"Ally?"
"Oh crap, Ally!"
The noises were slurred; she could make out certain words, not identifying the full phrase or who said it. The ringing in her ears was claiming superiority over voices currently. She felt a warm hand clutch her wrist, another open the palm of her hand to intertwine their fingers. Ally murmured to herself, trying to get her words to come out, unsuccessfully. She felt something warm and sticky at the back of her head. More importantly, she felt a sharp pain there and she didn't remember why. Frankly, she didn't remember anything. The ringing slowed down. She squinted her eyes. It let a calmness roll over her, subtracting the bright light of wherever she was from her vision. The background noise slowly drained out. Even with her eyes shut tightly as they could, she was spinning, and it was like she could see herself doing waves, despite the fact she was staring at darkness. Everything else slowly clogged into one garbled mess. All the noises were too jumbled to make out. She clamped her eyelids shut further, praying she'd wake up soon from the nightmare she believed she was having. When she heard vaguely the sound of Austin's voice, it assured her this wasn't a nightmare. When his voice went back to the inaudible blur of earlier, she stopped trying to wake up.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
That was all she had heard for the past half hour. Ally had been awake the entire period. She just didn't want to open her eyes. She didn't know how she got here or why she was here. She sighed. She didn't even know what "here" was, but she had to open her eyes to find out. Slowly, she fluttered her lids open, eyes burning before adjusting to the bright light. Her lips formed the first thing that came to mind.
"Austin?"
She heard a scuffle from over her shoulder and in a second, there he was, gripping nervously at the rails of her bed.
"Ally! You're okay!" he said, grinning madly.
She put a hand to her head, feeling a gauze. The pain just started to make itself present.
"Where am I?" she asked, looking around without moving her neck. It was stiff.
"Miami County Hospital," Austin started, then looked at her confused glance. "You don't remember? You were on a ladder to fix the lights in Sonic Boom, and, er," he spat out, unnerving himself to speak of it. She instinctively grabbed for her hair and almost chewed on it out of old habit.
"You fell. When we got to sonic boom, you had cracked your skull open and almost injured your neck," he said, motioning to Dez and Trish who were looking ecstatic outside the door and waving. Ally chuckled and waved back.
"But I don't feel like my skull is open," Ally said, awkwardly fiddling with her gauze.
"They stitched it up. You're okay," he said, kissing the top of her head. "Thank God."
She blushed furiously at his gesture, thankful she was detained in this bed so not to do anything too socially unacceptable.
"How long have I been here?" Ally asked, quickly altering the subject.
"About two days. Trish and I spent the night here the first day, Dez and I the second. It would've been just me tonight," he said.
"Wait, Austin, how did I fall off the ladder? Nothing was wrong with the lights, I don't even remember a ladder," she said.
All of a sudden, it hits her like she's falling again - only this time, she remembers it clearly. Trying to regain her balance, slipping, the thoughts rambling about in her head as she fell, screaming for her dad, for Austin, for somebody to help. Then she feels the blood, and she zones out. Or at least she thinks she did, it was pretty unclear. Ally unconscionably reached for the gauze at her head, as if she was feeling for blood. With a sigh of relief, she discovered it was only bandages.
"So, what do I do now?" Ally asked, trying to relieve some of the stress she had accidentally caused.
"It's almost eleven," Austin said. "The doctor said you need as much rest as possible."
She took the hint, and looked up at him. Ally scooted over towards one side of the hospital bed.
"Austin, um, could you...?"
He gave a slight chuckle and ran a hand through his hair. It was his way of saying she'd be okay, because honestly, he had doubted it for a second. He was paralyzed with fear the first night.
"Sure," he replies quietly. He laid across his side of the bed, coaxing Ally to roll over towards him. She smiled, feeling admittedly more assured, and soon drifted off into sleep. Without thinking, Austin pulled her into his chest, wrapping both arms around her. He reacted on impulse. Still, it was still comforting and long-awaited to be able to hold her like this. Especially now.
When she's released, every one is happy, especially Austin, though he might be a tad overprotective. He makes sure she doesn't do anything herself - he won't even let her open the door herself, at least not until she's fully recovered and he doesn't have to keep reminding himself he wasn't there to catch her when she fell.
