Chapter 2

The following morning, Rose awoke to a light beeping sound in her ear, it sounded far away at first, as if her ear were clogged with cotten balls, but the more she woke up, the closer and louder the beeping got, until she finally opened her eyes, to find it was a heart monitor she was hooked up to, that was causing all that beeping.

"Ohhh..." Rose groaned lightly, holding her ribs a bit, as she tried to sit up, but failed, "What...happened? Why am I here?" she said to no one, since no one was there to visit her, but she was scared, and confused, the last thing she remembered was driving into the state of New York, why now was she back in the city strapped to a heart monitor and pumped full of I.V. fluid? "N-nurse?" she whispered, holding her covers a bit tightly around herself, before she punched the nurse call button, about 50 times, "NURSE!"

"Yes? Do you need something?" An older lady in a nurses outfit asked, as she walked quickly into Rose's room, "Oh good you're awake! How are you feeling?" she asked.

"How do you think I feel?! I don't even know why I'm here and....why am I here anyway? What happened to me? I was supposed to be working today..." Rose said, letting go of her grasp on her covers, as she stared back at the nurse, awaiting some answers.

"Oh you don't remember?" The nurse said, looking around and wondering if she should tell Rose, or whether or not to call the doctor for that. "Well...I suppose I can tell you, you were in a car accident. You swerved to avoid a drunk driver and you and your car ended up head first in a lake, luckily someone else saw the accident too and went to pull you out, your car I'm afraid didn't make it. We were able to located your purse and found your license, so we knew where you lived, and helicoptered you back to the city as soon as we could get you in stable condition. You don't appear to have any terribly serious injuries though, a sprained wrist, some bruised ribs, and then there are bruises on your chest and collarbone areas where you collided with the steering wheel. Other than that, young lady, I'd say you were very lucky..."

"A car accident?" Rose said lightly to herself, as several images flashed suddenly back into her mind, of her screaming, clutching the steering wheel, and the sound of her tires as they squeeled off the road. She shivered lightly before she was brought back to reality, to look back at the nurse, "I...thank you...is there a phone in here I can use? I want to call my parents, before they hear about this second hand and freak out." she said, leaning back against her pillow.

"Of course, there's one right beside your bed, dial 9 to get an outside line, I'll be back to check up on your shortly," The nurse grinned, as she left Rose alone to make her phone call.

That very same morning, in a much more comfortable part of town, Max Dillon sat in his cushioned chair, reclining and enjoying a crisp New York morning, over a cup of hot coffee from the balcony of his high rise apartment in Manhattan. "Eh...junk, junk, junk....Ha! The Yankees beat the Mets...again," he smirked, tossing the sports section aside, after he saw what he cared about. That's when he came to the only part of the paper he ever really bothered to read, the Current Events/Life section of the paper, because he did always enjoy seeing if his or rather Electro's name was in there.

"Blah blah...Doctor Octopus...fcker...he doesn't deserve his name in the news anymore!" Max scowled, as he flipped the page, to spot a picture of a crane towing a black convertible car out of a lake. "Hmm?" he rubbed his chin lightly, as he scanned the article, before taking a sip of his coffee. However, just as he did that, he swallowed it rather quickly, half choking on it, as he saw Rose Brennan's name under the picture as the victim of the accident. "R-Rose?! She was...but I just saw her last night? What the hell?! Why don't they say whether she's alright or not?" he said, scanning furiously through the article, but all the mentioned was that the car was totaled and the other driver walked away without a scratch, no mention of Rose's condition, or what hospital she was in. "So much for her date with Electro..." Max said, feeling a bit abashed, he'd actually been looking quite forward to that. "Unless...." he smirked, as that ever familiar evil look spread across his features, as he walked back into his apartment. Max called every hospital in New York City, until he found where Rose Brennan was being kept, "...Unless Electro comes to her," he grinned, walking to his room to find a more appropriate outfit to wear to hospital visitation hours.

As he crept into the hospital, several people screamed, some ran for it, and others just stood and stared. What was HE doing here?

"I'm here to visit Ms. Rose Brennan..." he growled, daring anyone to tell him no, as he clutched a boquet of pink and red rose's in his gloved hand. "What room is she in?"

"I'm sorry sir, but visiting hours don't begin for another 10 min..." The nurse froze as she looked up to spot the firey gaze of Electro glaring back at her, "...utes..." she squeaked out the last part. "I-I... s-sir I'm sorry but...I'm going to have to ask you to leave..." The nurse said, knowing she'd just sealed her own fate.

