Eliana-

I absolutely hated hospitals. They smelled like antiseptic and were blindingly bright, not to mention that they inspired terrible memories that I had tried for a long time to forget. The last time that I was in one, I lost the closest thing that I ever had to a sister. This time, I was afraid that I was going to lose a father.

He's going to be fine. He's out of surgery and they're just keeping him here for observation to be safe.

I repeated variations of that sentence in my head, over and over like a mantra. Alessio's appearance had been a pleasant surprise and he served as a great distraction, but now that his warmth and presence were gone, nothing could stave off the panic I felt now that I sat alone.

My feet were too restless, even though I was starting to feel exhaustion, and suddenly they were taking me back and forth on the tile in front of Ezrah's room. Sunlight was flooding the halls now, but it was only making the memories worse.

Ellie, go. Now. You can't help me.

I shivered. I had to leave. Everything was coming back, full force. I didn't want to remember her message, I didn't want to remember her face the last time I had seen her. I didn't even want to remember the sacrifice she had made for me, it made my stomach roil and my mind go blank.

"Excuse me," I tried to regain my breath as I stopped by the nurse's station. "Will it still be a couple of hours before he wakes up?"

She glanced at the watch on her wrist, then a clipboard with papers on it, "Yes, probably three, if not more."

"Thank you."

I headed to the elevators, ignoring the irony of my situation. Not long ago, I had been adamant that I needed to leave the warmth of my apartment and Alessio to get back here, but now I was desperate to get out of the walls as quick as possible. Memories have the uncanny ability to override our sense of rationality and reasonability.

There was nowhere that I wanted to go, nowhere that I wanted to be. I needed a distraction, and the only thing I could think to do was work. In a way, I was a workaholic- I used it to distract myself from my problems and it made me feel needed, so I often didn't pay attention to the hours I would spend at the shop, even if they made me feel exhausted and worn down.

The small slip of paper in my pocket bearing Alessio's cell phone number on it was completely forgotten, but when my feet found their way to the shop I remembered it. I could have asked him to have driven me, but even though it was cold it wasn't too long of a walk and I needed to clear my head.

My breathing was somewhat by the time I reached our street. Just being out of the building had helped, but adrenaline and nerves still coursed through my veins, battling for dominance. Some of the stress seized my muscles once more when I arrived to see that there was still police tape around the building and a couple of police cars nearby. Seeing the cops inspired an instinct to run in the opposite direction for me, a habit formed in the crucible of street life. These people don't know me, I had to remind myself. I look different now and I've crossed state lines, and it wasn't like anyone was actively looking for me anymore.

The presence of these people still made my hands sweat as I walked up to the nearest one. "Excuse me, officer?"

The man turned around, glancing me up and down. I was good at reading people, and this man sent a shiver down my spine. For some reason, he didn't feel like a normal cop. "Yes?"

"Do you know when this will no longer be an active crime scene? I'm one of the managers here and I would like to clean up the shop and get my things that I left here last night."

"We're almost done cataloguing the scene," He nodded, "You'll be allowed in after that."

"Thank you."

"Could I see some identification?"

I froze, suddenly terrified. He couldn't have recognized me or anything, right?

"What?"

He seemed to take my terror as confusion, "If you can prove that you're one of the managers responsible for this shop, I can accompany you in while it's still an active scene."

"Oh, right."

I instinctively reached for my pockets, but I realized that my bag of clothes was still at the hospital, and even then, my driver's license, even if it was forged, was in my purse that I left in the shop last night after all of the. "Uhm, my license is in my purse, I didn't grab it when I got in the ambulance last night. It should still be under the counter, though."

He gazed at me for a moment, trying to figure out if I was telling the truth or not, then glanced around at the officers nearby who seemed to be wrapping up what they were doing. "Follow me."

I stayed close behind him, wrapping my arms around myself tightly as I finally started to process the cold air and the shivers that had begun to run up my spine. He was tall like Alessio, with much of the same demeanor, and he blocked a good amount of wind so that I didn't get the brunt of the turning weather.

