Odd had always hated hospitals, but he didn't have energy to hate. He was wet from the downpour that had started when the ambulance had arrived. He was sitting beside a patchwork Zephyr. Even he would admit, she looked awful.
Stitches and gauze covered her body. Her face was lined with the black thread, surprisngly bandage-free. An IV drip went through her left wrist, and one for oxygen traveled up her nose. She'd been there for hours; thankfully the blood transfusion had been successful.
It was just her and Odd in the small room, accompanied by the persistent , dogged beeps of the heart monitor and occasionally a nurse or two to make sure everything was in order. Odd sat in a chair next to her, and it seemed as if darkness had swallowed them into its own little world.
"My little fighter," Odd rasped, letting his fingers rest in her hair, leaked through the blood -covered strands. She was asleep now, but she'd been drifting in and out of conciousness.
Odd was extremely preoccupied with his best friend, but he'd managed to call the neighbors that were watching Aiden, as well as Jeremie and Aelita and Yumi and Ulrich. He sighed as he ran a finger down her face. He accidentally lightly grazed one of the stitches and she flinched in her sleep.
Zephyr had fallen into a light sleep, hands clasped behind her head. Odd, forgetting how close she was to him, spread his arms out and, completely by accident, one of them just happened to collide, almost softly, with Zephyr's ribcage.
She woke up, pale eyes wide with pain, quickly sitting up, grasping her side with one arm, biting the knuckle of her free hand to keep from screaming. Odd sat up beside her, hands on her shoulders.
"Oh, God, Zeph, your side too?" His friend slowly recovered and Odd gently turned her face towards him. "Zephyr…please…tell me. Tell me. Please, please tell me. What in the world is going on?" He begged. She pulled away, stood up, ignoring the stares of her friends.
"Come on, kid," Odd whispered. "You remember how we would play whe we were little, how we'd play-fight and chase each other. It seemed like a game then but it was practice. I know you can beat this."
"He shook his head calmly, 'You're strong. You'll get through this...'"
"I know you will," He told her confidently, kissing her, and her response was so faint that it felt as though he were kissing water.
-------------------------------------------
Zephyr groaned slightly as she opened her eyes. The blurred vision she had of Odd's face cleared as she found her focus. Pain coursed through her and exhaustion and knowledge dragged her down, as well as drugs.
"Hey," She managed, reveling in his gentle smile.
"Well, look who made it through the night," Odd grinned, his voice coarse. Early morning light fell faintly through the single window in the room. Her eyes seemed even paler than usual, drained of energy and life, and Odd could see his fear reflecting in their orbs. They asked him a question he did not want to answer. "No..." He told her, letting a few built-up tears slip from his amber eyes. She said nothing in reply, only reached her un-IVed hand up weakly to let her fingers leak through his hair.
And he knew what she wanted to say.
"...Your hair's really soft when it's wet and doesn't have that purple crud in it," A soft smile played on her lips as she looked at it. Her hand seemed detached from her body, but she kept fondling his golden hair, wet and darker from the rain..."
Odd sighed, trying, and failing, to soothe the ache in his chest. He knew he couldn't do anything. She looked pale and gaunt, and though she had been in the hospital for only hours, she looked like her weight had dropped and her eyes were hollowed out slightly. Stray blood oozed from between the threads of the stitches. She looked strikingly like she did as a kid, even the spirit only flickered in her dialated eyes.
"Zephyr?"
"Yeah?"
She looked breathtakingly beautiful in the rain.
"I think you're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," He told her, letting his fingers stay in her hair. Her wanted to tell her something, something he hadn't told her in a long time, even though she probably knew it.
"Odd?"
"Yeah?"
"I still think you're hair's really soft when it's wet and doesn't have that purple crud in it."
He smiled, and felt the sting in his nose, eyes and chest as he fought tears.
And still the heart monitor beeped steadily on.
"I don't want to lose you," Odd whispered after an hour-long pause.
"I don't want to lose you either," She replied, voice even weaker, "But I don't have a choice." Odd sighed.
"Yes you do. You always had a choice."
"No I didn't. I didn't have a choice. I had to protect you. He was going to hurt you."
"Zephyr I have to tell you that-" But he was cut off. She grimaced in intense pain. Her body felt like it was on fire, scorching in its injuries. She began shaking violently, and the heart monitor's beeps became faster and faster, so they almost overlapped. Adrenaline pounded through Odd, but he couldn't move. His fingers remained in her hair, and he stayed rooted to his uncomfortable plastic chair. He was also shaking. They remained together, her shaking out of some unknown force, him out of fear.
Several members of the hospital staff burst into the room.
"You have to leave now, son," The head doctor fairly pushed him out of the room, his fingers ripped from her hair. She was blocked from his view by the personell, and through the door he heard the word "lidocaine."
He saw the needle and the beeps seemed to get faster, and he wondered if his heartbeats were monitored would they match his.
Then she flat-lined.
He felt his heart stop as well, stilled by the slam of the one, long, continuous beep.
The doctors and nurses rushed around Zephyr, but just as suddenly they halted, shaking their heads, their panicked frenzy useless.
Odd couldn't fathom the impact yet.
Zephyr was gone.
"I have to tell you that I love you."
