Chapter 3

She heard a groan from her room. She quickly replaced the wallet, and rushed into her room where she sat by his side, dabbing his forehead with water. The guy-no Nick, she corrected herself, continued to groan, and then finally opened his eyes. Jacinda gasped. These eyes were not the ones she had seen in the picture, these were the eyes of someone who had been hurt, and badly, too. She had seen that look enough in her friends' eyes and her own. Nick looked up into the troubled gray eyes, and felt an affinity there. Here was finally a girl who had experienced hurt. For some reason, it troubled him to think that the owner of these beautiful eyes had been hurt so badly that it showed so obviously.
He looked over the face and found that there was a spectacularly beautiful young woman sitting there beside him, dabbing his forehead with water. She had long dark red hair, which he had never seen on a girl before, which appealed to him in a way. But the hurt in her eyes dimmed the spark of hope that had just ignited in him. This girl, whoever she was, had experienced something awful, and was still hurting over it. He groaned again involuntarily at the sudden wave of nausea he felt.
"Hush now, it's alright," she murmured to him, stroking his dirty hair. He looked up at her again and saw she had a worried look on her face. Maybe at least he could be friends with her, and the thought of having one friend who understood pain appealed to him.
"Wh-Where am I?" he asked her in a shaky voice.
"My bedroom. You took a pretty bad fall out there, I suspect you have a rather large bump on your head."
He looked around him, and saw the definite feminine air about the room. The walls were light blue on the top half and pinstripe light yellow on the bottom. There were stuffed animals everywhere, and pictures of who he suspected were her friends on a cluttered light colored wooden desk.
"Who are you?" he suddenly asked, as he'd been wondering what her name was since he came to.
"Jacinda Anne Freeman." she said bluntly.
"Might I ask the name of my patient?" she asked, looking right into his hurt filled eyes.
There was an honesty and serenity about her that he just decided to be as blunt as she had and to hell with aliases. "Nickolas Gene Carter."
He groaned again, and she started to look worried. "Lift your head a minute. I want to see this bump." he did as she told him, amazed that she hadn't reacted at all when he'd told her his name. She looked at his bump then gently laid his head back down.
"You'll need some ice for that, Nick. I'll be right back." she went off to the kitchen downstairs. While she was getting the ice, he was wondering why her eyes held such a sadness in them. But there was one thing he knew for sure. Jacinda was a girl who to date didn't seem to give a care who he was, she was just concerned about his health. This touched him, and he waited for her to return with the ice.

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