The days seemed to bleed together, everything at the hospital happening extremely fast and at the same time, agonizingly slow. Everyone was always rushing, the doctors, the nurses, the hurried speeches, the quick check-ups. The only person who ever took some time to actually see how they were coping was Doctor Cullen, and Alice appreciated that.
But the never-ending medical tests and questions and statements given to the police made Alice feel like she was trapped in a nightmare on repeat and she was grateful for the few minutes of early morning silence she could steal between shift changes as the sun was rising.
"Sorry, I didn't think anyone was awake yet. I didn't disturb you did I?" Alice said apologetically. The morning sun was barely peeking over the horizon as she stood, awkwardly balancing on her good leg, her fingers lingering against the condensation on the cool glass.
She looked at the boy in the bed; his electric blue eyes fell into the shadow that was cast off of the privacy curtain surrounding his area of the room. All five hospital beds in the room were divided by the same thick curtains, pulled tight, dividing the strangers and allowing them some isolation, although it was easy enough to hear the doctor's comments and concerns when they performed rounds. It was easy to hear the strangled sobs and soft whimpering; the echoes of screams in the night as they relived the memories that were only four days old.
So far the strangers, who Alice had determined were all teenagers like herself, had given each other the respect of simply ignoring one another's presence. She had figured out their names, hearing Doctor Cullen refer to them over and over as he made rounds, but she still knew very little about them.
She knew that Rosalie Hale was in the bed next to her. The girl sounded incredibly frightened and at the same time exceptionally stubborn, often causing the nursing staff undo grief.
Alice found it quite humorous, since Rosalie was the only one who would speak up and give the staff a piece of her mind when they prodded too hard with their stethoscopes or squeezed too much with their blood pressure cuffs.
It was especially eventful when a young newbie doctor tried to remove Rosalie's stitches from her forehead. That ended with a lot of swearing and though Alice had yet to see her face she could tell Rosalie was the type of girl to cross her arms and flip her hair disapprovingly.
"Have you even graduated from medical school?" Rosalie had snapped at him, causing Alice to snort into her cereal the previous morning.
Needless to say Doctor Cullen came to the rescue and Rosalie was far less agitated in his presence. In fact he seemed to be one of the only people she readily tolerated but Alice used the word tolerated very loosely, since Rosalie seemed to dislike when people tried to touch her or move her gown to assess her injuries.
To the right of Rosalie was Edward Masen; shy, quiet, insanely polite and an insatiable reader from what Alice had gathered. He always asked one of the nurses to borrow the daily newspaper. She didn't know why, but Alice felt oddly connected to Edward, as if he could sense what she was thinking even without ever really laying eyes on her. He had this vibe about him that was oddly welcoming, even though they were separated by curtained walls.
Emmett McCarty was on the other side of the room and Alice was pretty sure everyone in the room knew his name because he was loud and boisterous and liked to make sure people knew he was there.
He cracked rude jokes when he was annoyed with the nursing staff, which in turn made Alice giggle relentlessly, only stoking the fire that fueled Emmett's inappropriate comments. If Alice never heard another dirty sex joke again it would not be while sharing a room with Emmett.
She didn't really mind it though. Emmett helped keep everyone's spirits up, albeit unintentionally. She often heard the soft snickering from her fellow roommates when Emmett decided to be a walking-talking comedy show.
But sometimes the room was especially quiet and that was when one of the therapists needed to talk to Emmett, which always put him in a bad mood. Alice had heard his food tray flip several times, but the angry outbursts always seemed to remain on his side of the room, behind his privacy curtain. Alice doubted Emmett would ever really hurt anyone but the nurses tended to give him his space when he was angry.
Despite knowing who the people around her were, it was hard to acknowledge the situation before them; so simply pretending the other patients didn't exist made it feel like some sort of twisted dream instead of an actual reality.
However, Alice had to admit that it was nice to know there were others like her. Others who didn't necessarily know where they were going or what they were going to do next. It was comforting to know she wasn't the only one who felt lost.
