Sons of Night

Mayden’s POV
I was laying in the hospital bed, in a manageable amount of pain, growing rapidly bored. My parents had just left. There were no detectives talking to me and the TV had no good channels. I sighed and stared up at the ceiling, I wanted to go home, see Andy and go home, but I was losing hope of seeing Andy ever again. Surely if he wanted to see me he’d be making some sort of effort to see me. Officer White was probably right though, he probably had just used me to get what he wanted. For all I knew he was already at home again, or in jail. God knew I had know idea what the cops were planning on doing with him. I groaned. I had an urge to get up and pace around my room to stave off the anxiety, of course that would be impossible, and would remain impossible for at least another month. Maybe more with physical therapy. I groaned louder. It was just my luck to be shoved in this tiny little hospital room completely out of the loop from everyone else. I jumped when there was a tap at my door.
“Mayden? You have a visitor if you want one,” the nurse said as she pushed open my door. I was confused.
“A visitor? My parents just left and they said the detectives were done for today,” I said. She shook her head and smiled.
“You’ve forgotten one person,” The nurse said. Suddenly I felt nauseous. I wasn’t ready for this conversation. The steady beeping of my heart rate monitor suddenly began to speed up.
“Only if you want him, and I don’t have to leave you alone with him,” The nurse said raising her eyebrows.
“I want to talk to him, alone,” I said with an attempt to keep my voice from shaking.
“You’re sure?” she said, and I nodded.
“Shout for me if you need anything, I won’t be far.” She stepped to the side and held the door open further. In from the hall rode Andy, sitting (and nervously twitching) in a wheelchair. His face was the color of the sky before a storm, pale and sickly. His blue eyes didn’t have the sparkle that I remembered them having and his lips, usually a healthy red, where almost the same color as the rest of him. Light grey and almost white. The was a white bandage was stuck to the side of his head. The memory came back to me with a suddenness that was not far from violence, seeing him getting hit by the cinder block, hard. It made me almost cringe just thinking about it. Despite Andy looking somewhat more dead than alive his face almost lit up when he saw me, His face stretched into a toothy grin that almost brought the light back to his eyes. I realized it was the only time I’d ever really seen him smile. He was pushed by none other than Mr. Reciffo. Mr. Reciffo wheeled him in and placed him on my right side next to my head. Andy looked like he was about to say something to me when Mr. Reciffo cut him off.
“Remember Andy, you have half an hour. Half an hour and I need to get you out of here and back home so we can do some more planning,” he said with a hand on Andy’s shoulder, Andy gave him a look that was somewhere in between toleration and respect.
“Yes sir,” He said quietly. Mr. Reciffo nodded and patted Andy’s bony shoulder with his meaty hand. Then he nodded curtly at me, turned, and left the room. Closing the door behind him. The sound of the door closing seemed to suck all the sound out of the air with it. It was like there was no sound left in the room for Andy and I to take in and form into words. There was so much to say, but with only thirty minutes there was no way we could say it all, but I had to say something.
“So they’re letting you go home?” I asked. My voice sounded intrusive in the silence. Andy peeled his eyes up off the floor and looked at me.
“Yeah. I’m on a sort of house arrest. I can be home, here, or in the courthouse. Anywhere else and I need Tim with me, or one of his officers,” Andy said, but he wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Tim?” I asked.
“Mr. Reciffo. He and I are on a first name basis, I guess,” Andy said with a little shrug. He was looking at the floor again. He looked like a kid who was about to get yelled at.
“I’m really glad to see that you’re okay,” I said, trying to bring some sort of conversation out of him. His fingers traced along the bandages on his head.
“I’m glad to see that you’re okay as well,” He looked down the bed and I could feel that he was looking at my legs in the casts. He bit his lip and looked away, back at his shoes. He was in fact wearing shoes. He was dressed and ready to leave as soon as he was done talking to me. He took a breath like he was going to say something and then stopped and shook his head.
“What?” I asked. He shook his head again and ran his hands over his face.
