I fell asleep in the chair beside Sky's bed, and when I woke up, everyone but Uncle Bill and I had left. I didn't know what time it was, but I could tell it was late. The only light in the room was the glowing shadows from the nurse's station across the hall. Sleepiness disoriented me for a moment, but then I looked at Sky, still unmoving and unconscious, and remembered slowly with both relief and grief. Sky was okay. But he didn't want to be.

I stretched tiredly. "What time is it?"

Uncle Bill took his eyes away from Sky with a start. "Lyric," he breathed. "I wasn't expecting you to wake up for awhile. You really conked out." When he was answered by my silent smile, he strained to see the hands on his watch in the minimal light. "It's a little past two."

"You've been awake this entire time?"

He nodded, looking back at Sky. "He kind of murmured, but so far he hasn't…He's not waking up."

"He will," I said. I studied his sleeping face. His long black eyelashes softly fluttered with dreams and a lock of his slightly curly dark hair rested on his forehead. "And when he does wake up, he'll hate the world even more."

Uncle Bill stared at me.

I shrugged. "He wanted to die. I'm assuming it was you that found him, and he's going to resent you for not letting him die. I mean, I am so grateful to you for saving him, but it's how Sky will think."

"Lyric, I didn't find Sky. He found me."

Blinking, I blurted, "Huh?"

"He was bleeding and he wasn't making much sense, although he did say something about how he cut himself because you told him he couldn't take painkillers. But he made his way into my office out back to tell me he was sorry." He shook his head, an honest insistence in his eyes. "He tried to back out. He didn't want to go through with it at the end. He saved himself."

I suddenly remembered Sky putting back the bottle of aspirin after I'd told him he wasn't supposed to take painkillers. So I had crossed his mind when he tried to kill himself…thank God.

I wondered what had made him change his mind. I would never ask; I would never know, but I would always thank God for putting that thought in his head at the last second.

A few moments passed by. Finally, I looked up at Uncle Bill, worry creasing his forehead and fatherly affection in his blue eyes as he watched Sky sleep. I smiled. "Thank you."

He looked at me in confusion. "For what?"

Gesturing inadequately , I said simply, "This life."

He kind of squinted at me, leaning forward in his chair as if to hear better.

I decided to elaborate. "I really don't know what all happened between you and Mom, but I know you never stopped loving her because you took us in and you are your father, you know? You could have left us to get shipped off to different foster homes, but you didn't. The life you've given us here…Um, well, I'm happy for the first time in forever. And you're the reason Sky is still here. So, um, hmm…that's what I meant when I said thank you for this life."

Uncle Bill smiled from across Sky's bed and I think I saw tears. "I'm doing my best for you kids. It's the least you deserve after everything that's happened to you."

"Yeah, sorry for all this crap we're putting you through. We're dysfunctional, you see."

Laughing, he shrugged. "The best of us are."

Changing the subject, I asked, "When did everyone leave?"

"The boys went home around midnight, along with Herman. Summer said she would get Sheryl settled into bed, and Gerry offered to take them home so I wouldn't have to drive them."

"So. You're letting Summer and Gerry be alone together in an empty house? When she's vulnerable and needy? And he's a boy?"

"Um. Yes. Whoops."

Just as I began to feel sad that Alan had left without saying goodbye to me, I realized that his jacket was covering me like a blanket.

Uncle Bill noticed me looking oddly at the jacket and explained, "That Alan…He sure thinks the world of you. He's a good kid." He nodded towards the door. "He'd invading the vending machines."

My mouth gaped. "He's still here?"

"I talked to his father. Mr. Bosley's fine with it. Told you he thinks the world of you."

On cue, Alan entered the room, his arms filled with bags of food. He grinned up seeing me awake. "Morning."

I smiled back. "Hungry?"

Sheepishly looking down at all the food, he said, "I panicked."

"Yes you did."

Dumping candy bars and an assorted variety of chips onto a chair, he asked, "What'll you have?"

The weight of the entire night had not been completely lifted. Sky was lying in a hospital bed, his wrists slit. Therefore I still felt like yakking. I ran my hand through my hair, tousling it slightly because I didn't want Alan seeing me with bedhead…or chair-head, whatever. "I'm not really hungry, Alan. Thank you though."

His eyebrows shot up. "You're refusing food?"

"Look, I'm not a garbage disposal tonight, okay? I gave him an impatient look, all the while feeling bad.

"Coach, you mind if I take Lyric for a walk?"

My eyes flew to Sky. "But I don't--what if he--"

"Lyric, it would be nice for you to get out and stretch," Uncle Bill said. "And to talk."

I looked at Alan's outstretched hand. He wanted me to go with him. He wouldn't leave me; he was reaching for me, wasn't he?

Moving my legs out from underneath me, I took his hand, holding it tightly. I smiled at Uncle Bill, and then stepped into the mostly empty hallway that was lit by fluorescent lights. It smelled like someone's last days.

AN: I'm back, by the way :) There's one chapter to go before this is done, but I don't have time to type it out right now, sorry!