Return to Graceview

The drive was quick and swift like always, most drivers on the road slowing down or pulling off to the side in order to allow them through.

Before long—the ambulance was speeding down Williams Street in the heart of town, whizzing past the high school and heading to the south end of Wallace.

“Just think,” Alex said while he drove. “Once your paramedic training is done, you’ll be able to run around alone all you want… and you’ll be the one driving like a bat outta hell.”

Mohinder scoffed out a laugh. “I’d rather not.”

“Hey… if you really wanna switch from EMT to paramedic, then they’re gonna be a lot more willing to send you out by yourself,” Alex warned. “That’s what they did with me. You better be prepared for that, ‘cause it’s gonna happen.”

Mohinder smirked. “You talk like I’ve never driven this thing before. And I know you know better.”

“Hey… when are they starting paramedic training?” Alex thought to ask.

“Next week,” Mohinder answered. “So you’re probably gonna be riding around alone again here and there.”

“Aww… fuck,” Alex groaned. “They’re gonna end up sending me out with Jacob again, and he’s a fuckin’ jackass.”

Mohinder chuckled.

The ambulance reached its destination and made a swift right turn, cruising into the parking lot of the gigantic building with neon lights atop its roof, lights that were fairly difficult to see this time of day, though they always shone fantastically at nighttime. The massive, decorative, and heavily-painted building with the huge wrap-around parking lot was none other than the biggest and most popular club in town—Endzone. With a black exterior and several streaks of bright colors painted in lines, circles, and zig-zags all around the front, the place was a bit busy, even during lunchtime, a few crowds standing around outside and talking, though all of them scrambled back and cleared a path when the ambulance arrived.

Alex parked and turned the sirens off, leaving the flashing lights on—and they both hopped out in a hurry.

Mohinder strode around the vehicle and marched toward the first group of people he saw, two girls and a guy, all standing alongside the outer wall of the club.

“Where is he?” Mohinder asked them.

The smallest girl, a young blonde, pointed toward the front of the building where the entrance was.

Mohinder nodded and thanked her before breaking into a brisk stride toward the front of the building.

Endzone had a wide, spacious concrete clearing between the front of the building and the curb of Williams Street, a large open area where club visitors often liked to loiter late into the night hours. The entrance into the club was a pair of black double-doors built perfectly into the corner of the building, the doors painted to match the black and multi-colored zig-zag lines all over the wall around it, and far above the door and posted atop the building’s corner was the massive neon sign that read ENDZONE. It was a sight and an environment that had long since grown familiar to everyone here—and Mohinder strolled past the double-doors at once, glancing around the loitering area until his eyes landed on one familiar figure.

In the center of the concrete stretch was a single skinny man, sprawled on his back and repeatedly raising and lowering his knee, clutching his dirty white shirt and seeming to squirm a bit in his lying position, his brown, scraggly hair tossed messily back overtop the pavement.

Mohinder swallowed and broke into a harder stride again, Alex approaching from behind and following him.

“Ahhh,” the man—Wally—breathed and gasped, turning his head back and forth, his chest rising and falling quickly with his every rapid breath.

Mohinder reached him and lowered to his knee.

“Hey there,” he said, waving to gather his attention. “Wally. Can you hear me?”

Wally’s frantic brown eyes traveled up to Mohinder’s face.

“Oh shit,” he choked. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…”

“Calm down,” Mohinder said, raising a hand. “You’re hyperventilating. Let’s slow it down, first and foremost.”

“I c… I c…” Wally choked, seeming to be lost to a panic.

“Yes… you can,” Mohinder said knowingly, leaning slightly closer and giving him a reassuring look. “We’ve done this before. We both know you can do it. Big, deep breaths… big, deep, and slow. Are you ready?”

Wally sputtered and gaped at him, raising a shaking hand and absentmindedly reaching for him.

Mohinder clasped his hand and held it tightly, staring firmly into his eyes and giving him slow, calm instructions.

“Ready… breath in, four seconds, one big breath,” he told him.

Wally managed to take in a longer, bigger breath, his inhalation trembling, but he maintained it.

“One… two… three… four,” Mohinder counted. “Now… breathe out, and do it again.”

Wally huffed out a breath and tried again to force his inhalation to slow, shaking and stressed, but he held it for four seconds again, and by the time he did so a third time, he began to shake a little less, Mohinder counting it down for him each time.

Alex stood by and watched with the first responder bag held by his side, and farther away, a few groups of people were standing around near the entrance of Endzone, staring over at the scene from a distance.

Wally’s breaths seemed to simmer and slow, and he closed his eyes, raising his free hand and thumping his fist to his forehead.

“There we go,” Mohinder said comfortingly, waving for Alex to approach, though his focus remained on Wally. “Y’know… I don’t tend to get a lot of regulars in my line of work. You really oughta consider yourself special.”

Wally choked out a weak little laugh.

