Noah looked a lot better than he had yesterday, admittedly you were doubtful to look your best after attempting suicide through an overdose.

The very word even in her mind made Keegan wince, it was just so unbelievably sad knowing that someone so young had been through so much. It made her realise just how monumental being a parent was. The thought of one day being a parent and messing up someone quite this much was terrifying. Noah seemed to be focusing on not making eye contact with her. There was something about his presence, it made her feel bolder and stronger, it made her want to be the heroine.

She turned towards him, finding a hand outstretched and finding his. Their palms just fit together, everything felt overwhelmingly right. Keegan reached for the plastic bag and emptied it's contents onto the bed.

"So, don't freak out but I got you a phone."

He looked up at her, sharply.

"Keegan, this is all too much. I appreciate what you've done for me but it's an inconvenience and I feel like I'm burdening you unnecessarily."

"Stop" she said harshly. "I am someone with a privileged life and I've lived in a bubble for a long time, I want to do this so it can't be called a burden, we went through this yesterday. And the phone is to ease my own anxieties not to overwhelm you with a lot of expensive gifts. I'd just prefer knowing that you're okay." she squeezed his hand, trying to give him some kind of reassurance that the words she was speaking were actually meant.

"But don't you see" Noah replied with an overwhelming sadness "you're now going to feel anxious every time I don't reply to you within in an instant, I've taken my issue and made it become yours, I knew writing that letter was a mistake, it was a desperate mistake that should never have become a reality."

He looked her squarely in the eye and she wished more than anything that she could get all of the words right, she felt like she had been babbling constantly since they'd met, giving him a mish mash of everything she had read or seen rather than anything that was actually useful.

"To me it's not a mistake, meeting you has meant I just had a conversation with my stone-cold half brother who I never speak to where he actually listened rather than looked down on me. I feel more alive than I have felt in a while, your letter woke me up. I know it's not all a joke, this isn't some fix you project, this is me hoping that for once I can actually make a difference, that I wasn't just born to die working a job that I hate."

The way he was looking at her made her feel like she had actually made a difference. And it was that feeling which she could pinpoint that made her know in her soul that she had made the right decision. She pressed the phone into his hand.

"I've topped it up with enough credit to last you for a month probably, my number's saved on it, so is Curtis' call anyone you want to. But please stop acting like this is all a big deal and that I'm disrupting everything for you, do that for me."

"How the hell was I so lucky that of everyone on Earth to be sitting on that train at that time, it was you?" he said, and seemed to mean every word.

"I don't know, guess you're just really lucky" Keegan replied and smiled at him.

"Can I have my hand back?" he asked and she jumped back realising how tightly she had been holding onto it through her impassioned speech.

He turned the screen on, with a smile on his face that reflected hers and they both watched the home screen blink into life.

"So you and Curtis? What's the deal with that?"

Keegan leant back so her back was resting on the wall.

"Curtis and I have the same Mum, different Dad's. I've never met his Father and my Mum barely talks about him, he's just kind of been erased out of the picture. Whenever we meet we never really talk, it's more of polite greetings and then we don't speak for a year. But I may or may not have just had a breakthrough with him and it was weird to see Curtis the person rather than Curtis the robot."

Noah gave you his full attention when you spoke, she'd noticed that about him. He wasn't distracted by the phone. He looked on like what she was saying was the most interesting thing on Earth. She blushed slightly, nobody paid her attention like this, not really.

"This breakthrough consisted of?"

"His company has gone under" she lowered her voice to a whisper, not wanting Curtis to hear and revert back to his hardened self. "And to Curtis, his company is everything, it's basically his purpose in life to one day be on the board, but he was speaking to me about his life and how he feels like it's empty, it seems a lot of people find me approachable these days, and it seems he may have actually been considering my advice to find another love that isn't a computer screen and refreshing his emails."

"Well you do give some pretty good advice."

Keegan felt her chest tighten, remembering that if all had not gone well, she wouldn't be sitting her with Noah having this conversation. There were big and small moments in life, and she knew for sure if he had died in that hospital ward, the part of her that now felt so inspired would have died too.

"I wish I could make you promise that you'll never do that again" she whispered.

He heard her, their proximity was so close, of course he heard her.

"And I wish I could promise you that I wouldn't ever do it again, maybe one day... one day I'll be able to promise you that"

She liked that, the assumption that they were going to be in each other's lives for long enough that he could make a promise like that. He hoped he would have a lot of future promises to make her. Keegan didn't know if she was being idealistic, if this was all going to end in the way she would least expect, but right now she had some hope that there was still good in the world. That she could save a life with smiles, kind words and shelter.

"We both haven't eaten breakfast, so we should probably join my thawing icicle of a half-brother and eat some."

She got up to leave, then found herself being tugged back to the bed by her arms. She found herself sitting in front of Noah, he leant forwards and wrapped his arms around her tightly. She could breathe him in now, he smelt of the bland soap which Curtis purchased but she liked the smell on him. Noah didn't seem like he had any intentions of letting her go, so she relaxed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She didn't realise that he was crying until he started to shake slightly, and a part of her heart broke. Whatever she did now she couldn't erase his past, no matter how determined she was, and that past was the reason for the tears. Keegan clung on tighter, shutting her eyes, overwhelmed with the sudden urge to join him in crying.

He was the first to back away, and he ducked his face so she wouldn't see his red eyes, and she allowed him that.

"I'm going to go and get us some food ready, come out when you want to."

He nodded and Keegan left.

Curtis was staring and his laptop screen intently.

"All good?" she asked him.

He nodded absently.

"All good, I've just realised I'm still in love with my high school girlfriend and I should probably tell her."

Well.