For two weeks, Brandy remained in the hospital. Apparently, her injuries were much worse than she thought. Throughout her whole stay, Mark had been kind enough to visit her every day. During their visits together, they got to know one another, and an immediate bond formed between them. They actually had a lot in common, and were right away able to trust one another. Mark still didn't know what happened to her, and was wanting to know.

)))))

Brandy was reading a magazine, when she heard a quiet knock on the door.

"Come in," she called out, turning the page. When she heard the door open, she looked up and smiled. "Hey Mark," she greeted him warmly.

"Hey Brandy," he replied, sitting down in the chair next to her. "You ready to finally get out of here?" he asked.

"Oh, you have no idea," she replied, and he couldn't help but to chuckle. "Don't get me wrong, the people here are really nice, but after a while it can really start to get to you, being in the same room all day long. You know?"

"Yeah, I get what you mean," he replied. "A while back, I had to get surgery, and was in the hospital for a month. I honestly think I may have gone insane if I had to be in there a day longer. It was torture."

"Shit. A month, eh? What'd you get done?"

"I was in a pretty serious car accident, and had to get numerous surgeries back to back. They figured it would be best if I just stayed in the hospital, instead of leaving and coming back a bunch of times."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Brandy commented.

Just then, the doctor walked in. "Hello Miss Daniels," he greeted her. "How are we feeling this morning?"

"Real good," she replied.

"Good. I'm glad to hear that. Everything is looking really good, so I think if you felt comfortable in leaving today, you would be able to."

"That would be fantastic," she immediately replied.

The doctor smirked. "Mr. Calaway, since it was you who brought her here, I'm going to need for you to sign a couple of papers."

"That's fine," Mark replied, standing up.

The doctor then walked over to Brandy, and carefully removed the tubes which were attached to her. "Miss Daniels, if you want to go ahead and get changed, you can leave as soon as he's done," he informed her.

Brandy carefully got up, a hesitant look on her face when she looked over at her clothes sitting in one of the chairs. She could probably get away with wearing the jeans, but there was no way she could wear that shirt. "Something wrong?" Mark suddenly asked.

"I…I don't really have a shirt to wear," she replied, embarrassed by this.

"I thought that might be the case, so I brought this," Mark said, and handed her some folded material. She unfolded it, and saw it was one of his shirts. "I know it's a bit big, but I figured it would do for now," he added in an almost shy manner.

"No, I really appreciate it. Thank you," she replied, smiling at him, and grabbed her jeans before heading into the bathroom. By the time she came back out, she found Mark patiently standing there waiting for her.

"You ready to go?" he asked.

"I am," she replied, and the two of them made their way out to Mark's truck. Since she was still light-headed from the medicines she was on, Mark kept an arm firmly around her waist, not wanting her to fall and hurt herself again. "Wow, you have a really nice truck," Brandy commented when they approached it.

"Thanks. This has been a project of mine for the past three years. It was about four months ago that I finally finished it," he informed her as he helped her up into his truck.

"You mean to tell me you did all this by yourself?" she asked once he was in as well.

"Yeah. Well, I did all the repairing, if that's what you mean."

"Damn," she murmured, looking around. "You did a nice job."

"Well thank you," he replied, and was about to start it up, when he stopped.

"What's wrong?" Brandy asked when she noticed this. "Did you forget something?"

"No, I didn't forget anything."

"Then what's the problem?"

He hesitated for a second, and then said, "There's something I have to ask you."

"Okay, go ahead."

"You promise you won't get mad?"

"I can't promise you anything," she replied. When he remained silent, she said, "Just ask me, Mark. It's going to bug me if you don't."

"What happened to you?" he suddenly blurted out.

Brandy was caught off guard. "I, um…well…" she stammered, clearly brought back, and flustered by his question.

"It's okay. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I know it's probably a sensitive subject. I was just curious as to how you got hurt so badly."

"It was my ex-boyfriend," she suddenly said in a hushed tone, looking at the floorboard. Mark remained silent to let her talk. She looked back up at him. "If I tell you this, you have to promise me you won't tell a soul."

"I won't."

"No, promise me. Say you promise."

"I promise, Brandy, that I won't tell anyone what you're about to tell me," Mark said in a reassuring tone. He knew this would be something serious, but buy the way she was acting, it was clearly much more.

Brandy looked back down. "About three weeks before this little incident happened, I broke up with my ex-boyfriend. He had turned into a controlling nightmare, and I just had it. I was tired of it all. Apparently this didn't settle too well with him, because from then on, he kept harassing me, telling me how he was miserable, and that it was all my fault, and that he hoped I would never find anyone else. I know I shouldn't have let it get to me, but I'm the type of person who doesn't just forget something like that, and he knew it. I was really starting to feel horrible about the whole situation, and ended up falling into a real bad depression. It all got so bad that the night before you found me, I had decided to commit suicide. Like I mentioned before, I didn't realize anyone lived close to that area, so I thought it would be a good place to do it. For some reason, I didn't want anyone to find me. Once I got to the spot, though, I couldn't do it. I guess I finally came to my senses, and realized I was about to kill myself over someone who was definitely NOT worth it. Just as I was getting ready to leave, someone decided to come and visit me. I discovered it was none other than my wonderful ex, and he was NOT happy. I tried talking calmly to him, hoping that he would snap out of it, but it didn't help any. Once I knew I wasn't getting anywhere with that plan, I tried to make a run for it, but he tackled me to the ground. I tried to once more reason with him, but my words fell on deaf ears. I went unconscious shortly after the second time he stabbed me, so I don't know what all he did to me. Ever since I woke up in the hospital, I've been so scared that he's going come back and…you know…finish what he started."

Mark was absolutely speechless. How could anyone treat another person like that? And how could she have put up with this prick like that? If she were his girlfriend, he would treat her like a queen. The mere thought of anyone THINKING about hurting her made his blood boil. Over the past two weeks, he had been able to get to know her, and he came to realize what a wonderful person she was. When he looked back over at her, he saw she was wiping her eyes, and heard her sniffling. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he said, "I'm sorry to hear that something like that happened to you, I really am. No one deserves to go through something like that."

She looked back up at him and smiled weakly. "Thanks Mark. You're so sweet."

He gave her a small smile. "Anytime. Now where would you like me to drop you off at?"

"I guess where I left my car," she replied, and he started up his truck, driving off toward the woods by his house.