Mohinder smirked at seeing this. Wally’s breathing was steady and normal now, and he had at least calmed down enough to chuckle at a joke, which was a good sign.

“All right… Alex is gonna check you out and make sure everything is all right,” Mohinder said while Alex kneeled on Wally’s other side. “And, while he does that… why don’t you tell me what happened?”

Wally swallowed roughly, his eyes fluttering open, staring up at the sky with a downtrodden visage.

“Look at my arm,” he croaked, his tone cracking.

Mohinder paused, looking down. He was still holding onto Wally’s hand, and he turned it over slightly, revealing the inside of Wally’s arm—where a brand new needle mark was visible in the middle of his pale white skin.

Mohinder let out a disdainful sigh at the sight of it.

“I’m sorry,” Wally stammered, eyes watering, tears rolling down either side of his face as he thumped his fist to his forehead again. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be sorry, Wally,” Mohinder said softly. “You just need to be careful… and get yourself back into rehab. I thought you’d gotten clean.”

“I did!” Wally cried. “I did, I did, I did… I jus c… I just can’t… I can’t stand hearing all this shit in my head… I just caved and I had t… I had t… I had to make it stop …”

Alex worked to check Wally’s vitals while Mohinder talked to him, and they were quiet for a moment.

“Well… you need to get back to your psychiatrist too, then,” Mohinder determined. “Using heroin to self-medicate is the last thing you wanna do. Believe me.”

“They w… they won’t let me,” Wally sputtered. “They won’t let me go there anymore…”

“What?” Mohinder asked. “Why?”

“State insurance is covering less and less of that now,” Alex informed, removing the blood pressure gauge from Wally’s arm. “My brother’s having a similar problem. Lotta people are being forced out of medical care that they still need.”

“Oh… good Lord,” Mohinder sighed gravely.

“What exactly did you call us here for, bud?” Alex asked Wally. “We heard you thought you were having an overdose, but your vitals are mostly all right.”

“I thought I was,” Wally wheezed. “I got dizzy, and fell down, and I thought I was…”

“He’s had overdoses before,” Mohinder told Alex. “And he’s had to be resuscitated before, too.”

“Oh,” Alex uttered.

“And… as I’ve told him before… I think he has a bit of PTSD about overdosing and almost dying multiple times,” Mohinder added, raising his brows at Wally. “And… now… it’s resulted in another panic attack and another 911 call.”

“I went to the doctor… I went to the doctor, just like you told me to… and they told me they can’t see me anymore, ‘cuz Medicaid won’t cover me anymore… and won’t cover my meds anymore, either,” Wally murmured sadly, sealing his eyes shut as more tears began to flow. “I can’t afford it, man… I don’t know what to do… I don’t know what to do…”

There was another silence, Mohinder staring down at him with a rough, disturbed look strewn across his face, his teeth clenching, and his hand still clasped firmly around Wally’s, feeling an angry spark of indignation deep inside.

Alex’s expression fell stoic as he quietly packed everything back into his first-responder bag, having nothing comforting to say. Wally continued to cry silently with his eyes closed and his fist held to his forehead, and for seconds that seemed to last for hours, none of them said a word.

“This is just ridiculous,” Mohinder grumbled. “Wally, how late is your pharmacy open?”

Wally blinked a few times, sniffing and gazing up at him again. Alex raised his head and stared at him as well.

“Um… ‘till like… nine,” Wally mumbled.

“All right… I’ll tell you what,” Mohinder said, giving his hand a slight shake. “I’ll take you there when I get off work, and I’ll get your medication for you. Okay?”

Wally stared up at him incredulously, choking out a sobbing sort of breath.

“And… I will go ahead and hook you up with a therapist on the BetterHelp app, and we can get you involved with the suicide prevention program too, if need be,” Mohinder stated. “I’m sure I can afford a weekly or a monthly payment for a therapist. I don’t know if I can afford to get you into rehab, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. How many times have you relapsed since you first got clean?”

“Just… just now,” Wally said. “Just the once…”

“Then you’re not physically dependent on it, so you should be able to quit on willpower alone without it being a hazard,” Mohinder told him, leaning closer. “But you have to really, really want to. So, do you? Will you help me to help you?”

Wally stared up at him in miserable shock, inhaling another shaky breath, his lip trembling. Alex’s eyes were shifting between the two of them, landing on Mohinder and giving him a look of slight surprise.

“Don’t waste all that on me, man,” Wally said weakly.

“It’s not a waste if you want to get better ,” Mohinder told him flatly. “And there’s no reason on God’s green earth why they should be taking everything away from you. I don’t wanna come out here and find you like this anymore. So—you will have access to the help you need, one way or another. That is not up for debate. The only thing that’s up for debate now is whether or not you still want to try.”

There was a long, tense pause in the air.

Wally sighed, running a hand down his face and nodding.

