How to Save a Life (Closed for Maka)

[Faux_Pas]

It was a typical Wednesday.
Leah was certain of this, as her days always seemed to go the same every week. Monday, the usual disgust and disdain for going to work, drudging her butt out of bed. Tuesday, a little more in tune with the whole idea of working, a bit more cheerful, a bit more at ease with others' overly-perky afternoons. Wednesday, she was finally one of them, and even more than some of the others when it came to her usual lunch time grab for a Wednesday. A nice Mocha Latte from he Starbucks across the street from her office.

She was sipping one now, trying to block out the complaints and whines of oblivious folk that had been calling her all morning. Her job was easy enough, but it was dealing with idiots that she hated. Sometimes a nice walk down the streets, her phone used as an MP3 player and her earbuds buried, she could at least act like she was just out for a stroll, rather than a 45 minute break from the hell of idiocy.

Wednesday. Her drink. And so much closer to the weekend.

Traffic was so much louder since they started construction on that new bank across the street. How many banks did they need around here? There was at least 6 of them within walking distance of each other now, and this new one was supposed to have an added 3 branches following. It just seemed so... pointless. As the work trucks beeped and honked, revved and poured, Leah reached down, increasing the volume of her music and continuing on.

Her drink was almost gone. Bummer. It hadn't really been that good today, but at least it was giving her a bit extra pep. She continued down into the crosswalk, peeking up to check the light before stepping out. Her mind was already starting to drift back to work, her humming growing louder as she clutched her cup.

So much to think about. So much to do. So many, many things.

Certainly far too much to even consider looking to see if oncoming traffic was actually paying attention to the pedestrian crossing over.

Leah was too focused on her thoughts, on her drink.

The driver was too focused on his phone call.

She happened to glance up just enough to see the front end of the truck, to see the glimmer of realization on the driver's face. She shrieked out as she realized what was about to happen, simply dropping her cup and starting to huddle down on the cross walk.

Her thoughts were anywhere but on her life flashing before her eyes.
Simply that she was going to be late for work.

 

[Maka]

Time.

So valuable, in theory. Cole wondered what he could have done in the accumulated time he'd spent in meetings, shuffling paperwork, looking busy, listening to self-important superiors. He could have learned a language, or a musical instrument. He could have acquainted himself with nineteenth Russian literature. Walked from Barrow, Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Calculated exactly how much time, in absolute terms, he'd wasted in meetings, shuffling paperwork, looking busy, listening to self-important superiors.

Outside the office, Cole spent much time in the gym, which his lean physique, hard and muscled without being bulky, reflected. But no amount of work-outs could have given him his intense, flashing brown eyes, the hard high angles of his face or his smooth close-cropped dark hair. Male colleagues, growing paunches and bald spots, tended to resent him. Female colleagues found excuses to drop by Cole's cubicle several times an afternoon. But Cole remained courteous but coolly indifferent to one and all. In his mind he was in sunlit spaces far from the office. One of nature's loners, he'd never been much for intimate attachments, preferring his solitude.

It was lunchtime was sick of everything about the office, from the hum of the air conditioner to the gunmetal grey walls. Politely turning down the offer of lunch together in the cafeteria with Kate from Accounting, he strode out of the building. He'd just sit in a park for half an hour.

He emerged just in time to witness the star of an accident. The woman (pretty, more than pretty in fact but his brain had no time to take it in) -freezing in terror, the truck-driver's eyes widening, slamming on the brakes too late, the onlookers just beginning to take it all in. It was though it was happening in slow motion. Cole had been a champion sprinter in high school. Faster than conscious thought, he dashed across the crossway and dived straight at the woman, catching her in his arms and rolling with her in a blur of motion to the sidewalk.

 

[Faux_Pas]

It felt like forever. Leah was sure she was going to meet that truck's grill against her head, that that was going to be the last thing she ever felt. Instead, she felt... arms. A body. Someone slamming against her, hard. Hard enough to shove her back onto the sidewalk, her ankle the only thing left to meet the truck's bumper. She felt the snap of it, but was more concerned on what she was wrapped up in. How she had gotten this way.

the truck screeched to a halt, the driver scrambling to get out of the cab. "I swear to God, I didn't see her, I didn't see her!," He was ranting, staring at the two on the walk as he stood before his truck. Others were coming over now, trying to help the two off the sidewalk, calling police, calling ambulances. A woman was trying to help Leah to her feet, but she was focused on the man who had grabbed her. He had...

