Dépaysement

Authoress' Note: Title means "Feeling of disorientation or bewilderment one might feel upon being in a totally foreign environment", which I felt was absolutely perfect for what I have planned in this sequel. If you have not read my fanfiction Loup Égaré, I highly suggest you do, just so that you know what's going on.

I very nearly ended LE with them falling into the Seine, but that may have been just a bit too evil of me.

This will take place in Kit's original universe, rather than the POTO universe.

I apologize for the wait on this chapter. I was going to write it on my day off, but ended up being called in, and was too tired from the work-week to do much else but work, eat, and sleep. Today I slept twelve hours after a nearly 13 hour shift. I restarted the beginning of this a couple of times, but I think I found some way that I enjoy a lot. Anyhow, onto the chapter!

Rating: M

Disclaimer: I don't own POTO.

'Night shifts are so boring...At least it isn't crazy busy, though,' Rita heard a sigh and looked up from her paperwork at the nurse's station to look over at her coworker. "Still looking over at that woman's room?" The blonde asked with a bit of a roll of her eyes. The only other person watching the monitors was a bit of a grumpy older lady, heading for her retirement years from nursing, and she was at the other end. She didn't mind chatting during the night shift, so that at least was good.

"What? I wish I had someone that dedicated to me. Come on, it's so romantic! I just hope she wakes up, that poor man's pining away for her," The brunette's slightly valley-accented voice fit her pretty well. For a nurse she was a little ditzy, but one didn't have to be the best nurse out there to deal with coma patients most of the time. "Come on, you gotta admit it would make an awesome cheesy movie," Sally teased and Rita rolled her eyes, turning them back to her paperwork after she glanced at the monitors but saw nothing amiss.

The patient in question was a sad case, really, and they all hoped she woke up soon. Her fiance was so terribly worried about her, and he spent much of his time in her room, hoping to catch her when she awoke. She'd gotten hit by a car...The week before her wedding, too!

Sally personally saw it as particularly shit luck, but she saw Darren Wilkins as a pretty stand-up guy for not giving up hope like many others had, even if her gut told her to be careful around him. She figured it was just him being a powerful, wealthy businessman.

They didn't get a whole lot of the famous crowd in this wing—there were more here lately, with Wilkins being present and then the rather hermit-like, extremely private patient in the room two doors down from the redhead, but it still remained pretty quiet.

The new arrival had only been here for a few days, having slipped into a coma from a gunshot.

Rita had read in the paper someone had tried to shoot him in a drunken rage, something about the reclusive musician having garnered the attention of the possessive man's wife, but his attempt hadn't ended well and the man had ended up shot to death by the police, and the celebrity was, other than his gunshot and a bit of a coma, just fine.

Rita sighed and pushed her attention back to her charts. She had a bit to catch up on, and this was the perfect time to do it.

Nothing much happened in the middle of the night, much less at three in the morning, after all.

Several minutes went by before Rita felt Sally nudge her with her elbow, the brunette looking at the monitors.

"Hey...Her heart rate is picking up, like a lot," Sally pointed out, eyes wide and a bit excited. She'd never seen anyone wake up after being in a coma for nearly two months, like the pretty redhead had been.

Some different movements off to the side drew Rita's attention. "Hey, the patient in 403—his vitals are changing too," Before they could get up though alarms started beeping, including the bed alarm that would let them know if anyone got up and started wandering or fell—and the alerts popping up on the screens were for 405.

"Erik! Erik où es-tu?!" A weak but terrified scream came.

The older lady waved them away—she'd stay and keep an eye on all the monitors to make sure they didn't miss someone's vitals going south.

The bed alarm was joined by several other things being triggered in 403, and they were stunned to find the new arrival was awake, up, and furthermore had dashed into room 405. Standing up, Rita started calling for the two other nurses that were either with other comatose patients on the ward or were elsewhere for whatever reason as they dashed from the nurse's station.

'There goes having a nice quiet night shift!' The blonde thought, hot on the heels of her ditzy coworker.