He held up the caution tape so that I could slip underneath, and as we got closer to the door I realized that it was still ajar. The glass was still shattered on the ground from the front windows as well, same for the mugs and chairs strewn around the tile. There was an odd beauty to it, the way that it all glimmered and glistened in the rising sun.

The officer stood and watched as I reached behind the counter for my bag, grabbing my wallet and taking out my I.D. as proof of who I was. He glanced at the photo, then at me, comparing the two. I discreetly rubbed my sweaty palms against my pants, hoping he didn't notice my anxiety.

He merely grunted in confirmation and handed it back to me. I breathed a sigh of relief. I put a couple of things into my bag that I hadn't grabbed before the robbers came like my apron and hair ties, but questions about the night were still swirling in my head. Why hadn't they gone for the money first? Why the computers? Why didn't they wait until we were gone, they must have seen that we were closing up for the night when they attacked? None of it made sense to me.

I almost asked the officer if they knew anything more about who it was or what they wanted, but as I raised my gaze to meet his, he pulled his buzzing phone from his pocket. His eyebrows furrowed for just a second while he read the text, but then he gave a short reply and put it away again.

"Was anything taken as far as you can tell?" He asked me, getting to the questions before I could ask my own.

I shook my head warily. I had already answered these questions multiple times at this hospital, the cops hammering me for information while I sat on the end of a bed getting my arm stitched up by a silent doctor.

My questions began to bubble to my lips but I was interrupted yet again by another cop stepping inside. This one nodded, "Luca, we've got the scene cleared. We're all good to go."

Luca, as I now knew his name, nodded in confirmation as his partner left once again. I looked at him hopefully, "Does that mean it's alright if I start cleaning up in here?"

The officer nodded, "Yes, but we can also get a crime scene cleanup unit in here if you would like-"

"That's alright, I'd prefer to do it myself," I hastily threw out. Call it being a control freak, call it being paranoid, but I didn't want anyone else in this space right now. My haven had already been violated enough by strangers and criminals, I didn't need anyone else making it worse.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded eagerly, to which he shrugged. "Alright. If you think of anything else that you might have forgotten, here's my card."

I took the stiff piece of paper from his fingers, tucking it into my wallet. "Thank you."

He skirted the puddle of glass and left through the front door, and I watched with bated breath as some of the other officers took down the crime scene tape and got into their cars to leave. I took a glance around, noting how cold it was inside the place. Now that the door and some of the windows were missing, there was nothing protecting it from the elements, so that would have to be my first job.

Knowing that there was a home improvement store down the street and I would only be gone for a few minutes, I took a piece of paper and wrote out in large letters 'closed until further notice' in red marker. As an afterthought, I added parenthesis across the bottom 'Except Mr. Walker' in smaller letters.

Grabbing my wallet and sticking the paper to the front door, I hurried down the street. I didn't have much money in my bank account, but unless I could get the shop up and running, there wouldn't be much of a job for me to get back to at all. Beside, there were multiple employees relying on me to get the place up and running again, as soon as possible.

It took me a couple of trips to buy large enough pieces of plywood, then to drag them down the street with my good arm. I was starting to sweat by the time I heaved the last one past the door jamb and into the shop, and I leaned it against the wall where the others were stacked.

"You really shouldn't be doing that with your arm in that condition."

I screamed. Not a yelp, not a small sound, but a full on there's-a-psycho-behind-me-and-I'm-going-to-go-into-the-attic-even-though-it's-probably-haunted-by-the-ghost-of-the-last-resident-of-this-house-horror-movie sort of scream.

I whipped around, grabbing a mug from the shelf behind me as I went and holding it above my head like a weapon.

"I'm sorry," Alessio stepped forward, holding his hands out pleadingly, "I'm sorry Eliana, I didn't mean to scare you."

I bent over, clutching my throat and breathing hard. My hands were shaking so badly that I could barely set the mug back on the shelf, I nearly knocked more of them over. The adrenaline coursed through my veins once again, and after the last twenty four hours I had, it was shocking that there was any left in my body.