The truck was right there. She had felt the heat of it's engine, right in her face. And he had pushed her out of its way. That guy had just saved her life. Leah was still in awe. Shock. People actually did things like that?

The woman was saying something, frantically waving a hand before Leah's face. She finally glanced over lazily, still out of it as the woman repeated her question. "Are you alright? The ambulance is coming!"

"I'm okay, I'm okay." Leah nodded, starting to try and get up herself, only to yelp at her ankle's lack of cooperation. She sat right back down, shaking her head. "My leg. It hurts too much. I just wanna sit for a minute, please...." She glanced back over, looking at the man who had helped her. "Thank you," She called softly, shaking her head. "I don't know what even happened. I was just... walking... I was just... Oh god, I'm gonna be late for work." She groaned, raising her hands to rub her face.

"I think you have good reason!," The woman beside her chided, shaking her own head as she rubbed Leah's shoulder, peeking down the road as the cop cars and ambulance came into view. "What about you, sir? Are you alright?"

Leah peeked back over at him as well. "Thank you. So much." He had saved her. She had almost died, right there, right then. But he saved her. "I'm Leah.... Leah Wilson... I owe you my life, I really do..." She wanted to say more, to talk to this man, but the officers and paramedics were already hastily trying to work on the scene, pulling Leah up onto a stretcher and wheeling her back to the ambulance. "Wait! Hang on a minute! Stop, stop a sec!" Leah was trying to get them to give her another moment with that man, grimacing as the doors were slammed shut.

 

[Maka]

The whole experience was over so quickly. Cole found himself entangled with the warm, limber and slender body of the young woman he'd saved, then being helped up by bystanders. The driver was loudly protesting his innocence. Cole muzzily noticed that a couple of onlookers had already taken down his license plate. Shouldn't have taken that call while driving, buddy, he thought vaguely.

The woman was coming to, thanking him. Cole shrugged it off, a little uncomfortably.

"It was nothing. Something anyone would have done."

"What about you, sir? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," said Cole shortly. He was starting to recieve a little attention. The onlookers, like the audience at a movie, had their villain (driver), victim (the pretty girl) and now him, their hero. The darkhaired girl in question was looking at him, a strange, almost awed look in her eyes.

"I'm Leah.... Leah Wilson... I owe you my life, I really do..."

"It's no big deal. Really," said Cole, as the paramedics bundled her away. He felt a strange, wistful pang as the doors shut on her luminous, delicate face but also relief. He'd gone a long time without the messy, jarring business of meaningful human interaction and he hadn't enjoyed its abrupt reintroduction into his life. He began to walk away from the growing crowd.

"Sir!"

The woman who'd helped him up was waving at him, his wallet in her hands. Cole took it with murmured thanks, but not before she'd seen the name on the driver's license on the inside flap.

"Cole Jacobs," she read aloud. "You're a real hero, Mr Jacobs. I'm going make sure that girl gets your name when she's feeling better. I'm sure she'll want to thank you properly."

"That's really not necessary," Cole protested, with a hint of panic, but the woman just gave him a bright smile and repeated his name to herself ominously.

 

[Faux_Pas]

His voice lingered in her ears as the ambulance closed up its doors, starting to pull away from the accident. It all felt so fast, so sudden. One moment, she was walking the street, listening to her music and sipping her coffee... The next, she was being shoved out of the way of a truck and suddenly placed into this thing.

The pain in her ankle had started back up. Not so little a pain this time. The throb of it tore through her leg, causing Leah to suddenly cry out loudly. One of the paramedics looked down at it, taking out a roll of gauze to bind it. "It's going to be tender for a bit. Can you move it at all?"

Leah shook her head, frowning. "It hurts just way too much."

"Let's get that sock off then. Have a look." He started to roll up her pants leg, grimacing immediately. "Oh. That's.... bad. Lay back down, please. You've got a protrusion."

