It was her twenty-first birthday. As a woman on track to finish college on time, Juniper, was the ideal version of a student dream. However, there were a few nights that she decided to hang out with her friends and be obviously irresponsible. If one were to ask her parents, she was never in her high school classes on time. Skipped through half of her senior semester, but now since she actually had to pay for school, suddenly she was the perfect angel. Yet that never stopped her from having time to splurge a little.

Her friend Amber had convinced her to go out to the bar for the night with some of her other friends and the night had been absolutely amazing. Unfortunately all she allowed herself to have was a soda while her older friends, such as Amber, got absolutely hammered on drinks that sent them swaying lightly. However, she scored a dance with a man she met at the club so in her book that was a huge win for her twentieth birthday, not to mention, simply hanging out with her friends. But, for her own safety, she made sure to drive them both back to Amber’s house. Or where they were attempting to go. 

In the car, Amber talked animatedly yet her words slurred a little, “Did you see how he looked at you? Girl, Why didn’t you give him your number!”

“Please, He looks like he runs on energy drinks and prayer, Amber. No matter how cute his face was, I have somewhat of a limit.” Juniper retorts, yet her eyes stayed on the road in front of her, watching the signals of the drivers in front of them until she turns down a back street attempting to avoid the growing traffic she could see forming in front of them.

Amber lets out a hiccuped laugh light heartedly hitting Juniper’s shoulder, “Could’ve given it to me then! Hell, I’d go on at least a date.”

Juniper gives a small laugh back, “Only because you know you miss Martin.” 

“I would never miss a cheating bastard like-” Amber interrupts herself to call out, “Look out!” Making Juniper hit the brakes with a hard press when she notices what seemed like something heavy falling from the trees covering the road and coming down with the heavy weight of gravity.

A thud hits the hood of the car under the impact of a weight hitting it. From what the two women could hear, it could be a deer. But that definitely didn't look like a dear from what they could see. That was a flesh and blood human. On the hood of the car laid a man. Probably in his late twenties, possibly could pass for mid twenties. His hair held more dirt than color but aside from the few leaves that dawned it from his fall, his hair was a chestnut brown and tied back loosely by a ribbon made of cloth. But the main problem was he was definitely not moving.

“No,no,no,no! Amber! I think he’s dead!” Juniper panics, quickly unbuckling her seat belt, or trying to, to the best her shaky hands will allow her to do without completely locking up like Amber was next to her. 

Amber tries to pull herself out of her state of shock and unbuckles her own seat belt quicker than the struggling Juniper. The zone they were in was dead zone mode and leaving them limited options on calling for help with their dying phones. But both would see the severity and get out of the car. As one tumbles out the car over to the man and the other gets out with a more purposeful step and quickly going to check the man’s fading status. His eyes were closed so Amber couldn’t see anything that indicated he was dead, but his breathing was shallow.

“He’s alive! June! Help me get him into the back of the car! Quickly! The nearest hospital is two miles off this street!”

At that Juniper nods and quickly helps to get the unconscious man into the car. Without any question, she drove and put the pedal to the metal.

By some saving grace, and lack of consciousness, it was at least two days before the man could even register what was going on. One moment his blessed crew members were fighting to keep him alive and  Cade was in a hospital bed. Though, he didn’t know that was what it was. All he could really register is he was laying down somewhere. The beds were hard enough for him to assume he was laying on the floor of the lower cabin with a white sheet over him in order to keep body in honor till he could be buried, but he felt nothing over his face. Which ruled that out. When he came to a quick conclusion, he decided to blame his luck on being held captive by a raiding pirate group that may have snuck aboard because to him it was the most logical thing he could think of. He was still too under the influence to make his eyes open for long enough than the second he had when a bright light shined into his eyes. Angels maybe? No, he has far too many sins for that. His skin was sore. Between the sore stab wound that sent him to the afterlife to begin with, he could start to note weird things were plugged into his skin. His ears couldn’t help but focus on the sound of the consistent beeping noise next to him and the inconsistent ones further outside whatever room he was in. Of course it was definitely not anything he recognized.

Around him, he heard talking, but never enough for him to open his eyes.

“So he’s going to be ok?” There it was. The voice from earlier. The one that had been panicking. The voice wasn’t the sweet silky voice of the spoiled princess who may have taken his life. This one was raspier. Definitely wasn’t one of his men. Maybe it was that blasted Von Sweeney. One of the captains of a separate ship. Though… despite being poised, Von’s voice never could sound like that one. 

