Someone to Care

The autumn air was moist and cold with the promise of rain and the light breeze was shaking all the loose leaves on the trees. The sharp sting of the air as it wafted around him made Frank shiver and pull his coat tighter to his body as he made his way through the park, heading straight for the wooden bench that looked out onto the lake. It was dark, around midnight and the air was only going to get colder but right then Frank wasn't concerned with consequences of his slight stupidity.

He sat down on the wooden bench and let out a long sigh, his warm breath hitting the cold air making it visible as it billowed up to the sky and disappeared. He was shaking, but he was unsure if it was from the cold or what he had just experienced. It hadn't been the first time but he still got that shaking feeling, it was still a shock to the system.

He looked out across the deep murky lake giving a tiny smile at how the lights of the town reflected in the still water. He hissed at the tinge of pain that shot through his cheek where he had taken a few blows from hisboyfriend ex-boyfriend. He touched his face then pulled his hand away and inspected the blood on his fingertips that had yet to clot and stop running down his face.

He wiped his hand on his jeans and scrunched them up into the pockets of his jacket and crossed one leg over the other. He wanted to just stay out a little bit longer before going home to a probably worried mother and get twenty questions. The almost silence was soothing and enough to put him to sleep if it hadn't been so damn cold.

Just as he was about to get up and walk around the park, in an attempt to heat himself up, a blinding light came from the other side of the lake and shone right into his eyes. He squinted and put his hand up to shield his eyes. It only took a second to realise that it was the headlights of the car that shone into his face. He frowned and rolled his eyes at the delinquent that had taken their car into the park even though it was marked clearly that you were not supposed to.

He stood up and crossed his arms over his chest and took two steps to the left, feeling a little self conscious at the fact that the car's head lights were shining on him and that the driver could probably see him. Frank moved out of the immediate light as he heard the car's engine rev. He looked back at the car again and stopped dead at what he was witnessing.

He watched in horror as the car drove forward and right into the deep, murky lake. His jaw dropped as he saw the car sink as the dark water swallowed it with ease. The headlights were still on and Frank could see where they shown through the water. He looked around himself for anyone else around to help and phone an ambulance but there was no one, clearly no sane person would be in the park in the dead of night, especially when it was so damn cold.

He finally managed to make his lead feet move back over to where he could see the car directly in front of him. He kicked off his shoes and shed his jacket and hoodie, leaving them scattered on the ground, as he dove straight into the ice-cold water. He gasped and panted as his head cracked the surface again and took a huge gulp of air before he dove down to the light. He couldn't see clearly through the muddy water, it even murkier because of the impact of the car stirring up all the sediment.

After what felt like a long intense struggle down to the car he got to the drivers window, seeing a man, with dark hair with his head back and rested on the headrest of the seat, clearly unconscious. Frank tried the door handle and found it click open immediately, meaning the man had not locked it before he had drove into the lake. He prised the door open, disturbing even more sediment, and proceeded to pull the man out of the seat.

His lungs were starting to ache with the lack of air and he started having trouble seeing straight. He pulled the man clear of the car then looked up to the surface. He could only just tell that it was the right direction from the way the headlights of the car hit it, the disturbance in the water making little waves visible. Frank gave a great push from the bed of the lake, pulling the much taller, much heavier, man with him. He kicked and kicked, waiting desperately for his head to break the surface, his lungs feeling as if they were starting to shrivel and his sight becoming even blurrier as his head felt light as a cloud from the serious deprivation of oxygen.

Eventually, just as Frank was beginning to panic and think it had been a wasted effort to save the man when he was beginning to loose his life as well, he broke free of the water and managed to get a breath of air, a breath of hope, into his lungs. Once he realised he was above water he gasped great gulps and spluttered as he tread water and tried to keep the man that he could have just saved the life of, above water.

He slowly swam to the edge of the lake, appearing a little to the left of where he had left his clothes, making sure all the time, that the unconscious man's head was above water. He was just able to touch the bottom of the lake with his toes at the edge and so was able to hoist the man onto the grass before lifting himself up.

Frank shivered immediately as the cold air hit his wet body but ignored it as he leant over the man, his cheek next to his mouth, to try and feel any breath. He couldn't feel anything but he couldn't tell if that was because of how much he was shivering. He gripped the mans wrist instead and desperately searched for a pulse. It was there but it was weak. He hadn't been in the water much longer than Frank had.