Austin's pledge to protect her might have gone slightly overboard when he yelled at Dez for highfiving Ally. It was a hard high five. He may have gotten a scornful and accusing grin from Trish, but Ally's well being is the only thing on his mind, so he lets it slip without questioning her look. She, on the other hand, was happy to be out of the hospital. Shy as she was, she hated boring things, and hospitals were king of boring. Not boring as in what Austin misconstrued Cloud Watching as, so much as lackluster. Hospitals lacked life. There's no vibrancy or vividness to keep her awake and happy like there is in music, or in Sonic Boom, dare she say it, around Austin. She was more than happy to get back to her life and Austin. Austin was ecstatic for her too, really, just concerned.
And boy, was Austin vibrant. Hyper, beautiful, loud, and confident were words she had used before, but vibrant suited him well. So did King Kong if you watched him eat pancakes. Austin devoured 2 or 3 in less than a minute, faster than Ally could count.
Two weeks time she was able to take the bandage off. Part of her hair looked choppy from where the doctors had to remove some of her hair to stitch her up. She hated it, saying it made her look dumb, but Austin reassured her she'd never looked more beautiful to him.
"Austin, it's a simple display case. I can do it myself," she said, jotting lyrics down in her book.
"So can I, plus I like hanging out with you. Can't a singer hang out with his songwriter?"
"Okay," she retorted. They worked in harmony, both on her new song and the display case alternatively.
He had actually come up with 90% of the lyrics. She was amazed that he had come up with lyrics at all, coming from the popstar who wrote the song song (with Dez's assistance).
Don't leave me hanging
Tell me are you okay?
If I come back tomorrow
Would you have left today?
I can't bring myself to leave
Though the stay is killing me
It's too much to believe
Even if I can clearly see
I'm not crazy,
You're just leaving me insane
I'm not crazy,
You used to keep me sane
Austin sang the chorus slowly, almost like a ballad. It was quite a change for a pop star - but it was a nice one. Ally nodded her head rhythmically to the pitter patter of piano keys. She took over, splitting open her songbook to find more lyrics.
Tell me if you love me
While we have this chance
Tell me if you love me
Start a new romance
Don't wait 'til it's too late
I can hardly breathe
My heart has started to separate
Tell me is there more to perceive?
I'm not crazy,
You're just leaving me insane
I'm not crazy,
You used to keep me sane
Ally glided her hands across the piano, feeling the rush of finally singing again take in. It absorbed her in complete bliss. She almost didn't notice when Austin started to sing again.
Baby I'll never let you go
Even if I'm far away
I'll always hold you close
And hear me when I say
Their hands brushed contently on the piano, and she slowly pulled back, looking Austin in the eyes. His hands cleverly continued to maneuver across the piano, yet their eyes met. He sang softly.
Tell me if you love me
While we have this chance
She picked up on the keys, never taking her eyes off of him.
Tell me if you love me
Start a new romance
He pulled his hands away from the piano, taking her face in his hands. She would've kissed him right on the spot had she the courage, and had he not done it first. She wasn't sure what kissing was really supposed to feel like - this was her first kiss, but all she knew were fireworks popping in her head, draining her from reality. The pain in her head subsided and they forgot about the new song, about her injury, about everything except for each other.
When they pulled away, their hands brushed on the piano. Neither of them seemed to care. Austin intertwined their fingers, giving her a nervous smile.
"That was.."
"Wow," Ally finished for him, breathing as she did on the perfect practice date.
"I'm mad at you," Ally said. She finally broke the awkward silence following the kiss.
"Ally, I'm sorry, I just..I really like you, and-" Austin started, but Ally cut him off.
"Not for kissing me. For me having to crack my head open for you to kiss me," Ally said.
"I didn't just kiss you because your head was cracked," Austin said gingerly.
"Prove it," Ally said, tightening her grip on his hands.
He silently connected their lips again, washing away any of her doubts.
A/N: I wrote this at 4 in the morning so it might not be my best, but Vesiki told me to post it.
I dedicate this not-so-awesome oneshot to the oh-so-awesome AwkkwardTree. (:
Reviews please~
-Rebel