Chapter 2.

"Emily! Don't you ever run off like that again, you hear me?!" Emily's mother scolded as she cautiously walked back into the hospital room.

"Sorry mom I-"

"Sorry is not enough you b-" "Kade!!!" The mom interrupted her step father from completing his sentence.

Emily looked down at her feet and clenched her hands into small fists as her mom Rachael and her step father Kade began to bicker rather loudly till two nurses and a doctor had to send them out.

With a sigh of relief Emily walked over to the bed and took a seat.

"Please wake up grandma" she took her wrinkly hand into hers. "I need you."

Tears began to fill her eyes but she quickly blinked them away.

Grandma had told her to not cry.

Crying made you vulnerable and life was too short to be sad all the time.

"I think I made a new friend today grandma..." She leaned down with her upper body on the bed while folding her arms.

"I really want you to meet him so can you please wake up? I think you two would get along great."

Without even realizing it, Emily dozed off by her grandma's bedside.

***

"Mr Miller, I strongly recommend not eating those. They are not good for your heart!"

Avery rolled his eyes as Darlene rolled him down the corridor.

"If I recall correctly there's a girl about your age always here visiting her grandmother, why don't you give them to her?"

A girl his age? Could it be Em? She seemed too energetic to be in a hospital as a patient.

"Okay." Avery agreed with a small sigh.

What room number did she say she was in? Number 9?

"Here, I think it's this one" Darlene temporarily left his wheelchair to go and knock on the door but no one answered.

"Perhaps we should come back later..."

While his nurse kept rambling Avery looked through the window to see if the room was empty or not and spotted a familiar mop of curly brown hair.

Em!

She seemed to be asleep tho.

"Looks like her sugar high ended" he chuckled to himself.

"What?" Darlene interrupted her monologue as she heard Avery say something.

"Oh err... Nothing. I'll just leave one by her bedside."

"Alright then" Darlene opened the door for him as he wheeled his way inside.

Avery took a brief minute to examine the room.

There was a small door that led out onto a sunshine filled balcony and fresh flowers in a vase with a small card saying: "to grandma".

Avery smiled to himself.

This Emily seemed to be a very caring and loving person.

"Hey Em, almost forgot I can't have these." He laid one down on the bed right next to her mass of curly hair.

"Take it easy on the sugar tho, huh?"

Avery then slumped back into his wheelchair exhausted while scrunching up his face in pain.

"Looks like it's time for you to head back to bed hun." Said Darlene as she moved away from the doorway that she had been leaning on to observe what was the first time she had ever seen him be so gentle and caring towards another human being.

Just as they closed the door and started their way back to Avery's room, Emily's mother came walking down the hallway muttering a steady stream of curses before barging into the hospital room they had just exited.

"Emily wake up! We're going home!"

Avery winced at the harshness in her voice as the elevator dinged and Darlene rolled him in just as the doors began to close, shutting out the woman's angry yelling.