"I'm sorry could you repeat that...I thought you told me to leave?" Electro growled, as his eyes flashed dangerously, "I ain't goin' anywhere! Tell me where she is!" he growled, as he threw his free hand forward, blowing the desk in two, as nurses and doctors ran everywhere, screaming, one yelled out to "call the police!" which just caused Electro to laugh.

"The police?! Those morons couldn't catch me if their name was catch me, so you all wanna do this the hard way huh? Alright," Electro smirked once more, grabbing a near by doctor as he ran by, around the neck, lifting him easily off the ground with one hand, as he glared at him, his eyes flashing dangerously still. "Tell me where Rose is or I'll fry you like a Thanksgiving turkey."

"S-she's in....I don't know...I'm not her doctor, but if you tell me what's wrong with her I can...ack...I can point you in the right direction," The man gasped for air.

Electro didn't like that answer, too much work, "Sorry, wrong answer," he growled, clasping his hand much harder around the man's neck, before there were several bright flashes of light, and the next thing that filled the air of that hospital was the smell of charbroiled skin.

In the meantime, up in her room, Rose was taking a nap, but when she heard all the screaming out in the hallway, and the loud explosions two floors below her, she sat up in bed, gasping a bit in surprise. What was going on now? Was she dreaming, or was this hospital about to go up in flames with her in it?

Just about at that moment, a nurse ran through the door looking panic striken, as she waved her arm furiously towards someone out in the hallway. "I-in here...she's in here!" she said, before the nurse bolted again.

Rose felt a small lump in her throat, not knowing who was coming, but the look on that nurse's face didn't settle well with her. She peered around the corner, before none other than Electro himself hovered into her room, with a bouquet of now charred, black roses. I know it sounds strange, but upon seeing who it was, Rose relaxed immediately, he wasn't here to hurt her, only to visit, and had apparently run into some trouble in doing so on the floors below.

"Rose..." Electro said lightly, as he landed on the floor near her bed, the energy surrounding him diminished, as he extended the flowers towards her, "These are for....you....uh sorry...they were roses but..."

Rose cut him off as she reached out to touch his hand, taking the charbroiled flowers from his grasp, and set them on the bed beside her, "And I love them," she smiled. "How did you know I was here? I know I was supposed to meet you tonight I'm sorry that...well I'm just sorry." she said, as Electro took her hand lightly, moving her guardrail on the bed, and took a seat beside her.

He stared at her for a moment, not speaking, just taking in the condition she was in, but was happy to see it wasn't too serious, still, the bastard that caused her to have that accident was on his way to a very unpleasant accident himself after this. "Rose you don't have to be sorry, I'm glad you weren't hurt too badly...and I read about it in the paper, it was up to me to find what hospital you were in but...heh let's just say, I'm a persuassive guy," he smirked, as Rose gave him a light smile in return.

"Heheh you most certainly can be, and I'm glad you're here...I was getting lonely in this hospital room all by myself...how long do you think you'll be able to stay here?" Rose asked, scooting over a bit, to give Electro more room to sit on the bed.

"I'm not sure, as long as I can without some wise ass cop bustin' in here trying to get me to leave," Max replied, as he bent down to kiss her forehead lightly. "Get well soon Rose, I'm going to try and come by as often as I can...do you know when you'll be getting out?" he asked.

Rose shook her head, "I don't know yet, but I hope it's soon, now that they know my vitals are in good condition and I'm not too bruised up, I might actually get to go home tommorow," she grinned, enjoying Electro's presence in the hospital much more than anyone else around there seemed to be. That's when she heard the sound of sirens blaring in the distance, "You'd better go...would you...stop by my hotel room tommorow night around 7:00? If I'm not there then I'm here...I just don't want you to leave without me knowing when I'll see you again...."

"Oh you'll see me again Rose...you definately will, and I'll stop by your hotel room at 7:00 every night until I find you there, and then...I'll take you on a tour of the city you won't soon forget," Electro smirked, as he stood up, kissing her lips softly once more. "Until then..." he said, before he threw his fist foward, shooting out a strand of electrical energy towards her window, and quickly flew out, as the cops ran into Rose's room, and over to the window, staring at the retreating figure of Electro in the sky.

Rose sat on her bed smiling, glancing at the hand he'd just been holding moments earlier, and actually started to feel much better.