I wrote this story because i've begun work in my local hospice and thought it up because of it!

Monday

Mari cursed the rain. Of all the days her bus should break down and it would be raining, it had to be this day. She was already ten minutes late for her introductory meeting and was only half way there. She picked up the pace and silently swore as the rain splashed about her feet, ruining her jeans; it drenched her hair and poured down her neck, dampening her clothes. They said it would be sunny so she'd dressed in a light jacket and t-shirt but no, it was raining. She hated the rain.

The building she approached was a few roads from the high street so she had to cross the road that was full of morning traffic. Water cascaded around her as the car's wheels spun the liquid at her maliciously. Again she sighed in frustration and managed to cross the road quickly enough. She entered the building and stood in the foyer, water dripping from her hair and jacket onto the floor. It was 7.30 am and the meeting had begun half an hour ago. She glanced around for people as the hospital usually became busy after 8 o'clock, she saw a map with a mop looking down at her feet. She glanced downwards and saw the small pool of water forming at her feet.

"Sorry!" She said quickly and the man, old but with high spirit smiled at her and shook his head. "Do you know if anyone's coming back to reception?" She asked, indicating with a nod of her head at the desk that as empty. The man looked her up and down and sighed.

"You a student?" He said in a voice that was far more consoling than she thought it would be, she nodded. "You here for the meeting?"

"Yes!" She said, happy that someone could help her. He nodded and pointed down the corridor on her left, she went to his side to glance down the deserted pathway.

"Up the stairs at the end and turn left." He grunted and she smiled gratefully at him.

"Thanks and again," she moved away from him but still looked at him so she was walking backwards, "I'm really sorr-ah!" She gasped as she hit something behind her. Turning quickly her instincts made her grab the hand of the person she hit so they didn't fall over. "Sorry!" She said quickly but as she looked at the person she'd bumped into, who had only stumbled back slightly, she was speechless. He was saying something to her but she couldn't hear it, she stared at him slightly breathlessly. He was so beautiful, she smiled numbly at him. His waves of crimson hair, dark and messy and his eyes were a strange colour, what would be the name of it? Like the ocean, the colour of the ocean, dark rimmed as though he were wearing eyeliner but still, he was handsome.

"I said it's ok." The boy waved a hand in front of her face to get her attention and smiled slightly embarrassingly as she nodded slowly.

"You're an awfully clumsy girl aren't you?" The old man said as he chuckled at them both, he looked to their hands as he laughed and Mari immediately let go of him, she blushed furiously and the boy rubbed the back of his neck. "Alright Gaara?" The man said, Mari looked to the boy, now named Gaara and he nodded.

"Yeah, the students in?" Gaara asked and laughed as the man nodded. "Well I best get going, see you around err..." Garra looked to her and she spoke quickly.

"Mari."

"Mari," he repeated and smiled at her. She watched him walk away, tilted her head to one side and bit her tongue as she saw his beautifully defined body move away from her.

"Someone's going to be late for their meeting." She heard a voice say and turned slowly to the old man.

"What?" She asked in a dreamy voice, he laughed and pointed to his watch. She looked at it for a moment and then sprung into action.

"Right!" She began to run away from him, "thanks and-"

"Yeah, yeah," she heard him mutter, "you're sorry."

"Nice of you to join us." Mari heard as she tried to sneak into the back of the meeting, she straightened up from her crouch and tried to laugh it off as the other students snickered. "You've missed health and safety so come back here tomorrow morning, an hour earlier than everyone else, to see the repeat session." Mari slumped into her chair and wished the floor would open up and engulf her to save her from the embarrassment she felt. "We're going to go out onto the wards now so everyone buddy up and all you'll be doing is teas and coffees so don't get too happy." She addressed the class and her best friend, Tusko came up to her with a smile.

"Hey, what kept you, we were all wondering where you were!" Mari was about to answer when, in her usually manner, her friend just kept on talking, "anyways this voluntary work seems pretty easy, teas and coffees, taking the blood samples-"

"Mari!" She stopped as she heard her teacher call out to her, "you'll stay behind with me!" She cringed and turned around to go to the teacher.

"It's not my fault the bus broke down!" She muttered to her friend who sighed.