He quickly moved him into the recovery position, after making absolute sure that he was breathing by watching his chest very slowly rise and fall. He crawled over to his coat and hoodie and dragged them back to the man. He draped the coat around the guy and searched in his hoodie for his cell phone. He found it and immediately dialled 911.

He kept his finger on the guys pulse on his wrist as the phone rang twice before it was answered "Hello, please state what emergency service you require and your location."

After a panicked, rushed, phone call for an ambulance, Frank hung up and added the hoodie to the goat that was still draped over the guy. The pulse he could barely feel before was becoming weaker; in contrast to Frank's own that was beating in his ears.

"I went through far to much for you to die on me, please, please hang on a little longer." Frank muttered as he brushed the mans long wet hair out of his closed eyes. Frank was shivering violently now, his teeth chattering together, but he wasn't going to let it get to him. It wouldn't matter if he had a little cold after this, as long as the guy had the best chance to live.

After only a few more minutes, he heard the sirens of the ambulance and the blue flashing lights, circled around him as the vehicle pulled right into the park and to where Frank and the man were laying on the ground. Frank stood, shielding his eyes from the harsh headlights as the two paramedics rushed out of the ambulance and over to him.

One, went straight to the man, while the other, produced a tinfoil blanket and immediately got Frank wrapped up tightly in it. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" The woman asked, looking right at Frank, taking out a light pen and shining it into Frank's eyes.

"N-No j-just cold," Frank stuttered, paying more attention to what the other paramedic was doing with the guy. "Is he going to be okay?" he asked, knowing it was a stupid question as the woman would not be able to tell already, considering she hadn't even seen him properly yet. She led him over to the guy where she kneeled down next to the other paramedic as he did the routine checks

"We'll just have to wait and see I'm afraid. I'm Jane by the way and this is Tony. Can you tell us what happened?" She asked as she wrapped the guy in another tinfoil blanket.

"I-I don't know. All I saw was the car go into the water and so I went in after him, to get him out." Frank said. The paramedics looked at one another and nodded. The guy, Tony stood and went back to the ambulance to get a stretcher.

"Okay. We're going to take him to the hospital, you should come too to get checked out as well, just in case," she said, adding the last bit when Frank went to interrupt. He reluctantly nodded.

-

Frank sat in the waiting room, with a cup of coffee in his hand, the blanket still wrapped around him and staring off into space. He had been given the all clear but had been asked to stay until he felt ready to go home. Instead of sitting in a room on his own, he decided to go and see how the other guy was doing. He hadn't been told much, thanks to the fact that he wasn't family. All he knew was that the guy was called Gerard, that he was stable and that he had improved quickly, since he had been moved out of the ICU.

He finally sighed and put the cup down at his feet. He hated waiting around for anything and this as just killing him. He wanted to see the guy and make sure with his own eyes that he was okay. His family wasn't even here; apparently no one could get hold of them, any of them. He clearly needed someone and nobody was there.

"Hey, Frank is it?" Frank heard from behind him as he stared into the window of the room that Gerard was in, watching, as he lay motionless, strapped up to a heart monitor and an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth. He turned and saw the little plump nurse that had been going in and out of Gerard's room for the past hour and a half and that had checked him over also.

"Yeah?" Frank said with his eyebrows raised as she smiled at him.

"Why don't you go in? Just for a little bit, so you can see he is going to be all right and go home maybe? Chances are he won't wake up tonight and you need to get home and get some sleep. Will it rest your mind if you see him close up? You can visit properly in the morning," The nurse said, clasping Frank's arm and looking at him sympathetically.

"Is that okay? I mean, I thought-" Frank started to say but she cut him off with a finger to her lips.

"If you don't tell, I wont," she said with a small smile and a wink. He smiled back, gratefully. She let go of his arm and walked back along the corridor, looking back at Frank and giving small gestures to tell him to go in.

Frank slowly slipped into the dark room. That nurse had switched off the lights so that anyone walking past wouldn't notice Frank in there. He slowly made his way to the chair beside Gerard's bed and sat down quietly.

