Joe

Kelley put the mask back over her mouth and took a few more puffs. She could feel tears run down the sides of her face and go around the mask as the cold night air made them feel like ice cubes. Finally she was able to move the mask down and she told the paramedics everything.

Linda had come running out of Matt's as soon as she heard the wailing of the siren and the popping noise, because she lived in a rough part of town she knew the popping noise was a gun shot. She still had the cordless phone in her hand as she ran out the door making sure the pretty young girl was not hurt. She had Patrick's leather jacket in her hands and she held it around Kelley as the handsome young man bandaged her gunshot wound and gave her some medicine to help with the pain.

"So you say that there were two of these 'paramedics'?", the young man asked Kelley as he finished up with the wrap on her shoulder.

Kelley moved the mask down and looked him in the eyes, she wanted to read him before she answered. She saw trust, more than anything safety, in his big brown eyes. She could sense a feeling of goodness when his hand touched her arm when he helped her up off of the ground. "Yes. Two men, one big mother and one small bastard," she immediately blushed right after the last part of her answer came out of her mouth. I can't believe I just swore like that in front of him, she thought.

He was not expecting to hear that come out of her mouth, so Brad could not stop his surprised little laugh from escaping his mouth. When he smiled Kelley could see how handsome he truly was, he had a darkish tint to his complexion, dark black hair that was close cut to his head. He had an intense stare that was comforting, yet intimidating at the same time. "Well, I don't want to tell the police that we are looking for a 'big mother and a small bastard' are you able to give me more of a description?"

Kelley could not believe how much like a little girl she was feeling to herself just because she thought this man in front of her was cute, women that acted like she was then always made her want to puke. She could not help but look at his eyes and notice how the lights of the ambulance seemed to sparkle off of them, it was almost as if they were a beacon for her to follow in the night. She wanted nothing more than to feel his bottom lip in her mouth as she playfully nibbled it, feeling his large, strong hands around the middle of her back holding her close to him.

She closed her eyes and shook her head just a little bit to clear these thoughts from her mind, she had to give him the description of what she saw. "I know that this is going to sound utterly ridiculous, but I can only tell you that the 'big mother' was a black man, about thirty or so, and the 'small bastard' was white and looked to be about thirty-five. The big one had no hair, the little one had some hair, but not much."

Brad gave her an inquiring look when she said some hair, he raised his one eyebrow and just looked at her, waiting to hear more. "He had a big bald spot, almost as if his hair line started in the middle of his head. He tried very hard to make it look as if he had more hair than he really does. His eyes were hazel, he had an angular nose, and he had a dark goatee."

"Did you happen to see a name of the hospital they were from on their uniform? Or even a name tag of either one of them?" Brad was hoping that he would be bale to give the police something for their report, but this was a shot in the dark, he knew it, but he was hopeful all the same.

"I wish I did, their uniforms looked just like the one you're wearing, however I did not see a tag like I do on yours," she said this while pointing to his name tag, she had to stop herself from stroking his chest, she just wanted to touch him so bad.

Brad could sense she was looking at him more than a normal, it was almost as if she were sizing him up. He tried to get through the questioning as quick as possible, he always felt uncomfortable when someone would look at him like that. He thought he would try a different approach with this woman. "I need to ask you just a few more questions before the police arrive, they should be here really soon, first of all, what is your name?"

Kelley felt an immediate flush all over her body when she saw his smile looking down at her, she was going to throw herself at his body and have her way with him she knew. Stop being such an idiot girl!, her mind screamed at her. She was able to stammer out her name. "Kel...Kelley Guiness."

Brad's smile widened when her heard her last name, "Like the book?", he asked.

"Yes, yes. Like the book," she was genuinely surprised to hear that question, she usually got the question, "Like the beer?", from each and every guy that ever heard her last name.

"Do you have a phone number that I can reach you at in case I need any more questions for you Miss Guiness?" It was now Brad's turn to feel the rush of embarrassment come over him, he never asked this of anyone he had ever helped. He usually had a phone number forced into his hand from the girl that he was loading into the ambulance, always written on anything that they could rip apart. One time he had a number giving to him that was jotted down on a piece of the sheet the girl had torn off, how she cut he didn't know. He will always remember that number, not because he hooked up with the girl, but because she used her own blood from her leg wound to write her number down.