"Prot- Wait, doesn't that mean sticking out?!" Leah paled, doing the exact opposite of what he had requested and shooting upright. "I've got a bone sticking out of my ankle?!"

"You need to lay back down!" The man pushed her back, shaking his head. "It's not as bad as it sounds! We can get this take care of, you healed up in a matter of about, oh, three months, I'd guess."

Leah's heart sunk with that. Three months? She sighed, finally laying back and letting the man inspect her ankle as they sped to the hospital. A stop into the ER, a cast, and a set of crutches later, she was calling for a cab to get her home. Still settled into the waiting room of the Emergency room, she watched as various people came and went, a touch confused as a woman came in and headed to her, not the receptionist.

"Are you the girl that was almost hit today?"
Leah raised a brow. "Yeah?"
"The man who helped you. I know who he is."
Her expression changed immediately. "You do?" She grinned with that, trying to get up, finding it hard to balance on the crutches. Oh, these things would have to go. A cane or something. Certainly not this. "Who is he?"

The woman relayed the information she knew; Cole Jacobs, worked near her own building, a few more details that seemed odd for the woman to know... But Leah considered how many things a person could find online anymore. She most likely did a simple search and came back with all these things.

"Cole Jacobs," She repeated back, smiling a bit more. It seemed a fitting name for him. He seemed someone with a unique name. Funny, even just knowing his name now made her recall the way his arms had folded against her, pulled her close, out of the way of that truck. "Thank you. Thank you very, very much."

"Oh, I just knew you would want to know all this!" The woman beamed, patting her shoulder. "He seems a very nice fellow!"

Leah smiled again, glancing up as she saw the yellow cab out front. "Thank you again!" And with that, she hobbled her way out to the waiting car. Crutches. Ugh. They were definitely going.
Especially with her planning to find Cole tomorrow.




Trying to sleep was hard, made worse by the painkillers for her leg and the returning dreams every time she tried to close her eyes. The visions of that truck. How things could have been if Cole hadn't been there.
And then Cole. Himself.
A completely different outcome to that situation. No ambulance. No other people.
Somehow even the truck vanished.
Just her and Cole.

That was a very, very strange dream.

She woke at the same time she always did. 8:20. But not to get ready for work, to get ready to find him. The woman hadn't given complete details on where he worked, only that he was near her own job. There weren't too many office buildings nearby. She could find him fairly easily.

First things first, however.
Getting rid of these stupid crutches.

She had one of her father's old canes, part of a collection he had kept over the years. A little cherrywood cane with a rounded top. Simple, and certainly far better than a crutch! Using that to work her way out to catch the bus, she was soon on her way back downtown, set on finding her hero.

Three different buildings.
Each one so far had said no to a Cole Jacobs working there.

Maybe better luck here...

 

[Maka]

"Someone to see you, Cole."

It was Kate from Accounting. Today she had a rather sullen pout on her face and she spoke curtly. Cole looked up from his monitor.

"What? Who?"

"Nobody I know. A girl", spitting out the last word as though it stood for 'Shameless half-dressed harlot'.

"Well, what does she look like?"

His only answer was a sniff and a retreating back which, on balance, Cole thought meant 'pretty'. He sighed and stretched, then got to his feet and padded down to the waiting room.

He instantly recognised the darkhaired girl sitting there, a strange and dreamy half-smile illuminating her delicate features. She had one foot stretched out on the seat in front of her, in an unconscious display of the limber qualities of her lithe young body, and an elegant cherrywood cane leaning against the chair. Deep dark eyes regarded the middle distance thoughtfully.

Cole felt, for a moment, as though a bolt of lightning had struck him.

"Hello?" he asked. "Can I help?"

 

[Faux_Pas]

The recognition of the name from the secretary brought an immediate smile to Leah's face, happy to find that she was in the right place. As the woman walked off, she settled into the chairs in the waiting area, perching her leg up a bit. It was a bit sore from walking this much, but she was happy that it paid off. A little swelling was worth it.

