She had been poked, prodded, scanned, x rayed and bandaged. Eventually she was able to convince the nurses that she needed to make a phone call.

“Jes! Oh thank God. Jes I was so worried when you weren’t here this morning. Where did you end up stopping for the night.”

Jes winced, rubbing at her aching chest. Nothing broken. Moderate concussion. Able to travel. Soon to be discharged. “Uh, Ma. I was in an accident.” She began, steamrolling over her mother’s panicked reaction. “I’m fine. Really, Ma. I’m fine.” Her fingers tangled in the short brunette rats nest of curls atop her head as she tried to run them through it. “Listen, Ma. My car’s totaled. It’ll take me a bit to sort a rental. I’m close though. They brought me to the hospital in Ames.”

“I can be there in no time to pick you up, sweetie.”

“Don’t worry about it Ma. I’ll need a rental anyway until I get the insurance sorted on my car.” She had been brand new, not even a year old, and a point of pride for Jes. Now she was gone. Like so many other things in life.

An absolute shit show.

“Are you sure you should be driving?”

Jes chuckled without any real humor. “Probably.”

“Isn’t your friend still living there, sweetie?” Jes could almost hear the gears turning in her mother’s head as she tried to recall which friend still lived in Ames. “Rock?”

“Shit, Ma. I forgot. Doesn’t matter though. I lost my phone at the scene of the accident. I don’t have Rock’s number.”

“I’ll be there in thirty minutes. You are not getting behind the wheel until you’ve had some real sleep.”

There was no use arguing with her mother when she had that tone in her voice. No use at all, but Jes tried anyway. “I might be able to get a hold of Rock. I could look him up in the campus directory. It’s Friday. He might be in his office. I’ll call you back in an hour. They’re not releasing me until after noon anyway.”

“Call me right away. Don’t you dare sneak off and get a rental car. Take a taxi if you can’t get a ride.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The nurse had been watching the entire conversation play out, pretending not to listen. “You really shouldn’t be driving until your concussion has cleared up. That could take a while.”

Jes’ golden brown eyes narrowed in a fierce glare as she eyed the nurse. “Is there a campus directory?”

“It’s all online. I can look it up for you. Who do you need to contact?”

“Alan Stone, he’s a professor in the biology department.”

“I’ll bring you back his number if I can get a hold of it.” The nurse left the room once she’d finished checking Jes over for what felt like the thousandth time.

Left alone in the room with only the little TV for company, Jes began to feel restless. She hadn’t ever considered herself addicted to her phone, but she certainly felt the lack of it. There wasn’t anything worth watching on daytime TV. There never had been and there really never would be. Without the world at her fingertips, she suddenly wasn’t sure what to do with herself. Before the true digital era, and even during it really, she would have cracked a book and read while she waited. But the only thing she had on her at this point was the clothes on her back. Come to think of it, those really weren’t hers either, consisting entirely of a hospital gown.

“Shit show.” She muttered to herself as she rubbed her forehead. She thought about taking a nap, but she couldn’t bring herself to lay down and close her eyes. She had a concussion, the doctor’s said. Did that mean that what she had seen at the scene of the accident hadn’t been true? The farmer had had a reaction much like hers, but he had never said out loud what he had seen. She hadn’t asked. The first responders had swooped in and that was the end of that story.

Jes wouldn’t be surprised if most of the details of her accident had been imagined by her overwrought mind. Yesterday had been a hell of a day and today wasn’t shaping up to be that much better.

It wasn’t long before the nurse returned with a slip of paper with a phone number on it. She checked Jes’ vitals for the thousand and first time and left her in privacy to make the call. Jes stared at the phone at her bedside and thought about just calling a taxi. She hadn’t spoken to Rock in a while and she wasn’t sure what kind of reception she would get. It wasn’t that they had had a falling out or anything. It had just been a few years since they had gotten together. To call him out of the blue asking for favors seemed a little… demanding.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

She huffed out a sigh, it wasn’t like she was asking him for that much. The drive from the hospital to Nevada (pronounced Ne-vay-da and never like the state), wasn’t that long. Before she could talk herself out of it, or really into it, Jes picked up the phone and dialed the number. She expected to get his voice mail, or some sort of department secretary or something, she wasn’t expecting his deep familiar voice to answer distractedly after only one ring.

