Crystal Clear

Chapter Two

The sunlight shone through the hospital window, directly onto Ava’s bed. The strength of the sunlight woke her. She ached, she opened her heavy eyelids slowly and she looked around to see where she was. The room was full of varying shades of white, medical furniture and a few other patients in beds scattered around the large room. Ava’s bed was placed so she had a direct view of the door and the nurse’s station behind it.

Taking in her surroundings; the room stank of hospital, Ava cringed as she hated hospitals. There was a man stood up nearby her in a blue outfit handing out breakfast and menus for the rest of the day.

“You had a lucky escape, love! Any further into the road and you’d have had more than just bruising” a voice said.

Ava looked around to find the voice; it was a nurse; with dark brown hair, shoulder length with an oval-shaped face and kind facial features. The nurse’s eyes met Ava’s and the nurse smiled.

“How long have I been asleep for?” Ava asked while prodding her body in various places to examine her injuries. Her right-hand side hurt, she could feel her face was grazed as well.

“Oh, just a few hours. You were exhausted. We’ve got hold of your family but as you know, there’s a seven-hour drive to here. So, they should be with you in about an hour or so.” The nurse replied, handing Ava some pain relief, “You should be alright to be discharged later. If those ribs of yours give you any more pain, go to your GP”

Ava nodded whilst taking the tablets the nurse had just handed her, with some water that Ava had poured whilst she was listening to the nurse. She really wasn’t looking forward to seeing her parents. Knowing full well, her mother would fuss her, and her father would complain about her not learning to look both ways when crossing the road as an adult. Suddenly, the nurse got called back to the nurse’s station after a telephone rang and another nurse had beckoned her over. Ava watched the nurse rush over to the station and answer the telephone and look back at Ava. The nurse then walked back over to Ava “Regrettably your parents have got stranded in the heavy snow down south. They said they had would try again when the snow melts. However, I have some slightly better news for you; you have a visitor, although it is the man who was driving the car that hit you, waited in the hospital. He wanted to see you when you woke up. He feels terrible about it. Would you be alright if he came in and saw you?” the nurse asked kindly.

Ava nodded, unsure what she’d say to the man when he’d arrive. “But first, I’d like to know where my phone and stuff is” she asked the nurse quickly before she left the room. The nurse then spun around and pointed to a plastic bag on the floor. Ava grabbed it reaching around in it she found her worn, black, leather handbag underneath the pile of clothes. Searched inside it and got out her phone - desperate to see if Dan had got in contact with her. Maybe, Ava thought, Dan might have changed his mind in the clear light of day. Rethinking his actions and realizing that he was wrong about ending things. However, when she looked at her phone, there was nothing. No texts, no calls, no emails, no f*******: messages… nothing. This really wasn’t helping with her emotional wounds. She sighed loudly and pushed her self-back into the hospital bed, perhaps a little too hard, and she waited for a minute or so until she saw two figures at the door. One was the nurse, and towering over her with his six-foot frame, he stood there, staring at her.

His eyes were red and puffy from sleeplessness and she assumed crying. He hurried over to her side. Ava was shocked, her heart skipped a beat, and her palms went sweaty. No wonder he didn’t call her or text. He was already in the hospital. He was the one that hit her; he must have been chasing her to apologize! Ava managed to twist the event in her mind into a lovely romantic tale that was the stuff of fairy tales. The tall man had a handsome square jaw, a sprinkling of stubble and his soft dark spiky hair seemed flatter than usual. It was Dan and her heart leapt at the sight of him. She opened her mouth to say something to him but before she could, he grabbed her hand. She gazed upwards and looked in his forgiving, dusky, brown eyes and he spoke to her “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you. I was so angry. I only knew I hit something…. you when I heard a noise!” he bumbled, “It’s my brother’s fault really. I was mad at him, we were meant to meet up last night. He never showed. It would have been the first time in years…So I decided to pay him a visit as I thought it must have been important if he’d not shown, but when I turned up, he was amid showing out some girl from his house. No wonder he didn’t arrive if he was entertaining his lady friends! Sod family eh?”

It was only when the words left his mouth did Ava realized it wasn’t Dan at all. She lay there, flabbergasted at what she’d just heard. Ava quickly decided to play it cool and said gently “I forgive you, it was my fault really, I was upset at the time too – wasn’t looking where I was going! I’m not going to press charges, so no worries there. Erm...By the way, is your brother called Daniel?”

The man towing above her swiftly got the chair from beside him and sat down, “Yeah, he is. Why, do ya know him?” he enquired. Ava was quite happy that this stranger’s handsome face now even closer to hers.

Ava nodded shyly before replying “We go way back. He’s never mentioned a brother before though”

Dan’s brother looked surprised hearing Ava’s words and thought for a minute then said “Well… that’s just great! I’m his twin. Richard, everyone calls me Ric though. Our mother put us both in care; we got fostered by the same couple, but I caused trouble and they couldn’t look after the two of us in the end. So, we ended up with different couples. We used to talk but then we didn’t. My mother, my adoptive mother told me about a month ago that my brother had tried to get into contact with me, but he rang her house – I’ve not lived there for years! Dan told her that our biological mother was seriously ill and now might be the time to see her before the chance disappeared forever. I agreed and drove 140 miles to see him last night. We were meant to be apartment hunting together, as I’m transferring brigades in a few weeks….”

Ava stopped him in his tracks then and questioned “Brigades? Sounds fancy, are you a firefighter then?” She then noticed Richard’s face turn a shade of crimson, his striking features, smiling back at her. He smiled coyly whilst Ava fiddled around with her hair the best she could in a brief pause in his talking.

Richard nodded with a proud cheeky smile on his face “Yep, I’ve wanted to live here for a while, and since Dan said Cecilia – our real mother- was ill I knew it was best to try and get to know her before the chance went.” Richard continued to talk about his life, and all Ava could do was listen and smile dopily at him when he looked at her.

“Have you got a significant other? Because I haven’t!” Ava blurted out during Richard telling her all about his life up north, she blushed and wished her mind would think before it made her speak. Richard grinned and responded brazenly “Nope, kudos though, you’ve only met me about 40 minutes ago and already you want to bed me?!” Ava giggled in reply which made her ribs ache. “Let’s leave it a week or two at least so I can heal!” she in a cheeky voice in-between her little laughs. Richard smiled again from ear to ear, before reaching into his leather jacket pocket and pulling out a business card– he turned Ava’s hand upside down and placed the card in her palm.

“Ring me when you’re healed, and we’ll arrange a date” Richard chuckled, winked and he then stood up and walked out. Ava couldn’t believe her luck. He was handsome, funny, caring and most of all he looked like the man she’d chased after to no avail for years – with a completely different personality. The only thing Dan and Richard appeared to have in common was their charm, or at least the ability to woo her off her feet with little effort at all.

It seemed so wrong but right to fancy the man that had nearly killed her.