Summary – (AU) When life hands us a tragic or a joyous moment, it often takes place in hospital room. So when Rinoa Heartilly has a hospital stay of her own, she quickly realizes that she's no exception to the rule.
Disclaimer – We do not own anything from Final Fantasy 8, and this disclaimer will apply to any future chapters as well.
Here is Gone
Emerald-Latias and EilayAdnayVolieay
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Chapter I - Something Unexpected
'When did I go to bed? I don't remember walking to my room.'
She turned onto her side, eyes still closed. But apparently, her body didn't approve of this shift in movement. 'Ow...my body hurts. It hurts to breathe too..'
Turning herself over to her other side, another shot of pain coursed through her sides and she involuntarily opened her eyes to a scathingly colour-neutral room with white walls, white curtains, white...everything. This wasn't the baby-blue room she had in her new, quant little home in Balamb, not by a long shot. She shut her eyes as fast as she opened them. In one mind-piercing instant, it all came back to her; Rinoa Heartilly remembered everything.
...And now she was stuck in some tiny hospital room to show for that 'everything', wrist tags, shapeless gowns and all.
She rolled onto her other side with the last-ditch hope that this was all some kind of hellish nightmare. The fact that her body lit on fire with agony two seconds later confirmed that it wasn't. She stayed as still as she possibly could, trying to steady her breathing as the pain began to slowly disappear.
'Dad was right...I really should have been more prepared for the weather here in Balamb. Hyne...he's not going to be thrilled when he finds out about how my first time driving around here included my first accident too.'
Rinoa sighed and leaned back into her pillow with a frown, knowing what was going to happen if he'd come to visit. The fact that her mind was current debating over the now hot-button issue of, 'What would he be more worried about, the fairly expensive car he had just bought me, or how I was doing?' wasn't reassuring in the least. Her father was one of those, 'See? This is why you should listen to me, I'm right.' types, not tearful reunion material in the slightest. Inevitably, the next thing she wondered about was how long of a grace period she'd have before he, or anyone else knew she was here in the hospital.
The hospital. Surrounded by the same, hideously plain white walls and ugly tile flooring as any other stereotypical hospital known to man, Rinoa couldn't help but wonder if all the hospitals in the world were purposely designed to make its patients to go crazy and want nothing more than to hide in rainbow so that the whiteness would stop mocking them relentlessly. Needless to say, a hospital wasn't exactly her favourite place to be and she was the type of person who liked her world full of colour.
Suddenly startled, she turned towards the door as it began opening. Moments later, it swung open to reveal an older woman in a white lab coat.
"So, you've finally woken up." the woman stated, walking towards Rinoa's bed. "You've been out cold for a few days now. Open your eyes wide." Rinoa did as she was told and opened her eyes, but they immediately closed when the doctor shined a bright light in them. "Please, I need to do my job; it will only take a moment to check everything."
"How long do I have to stay here?" Rinoa asked while her eyeballs were currently being fried from the cruel and unforgiving light again. "Doctor..."
"-Kadowaki. Now, there's no need for a blood test, we've already taken a sample a little a while ago and everything seems perfectly normal..." Dr. Kadowaki said gently, checking the machines Rinoa was previously-unaware she was hooked up to.
'...They stabbed a needle into me while I was unconscious?' she thought in near-revolt, before her mind completely went into overdrive with all of the ghastly possibilities. 'I'm almost afraid of what she's going to say next more than the 'friendly' father-daughter chat I know I'm going to get later on.'
The miniature flashlight was finally turned off and safely stowed away in one of Dr. Kadowaki's large pockets.
"...However," the doctor continued in a more serious tone, "I believe it is in your best interest if we keep you here for further observation, just to be sure that there aren't any additional complications from your injuries Miss Heartilly."
"So...how long would that be? An extra day, two—"
"-One to two weeks." the older woman flatly answered. Almost as if she picked up on her disbelief straightway, Dr. Kadowaki explained furthermore. "The reason why we're keeping you for a longer period of time is because of the amount of time you were unconscious for and because of the minor fractures to your ribs. It's standard protocol for these types of injuries."
Crestfallen, she managed to mumble a feeble, "Oh, I see."
Picking up the clipboard that most-likely noted her status at the foot of her bed, the doctor made a quick couple of scribbles on it before talking to her again. "Do you have any questions you'd like to ask me before I go to make my rounds tonight?"
"..No, I can't really think of any right now." she responded, stifling a yawn.
"Okay, then I'll check up on you in a couple of hours." the older woman asserted, putting back the clipboard to his original place before making her way to the tiny, box-like room's doorway and turning around to tell her one last thing. "Just make sure you get a lot of rest now, I don't want you moving around for awhile until we know that the most basic of moments won't aggravate your fractured ribs."
Carefully placing the covers on top of herself, Rinoa complied with the doctor's wishes but ended up falling into a very uneasy sleep. There were too many things that had just happened in such a short period of time and too many thoughts swirling around her twenty-four year-old mind to be able to sleep well.
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Rinoa tossed and turned in her very stiff hospital bed, groaning loudly in frustration. There were only so many positions she could get in to try and sleep with her fractured ribs, and so far, she was having no success in finding a comfortable one.
"...Why couldn't they have just let me go home?" Rinoa sighed; she knew perfectly well why they had kept her here, but that didn't make her like it any more.
"...You may be in the wrong kind of hospital if you're talking to yourself."
She froze. Not for one second had she considered the possibility that she might be sharing this hospital room. The curtains had been pulled on her bed's left side to shield her from the other bed in the room and no one had made a noise before now.
"I... didn't realize there was anyone else here." She waited several moments after speaking, but the other companion in the room didn't speak again. She pushed the button on her bed to make it slowly move so she was sitting in an upright position and outstretched her arm towards the curtain between the two beds.
'I wonder why Dr. Kadowaki didn't talk to him when she came in earlier, or check how he was doing. I wish she would have so I wouldn't have gone through this kind of embarrassment.'
Rinoa pulled the curtains back and saw a young man lying on the bed, staring in the direction of the window. He seemed to sense her staring, and turned to face her.
"...Do you mind?" he asked her harshly. Rinoa tried to smile feebly.
"Sorry," she apologized, "I'm Rinoa."
The young man stared at her for a moment, before turning over on his side again and staring out the window. Rinoa turned her gaze towards it as well, and saw that the snow was falling down fast.
"Rinoa Heartilly," she tried again. The young man didn't even do as much as to look at her; it was almost like he was making a point of ignoring her. "You could at least tell me your name, you know." she added, trying to hide her increasing frustration. All she did was introduce herself, why was he being so unfriendly?
"...Squall."
"And to think, it took all that effort to say one word." Rinoa joked, hoping that it would entice him into saying something in return. But no, he kept on facing the other way. She sighed and shook her head, deciding to close the curtain altogether.
"Fine," she mumbled under her breath, "-don't talk to me and be a meany."
'For someone stuck in the same room, surrounded by the same four walls, he should be as bored as I am by now. I would kill for a half-decent distraction right now and he's avoiding the opportunity altogether? Either he's really anti-social or I have really bad morning breath.'
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End of Chapter Comments - Any comments would be greatly appreciated, seeing as this is kind of a learning process for us both.