That lady was taking an awfully long time...
Leah sighed again, peeking out through the glass windows to the street beyond. She could see her own building from here, the office she spent so much time in herself. A pointless job, listening to people's complaints, their stupid greedy demands and wants. Did none of them even realize how short life could actually be? One minute you're enjoying everything around you, and the next....

"Hello?"
Leah's head shot up, looking over to the voice that called out. She smiled even more as he approached, the man she had been searching for.
"Cole!"
She probably sounded a bit too excited, too knowing of a guy she didn't actually KNOW. Still, she managed to swing her leg back down, grabbing her cane and rushing over to him, throwing her arms about his neck and hugging him as she grinned. "I found you, I finally found you, after all day searching-!"

Her eyes opened slightly, catching the LOOK the secretary was giving her. Hesitantly, she drew back, a nervous smile coming to her face as she ran a hand against her hair. "I... Uh... Sorry. I just... It's been a really long day, and I was so happy to finally find you, and I wasn't really thinking about- I'm sorry." She took a deep breath, looking back to him sheepishly. "You did something amazing for me, Cole. Something I absolutely have to repay to you. Please. Please, let me take you to dinner tonight. My way of saying thanks."

A sudden thought.
"You... do remember me, right?" She tapped the cane against her foot, then looked back to him. "Leah Wilson. The... the idiot who walked in front of the truck yesterday."

 

[Maka]

Cole was startled by the girl-shaped tornado that launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a close, tight hug. She smelled very good -a clean, fresh pine scent. She felt even better, with all of her supple, slender body pressed against him. She abruptly let him go, the recipient of a death-glare from Kate, and mumbled an apology.

"Of course I remember you," Cole said. He could see that she was still limping and helped her back down on to the couch, a firm hand under her slim arm. "But it really was something anyone would have done." He smiled. "I barely had time to think, after all."

His piercing, clear brown gaze met her dark, sensuous bedroom eyes. He'd fought long and hard to keep clear of any emotional entanglements. His life was cool, airy and neutral as his apartment.

"You certainly don't need to buy me dinner."

 

[Faux_Pas]

Leah beamed a bit more as he noted that he did indeed remember her, wanting to hug him a bit longer, to ignore the touch of pain running through her ankle. His offered silent help to return to the seats, however, was greatly appreciated, Leah clutching to him a bit more as he placed her back down. The added mention of it being something 'anyone' would have done managed to get a shake of her head,a forwn coming to her face. "I don't think so, I really don't," SHe started softly, looking at her hands. "There were so many people standing out there, watching... but that's all they would ever do is simply watch. They would say how tragic it was. And that would have been the end of it... They never would have moved." She looked back up to him, smiling again. "But you did... You moved. You did that. For me. Thank you. Thank you so much..."

He tried to deny her request for him to come out to dinner with her, Leah quickly grabbing his hand. "Please. Cole... please. I want to do something to thank you for what you did. I mean... come on. You just saved my life. That's a bit more than like... finding my purse or something. It's not just losing my ID somewhere. I almost lost... me."

Maybe she was being a touch dramatic on it, but at that moment, Cole seemed a superhero to her. An amazing man standing before her, even the way he stood... sat...the way his body had felt when she hugged him. She felt everything beneath the dress clothing he donned now, the strong form hiding beneath. She had felt all that once before, too. When she didn't exactly have the time to really enjoy it.

Not the case during that hug. Not at all.

"Just one dinner. That's all I ask. Then I can go back to being that story you tell people. Fair?" She smiled at him again, a pleading look in her eyes.

 

[Maka]

There was an urgency in Leah's smoky dark eyes, a note of pleading. And her smile. Cole could not remember the last time he had made anyone smile like that.

"You'd never just be a story I tell people, Leah," he replied, with a cautious, weary but warm smile of his own. "I don't think you could ever be 'just' anything."

He hesitated. Leah had taken his hand in both her small ones. His pulse was steady but he could feel hers racing. Cole frowned. He had gone to considerable effort to arrange his life just the way he wanted it. But surely just one dinner wouldn't hurt and he wasn't entirely sure he would be allowed get back to his desk until he said yes.

Did he even want to get back to his desk, to the phenomenal boredom of his job?

