Second chance love

T w e n t y

Darren had pushed his wolf faster than ever before to get Holly to the hospital in time. He knew his message got to Dr Sullivan when he noticed the fire exit propped open with a brick and a pair of board shorts hanging on the handle. He quickly shifted back keeping a tight hold of Holly, and used one hand to yank his legs through the shorts as he shoulder barged the door open. 

Once inside he was greeted by a small blonde girl around the same age as Holly. She had a wheelchair waiting, but Darren wasn’t ready to let her go. The girl put her hand on his arm in reassurance and he found himself gently manoeuvring his sister into the chair. Raking his hands through his hair, he watched as she raced off down the corridor with the vague notion that the girl was a wolf that wasn’t from his pack. He would think about that later, for now he was going to the separate wolf family area to await any update from Dr Sullivan. 

Caleb had been circling the car park for the last half an hour. He had driven past a dozen spaces but he couldn’t bring himself to park up. That would mean getting out of the car. Which would mean going into the hospital. Which would mean finding out just how badly Holly was hurt. If he kept driving, he could pretend to himself like everything was fine, that Holly was fine, like some sort of Schrödinger’s wolf. 

After some not so kind words from his wolf, he decided to pull into a spot and get out of the car. He wasn’t sure where this secret wolf area was in this human hospital so he paused, taking a deep steadying breath and waited for Blake to give him directions. 

***

Lisa was sat on a plastic chair with Finn sat on the floor between her legs. He was resting his back against her, and his head on her thigh as she stroked his hair absently. She watched as Darren paced back and forth, wondering if he would wear out the old blue carpet anymore if he kept it up. Darren’s parents, the old Alpha and the acting Luna, were sat in the corner, hands clasped together with their foreheads resting upon each other. Lisa couldn’t imagine what they were feeling right now. She had a dull ache in her heart both from her own sadness and that of her mate; after all, they had been friends for years and Finn had seen her as his little sister for years. 

Just then, Lisa noticed a shadow through the narrow window of the waiting room door. She watched as the shadow hovered then left, reappeared a few minutes later to hover once more, then disappeared. She gently squeezed Finn’s shoulder, and mover her legs around him to get up. He looked up at her quizzically but she smiled at him tentatively.

“I’m just grabbing some drinks, back in a minute.” Finn nodded, seemingly unable to get up, and went back to resting his head on the seat of the hard plastic chair Lisa had just gotten up from. 

She opened the door and looked up and down the corridor before closing it behind her. She waited a little while before she spotted Caleb walking towards her, head down looking at his feet and muttering to himself. He hadn’t spotted her yet, and she didn’t want to make him jump, so she cleared her throat loudly in the hopes that he would look up. Instead, he continued muttering and watching his feet move until he was a few steps away from Lisa. He stopped suddenly making eye contact, before he turned around and walked the other way. 

“Nope. I can’t. Nope. I can’t.” Caleb was chanting the words over and over as he made his way as far away from the waiting room as he could. He found himself in a small coffee shop. As he stood in line behind nurse pushing a patient in a wheelchair connected to some tubes, he thought about the last few moments with Holly, before they had gone to battle. He closed his eyes tightly, trying to picture how her face looked in the moonlight, how her hair fanned out beneath her as she laid on his bed laughing at some silly joke he had told her, how soft her skin was as he caressed her back and shoulders. 

He was brought out of his memories abruptly as the nurse accidentally ran over his toes with the wheelchair.

“Oh s**t, why did you do that?” Caleb cursed rather too loudly. 

The nurse and the patient tried to apologise at the same time. He looked down at the girl in the wheelchair, her dark hair streaked with faded blues and purples, the tip of a tattoo peeking out of the top of her hospital gown. She blushed as she noticed him studying her and mumbled another apology. 

“No worries. Accidents happen,” Caleb barked a little too harshly. 

“Ha. I guess they do,” the girl laughed without humour. 

Caleb instantly felt guilty, and looked at her once more. His face softened. 

“Sorry, I’m just really concerned about a loved one,” Caleb mumbled, as the girl made eye contact once more. He felt a strange familiarity with the girl, as if he knew her from somewhere but couldn’t place her. He sniffed the air subtly, she wasn’t a wolf that was clear, but he wasn’t able to shake the feeling that he knew her. 

“Sure. I get that,” the girl said, “well, I guess I won’t have to deal with that anymore, right?” She ignored the tutting from her nurse, and took the lid off her drink to cool it down as she was steered away. 

“Alicia, I really do think you should reconsider talking to someone about your grief you know,” Caleb heard the nurse say as she wheeled her away. He just about caught the girls’ response before they turned the corner. 

“Sure. Because of course talking about how sad I am will make me feel loads better about losing every single one of my family members.” He could almost hear the girls eyes roll from where he stood, involuntarily a small smile tugged at the side of his mouth.