Fan Fiction |
by Jenny Tran
They quickly rushed Neil to the hospital while Kathy rode in the ambulance with him. She held tightly to his hand until they brought him into the emergency room where she was then urged to stay in the waiting room “You can’t enter miss.” The nurse said strictly.
Kathy sat around while they operated for an hour to get the bullet out of his arm. When the operation light went off, she was up on her feet “Doctor, is he okay?!” Kathy asked.
The elder man with the glasses nodded with a small smile “It went very well, but he must rest for now. You can see him when the nurses take him back to his room.”
“Thank you.” She smiled with a sigh of relief. The doctor walked away and revealed the policeman that she saw a few weeks before at Midnite standing a few feet from her “Hi.” She nodded politely.
Gary nodded “Hello. If you don’t mind Miss…”
“Lau.” She replied knowing that there would be questions.
“We want to ask you a few questions.” He smiled. “Is he okay?” he asked inspite of his authority.
Kathy nodded “Yes. They took out the bullet.”
“How did it all happen?” he sat down while jotting down notes. She told him about what had happened and it was full of chaos, she only heard a few gun shots but did not know who shot who. No matter what she said, she reminded herself to keep Mel’s name out of it. Gary nodded after a while “Thank you. If we need you, we’ll contact you.” He let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes “These triad wars are getting worse by the day.” Kathy nodded blankly “He talks about you a lot.”
“Who?” she seemed lost.
Gary smiled “My cousin. We’re actually second cousins. I recently got in contact with Neil through my aunt who is his mom. Each time I talked to him he would always mention a certain girl that he liked.”
Kathy smiled sadly “I don’t think he’s talking about me. You see we grew up together, and during high school he had a huge crush on this girl and he still likes her up until today. But he’s too shy to approach her.”
He frowned, it wasn’t what Neil had told him. “Really? He’s never mention about this crush before.” Kathy shrugged confusingly “No, I remember he specifically told me about this girl he described that looked just like you. Although he never told me her name but he mentioned that she was his best friend. I figured you're the girl since you seemed to be the only one that sitting here in the hospital waiting.”
Kathy’s brows furrowed and she looked sympathetic “Why didn’t he ever tell me?” she wondered.
Gary titled his head thoughtfully “Maybe you should ask him. I’ve got to get back to the station, so tell Neil I said hi.” Kathy nodded with a smile.
She got Neil’s room number from the nurse as she headed towards the room. She peeked through the door, careful not to wake him because he was sleeping peacefully. Kathy pulled up a chair next to him and sat down. She took a hold of his hands and sandwiched it between her own “Why didn’t you tell me?” she whispered.
Neil was in dreamland when he heard a familiar voice, his eyes fluttered open and he noticed the white room. Was he in a hospital? He looked around and it landed on Kathy who had a smile on her face “Kathy…” he whispered with a croaky voice.
She quickly looked at him with concern when he tried to sit up “Shh…don’t get up. You need to rest.” She coaxed as she gently pushed him back. “I won’t go anywhere.” She assured him.
“Good.” He let out a sigh and a smile appeared on his pale lips “I’m glad you’re okay.”
Kathy nodded “I’m glad your okay.” Her smile faded slowly and he quickly caught on. He bent his head downward to catch her eyes again. She looked up when he looked at her questioningly “I have a question.”
Neil was not expecting anything in particular “Shoot away.” He urged while he gave her hand a soft squeeze. It felt good to see her again.
“Do you like me?” she asked straightforwardly and he quickly smiled “No, I don’t mean as a friend…I just talked to Gary and he said that you mentioned a girl you liked and the description fit me.”
He let out a short sigh “I guess it was about time you found out.”
“So you do?” she asked while her heart began to beat faster. It was like she was in a dream of some sort. In the back of her mind, she hoped that it would not end it was indeed a dream.
Neil smiled with a nod of the head “I didn’t know how to tell you. I had a talk with Mel and he told me you had moved on. He also advised that I should not tell you and that I should chase after Kelly so you could continue with your life because you only wanted me to be happy.”
Kathy frowned wondering why he would tell Neil that when he knew how much she liked Neil. He wasn’t the type of person to do something so sleezy as to lie like that. “Do you remember the letter?”
Neil instantly knew what she was talking about “How could I forget it?” he squeezed her hand tighter “I found it under your pillow case. That’s when I realized you still kept it.”
She laughed embarrassingly and then snapped her head up “You snooped around my room?”
He rolled his eyes “Yeah, because I love the smell of Kathy's sweaty clothes. No, I followed a spider in there and tried to catch it before you came home shrieking cause I know how much you despise them. It crawled under you pillow and I pulled it up and found the letter.” He smiled “I never forgot about it either.”
Kathy looked away shyly “Really?…So when did you know…” she let her words fade away.
"It’s been a few weeks. I wanted to tell you that one night when Mel came over to give me pointers. But he convinced me not to tell you so I didn’t. You know how hard it was for me to keep it inside?” he laughed. “It was a bomb waiting to explode.”
Again she frowned “Why did Mel lie to you? He knew how much I liked you.” She searched her mind for an answer but it didn’t come up.
Neil was less curious as he shrugged his shoulders “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we like each other.” He smiled and reached over to caress her face.