“Something is bugging you and I want to know what it is,” I demanded. He glanced up for a moment, just long enough to try to read my face then his eyes dropped back to the floor. I did something I hadn’t expected myself to do. I reached over and pulled his hand off his lap so I was holding it on my bed. He leaned forward and pulled up our hands so he could rest his forehead on the back of my hand.
“I’m sorry,” He whispered.
“What do you mean you’re sorry? You saved my life, you have nothing to be sorry for,” I said. He shook his head again, then he sat up suddenly and leaned back, stretching towards the ceiling, but he didn’t let go of my hand. In fact he held my hand with both of his hands. It was a hesitant gesture, like he didn’t know if I wanted him to. I wanted him to.
“I’m sorry because without me you wouldn’t be in this mess,” He said, finally looking at me.
“I’m alive because of you.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“No, I got you into all of this. If I could have just done what I was supposed to do you wouldn’t have ever been taken, and you would be safe at home and happy. Not with all this crap and all this pain, and dealing with all these detectives,” He said I felt his hands shake nervously.
“What were you supposed to do?” I asked, he’d looked away. I squeezed his hands and tried to make him look at me.
“I should never have laid with you, or even cooked you that dinner,” He said shaking his head at the ground his hands slipped from mine, “I’m so stupid,” He whispered.
“So what should you have done? Just let me die?” I asked. I was starting to get a little angry, he wasn’t making any sense.
“No, I should have warmed you up so that you were alive and the before you woke up I should have picked you up and carried you back to town, put you someplace where the people could find you. Left you alone, not let myself get involved,” He said with his hands over his eyes.
“Andy, are you saying that you regret meeting me?” I asked, feeling a bit hurt.
“No, no, not at all I’m so glad I met you, and I love you. I just wish that I was better for you. I wish that we could have met in a parallel universe in which I wasn’t a total fuck up,” He said, looking up suddenly. His hands grabbed my hand again. For a moment I decided to ignore the I love you comment. I wasn’t ready for that yet.
“You’re not a fuck up. You saved people’s lives Andy. That killer would never have stopped killing if you hadn’t found him,” I said. He looked down at my legs again and shuddered.
“I really wish I’d gotten to you sooner,” He said getting quiet again.
“Andy, you know I don’t regret any of this. I helped catch a killer and met four of the best friends I’ve ever had, and the guy that I want to at least try to date,” I said exasperated, he needed to stop blaming himself for everything. Suddenly he stood up out of the wheelchair, something I did not expect. He leaned over the bed and with one hand next my left shoulder and the other cupping my face he kissed me.
It was more gentle than the time in the woods, but it shocked me more. His thumb rubbed my cheek and it felt like more of an I love you than an I want to bang you. I kissed him back, reaching up and brushing his soft hair. He pulled away for a moment, took a deep breath and then went in for more. I held him there with my hand that was on his head. He didn’t try to make out with me, just kisses. A few long ones, then lots of tiny pecks. Suddenly he fell back into his wheelchair. He looked somehow even paler than he had when he was brought in.
“Why’d you stop?” I asked. He smiled a little as he tried to catch his breath.
“I was about to pass out,” He gasped. Suddenly the door opened. We immediately tried to act like nothing had happened as Tim entered, but it was pretty obvious. Andy was fixing the side of his hair that I’d messed up and I was blushing like a tomato. Tim looked between the two of us for moment.
“I think I know what just happened, and I don’t need to know the details, but Andy, you watch yourself she’s not eighteen yet, and it’s time for us to go,” Tim said, he was also getting red. Andy and I looked at each other and suddenly all we could do was laugh.

Notes

It's kind of funny, I get more comments on this story when I don't update than when I do. I know more than one person is reading this story, but its rare that someone other than that one person comments. (you all know who it is and I love her). I want to here what the rest of you are feeling about this. Again, I believe there will be a very short sequel once this is done, and after the prequel as well. What do you think? Let me know. I hope you all enjoyed this update.