Disclaimer: I don't own Austin & Ally
You could consider him a child, in all attitude and sense of the word.
He was only a kid.
He wasn't supposed to be there.
He didn't belong there.
He was only nineteen; he shouldn't be on a hospital bed, eyes closed and not moving with his body lying down, face towards the roof, with machines attached to him that informed those foreign people what was his current state of life, an IV through one of the veins in his hand.
He looked so peaceful
White sheets and a white room surrounding him, the white gown with decorative blue dots, dressing his immobile body, the doctors would come and go, jotting down on a chart his state from the last few days.
He was nineteen
He shouldn't be comatose.
They said that he had a gotten a concussion after hitting himself on his head, Dez had spoken up to say that he had fallen trying to do a flip for a new choreography. When he fell asleep that night he eventually slipped into coma.
The tour was postponed indefinitely.
The fans freaked out when the news finally hit the outside world even though their numerous intents of hiding it, they all supported his family and friends sending all their gifts to his hospital room. He had no idea they were even there, he was still in his state.
He would be thankful for it though.
As soon as he woke up.
If he woke up
Ally is the one who stays by his side constantly, because they still had that we're best friends and partners but we're dating, but we don't use the titles boyfriend and girlfriend thing going on, she sits by his side and looks at his face, observing him so much she convinces herself that he's sleeping, that he's just sleeping. That soon enough he'll wake up and it'll all be normal again.
She talks to him as well, absentmindedly narrating about her day, what were his parents doing, what were Dez and Trish up to or what his fans sending to him.
Most of the flowers they sent to him were sent to Mike and Mimi's house.
Mimi took up gardening as a new hobby simply to get distracted from everything else that was going on.
"They bought Dez a new cell phone, when you fell... asleep, Trish had it in her hands and she kind of threw it against the wall, remember? He's kind of addicted to it actually, but hopefully he'll get over it soon."
"Your fans sent a really huge card; it's adorable actually, it was so big that security checked on it to see that they weren't stuffed in it somehow" she giggles "But no, it just a collage of photos of you with them, at shows... meet and greets, on the street. They all signed it, and told you to get well soon. They're amazing."
"Remember that we were going to go to that Ed Sheeran concert, this weekend? Well, it kind of passed; Trish and Dez said it was awesome."
"Are hospital gowns comfortable? You must be cold. I mean this is barely a sheet of plastic."
"You're so beautiful, I should tell you that more."
"Are you dreaming, Austin? I can tell on the way your face contorts- I mean twitches, sorry I know you don't like it when I use "big words", sorry."
"I want to cut your hair, like just a few inches, but the nurse's won't let me near with scissors... it reminded me of Sheldon in the Big Bang Theory episode we watched that night..."
"I was writing a song the other day, but it turned out all sad."
"Did I tell you about I met up with Mr. Conley the other day? He was confused on why I wasn't in New York, and I told him about you and how I had taken a gap year; he told me to tell you to get better soon."
"Every time you move I get my hopes up way too high that you're waking up."
"I need you."
"Oh God, how I wish you could hear me."
Ally doesn't like hearing what the doctors have to say about Austin's condition for better or for worse, those would be the moments she left the room and run away to the hall; just waiting for someone to come outside and gather her up to return to the monochromatic room.
"Do I want to know?" was her discouraged question when she entered the room, facing her friends and Austin's family who looked at the doctor, they seemed to debate each other with their eyes but finally a response was given when the neurologist simply shook his head and exited the room.
"How bad?" Ally croaked out, fisting her hands in an uptight manner despite her vulnerable, overwhelmed, crushed state. The tears formed in her eyes as her breathing hitched, the familiar burning sensation running through her throat that had always become a recurring action since Austin had fallen into this state.
Surprisingly it was Dez who spoke up before the rest
"He's been under for too long and, they don't know if he's going to wake up again."
The medics say he'll wake up someday, that it was probably his body functioning, trying to make sure everything was in order before taking the leap. But the medics also say that if he does wake up, he might not wake up the same.
He might not remember who he was, or who those around him are; he might forget past memories; he might not even remember how to play guitar or the piano or the correct way to sing.
Maybe temporarily, maybe for the rest of the days he lives; or maybe it won't happen at all.
Maybe he might not even wake up.
But Ally doesn't need a maybe, Ally doesn't want a perhaps or there's a slight possibility. She's sick and tired of more questions than answers, because she has questions that have been growing on the back of her mind since they reached the hospital the first day.
She just needs him.
"Strangely, since you fell asleep I haven't been able to read, all I can think about is you..."
"Don't get cocky because of that, your ego is well fed as it is, Monica."
"You never explained to me why they called you Monica."
"I'm stuck on level twenty three on Candy Crush, Austin. You said you would help me, the game has been trying to convince me to use all the bonuses but I don't want to I need to save up for a harder level."
"You were on the news earlier... Hell, you've been on the news ever since you slipped into-."