“Yeah,” he muttered. “Yeah… okay… okay… I will…”

“Good,” Mohinder said.

“Do you want to go to the hospital?” Alex asked.

“No… no,” Wally mumbled, shaking his head. “Could y… could you take me home, Mohinder…?”

“Ah… we don’t really do that,” Alex remarked.

“He just lives right over there,” Mohinder informed, pointing across the street at the liquor store, as well as the old apartment complex behind it. “Fall Valley Apartments… same place I live. I can just walk him over there real quick.”

“Oh… all right,” Alex nodded, grabbing the bag and reaching his feet. “Well, I’ll bring the whistle-wagon over.”

“Gotcha,” Mohinder agreed.

Alex walked off toward the edge of the building to return to the ambulance, and Mohinder slowly pulled Wally upright, helping him to stand fully.

When they were both on their feet, Wally sniffled and combed his messy hairs to the side, meeting Mohinder’s eyes and grimacing with despair.

“I’m so sorry,” he choked. “I’m a fucking burden…”

Mohinder sighed, feeling an ache in his chest, and he gave Wally a one-armed hug, patting him on the back.

“You are really… really not,” he told him. “And I wish you could hear me when I say that…”

Wally stepped back, swallowing and squinting questioningly at him. “Whaddo you mean…?”

Mohinder sighed once more, giving him a defeated sort of look.

“Nobody ever hears me when I say…”

He stopped, looking away and shaking his head.

“Never mind,” Mohinder dismissed, facing him again and motioning to the road. “C’mon. C’mon…”

He guided Wally over to the curb, and they both stopped at the edge of the crosswalk and faced the main road, looking both ways and waiting for traffic to clear.

Wally turned his head, seeing the ambulance pulling out of the Endzone parking lot, rolling down the road past them and turning to drive into the parking lot behind the liquor store.

“Why couldn’t he just…?” Wally uttered, waving loosely across the street.

“Why couldn’t he just give you a ride across the street?” Mohinder laughed. “Well… namely because it’s illegal to carry you off to somewhere other than the hospital once you’re in that ambulance. And… I don’t think you actually want another ambulance bill, do you?”

“Oh God, no,” Wally breathed. “Okay, yeah, I get your point… never mind…”

Mohinder glanced up and down the street, seeing a lull in the traffic, and he stepped over the curb.

“You all right to run?” he asked.

“I… think so,” Wally muttered.

“All right… get ready,” Mohinder said, waiting for the final white SUV to cruise past. “And… let’s go.”

Just when the SUV coasted by, he grabbed Wally by the arm and broke into a brisk jog across Williams Street, and Wally ran along behind him, both of them reaching the other side and staggering to a stop on the sidewalk in front of the liquor store and the pawn shop.

When Mohinder turned to face him, Wally was leaning on a street light and grasping his head, swaying slightly in his stance.

“Here… come on, almost there,” Mohinder said, hooking his arm around Wally’s and escorting him off the sidewalk.

The two of them passed by the liquor store, heading towards the entryway to the apartments just beside it, shrubs and trees on either side. They walked onto the small, crackled parking lot of Fall Valley Apartment Complex, both of the buildings worn and dingy, one of them directly across from them, the other one immediately to their left. The parking lot was occupied by a few vehicles, and the ambulance was now parked in the middle of it, pointed at the exit.

Mohinder guided him over to the left building, the one both of them lived in. His own apartment was on the top floor and farthest left, and he knew that Wally’s was on the ground floor, though he couldn’t remember which one it was.

“Ah… what number is it, again?” Mohinder asked, gesturing to the last three apartments on the right side of the ground floor. “I know it’s one of those… I think… right?”

“It’s six… yeah,” Wally informed. “The second to last one…”

“Ah… gotcha. C’mon.”

They headed over to apartment six, stopping in front of its chipped yellow door.

Wally dug into the pockets of his weathered jeans, pulling out his keys and tiredly unlocking his door. Then, he pushed it open, his apartment dark inside, and he wandered halfway through the threshold before turning back around, leaning on the door frame and staring at the EMT from behind his wild hairs, his face heavy and exhausted.

Mohinder offered him a smile, planting a hand on his shoulder and giving him a reassuring look.

“Everything will be fine,” he promised. “Remember, I live right up there… right in apartment eight. I’m gonna give you my number, too. Anytime you need something, you just let me know, and I’ll do whatever I can to help. All right?”

Wally merely stared, looking distant and almost fatigued by life on a whole.

“I don’t wanna be a burden on you,” he said in a faint, wavering voice, gently shaking his head. “I don’t wanna drag you down, man… you’re like… the only decent person I even fucking know. I don’t wanna just… fuck your life all up…”

Mohinder’s expression hardened, and his grasp on Wally’s shoulder tightened slightly more.

“Well… I’ll tell you exactly what I told the last person to say that to me,” he said, hunching closer and glaring fixedly into him. “Nothing, absolutely nothing about helping you would fuck up my life. The only thing that could fuck up my life is watching you spiral and not giving enough of a damn to help.”

