A nurse was helping a girl of about twenty-three put on a simple grey t-shirt as they stood in a disheveled hospital room. The girl was staring blankly ahead, not listening to the nurse's rambling. Her thoughts were more occupied with the news she had received during her long hospital visit.

"Three weeks of this place must have driven you mad, and we normally don't get people your age here either. Must have been down right boring." The girl nodded her head, finally listening to the nurse. "So what are you gonna do now? Are you going home to tell your parents?" The nurse grabbed the girl's pants off the bed and helped her into them as well.

"N-No not just yet." The girl held the bed for support, too weak to stand on her own for long. "I need to get better."

"Oh honey, you're gonna be weak for at least two weeks at best." The girl felt uncomfortable under the nurse pleading gaze.

"Um I ne-need to go to the bathroom." She shuffled away from the nurse to the small restroom attached to her hospital room.

It was cleaner than the room itself, from lack of use in those long three weeks. The girl locked the door behind her, made herself stand straight in front of the sink and looked at herself for the first time in the small mirror. Her skin was far paler than she remembered, almost ghostly white except for some pink on her cheeks that gave her the look of a painted corpse. She had lost some weight as well but she didn't resemble a skeleton by any standards. She smiled thinking, that's one way to lose a couple of pounds. She ran both her hands through her short dark brown hair, not styled in it's usual pixie cut and rather resembling a pompadour style instead. Sighing, she then checked her no longer blood-shot eyes to find them white and her irises a chocolate-brown. Feeling light-headed, she sat herself on the toilet quickly, not wanting to give the nurse an excuse to keep her there any longer.

"Miss Keith?" Speak of the devil, she thought as the nurse continued to talk through the door. "A gentleman is here to take you and your belongings down to the lobby, are you ready?"

"Yes ma'am." She had gotten up and gone back to hospital room, where she was greeted by a man with grey hair and a very fancy suit; too fancy for a hospital worker. "Um, hello there." She warily moved towards the man.

"Hello Katelyn," It was weird the way he looked at her; it was as if he were looking at a familiar face. Probably thinks I look like his granddaughter. "Your chariot, Miss." He bowed dramatically, gesturing to the wheel chair that looked as if it belonged in a museum.

"Thank you, Sir," she chuckled at the strange man, and sat in the wheelchair.

"Here is your purse." The nurse placed the plain black bag in her lap. "Sir, have you got her from here?"

"Oh yes ma'am. We are going to be right as rain, right Katelyn?" Katelyn recognized his accent as something like British or Scottish; it was hard to tell.

"Yeah, right as, um, rain..." She hated how words seemed to escape her when she needed them.

"Alright then, off we go." He backed into the corridor and steered her to the elevator.

Katelyn didn't particularly want to talk to the man, partly because of her antisocial nature, but more from the feeling that this man was not who he said he was. He was wearing a suit, which was very unusual for this small hick town. There were only certain times a man was seen in a suit around Pire, Alabama.

"I'm sorry for your loss." She blurted out. "I'm sorry I didn't-"

"Did I lose something?" He stopped the wheelchair briefly to give himself a once over. "Is it a button? I am always losing those."

"No, I-I had thought, well you're all dressed up and men don't dress up here except for church and..." He laughed and started pushing the wheelchair again.

"Always such positive thoughts, you have."

"Sorry, been in a depressing environment lately."

"Yes, diagnosed with cancer, lyme something?"

"Uh, how do you know this? Is there no patient con-confiden- Oh you know what I mean!" He chuckled, much to Katelyn's displeasure.

"You told me... well you will tell me." He pushed the down button on the elevator, which popped open immediately."Careful, there's a bump."

"Wha-Ow!" The bump was a lot rougher than she thought, causing her to yell out in pain at the sudden bounce of her ribcage again the armrest on the wheelchair. "What are you talking about?"

"It's nothing, just old man gibberish. By the way, has anyone given you on of these yet?" He pulled a necklace from his coat pocket, and dangled it in front of her face.

It was a peculiar necklace. The chain was a simple bronze curb chain with a circular bronze pendant attached. The pendant had a strange amount of circles that overlapped each other, along with lines and small dots scattered about the design. In the middle was a strange blue stone. It wasn't a Lapis, it was much duller and darker but still had a gem-like shine to it. Katelyn couldn't help but feel drawn to the strange trinket.

"What is it, one of those 'don't give up hope' necklaces?" she asked, finally taking the necklace from the man.

"Yes, that would be one way to put it." The elevators door opened and without warning he pushed her out of the elevator, once again causing her pain in her ribcage.

"Can you not hit every bump in this place, just what kind of Candy Striper are you?" Katelyn growled.

"Sorry, just had the chest tube removed didn't you? And to answer your question, I never said I was one." He steered them towards the main lobby.

"What are you then? Not a nurse obviously, too well dressed."

"Why thank you." They stopped abruptly at the exit doors. "Really, two thousand thirteen and still no automatic doors in this hospital? No wonder you hate this place." He searched his jacket again.

"I don't hate this place." He brandished a slender wand like device and waved it at the doors, the device making a high-pitched noise.

"Not now, but you will." The doors opened with a bang, and Katelyn jumped. "Ah yes, here we go. You called Max I assume?" he asked, pushing her out into the crisp fall air.

"Okay stop!" She grabbed for the brake on her wheelchair which forced the wheelchair to stop. "Who are you? How do you know Max, and oh my gawd you are freaking me out!" She yelled at the strange man in the suit. "You have got some explaining to do, Sir, or I swear I'm yelling for help."

"You're already yelling, I don't think anyone would notice a difference," the man said, exasperated.

"Kate?" Katelyn quickly looked away from the strange man to see her friend Max standing beside her yellow nineteen seventy Volkswagen Beetle. Max was supporting his usual army shirt and cargo pants, and stood at his normal height of five foot six: three inches shorter than Katelyn. "Who you talking to?"

"I was..." she began, but when she turned back the man was gone. "You know what, I have no idea. By the way, how did you get my car?" she asked, remembering her keys should have been in her locker at work.

"One of your co-workers brought them to your apartment. I was getting my mail when he tried giving them to Stacey." Even the mention of the idiot blonde landlord made Katelyn's skin crawl, let alone the thought of the woman having touched any of her possessions.

"My hero, now do me a favor and rescue me from this antique of a chair." Max laughed but helped her none the less.

After a quick stop at the Mc Donald's drive-thru for some fries, they made it to their apartment complex. With help from Max, Katelyn successfully made it up the stairs and to her couch in under thirty minutes.

"Are you sure you are going to be okay by yourself tonight?" Max asked. He had set up all the things she would need for the night on the couch, including her trusty purple waste basket and tv remote within reach.

"I'll be fine; just like New Years all over again," she teased, referencing her first drunken experience.

"Yeah, well; I stayed with you that night." Max was still unconvinced.

"Go: if I can survive three weeks in the hospital by myself I think my apartment will be much easier."

"Fine, but you call me if anything, and I mean anything, happens okay? You so much as sneeze I wanna hear my Breaking Bad ringtone go off."

"What happened to the Harry Potter one?"

"You tell me Kate-senberg." He bent over and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. "But I'm serious, call me if you need anything." Katelyn simply smiled at him before letting her head fall back on to her pillow and embracing sleep.

Thank all of you for reading, this is just a side project for me while I'm on Chemo so forgive my horrible grammar.