JAY

"Umm…Is anyone here for Miss…..Nash?" An older nurse who resembled the picturesque view of a grandmother said, as she glanced around the waiting room through her glasses that were held up mainly by the bridge of her nose. She's a nervous type of person, always needing to do something with her hands, has to keep busy. A short, self-conscious fading blonde.

"I am. I'm her……brother." I raised my head from my sitting position in the uncomfortable metal chairs with teal plastic cushions. I knew I would have to lie about who I was; they wouldn't give me any information if I said I was just a friend. I'm not completely stupid; I've seen a few movies here and there where the friends could never find anything out about their possibly dying buddy.

Please say she is going to be okay. Please.

"Your sister is stable. She has multiple cuts and bruises. We managed to stop the internal bleeding. She will be kept in the ICU for a while, but we are keeping her unconscious so she won't have to feel the horrible pain she would be in." she said all this without even glancing up at me. She read it robotically off a clipboard. Okay not such a grandmother, maybe a witch, she didn't even seem to care.

"So can I see her?" I asked anxiously getting up from the chair and began shifting my wait from one foot to another.

"The doctors say it would be best if you waited until tomorrow." She hugged the clipboard to her chest and began to walk away on her shiny white heels.

"Tomorrow?! But it's barely today!" I yelled after her. How can I wait almost twenty-four hours to see her, to tell her the truth about how I feel about her?

"I'm sorry; there is nothing I can do." She said, her heels clicked as he walked on the tiled floor down the unwelcoming hospital hallway. I didn't believe she cared at all.

I needed the only person who would ever accept me after all the crap I put them through.

ALEX

I rolled over in my bed to the sound of my cell-phone ringing. I rummaged around on the dresser next to the rock I slept on, my face still buried beneath piles and piles of blankets, as I reached for my phone. I found my way out of the myriad of layers of fabric and glanced over at my clock, two a.m., who the hell was calling at two in the morning?

Jay?

I hadn't heard from Jay since he called to say he was moving somewhere in Nova Scotia. What the hell did he need now?

"He-hello?" I asked, my voice giving away the fact that I had just been awoken from an extremely deep sleep and was extremely annoyed about that. He better not be drunk dialing me, if he was, he was so dead.

"Alex, this is Jay…I …I really need your help. It's Ellie, she's hurt real bad and I-" I stopped him at the sound of Ellie's name. No one had heard from her in over a year and a half. What was he doing with her? How did he find her? Why did he look for her? Did he look for her? Since when did he care about Ellie? I needed answers.

"Jay, what do you man Ellie's hurt? Where are you? How did you find her? What's going on?" There was no annoyance that could be detected in my voice that time, just concern and confusion.

"She was in the same town in Nova Scotia that I went to. She had a boyfriend, an abusive fisherman. He really did a number on her this time. I don't know how long she's been with him, but she's unconscious and it's his entire fault. If I ever see him again I'll…" His voice sounded as though he had been crying. Whoa, was Jay generally concerned for someone other than himself?

"You sound like you have some pretty deep feelings for Ellie there. When did this happen?"

"When I got to know her as more of an actual person than just 'Sean's girlfriend'." I didn't ask any more questions. Jay wasn't the type of person to get all emotional on you without a reason, a really good reason.

"So where are you now?" I guess I was headed to Nova Scotia. I could hear him give a sigh of relief when he heard me say that; maybe Ellie was in a worse condition than I originally thought.

"Soldiers Memorial Hospital. It's in Middleton." He practically spit out. It looks like he really does want me there.

"Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Thanks so much. And thanks for everything. Ever." And with that the line dropped and I was left with silence.

I could already tell that this was going to be a very long day. That's never a very good sign

JAY

I shut my cell-phone, tucked it in my back pocket, and sat down on the tiled floor; which was considerably more comfortable than the chairs. Hopefully Alex would get here soon; this hospital was like a ghost town. Now, all I could do was wait, and the only thing I had left was the multiple thoughts running wild through my head.

Out of nowhere came a memory of the first time I had ever been in a room alone with Ellie. It was the day after the shooting…..

…..I had just dropped Emma off from coming back from Wasaga; without Sean. I had planned to stay over Sean's and Ellie's tonight, now I wasn't so sure.

I followed Ellie into the apartment and sat on the couch while she headed straight down the hall. She hadn't said a word for over two hours. Normally she was pretty quiet but this was waybeyond normal. Emma had been crying her eye's out the entire ride home, like Sean was her boyfriend, Ellie hadn't made a sound she just glared out of the dusty windows of my orange civic

All of the sudden, she emerged with a bunch of cardboard boxes in her arms and she casually dropped them in the middle of the room and went back down the hall to get even more

This continued until she ran out of boxes and then she began bringing out all of Sean's things out of his room and from everywhere else in the apartment. She acted like this was the most normal thing in the world; she hadn't shed any tears or shown any emotion at all the entire time.

I decided it was time for me to speak up.

"You know Red, he did ditch you. Greenpiece isn't the only one who is allowed to cry. I don't care if you do." I knew that she didn't know it yet, but the reasons for Sean leaving her can all be traced back. It killed me to see her like this and know it's my entire fault. I was dreading the moment when everyone discovered what Alex, Spinner, and I had done. Along with the moment they discovered who we blamed for it all; there was definitely going to be hell to pay.

Of course her response to my way of being nice was to glare and continue with whatever the heck she was doing.

"What the heck are you even doing with all of Sean's stuff anyway?" She stopped and looked up at me; and in that moment, I could see that it was taking every bit of her will to not cry in front of me.

"He's not coming back, he told me that. So what's the point of letting all his stuff take up my space? It's my place now. Wait, what are you even doing here?" She was glaring at me now. I could tell she wanted me out there at any cost.

"I planned to stay over tonight, and even though Seany boy bailed out, I still need a place to crash." I leaned back, relaxed farther into the couch, and smirked at her. She glared, threw a cardboard box, at me and sank to the floor crying. Whoa, where did this come from? I immediately got up from couch and place a hand tentatively on her back to comfort her.

"It's going fine. You don't need him, he's a jerk."

"He's your best friend, and it's not going to be all right." She sniffled out.

Those were the last words she said all night. The next morning she was back to her normal sarcastic self and she acted as though the previous night never happened.

She's one strange girl.

I stood up and started walking around. There really isn't much to do in a hospital is there? All the sudden a cell-phone started vibrating from my coat pocket.

"Hello?" Who the hell's cell was this? It was a black Motorola Razor, nice.

"Mechanic guy? Why do you have Ellie's cell? Where is she? What's going on?" Kristen. Damn.

"She's in the hospital; her so called boyfriend beat the crap of her for probably the hundredth time. I-" She cut me off.

"What hospital? What town?" She sounded urgent.

"Soldiers Memorial Hospital, Middleton. Why do you care?"

"I'm like Ellie's best friend, duh! I'll be there as soon as I can."

"I don't think that's such a good idea." Please god no, don't let here come here, I won't be able to survive.

"Of course it's a good idea." She hung up before I could say another word. I shut Ellie's cell and grimaced. It took all of my will power not to chuck the phone across the room. I really hated that girl.

Looks like I have nothing else to do but wait for Alex and Kristen to show up. I sat down in probably the most uncomfortable chair in the world and placed my frayed, navy, hat over my face. Maybe catching some sleep would help me pass the time. Sleep did come, but I was left with only one last thought as I slowly drifted off.

Please let Ellie be alright, please.