None of the kids in this room ever had any visitors, besides the hospital employees who cared for them, so it was easy to see that they were alone now, just like her. They were alone and yet Alice felt a strange and silent camaraderie growing between them, connected by the tragedies they witnessed and the horrors they experienced. She couldn't explain it but she felt like there was a thread weaving their lives together now, so as much as they were alone, they had each other.
Alice could understand the intense fear they all shared now like a second skin, but the one thing she didn't quite understand was the most recent, conscious addition to the room, Jasper Whitlock. He was possibly the most mysterious of them all, mostly because he had been unconscious and intubated for the first few days they were all together. All Alice knew about him was that he was awake and he was currently staring at her.
"I hope I didn't wake you," Alice said, repeating her sentiment for the second time.
"Not at all," Jasper said courteously, finally breaking from his daze. If he was being honest, he had actually been watching Alice for some time now, quietly observing her lithe movements, the way her hair seemed to shimmer in the new morning sun, the way she sighed as a light breeze blew in through the open window.
Jasper found himself completely enthralled with her. And for no reason at all, except for the fact that he could feel a warm bubble of positive energy radiating out from her, he smiled.
"Why are you awake so early?" Jasper asked politely. "The nurses don't even start rounds for another hour at least."
Alice shrugged, losing herself for a moment in his deep voice. The sound of his southern accent made her stomach flutter and she became all the more curious about her silent roommate. She had stolen glances at him, since he seemed to be the only one who didn't mind not having the privacy curtain drawn around his bed, as she flitted around the room with the help of the physiotherapist or her wheelchair. It was almost as if sharing a room with a bunch of strangers was completely normal for him.
"Couldn't sleep," Alice mumbled. "You?" she asked, tossing the question back at him.
"It's quiet here," he said, lying back against his hands, which were folded behind his head. He seemed to become very enthralled with the ceiling tiles. "Almost, too quiet."
Alice waited patiently, feeling as if there was more. She eagerly waited for the moment when he would elaborate, desperately wanting their innocent exchange to continue.
"I was always an early riser," Jasper explained. He had waited a moment, collecting his thoughts. It was strange for him to talk to someone like Alice. Jasper was used to being ignored. He didn't often come up against people who were genuinely interested in what he had to say. Jasper almost didn't know how to have a conversation anymore. It felt strange to him, but Alice watched him with vivid interest and Jasper felt compelled to share with her.
"I had to be," he continued. "I went to a military prep school. Right about now we'd be running morning drills out in the field, already dripping with sweat as the sun came up between the trees."
"Do you miss it?" Alice asked, tilting her head slightly. "You said it was too quiet here."
Jasper moved his hands from behind his head to prop himself up slightly to see her better.
"Not really," he smirked. "It was never my idea of a fun place, but my parents seemed to think it was a good school. And the quiet is a nice change. It's different—no sergeants yelling at the tops of their lungs, no orders being given, no commands being barked. The quite is strange in a way, but it helps me think."
Alice nodded in agreement, crossing her arms against her chest as she leaned against the window ledge. "Why did your parents send you there?" she asked curiously. "Are you going into the military when you graduate?"
Jasper grimaced. "Definitely not," he said. "But apparently I was a problem child," Jasper admitted, casually throwing quotation marks around the word 'problem' with his fingers.
Alice grinned, intrigued, mainly by the half-smirk that was now taking over his face. She was only semi-aware that she was hopelessly trying to memorize every line and curve and expression of his face, afraid that when their conversation ended she might not talk to him for a very long time. The thin curtains now seemed like impossibly thick barriers that she would have to overcome.
"So, did you like rob a convenience store or something?" Alice asked jokingly.
"No, nothing that serious," Jasper smirked. "It was just little things, but it freaked my mom out and my dad was big on the whole discipline thing. He told me to straighten out or else. But I was ten and I figured it was an empty threat. "
"What kind of little things?" Alice asked, pursing her lips in amusement.