He felt like he really shouldn't be there, and really he shouldn't have been. It should have been his parents that got to see Gerard first. Frank even felt wrong calling him by name, even if it was just inside his head. He didn't know him personally, he hadn't been officially introduced and it just felt wrong, all of it did. He shouldn't be there. Neither of them should have had to be there.

Frank's mind travelled to what could have been if he hadn't been there to save him. Neither of them would have been there. Frank would have been at home, in his bed, none the wiser and Gerard, Gerard would have died. Frank quickly guided his mind away from those thoughts and concentrated on the fact that Gerard was there.

He stared at the man whose life he had just saved wondering what could have possibly made him want to take it away in the first place. The light that shone in from the corridor outside through the window shone on Gerard's face making it look gaunt and pale. His black hair that lined his face was matted and tangled created a drastic contrast.

Frank sighed as he put his head in his hands and rubbed at his eyes. He really was tired and should go home for sleep. Part of him however wanted to be around until Gerard woke up, so that he could explain himself.

Soon the fatigue took over the want to stay and Frank stood up, shaking the blanket off and leaving it on the chair. He would come back in the morning to find out what was going on. He really wanted to know.

Just as he got to the door, he turned back to look at Gerard. To his surprise his eyes were open and scanning the ceiling. Frank dropped the door handle and watched as Gerard's eyes scanned the room until they found him standing there. His eyes were wide and clearly scared and confused.

"Who-" he started, his voice croaking and muffled with the mask. He took it off. "-Are you? Where am I?" he finished slowly, trying his hardest to talk through the pain and see through the fogginess in his head to get some answers.

"I uh- I'm Frank. You're in hospital," Frank said walking slowly back over to the bed as Gerard hoisted himself up a little so he could look around a bit better.

"Why? Why am I here?" Gerard asked, still talking slowly, still not quite there, not quite able to get a lot of air into his lungs without it hurting, thanks to the damage of all the water.

"You- you were in the park. You uh…drove into the river," Frank said, unsure of how to word it so that he wouldn't take offence or anything. Gerard looked at Frank then, properly for the first time as that little thing triggered the memories of everything. The drinking. The pills. The water engulfing him. The feeling of sweet release from everything.

"Are you a doctor or a nurse?" Gerard asked staring at Frank.

Frank swallowed and shook his head. "No. I saved you. I got you out of the water." he said quietly, staring straight back at Gerard, hoping that those words would trigger some sort of relief signals and he would somehow thank him.

Gerard's eyes narrowed, so much so that Frank took a step back, taken aback at the sudden harshness in Gerard's expression. His heart monitor had started accelerating a little. "Did I ask you to?" He asked, his voice raspy as he started to get himself worked up.

Frank swallowed at the question and couldn't answer vocally and so shook his head instead. He had been expecting an apology, not this.

"Then what makes you think you have the right to stop me from doing something I wanted to do. I don't know you. I didn't even want to ever know you existed. Why did you stick around? Think I'd give you some sort of glory for saving me?" Gerard rasped, reaching for the oxygen mask and inhaling a few times as Frank stood, still in shock. "Keep out of my life. You have no business being in it. I never want to see you again." He said before turning his head back to the ceiling and reattaching the oxygen mask to his face, closing his eyes also.

Frank stood still for a few moments, unsure what to do, what to say. The colour had drained form his face. Gerard had wanted to die, wanted to be left to drown. The idea had passed through Frank's head numerous times but he hoped that that wasn't the case. He could never, and would never understand why someone would want to kill him or herself.

Frank finally blinked and let a few tears slip. To know that someone would waste his or her life for whatever reason was heart wrenching for him. He turned and left the room, once outside he took a deep breath. He would come back the next day. He just wanted to understand.

From inside the hospital room, Gerard let out a long sigh as he heard the door shut, a few tears of his own slipping. He didn’t know that guy but he hated him, or at least he thought he did. In the back of his mind, deep down under a thousand thoughts he knew he had wanted to survive, that's why he waited until he could see someone in the park before he drove into the lake, why he had not just finished himself off with the pills and booze, and why he continued to use the oxygen mask when if he knew for absolute certain that he wanted to die he would take it off and leave it off. He just wanted someone to care; just someone, anyone, and he got that.