"Finally, some alone time," Mark thought to himself as he walked through the woods in his back yard. Ever since he was a young boy, he had always loved the woods. Everything about it was perfect to him. It was peaceful and calming, which is why he liked to come here when he needed to relax. He sat down on a log and looked up, the clear blue sky peeking through the trees. He inhaled deeply, breathing in the fresh air. This was definitely needed after the long and tiring tour he had just been in.

After sitting there for a few minutes, simply taking in the scenery, he stood back up, and was about to head down to the pond, when something caught his attention. There, lying on the ground, was something, or someone, and was partially hidden by leaves. He curiously walked over to it, and dropped to his knees by the unmoving object. He brushed some of the leaves away, and saw that it was a girl. As he brushed more leaves away, he felt something sticky on his hand. He looked at it, and realized that it was blood. Looking at her, he saw that blood covered the front of her shirt. On her arms, he could see gashes marring her fair skin, and knew right away this was no accident. He quickly felt for a pulse, and breathed a sigh of relief when he found one. It was barely there, but at least she had a pulse. He gently picked her up and carried her into his house, wasting no time whatsoever. "I've got to call 911 right away, or else she might not make it," he thought to himself. Once he got into his house, he placed her onto the couch, and dialed the number. Stranger or not, this girl needed medical help, and she needed it fast.

)))))

Mark sat in the chair and sighed, rubbing his face with his hands. It had been two days, now, and the poor girl still hadn't waked up yet. He at least wanted to make sure she would be okay. His conscience would never forgive him if he just left her in this state, not knowing how she would turn out.

He looked over her and felt another pang of sorrow. He hated seeing people suffer like this. From what he could tell, she was quite the looker. She had long chocolate brown hair with natural red highlights mixed in it, full pouty lips, long dark eyelashes that brushed against her high cheekbones, and an obviously well-built body. The longer he looked at her, he began to wonder if maybe she had done something to provoke this. Just because she looked innocent, didn't mean she was innocent. He decided that he would have to ask her about it. If she were willing to talk, she would talk, but if not, then he would be fine with that too.

Mark was flipping through a motorcycle magazine, when he heard a noise. He looked over at the girl, and saw she was moving. He sat up straighter when she let out a small groan and, relief filled him when he saw her open her big doe eyes, and start looking around the room curiously.

Brandy awoke with a sharp pain shooting through her body. She slowly opened her eyes, and wasn't sure where she was when she found herself looking around a white room. "Am I dreaming?" she thought to herself. She went to sit up, but the pain that started immediately coursing through her body forced her to lie back down.

"Don't try to move," a deep voice said to her. She looked over and saw a man was sitting there by her side. At first, she was terrified of him. He had long black hair, piercing green eyes, and tattoos covering his arms. On top of all that, he looked like he was nothing but muscle, and outweighed her by a good two hundred pounds. "He could break me in half," she thought nervously to herself. He was so damn intimidating! Just then, the doctor walked into the room.

"Well, well. You finally woke up," the doctor commented.

"This isn't a dream…is it?" Brandy asked.

The doctor gave her a small smile. "I'm afraid it isn't ma'am. Now, would you mind telling me your name?"

"It's Brandy. Brandy Daniels."

The doctor wrote something down. "And do you remember what happened to you that made you get in this bad of a condition?"

"Yes I do, sadly," Brandy replied, the incident with Tom flooding back into her head.

"I won't ask you to tell me now, but I'll eventually need to tell me what happened," he informed her.

"I was afraid you'd say that," she muttered. "Am I hurt pretty bad?"

The doctor nodded. "Yes ma'am, you are. You appear have a concussion, some cracked ribs, and several puncture wounds that are quite serious. If that man right there hadn't found you, you wouldn't even be talking right now. You'd be long gone. It's a miracle you're even alive after losing the amount of blood you did," the doctor said as he took her pulse and checked other various things.

Once he was done with that, and was heading out the door, he turned to her and said, "Take it easy. If you need something, push the help button, and a nurse will help you."

"Okay. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome Miss Daniels," he replied, and headed out the door.

Brandy turned to the man sitting next to her, and said, "You were the one who found me?"

He nodded. "I am. As soon as I found you, I knew I couldn't have just left you. I would've felt too guilty knowing that I could've helped you."

"Thank you so much, sir. I mean, I owe you my life," Brandy said, feeling a little guilty for ever being scared of him.

"Hey, it's no problem. Really."

"You didn't have to stay, though. You could have just dropped me off, or something."

"Yeah, but I needed to know you'd be all right." This comment made a small smile cross Brandy's face. "While I'm thinking of it, is there anyone you want me to call for you, such as a family member or a friend?"

"No. I don't have any family, and the only person who I thought was my friend, well..." Brandy said, trailing off at the last part. That subject was still extremely sensitive.

"What?"

"Oh, never mind. Forget I ever said it," she said looking away, trying to hold back tears. "How could you do this to me Tom?" she thought to herself. "I may have broke up with you, and for damn good reasons, but I didn't almost kill you!" Brandy looked back over at the man and asked, "What's your name?" She seemed to have caught him off guard, because when she asked it, he looked startled.

"You wanna know my name?" he asked.

She nodded. "That would be nice," she replied.

"It's, uh, Mark."

"Mark…I like it. It has a nice ring to it."

"Thank you. Now what's yours?"

"Brandy."

"I like that name. It suits you well. A pretty name for a pretty girl," he said.

She blushed and said, "Thank you. So how'd you find me?"

"Well, I finally had a day off from work, so I decided to take a walk in the woods behind my house. I'd sat down on a log for a little bit, and was about to head down to my pond when I saw you."

"I didn't realize anyone lived in that area," she said, a nervous expression flashing across her face.

"It's just me that lives back there. Is there something wrong?"

"No. I just...can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Would...would you be willing to stay with me?" she asked him, a hint of fright in her voice. "If you don't want to-"

"No, it's no problem. Of course I will."

Looking relieved, she said, "Oh, thank you, Mark. I realize that you don't really know me, but I'm so scared to be alone that I…I..." she had began to say, but her words drifted off as her eyelids lowered over her eyes, and she drifted to sleep. It was obvious that the drugs she was given for her pain were beginning to take effect. A frown crossed Mark's face as he watched her sleep, wondering why she was afraid to be alone, and what exactly had happened to her that night.