Wally gave him a long, saddened stare, looking touched, but not entirely convinced.

“Okay,” he murmured, lowering his head and speaking to the ground. “Okay…”

Mohinder let go of him and pulled out his phone, asking Wally to hand over his as well. He took both phones and spared a minute or two to add each of their numbers to one another’s contacts, then he handed Wally’s phone back to him.

“I get off work at six,” Mohinder said, stuffing his own phone away. “Usually takes me about ten minutes to get home, so… I can be here about ten or fifteen after to take you to the pharmacy. I might dip into my apartment to grab a bite to eat for dinner before we go, though. Oh… and make sure they fill your prescription beforehand, all right? You might call them just to make sure.”

Wally nodded silently.

“And install that BetterHelp app on your phone,” Mohinder added. “I’ll make you an account and add the info on there for you later. I can do a little digging and find the right program for you to join, too, because they have plenty for addicts and suicidal cases, but I really don’t know enough about those things. I’ll have to look all of that up when I have time…”

Wally nodded a second time, still staring down at his shoes.

Mohinder examined him, sighing and patting him on the shoulder again.

“It’s gonna take a bit of time, and a bit of effort… but it will get better from here,” he told him. “Just stick with it, and let me do what I can… and I promise you… it will.”

“Yeah,” Wally breathed in a meek, tiny whisper.

Mohinder released him, attempting one more smile before turning away to leave. “All right… see you tonight.”

“Wait… wait,” Wally called out, waving for him to come back.

Mohinder faced him again—and Wally locked his arms around him in a smothering and spine-snapping hug, embracing him like a long lost brother. He sealed his eyes shut, inhaling a deep, trembling breath, his fingers coiling tightly around the fabric of the EMT uniform.

Mohinder blinked and felt a moment of shock, then returned the hug and patted him on the back.

“Thank you,” Wally choked shakily, his voice muffled as he spoke into Mohinder’s collar. “Thank you for caring…”

Mohinder let out a breath, a spark of emotion igniting inside, but he forced it down and held him a bit tighter, biting his lip and falling momentarily silent.

“And l… look here… listen,” Wally stuttered, leaning back and placing both hands atop the EMT’s shoulders, gazing into him with a strange, sated smile, as if a great weight had been lifted off of him somehow. “Listen to me… no matter what… no matter what ever happens… don’t you ever stop caring as hard as you do. You’re fucking amazing , man.”

Mohinder returned his stare, unsure of how to respond.

“M’kay… go on back to work now,” Wally said, letting go of him and stepping back with a laugh. “Don’t get in trouble for standing here babysitting me all fuckin’ day…”

Mohinder chuckled. “I’m fairly certain that’s part of what they pay me for… but all right.”

Wally smiled warmly, giving him a lazy salute before sinking into his dark apartment and pushing the door shut.

Mohinder released a heavy cloud of breath, trekking across the parking lot and approaching the ambulance. He pulled the passenger door open and climbed inside, plopping down in the seat and swinging the door shut before turning to his partner.

Alex was just finishing his task of scarfing down his Taco Bell quesadilla, pausing and glancing over at him with overstuffed cheeks. He licked his lips and wiped his mouth with his palm before he attempted to speak.

“Wha’appened?” Alex asked, a sliver of tortilla falling out of his mouth.

Mohinder sighed deeply, facing forward and hesitating.

“Well… I’m definitely gonna need that promotion now,” he muttered. “And I’m not gonna be able to keep buying Rachel’s expensive cosmetics for her… or her massages…”

Alex nodded and finished chewing and swallowing his food, balling up his wrapper and tossing it aside. Then, he stared at Mohinder thoughtfully for a moment before he replied.

“That was big of you to offer all that for him,” Alex remarked.

“No… someone’s just got to do something,” Mohinder mumbled grimly. “And the system is failing him at every damn turn. I can’t just stand by and watch that.”

“Well… you can’t afford to get emotionally invested in every person we come across, either,” Alex said.

Mohinder shot him a look. “You think I don’t know that? I’ve been doing this for almost two decades now, Alex. I’ve gotten pretty good at switching empathy off at this point—but I can only see the same damn person hit rock bottom so many times before it’s obviously just necessary to intervene.”

“Hey, hey, hey… calm down,” Alex snickered, raising a hand. “I don’t blame you. I didn’t say you should never get invested in these people at all . I just said you can’t get invested in every single one of them… and you know that’s true.”

“Well—no shit,” Mohinder griped, tossing his hand up. “We get calls about idiots faking injuries or having their leg fall asleep, for God’s sake—and I really don’t think I’m going out on a limb in saying that this is not the same at all.”

The two of them stared at one another for a moment—then they both erupted with laughter.