Brad always had numbers given to him, his friends would sometimes get angry with him if they went to the bars. Not because he was flashy and went asking for all of the numbers or attention from the girls in the bar, but because they always flocked around him. He hardly ever went on dates with any of the numbers that he was given, nor did he give them to his friends and let them pretend to be him over the phone or Internet. Even when they were pleading with them to give the numbers over he would just smile and hold on to them until he got home and then the would throw them away.

Something about this girl in front of him, Kelley Guiness, grabbed a hold of him as he ran up to her. He was glad that he chose to come to her aid and had Joe run into Matt's and take care of the inside. As soon as he saw her face and her eyes, sparkling, blazing, green staring at him he was frozen in place. As soon as he touched her skin and felt how soft it was he felt tingles all over his body. When he heard her voice caress his ears he was immediately hooked, he wanted to hear her talk all the time, no matter what she was saying. He would normally never try to get as much information from a person before the police showed up, but this time he wanted to , just to hear her talk. Her voice was intoxicating to his ear. He started to feel really strange just then, he never had these kind of feelings this quickly about anyone before. Why her? He knew then that he needed to get to know her more, that was why he had asked for her number. "I'm sorry, if that seemed rude, but I just want to make sure that we get everything that the police need."

Kelley flushed when he asked for her number, however she tried to show that she was not at all embarrassed by asking with a smile, "Do you make it a habit of asking all of the girls that you rescue for their phone number?" She was very surprised to see the redness creep over his face, she thought it was the cutest thing she had ever seen.

Brad was completely humiliated, he realized now how that must have sounded and looked to her. He responded as quickly as he could, "No...no. I...I didn't mean it like that. I just wanted to....I have an idea. Here is my number, if you feel like you need to give me a call. It's my cell, so if I don't answer right away leave a message. I will always call you back."

Right after he said that he realized how that must have sounded. He wanted to crawl under a rock and disappear, however once he felt the warmth of her fingers on his hand as she grabbed the written number on the piece of paper he forgot all about his embarrassment.

Brad seemed to feel her touch all the way back to the hospital. He honestly felt like he knew her from somewhere, but he could not figure out where. He was hoping that he would get a call from her soon, he really wanted to see her again. As always Joe felt the need to tease him. "How soon before you're in her pants?"

Brad turned to look at his partner's wolfish grin, he smiled and said, "Shut up asshole."

"I was just wonderin', cuz the way the two of you were looking at each other right then I thought that maybe we was gonna see somethin' that I normally have to pay lots of money for."

"You really are an asshole Joe, you know that?"

"Your words are nothing more than a buzzing in my ear," he paused and then finished with, "dickhead".

Meeting with Patrick

As much as Kelley wanted to know what was bothering Patrick she also wanted to get some much needed sleep. For some reason the same dream kept running through her field of sleep for the past week or so. She was familiar with the dream, she should be, she has been having the same dream since she was fifteen. However it normally only happened in late summer, towards the end of August when the sun was out and the clouds were crawling across the sky. She never had the dream in the seasons prior to summer, which she thought would make an interesting case study however she really did not have the energy, or patience to try and see what that meant.

She decided that she really would not be getting any sleep, and try as hard as she could, she could not make the conversation she just had with Patrick a dream. She was still holding the receiver in her hand, and the sound of dial tone was blaring through the ear piece. She swun her legs around and let the cold hardwood floor wake her up even further, chasing the idea of sleep right out the window. She grabbed her favorite baseball cap from the hook on the back of the bedroom door and went to the bathroom to splash her face and brush her teeth.

She grabbed her cell phone and after locking her apartment door behind herself, went down the stairs and out to her car. Her breath was pluming out in front of her as she half walked, half ran to her car. The cold night air made the idea of sleep a distant, faded memory of a dream that was once so attainable. If the cold floor of her apartment, or the cold night air had not woken her up, the blaringly loud radio that made her nearly fly through the roof of her car certainly did. Apparently she had been listening to a good song last night when she got home and forgot to turn the volume down before turning off the car. With her heart beating a million miles a minute in her chest she turned the car out of her parkinglot and headed down the road to Matt's to meet up with her best friend Patrick, who was she was sure, waiting there for her already.

