This is a very short one shot that just popped into my head. It's not what I normally do, but I couldn't help it. It's also newer than alot of what I have posted, so I figured I'd put out something that wasn't so old.

The photograph drifted to the floor, a brushing noise so quiet it could be barely heard when it touched the ground. A woman's laughter filled the air, and the window curtains whooshed in the wind. The house steps never creaked anymore, and the chairs had long since been glued to their places from the lack of use. The old retired man sat in the chair in front of the television, as smoke slowly began to fill the room, heat screaming out of the windows.

Yet the man remained oblivious.

There was a woman on the television, and the man smiled as he watched, a twisted grimace of the lips, memory playing across his eyes.

Across the street, a neighbor saw the smoke and dialed 911 in a panic. He knew that only an old, broken man lived in that house, without family or friends. With that thought in mind, as soon as the phone shut off, he ran into the wild flames, with only a wet coat around his shoulders in hopes of warding the flames away for at least a while.

The desperate man had to kick the front door several times to knock it off it's weakened hinges, the old oak cracking when it hit the floor.

The man didn't stop to think about it when he charged into the house, heedless to anymore thought of his own safety.

He glanced desperately around the long hallway, sprinting when he heard the television from the living there, and resisted the urge to collapse in relief when he saw the old man.

"Come on," he plead to the retired man who was unconscious in his chair, "You've got to get up. I know that you want to live, you have to. You can't give up now."

The man continued to sleep in his old broken down chair, unaware or unconcerned about the danger to his life. However, the stranger didn't give up. He gave a heavy sigh, knowing that each extra moment he spent in the room was slowly draining his chances of getting out. He steeled his will, and grunted under the older man's weight as he hauled the other's arm over his shoulder and heaved him to his feet. In the far off distance he could hear the sirens blaring, and knew that they wouldn't arrive in time, as he heard the old man's breath begin to stutter, several times becoming so soft it was hard to tell it was even there.

He started the slow, tedious steps out into the hall, a continuous monologue of words falling from his lips, despite the oxygen deprivation it caused him. He was young. He'd survive.

He had to.

Long enough, at least, to accomplish his dreams.

However, now was not the time to dwell on his own survival. Now, he had to make sure that his neighbor would live. He knew that the old man had been dwelling in regret for far too long, and had long since given up on life. He didn't like to see the despair in the man's every time he stumbled his way to the mailbox at the end of the small trailer house, held together in good ol' duck-tape and nails. The man had gone through the runner so many years ago, he knew from the neighbors gossip. But he didn't think that it made the old man deserve to die without knowing that he had hope for redemption.

He strongly believed that everyone deserved second chances.

So he pulled the old man out the door, out to the end of the drive, before collapsing himself into a relieved, unconscious heap.

He woke up several days later, relieved to hear that the old man had survived. He hobbled his way over to the man's bed to slump on the empty chair next to the man. "Do you believe in second chances?" he asked casually, continuing on before the other had a chance to respond. "I do."

The old man felt his lips turn up into a smile, a small one, but one that was real, unlike any he had displayed in years. "I think, son, that you might have convinced me. I'm old, and set in my ways, but you obviously think there is something left for me in this world, and who am I to argue? I was willing to give up my life, and you took the chance to prove to me that it wasn't the end. Who am I to argue with that kind of faith, when I lack it for myself?"

A/N: I actually have no idea if they would actually be in the hospital, but they needed to in my story.

I hoped you enjoyed it, and please REVIEW! ^_^