“Yeeeah… there we go,” Alex chuckled, shifting gears and slowly driving out of the parking lot. “There’s a laugh…”

He pulled onto Williams Street, and they were quiet for a while as Alex drove the ambulance to one of their usual spots over by Jackson Avenue, cruising onto the wide, rounded parking lot of the Gas Express on the corner up the hill.

Alex parked the ambulance along the edge of the gas station’s parking lot, then stepped out and walked over to the building. He returned a few minutes later with two drinks and a bag full of snacks, settling back into his seat before pitching a small bag of chips over to his partner.

Mohinder opened the bag of chips and ate one, gazing absentmindedly out the windshield at the edge of Jackson Avenue on the other side of the parking lot.

“This used to be a Taco Bell, y’know,” he commented, glimpsing over at the building. “And it was a lot smaller, too.”

“M’yeah?” Alex said, swallowing a bite of a Slim Jim and taking a swig from his soda.

“Yeah. My mother used to drop me off here every morning… right there,” Mohinder said, pointing out the windshield at the edge of the parking lot. “This was where I’d meet up with my friends, and we’d walk down the hill to school.”

“No shit?” Alex said. “I always walked to school, too… but that was from the south side of town… and that was longer ago, too… like, early 90s…”

Mohinder continued staring outside.

“I always just thought it was a bit strange,” he said with a breathless little laugh. “I always started my mornings here every day twenty years ago… and now, with what I do for a living… I still start a lot of my mornings here.”

“Ye’ap… just parked here for hours, waiting for the emergencies to flood in and the world to come crashing down,” Alex laughed. “Damn town has changed a lot over the years.”

“Yeah,” Mohinder mumbled. “Sure has.”

“Hell… if you think it’s different now, then you should hear my childhood stories,” Alex said. “Place is fuckin’ unrecognizable. Damn sure ain’t the place I grew up anymore…”

Just then—a long beep echoed from Mohinder’s radio, followed by another dispatch message.

“E75—we got a call about a domestic violence situation at 313 Canton Hollow Road at Graceview Trailer Park. White male, white female, both mid-thirties, male with a possible stab wound to the abdomen, female with contusions and an injured wrist, possibly sprained or broken.”

“Oh hell,” Alex grunted, preparing to drive off again. “Sounds like we’re missin’ the redneck rodeo.”

Mohinder stifled the urge to laugh, pulling the radio on his shoulder closer and responding. “Roger that, we’re heading over there right now.”

Alex pulled onto the road—and the ambulance was speeding through town once again, following the narrow bridge over Williams Street and avoiding most of the traffic this time.

“Shit—they said Graceview, right?” Alex asked. “Am I going the right way?”

“Yeah. Just follow this road and take the first right after the bridge,” Mohinder instructed, gesturing outside. “Then the first left after that will be Canton Hollow. The trailer park entrance will be right to the left of us. It’s the first driveway you see.”

Alex nodded and sped up slightly, only slowing when he arrived at the first right turn. He brought the ambulance into a smooth turn, driving down the spacious road where Eli had once attempted to chase down a car with a broken glass bottle.

The ambulance then broke left, coasting down Canton Hollow and easing almost to a full stop when they approached the wide gravel drive of Graceview trailer Park.

“All right… now go slower around this bend,” Mohinder advised as the ambulance rocked gently to and fro over the lumpy gravel terrain. “People’s kids always like to run around all over this open space, here…”

Alex blinked and turned his head, squinting oddly at him.

“I used to come here a lot,” Mohinder explained. “This stretch is gonna curve left, here… and then we’ll be right in front of 313. I think it’s gonna be the yellow one on the left side, if it’s still the same as it used to be…”

The ambulance rolled steadily over the gravel and drove around the bend, between both rows of old, worn trailers and all the trees interspersed between them. The moment they rounded the corner, more trailers came into view—as well as a scene of many people and quite a lot of commotion.

Directly in front of them were two police cars with their lights flashing in silence, four officers standing with a man in a bloodied white tank top and a buzz-cut, the man clasping his side and shouting vulgarities as he repeatedly swatted the air. On the edges of every yard, neighbors were standing outside and watching all of the drama—and to the left, in the open doorway of the yellow trailer, a slender blonde woman stood, shaking and fuming at the screaming man from afar.

“O… kay,” Alex muttered, parking and unclicking his seatbelt. “Well, this is an oddly exciting day…”

Mohinder laughed, and both of them opened their doors and stepped out of the ambulance.

They approached the scene, all four officers nodding along with everything that the angry man was yelling, one of them repeatedly suggesting that he calm down, but to no avail.

“I don’t—fucking—CARE!” the man bellowed, swatting his tattooed arm across the air yet again, blood flowing in between his fingers as he clasped his wounded side even harder. “I wanna press full charges against that psycho fucking bitch! You best get her the fuck outta my house— or I will! ”

“Sir—you’re gonna have to calm down and stop moving so much,” Alex advised, taking a step closer and raising his first-responder bag. “I can already tell you’re making that injury a lot worse with what you’re doing—”

“SOMEBODY JUST GET THAT BITCH OUT OF MY HOUSE!” the man exploded. “I AM NOT—GONNA PUT UP—WITH HER SHIT—ANYMORE!”

