• It is 2:23 a.m. on Friday February thirteenth. Ashley is almost finished with her shift at the metropolitan hospital where she works as an ER nurse. She is sitting at her desk glancing at the clock on the wall. She hates this time of the night because the ER is always empty. Anxiously she begins thrumming her fingers on the desk waiting for it to be 2:30 so she can go home and shut herself in her one bedroom apartment until that idiotic holiday is over. Ashley looks at the clock again and the hand ticks over to 2:25, she then looks back down to her desk and begins to doodle on a piece of paper.

    Suddenly, Ashley hears the electrical doors of the ER slide open; she looks up across the room and sees a body fall face-down onto the linolium floor. Shocked, Ashley jumps out from behind the desk and rushes to the side of the fallen victim. She gets to the person and kneels down. The patient is a male with white hair so she assumes that this man is elderly. Very carefully she turns the man over and realizes that this elder is acutally a young man around her age of 19 years. Despite his white hair the man is skinny and seems to bein great shape. Ashley begins to do a check of the man's body to look for any wounds but finds none. she notices that his chest is moving up and down slowly signifying that he is breathing normally. she reaches into the man's jacket pocket to try and find some sort of identification and pulls out a small wallet. Ashley opens it and finds that it is empty except for a few pieces of paper, some receipts, and a driver's liscense. she pulls out the liscense and is amazed to see that the name on the driver's liscens is Austin Bowman. Ashley looks at Austin in disbelief. They had gone to highschool together. She remembered being in ROTC together and hanging out with him after school. He looked completely different from back then though, except for his face, he always had a kind baby face. Suddenly Austin breathes in deeply and begins to stir. Ashley places her hand on his arm and says, "It's okay, your at the emergency room of the metropolitian hospital, you fainted." Quickly Austin stuffs his hands into his pockets and oulls out a pair of goggles and slides them over his eyes. Slowly he sits up and takes a couple of deep breathes. Urgently Ashley puts her hand on his back to brace him, "Can you tell me what happened? Do you know why you passed out?" Austin looks up at her and says in a soft but strong voice, "Sorry about that, must have gotten dizzy or something. Where did you say i am?" Austin looks at ashley smiling. Taken aback Ashley replies, "The metropolitian hospital, you walked in and passed out. I'm ashley, I work here as a nurse." Quickly Austin stands up and begins walking toward the door, "Well sorry abou tthat, thanks again, see ya later," he says over his shoulder. Ashley stands up flustered, "You can't leave" austin stops and turns around "Ans why can't i?" holding up Austin's wallet ashley replies "Because i have this." Austin sticks his hand into his jacket pocket and forces a smile, "May i have it back?" Ashley walks to him and holds out the wallet. Austin takes it quickly and rummages through it to make sure nothing is gone. "I just took it to see your I.D. I didn't take anything. Are you really Austin Bowman?" Austin looks at her "Why do you ask?" Ashley smiles "Well I went to highschool with an Austin Bowman, and i was wondering if you were him." Intrigued Austin concentrates on Ashley and smiles "Ashley right?" Ashley smiles, "Yea, it's Ashley from ROTC." Austin smiles "Wow. It's great to see you agian....Well I'll see you later," Austin turns back around and begins walking toward the door.

    Agitated at his rudeness but hopeful Ashley says, "Hey, I"m about to get off. Do you wanna get something to eat?" Austin pauses for a minute and dileberates with himself then turns around smiling. "Sure, we can get something to eat." Ashley grins widely, "Cool, let me get my stuff." She runs back to her desk and grabs her purse and clocks out. She walks back over to Austin and smiles. "Where would you like to go?" Austin scratches his head thinking. "Do you want pancakes?" "Sure where did you have in mind?" Austin smiles "there's an IHOP right down the roade if that's okay with you." Ashley smiles back "Sure, do you want to ride with me or do you have your own car?" Austin grins wider "I have my own means of transportation." A little bewildered Ashley smiles back. "Okay well I'll see you over there." She walks to her car and drives down the road to IHOP. When she pulls into the driveway Austin is standingon the sidewalk by the door. She gets out of her car and walks up to him. "How did you get here so fast?" She asks astonished. Austin just smiles and says "I took a shortcut." He opens the door for her and they wlak in and sit down at the table. A waitress walks up and asks what they would like, Ashley orders a short stack of pancakes ans a medium soda while Austin orders a cheeseburger and a water. The waitressw trots off to give the order to the cook smiling. Ashley looks at Austin and notices that he still has his goggles on. "Can you see with those things on your face? I mean it is pretty dark in here" "Oh, sorry about that." Austin pulls the goggles off but has his eyes closed. He then puts the goggles into his jacket pocket and pulls out some black sun shades and places them on his nose before opening his eyes. "Better?"Bewildered Ashley asks bluntly "Is ther something wrong with your eyes?" Austin's face becomes hard but continues to smile. "I think this was a bad idea. I'm sorry for intruding on you." Austin stands up, fishes a one-hundred dollar bill from his pocket , throws it onto the table, and walks out the door. Completely astounded as his bare rudness Ashley sits in wonderment. Ashley snaps out of her daze when a plate is set on the table in front of her.

