t w e n t y f o u r ;

Roseanne waited in the waiting area of the hospital wing for the nurses to give her further news. Ivory seemed to have gotten bored of waiting and left, not after glaring daggers at Roseanne first. Cedar was nowhere to be found, which was surprising to Roseanne. As much as he disliked Raven and found him the cause of all his misfortunes, he was normally around Ivory whenever he had the chance. He only mostly left her whenever they retreated to their dorms for the evening. But they still texted each other, with her giving him false reassurances as she snuck out to see Indy behind her boyfriend's back. Roseanne wondered what became of that secret relationship. Was she still seeing him? A part of her told her that maybe he had accepted his loss and moved on. He didn't seem to be jealous of Ivory's attention towards Raven in the slightest. But that was also the way Indy was. He was a carefree and laid back kind of guy.

She only got up from her chair in the waiting area to pace around when she became impatient of sitting and waiting for so long. And she only left the waiting area to go get some coffee and a pastry from the hospital wing's cafeteria. She didn't want to move from there, but she had been forced to when her stomach started growling, begging her for food.

As she sat there, eating a blueberry muffin, she looked up when she saw one of the nurses approach her nervously. This one wasn't one of his usual nurses, the ones who did their job coldly and only spoke if they were spoken to or if they had some information about Raven's condition. She was an young woman with a kind expression who seemed to know Roseanne was there waiting for Raven. Not that it wasn't almost obvious. There was no one else in the waiting area, and there weren't usually serious injuries like that in the garden so the other students usually waited for their friends outside the hospital wing.

Discreetly, she pulled rolled up piece of paper from her pocket and cut the distance between them, taking Roseanne's hand in hers. As she did that, she left the piece of paper in Roseanne's hands. Knowing that it was something the other nurses or admins weren't supposed to see, she quickly stuffed it into the pocket of her pink uniform blazer. She would have to give it to Raven in his dorm room, or in hers. There were cameras all over the facility--except in the bathrooms and in the actual dorm rooms. Other than that, every move each person made, as well as their whereabouts were recorded twenty four hours a day on security cameras.

"When we were collecting blood donations in Province of Mines, a family approached first. They said they were relatives of Black." She explained to Roseanne in a whisper. Of course she and even Raven's family would refer to him as Black. But to her it was so strange to hear someone else call him that. He had stopped being Black a long time ago. He had almost always been Raven, for as long as she knew him. "They gave me this and begged me to bring it back to him. But I can't give it to him here in the hospital. There are eyes and ears everywhere. I can actually lose my job for this, and I really need this job."

For most people who didn't make the cut into the garden for space missions, life was more simple, yet it still held its complications at the same time. The children who were not chosen for the Garden went through another series of tests at age five, to determine what kind of jobs the had an aptitude for. Most people had an aptitude for something their family was already working in. For example, Roseanne knew that her older sister Blossom's aptitude test came back that she would be a florist as her career. Her parents owned a flower shop, which made it a given that she would be a florist as well. Her younger sister, whose name she didn't know, would most likely be a florist as well. From there, the children were implanted something like a career chip, which would brand them for the rest of their lives with their profession.

Like Raven's father had been a miner. That meant that his older brother was likely a miner, and had Raven not been picked to be sent to the Garden, he would probably be a miner now too.

It was the same for the nurses in the Garden. They were picked from age five and went to school for years for it. The only ones exempt were the students at the Garden, and after returning from their mission, they could either become teachers at the facility or go back home and live out the rest of their lives in a mansion with all the money they could ever need.

Roseanne nodded in understanding and promised to keep it a secret. The nurse then left her and she waited for another few minutes before Raven's assigned nurse walked over. She informed that the blood transfusion was a success as well as the implant of the new limb. She said he would be clumsy using it for the first couple of days and that he would need a lot of help eating, walking, bathing, and getting dressed. Roseanne couldn't help but blush at the thought of him getting dressed and even bathing, but she pushed the thoughts away and told herself that most likely his room mate Ciel could help with that. She could definitely help him with the eating and walking.

The nurse also informed Roseanne that for the next few days he'd be secreting white blood from his eyes, nose and mouth. She said that his body hadn't taken well to the donated white blood and that it would take days for his body to dispose of it. Roseanne frowned at how uncomfortable that would be, but a part of her was slightly happy that now Ivory had nothing to boast about.

Lastly, the nurse asked Roseanne if she thought her team mate would be more comfortable in the hospital, or in his dorm room. It was all going to be the same, except they would have to send a nurse in to check on him every few hours to his dorm room. Since she had a message for him from his family and she wanted to give it to him as soon as possible, she asked if they could get him set up in his dorm. The nurse gave a nod of her head and called over two male nurses to help transfer him into the dorm building and into his own room.

-

Ciel tried to mostly stay out of the dorm while Roseanne was there with Raven. It wasn't that he didn't like her or that he didn't want to see her there. But he knew there was something between them and he wanted to give them some privacy, some time to be alone with each other. A part of him wanted to ask her if she wanted to switch rooms for the remainder of their time in the Garden. No one would find out, since they didn't have security patrolling the halls, they mainly relied on the fact that the students followed the rules for the most part. With one week and a half before take off, there was likely less interest in keeping the team under constant watch. They were all set to go up into space anyway. But he wasn't sure if he would be comfortable dorming with Honey. He didn't really talk to her at all, and then there was the fact that she was going out with Seville. He was always in her room whenever Roseanne and Raven were out together.