“Alan Stone, biology.”

“Rock.” His voice was like a comforting memory wrapping its arms around her and for a moment her own voice was thick and her breath hitched in her chest. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Rock, it’s Jes.”

“Jes? Really? I haven’t heard from you in a while. I’m surprised you didn’t call my cell.” He sounded a little guarded now.

“I, uh, I lost your number. Well, my whole phone really.” She started, reaching for the right words. There really weren’t any. “Listen, Rock, I hate to bother you on a work day, but I could really use a favor.”

She could almost hear one eyebrow wing up as his tone changed. “I’d say anything you need, Jes, but we both know how dangerous your favors can be.”

She winced, hissing as the motion sent a flare of pain through her face. “I’m sorry. I’ll try someone else. You’re probably pretty busy.” Her hand tightened around the phone’s receiver and she started to pull it from her ear.

“Not so fast, Jes. At least tell me what you need.”

“A ride?” She ventured softly.

“That’s all? Where are you, then? Outer Mongolia?” There was a definite edge beneath the teasing tone.

“I’m here, in town. At Mary Greely. I need a ride home.”

There was a long silence on the other end of the line.

“I’ll call a cab. It’s okay, Rock. You’re probably busy.”

“Not that busy.” He said at last, “What time are they setting you loose?”

“After noon.”

“I’ll be there.”

He didn’t even let her respond. The dial tone filled her ear.

Jes hunched her shoulders, hissing out a breath as it disturbed the line of bruising the seatbelt had left on her chest. “Shouldn’t have called him.” She muttered as she stared at the little TV. Of course it was playing a soap opera. They always were in medical places during the day. “Who watches this shit?”

Apparently she did. It was better than nothing. The time seemed to crawl by as she watched drama unfold on the small screen. Finally the doctors had cleared her to leave and the staff was nice enough to give her a set of scrubs to wear.

He knocked on the door as he entered. She almost thought he was yet another medical professional there to check on her. Jes was slow to take her eyes off the drama unfolding on the TV. When she finally looked over, there he was. Standing just inside the door, he was taller than her by a few inches, but not a tall man. Broad shouldered and well built, but not muscle bound. His pale blue eyes were searching her face for something.

“Hey.”

“You look like shit.”

Jes’ smile was crooked as she looked up at him. He hadn’t changed much at all. He was older, obviously, but still the same man she had been known for so long. “I feel like shit.” She climbed to her feet, leaving the uncomfortable hospital bed behind.

“What happened?” He hadn’t moved any further into the room. He stood stiffly at the door, hands tucked in the pockets of his worn jeans.

“Hit a,” She paused, but only for half a breath, “Horse.”

He whistled. “Lucky.”

“Yeah.” She took a couple of steps toward him wishing the scrub pants had proper pockets and wouldn’t pull right off her ass if she put her hands in them if they did have pockets. Instead she hiked the pants up and tried to tie them tighter.

Rock didn't step any further into the room, he just watched her, his pale eyes still searching for something. Her shoulders hunched a little as she walked toward him, trying to keep her back straight, reaching for a calm she didn’t feel. “I was almost home, you know.” She walked past him as he yielded the doorway to her.

“Why did you come?” He fell into step beside her, there was a gap of about a foot between them, but the gulf seemed too vast to span.

Jes wrapped her arms around herself. She took a deep breath, wincing as her bruised ribs protested the action. Her eyes closed for a second as she braced herself against the reality her words were about to create. “Da’s gone.” Two simple words, three if you counted the contraction. Two simple words and they changed everything.

“I’m sorry.” He reached out with one hand, almost touched her. His hand dropped.

There was that hollow word again. Meaningless. Sorry didn’t do anything. It didn’t fix anything. It didn’t even make her feel better. It didn’t do anything. She clenched her teeth, for once grateful for the damn mask she, and everyone else, was wearing. “Me too.” She said at last, her voice thick.

Rock cleared his throat, for a moment at a loss. They walked out of the hospital and over to his waiting truck. He helped her into the passenger seat, kicking a stone out of his way as he rounded the back of the vehicle. There were so many questions he wanted the answers to so many things he wanted to talk about, at first it had been the distance and time between them that had stilled his mouth. Now, now That distance was suddenly the least of his concerns.