stand up and place the book on the seat, not having the time to put it away. I rush to the front of the library not spotting Nole anywhere, but seeing the older woman from earlier, behind the desk. "Tell Nole I had to leave and that sleeping beauty is still passed out where we left him."

"Sure." The woman smiles, before going back to what she's was doing. I rush out of the library and before the door closes I'm sure I hear her call out. "Who's sleeping beauty?"

I run to the car that I parked down the street. If there wasn't a chance that I wouldn't need it later, I would change and fly to the police station instead. 'Can anything go right for me today?'