“WHY DON’T YOU TELL THEM THE WHOLE STORY, DAVID?!” the blonde woman shouted from the yellow trailer.

“FUCK YOU—YOU STUPID FUCKING CUNT!” the man named David screamed hoarsely in response. “I—WILL—”

“YEAH—GO AHEAD!” the blonde woman challenged, nodding at him and laughing madly. “GO AHEAD AND SAY WHAT YOU SAID EARLIER! GO AHEAD AND DO THAT IN FUCKING FRONT OF EVERYBODY! TELL ‘EM ALL HOW YOU’RE GONNA CHOP MY BODY UP AND THROW IT IN THE QUARRY, YOU FUCKIN’ SICK MOTHERFUCKER! TELL EVERYBODY WHAT YOU’RE REALLY FUCKING DOING WHEN NOBODY’S LOOKING, YOU PUSSY-ASS FUCKING COWARD!”

Mohinder blinked and turned his head, narrowing his eyes at the yellow trailer and feeling a strange glint of familiarity.

“YEAH—YOU KEEP TALKING SHIT, HAILEY! YOU TALK ALL THE BULLSHIT YOU WANT TO—YOU’RE STILL GOIN’ TO JAIL!” David roared at her.

“THEN TAKE ME TO JAIL!” the blonde woman—Hailey Ryder—shrieked in a rage, stepping out of the house and holding out her arms, brandishing a large kitchen knife in her unwounded hand. “COME AND FUCKING GET ME! ANYTHING’S BETTER THAN HERE!”

“Ma’am—put the knife down!” one of the officers ordered.

“Oh my God,” Mohinder breathed, his eyes homing in on Hailey in disbelief.

“NO!” Hailey hollered, slinging her wild hairs aside and waving the knife around as she thumped outside, releasing another string of breathless laughs. “YOU KNOW WHAT? I DON’T FUCKING CARE ANYMORE! IF YOU HAVE TO SHOOT ME, THEN JUST FUCKING SHOOT ME! ”

The four officers seemed to inch closer to the property, one of them placing a hand on his holster.

“No—nonono, hold on,” Mohinder gasped, staggering in front of them and holding out a hand, his heart suddenly hammering.

“Sir—please step aside,” the nearest officer said. “She’s gonna have to be disarmed and detained before you can examine her, and that’s if she cooperates—”

“I know her,” Mohinder stated. “Just let me try to talk to her.”

The officer fell silent, sighing and making a halfhearted nod.

“You deal with him,” Mohinder told Alex, pointing over to David. “I’ll deal with her.”

Alex nodded and moved toward David, trying to talk him down—and Mohinder took a deep breath before marching across the front yard of the yellow trailer, trailer 313.

“Hey, fuck-nugget,” Hailey snickered insanely, cocking her head at him and using the tip of her knife to sling one of her stringy bangs away from her eye. “What the fuck’re you coming over here for?! If you’re not here to kill me, or kill him , then just go the fuck away, cupcake! Just go away! ”

Mohinder slowed to a stop a few feet away from her, surveying her up and down and letting out a stressed cloud of breath. She wore a tight black tank top that was twisted up along the edges, revealing her bruised stomach, and her hair was frazzled and wild, as if she’d been fighting. The side of her jaw harbored blotches of dark brown bruising, blood in the corner of her mouth, and her left wrist was in the worst shape of all, black, purple, and swollen terribly, her hand hanging limply from it as if it could not move at all.

He took another step closer—and Hailey jutted the knife out at him, shooting him a warning sort of look.

“Back the fuck off ,” she snarled.

“Put the knife down!” one of the officers demanded, but she ignored them.

Mohinder merely stood there, staring at her with a heavy and perturbed expression. He didn’t feel particularly threatened, only empathic, a knot beginning to form in the pit of his stomach at the horrible state of his old friend from long ago.

“I really don’t think you’d hurt me,” Mohinder told her genuinely. “Even if you did want to.”

Hailey remained still, glaring at him, her hand trembling as she held the knife outright—and then, the longer she stared, reading every inch of the person before her, the more a look of mild shock began to overtake her face.

Mohinder spotted the sparkle of recognition in her eyes, and then, he offered her a kind, simple smile.

“Hello, Lee-Lee,” he said, giving her a wave.

Hailey choked out a sob, inhaling shakily and steadily lowering the knife. Seconds later, she pitched the blade off to the side, tossing it into the grass before she stumbled forward and wrapped her good arm around him, burying her face into his chest and clutching onto him as if she never planned to let go.

