That night in the hospital waiting room was beginning to be the longest night in my life. Every time I saw a doctor emerge from the white swinging doors, my heart raced in my chest. I thought something terrible had happened and that's why it was taking so long. I tried to busy myself with counting how many times the nurses walked past and stole a glance at Gill. It was annoying me, but I'm not sure why.

I sighed, blowing strands of hair away from my face, and glanced at the clock on the wall again. It wasn't as late as I thought.

As time continued to tick by, I saw several frantic people rush in: a woman clutching a pillow, being led by the hand; an elderly man, panting and wheezing. My anxiety escalated. It was too much. I tried to calm myself by closing my eyes and humming. After a while, the click of the nurses' heels on the floor was the only sound I heard. I kept envisioning the doctor walking out, shaking his head sadly.

I exhaled a shuddery breath and imagined myself returning to Castanet without Chase, explaining to everyone why he didn't come back with us. Then I thought about how I handled the situation back on the street. I shouldn't have freaked out. I shouldn't have just wallowed in grief, when I should have checked to see if Chase and Gill were okay. Each second that passed was another second Chase bled, closer and closer to his death.

When I glanced down I saw Gill's open palm on the armrest between us. His mouth was pressed into a tight line, and his eyes were fixed on me. "Are you all right?"

I began to nod and then shook my head.

He looked to his open palm then back at me and smiled a little. I finally got the hint and placed my hand in his. It was soft, warm, and he gave me a reassuring squeeze before letting go and leaving a rush of butterflies in my stomach.

It was a small gesture of comfort, and it made me realize that he was not at all the jerk I thought he was when we first met.

"You consider me a friend, right?" I asked.

His eyes traveled across my face, making me feel self-conscious. "I suppose so. It would be hard not to, after all this."

I let a moment pass before continuing. "Does Chase?"

His gaze dropped to his hands. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it. After a second, he looked up at me and smiled that lopsided smile of his. "Did you actually see what happened on the street back there?"

I was surprised that he just ignored my question. "Yeah," I lied. "Of course."

"No." Gill shook his head. His voice got quiet and I had to lean in to hear the rest of his words. "He pushed you out of the way."

All the blood rushed to my head, and I thought I was going to faint. "What? What do you mean?"

Gill started talking painstakingly slow, like I was a little kid. "That guy was running toward you with a knife. Chase saw it and pushed you at the last second. He got in the way himself. That guy was a lunatic. Chase was… he was furious."

Tingles prickled at my arms, and the rising panic of realization crept up my chest and into my throat. "He saved my life. And you…" I looked at him, searching his face, letting my eyes settle on each bruise, moving to the contour of his nose, his lips, and the ever-changing color of his eyes: blue and open as the sky one minute, dark and full of unexplored depths like the ocean the next. "You were trying to keep me from seeing him get hurt."

It wasn't a question. I knew, somewhere inside those eyes, past those layers and waves of blue, there was a warmth and complexity about him. And further still, his heart was a maze, all dark corners, dead ends, and flickers of light in the darkness. Some things to him were worth caring about and others weren't. I just had to figure out where I fit in.

Gill turned his head away and absently rubbed his jaw. "Do you… like Chase? You seem to care about him a lot."

That question took me by surprise and I wasn't sure how to react. "I— I don't know. I would care the same for you. Or anyone, really. Would it be bad if I did like him?"

He laughed, although he didn't sound amused. "I figured you'd say that. No, I suppose it isn't bad."

"Are you upset?"

"Why would I be upset?"

"I don't know. I thought maybe you didn't want me to like him."

"This isn't middle school." He shook his head. "Besides, you don't need my approval."

"Oh." I watched one of the nurses walk across the floor, pushing a girl in a wheelchair. "I just don't want to think about romance. It really changes things, you know? What if it doesn't work out? Then our friendship would be ruined, and I don't want to risk that with anyone right now. I only want my friends to be happy, and if that means happiness with a girl other than me, then so be it."

I expected Gill to roll his eyes, since it was a pretty cheesy thing to say. Instead he looked at me sadly. The guarded walls he always kept around him were beginning to come down. "I hope you realize you might get hurt if you keep thinking like that."

"Is that the kind of trouble you were talking about?"

"Huh?"

"Well back on the boat you said I was innocent, and then you told me to be careful. I assumed you thought I was naïve and dumb, but now I realize you said that because you're worried I'm going to get hurt. Right?"

He smiled. "Yes. I'm not worried, you just… remind me of someone."

"I'll be okay," I said, smiling. "You don't have to be worried."

"Sure." Gill went back to reading a medical brochure. "The only thing I'm worried about is you becoming as sarcastic and obnoxious as Chase if you keep hanging around him."

I laughed. "Then you have every right to be worried."

Just when I thought I couldn't take the suspense of waiting any longer, a nurse with short blonde hair appeared, holding a clipboard and looking right at me. I shot up and felt my breathing start to quicken. My heart was pounding. I couldn't read her expressionless face for any clues.

"Hello. How are you doing?" she asked.

Gill said "fine" and answered for us both. He'd been given a hospital shirt by the desk receptionist. It was too big, and the collar kept slipping over his shoulder.

The nurse eyed the bare part of his chest. Then she nodded and glanced back down at her clipboard as if she was double-checking something. I bit the inside of my lip a little too hard and tasted blood.

