A Memory Faded - [Twenty-One]

Alex took a sip of the coffee that an on-duty nurse had brought her, and set it down on the table beside her. The comic was coming on pretty well. It looked awesome on some of the pages, some needed more work…but the story itself was coming together well. She’d done some really intense scenes, the best one so far she thought was the Ouija board scene, when Ace got possessed by a spirit and Jake didn’t know what to do. Now, she didn’t know what she wanted Jake to do.
If he killed her, that wouldn’t do him any good - she was the one with all the know-how of how to take down an army of the undead. He could try and knock her out…but again that seemed pretty useless - she was just a big unconscious meal for the zombies then. She supposed he could kiss her - regardless of the fact the two seemed, at the moment anyway, to be a match made in hell as far as relationships went. But they could still be friends…that seemed like the best option.
But she was going to do that later.
Pulling up her black socks, she wandered away from Fletcher’s bed towards the open window at the opposite side of the ward. She looked out, and figured it was pretty dangerous to have a huge window that opened as far as that so high up. Maybe the window-fitters had forgotten to put a catch on it. Leaning forward, stood almost on her tiptoes, she could see an ambulance down below, and some bins, and the street outside…
Suddenly she felt dizzy and nauseous, and began to fall. Fletcher had just woken up and saw her stumbling. He leapt out of bed and grabbed her arm, pulling her back. His IV skidded along into him, bumping against his back. Breathing heavily, he grimaced down at his leg and tried not to complain about the fact Alex had fallen onto it, save for one comment.
“Alex, you’re kinda hurting me.”
She looked across and jerked up to her feet, blushing apologetically. Taking his hand in hers, she pulled him up, realizing the delicate skin around his fingers was withering as all his immune system was focused on healing his leg. She shook her head and put her arms around him, resting her forehead on his shoulder.
“You don’t know how hard this is for me, Fletcher,” she whispered, “I can’t bear to see you like this, not at all…I just want you back the way you were.”
“Me too, Alex.” he muttered, “Me too.”
A nurse walked in from the hall across to Fletcher’s bed. She looked at him with a pleased face and he could only assume that his sister’s operation was going well. She announced to him that the kidney had been transplanted without a hitch and now they just had to reconnect all the blood vessels and close her up, and she’d be good to go. Fletcher smiled, and looked at Alex with optimism. But he started coughing, and his face drained. It wasn’t a simple cold, or even a sore throat sort of cough; it was rasping and he sounded like he was fighting a losing battle for air. Alex felt panicky, and didn’t know what to do.
Fletcher made a choking sound, and coughed a large amount of blood onto the floor. He took in a rattling breath and was still. The nurse looked at Alex and took out her work cellphone. Calling the main desk, she summoned up an emergency call for doctors.
Looking at Alex, she put a hand on the girl’s shoulder and tried to tell her as comfortingly as possible that everything would be okay.
“He’s gotta go back into theatre, he’s probably got a few broken ribs from the accident.”
“I want to pay for this operation.”
“Surely you don’t have the money?”
“I’ve got a college fund, but I want to pay cause I can’t help but feel I’ve made it worse…he had to pull me back from the window so I didn’t fall, but in doing so we both fell over. And..and…”
“Miss, you’re in shock. Just sit down and we’ll sort it all out. Trust us.”
“Ah…okay.”
Alex settled into the chair and felt alone for the first time in ages. She felt so cold, so unprotected without him. He’d have to be okay, she wouldn’t know what she’d do if he wasn’t. Slumping her head into her hands, she sighed. It looked like things were going to be a lot more difficult for the both of them from here on out.