Chapter 2
*The same events as Chapter 1, but in Mac's POV*

Mac:

The hallway was dark and cold, "Where am I", I thought to myself. My question was soon answered by the familiar aroma of the hallway, and the same feeling in the pit of my stomach I got whenever I entered a hospital. Okay, now that my first question was answered, I moved on to my second, "What am I doing here?". I stumbled around for a minute in the dark and saw something that looked like double-doors. After wandering through them, I was blinded instantly by insanely bright florescent lights. When my vision cleared, it looked like I was in the middle of the hospital's main lobby. Nurses and doctors ran past me, as if a couple dozen people just checked in at the same time, and needed immediate urgent care. I tried to get their attention, but they were either too busy or they didn't see me. Normally I wouldn't care, but by observing their looks and reactions, they didn't acknowledge my presence at all, it was like I wasn't even there, like I didn't even exist. That was when I knew something was not right. My eyes caught a big stack of papers on the front desk, "Maybe those will help me answer my question". I wasn't worried about getting in trouble, why worry if I apparently don't exist? I sifted through the first few papers, looking for something that I might recognize. But nothing caught my attention. No names, no crimes, no form of treatment. I was about to go check a few rooms for something that might help me, when I stumbled across a paper that made my heart stop beating entirely. I read the information once, twice, three times, it just didn't make sense. "Could this be her? Maybe it's someone with the same name?". I knew the nurses and doctors wouldn't help me, so I tried deciphering it myself. When I couldn't figure it out, I tried denying it, but that feeling in the pit of my stomach told me it was true. I read the piece of paper once more:

CLAIRE TAYLOR-CAR ACCIDENT
SURGERY 6:47 PM
MAJOR INTERNAL BLEEDING
TIME OF DEATH 6:58 PM
MARRIED

Time of Death 6:58 pm. Time of Death 6:58 pm. Time of Death 6:58 pm. Time of Death 6:58 pm. It felt like I was being electrocuted as I woke up with a jolt, out of breath and gasping. I kept telling myself that it was just a dream, but those words just kept ringing in my head. After I calmed down a bit, I closed my eyes and blindly ran my hand through the sheets. After a few seconds I started panicking, when I found her hand I sighed a breath of relief. I glanced at the clock, 6:15 am, the alarm wouldn't ring for another half hour. Still holding Claire's hand, I lied down next to her and wrapped my free hand around her waist. I felt like I could have stared at her relaxed beautiful face for days straight and not get tired. I loved her so much that I couldn't even explain. I loved the way her long light brown hair brushed her shoulders, and the way her loose curls bounced with every step that she took. Everyday, when I look into her deep blue eyes, it feels like I'm looking at them for the first time. I tried to relax, but I was too stressed from the dream, no nightmare that I just had. Maybe a glass of water would help me calm down a bit. I got out of bed, careful not to wake her up, put on the first pair of shorts that I could find, and quietly left the bedroom. As I was filling up the glass with tap water, I noticed that my hands were slightly shaking, had that dream disturbed me this much? I looked for things to occupy me until the alarm rang, or at least distract me from my own pessimistic thoughts. Sleeping was defiantly out of the question, I wasn't going to risk letting my mind wander. I decided that I would go back to bed, and try not to think about...that. It was almost 6:30, only 15 minutes left. It even crossed my mind to wake Claire up, she always knew whenever something was bothering me, and I really wanted to talk to her. But I decided against that, she would be up in 15 minutes, I would talk to her then. I got back into bed, Claire was sleeping on her side, with her bare back facing me. Trying not to wake her up, I wrapped my arm around her waist and carefully pulled her close to me. Okay, I admit, I was a little disappointed when she didn't wake up. I was really tired, but I forced myself to stay awake. After what felt like an hour of straining my eyelids open, I found out that only 10 minutes had passed. Maybe a cold shower would keep me awake. I was in the bathroom when I heard the alarm clock ring. I was a little relieved when she turned it off mid-ring, knowing she was awake sort of calmed me down a little bit, the cold shower did the rest. I admit, I took a while in the shower, but I feel like a had a good reason to justify that. When I was done, I wrapped myself in a towel and headed out. It seemed like Claire's mind was occupied, she was staring out the window, smiling to herself. But she turned her attention towards me when she heard the bathroom door open.

"You should wear that more often, makes you look sexy", she giggled

I grinned, she was already making my day better, "Probably not as sexy as you look right now".

She blushed as she realized that she wasn't wearing anything. Her pulling up the sheets to cover herself, sent it over the top for me. I walked towards her, it took every bit of self control that I had, to keep myself from sprinting across the room to her. I climbed onto the bed, and removed the sheets from her, and pulled her in for a kiss. It wasn't my intention to kiss her like that, but I couldn't help myself, and for a minute Claire didn't seem to complain. But then, Claire came back to reality and pulled away from me.

"Mac, I have to go to work", she whispered to me.

I unintentionally leaned in to kiss her again, but stopped myself. My lips an inch away from hers, and thought for a second,

"We could both call in sick today", I whispered back joking. But still serious.

"You know I have a big meeting today", she said, but I could tell she wanted to stay home.