He kept apologizing over and over, gripping my shoulders and leading me to the nearest chair, "I'm sorry, I should have-"

"No, it's fine," I ran my fingers under my eyes quickly, wiping away the tears that had sprung up there as a result of the sudden adrenaline rush. "I'm still on edge more than I thought I was, I just didn't think anyone was here."

He crouched in front of me, setting a hand on my knee as I tried to hide a small hiccough. He looked extremely worried, but I didn't want him to feel bad. His presence was comforting to me and I didn't want him to think that he should leave.

I wrung my hands together to stop their shaking, "What are you doing here?"

He fumbled, probably taken aback by how quickly I seemed to be regaining my composure, "Oh, I felt a little guilty about leaving you alone earlier, so I went back to check on you but when you weren't at the hospital, I figured this was where you had gone. Really though, you should have let someone else do that for you, you're going to hurt your arm."

I shrugged with my good arm, "I needed a distraction, and I can't really sleep yet because of my concussion."

Alessio's gaze flicked to the bruise taking form on my head, then around the room in all of its disarray, "Well, at least let me help you."

"It's alright-"

"This is at least a two person job," He argued as he stood and pulled off his suit jacket. I noticed that in the morning light the lines of his jaw were just as sharp as ever, even with the soft glow around us. He unbuttoned the sleeves of his dress shirt and rolled them up to his elbows. "Let me help with the heavy lifting."

It was odd, but I was a sucker for guys who rolled up their sleeves to their elbows. It made me vaguely feel like a Edwardian man hoping that a woman would show her ankles under her skirt, but, if the shoe fits.... I was so distracted that I almost missed the last half of his sentence. He was nicely dressed, like he was on his way to work even though he claimed it was his day off. If he didn't mind getting a little dirty, though, I wouldn't complain.

"I was, uhm, I was going to board up the windows first."

"Good idea. We can try to warm it up in here a little bit."

I made to pick up the plywood, but he threw out his hand to stop me. "You can man the drill, but you're not lifting those up with your arm like that."

Sighing and knowing that it was probably pointless to fight back, I grabbed the drill from the counter and followed him outside. I couldn't be sure underneath his nice shirt, but the ease with which he grabbed the board and carried it outside made me think he had to be extremely strong. The thought should have been intimidating, but in my current state it was more comforting.

Alessio didn't say much as we worked to cover the front windows and the missing pane in the door. He gave me slightly surprised look as I began to drill through the wood, like he was somewhat surprised that I was so confident with power tools, but I was used to doing things myself. Most of my life had turned out that way.

It was finally starting to warm up when we finished. Not enough to make it tolerable to me with the biting air, but enough to make me wish I had a campfire and blanket so that I could bask in the warm rays for a little bit longer. The blocked off sunlight made a big difference when I went back into the shop, I was used to much more natural light.

"I really hope it doesn't take the insurance company too long to replace them," I mused as I put a pot of coffee on to brew.

"You're not about to try and stay open today, are you?" He gestured to my actions.

"No, I still want to be there in," I checked my watch, "Two more hours when Ezrah wakes up, but I figured since it's cold we could use something like this. And when Mr. Walker comes by I want to give him at least a to go cup to make the trip worth it."

"Is that the older man who I've seen here a couple of times?"

"Yeah, he's a nice guy. His wife used to come with him, but she passed away a little while ago and even then he kept with the routine."

As I talked, I cleaned up a few small things. The register I had knocked askew when I vaulted the counter, the baseball bat still laying discarded on the floor. I hadn't even realized that somewhere in our struggle, we must have knocked one of the shelves down, because one was hanging vertically, only held to the wall by one screw now. The other end seemed to have been torn out, nails and all.

I swung the fallen end back up, like it was on a hinge, trying to make sure that it was straight. Once I had it back where I liked it, I looked for the drill but it was on the counter across the room. I sighed in frustration, but I saw Alessio reach for it, grinning. "I've got you."

