„Someone call the cops, there's a dead woman in the alley."

He raised his head, alerted. His heart was racing and he could hear the blood rushing through his ears. All other noise and the mayhem that ensued around the newly elected president of the Elysian Park Garden Club disappeared. All of a sudden he had a bad feeling about this, a very bad feeling. He jerked up from his stool and rand outside, and it wasn't long until he saw a group of people standing and squatting in a circle, talking over each other, looking at something on the ground, or… someone. He knew it before he saw her face. No, baby! Please, no!

He ran towards her, pushing everybody out of the way, falling to his knees beside to her. The exquisite white fabric of his suit was thirstily soaking up the blood, her blood, thick and warm. God, she had lost too much of it already. He was too late! Or was he? He pulled her into his arms, fighting the tears starting to well up in his eyes. „No, baby", he whimpered, „Stay with me, look at me!"
He ran his fingers over her hair, her cheek, his hand was shaking heavily. Her brown eyes were staring at him in panic. Those beautiful eyes… he hadn't told her often enough how much he loved gazing into them. That he was thinking about them often when he was alone. And when he wasn't too, when he was with other women. Screw them all! He only wanted her, whether she was rich or not. If he was being honest with himself, no woman ever even came close to her, no one was as fierce and feisty, no one could love or hate so passionately, so intensely as Rita Castillo. Or… whatever her name actually was. He never even knew. He remembered how much she had always disliked and ridiculed his name. They could have adopted new names, together.

Was she already gone? Could she still hear him, somehow? Feel him? What the fuck even happened… They wanted to leave for New York City tonight. They wanted to start a new life! How excited he had been. Yes, it felt strange leaving Dee and his unborn son behind, but Rita was his future, he realized it now. Now that it might already be too late. He had been dreaming of their life together all day. Strolling through Central Park, hand in hand, going to the theatre, where they would be way too busy and enthralled with each other to pay attention to what was happening on stage. Falling asleep and waking up in each other's arms, just like a real couple in love. Finally not having to hide their relationship anymore. And who knew, even though she was a lot older than him, maybe they could have still had a baby together, a little girl maybe, with her mother's beautiful brown eyes and her dark curls.
Sirens were finally approaching from somewhere.
„I'm here, baby… Wherever you are, know that I'm here with you. That I love you. And that I ain't going anywhere", he sobbed as he was forcefully pulled away from her by the paramedics.

Beep… beep… beep…

The sound seemed to come from far away, almost from a different realm, but it was coming closer and closer, until it seemed to be right next to her. She was floating in a warm and comforting cloud of nothing. Her whole mind and body were at peace, they were numb. Until they weren't. Then, there was nothing but pain. Excruciating pain. In her stomach, her back, everywhere. Her thoughts screeched to a halt, they stopped peacefully floating through space and instead raced towards the center of her body all at once, from where the pain was radiating in all directions.
She wanted to move, but she couldn't. She was thirsty, her mouth was dry, her throat, her lips were burning and felt like parchment.

She wanted to speak, but she couldn't. Just an ever so soft sigh left her dry lips. Or maybe not even. Did anybody hear? Was anybody there? And… where was she? What had happened? Her eyelids began to flutter, and immediately she felt a warmth around her hand. Then she heard a voice, a voice that sounded familiar.
„Baby? Baby… oh God… can you… can you hear me? Are you waking up? She's waking up… Nurse!", he yelled, „Doctor! She's waking up!"

Nurse? Doctor? Was she…? She finally managed to open her eyes, pushing her eyelids up as if pushing a heavy iron door, and closed them back again right away. Too bright. Only when she sensed a shadow falling on her face, did she attempt that feat again. At first, she only saw a mirky sea of brown colors without contours, then, very slowly, the colors started to take shape. A pair of eyes was staring back at her. A beaming smile. That smile that she loved to see more than anything else in the world.
She had to say his name twice before she could get her vocal cords to make an actual sound, more a croak than anything else. „Scooter…"
„Yes, baby! It's me. You… you made it! You're alive! You survived."
Why wouldn't she be? What did she survive?
This time she stuck to a soft whisper, such that he had to bring his ear closer to her lips in order to understand her. „What happened?"
„Awww, baby, it was horrible! See, you got attacked… you got stabbed! Twice. In the stomach and in the back. They said she barely missed your vertebra. Then it would have been…"
He moved his finger across his throat in a nonchalant gesture that only he could make look cute. Was he just saying she got murdered? Or well, at least someone tried to? Someone had had the audacity to stab Rita Castillo?
„Sh… she… who?"

