"Five more minutes, and then I'll finally be home!"
It had been a tough day for Arinn. Endless meetings all day at the office meant that she hadn't gotten any one moment to be by herself, or to eat. "I know exactly what I'm going to do when I get home, too." Arinn sighed to herself. "I'm going to light a few candles, relax in the tub, and then watch a few romantic movies in the dark. Now all that's missing is a handsome man to watch the movies with...and to hold me..."
Arinn Trinner was only 27, but she was already the CEO of her company, 'Unknown Nonsense inc.' They specialized in selling random artists and writers works. The company had 35 stores already over the country, and were in the process of expanding even more. Arinn was happy that she had the job that she did, and that it paid well, but when it came to all the meetings, that's where the fun ended.
Arinn was almost shocked to death when she made out the shape of a man lying on the road, unmoving. Slamming on the tire, she honked her horn, hoping that she could wake up whoever it was. Still, the person didn't move. Eventually she gave up and got out of her car to help the person. "Hello?" she called to the body. All she got in answer was a long, low moan, that made her shiver down to her soles in terror. She tried patting the person on their back to get their attention, but that only made it worse as she pulled her blood covered hand away.
Arinn was about to scream bloody murder any minute, literally. "Oh my god!" she started mumbling to herself; It was the only way that she knew to stop herself from screaming, and to make sense of things. "The man isn't dead, but he will be soon if he's loosing all that blood! Oh, god! My hand is covered in the stuff! Get a grip Arinn, this man needs your help!" Arinn reached down and picked the bloody person up. He was gurgling a little in the back of his throat, sounding like he was going to drown on his own spit.
It took 10 minutes to get to the hospital, and she had called on the way, so people came out with a gurney to retreive him. They picked the still bleeding man up, putting him on the gurney and pushing it into the emergency room. She followed them until she was held back by nurses, and then followed them, sobbing, into the waiting rooms.
After Arinn had been crying for a while, a nurse came over, asking her questions that she wouldn't know about. Once the nurse finally accepted that Arinn seriously didn't know the man, she was left alone again, until the cops showed up. For Arinn the night was full of unanswerable questions.
~~~*~~~
Arinn awoke early the next morning on her couch, wondering what had happened last night. When she looked down and saw that she was still in her work clothes, she headed to her room to change. Making her way to the bathroom to wash up first, she started to remember. There was a heavily bleeding man in the road that she had taken to the hospital. She had cried for most of the night, and eventually left, deciding that she desperately needed a drink. Her next hour was spent drinking her tears away. She'd been a little tipsy when she left, but she made it home safely, and fell on the sofa as soon as she got close to it.
When she finally got the tub filled, Arinn relaxed and tried to take her mind off of what had happened last night. The water slipped against her skin nicely, and she leaned back in the bath a little more. Suddenly she opened her eyes to see she was in the hospital, naked, running to the room that they had placed him in, pushing past people as she went. When she got into the room, she hugged the man tightly, as a voice behind her whispered that he had just died.
Arinn sat up so quickly that some of the bath water splashed onto the floor. It had just been a dream, but Arinn knew she wouldn't sleep well until she saw him again and made sure he was okay. As she dried herself off and walked to her room to get some clothes, she mumbled to herself. "This is crazy. Why do I care so much about that random bloody guy I helped? I guess I'm just curious how he is..." but even as she said that, her mind reminded her that if that was true, then she wouldn't have cried so much yesterday.
Arinns car smelled of blood as she crawled inside it, and she knew there would be dried blood on the passenger seat. She looked it over to see how much had gotten on it, and found a brown wallet in the seat. "It must be his." she mumbled as she picked it up and pocketed it. She turned up the music on her radio, trying to drown out her thoughts of what she might find when she got to the hospital. She knew that this wouldn't stop until she knew whether or not the man was okay.
Arinn had to wait a few minutes before a nurse came to lead her to the mans room. She wondered how he had been so badly hurt, and began to ask the nurse, but all she got out of the woman was "It would be best if you asked the doctor. He would know more than I do on the situation."
Arinn opened the door to find a tall man standing near the bed, checking up on his patient. When he noticed Arinn, he shook hands with her, and said "Nice to meet you, I'm Dr. Madison. I presume that you're the young lady who found this man?"
Nodding, Arinn glanced over at the sleeping form, and walked over to get a better look at him. When she saw his face she had to stifle a gasp. She hadn't really looked at him before when she had saved him. He had short, curly chestnut brown hair framing his face, and long eyelashes that rested beautifully on the tops of his cheek bones. 'Oh, my god!' Arinn squealed in her head. 'He's gorgeous!'
Arinns mystery man still had bruises on his body, and was heavily bandaged on his right arm and chest, probably other places too, but at least he wasn't bloody anymore, and it seemed that he would heal. "Doctor, how serious are his injuries?" Arinn asked, almost not realizing that she had. The doctor, still standing next to her, listed his injuries.
"Let's see, he had been shot twice, once in the back, and once in the right arm. He had a concussion, seems like he had the back of his head hit pretty hard. His left leg had some stab marks on the back of it, but none that were too deep, and his wrists are broken. Seems like he must have been in a fight with some pretty nasty thugs."
