"Why are you doing this?"
Lexa stopped talking and looked up. She hadn't noticed he was awake. She took her feet of the chair opposite of her, sitting up straight, her notebook pressed to her chest.
"Because I want to help you," she replied honestly. "And you are a good listener."
Lexa had been reading her stories to Jesse Pinkman ever since she found it he was in the hospital, beaten to a pulp. Every day during visiting hours she'd come by, sitting down in the same chair in the corner, putting her feet up on another, reading the stories she had written the hours before. She never knew if Jesse was really listening, but she hoped it might help him recover.
Jesse had moved in next door to her about a month ago. She wasn't sure how he could pay for the house, as it was about twice as big as hers, but frankly she didn't care. The only thing she cared about now was him getting better.
Never before had he asked her why she kept coming. Normally he remained in bed, listening to her reading her stories to him or sleeping while she continued to read them anyway. But apart from her, nobody seemed to visit him during visiting hours, prompting her to go back everyday. Nobody should suffer alone and abandoned.
"The swelling seems to go down," Lexa spoke. Jesse's face had been a real mess when she first visited, but it seemed to heal up well. The bruises still remained, although they are changing colors every time she is visiting him in the hospital.
"Yeah," Jesse simply replied.
"I can talk to the nurse if you want more painkillers?"
"No, I'm alright."
She always wondered if Jesse wanted her to be here, but she never dared to ask. Maybe she needed his company more than he needed hers. Lexa didn't have many friends in Albuquerque, as she left them all behind in Chicago when she moved. Lexa had always figured the move an easy one, but she had underestimated it. Being alone was harder than she had imagined and making friends didn't seem to come as naturally as when she was still in high school.
But she wasn't the only one having a hard time. Besides having his face caved in, Lexa knew Jesse was an addict from the moment she laid eyes on him. The way he behaved and the parties at his house, she had seen it all before with a close relative who luckily went to rehab and never touched drugs again. Recovering from bruises while trying to ignore the urges for drugs must be hard. However, Jesse didn't know she knew about that, and she wanted to keep it that way.
A nurse popped her head around the doorpost. "Visiting hours are over, miss."
Lexa nodded softly, pushing herself up, her notebook still pressed to her chest. She quickly checked if the flowers she had brought with her had enough water so they wouldn't die overnight. "I'll see you tomorrow?" she asked, before going.
"Yeah, see ya," Jesse replied.
Like she promised, Lexa returned the following day. Before going straight to see him, she managed to pull a nurse aside, asking her if she was allowed to take Jesse outside. The nurse nodded and told her it was fine, so the next mission was to retrieve a wheelchair from somewhere.
She went all the way back to the reception area, where she found a place where she could rent them. Lexa hoped the fresh air would do him good, and besides, he was probably craving a smoke by now.
When reaching his room again, she parked the wheelchair outside before going in, but to her surprise his bed was empty. For a moment she stared at the empty bed, her heart rate increasing fast. As quick as she could, she checked the bathroom, but it appeared to be empty as well. Taking in a deep breath, she ran her finger through her hair. He hadn't checked out and left, hadn't he? Lexa didn't recall seeing him at his house.
She was slightly starting to panic. Even though Jesse was starting to get better, he was nowhere in good enough health to leave yet. However, she figured someone around here must know where he is, so Lexi decided to go back to the reception to ask, preparing for the worst.
With her hand on the doorpost, she swung around it, bumping in to someone. When she could focus again and noticed who it was, she let out a sigh.
"Jesus Christ, Jesse. Where were you?" she confronted him.
"Just getting a snack?" Jesse replied, holding up the Mars bar he probably had bought from the vending machine at the end of the hall.
Lexa chuckled softly, amazed by her own suspicious nature. "I thought you had left without telling me." She followed Jesse back into his room.
"I'm still here," Jesse said, taking the wrapper off the candy bar. "You wanna share?" Lexa shook her head. Jesse shrugged and eagerly took a bite.
"I had an idea. I rented this wheelchair and thought maybe we could go outside for a smoke?"
"I didn't know you smoked."
"I don't," Lexa replied, riding the wheelchair in from outside.
"I can walk," Jesse replied upon seeing the wheelchair.
"You should make use of this for as long as you can," Lexa replied smiling. "I'm not going to ride you around forever."
To her surprise she managed to get Jesse to smile a little, causing her smile to widen. Lexa positioned the wheelchair she he could get in easily. Her hand slid in her pocket, retrieving a packet of smokes which she handed to him as soon as he sat down. "Thanks," he said, while taking a cigarette out of the package.
"I didn't know what kind you liked, but I always see everyone smoking Marlboro cigarette so I hoped you would like them as well."
"They're fine."
She pushed Jesse down the hallway, into the elevator. Since a few days he didn't need to be hooked up to an IV anymore, which allowed him to move around more freely as opposed to before, when he had to drag a pole with him everywhere he went.
"Don't you have any family visiting you?" she suddenly asked out of nowhere, continuing pushing him towards the main entrance to go outside. Lexa had been curious to why only she had been visiting him. Surely he must have friends, family? Jesse was a handsome guy, it didn't look like he didn't have any friends around Albuquerque.
"Not really," Jesse replied, not a hint of uneasiness in his voice. Lexa had figured he didn't like talking about this subject, but apparently he had no problem with it. "Where is your family?"
"In Chicago," Lexa replied. They stopped to wait for the door to open.
"Why did you come here?"
Lexa didn't mind all the questions at all, in fact, she quite liked it. This was the most talkative Jesse had been the entire week.
"For a change, I guess. An adventure, I don't really know."
As always, the hot New Mexican air greeted them as they went outside. The hot and humid climate was a change to Chicago's four seasons, and so far Lexa wasn't sure if she liked it. The idea of constant hot weather seemed appealing to some, but she preferred to have a bit of snow here and there.
Lexa stopped once they reached the bench in front of the hospital. She put Jesse's wheelchair next to the bench so she could sit next to him. As soon as they came to a halt, Jesse lit up a cigarette.
"Thanks for this," he said, softly blowing out the smoke.
"You're welcome," Lexa said with a smile.
"I really like your stories, by the way. They are great. You should get them published."
Lexa started to blush, she knew her stories weren't bad, but they were not great by any means. "I'm trying to, but I don't have one I like good enough to sent to a publisher."
"I liked the one with the dragons."
Lexa laughed. "Really? That one sucks, I wrote it in an hour to get my imagination going."
"It's awesome."
"I'm glad you liked it."
They sat in silence for a few minutes, before Jesse announced he wanted to go back. Lexa had enjoyed the silence as she was starting to enjoy Jesse's company more and more. He wanted to hand the packet back to Lexa, but she gave it back, stating he could keep it.
Visiting hours were almost over, and even though she wanted to stay just a little while longer. Their friendship was starting to get somewhere, and she was already looking forward to the hour she could return tomorrow.
"I should be going," Lexa spoke, turning the wheelchair around so she could take it back to the reception.
"Are you coming tomorrow?" Jesse asked, climbing under the sheets.
"Of course!" Lexa replied. "I'll even write you another dragon story if you want.
"I'm looking forward to it."
A/N: So this is my first BrBa fic. I'm currently planning all the chapters and I will probably upload a new one tomorrow! Please let me know what you think and hopefully I'll see you next time :)