"I know", I said, I began to feel her weakening. I took advantage of this and began to kiss her neck. If anything, Claire could never back down whenever I kissed her neck. As every second passed, she resisted me less and less. Finally, after a minute or 2, she stopped trying to resist, pulled me up to her lips, and passionately kissed me. I let my ego go to my head, again.

"I knew you could never resist me", I said victoriously.

She slumped in defeat, "Oh, just shut up and kiss me", she said. but I knew that she was okay about losing this battle.

later...

After Claire and I...well you know, she got up to take a shower and I got up to get dressed. As I cruised towards the kitchen, I chuckled to myself as I realized that I had, yet again, used up all the hot water in the shower. I absentmindedly went to get the morning paper, as I replayed the events of this morning. I was starting the coffee maker, when it hit me all over again. That stupid, stupid dream, why was I obsessing over this? It's not like I hadn't had dreams like this before. After Claire's car accident, I had stressed out about Claire's safety for a while. Even though both Claire and the doctor had reassured me that she was going to be fine, I still couldn't shake the recurring nightmares involving Claire. Then again, even though I had already grown used to dreams like this, none of my past dreams had ever involved Claire...dying. I could feel my heartbeat accelerating even as I was thinking about it. I made the coffee a little stronger than usual, so it would help keep my heavy eyelids open. After pouring myself a cup, I sat down at the kitchen table, and opened the paper to a random page and tried to read. 5 minutes later I realized that I had only been reading the first 2 sentences over and over again. It was when Claire walked through the kitchen door, when I finally felt a little stress relieved. I always liked it when she wore a suit. She was wearing a black blazer, with matching pants, and the hot pink shirt that I liked. She noticed that I was admiring her outfit and turned away, I think she was blushing. After getting herself a cup of coffee for herself, and a bowl of cereal, she joined me at the table. She grimaced a little as she took a sip of her cup of coffee. But she didn't seem to dislike it too much. Reading the paper as a distraction was getting a little harder, so I tried to focus a little more.

"So, whats wrong with the world today?", She said randomly. I could hear the sarcasm in her voice. I was a little confused, maybe my focusing skills had actually looked real.

I quickly scanned the first article that I saw. Oddly enough it was about politics. Hoping she wouldn't she that I was distracted, I quickly blabbed, "Huh? Oh, nothings wrong just the usual, people getting what they want because of their reputation".

"Damn politics", she said jokingly

I was surprised she hadn't noticed my strange behavior. I didn't think my acting skills were this good. She might not have noticed my distracted face earlier, but she defiantly noticed that I was a little more relaxed that a few minutes ago. I was surprised that she didn't say anything. Whenever she notices that somethings on my mind, she always helps me to get things off my chest, and I was always grateful for that. But this time I was glad she didn't say anything, I couldn't have her go through my insanity again.

My thoughts were interrupted by her question, "Is something wrong?"

GOD! It's like she can read my mind! I knew that I had jinxed it by thinking about it, but I had to think for a quick response.

"What? nothings wrong, why would you think somethings wrong?", I knew I was rambling, but I didn't think she would notice. I also forced myself to smile, I kind of knew that she would notice that, but to my surprise, she didn't say anything about that.

"It's nothing, you just look kind of distracted. That's all... You sure nothings wrong", She looked worried, I hated that I was doing this to her, but I had no choice but to keep lying.

"Claire, I promise everything is okay", I had to say through my gritted teeth. I tried to smile again, but it felt worse than the first one. And to make this morning even better: Claire knew that I was lying to her.

I braced myself when she opened her mouth to say something else, when she quickly glanced down at her watch. Thankfully it was almost 7:30, "CRAP!", she yelled, "I'm going to be late!". She jumped out of her chair, drank the rest of her coffee, dumped the bowl in the sink, and headed out the door. "See you tonight, I love you, bye!", she yelled halfway through the door. I replied, "I love you too", but It was so low I could barely hear it. And just like that, she was gone, and I was alone with my horrible thoughts. I knew, now that I was alone, I would not be able to distract myself anymore. So, without a second thought, I grabbed my keys and left to go to work. i waited a few minutes to give Claire a little time to leave the complex. It wasn't going to be weird leaving this early, I was usually the first one at the lab, so nobody would notice. After 2 minutes, I headed for the garage, started my car, and quickly left the lot. I considered turnig on the siren just so I could get to the lab quicker, but that would just be silly. I guess fate wanted me to get to the lab also, cause i made every green light and got to the lab within 5 minutes, when it usually took 10. The garage was empty, so I knew I was still always the first one to get to the lab. That reminder scared me a little bit. So, I raced to the elevator, pushed the button for the 35th floor, and impatiently waited for me to get up there. Once I arrived I was happily greeted by a stack of paper work on my desk. Without hesitation I took out my pen and got to work. But suddenly the elevator 'dinged' and looked up to see who it was. To my surprise it was Stella, "what was she doing here?", I thought to myself. She didn't seem surprised to see me, but I could sense the satisfaction on her face as she was reading mine. I was about to ask my question out loud, when my cell phone rang.