He gently squeezed her hand. „Let's not talk about it now, baby, you need to rest and recover. You've lost a lot of blood. The doctors said it's a miracle that you're still with us. And that you might never… wake up again. But, you did!"
He smiled with relief and placed a kiss on her forehead when finally the doctor came in together with a nurse.
„Mrs Castillo! Glad to see you back among us. Mr Polarsky, if you'd be so kind and wait outside for a moment, so we can examine our patient."
„I'll be back", he whispered, before he gave her softest kiss and left.

„He's a good guy, that young man", the doctor continued as we was starting to check her vital signs, „Hasn't left your side except for going to the bathroom."
„How long…", she croaked.
„… Have you been asleep? Almost two days now. You were admitted the day before yesterday later in the evening. To be very honest, you were almost dead. I could have sworn you wouldn't make it. But, in the end, you're still here. Maybe there was still something left for you in this world, some unfinished business." He smiled.

While the doctor and nurse were doing their job, her thoughts started zigzagging through her mind and she desperately tried to remember. She was going to take the bus to New York. Scooter… well, he wasn't coming because he wanted to stay near his child. Or was he? Then she also remembered speaking to Grace. Oh yes! She was going to confront that disgraceful hippo of a woman Alma Fillcot… but then… then it stopped. She had a terrible headache. Thinking hurt.

As soon as the doctor left her room, satisfied with the results of his examination, Scooter came back and sat down by her side again. She decided to continue the conversation where they had left off.
„Who attacked me?"„Alma Fillcot… Dee's mom."
Her eyes widened. Alma fucking Fillcot had tried to kill her? She opened her mouth to reply but he held up a hand to stop her.
„Let it go! It's over for her. She's done. They arrested her, they found all kinds of shit. There… there was a body buried in her garden, a neighbor or something, she and her husband confessed to killing Carlo and framing you. Oh, and they… they killed Isabel too."

Rita froze. It felt as if she'd been stabbed all over again. Isabel… She was murdered? She knew it, she knew she wouldn't have killed herself, she knew it all along.
And then it all came back to her in a flash. She had met Alma behind the restaurant, confronted her, she had figured it out. She was going to crash her inauguration party, and then… She remembered feeling the pain long before she had even realized that she had made a crucial mistake. She remembered the blood on her hands, desperately trying to figure out her next move. She had been trying to get away, just walk away as fast as she could, but it was too late. She remembered the smell of blood, the taste, when she hit the floor, and she remembered thinking of him. Thinking that he had abandoned her, that he had decided against a life with her in New York, that she was all alone, once again. And somehow that thought had been the most painful of all…
But then again, he was here now? And he didn't seem to want to leave anytime soon.
„Why are you here? You… you abandoned me?"
„What?", he seemed seriously astonished, „I didn't, baby! I met with Dee, yes, we talked. And we said goodbye. I was waiting for you at six, in that bar, as you had told me. I was so excited to see you and go to New York with you! But you didn't come. I got worried, I thought you reconsidered, found a loophole to get back into Carlo's will or something like that, so I went looking for you. I went to the restaurant where you always used to meet your garden club ladies, and asked for you. And then… then they found you."
„You were looking for me? You really wanted to come with me? After all I've done to you?"
He smiled his irresistible smile. „I love you, baby. I can't help it. I told you. And I thought that once in New York, you might become a different person. We could both start again, from scratch. Together."
Her heart skipped a beat and for a moment all pain disappeared, she felt light again, she felt… happy.

„Oh Scooter. I don't think I ever really told you, but… I love you too. And I'm so glad I didn't die, mainly because… because that means I get to tell you, and that I can see your face again, at least once more. And see you look at me like that."
He beamed and replied giddily: „Oh, baby, you can see it more than once, you can see it whenever you want to. From now on… What do you say, once you're strong and healthy enough, we finally take that bus to the Big Apple? Like we had planned to?"
„If that's still what you want?"„More than anything."
He leaned in to kiss her, much more passionately than she had expected or he had intended, until she gently pushed him away with a painful grimace on her face. „Careful, soldier… I still got two holes in my body that shouldn't be there."
„That's just one more than me", he grinned, then he had a thought: „Hey! Just a few days ago you sat by my bedside, thinking I was dead after I got shot, now I'm sitting by your bedside, thinking you were dead after you got stabbed. How funny is that?"
She saw the sheer and innocent joy and excitement on his face that she all too often put off as naivety or even simple-mindedness. The truth was though, that this was exactly what made him special, this was why she loved him so much. His world was just so much easier. After all, life could be so sweet on the sunny side of the street.
„Yes, Scooter", she said with a kindhearted smile and tried to put all the love into it that she felt for this young man, „It is. It's hilarious."