For Sarahhh
"Why on earth would anyone paint a wall this colour?" Sarah asked herself as she settled into her uncomfortable chair in the waiting room of the Pittsburgh Mercy Hospital. True the colour of the walls was horrible but that's not really what was bothering Sarah. Her boyfriend was undergoing surgery as she sat there. Rain splattered the windows and the weather seemed to be reflecting her mood. Cold and irritable.
Kevin O'Connor, her boyfriend, had been in a work place accident and had been lucky to a degree. That degree was that he wasn't as dead as he could have been. He'd broken his neck though and was now undergoing surgery for said injury. This thought seemed to walk it's way into Sarah's mind every few minutes as she waited for the doctor to appear and tell her Kevin was going to make it. Or not. Kevin's parents were allowed to watch the surgery from the atrium above the surgical chamber but Sarah was not. If she'd been his wife she would have but she was not. She wasn't even completely sure she'd ever be but she cared for Kevin nonetheless.
"This day just keeps getting better and better," she thought angrily as she picked up a random magazine and started rifling through it just so that her hands had something to do. She had hoped that with it being Wednesday that the week might take an upturn now that they were over the hump, but no. No change whatsoever. The waiting room was crowded with people and seemed to be filled with a buzzing that could've been angry hornets. It wasn't though. It was the airconditioning unit that seemed to run on it's last legs. Sarah had already wondered why on earth the airconditioning was on since it was mid-Febuary and quite cold outside.
Sarah tossed the magazine back onto it's pile and absentmindedly brushed her red hair behind her ear. Sarah knew she was not gifted with a great deal of patience and it was therefore a wonder that she'd been able to sit in the waiting room for the last two hours. Most operations of the kind that Kevin was undergoing however were known to last at least ten hours so she had some time to kill. Groaning slightly she got up and walked out of the waiting room, thinking absentmindedly of getting some coffee. Just as she found the coffee machine and dunked two quarters into it, the damn thing let out a great big whine and died altogether.
"Great!" she growled and kicked it for good measure.
Sighing, she put her wallet back into her coat and started towards the exit. She knew there was a bar or coffee place somewhere nearby. She'd just have to walk through the rain for a bit and find it. She'd just unfolded her umbrella when she heard it.
"Ouch! DAMN! Not another one!" a girl's voice sounded dangerously closeby. Sarah looked around the rim of the umbrella and flushed. There, standing no more than two feet away from her holding a hand clenched over a bleeding nose, was the most beautiful girl Sarah had ever seen.
Despite her bleeding nose the girl in question was still stunning. She had long black hair that flowed around her head like newly spun silk in the breeze. Large oval dragon green eyes and beautiful full lips the colour of dark blood. The girl's skin colour was a natural bronze tan and made it seem like Sarah was white as a sheet of paper.
"I'm so sorry," Sarah stammered as she flushed again.
"Not your fault, I've been having these all day. Which isn't why I'm here but I'll have it looked at anyway," the girl said with a posh british accent, gesturing up at the hospital.
"I'm Sarah," Sarah said, not entirely sure why she had just introduced herself to a perfect stranger.
"Lillian but you can call me Lilly. Everyone but my dad does," Lilly said and smiled, gingerly looking to see if her nosebleed had stopped yet. It had. She took a tissue out of her long black leather coat, that reached from her throat to her bright pink Converse Sneakers, and wiped the blood from her nose with it. Sarah couldn't tear her eyes away from Lilly. It was as if she'd just seen something she couldn't quite explain. Like an angel or a ghost, even though Sarah didn't believe in either.
"Well, don't let me keep you. You need to eat something. I'll be in here when you come back," Lilly smiled, nodded and went inside. It was only after Sarah had reached the counter of the diner that she couldn't recall telling Lilly that she would be back. Puzzled beyond belief she settled at the bar and ordered a cup of coffee and something to eat even though she wasn't remotely hungry. A steaming cup of coffee was placed infront of her by a woman who looked like a female Santa Clause and a moment after that her fries and ketchup arrived.
That was when Kevin walked back into her head and she morosely dunked some fries into her ketchup and ate them, not really paying attention to the fact that she'd only just narrowly avoided dunking the fries in her coffee. Shaking her head slightly she found her thoughts suddenly wandering back to Lilly.
"How on earth had she known that I would be back?" Sarah thought as she sipped her scalding hot coffee. She then came to realise that she wanted to find out excactly that. So after finishing her fries and coffee she set off back to the hospital. The rain had stopped but the cold wind persisted and Sarah found herself hurrying back to the hospital. Not in worry over Kevin but in deep thought about who this Lilly actually was. Coming round the corner she saw a police car pull up to the entrance of the hospital with some haste. The squealing tyres made her ears hurt as the cop car screeched to a halt. Wondering what on earth was going on she hurried forwards and was at the door at the same moment as the first uniformed partol officer. Big black guy, about six foot four and built like a linebacker. She had the feeling she'd seen him before around somewhere. The second patrol officer was still in the car talking into the police radio.
"Suspect seen entering Pitt's Mercy's west entrance. Send back up. Officer Curtis is already inside to alert the front desk. I repear send back up!" the cop, a short, rather flabby looking hispanic dude of about sixty, was jabbering into the radio.
Sarah kept her distance. She didn't much like the police. That might've had something to do with the fact that the only times she'd come into contact with the law was when she'd just bent or broken it. That had happened on a few occasions during her college years and mostly had to do with public drunkeness, indecent exposure in a moving vehicle and once for streaking on the football field during a Steelers game. No Sarah didn't like the police. And was just planning to go around to the other entrance of the hospital when the police radio started chattering again.
"All units please be advised; Suspect, female, 25 years of age, black hair, green eyes approximately 5 foot 7 inches. Suspect is wearing a long black coat possibly leather. Suspect has entered Pittsburgh Mercy. Suspect is to be considered dangerously unstable and possibly armed. Take no unneccisary risks! Approach and apprehend with extreme caution".
Sarah halted in her tracks and stared at the police car window. Lilly was dangerous? Nah, couldn't be her. Sarah quickly made her way into the hospital nonetheless. After scanning the entrance hall for any sign of the police or Lilly, Sarah made her way up to the third floor by way of the stairs seeing as the lift had just closed on her. As she exitted the stairwell she looked around. Four police officers were already cautiously making their way up the corridor. Several older patients were escorted back to their rooms by the orderlies and one woman glared and spat at the nearest cop.
"You bastards killed my husband twenty years ago," the older woman spat venomously at the cop. The cop in question couldn't have been more than thirty himself so Sarah thought that was distinctly impossible.
She turned around to go to the waiting room when she saw a girl with long dark hair twisted into a knot walk into view. The girl was wearing white t-shirt, a pair of white track pants and white sneakers. It was Lilly alright. As she saw Sarah she smiled and waved at her to come over.
"Hi Sarah, you okay? You look a little stressed," Lilly said, her concern genuine.
Sarah nodded and gestured behind her.
"Cops are looking for a girl that looks like you, I'd be careful if I were you," she said quietly as she led Lilly back around the corner towards the waitingroom.
"Oh yeah those idiots couldn't find a drop of water in the ocean," Lilly said dismissively.
"They were looking for a girl in a black coat with black hair and green eyes. Hospital lighting makes my hair look brown and my eyes too. Not that it's me they're looking for though," she added hastily, seeing the look of concern on Sarah's face.
