"Do you want me to try to call her for you? Or I can get one of the doctors to do it for you. She really should be here for you..."   Allen shook his head.  “No... She knows I’m here, she knew when the surgery was, and she’ll come.” No... She wouldn’t, at least not anytime soon.  Allen really shouldn’t trust this woman that was sneaking into his life!  He was so fragile and destroyed, he was sad and the fears he had now were intense.  He tried to ignore them, he tried to be himself but he failed at every turn.  Ryleigh was never around anymore.  He drank more whiskey each day then the day before.  He was slipping slowly.  Layla seemed to be a parachute.  His fingers stayed there in her hand. He didn’t fight the sign of affection.  He could use a friend.  "Anything you need, I can get it for you.”   He only smiled at her.  He was glad to have someone there, he was thankful that she was so nice, so easy to talk to.  She was fun to be around.  And she was keeping his mind off of how fucked up it was that Ryleigh wasn’t there.

"I honestly don't have much of a life outside of work. Really though, there's nowhere else I'd rather be than here with you right now."  There was another thing they had in common.  Allen lived and breathed his job!  He never had much else either.  His one hobby had been fighting, and that was over now.  He had Ryleigh, or thought he did, she was slipping away.  And work… he missed it.  “Nowhere else?” he looked around the plain boring hospital room.  He leaned a little closer to her his voice dropped low, “You know where we are right?”  He smirked.  His hand flipped under hers as she squeezed it and now he gripped her hand back in his own.  Just wanting to show he was grateful for the company, nothing more, no matter how it might look. 

Layla told him that Scarlett couldn’t hurt him anymore, he nodded.  “I know…I keep going to the prison to make sure she is still there.” He hadn’t told anyone about that.  Even Ryleigh didn’t know.  “I need to see her locked up I guess.”  His blues looked at her as she told him he had her now.  Her and his wife.  He smirked, “Yeah…well…” he was still alone.  It wasn’t like Layla could move in, and Ry was gone so often.  He made a huge mistake and told her just how often his wife was away.  He instantly regretted it when her response was that something was going on.  His eyes closed.  He really didn’t want to think that.  Even after seeing that name on her back!  Layla went on about Ryleigh, he managed to open his eyes, but everything she was saying he had already thought himself.  It hurt to hear it.  It was worse that someone else noticed it.  “Yeah…well…I guess sometimes things don’t go the way we want.” He was still holding her hand.  “Sometimes we have to suck it up, right?”  he forced a smile.  “I’ll be okay…in time.. I hear that heals.” He smiled a more real smile. 

 “You think we could order in food?” his brows arched.  “I’m starving…” his body realizing it hadn’t eaten since the day before.  “…It would be great to have something brought to us….” He started to smirk a little.  “…I hate to admit it; since it makes me sound like a baby, but I don’t want you to go anywhere…I don’t want to be alone.”  His head shook.  “Not even if it means food.” He chuckled.  He was joking really.  Obviously he wouldn’t force her to stay, or beg her to...  He wouldn’t have even joked like this if she hadn’t offered already to stay.   In time though all that would change.  Soon enough he would openly ask her to stay with him and not be kidding around.  In time they would get very comfortable with each other.  He would look forward to seeing her.  Her smile would make him smile.  He would start to crave her voice and her touch.  But right now, he was just enjoying a friendly face and a little company.  Still hopeful that Ryleigh would walk in at any moment.

"Not as cute as you are...but you know...”  He wasn’t sure what to make of that!  The wink afterward either.  It was probably just a joke or a friendly comment mostly about a giftstore bear.  He was not about to question it.  It was innocent he was sure.  The last thing he wanted to do was chase her away!  He’d be stuck here alone.  "I thought it'd be good for you to see a friendly face. I wouldn't miss this."  It was so good to have someone there!  His eyes lowered though when she said that she wouldn’t have missed it.  All he thought of was Ryleigh.  What had happened?  What could have possibly kept her?  Was she okay?  Maybe something had happened to her?  Now he was worried about her.  He had known Ryleigh forever, he couldn’t think of a single thing that would keep her from something like this!  She knew he needed her there!  No matter how hurt he had been that morning, and how cold he had seemed afterward.  Layla mentioned the bakery, but Allen just shook his head.  He knew better.  That was not what was keeping her.   She had lied about that, he had caught her. 