He would need to make a big switch around to get Seville to sleep in Honey's room and he could stay Seville's room with Mauve so that Roseanne could stay with Raven and keep an eye on him. Then he would have to make sure they all kept quiet about it too. He just knew that if any of it got back to Ivory, not only would she be seething with anger, but she would immediately let the instructors know what was happening in the dorms. She couldn't stand to see Raven and Roseanne together.

He left the room that afternoon with the intent of getting the three people he needed to talk to, together. That would be Honey, Seville, and Mauve. They would need to do it in someone's dorm, since the lounge was much too public. He didn't want to be seen by either Cedar, Ivory, or Scarlet. Roseanne stayed behind in the room with Raven and pulled up his black desk chair that was nearby. The rooms weren't too big and mostly simple with two beds, two dressers, and two desks. They had one closet, which was divided into two for the two people living in the room. She sat by Raven's side and watched him sleep, his face contorting every so often in slight pain.

It was a while before he slowly opened his eyes and Roseanne felt herself brim with excitement. It had been a while since she saw him awake, and a while since she talked to him. The incident had only happened about two days prior, but it felt like an eternity to her. She felt like she hadn't seen his ink black irises in years. He looked around the room once more, disoriented until he realized he was back in his dorm. It was strange the way he hadn't even felt all of the movement. He passed out in the training grounds when it happened. When he woke up next he was in the hospital, missing a limb. Then he woke up once more and was back in his dorm room with a prosthetic that gave him pinches of pain every couple of minutes. He could feel the material pinching his nerves in an uncomfortable way. But he ignored it for the time being.

Roseanne moved off her chair and jumped on him, throwing her arms around him with excitement. He brought his right hand up to give her a light hug in return. He then pulled his left arm up slowly. It was limp as he did it, and he concentrated on trying to move it. He knew they wouldn't just give him a prosthetic that he wouldn't be able to use. He winced as he felt a jolting pain shoot up his arm, and let it drop onto the bed again. He would have to try it again later and he would have to master it before take off.

There were tears falling down her face as she pulled away from him. "I was so worried about you, Raven." She told him, lips quivering with emotion.

He offered her a small smile. "I feel all better now."

That wasn't entirely true. He felt tired, his eye lids heavy with the desire to continue sleeping. There was the pinching and constant pricks of pain shooting up his left arm combined with the pain of the fresh cut that was barely starting to heal. Then there was a strange burning and bubbling feeling in his body. He didn't know what it was, but he could best describe it as something not belonging there. Perhaps it would all go away within a couple of days. But he didn't want to worry her and he would pretend to be okay for her sake. She had probably worried enough about him as it was.

She smiled and wiped the tears from her eyes, which was in vain because more just kept spilling to take their place. She reached into her blazer pocket and retrieved a rolled up piece of paper. She placed it on his lap and began to explain what it was. "I didn't open it. But one of the nurses in the hospital wing gave it to me. She said your family sent it."

His eyes widened in surprise and he thought maybe he was dreaming. Perhaps it was a delusion caused by the pain killers he was taking. There was no way he heard that right. His family was still alive back in the province and they were thinking of him. So much that they had sent something for him. He felt a sting in his eyes and he felt like tears were about to escape.

"My family?" He asked, looking up into her rose colored eyes. She nodded her head slowly. Because of the condition of his left arm, he asked her to open it for him and they found there was a letter, along with a family photograph. His mother had labeled everyone in the picture and gave details on the back.

Roseanne read off the stuff on the picture to him first. "It says here its your mother Ebony, your step-father Cole, your brother Slate, your brother Jet, his wife Sable, and your niece Jetta." For Raven that was already three new people. He had been sent to the Garden before his younger brother was born. He also found out his older brother got married and had a daughter. He was happy for them, but he was also sad for himself because he was all alone in the Garden. His only family was Roseanne.

She was the only person that actually cared about him there.

-

filler ish chapter. since all of this chapter is made up, i want to provide another side story for you all.

so i never mentioned this friend, she's not in the story. but she works at the restaurant with us and she's about eleven years older than me, and fifteen years older than raven. yet, when he first started working with us at age nineteen, this woman WAS IN LOVE WITH HIM. she told me she had feelings. he was nineteen, she was around thirty four.

she'd invite him to get food after work bc we work in an industrial area. so its surrounded by factories. but there's like a little corner where our restaurant is at, and then across the street there's a bunch of other little restaurants for the factory workers. and he'd always go with her. so one day about a month later, i ask her how things are going with raven. mind you this was long before i started catching feelings for him.

and she tells me "i dont think its going to work out. i think he has a thing for you tbh." and i say "how so?" bc i hadn't started thinking of raven like that. so she says. "well every time i invite him somewhere after work, he says how we should have invited you. and how you'd really like this, or that. he constantly brings you up. i cant deal with that." and that honestly made my heart flutter despite only seeing him as a friend back then. this was literally about a month after he and i started talking.

-clary