I drove James to the nearest hospital, which happened to be Metro Medical. Carrying him awkwardly in my arms, I ran inside with my bare feet.

Two nurses came down one of the hallways with eyes encircled in late night black circles. They drank coffee out of Styrofoam cups and were on their way home, when I cried out, "Wait! Please! Someone help me!" They whirled around and seeing James with his shirt ripped and head bloody, they immediately set their cups down and rushed towards me.

"What happened?" the one with curly blond hair that wore a nametag of "Kelly" asked me, while the other one paged some doctors.

"We got attacked by some gang members. Please, help him," I begged, trying not to fall into hysterics. You should be happy, I told myself. You just fought off three hardcore street thugs without a scratch, and James is fine. But, I wasn't anywhere near happy.

From down the hallway, a tall black man with the nametag of "Bling", wheeled a stretcher, "Here, set him down on this. We'll take care of him." Gently, I lay James down on the stretcher and kissed his face tenderly.

"Don't you dare die on me," I whispered as I felt tears forming in my eyes. They took James down one of the hallways and left me to wait.

Kelly returned shortly after and asked, "Are you ok? Perhaps you should be checked out."

"I need to be here when he leaves," I argued. "I can't abandon him."

"He'll be fine. Looks like he'll just need a couple stitches and things should be fine. Now, I'll have to ask you to fill out a form for him that includes medical coverage for him-"

"I'm just a girlfriend."

"Do you know anyone we could get a hold of that would be able to help him? Any close family?"

"His father's the only one in town; the rest of his family is back in Wisconsin."

"Do you know his father's number?"

I shook my head.

"Well, we'll check for identification on him and see if there's any numbers that we can call. Meanwhile, would you like something to drink while you wait?"

"Juice, please."

"We only have orange. It's for breakfast."

I glanced at my watch. It was nearly three in the morning. "Orange will be fine," I replied, and Kelly hurried away to get it for me.

Sighing heavily, I fell back onto one of the overstuffed chairs. What was I supposed to do now? Find James' father, who he despises, and say, "Hey, your son who you've left for all of his life just got into an accident. He might need some help. And, by the way, I'm the girlfriend you've never met"?

Soon, Kelly came back and held out the juice in a plastic cup. "Here, you go," she smiled.

"Thanks," I replied and drank it hungrily. How could something taste so good when the world was so rotten?

Finally, after close to an hour of waiting, the man named Bling appeared and smiled. "He's asking for you."

"Where is he?" I asked, rising immediately to my feet. During my waiting period, I went back out to my motorcycle and got both my shoes along with my license and the extra money I stored under a crack in the seat.

"Follow me," he replied and I did. We walked down a couple long hallways as he asked what my name was.

"Alanza," I responded. Then, unsure if he was gathering hospital information, I added, "Alanza Guevara."

His eyes narrowed slightly as he comprehended what I said, then, "Are you related to anyone named Max Guevara?"

"She's my mom."

"She came back to Seattle?" Bling asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. But, how do you know her?"

"I used to work with Logan before I came to the hospital. That was before she left with that other guy."

"That'd be my dad."

"I didn't mean for that to be offending."

"It's not. I know that Logan and my dad don't like each other. It's just another fact of life."
"Well, here we are. James is in there," he told me, pointing to room number 129. "I'll have to give Logan a call sometime." He extended his hand, which I accepted warmly. "It was good to meet you Alanza."

"And you too."

Hesitantly, I opened the door to James' room. He lay in the bed, a drip I.V. beside him, with closed eyes. His head was bandaged up, and they had put him in the regular hospital gown.

"James?" I whispered, touching his arm gently as I sat down in the over-stuffed hospital chair.

Slowly, his eyelids fluttered open and finally he saw me. Immediately, he smiled. "Alanza…"

The gates I had held up since I had brought James to the hospital collapsed as I bent over him and began to cry. "I am so sorry," I told him through tears.

He brushed his fingers through my hair. "What? If it wasn't for you, I'd still be out there on the streets."

"No, but it was all my fault. I should have defended you or something," I managed to get out between hot floods of tears.
"It wasn't anybody's fault…Are you ok?"
"James, I'm fine. Don't worry about me; you're the one in the hospital bed."

He smiled crookedly. "I've had worse scraps than this."

I sat back up and wiped the tears away, knowing that my mascara was probably smeared all over my face. "They were asking about your dad."

"Who?"

"The hospital staff. They needed to know about the medical coverage and stuff like that. They wanted me to fill it out."

"Did you?"

"No."

He sighed. "I'm a legal adult. I don't need my dad to take care of stuff for me. He hasn't all my life. Why should he start now?"
"I didn't know what to say."

"It's not your problem, though."

"I know that, but I'm not going to let anything happen to you," I told him.

"You need to get home. What time is it?"
I glanced at my watch and absentmindedly yawned. "5:30 in the morning."

"You really do need to get home. Your parents are probably worried sick about you."

"Are you going to be ok?"

"I'll be fine," he assured me.

I smiled slowly and rose to my feet. Then, I bent over and kissed him fiercely. His hand came along the back of my head and stroked my curls that were now coming undone. We stood, lip-locked for a moment before I pulled away and nodded blankly with tears in my eyes. "I thought you were going to die."

"Alanza," he said as I left the room, "I'd never leave you like that."

I closed the door silently and wondered how I could have gotten so lucky to have someone like James in my life. After all the rotten things in my life, I guess there was some sunshine.

The hallways were beginning to come to life with the early morning crew. New people were sitting behind the desk now. One of the women sighed heavily and snorted. "I can't get a hold of this girl," she groaned.

"Who is it?" the other asked, leaning over to look at the name.

"Somebody named Alanza Guevara. Weird."

I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around. "Um, that'd be me." I relished in how their eyes widened as they stared, amazed, at the six foot tall girl before them.

"You're Alanza Guevara?"

"Yep. I got my driver's license right here if you want proof," I replied, holding it out to them.

"No, no, we believe you," the nurse replied. I was surprised she was so trusting; many people in the world weren't after having gone through a radioactive pulse.

"Then what's up?"

She sighed heavily and bit down on her bottom lip. My stomach twisted as hot acid coated the sides of it. Whatever she had to tell me was not going to be good news. "Your mom, Max Guevara, was just admitted recently for a severe motorcycle accident. She's in the ER right now, and they're not sure if she's going to make it"