 “Essentially yes. Might be a little bit of bruising and maybe some inching from those stitches over the next few days, but he’s not in any life threatening danger. Lucky man, he is. With a wound like that, it’s astonishing how he made it with little immediate permanent damage. His vitals are looking up as well. At least better than when you both first brought him in.” The second voice he didn’t recognize at all. It was another woman’s voice. Smoother than the first. Almost a melodic sound that he definitely thought could be an angel. Maybe he actually did die. 

  “Wound? Wait, what wound?”

“The one on his stomach right there, June. Pay attention.”

“Right.” It was almost comical and offensive that they were talking about him right in front of him like this.

  “How could you not know?” Soft steps come over to him. He could feel the covers be gently pulled off him and a gentle hand faintly traced the hypothetical line over the thin fabric of the hospital gown, “Right here. Where the wound penetrated was almost enough to cause permanent damage to his intestine right here. The larger one was safe enough to not be impacted. Oddly enough for a simple car crash, the pattern there seemed similar to an incision caused by blunt trauma. Possibly something from the impact of the car or the fall did it. Unless one of you did it. Either way, we had to stitch it up.” 

A soft groan escaped his lips. Pain was not something a pirate like him was used to showing, but the sound escaped his lips before he could process it. His strength slowly coming back too though it was slower than he initially wanted it to be. When he had the strength to peek his eyes open, the bright hospital light was the first thing he saw and a woman in a medical mask over him with her hair tied neatly back and a clip board in his hand. This wasn’t a normal healer building that he was used to nor was this a regular healer from what he could tell.

 “Looks like someone’s waking up. The antibiotics must be letting loose of him. I’ll have the nurse bring him something for that pain. Meanwhile I suggest you two get ready for some questions. An accident like this is something we have to call the police over. Simply because he was almost a was.”

“Police?! Hold up, I’m too young for jail!” That same tiredly rasped voice chimed in.

He could get a quick yet not good glance around. It was a small room. He was on the bed decorated with blue lenin that seemed a little thin but he certainly didn't have an option anywhere he wanted to sleep so it had to do. There near the doorway, a chair over in the corner to the left that held his clothes neatly, and bloodily in a clear bag looking thing. On the wall in front of him hanging all mighty, was a weird magic box. Though futuristic terms would be calling that magic box a tv. And to the side of him was a pole with all sorts of letters and numbers on it, and a bag that dripped medicine into his arm connected to him, but to him the bag simply looked like water. Medical posters hung on the walls with different terms he couldn’t understand as well as the three women who were in the room with him. The one woman in the white cloak left before he could get a word out. But the ones in the doorway never did.

 One of them, a young woman in ripped jeans and some zipped up black jacket, heart earrings and chocolate colored hair that curled into sweet coils, came over to him first. He tried to inch back but couldn’t move as well as he hoped. His actual body was more sluggish than the activeness he was used to.

 “Don’t try moving, Mister. My friend hit you pretty hard.” The woman said tucking the cover back on him, but he weakly brought his hand up to swat her hand away, which she seemingly respected by moving her hand back the littlest bit but still there in case he tried to get up again. 

“Who… are… you?” He mumbles through incoherent words. The best he could murmur for someone who just woke up from the longest sleep he’s been in. 

The woman’s eyes didn’t have the look of an impatient royal. Nor the hateful judgment of a commoner or noble who he usually stole from. Unfortunately for him, it was refreshing to not see people look at him with hate. A rare objective for a pirate captain like him to have but an objective none the less. Though he had to admit, he would’ve preferred to not have been as weak as he knew looked right now. He could slowly start stirring himself to small movements to regain some sort of the power and respect a captain like him would've demanded on his time out to see.

She’d consider her words but then just answers softly, “My friend hit you with her car like two- maybe three-ish days ago. You’ve been out a good while. Weren’t sure if you were gonna make it there for a second. You kept going out on us.” 

Two days? He was out of it for two days? Where even was he? How did he get off the ship? Did his crew just dump him off? Did they think his injury made him an unfit captain? He worked so hard only for them to leave him behind? His crew. His captive. Was everything gone? The rushing in his brain caused the heart monitor to pick up. Beeping came from the machine next to him. Why was he alive if everything he knew was gone? But a dark brown hand quickly rested on his arms grounding him back to the reality of the conversation, which was the fact he was in a building he knew absolutely nothing about. No maps and no compasses to steer him out of this.

“T-Two… days?” His voice cracked at the confirmation of her head giving a nod. He was barely conscious and already about to lose his breath again. And not in a good way. He was panicking. Which was something he always tried not to do.

“Calm down. Your heart rate’s going up. You’re already bad enough as is without the need for you having a heart attack on us.,” She gives him a polite smile clearly registering is internal crisis and trying to give him a way to focus on something else, “I’m Amber, by the way. And my friend standing all awkward in the corner is Juniper. She’s really sorry about hitting you with a car.”