"Thanks," I muttered.

I double checked the balance one more time to make sure it was right when I felt him step up behind me, and I froze. His sturdy chest was pressed against my spine as he reached over my shoulders, putting his hand next to mine to brace the shelf and handing me the drill with his other. I took it carefully, making sure to avoid his fingers and trying to keep mine steady as I fixed it.

He stepped back and gave me a sideways grin. "Perfect."

I gave him my own smile and flicked the extra small piece of metal in his direction. "Nailed it."

With reflexes much faster than I had expected, he snagged it straight out of the air and tried to hide his goofy chuckle, "That was a terrible pun."

"Made you laugh, didn't it?"

He was about to make another comment when a knock sounded from the boarded up door and it was tentatively opened. I was on edge to see who came in, but when I saw the cane enter and then the person, I took a relieved breath to know that it was just Mr. Walker. He seemed a little confused by the sign on the door but curious to what it meant. He took in the destroyed room and the wto of us, "Ms. Eliana, what happened here?"

"A small mishap," I tried to shrug it off as I spun around behind the register to grab him a to-go cup and fill it. "But everyone is going to be alright and we'll hopefully have the store up and running tomorrow or the next day. I just wanted to make sure that you got your coffee this morning."

He seemed concerned as he reached out to accept the cup, reaching for his wallet as I held up a finger to stop him. "Don't worry about paying. In fact, you can't pay today because I don't have the register running."

Mr. Walker seemed as though he wanted to say something more or debate the matter, but he caught sight of the shattered pottery on the floor. "I should probably get out of your way, it seems as though you've still got a lot to do."

"I'm sorry that I don't have any lemon cake for you this morning."

"Don't even think like that dear, it's more than kind for you to have made coffee just for me." He turned towards Alessio, "Is this a new employee I haven't met yet?"

Alessio stood up straight from where he was leaning against a table, returning the handshake being offered by Mr. Walker, "No sir, just... a friend of Eliana's."

He began to hobble towards the door with his cane, "Well, make sure she's not here all day. She works too hard, that one."

He sent a wink my way and I laughed, as did Alessio. "I've started to figure that out."

Alessio held the door for Mr. Walker, who shuffled out slowly as I called goodbye and grabbed the mop from the back room. I pulled it back in front of the counter as I eyed the pool of dried blood left from Ezrah's beating.

I stared at it and shivered, then jumped as I felt Alessio's hand wrap around mine, only to loosen my fingers so that he could take it from me.

"Let me do this part," He coaxed quietly.

I nodded and stepped back, reminding myself in my head over and over that Ezrah was going to be fine. The doctors had fixed him up, he was only still in the hospital for observation. Nothing bad was going to happen.

Alessio seemed to understand that I needed quiet for a few minutes. I grabbed the broom instead, deciding instead to sweep up the large pieces of the mugs and glass. Basically, anything that didn't have blood all over it.

Once we had finished righting the chairs and getting the shop in decent order, I poured us both a mug of coffee. We still sat in relative silence for a little longer, until the alarm on my phone went off. I picked up the old thing from the counter and turned it off. "Ezrah should be waking up soon. I should probably get back."

"Understandable." Alessio nodded, setting his mug down. "Things are already better in here. You'll have the place up and running in no time."

I grabbed my bag from the counter, grateful to have my wallet and everything inside it again. "Thank you so much for your help today, Alessio. I couldn't have done all of this alone."

"Of course. I told you, anything you need, give me a call."

I locked the door behind me, making sure the paper sign I had made was still there. "I will."

I turned to start heading down the street again, back where I had come from a couple of hours before, when I heard his deep voice.

"Where do you think you're going?" He called out, giving me a stern look.

I waved in the general direction of downtown. "The hospital, of course."

"Eliana, I'm not letting you walk."

Alessio stepped into the street, holding his suit jacket in one hand and opening the passenger side door with the other. I almost rejected his offer, after everything he had done