“You really want to know?” the two looked up at the voice by the door. It was Mel. He entered and closed the door behind him.
Kathy smiled but she did not leave Neil’s side “I can take a guess.”
Mel raised an eyebrow carefully “Really? Go ahead, I wanna see how well you know me.”
“I don’t think you are the type of person that is that low. I think you were trying to help us. Because you wanted Neil to tell me himself, maybe you sensed that he was reluctant. So you used this scheme to push him in the other direction so the more you pushed the more Neil wanted to tell me. But you would never guess that Neil was not the type of person to hurt anyone’s feelings. If he thought I didn’t like him, he would not tell me for fear of ruining our relationship. Although your intentions were good, they did not work as well.” She finished with Neil looking at her intently.
“You really should go into psychology.” Mel clapped his hands. “You’re right, I did want Neil to tell you. I thought if I could provoke him to then he would come out with the truth, instead it pushed him further away.”
Kathy nodded as she turned back to Neil “Why would you go on with the show with Kelly if you didn’t like her?”
“For you.” Neil replied with a smile “I thought it was what you needed to move on. Some kind of closure, you know? I thought I would be helping…but I guess it was blown out of proportion.” He laughed when Kathy shook her head recalling their close call.
“Thank you.” Kathy said wholeheartedly. She reached up and hugged him warmly for the first time.
After a long moment Mel cleared his throat and the couple pulled apart embarrassingly. They forgot he was still there “I’d love to sit and watch this tear jerker but I’m a man on the run. Don’t forget to invite me to your wedding.” He gave them a quick wink of the eye and headed out.
Kathy looked worried and Neil smiled “You want to say your goodbyes?” she nodded and he twitched his head towards the door “Go on. I’ll be fine.”
“Thanks!” she gave him a peck on the cheek and ran after Mel. “Mel!” she stopped him.
He turned to her questioningly “Can’t leave me huh?” he smiled when she rolled her eyes.
“Where will you be? How can I find you?” she still wanted to keep in contact.
Mel smiled warmly, his eyes softened every time he saw her “Cell phone. You have it. But I might be traveling outside of the country for a while. There’s nothing in Hong Kong for me to stay. Except you…” she sighed sympathetically and he quickly added “But I’m happy for you. Honestly, I really am. I would have loved for you to be my girlfriend but I know our lives are too different. It will never work.” He placed his hands on her shoulders “But Neil is different. He can watch after you, he can make you laugh and you guys are best friends. There’s nothing else you can ask for.”
Kathy knew he liked her but she never guessed how gracious he could be. Her eyes welled up with tears as she gulped it back “Mel…” she let a single tear drop “I know if things were different, we would be great together. But Neil and I…we’ve been through so much. I need a guy that can be there for me…whenever I need him. You’re always on the run, I would be worried to death.”
He nodded understandingly as he wiped the tear from her eyes “I know. I think we’ve both always known that. If this thing doesn’t work out with Neil, look me up.” He winked at her with a sly grin. “I should really go now. The cops are looking for me.”
Kathy nodded “I know. You be careful.” She scolded before giving him a warm hug “I’ll miss you.” She knew that she would too.
Mel hugged her in return but soon he had to gently push her away before he couldn’t find it in his heart to let go “Neil’s waiting.” He coaxed.
She pulled away eventually and smiled through tears “I know. Don’t break anymore hearts now okay?” he smiled as he walked away slowly. “Maybe just 10 more!” Kathy cried with a laugh as he spun his head over his shoulder and grinned. Her smile slowly faded, so that was the last she’ll probably see of him.
Kathy returned to Neil’s room. He was trying to pour a drink of water from the pitcher and glass next to his hospital bed. She laughed as she took over and poured the water with ease “I’m gonna be handicap for a while.” He joked.
“I’ll be your extra arm.” She handed him the glass with a smile as she took a seat on the chair.
Neil smiled with gratitude as he took a drink “Its never too late to chose.”
Kathy knew what he meant by that “I’ve always known the answer.”
He placed the cup down and took a hold of her hand. Neil pulled it up to his face and kissed the back of her hand “You don’t know how happy I am to hear you say that.” She looked down at their entwined hands and covered a long yawn. Concern was written all over his face “Uh oh, someone’s sleepy. You should go home.”
Kathy shook her head vehemently “No, I want to stay with you. The doctor said you should be fine to leave tomorrow.” He knew there was no way of talking her out of it so he nodded. She held tightly to his hand as she laid her head on the side of his bed. Her eyes still smiling at his “What?” she asked when he was smiling at her.
“I’ve never noticed how cute you are.” His eyes moved around her face as it etched into his heart.
She laughed “Probably because of all the baby fat that covered my naturally cute face.”
His face turned solemn “Your weight has nothing to do with it. It never did. I liked you for who you are, but your weight was beginning to worry me. I knew you were sensitive so I didn’t mention it.”
Kathy nodded understandingly “I know. Because you never stopped talking to me unlike some people that I considered to be a friend. They saw me gain some weight in the summer and they suddenly stopped talking to me. You’ve always been by my side.”
He stroked her hair gently “And I will be there forever.” His smile grew when she began to doze off with a smile still plastered to her face. A few minutes later, he fell asleep too. His hand rested on her hair while she lied peacefully next to him.
The End