"Is Chase okay?" I asked, feeling lightheaded. "Can we see him?"

She lifted her eyes off the clipboard for a moment to look at me. As she nodded, her short blonde bob bounced a little. Did that mean yes, he was fine or yes, we could see him? We began walking down a maze of hallways and elevators and everything started spinning. I kept telling myself to put one foot in front of the other—breathe in and breathe out.

We came upon room 416, and as the nurse turned the doorknob, I closed my eyes. I felt like I had been waiting my whole life for this moment and here it finally was. My feet seemed to float across the floor. When we entered the room, I heard Gill suck in a breath.

"Why did you do that?" I asked, keeping my eyes shut.

"Just see for yourself."

I opened my eyes.

Dead.

That was the first thought I had. Chase was dead. But no, that was wrong. He was breathing, the only indication of life. His face was pale, white as the sheets; there was a split of red, so dark it was almost black, on his bottom lip. He was stripped to the waist with huge bandages and gauze wrapped around his stomach. An IV snaked out of his hand. I stood in shock.

"He's okay?" I breathed, not quite believing that what I saw was real, that the steady rise and fall of his chest was there, and that he wasn't dead.

The nurse looked at me and nodded. She spoke in a hushed tone. "Yeah, probably just sore. He's lucky. It could've been a lot worse."

My eyes fell to the floor. Just sore.

"The surgery went well, but it seems he's having a bit of trouble staying awake. Over the next twenty-four hours he might feel drowsy, confused, uncoordinated, or nauseous. This is all normal." She looked at her clipboard again. "It looks like the doctor wants him to stay overnight. My shift ends in five minutes, so there will be another nurse coming in, okay?"

I don't know how long I had been standing there. Gill eventually sat down in a chair to wait for me, but I couldn't stop staring at Chase's injuries, feeling guilt gnaw at my mind. I walked over to his bedside. I put my hand on his forehead gently and brushed his hair aside. His skin was cold and slick with sweat.

"I'm sorry, visiting hours are over."

I turned at the sound of a familiar voice. "Elli?"

She looked surprised and then smiled. "Angela! What are you doing here?"

"He's my friend. Chase."

Elli stood on the other side of the bed and looked at his face. For a few seconds, all I could hear were the beeping machines.

I continued, "He doesn't have family that I know of. We were supposed to go to my parents' house, but after we missed the bus we ran into some trouble. There was this guy and his friends, and they... attacked us. Chase saved me."

She covered her mouth and glanced up at me. Then she looked back at Chase. She smiled a little. "He's brave, isn't he?" she whispered.

I found his hand and wrapped my fingers around his, being careful of the IV. A lump formed in my throat. This was my fault. I brought him to the city.

"I have to make my rounds now, but I'll let you stay here until my shift ends," she said. "Why don't you sit down? It might be a while."

I nodded and slid the extra chair closer to Chase.

Once the door clicked shut, Gill stood up, his face paler than I'd ever seen it. His chair was turned toward the wall. "I have to go," he said.

"Why? What's wrong?"

He just shook his head.

"Gill." I moved in front of him so he would look at me. "What is it?"

He exhaled slowly and glanced at Chase before looking back at me. "Angela, I wasn't completely honest with you."

"You lied?" I drew in closer. "About what?"

His gaze traveled back to the floor. He closed his eyes momentarily and opened them. "Well, I didn't lie. I just didn't tell you something. It's about Kasey and that girl. The nurse."

"You mean Elli? What about them? Do you know her?"

"Remember when I told you I came to the city when I was sixteen?" He waited for me to nod. "While I was here doing research about the island's problems, I met Kasey. He had just gotten married to that girl, Elli, and to make a long story short, I told him all about the island. He said he wanted to help and he was looking for a new adventure. I doubted he could do a thing about the problems that Castanet was facing—"

"Can I have the abridged version please?"

Gill sighed. "Kasey left her to come to the island. He used it as an excuse to dump her. And now, naturally, she blames me for making him leave. Elli… it's complicated. If she sees me here, it won't turn out well. You understand, don't you?"

At first I didn't. The more I thought about it, though, the more sense it made. Elli's failed relationship was with Kasey. He left her. And he must have found a different girl when he came back to the city to take care of his elderly grandparents. I nodded.

He moved toward the door.

"Where are you going?"

"Back to the hotel," he stated without turning around.

"No."

He stopped.

"Please… I want you to stay here with us. With me."

Gill looked over his shoulder at me. "I'm leaving."

"Wait, please."

He spun around. "What now, Angela?"

"I— I'm sorry," I said. "I'm just scared."

The jagged icy edges of his blue eyes were melting, and I saw emotion in them for the first time: waves of curiosity and fear crashing into each other. "You're not going to cry, are you?" he asked.

"Not if you stay." I tried to smile as I stepped toward him. "I can't leave Chase here alone. It's scary being in a hospital. I want to talk to him. Can't you wait a little longer?"

He looked at me for a long time before sighing and making his way across the room to sit down. I took my own seat on the chair next to the bed. The stress of the night came crashing down all at once and I felt my energy drain, seeming to flow from out of my fingertips. Leaning forward and resting my head on the edge of the bed, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to dissolve.

A/N: I love you guys so much! Thank you! I honestly couldn't do this without my super nice readers and reviewers. :')