Mohinder merely held her for a moment, allowing her to cry softly into him while Alex remained in the middle of the drive with the cops, patching up the slice wound on David’s side. The police all saw that the knife was no longer in Hailey’s hands, so they seemed to relax a bit more, looking far less ready to storm across the front yard now.

Eventually, Hailey sniffed and leaned back, gazing up at Mohinder with watery eyes, mascara streaked down her face.

Meeting her eyes made his heart ache a bit. He frowned and looked down, wincing as he gathered a closer look of her terribly wounded wrist.

“Did he do that to you?” Mohinder asked, lowering his voice.

Hailey nodded and wiped her eye.

“I t… I told him I was going to Endzone tonight, and he just exploded on me,” she murmured. “Accusing me of cheating, and calling me a whore… and I just snapped and started yelling back at him… so… he did what he always does…”

Mohinder squinted at her, glimpsing briefly into the trailer, then down the way where the old Ryder household once was.

“Sam’s not here,” Hailey said, practically reading his thoughts.

“I figured,” Mohinder replied grimly. “Or else that David guy would be lying dead in the street with his eyes carved out…”

Hailey choked out a laugh.

“We… um…” she mumbled. “We actually moved out of here forever ago… me and Sam did. But the place we were living got too expensive for us to afford anymore, so… I moved in with my boyfriend, and Sam’s renting a room out on Kingsbury. I’ve been trying to leave this cocksucker, but I don’t have enough money saved to move out yet… and I can’t find anywhere I can afford… or anywhere that me and Sam can both afford… so…”

“Right… I understand,” Mohinder muttered, still staring down at her wrist. “Ah… we need to do something about this…”

Hailey glanced down at it, then scoffed and dismissively shook her head. “I don’t care…”

“You have to care,” Mohinder told her. “That looks bad.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Hailey said vacantly, meeting his eyes again and looking entirely done with it all. “I really don’t care what happens to me anymore. Nothing’s ever gonna get better.”

“Now you listen here, Lee-Lee,” Mohinder said, raising his brows and giving her a firm look. “What the hell do you think it means that I was the one who walked up to you today? You think that’s just a stupid coincidence? Because I don’t. I think it’s precisely what you need right now.”

Hailey gazed emptily at him. “What is…?”

“A friend,” Mohinder said firmly. “And perhaps even that friend’s couch to crash on.”

Hailey stared, her eyes shimmering, and she croaked out a crying sort of laugh.

“Seriously…?” she breathed.

“Absolutely,” Mohinder replied wholeheartedly. “It’s only right I return the favor… and I’d do the same even if I didn’t owe you. You couldn’t have forgotten so much about me that you’d think any less of me than that.”

“H’oh my God…” Hailey choked, grinning as another tear cascaded down her cheek. “Oh my God… I love you…”

Mohinder chuckled.

“Hey,” Alex called out, marching toward them with his bag by his side, gesturing back to David as he did. “He’s fine. He wasn’t stabbed, he was just cut across the side. How’s she?”

“Ahm…” Mohinder faced Hailey again and scanned her up and down. “You… wanna go to the hospital?”

Hailey gulped, glimpsing at the drive where David was talking to two of the police, the other two officers having spread out to talk to the bystander neighbors.

“He’s not going,” Alex assured her. “He declined to go.”

Hailey nodded, turning to Mohinder again. “Then… yeah. I would love to go to the hospital… and I think the lawsuit is gonna pay for that ambulance ride and then some.”

Mohinder squinted at her. “Do you have proof that he assaulted you before you cut him?”

“Yeah. My phone’s been sitting propped up on the kitchen counter recording everything,” Hailey informed, turning back and motioning to the open trailer door. “Oh… I should probably go stop that, actually…”

“That video might not have caught everything,” Mohinder said.

“Yeah… but he’s the one with a criminal record full of assaults, not me,” Hailey replied knowingly, nodding over at the police talking to the neighbors. “And everyone who lives here is probably telling the cops everything they’ve seen and heard him do for the past year. They all know he’s guilty, too. So yeah. I have a good case… and I’m gonna give him hell.”

“You know what else you need to do?” Mohinder asked, leaning slightly closer. “Grab all your essentials—everything that you need to keep immediately with you—and take it all with you to the hospital. Right now.”

Hailey stared at him, Alex giving him an odd look.

“You can get there, get seen, get treated, get that hand in a cast if need be… and you can just hang out until I’m off work,” Mohinder explained. “Then… I take you home. But you need to grab all your stuff now , before he comes back over here.”

“Okay,” Hailey breathed, nodding and turning back to the open door. “Okay…”

She rushed into the trailer, and Mohinder followed her inside, hoping to help her with her hurried packing, since she could only use one hand.

Alex sighed, staring at the trailer and shaking his head. “Boy’s tryinna save the whole damn world out here today…”

Mohinder entered the trailer, stopping and allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness until he was able to see the messy living room over to the right a bit more clearly. Then, he swallowed, looking down and seeing a long trail of blood leading all the way over to the kitchenette in the farther corner.