"Ever since you fell asleep,"
"I can't even remember the color of your eyes. Are they blue? That'd be creepy."
"I miss you Austin Moon."
"I feel so alone without you, I feel so vulnerable and weak, and it hurts so much to know that- I don't know what's going on with you Austin, I don't know if you're alive or if you're dead and that thought keeps me up every single night."
As the weeks grow long weary and tedious, the fans start to begin to get more nervous as well as unstable, every single day trying to break into the hospital rooms and see their idol in his state knowing if he was alive or dead, they wanted to know the truth.
So security increases and so does the mob of fans, who cry and wail every time Ally goes outside to go home or breathe air, they would beg for her to give them an inside of Austin's condition.
Typically Ally's responses would be.
"He's still under, nothing bad, just under."
The group never asked for much more than those answers as they hugged Ally before she went to her car or back inside.
But one day one manages to break in.
Entering with her family who was going to see a distant family member a fanatic sixteen year old, departed from her group and searched the grounds for Austin's room.
She was on the third floor in the building and when she had seen Mike and Mimi leave the private room, and then before she was caught by her family members she ran into the room finding Ally on the side of the bed, holding his hand and talking as usual.
Ally looked up seeing that she became more confused as the girl begins to stutter just gaping her mouth several times, shaking her head completely in denial and shock. The fan began to apologize to Ally when words could come out, but Ally just stood there by the bed.
"I'm-I'm-I'm so sorry, so sorry A-Ally. I'm so sorry, I'm-I'm so so sorry. I just- I-I-I-just." The girl breaks down and falls on her knees sobbing before Ally comes over to her and picks her up.
"Wanna say something to him?"
"To who,"
"Austin."
She guides the younger teen by the bed and allows her to talk to the unconscious idol, on how she had helped him through tough times and why she loved him to no end. Ally stood by the door, making sure no one came in the moment between the fan and the icon.
When she was done, the girl left drying her tears and hugging Ally on her way out before leaving, thanking her for her generosity. Ally hugged back, crying slightly as well and bidding the girl goodbye.
The brunette took seat next to her boyfriend (because she had gotten used to the title.) Cleaning her eyes slightly she sniffed and spoke
"And that sir is the reason you should wake up."
It's that one day she talks very little to him and pays attention to all of his little details, the one day that Trish and Dez couldn't come to the hospital because of college, the one day Mike and Mimi were held up at the mattress store with a huge sale. She's not talking, just holding his hand and humming lightly.
She smiles a doleful smile as she sighs hopelessly, looking at Austin's peaceful expression, she stretches out a hand to ruffle his hair a bit that has grown out and a bit greasy, due to his bathing break. His hair was covering a bit of his left eye and had grown a bit past the middle of his ear.
"C'mon you got to wake up, Austin. If you do, you'll be... like a king! I swear, for weeks, I'll make you pancakes and you can play video games all day with Dez, then color outside the lines while we write songs and just fool around with your guitar. All you would have to do is wake up"
He stays immobile; the continuous beep comes out of the machine were the only sound in the room but even though it had been the loudest signal through her first days here, and the constant little noise had almost been ignored, as the days had grown long, weary and tiresome. The filling background music to the everyday life in the white room
"Sounds a bit selfish when I ask for it, huh." she admits, defeated.
He stirs a little, just a slight movement but her heart stops immediately, and then begins to race again, barely even able to move, she whispers his name, tears coming immediately to her eyes as he shakes his head slightly and gripping her hand a bit more tightly.
She can't decide to call a doctor, to cry or just wait to see what happens. She continues to whisper to him, calling his name to see his reaction which would change slightly, a small head movement or his hand holding her own. The blond let out a minor groan from his lips and then relaxed noticeably; he no longer squeezed her hand or twitched his head.
The room was once again silent with those occasional beats of his heart on the monitor, that began to go slower and slower, the brunette stood up and whipped her head towards the machine seeing the boy's heart rate began to decrease. Her heart returned on overdrive, calling his name meaninglessly as the machine let out a fine lined beep.
She froze, unable to move, breathe or cry out for help. Within seconds doctors were flooding the room, belting out commands and orders to others, a nurse tried to push Ally out of the room but she was immobile as she saw them work on Austin yelling out things out of her own intelligence as two more medics approached with a crash cart.
They ripped the gown he had on him, belting out numbers before placing pallets on his chest. The nurse repeated to Ally that she had to leave the room as the medical experts began to repeat for her to leave the room, Ally moved away slowly as she saw them place the pallets on his chest, charge electricity and let his body jerk up in an unnatural way.
The nurse finally got the brunette to exit the room as she stayed outside the door, where she would hide out when everything was wrong. Her mind could only repeat on how Austin's body jerked up unnaturally, she could hear the doctors ordering each other around and exclaiming as they worked on Austin. Her eyes were filled once again with tears as she didn't dare to listen what they called out inside.