When she arrived at Matt's she saw Patrick's car in the parking lot, she pulled into the spot next to his and turned off the car, remembering to turn the radio down this time. She stepped out into the cold night air, watched her breath plume again and went to the front door of the restaurant as quickly as possible. The dream was still on her mind as she walked into the warmth and light of Matt's, a twenty-four hour restaurant that catered mostly to the "bar rush" and night-owls at this time of night. In the smoking section she could see Patrick in a booth waiting for her, he had his usual cup of coffee in front of him and across the table was a glass of Diet Coke, with a straw, waiting for her. She was oddly touched by this tonight, for some reason, however this was common. Who ever showed up first would order the drink for the other, or the server would remember them from their weekly visits and have it waiting for them. Being one of the night owl crowd, Kelley had found out, was also being known by the wait staff. It was nice to go some where and be known, it made her feel welcomed.

"Hey Patrick," she said as she slid into the booth across from him. She was setting her purse down and was looking at him, right away she could tell that everything was not right with him. She was wondering what could be making him feel the way that he was, nothing ever seemed to shake him up. She remembered the last time that she saw him like this and that was only because his mother, father and sister had been killed in a car crash, now that she could see how he was feeling she became really concerned for him. "My God Patrick, what is wrong with you?"

He raised his head just enough for her to see into his eyes. She was able to see that both of them were severely bloodshot, he had large, dark bags and circles under each eye, his face was sullen and slack. He looked like he had not slept in a few days. His fingers were jittery and his speech was broken, in short he looked like he was suffering a psychotic break.

"No..Note...Nothing. Nothing. Why? Why? Why do you...do you ask me this?", each time he paused in his speech his face twitched and his eye would blink open and closed rapidly. After he was done talking he let out a small little noise that sounded like a combination whimper and laugh.

Kelley felt chills run up and down her back as soon as he opened his mouth to answer her. She had never seen a person like this, read about for school, but never encountered an individual in person suffering psychosis like this. She was terrified and full of sorrow for Patrick. "Patrick, when is the last time you looked at yourself?"

He immediately looked down at his fingers as he started to rub his forefinger and thumb together rapidly, so fast it sounded like sand paper on wood. His eyes had turned into slits, his eyes were sparkling black diamonds behind them. Kelley could see enough of them to know that he was hiding something, but what was it, and would it make any sense if she could get him to tell her what was on his mind?

When he didn't answer after thirty seconds, instead he just sat there looking at his fingers as he rubbed them, Kelley decided to try again. "Patrick? Did you hear me? I was wondering when was the last time you looked into a mirror?"

This time he looked up at her and showed her his palms, they had swollen, red, infected lines down the middle of them. "Right before I did this to myself," he sounded like a child (psychotic child that is) that was showing a drawing they had just done to their parent.

"Oh God Patrick!" Kelley could tell that they had been gashed wide open and then had been left to heal on their own, or rather they tried to heal on their own. Both of his hands were criss-crossed lines of jagged red all swollen, the skin looked as if it was ready to bust open along the lines. She instinctively reached out and held his hands in hers, all she needed to do was look at them for less than a second before she decided they had to go to a hospital. "I have to get you to a hospital right away. These need to be treated."

It was as if he broke out of his psychotic episode for the briefest of moments when he heard the word hospital, he reacted quickly. He pulled his hands out of hers and set them neatly on his lap, he looked at her with a calm and sedate face, his mouth stopped its twitching up and down as did his eye. He looked at her and simply said, "No. If I go there I will be killed. You can't make me go."

Kelley dismissed this last dialogue as craziness and stood up, grabbing his hands out of his lap and nearly dragged him out of the booth. She was surprised at how much she was able to move him considering that he was nearly a foot taller than her and had fifty more pounds of muscle on him. The surprise abated however when she looked at her friend for the first time and saw how much of him had wasted away. She then realized in her mind that the last time she had seen Patrick, actually seen him in person, was over two weeks ago. She didn't waste any time thinking about that, instead she simply pulled on his hands and dragged her friend out of the restaurant.

The waitress had called the paramedics as soon as she had seen the obviously homeless, psychotic rambler walk in through the doors. It wasn't until she recognized his leather jacket that she decided to let him sit in a booth, away from anyone else in the restaurant. She knew it was the nice young man that came in here with the stunningly beautiful, yet distant, girl every week and sat and talked and played cards to pass the time away. She had always thought that they would make such a cute couple, but it seemed like they deliberately stayed away from the thought of it, she always wanted to know why. She remembered that they always drank coffee for him, and Coke for her. She led him to the table and got the drinks, when she got into the kitchen she called the paramedics right away.