"You really have the worst of luck!" Tusko called back to her as she walked out with another friend. Mari waited until all her classmates walked out, snickering at her and patting her on the back as they left.

"What was it this time?" her teacher, a young, stern woman in her early twenties asked.

"The bus broke down, I ran as fast as I…" but she could see it was no use and so chose not to give excuses, "I'm sorry." Was all she could say and the teacher nodded.

"Well I'm going to keep an eye on you just for today. For tomorrow; think you can make it back here on time?" Mari nodded and the woman sighed, "you really need to start-" paying attention, Mari finished in her head; she'd heard this lecture enough. Her teacher lectured her all the way to the ward they were meant to be on; Paediatrics. Mari was no longer listening to her teacher but smiled around at all the children on the ward as they ran to each others bed as fast as any child patient could. This was the only ward that was noisy in the entire hospital; a messy place of colour and laughter, Mari decided she was glad that the teacher had asked her to come to this ward. "Well, we're serving milkshakes; watch out for diabetics, their charts are-"

"Bright blue." Mari answered but her attention was caught by a figure in the distance. The boy she had met that morning was sat by a patient's bed, reading a book to her. A small girl of five with blue eyes that looked as though she had been crying. She sniffed as he read quietly and wiped her brown hair roughly away from her face to get a better look at the pictures in the book.

"Mari!" Her teacher almost yelled and Mari blushed as Gaara looked up at who was shouting.

"Yes?" She asked quickly and looked away from Gaara as her face reddened.

"You've done this before haven't you?" She nodded, "Good, I'll be chatting with nurses while you get on with drinks," Mari nodded and went to the kitchen. She washed her hands, put on the green apron and took out the drinks trolley. She was walking backwards with the trolley and felt something hit her back. She hoped like crazy that it wasn't a child patient and turned around. It was a little boy, with a bandage around his head but as she apologised he was too busy arguing with another boy. She listened in to their conversation but was surprised to see Gaara at her side in an instant.

"Alright," Gaara said and put a hand on the boys shoulder, "what's going on here?" The little boy looked up at him and frowned while scratching his head.

"Daiki has these cards see Gaara!" The little boy held up some cards with characters on them and Gaara took some, inspected them and as he did showed Mari the cards by handing them to her. She smiled; she thought he hadn't noticed her. "And so do I, but then they fell on the floor and we can't tell whose is whose!" He said and the other boy immediately began shouting they were his and before they could start a physical fight Gaara stepped between them.

"Ok, OK!" he said to them both and as Daiki ried to grab the cards from Mari he picked the child up. "Hows about we…" he had no thoughts, "Mari, any ideas?" He asked her and she jumped as she realised what he was asking.

"Oh erm, OK, why don't we…" she thought for a moment, "Daiki!" He looked at her from over Gaara's shoulder as she addressed him, "divide the cards in half-"

"That's rubbish!" The little boy with the bandaged head shouted, "he's gonna divide them into good and bad cards and give me the bad ones!" He pouted and Mari looked down at him to silence him.

"I hadn't finished," Gaara smiled slightly at her as she seemed to be more confident, "Daiki put the cards into two piles and you," she pointed at the bandaged child, "pick which half you'd like first." The boys seemed to contemplate this.

"So that means," Daiki said, working it out, "I'll have to divide them equally."

"Exactly." Both boys smiled.

"Cool!" They both exclaimed and Gaara put the boy down so he could divide the cards. Gaara looked around at her and smiled.

"I guess you're a volunteer?" He asked and she nodded.

"Are you?" She asked quickly and he took a moment before nodding as well. They stood in silence for a moment and Mari looked around shyly as she sensed Gaara's gaze was on her.

"I have to get going for today." He said and picked up his jacket from a nearby bed. "That was pretty clever; your solution to the card problem," he said and she shrugged as if it were nothing, "pretty, clumsy, smart…" he said quietly to her as he walked by, "odd combination." She blushed as he said this and didn't turn around to watch him walk away. She heard him shout a goodbye from the door to all the children and she turned to him. As she put up an arm to wave goodbye she knocked a sheaf of papers out of a nurses hand. "I'm so sorry!" She said and helped pick the papers up. Se looked to the door; luckily Gaara hadn't seen her and that was the last she saw of him that day.

Please review!