“Good Lord,” he breathed.

“Yeah… he bled like a stuck pig,” Hailey remarked carelessly, sauntering over to the kitchen counter and collecting her phone from its propped-up position against the coffee pot. “And he fucking cried like a bitch, too.”

Mohinder raised his head, his eyebrows high, staring at her in astonishment for a moment.

Hailey ended the recording on her phone, then slipped it into her jeans pocket and turned back to face him, spotting his awestricken stare.

“What?” she said.

“N… nothing,” Mohinder uttered with a laugh. “Nothing, you just… um… wow…”

“He’s lucky he moved,” Hailey said coldly. “Because I didn’t get what I was aiming for.”

Then, she strode past him into the narrow back hallway. Mohinder stared after her for a second, blowing a raspberry and taking a deep breath before following her.

Hailey stopped at the bedroom to her right and walked in; this room contained a mattress on the floor, messy blankets, a dresser with an over-cluttered surface, and little else. She snatched up a small white backpack of hers and placed it on the edge of the mattress, then she marched around the room collecting random items and articles of clothing and stuffing them into the open bag.

“Agh…”

Her wounded hand accidentally thumped against the edge of the dresser—and she froze on the spot, wincing and inhaling a sharp breath through her clenching teeth.

“Careful,” Mohinder gasped, stepping into the room. “Here, just… just tell me what to grab and I’ll pack it for you.”

Hailey sighed, nodding and pointing things out to him, and he moved around the room and collected the rest for her. Then, she turned and eased the top dresser drawer open, grabbing her wallet and her keys from it before nudging it shut again.

Once everything was packed tightly into the overstuffed backpack, Mohinder slung it over his shoulder and guided her out of the trailer.

The two of them emerged outside just in time to see David shouting and screaming again, cursing at the cops and insisting that he was not the one who started the altercation, and that he should not be the one going to jail.

“Yeah, she said she plans to press charges. She also said that he started it, and she apparently has it on video,” Alex told the police. “And… her injured hand is her left one, and she was brandishing the knife with her right, so… it looks a lot like she just grabbed it out of desperation sometime after she was attacked. But, that’s just my two cents on the matter…”

“Yeah… we figured that much,” the nearest officer replied to him. “And the neighbors have all made similar statements regarding some past incidents that have transpired here. He has a history. We got a pretty good idea of what happened now…”

Two of the police were holding David down over the back of one of the patrol cars, snapping handcuffs onto him before they stuffed him into the back seat. He continued to yell and call Hailey a wide variety of nasty names before one of the cops slammed the door shut and cut him off.

Mohinder and Hailey watched from the front yard, and a few moments later, Alex walked over to them.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

Mohinder turned to Hailey, and she nodded.

So, the three of them headed over to the back of the ambulance, Alex pulling the doors open. Mohinder offered to put Hailey on the stretcher, but she laughed and shook her head, simply climbing into the back on her own. Mohinder entered the back with her, and Alex swung the doors shut before planting himself in the driver’s seat and shifting gears to drive away.

The ambulance cruised in a slow circle, then rolled down the gravel stretch and steadily drove out of the trailer park.

In the back—Mohinder was standing in front of the small bench along the wall, and Hailey sat on the side of the stretcher just across from him, swinging her legs to and fro.

“You jus… you need t…” Mohinder uttered, reaching around her and grabbing for the straps. “You’re supposed to be strapped in, here… seriously, I could get in trouble…”

“Why, you think I’m gonna tell on you?” Hailey teased.

“Just lay down, please, so I can…”

“Shhht.”

Hailey placed her good hand on his chest and gently pushed him back, sliding off of the stretcher as she did.

“Just… sit down,” she said softly, moving over to his side. “Please… pretty please…”

Mohinder sighed and reluctantly sat down on the bench, and Hailey sat snugly beside him, scooting closer and gingerly resting her head against his shoulder, making herself comfortable and allowing her eyes to drift peacefully shut.

He glanced down at her, releasing another heavy breath and deciding to simply let her rest how she wanted to.

“Can’t remember the last time I felt safe,” Hailey exhaled. “I’m so glad you’re here…”

Mohinder’s mouth curled, flashing a hint of a troubled smile. He moved to grasp her hand, then stopped, gazing down at the hand that was nearest him, the one with the dark and swollen wrist. So, he reached up and placed his hand on her arm instead, gently stroking along it with his thumb.

“I’m glad I am, too,” he said, resting his head back to the wall and thinking over everything that had transpired. “This has been the weirdest day…”

“Yeah… and it ain’t even over yet,” Hailey murmured.

Mohinder made a nod, silently agreeing with her.

And truly—just as they both felt deep inside for reasons unknown—this peculiar day of intensity, adrenaline, and incredible happenstance reunions wasn’t over yet at all.