"Well, in that case, it would be my pleasure to have dinner with you."

 

[Faux_Pas]

The modesty of a hero. Wow, he really was... It made Leah smile even more at his words. His hand seemed so warm in hers, but also.... stuck. Frozen. Had she gone too far with that? She hesitantly pulled them away, but the smirk upon her face refused to leave. Seeing him like this, without people rushing around them, paramedics trying to pluck her up, officers trying to separate out those around them- It was so much calmer, so much quieter. It made it far easier to see the man before her.

Leah's heart was racing. She was nervous and happy. Excited and scared. But he agreed to come.

"Thank you, Cole! Thank you so much!" She hugged him again, peeking over to see the glare once again given her way by the woman at the desk. Her own eyes narrowed slightly. What was that look for? Cole had saved her life. He was amazing. If that woman had a problem with it-

She suddenly cleared her throat, pulling back to give another smile and reaching into her purse. "Here, here's my phone number, okay? Give me a call later and we can meet up. There's a really nice Italian place over on Woodard Ave. Bertoni's? I used to take care of his little boys... Harry will make you the best meal you've ever tasted, I promise." She handed him the small slip of paper, her phone number having been hastily scribbled upon it. "Around 6? If- if that's good for you. Whatever time is best. You just let me know." She was stumbling on her words, a tiny laugh left between them at times. Nervous. Excited.

Starting to get back to her feet, clutching the little cane, she gave another glance to him, that smirk still holding strong. "Goodbye, Cole. I'll see you later tonight."

The warmth of his hands. She felt it in her palms still, the texture of his touch.Even the smell of his cologne upon her shirt. And still felt the stare of that woman, even as she headed for the door. She paused for the briefest of moments, turning around to glare at the receptionist, an anger of her own holding through it.

A declaration made without a single word. "Don't fuck with me, lady. Cole. Is mine."

 

[Maka]

Kate looked a little shellshocked as Leah moved away, although Cole wasn't entirely sure why. Leah was framed in the doorway for a moment before turning away, smooth dark hair falling to her lovely, toned ass. Cole shook himself. This wasn't the plan at all.

Kate still seemed a little wide-eyed. "Who was that?"

"I saved her life."

Kate's lips thinned alarmingly.



The rest of the day was almost a blur. Leah's smile on his monitor, Leah's supple body was underneath his hands instead of the keyboard. Cole kept telling himself not to act like this, not to waste the years he'd spent building up effective and impenetrable walls between himself and the rest of humanity.

Could just a moment of human contact bring all that crashing down? That single moment when he had collided with Leah. Had he even made a conscious decision? Then again, could even the most misanthropic man in the world have let that body come to ruin? His hands fairly flew across the keys, imagining Leah's smile widening, opening to emit a moan of pleasure....


Six could not come quickly enough. Cole retrieved Leah's phone number from his shirt pocket and dialled it. His plan was to pick Leah up from work or her apartment and take her to the restaurant she had recommended.

"Hello? It's Cole."

 

[Faux_Pas]

It was odd to dance with a cane. Not in the Fred Astaire style, that was for certain. But Leah was trying, a little one footed spin on her kitchen floor as she held her cane in one hand. Talking to her cat, the confused grey thing sitting in the doorway, watching her as she hummed and laughed. "He's amazing, Rufio. Absolutely amazing. A knight in a business suit. His smile.. Oh, you should have seen his smile..."

The cat had lost complete and utter interest in her conversation, having wandered off by her second attempt at a spin. Still, Leah didn't care, managing to sway her way to the fridge as she waited to hear from him. "His office is really nice, too. So much better the call center. They had an actual couch in their waiting room! All I get are those nasty hard hurt your butt plastic chairs. I bet he loves going to hang out there on his break. People watch. Enjoy the day." She paused, wrinkling her nose as she pulled a can of soda from the fridge, another thought drifting in as she popped it open. "Except for that woman behind the counter. She... She wasn't so nice. The look she gave me- It was almost as though she thought I was stealing Cole away from her!" She scoffed with that, taking a sip of her drink before shaking her head. "Please. She should realize that Cole wants nothing to do with her.... Besides, he is totally mine."

