A/N: I have been waiting around forever, for this category to open up. I love this movie, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to re-write a WHAT HAPPENED NEXT segment… so, this is my follow on, taken STRAIGHT after the movie. I hope you enjoy! =)).

Sitting in the plastic hospital chair, Madelyn Thompson stared blankly at the wall. Her focus was on the piece of paper tapped above the bed with a name written on it: Kit Latura. Madelyn knew this was a name that would forever be imprinted in her mind.

She shivered as the memory of the night's events flooded through her. A few hours before, her intent had been returning home to La Porte, Indiana, she was going to take a New Jersey flight. She had given up her apartment in New York; she had left her waitressing job knowing that she could pick another one up at a number of café's in La Porte. The night's events had left her carless and broke. Madelyn was left with nothing, except the vivid memory and the man in the hospital bed beside her who had saved her. She had escaped with her life, which was more than some people had managed.

Madelyn thought of George Tyrell then. A security guard that would now always be remembered, his life would not be simply erased, he would live on in the hearts and minds of those who had been with him through his last hours. Everyone who had been in the New Jersey Tunnel, 72 feet above the Hudson River when it had collapsed would be remembered ~ those who survived and those who did not.

"Are you still here?" Kit asked sleepily lifting his head from the pillow to interrupt Madelyn's thoughts. She looked at him and smiled. She felt relieved to see him talking. This stranger had become a friend overnight, a man who would forever be branded a hero. "I thought you'd be gone by now," he said. Was that a smile she saw flash across his face for an instant?

"Nowhere else to go," she answered simply with a slight shrug. "How do you feel chief?"

Kit smiled. The night before he had been nothing more than a cab driver, and now he had regained his position as chief Emergency Medical Service, a position he had lost six years previous, through a simple error in judgment and a decision that had caused unnecessary tragedy ~ or some were led to believe.

"Shouldn't you be sorting out a place to live, a new car-?"

"It can wait," she said.

"Madelyn…"

She smiled at the way he said her name. "That seems too formal considering how many times you saved my life over the last few hours," she said. "You can call me Maddy!"

Laying his head back against the pillow, he closed his eyes. "I'm so tired."

"Don't let me keep you awake, you can sleep. I'll be here."

"I feel bad for you," he whispered tiredly.

"Why?" she asked. Considering what they had ALL been through it seemed like an odd comment to make.

"Because you stay here in a hospital room watching me sleep," he smiled, his eyes still closed.

"As appose to?"

"Getting your life back together," he stated.

Maddy laughed. "That sounds boring. And don't go flattering yourself. I stay here out of obligation," she teased. "It's not every day a stranger saves my life."

"You saved mine too… Maddy," Kit dozed off then. And for a long time, she watched him sleep, overwhelmed with the night's events and filled with gratitude towards him. Kit Latura was a good man.

Maddy felt a connection to him, a deep one of respect and admiration, a bond had been formed and now would be near impossible to break.

In her mind, Maddy went through the list of things she needed to do when she could muster the will to leave the comfort and safety of the hospital. Compensation for the tunnel accident would get her back on her feet, no doubt, but in the meantime, she had to find some money to get her back to Lap Porte. IRS would give her something to keep her going until then.

Right now, she was happy enough to sit in the hospital room with Kit. He slept for a few hours, while Maddy filled out compensation forms and claims on her insurance. She didn't make much money as a play-write, especially when all her work went rejected and unnoticed. Nobody went to theatre anymore. But she waitressed to pay the bills, and that was enough for now. Her dream of becoming a screen writer, was still above water.

A nurse poked her head through the door and smiled at Maddy. "Can I get you something?" she asked. "You must be starved!"

"A cup of coffee would be nice," she replied. "Short black…"

"Mmm," Kit groaned from the bed. "That sounds good. Can I trouble you for a standard coffee?" he asked.

The nurse nodded and closed the door behind her. Maddy looked at him and smiled.

"Never could drink it too strong," Kit told her.

Maddy laughed. "I find that hard to believe. You're the strongest and bravest person I know…"

"You're not so bad yourself," he said subtly reminding her of what she had done that had saved lives.

Maddy was in awe of him, his strength and his courage. "You went into that tunnel, with no real hope, because you want to help US find a way out. You never left us, Kit… you never felt me."

A sadness clouded over Kit's eyes. "I left George."

Shaking her head at him, refusing to believe there had been another option, she tried to encourage him. "You had no choice, none of us would have survived if you hadn't. He couldn't move Kit, he couldn't swim." It had saddened each person who had watched him lay unmoving on the board that floated on the water. He had broken his neck falling under a car.

"I needed more time; I could've found another way… I could've-"

Maddy took hold of his hand. "You did all that you could. He knew that," Maddy couldn't believe he would walk away from anyone down there if there were other options, not after he had done everything he could to save HER life.

Kit closed his eyes again, this time he didn't go to sleep, but he gently squeezed her hand in his own.

I don't know how popular this will be, but I do hope to get a review or two… I have the second chapter done as well, but I won't post it if no one is interested. So… PLEASE leave a review, both good and bad are welcome! =)).