As Kelley tried to pull her screaming, kicking, swearing friend outside to the waiting ambulance Linda, the server, came over and grabbed Patrick's legs. "I recognized him from his jacket Sweetie, although at first I didn't know it was him. Not everyone has a jacket like this," she said while using her chin to point to the faded leather jacket with a winged dragon on the back of it. Linda looked at Kelley and told her, "I called the bus when I set him down at the table."

The paramedics came in when they saw the women struggling with Patrick through the window of the front door. Two men came running in and took over for Kelley and Linda. Patrick was subdued and then placed onto a stretcher by the two men, Kelley noticed the odd pairing of the men. One of the men was tall, over six feet, and looked as if he was built like a dump truck. He had huge shoulders that nearly stretched the seams of his uniform shirt to shreds, the sleeve of the shirt ended in the middle of his bicep it looked ready to burst and shred. His skin was a dark black and it seemed to glow under the lights of the restaurant. The other paramedic was a short white man that had a muscular build to him, but he looked like a child next to the mountain of a man across from him. Neither of the men spoke to the women, they just loaded Patrick onto the stretcher and then rolled him towards the door.

Kelley could hear the men talking to each other, neither one of them paid any attention to her as she was walking behind them asking, "Is he going to be alright?" She had always been a girl that was able to tell a person's character just by looking at them, or by shaking their hand, as soon as she saw these two paramedics come into Matt's she immediately got a bad feeling. She was not going to let Patrick go with them alone, not without a fight anyway. When neither one of them answered her she ran to the front of the stretcher and stopped in front of the men, forcing them to stop. When the shorter white man bumped into her they finally stopped. He turned around to see what he ran into and was looking right into her blazing eyes, "I asked if he was going to be ok?"

The man opened his mouth to say something, Kelley was more than ready to answer anything that was thrown at her, however before he could mouth any word a booming, authoritative voice came at her from the giant black papramedic, "MOVE!"

Kelley stood where she was however her reaction was as if she had just been slapped. Her eyes had narrowed to slits, she could feel the blood rushing to her face and knew that she had red blotches on her cheeks, she silently damned her fair skin. "Excuse me?"

She thought for sure he would change his tone, or try making her move in another way, however he said the same thing, only added a few words. "I SAID MOVE YO' ASS!" This time shoved the end of the stretcher after he spoke and ended up pushing the white man into Kelley, that was the only reason why she moved.

As the paramedics moved past her and loaded Patrick into the back of the ambulance Kelley was on her feet, furiously she yelled at the paramedics, "YOU SONS OF BITCHES! HOW DARE YOU KNOCK ME OVER? WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?"

They shut the double doors of the ambulance closed, not before she got one more look at Patrick. His body looked so thin and gaunt under the blanket, his skin was gray and green in spots. She was able to see his face before the doors were shut, she will never forget the way his eyes looked. It was as if the iris of each eye had turned completely red, he had bags that seemed to sag down past the bridge of his nose, it almost seemed like his eyes would slide right out of his head. She was not sure, but she thought she could see a smile on his face, although it was not a smile of pleasure, more a grimace of pain. Before the asshole paramedics said anything to her she whispered out loud at the sight of Patrick, "Jesus Christ."

It was then that she heard the wailing of a siren, she saw the flashing of lights go past her peripheal vision, and then she turned her head in the direction of the lights. She saw an ambulance driving full speed towards the exit off of the double highway in front of Matt's. She was now thoroughly confused, weren't the paramedics already here? That made her turn her attention back to the assholes that knocked her down. Kelley was never a girl that would have been classified as lady-like, she could swear with the best of them and she could handle herself if needed, in other words she was not afraid to kick ass and cuss someone out. She looked right at the big paramedic and noticed the gun sticking out of his hand, pointed at her. "What the fuck is going on here?", she asked right before she heard a popping sound.

She felt a hot stinging sensation in her shoulder before she felt the hard cold pavement knock the wind out of her. As she lay gasping for breath in the cold night air, tears streaming down her face, the only thought going through her head at that moment was that the little bastard just punched her in the shoulder. What else would make her arm feel the way it does right now, once she could breathe she would take a look at it after she kicked him right square in the balls. The two men got into the cab of the ambulance and after starting the engine floored the gas pedal and screamed out of the parking lot, about ten seconds before the real ambulance showed up. Kelly had gravel kicked into her face as she was trying to get any kind of oxygen to her brain, her face was red, the cords of her neck were standing out. She did not feel any of the small pebbles as they hit her in the face, making it bleed as they dug into her skin.

