Kate looked around the hospital room, at all the beeping machines, at the four white walls, at her cotton blanket; she was alive. She didn't expect to be but here she was, clueless as to what to do now and, hopelessly, she tried to organize her thoughts. She wasn't making much progress though; She could barely even remember the events that took her here. She remembered blurry images at most, and a few garbled sounds here and there. She remembered the sight of stairs as she ran up to the roof of her dorm-the sight of so many people looked up at her from below. She remembered her feet just a few inches from the ledge. Had it been raining? (Hard to say considering the sky was so clear now, though it would explain her damp hair.) There had been so much shouting too, from all the faces down below.

There had also been one gentle voice, a gentle face. Max.

There had been Max.

Kate took a deep breath in.

There had been Max. She was there. She helped get her down. Max had been the one to talk to her on the roof. Kate didn't remember what was said, exactly. So many things-Max moving closer all the while until she was suddenly in her arms. Max's arms. Another second and Kate was in an ambulance for here.

In the hospital.

With the beeping machines, four walls and cotton blankets.

Kate exhaled out in a burst of air.

She was still so confused and she didn't know what to do. Would she go back to Blackwell? Should she transfer schools? How did one go about picking up the pieces of their life? She didn't know.

Kate took a breath in.

She didn't know a lot of things at this point.

Kate exhaled.

So confused.

In the middle of a breath, Kate heard the door open slowly, it's squeak extremely obvious in the quiet room. Kate looked up.

"Hey Kate. How are you doing?" A gentle smile and a gentle voice, but not the one Kate had been expecting.

"Hey Alyssa." Kate greeted as she smiled, an almost microscopic tug at her lips, but it was more authentic than any smile she remembered giving in recent memory. "I'm doing better."

A voice from behind the art student pushed forward. "Alyssa, scoot forward."

Kate's smile widened slightly more. "Hi Stella. I didn't see you there."

Stella smiled. "Hey, Kate. Do you mind if we come in?"

Kate saw the balloons hanging just behind Stella that said 'get well soon' and even if she did want to turn them away, Kate just didn't have it in her, not when they've come all this way with gifts. "Of course. Come on in."

Stella and Alyssa filed in and the balloon became three glittery ones with shimmering colors. "We got you a gift on our way here. I hope you like it." Alyssa handed the strings to Kate who pulled them down to her eye level.

"These are so sweet. Thank you."

"It's no biggie. We're really relieved you're still here Kate." Stella commented with an understanding smile.

Kate offered them a nod. "I'm glad to be here. I'm sorry I worried everyone."

"Don't even sweat it. You just take care of yourself and recover. We'll be waiting at Blackwell."

Kate's muscles tensed at the name, the place where she'd been tormented. Did she want to go back. "Yeah." She responded vacantly, the smile dissipating from her face.

Alyssa pulled a seat next to Stella as the other girl elbowed her for help. Alyssa turned to look at Kate's glazed expression, a wrinkle in her brow. She wasn't sure what Kate was thinking but she didn't think it was anything good. "Soooo..." She began, searching for a change in topic. "It's lucky that Max got there just in time, isn't it?"

At the brunette's name, Kate felt her senses return to the present. She nodded. "Nothing short of a miracles."

Stella gave a brief breath of laughter. "Tell me about it. It was almost magic how she got up there so fast."

Kate tilted her head questioningly. "What do you mean?"

Stella thought for a moment, before continuing uncertainly. "Well, before...everything, everyone was seated in class, including Max. She was talking to Warren about something when Mr. Jefferson came in and kicked him out. He began the lesson, same as always when Zac just burst in and told just to head to the dorm courtyard."

Kate could guess what Zac wanted them to see but she still wasn't making any connections. Neither, it seemed, was Alyssa. "Just get on with it Stella. What does that have to do with Max?"

Stella raised an eyebrow, as if asking her 'really? Do I honestly have to spell it out?' The three were silent before Stella gave a quiet sigh. "The whole class went out of the building together. That includes Max. She would have had to run pass everyone and up the roof in literally seconds."

Kate's eyes widened. She hadn't even thought about that.

"Whoa. Maybe she really is a guardian angel in disguise." Alyssa laughed. "I know she's saved me from my fair share of projectile weapons."

Kate nodded, barely paying attention as the mind chewed on the new information. It only served to confuse her more on top of the already building aimlessness of her previous thoughts.

Alyssa and Stella continued to talk about Max, building secret conspiracies and such, giggling about Max growing wings or using some sort of super power. They occasionally threw Kate a question with which she answered with a smile and a few words, until the sun was too low for them to stay anymore.

They left for the day with the promise to come visit again soon. Kate let them go, her confidence bolstered by their friendship but happy for the solitude. She had some things to think about.

Author's Note: I really wish Kate would put things together. Soon maybe?