"Well I could hot wires cars and pick locks on doors that weren't meant to be open," Jasper offered with a smirk. "It wasn't that I did anything horribly wrong. I think my parents were just trying to be pre-emptive, you know, avoid the whole rebellious teenager thing."
"So did the school help then? Are you a reformed citizen now?" Alice joked lightly.
Jasper laughed outwardly. He couldn't help but feel happy, feather light even, as he spoke to Alice. She made him feel hopeful, like maybe things weren't always going to seem so bleak. He could almost feel the good, positive energy flowing out of Alice. It left her in waves and Jasper was almost certain that if he touched her there would be some sort of energetic spark.
"It did help in a way," he mused. "It made me more conscious about what I was doing but it also made me an observer more than anything. I became quiet and withdrawn, only speaking when spoken too, following commands, obeying orders. I became a different person, very different than the boy my parents sent away and with each year my life became more structured and my parents just became people who I spent the summer with."
Alice had moved closer, inching her way along the wall. She was captivated by Jasper, even though this was the first time she had spoken to him.
Jasper wondered if he should stop talking. Was he boring her? Was this too much information? But Alice didn't sigh or roll her eyes. She didn't let her gaze drift away from him like people often did when they were annoyed. In fact, she seemed to hang on his every word, like it was oxygen, so he continued slowly.
"I felt like I didn't really know them anymore—my parents; like they didn't really know me. At first I think it hurt my mom but soon she stopped trying to force conversation, stopped asking how I was doing. Then later they stopped writing me letters at the school. They stopped calling, stopped having me home for Christmas. They couldn't relate to me anymore. They didn't know who I was so I guess they stopped caring."
"I know the feeling," Alice muttered, thinking about her dad and how he didn't even want to see his own child. Her mother was dead, she just survived a plane crash and the man wasn't even going to come and see her in the hospital. He was off in Seattle, with his new girlfriend. He didn't want Alice to be a part of his life. And as much as she hated him, as much as she always said she didn't want anything to do with him ever again, losing her mom made her desperate for his involvement in her life. She wanted to know that everything was going to be okay. She wanted her dad to take care of her, but she knew he wouldn't. He resented her.
Alice struggled to pull herself from the thoughts that over took her mind. Jasper was watching her with concern. She plastered a small smile on her face but her voice quivered, giving her away. Despite what Jasper felt from her, he was a gentleman and didn't mention anything. He could sense that it was something Alice wasn't ready to talk about yet.
"Do you miss them? Your parents, I mean?" Alice asked in a small voice.
"I miss them, I do," Jasper spoke with sincerity, "but I spent so many years away from them, only seeing them for a few months every couple of years, that now it just feels like that again. It just feels like I'm away and their at home and maybe I'll see them in seven or eight months. I know I won't but the feeling that they're 'gone' hasn't really sunk in yet. I guess I'm so used to doing it on my own that it doesn't really change anything for me."
He grimaced at his own realization. He was so used to doing it on his own, living his life without them, that their death probably wasn't going to change anything. He would still be doing it on his own. He cleared his throat. "What about you? Were your parents on the plane too?"
"Just my mom, I haven't really had anything to do with my dad since their divorce. And I want to miss my mom. I think I should. But I don't feel sad right now. I can't help but feel as if she's happier where she is. She was really depressed after my dad left. In a way I know she blamed me but she couldn't leave me either. She always felt as if she was stuck, trapped because of me."
Alice was quiet for a second and Jasper let her dive into whatever thoughts had consumed her for the moment. Then she snapped back to reality.
"Anyway, I'm sure I've eaten up enough of your quiet time already," she gave him a smile that made the world stop for a second. "I'll leave you to rest."
"You don't have to," Jasper said suddenly, racing to get the words out fast enough. "I don't mind talking to you. It's a nice change," he smirked. "You're not trying to stick me with a needle or take my vitals."
He shifted in his bed, making room and patted the place beside him.
Alice smirked, but took a seat on the edge of Jasper's bed and they talked in quiet whispers until the sun was high in the sky and the nursing staff barged in to begin morning rounds.