"What? No...I don't think you're pathetic at all, Allen."  He watched as she leaned closer and put her hand on his.  He shouldn’t allow for this, but the comfort in the touch was something he actually really needed right now.  It was only his hand.  His eyes met hers as she told him he was a survivor.  His thumb lifted to wrap around the edge of her hand, just for a second to show he was grateful for the gesture.  “…we hardly know each other, but you’ve already become a friend…” he might actually take her up on the offer to help him.  He was considering the idea and that alone was amazing for someone like him.  He did things on his own usually!  After his electrocution he had been alone.  He had recovered alone.  After the baseball bat to the head it was the same way.  He had never been this emotionally weak before.  He was really damaged by Scarlett, and Ryleigh, even though it was the last thing she wanted to do, was damaging him even further with her absence!  “I’ll take all the support I can get.” He smiled at her.  He had no idea what those words would lead to.

“You’d be willing to stay?” His lips parted, he stared at her.  “Really?” he paused and then he quickly shook his head.  “I can’t ask you to do that…”  though the idea of Cap’n Crunch was a huge temptation!  He really loved that cereal!  He also dreaded the idea of being alone here.  He smiled as he thought about it.  "I'll stay just until your wife comes, okay?”   That seemed reasonable.  Ryleigh should be coming soon.  His surgery had gone faster than they had planned so... she might not know he was finished. “..If you’re sure I’m not keeping you from anything…” he licked his lips, he was a little nervous, he wasn’t used to being vulnerable or needy.  “…I would like it if you stayed…I hate being alone now.  All I think of is Scarlett…and...when it’s quiet enough I swear I can hear her laughing.  She has the creepiest laugh….all the memories come back.” his eyes had drifted away from her.  “I’m alone pretty much every night…until like 2 am?  And then she’s out the door again first thing in the morning.  I’m glad I’m going back to work... I need to get out.  The house creeps me out.  That’s where I was….” He shrugged... “….when Scarlett came with the gun.” He was not intending to say so much!  It just fell out.

"Sorry, I'm not who you were expecting."  He lifted his good hand and waved it off. “No...No no…please, I’m glad you came.” "I really am sorry, Allen."  He was so very disappointed!  But he didn’t want to dwell on it.  That wouldn’t change it; it wouldn’t make Ryleigh show up.  Layla was here she had always shown him so much kindness.  And he was happy to see a friendly face.

"Of course I'd be here! You're my favorite patient."  That made him laugh.  “You haven’t even touched my hand yet...” well no, that wasn’t true, she had.. She had touched both his hands, his arms and a few other places on him.  All friendly.  Nothing weird.  But Allen meant in a therapist way.  He smirked at her.  When she told him about the bear.  “Yeah?  Too bad I missed it.  Sounds fucking cute as hell.”  He was a little loopy right now, but his head was actually clearing faster than he had thought it would.  His eyes went to the balloons he touched the strings, moving them a little.  “These are perfect, Layla…”  He was able to forget that fight he had almost had that morning.  The name on his wife’s back with the presence of a friend.  "I have no plans for the rest of the day. I've actually been here for the last couple of hours. I wanted to make sure I was here by the time you woke up."  He smiled wider. “You’ve been waiting for me for a couple hours?”  His brows pressed upward.  “I’m honored.  Really.”

"I really thought I'd see your wife. But...I guess she was busy....again."  Ouch.  He looked away from her face when she said that.  “She told me she would be here.  I don’t know what happened.”   His smile was gone his head shook just slightly.  "I'm sure she'll be here..."  His light eyes drifted back to her as she sat at his bed side, in the chair that Ryleigh should be in.  “I thought sitting at home alone was pathetic… but this is so much worse, Layla.  I’m so pathetic… I swear I wasn’t like this before Scarlett.”  She mentioned that she would have hated to find him here all alone after his surgery.  He wished so hard that he wouldn’t have to stay here!  He sighed, his eyes tracked the room.  Layla wouldn’t stay forever, and who knew when Ry would actually show up.  He was going to be in this room alone soon enough.  He wanted to rip the IV out and run out of that room.  He leaned back against the pillow and he turned his head back to Layla.  “…hey…um…” he knew he shouldn’t ask what he was about to ask!  They had only met recently; they had hung out a little but not much.  “...you can say no…but… They told me that I have to stay the night for observation... but it was my hand.  And other then groggy I feel fine.  I really want to get out of here…do you think you could pull some strings?  I just want to go home…”   The doctors probably wouldn’t go for it.  A patient being released to go home alone!!  No.  His wife couldn’t be reached; her phone was out of her reach in the pocket of a psycho!  Allen had Vinny.  But right now Allen wasn’t thinking about his brother.  “…I’m sorry… I shouldn’t ask that of you.  Forget it.  Besides no one is home anyway.”  Unless Ryleigh was there?  Was she home?  He had no idea where she was!  No idea what had happened to her!  Sitting here in this backless hospital gown was not going to help him!