(( hopefully not too bad though? ))

lina stepped outside and let the cold air whip her hair in the breeze. she soved her hands in her pockets and trudged behing patch. "im sorry patch. you didnt have to walk me home." but she did feel kind of safer with him by her.

Patch looked behind him and smiled at her, "but I want to, your one of my best friends and I dont want something to happen to you." he said as he continued ot walk but in the distance he could hear someone crying and another voice trying to sooth it.

lina heard voices and stopped in her place. she grabbed patch's jacket so he would stop too. "do...do you hear that?"

Patch nodded, "yeah I do and it is comeing from over there." he said and pointed down to the park where he saw two figures.

lina didnt think twice. she ran toward the figures and stopped when she got to the park fence to see if patch was following. he was. she shrugged off her jacket and began climbing ignoring the freezing chill she felt.

Patch took her jacekt and climbed up and over after her. Now closer now you could see that one of the figures was a boy who was covered in dirt and crying. The other was a young man who was speaking very softly, "calm down, nothing is going to happen. Now just tell me where you live." the young man said as he talked to the boy.

lina hopped over the last part of the fence and smiled wide when she saw who the figures were. she ran over to mark and petted his head. "oh thank god." she breathed in releif. he was covered from head to toe in dirt and the other man stood there quietly. lina stood up with mark in her arms and hugged him close. "mark." she looked at the other man and smiled tearing up. she shook his hand. "thank you." she said. "thank you." mark burried his head in lina's shoulder and she smiled. "shh. mark. lina will get you to mommy and daddy soon enough." mark nodded and lina rushed over to patch grabbing the jacket and covering mark with it. she looked at patch, crying and smiled. "thank you."

Patch smiled at her, "nothing to thank me for." he said and then the man came over to them. "sorry but I believe your brother dropped this." he said and held out a beat up old teddybear. It beloned to Mark and it was just as dirty as mark. "I found him and his bear wondering around lost. He said he had went out to get his bear back since he lfet it here but after ht got it her couldn't find his way back. That was when I found him." the man said and smiled, "oh and by the way, the name is John." he said as he shrugged out of his coat and placed it around Linas shoulders since it was cold out.

lina nodded and took the bear and jacket and held out the bear to mark. "here ya go buddy." she smiled. she turned to john and smiled. "my name is lina. if there is anything i can ever do for you just say the word. this means the world to me, thankyou." she wiped away any left over tears and laughed at herself for being such a softie. she looked at mark but was talking to patch. "lets get this little guy home. mom and dad are worried sick."

John smiled, "okay and it was my pleasure to help." he said and could barely take his eyes off of lina. She was beautifull and he wondered if they could hang out sometime. But he then looked at patch and wondered if he was her boyfriend or something. Patch smiled at john and then nodded, "yeah, lets go." he said and started to direct her towards the house.

lina glanced back at john and smiled. she turned back around and followed patch out of the park and back to her house. she set mark down in front of her mom and smiled. "hey mom, lookie who i found." she said nodding at a filthy mark. she bent down to mark and gave him tons of kisses and bear hugs. lina laughed and messed up marks hair a little. mark smiled showing two missing front teeth and lina bent down and kissed his cheek. she stood back up and let her mom take him away to most likey take a bath. lina turned to patch and smiled. "thank you, patch. that meant a lot to me."

Patch smiled at her, "oh I didn't do much, that guy josh did most of it." he said as he looked at LIna and smiled.

lina punched his shoulder lightly. "john! not josh!" she smiled. he seemed like a pretty nice guy. she wondered for a moment if she would ever see him again.

Patch laughed, "okay, john." he said then thought of something, "and I wonder if he just moved here, I never have seen his face here before." he said as he thought about it.

lina looked at patch. "yeah. i dont remember seeing him around here either..." she smiled. "id like to thank him again."

Patch smiled, "then later this week we will go hunt him down so that you can." he said as he smiled at her.

lina smiled and messed up his hair. "thanks patch!" she laughed. "oh. hold on a minute." she held up her index finger and disappeared further into the house. a moment later she returned with her jacket on and shoes tied. "i can go back to alex's tonight." she smiled.

Patch laughed, "yeah, now that your brothers safe and we better hurry, that pizza is probably done by now and I am hungery." he said as he looked at her.

lina laughed and rolled her eyes stepping out into the cold. "your always hungry patch." she smiled.

Patch laughed, "yeah, well I am a boy." he said as he started to walk back.

lina smiled and kept walking. "girls can be hungry all the time too!" she acted offended.

Alex had called Lina numerous times, but eventually gave up because she thought it would be rude to call her at a dark hour in her life. When they walked in the door, she ran up and hugged Lina. "Sweetheart did you find him?" she asked.

((Edit: I found out he has something wrong with his lungs and he has to go back to get operated on soon, but he was at school today. I ran up to him at lunch and I hugged him and asked him why he hadn't been there and he said something was wrong with his lungs....then he kissed me 0.o))

Patch smiled at Alex, "we found him thanks to a guy names josh... wait it was john." he said as he looked at her.

"That's good hun." she said as she stopped hugging her. "Ooh...did you think he was cute?" she asked with a smile.

lina smiled and shook her head, "girl talk later, right now, theres a lonely pizza in there, right?"