An Unexpected Twist

Bleeding Hearts

"Soul. Why are you not going to school?"

Soul looks up groggily. His mother is looking down at him, her hands on her hips and a stern expression on her face.

"What?"

"The school called and said you haven't been showing up. Where have you been going?"

Soul almost tells her but he shuts his mouth at the last second. The last thing he needed was his parents to get involved.

"No where."

He sits through his mother's lecture before he gets up. He grabs his jacket and slips it on as he gets his keys. He goes out and starts up his bikes and heads to the hospital like he has been doing for the last week. He parks and goes up to Maka's room. He sits next to Spirit and softly takes Maka's hand.

"Has there been any change?"

Spirit shakes his head. Soul sighs and goes silent. There was nothing else to say. All he and Spirit could do was wait for Maka to wake up. And Soul knew that she would. She had to. For all their sakes.

•••••••••

The soft beeping of machines is what wakes Maka up. She had been dreaming about something but she couldn't exactly remember what. Her mind had just latched onto the soft beeps and whirls of machinery. Then it focused on the faint snores in the room. They sounded familiar and they almost lull her back to sleep before the door opens and the voices of strangers fill the room. Maka keeps her eyes closed and lays still. Someone softly touches her shoulder.

"It's ok to open your eyes sweetie. No one here is going to hurt you."

The speaker's voice is gentle and soft. Maka slowly opens her eyes and she looks up at the nurse's face. At first she freezes up, but relaxes when she sees Soul looming over the nurse's shoulder.

"How do you feel sweetie?"

It takes Maka several tries to speak since her throat is still raw.

"Like I've been run over by a semi and trampled by a herd of rhinos."

The nurse nods and replaces the liquids in Maka's IV. The gentle conversation going on in the back of the room draws Maka's attention. The doctors were talking and that made her nervous. Soul takes her hand and gently squeezes it.

"It's going to be ok Maka. I promise."

Her attention shifts to him and she could see the sincerity in his eyes. She relaxes once again and closes her eyes. Soul talks to her for awhile and as he does, Maka starts to wonder why she ever doubted him. He really did care about her and perhaps was telling the truth when he said he loved her. Her heart flutters slightly and the door opens.

"Maka."

Her eyes fly open and she nearly jumps out of bed.

"Papa!"

Spirit smiles and comes over to her other side. He gently hugs her and brushes her hair back.

"You had me worried sick Maka."

"Papa, I didn't...."

"Shh, it's ok. I'm just glad you're ok."

Tears come to the corners of Maka's eyes. She was just so overwhelmed by emotion. Spirit takes her free hand and sits down. After while the doctors and nurse leave, leaving Maka alone with the only people that she wanted to be around.

•••••••••

"She'll be good to go home tomorrow. We just want to make sure that she'll be ok."