    As ashley sat at the table she mindlessly picked at her food. Her mind was drifting around the thoughts of Austin and how he could have changed so much. Afer a few hours she stood up and left the resturant and drove home. This certainly was the icing on the cake for this horrid holiday. The drive home was a mass blur and she didn't really pay attention to anything until she was at her door putting the key into her lock. As she turns the lights on she turns ans locks the door as she always does. Being a single nurse didn't pay much and ashley didn't make enought to live in a nice neighborhood. She goes into her bathroom and turns the knob labled "Hot" in her bathtub. She needed to relax and get the tenseness out of her shoulders. She slips off her shirt and slides down her pants. As they fall to the floor Ashley hears a loud thump come from her living room. Quickly she turns off the water in her bathtub and grabs the closest thing she could think of as a weapon. As she walks into the livingroom with her toilet scrubber in hand held high she ses an astonishing sight. Austin is laying on top of her crushed coffee table looking as if he had just been beaten and thrown down two stories right into her living room. His face looked as if he had been beaten with a meat cleaver, and had a giant gash down his left eye. She looked around to see if anyone else was in the room and noticed that her door was still locked closed as was her window. she pondered for a moment wondering how he had gotten into her apartment. She threw the thought into the back of her mind and bookmarked it for later. She ran over to the kitche and grabbed her mdical bag and hurried over to Austin. She kneeled next to him and began to diagnose hiim for the second time in one day. It seemed that the worst injury was the cut on his eye and a broken rib on his right side. She removed the sunglasses that were now broken he was still wearing from their excursion to IHOP. And began to docto the cut. After she had finished bandaging it she moved to the rib. Carefully she set it back into place and bandaged it. She doctored his other minor cuts and bruises and then lifted him onto her small couch. His feet dangled over the arm but it was the best she could do. She placed a blanket over him and checked the time. Her digital clock shined out 8:30 a.m. Ashley yawned and kneeled next to the couch.

    Ashley awakens with a start as she feels Austin move on the couch. She looks up to him and sees that his is facing her with a new pair of sun glasses resting on his face. Ashley tries to stand up but falls right onto Austin due to her legs sitting still for so long. Austin groans quietly but smiles and says"Well, this is the best good morning I've had in years." Ashley's cheeks flush crimson and she rolls off him quickly and rushes to the kitchen to make some coffee. her mind ran thought the dreams that she had just woken from moments ago and she feels her cheeks begin to burn hotter.Ashley stands at the coffee maker pouring 2 cups of coffee when she yells to the next room "Do you like cream and suger in your coffee?" A voice alot closer than the couch in the livingroom replies "Sure. I'll take it however you want." startled Ashley spins around startled to see Austin sitting on her counter-top smiling. She mus be going deaf, because with the squeaky floors in this old apartment she didn't even hear him leave the couch much less walk into the kitchen. With a shanking hand Ashley holds out the cup to Austin and he takes it sipping lightl on the brew. He clears his throat and says in his wistful voice "The coffee is great..." he pauses for a moment seeming to try and find the correct words before continuing "and i would like to thank you for helping me last night." Ashley blushes and tries to focus on her own cup of coffee and to keep herself from bursting out with the hundreds of questions she had for him. Like how did he get into her locked apartment, who used his body for a punching bag, and most of all WHAT WAS WRONG WITH HIS EYES THAT HE KEEPS THEM HIDDEN 24/7 WITH SUNGLASSES. As he ws reading her mind Austin begins to speak, falters, then begins again blurting out quickly "I'm sorry for all the trouble that I've caused you. I am willing to pay for anything that was damaged during my jump, and any medical supplies that you have used on me."