With a surprisingly good mood, Lexa returned to the hospital. She had spent the entire morning writing a story about dragons. It had proven harder than she had thought, as she had to look up all different kinds of mythology and information about them when she realized she knew hardly anything about the creatures. In the end she had written a pretty corny, yet funny story about dragons, and she could only hope Jesse would like it.
Unlike yesterday, Jesse was still in his bed when she arrived at his room in the hospital. Lexa noticed how he was seated upwards against the headboard, a different sight than she was used to. Most of the times she found him either lying motionless, covered in blankets, or sleeping in the same position. This small change was a good one, Lexa found. Maybe this meant he was recovering.
"Hey," he greeted her with a warm smile, as if he was waiting for her to come in.
"Hey," she greeted back, taking off her coat and retrieving her notebook from her backpack. "You ready?"
Jesse nodded.
Lexa sat down on the chair she had pretty much claimed. To outsiders it must look silly, two grown adults reading stories to each other, but she would do anything to get Jesse recovered. They had come so far together, she wasn't ready to give up on him.
She sometimes wondered why she was doing this? When Lexa first began visiting Jesse, she hardly knew him, having only greeted him once or twice when passing him in the street. But she had always been a believer in treat people the way you want to be treated. If she would ever be in the hospital, she wanted to people to visit her and help her recover. It was only natural she would help other people.
Taking in a breath, she started reading, blocking out the rest of the world to force her to emerge herself in the story, hoping Jesse would do the same. Reading your work to someone was a great way of seeing how the sentences flowed, what words she had to delete, what bits she had to rephrase. Not only was she helping and entertaining Jesse for a little while, she was also helping herself become a better writer.
It seemed like a lifetime had passed when she finished her story. Softly, she closed the notebook, trying not to bend the papers. Her eyes moved from the cover of the notebook to Jesse. She wanted to ask if he liked it, but hoped he would tell her himself.
"That was great," Jesse said, a smile still covering his face. "Really."
"Thanks," Lexa returned a smile. At first she always struggled with taking compliments, but lately she was accepting them more and more, realizing they might give her more confidence about her work. "We could go out for a smoke, if you want?"
"Yeah, sure," Jesse said. "But I first gotta tell you something."
Lexa raised her eyebrows, wondering what it might be.
"I can leave the hospital tomorrow afternoon."
"Really?! That's great!" Lexa meant it more or less. Her priority had always been seeing Jesse recovering, but she was growing afraid for the fact that after he checked out of the hospital, everything would go back to normal. Would they remain friends, or would they go back to neighbors saying hi to each other when passing by in the street?
"Yeah, I didn't expect it at all," Jesse continued. "But the nurse told I was making great progress, so I could go home if I wanted."
"And you think you're ready to go?"
Lexa knew she was being egoistical, but she couldn't help it. Finally she had found a friend in Albuquerque, someone she enjoyed spending time with. Was she really that bad for not wanting to give that up?
"Yeah! I feel great. I owe a lot of it to you though."
Lexa blushed slightly. "It was my pleasure. I really enjoyed spending time here actually." She turned her head to look at the hospital room.
"If you want you can come over to my house once or twice, after I leave the hospital?" Jesse asked carefully.
Lexa shifted her gaze to him, wonderfully surprised by his comment. Maybe she had been afraid for nothing, again. She made a mental note to stop being paranoid all of the time. "I'd love that," she replied honestly.
She convinced Jesse he should make use of the wheelchair just one more time, seeing as it was the last time he was able to get away with it. But Jesse had insisted on walking himself.
They sat outside on the same bench they had sat on the night before. As soon as they sat down, Jesse retrieved the packets of cigarettes and lit one up. Lexa was surprised to see he hadn't smoked another one since yesterday, as the packet was still full except for one.
"So, what do you do for a living, Jesse Pinkman?" Lexa asked. She had been dying to find out more about him. Did he have a degree? Where did he go to school? What was his favorite color? She wanted to know it all.
He was silent for a moment, before replying: "I'm in business…"
Lexa raised her eyebrows, not sure what he meant was 'business' was a bit vague. "Business?"
"Yeah, I'm a salesperson."
Lexa nodded. "Sounds nice?"
"Yeah, it's okay."
Kinda awkwardly, she started playing with the hem of her shirt.
"What about you? I guess being a writer meant you were a great student in high school," Jesse continued.
Lexa chuckled. "Oh, if only you knew," she started. "I was quite the opposite. Never liked school much so the teacher didn't like me."
Jesse nodded in agreement. "I know that feeling. I actually did enjoy learning, but I didn't like to be forced to study."
"Yeah, exactly. I was lucky I'm a decent writer. My English teacher was the only one who kinda liked me."
"I wasn't good in anything," Jesse laughed.
Lexa gave him a small push with her elbow. "I'm sure you were good at something. Everyone is good at something."
"I guess… I was good at science or physics," Jesse admitted.
"Now I was absolutely horrible at that," Lexa smiled. She liked this, sitting outside with him, just talking. It felt like they had known each other for a long time. Helping Jesse was one of the best decisions she had made since she had moved to Albuquerque, she found.
She quietly watched him take a drag from his cigarette, the smoke he blew out floating away in the wind. Lexa had never noticed how blue his eyes were, but with the swelling going down she was finally able to notice them.
Jesse turned his head to the side, looking straight at her. "What?" he asked, a half-smile on his face.
"Nothing," Lexa blushed, looking away quickly. She really did have the intention on staying friends with Jesse, but the more time she spend with him, the harder it was becoming. Not only was he nice to her, he seemed to appreciate her. Her previous experience with men had all been bad. They were always after one thing and when she told them she was a writer, they would often ask her why she would spend her time writing silly stories. Jesse was different.
"When I go home," he started. "I don't want this to stop."
"Me neither," Lexa replied, without thinking. One side of her knew she should stop this, as seen as Jesse was a junkie. He might be sober now, but who knew what he was going to do once the drugs were in reach again. But then again, Lexa wanted to get to know him better, she wanted him to prove her wrong.
Jesse didn't know she knew about the drugs. There and then Lexa made a deal with herself, if he would return to using drugs, she would help him getting sober. If that didn't work, she would force herself to leave him.
A/N: Thank you princessmikey14 for the review, I really appreciate it! Next chapter will be longer, I promise. I just really needed these two chapters as sort of an intro. Thank you for reading and please review!