After what seemed like an eternity she was able to get her lungs to allow air into them, the first breath she was able to take felt like she swallowed fire. She could have sworn that her throat was lined with sand paper it was so raw. She was afraid that she might cough up some blood later. After the coughing spasm subsided she was able to tilt her head up towards the twinkling stars of the heavens and feel the cold, cold air as it rushed over her tear stained face. Just as she was standing up from her kneeling position the other ambulance from the highway turned into the parking lot and rushed up to her. It was evident to her that the two men that jumped out of the ambulance were professionals and that she could trust them. As soon as they learned she was not the person they were supposed to pick up one of them went into Matt's. He returned rather quickly with a stunned, confused look on his face. Kelly lowered the oxygen mask that the other medic placed on her and croaked, "Give me a minute and I will tell you everything."

Middle of the Night Call

Her smile was big and wide as she looked down into her daughter's face. Her long reed hair was blowing in the breeze as the convertible drove down the twisting, turning road on top of the seaside bluff. She was wearing sunglasses that hid her bright green eyes, the most striking feature of her appearance, from the world. Her daughter, Moira was laughing and smiling back at her mother, Kelley, as they enjoyed the drive along the road. At age six Moira was feeling like she was flying on top of the world, the road passing by her and her mother at a speed close to take off, their red hair flying and flipping in the wind. The only thought on her little mind was how much she loved being with her mom and the driving that they did. She never wanted this drive on the seaside highway to end, she wanted it to go on and on forever and ever.

Kelley looked back up at the road and saw open space, not one other car was anywhere near them. She reached down and grabbed Moira's hand and held it in hers, making a tangle of fair, freckled skin of almost identical hands, only one bigger than the other. "Are you ready to fly Darlin' ?" she asked her carbon copy sitting next to her.

"YES!!!!!" Moira respopnded with such enthusiasim and passion Kelley couldn't help but widen her smile even more. She looked around once more before she stepped on the gas pedal and made the engine roar, Moira thought that her mommy had a lion under the hood of her car, and the car sped up. Faster and faster the car went down the road, slowing down just enough to take the turns and not lose control.

"Get your arms ready Baby, we have reached cruising altitude!" Moira remembered her Daddy saying those exact words to her when he took her on an airplane ride last year. She raised her arms up and out to her side, she threw her head back and let the wind rush past her face, twisting her hair even more than before, her mouth opened even more because of the fun she was having with her Mom, "I'm READY MOMMIE!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Take off Moira! Reach the clouds Baby, go for the stars!" Kelley said this every time she took her special little girl on this road, the road where she met her little girl's father fifteen years ago. She smiled and laughed as she watched her little spit fire in the seat next to her raise her arms up and down very fast as if she were a bird flapping its wings. Kelley freeze framed the way that her daughter looked just then, she wanted to hold onto that image to remind her of the innocence and fun of being a child. Just then something flashed in the rear view mirror that made Kelley return her attention to the road in front of her.

Her smile went away very fast and her concentration was fully on the road, Moira was next to her flapping her arms up and down trying desperately to fly out of her seat and into the clouds. She wanted so much to be able to touch one of them so she could tell Mommy how soft it was. She noticed that the car was starting to slow down just a little then and she looked around at Mommy to see her smile gone and her eyes on the road in front of them. "What's wrong Mommy? Why are you so mad?"

Kelley always tried her best to stay happy and smiling around Moira, the little girl seemed to have been born with a hyperactive sense of empathy. She could always tell when Kelley was sad, sometimes it seemed before Kelley even knew she was. As always she tried her best to hide her sadness from her daughter, "Nothing Baby, I thought I saw something in the road." She slowed the car down and kept driving forward.

Moira was looking at the cliffs as they climbed up the hill next to them as they drove, she could see the ocean over the ledge of the road on her moms side of the car. Little white caps were stretching along the top of the water as the waves they belonged to rolled endlessly towards the shore. Even though Moira knew it was impossible to hear from here, if she closed her eyes she could almost hear the sound of the waves as they crashed onto the sandy beach in front of her. She opened her eyes again and this time she could see a car in the side view mirror behind them approaching, very fast. The car had lights flashing on top of it and Moira could hear the sound of the siren as it approached their car.

Before she could stop herself from saying it Kelley said loudly, through clenched teeth, "Shit!"

