My first story! It's kinda weird, but I hope you like it. Hio in a whole different place, eh? Review please.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything :sniff:

Hospitalized

Hio turned around taking in everything around her. "Where am I?" She asked herself this as she kicked off her flip-flops and stroked the soft ground with her toes. She was surrounded by oak trees. They were huge and their bark told solitude of many seasons. They were draped with leafy vines and moss. The air felt heavy with water and there was a mysterious mist floating inches above the ground. Hio walked a little more noticing the soft toadstools and grass under her feet.

She walked up to an oak and threw her arms around it. It was so huge that her arms barely covered a fraction of its trunk. "This is amazing," she whispered, "It's so peaceful here." She spun around and ran straight through a curtain of hanging moss.

Suddenly she stopped and stared, her pearl-gray eyes widening at the sight before her. She had stopped on the edge of a cliff. Hio fell back and frantically scrambled away from the edge. She was horrified at the thought of what almost happened.

Once she had taken a few deep breaths she was able to gaze at the scene around her. To her right was a waterfall that flowed into a pool. Then out a river which continued until it disappeared on the horizon. She suddenly found the pounding of the waterfall peaceful and majestic. She settled down on a patch of green grass and drifted off to sleep.

-xOx-

Hio was lying on a bed in a small hospital room. The walls were gray, and nothing was really colorful except for some flowers and cards that she had gotten from her friends. Right now the usually boring day was cut short by an emergency.

"The medicine isn't working," Doctor Mandez said as he sized up the situation in the reigning chaos, "Mary, check the IV. Susan, get the machine up and running. Come on people we're going to lose her!" He checked his patient's heart beat again. It was running unusually slow and if it kept at that rate for much longer there would be little hope for her.

The doctor was starting to lose hope when his head nurse, Mary, spoke up, "Doctor, look, her heart beat is starting to even out." Sure enough it finally rested on the proper beat. Everyone in the room let out a sigh of relief.

Dr. Mandez looked down at the young fourteen-year-old girl on the bed and smiled, "Hio?"

"Yes doctor," she replied in a hoarse whisper, her eyes flickering open, "Is everything okay? Will I be healthy again?"

"For right now, yes," the doctor said and then turned and walked out of the room to inform her parents. Mary went with him and then it was only Susan left in the room with her.

Susan was a new nurse who had just started when Hio was first sent to the hospital. She was a petite young woman with curly brown hair and green eyes. She talked with an English accent and once they had met they became immediate friends. The nurse was a sense of comfort for Hio when she was going through something painful or lonely.

She used to get a lot of visits from various people, but soon only her family and some close friends visited. She missed having company, and she especially missed her older brother. Luke had always played with her and had tried to be a good brother. He was probably playing soccer right now. She could picture him racing across the field.

Hio just sat on the hospital bed staring at the long blank wall that stretched before her. Her eyes hardly blinked and never left the gray plane. Thinking about the past just made her unhappy. She felt as though her life had suddenly turned into a black hole. She was being sucked deeper and deeper into the swirling black, rarely reaching the light. She could feel her body wearing away day after day. Today she had been lucky, but what about tomorrow? Thinking about the future only scared her more.

"Susan?" Hio finally peeled her eyes away from the wall to stare at her hands which were resting her lap, "Did you have a happy childhood?" Hio was wondering if everyone had a better life than her.

Susan sat down in a chair beside the bed and began, "Hmmm...I was born in America and grew up with my god parents in England." Hio just stared at her, listening. Susan continued, "I loved school and learned how to speak three languages fluently." Hio thought of how she had only been interested in sports.

Susan then got up and adjusted the IV stand and the position of her bed. She walked around and got everything organized and neat while Hio just sat there, thinking. Then Susan sat down again with her eyes closed and quietly spoke, "After I had gone to college I came back here looking for my parents," she took a deep breath and continued, "They had been in a fatal car crash right before I came."

Tears were forming in her eyes and Hio took her hand in hers. They sat there and then Susan looked up and green eyes locked with pearl-gray eyes.

"Nobody's life is perfect," she said. Then she got up, wiped her eyes, and bustled out of the room. Hio thought it was wise to let her have a few moments alone. So she laid back and closed her eyes.

-xOx-

I hope you like the next one, and the friend that appears. Reviews please. :-D