A mew came from the other room, followed by the sound of her cell phone going off. She nearly dropped her soda at the sound of it, rushing as best she could to go fetch it. A flop over the back of her couch, and she quickly had it scooped up. "Hello!?"

"Hello? It's Cole."

"Cole!" She sounded a bit too excited with that. She tried to tone it back a bit, smiling as she pulled herself over the couch. "Hey! How'd work go? Ah- Sorry for kinda... barging into your office like that, I guess I was just... excited.... and the... hug..." She trailed off, the slow realization on exactly how she had reacted coming over her. "Oh. Wow. I.... I came off as a complete weirdo. I am... So sorry." A sheepish laugh was given with that, shaking her head as she cradled the phone. "You, ah... don't mind still going out to dinner with me, do you? I promise, no more of that. Really. I just tend to get a bit overly excited sometimes."

She gave him her address, eagerly excited to hear he was coming to pick her up. Upon hanging up, Leah was off to her bedroom, trying to find something more fitting for her evening out with her hero...

 

[Maka]

The atmosphere as Cole walked past Kate and a trio of her friends from Accounting was frosty. They stopped ther conversation and watched in silence as he strode by. They had been talking about him and his visitor, he knew. Cole vaguely recognised all of them as among the female co-workers who seemed to find eternal excuses to stop by his cubicle, for inane chit-chat and to find reasons to place a hand on his shoulder or eye his muscular physique.

Cole had never encouraged them in the slightest, so Leah's visit annoyed them all equally. He was conscious of a hope that this would finally case them to leave him alone. But, he realised with a start, he did not want Leah to leave him alone. She was strange and excitable and exciting and, for the first time in a long time, he felt real interest in another human being. More than just interest.

What had he let himself in for by saving a life?

He drove home and stopped by his apartment quickly to change into a dark suit and blue tie -not too formal but quietly stylish. Struck by a sudden impulse, he stopped by a florist's on his way back to the car


Fifteen minutes later, he was standing outside Leah's apartment, a bouquet of red and white roses in his hands.

 

[Faux_Pas]

She could do this without her cane. She was sure of that. Leah took a deep breath, leaving the crutch she had come to rely on for the last few days behind on her bed as she worked her way over to her closet. It was a touch harder to walk, but she was determined now. There was a reason to try and force herself past this. Cole was coming to see her, to spend time with her. Certainly her hero wouldn't want to see her as a weak little thing that was hobbling all over with that ugly stick.

A black dress, barely brushing her knees. The accident had left a number of bruises and welts upon her legs, but aside from that, she thought her legs to be fairly attractive. Besides, the marks were only up to a certain point. Stockings were still in order, she supposed. Try to hide that a bit more.

She had slipped on a pair of little black shoes when the door sounded, Leah stealing a glance to the cane and huffing as she worked her way from her room. No. Not going to use it. Don't need it. One hand resting on the wall to gain her balance, she worked her way over to the door, opening it to find Cole's smiling face waiting for her. "Hello there." She smiled in return, glancing down to find the flowers in his hand. A gasp left her, looking back up with an even bigger smile and awed look to her eyes. "Oh, Cole, thank you!"

No one had ever brought her flowers before. "I'll just be a moment. I had a necklace, but I can't.. seem to find... Oh!" There it was, on her coffeetable. Grabbing the nearby chair, she eased her way back to the living room, grabbing the single rhinestone on a chain from the stand and balancing against the chair to try and get it on. "The Italian place is still alright? I called over earlier, they saved a nice table for us... But- but if there's something you'd prefer over that, I can certainly call and cancel, I just-" She took a breath, then glanced at him with another adoring smile. "I just want to see you happy, Cole."

 

[Maka]

Cole's breath was taken away by Leah's stunning looks in her revealing little black dress. She was moving with difficulty, still clearly in pain from the accident. Cole saw her wobbling as she reached for her necklace, and gently but confidently intervened, steadying her with a hand on her bare shoulder, his body thrilling at the contact.

"The Italian sounds wonderful," he said, "And please lean on me, Leah. Are you even sure you should be moving around?"