Moira spun to see her Mommy's face then because she was not used to hearing her say such naughty language, as her mommy called it. She was a little afraid of what she saw in her mommy's eyes and on her face. Her cheeks had turned red and it was spreading to the rest of her face and neck, her eyes were wide open and they seemed to be trembling in their sockets. Moira reached out and touched her mommy's arm and tried to send her happy thoughts to take away that scary look on her face, she asked her with her little girl voice full of innocence, "Is everything ok Mommy?"

"It will be Baby, just sit back, it won't take long at all." Kelley brought the car to a full stop on the shoulder of the road, Moira could hear the crunch of the dirt and pebbles under the tire, she could smell the dust as they came to a stop. She looked in her mirror again and saw the police car stop right behind them. She could see the car move as the driver got out of the car and left the passenger inside the car. She saw her mom reach into her purse and grab her license and insurance card and had them waiting for the policeman.

Moira heard his feet crunch on the dirt as he came towards the window and her mommy, she could hear him whistling a song from TV. She was not sure what the name of the song or TV show was, but when she heard him whistling it she immediately thought of a little boy and his dad walking down a dirt road with fishing poles in their hands, the picture was in black and white. She looked over at her mommy's side of the car and could see the policeman's fingers resting on the window sill. He was wearing black leather gloves, Moira heard them creak as he tensed his fingers.

As the phone rang in the back ground a young woman sits straight up in bed holding the satin sheets against her fair skin. Her long dark hair is a tangled mess around her neck and face, pieces of it are moving in and out as her breath is ragged and fast. She has a sheen of sweat on her forehead, her eyes are being held closed so tight she has lines around her sockets. She opens them as the phone continues to ring, on the fifth ring she leans over the bed and reaches for the receiver. "Hello?" she croaks into the mouthpiece, her voice heavy and full of sleep.

"Kelly?", the voice on the other end asks, almost as if it is laughing. She recognized the voice right away as her friend Pat, hearing his voice always made her release some of her stress.

She did not want him to know that she just had a dream that made her sit up scared, so she pretended that the phone scared her. "Pat? Why are you are you calling me at ," she looked over at her clock then, "three in the morning?"

"No reason, I....I just needed to call you." Right when he heard her voice he immediately felt like the stupidest person ever born. Why would he be calling his best friend at three in the morning, of course she would not be awake and his phone call would scare the living hell out of her. He was cursing himself in his head now because of how much more stupid he sounded by telling her "no reason".

The tone of voice that he was using was different then his normally sedate, calming, relaxed tone. Right then his voice sounded almost scared, shaky, almost child-like. Kelley was at first and that the phone woke her up, but once she heard his voice she turned into the care giver. "Patrick what's the matter? Are you ok? Is everything alright?"

"I think so. Yea...Yea they are, I just...I..God I feel stupid. I shouldn't have called you I'll let you get back to sleep. I am so sorry Kelley," he was trying desperately to get off of the phone because of how stupid he was feeling.

"You are going to call and scare the hell out of me at three in the morning and then tell me that you called for no reason? Do you really think I'm stupid Patrick?" She was very concerned for him now and she tried to use a plying tone, however at three in the morning how plying can one be?

He knew that he was going to scare her now and hearing her say that he did made it even worse than it really was. He spoke very fast, and used the tone that she was familiar with, "Kelley, I'm sorry that I scared you. I over reacted to a dream that I had, I just wanted to make sure that you were ok. I am sorry that I scared you. If you can go back to sleep please do and I will talk to you in the afternoon at work. God I am so sorry."

She could sense real embarrassment in his voice for making her scared, and she found it rather touching that he would think that way. She knew that she would not be able to go to sleep, not because of the phone call, but because of the dream she was just woken out of. She also knew that Patrick was a night-owl and would also not be able to go to sleep, so she went out on a limb and decided to ask him, 'Did you want to meet somewhere for coffee Patrick? I know that I will not be able to go back to sleep." After she said that she knew how it sounded, and for what ever reason, she was angry at herself for sounding like she was blaming him.

His response was quick, almost like it came out before he could process what he was saying, "God yes I would."

Hearing the way that he answered she could tell that he did not think she was blaming him for her being awake, yet she also made a note to apologize to him once she saw him. "Meet me at Matt's in about, twenty?"

"I will see you there Kelley. Thank you, I really need to see you."

After that he hung up, rather abruptly. Kelley was set back for just a minute by that, he never said anything like that before and he never just hung up without saying goodbye. She could tell that something was on his mind, something was eating away at him.