Page 20 of Fighting For You

"I'll come back tomorrow."

"I know you will."

He squeezed my hand once, quick, and left.

Gracelyn shook her head. "I can't believe I'm visiting you as a patient. This is very strange."

"It's strange from this side too."

She leaned back on her hands. "Oh, by the way. Knox Sullivan from Station 110 has been coming by for the past two days asking how you are. Josie won't let him in until you're awake and up for visitors." She looked at me. "Are you up for it?"

Knox Sullivan. That was his name. Where had I heard that name before?

"Sure, I guess."

"I'll tell Josie on my way out." She squeezed my hand. "Get some rest. I mean it."

She hugged me on her way out. I watched the door close behind her and lay back against the pillow.

The room was quiet. Just the monitor, the air from the cannula, and the sounds of the floor beyond the door. My mind was already moving. Insurance. The fire report. Ian's school records. Replacement IDs, replacement everything. Where I was going to live when they discharged me. What I was going to wear out of this building.

The list kept growing and I hadn't even started.

He came the next day.

I was sitting up in bed with the fire investigator's forms spread across my lap when someone knocked.

"Come in."

The door opened, and a man stepped in. Tall, broad shoulders, dark hair. He was in jeans and a clean shirt, and he stood in the doorway like he wasn't sure he should be there.

"Hi," he said. "Should I come back another time?"

Then I saw the scar on his neck.

I'd been searching for that scar on every firefighter I came across. On the street, at the hospital, wondering if the man I held together in that parking lot ever made it out alive.

Now he was here. He was alive.

"No, no." I sat up straighter. "I'm glad you came."

He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. His hands went into his pockets.

I remembered his jaw, his dark eyes looking up at me from the pavement. I didn't remember him being this handsome.

Neither of us said anything. He was looking at me and I was looking at him.

"How are you feeling?"

"Ready to get out of here. It's strange being on this side of it. I'm used to being the nurse, not the patient."

He smiled. "Must be strange."

"You have no idea." I smiled, but it faded. "I want to thank you. For getting me out of that fire."

"I was just doing my job."

"Still. Thank you."