Ally stood up and then walked away from the room, lowering a floor to go to the chapel which surprisingly was empty. She clasped her hands together, kneeling down on the front bench as she hiccupped.
"You know better than anyone that I don't pray, but this is for the sake of him, and him only. I just need you to listen to me," she began, taking the silence of the hospital chapel as a sign to continue with her declaration "Don't kill him, please don't kill him. I don't know what I'd do with myself if he didn't make it" she confesses vulnerably.
She swallowed the aching feeling inside her burning throat "He's a nice person, and people depend on him. There are people who are on the verge of insanity to know if he'll ever wake up again and I don't know if I could forgive you if you killed Austin Moon in that hospital room."
"He's a child, he's a child in all sense of the word how can you kill a child? He likes to color, he likes pancakes, he has boxers with trucks on them, he screams when he sees spiders and loves to sleep with a dolphin stuffed animal and I swear, you do not get to kill him, you do not get to kill the person who loves you so much and-" she chokes on a sob before dropping her hands from their hold on each other and places her head on the wood, affirming loudly in the whole room.
"You cannot kill the person who so many people depend on."
The days go by and after the heart episode; he's once again stable but in still a state of deep sleep. Mike and Mimi don't leave his side as for Trish and Dez try to keep up with Ally's visits, scared that she'll have to experience once more another episode.
His movements increase, they take notice. All the personal and those who surround him, while Ally stays away as they analyze what things could produce a reaction from the patient, she feared that those movements meant another cardiac arrest, which would lead to another thought if Austin was going to make it after all.
She continues to visit every day, but leaves earlier and speaks less to Austin, she just stares at him, hoping his eyes will flutter open and she can finally breathe again. It's fair, she thinks, as she allows Mike and Mimi, along with Trish and Dez to visit more often and for more hours without her always warming the white hospital chair.
She's in the practice room one day, remembering moments between the four of them that seemed to be so long ago before Austin fell into his state, she tries as much as she can to not cry but ends up doing so anyway. That day she decided not to see him until five, whereas no one else could keep him company for they were busy.
Everything in the room is simply covered with memories of maybe just the two of them, trying to grow in the world they were chosen to live in. She can barely stare at the floor without thinking about their sleep-overs and simple things like when they just lied on the floor, talking. They were memories from when they were together.
So as she plays sad melodies on the old piano, her phone rings with Austin's voice calling out excited and cheery, swearing to herself not to answer with a broken voice she picks up and drops the phone to the ground with the news she received from a crying Dez.
He's awake.
She arrives to the door of that same hospital room that she had stayed in for weeks, and her hand can't seem to reach the door knob and turn it, it all feels too much like another dream and she wanted so much to wake up before getting her hopes up once again, but her mind spoke louder and twists the door's metal before she cowered herself out of it and made a run towards the hallway.
And she sees him.
She sees him sitting up in his hospital gown, his hairs out of place and his voice a bit groggy but it's still him, and he's alive and he's talking, laughing and smiling with Dez, Trish and his parents and it all just seems so unreal to her. He seems so unreal to her.
She can't speak her eyes are too filled with tears and the knot in her voice box made the comfortable reappearance as it had done respectively when she sees him. The room grows silent and everyone looks at her, invitingly. She looked over to the boy on the bed whilst she closed the door and Austin looked at her with expectation in his eyes too.
"Ally," he whispers for he couldn't believe she wasn't there when he woke up along with all his friends and family. He appreciated it, but it was something so un-Ally-like that there was something that crept in the back of his mind that told him something happened.
The brunette cannot tear her gaze from the blonds hazel eyes, almost trying to memorize them once more after being apart from her for so, so long. She walks toward the bed and wraps her arms around him, allowing herself to cry.
He wrapped his arms around her torso and sheds tears as well, holding her as closely as he can without making her fall onto the bed.
"Are you real?"She pulls away a bit and whispers into his ear, returning to the embrace tightly, "Don't tell me this isn't real." she chokes out, touching his skin that was out in the open because of how the gown was tied. She pulls away once again and looks into his eyes, holding his face and clearing his tears with her thumbs, rolling them through his cheeks "This can't be another dream."
"I'm real." he hiccups and smiles looking back into her brown doe eyes that were once filled with tears of joy, "I promise."
WOW. What a crappy ending, right? I just needed to upload this, it's not soooo terrible so that's better than nothing! Woo!
I dedicate this story to my friend Jaden who helped me some decisions and to my friend April, whom this story is based on. (No, don't worry she isn't in a coma, and hasn't been.) She was in Paris for two weeks during 2013 and well she couldn't get online so I barely communicated with her, and I would constantly send her messages on facebook and i would talk to her and tell her about the day in school and all that jazz. And bam this baby came up.
I'll stop writing sad stuff soon.
"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
― Albert Einstein
MERRY NEW YEAR BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE! May it be one of your best. :)
~Citylights at Midnight
