A/N disclaimer: I do not own Transformers, only Mattie.
There was…. An awareness. A sensation. Something existed, and it was she.
For an eternity, she drifted; still anchored to this something, but also cut off from it.
The next, was pain. Something hurt. Alot. This something that was she was in agony.
As one eternity ended and another began, there was a realization that there was more besides herself. There was an existence around her.
Suddenly she realized she had form. And with that realization, she crashed back into her body again.
The light was very bright against her squinting eyes. She couldn't move, and there was something holding her down.
I am…. Me. I am here. Where am I?
As her eyes gradually adjusted, she started taking in her whereabouts.
The something holding her down was a white sheet. She was in a bed that had rails on it.
Oh. I'm in a - thing. Hospital. Yes.
Tentatively, she found her arms and legs again. She tried opening and closing her mouth, and wiggled her fingers. She tried wiggling her toes.
Ow.
She looked down. Her legs seemed unnaturally large and bulky under the sheet.
Broken? Yes. Broken, and in a cast. Both of them?
She wiggled the toes on her left foot. Then her right.
Yes. Both of them.
Next, she looked around. There was a red cord hanging down next to her bed. She pulled it.
After a few moments, the door to the room she was in opened.
A nurse entered with a clipboard. She was fresh-faced and blonde, with a sweet face and merry blue eyes. "Hi, Marie-Theresa, you're awake! That's good! I'm Bethany, I'm your nurse."
She walked over to the bed and looked at the machines standing around it. "All good, I see." She smiled again. "Are you up for talking to me a bit?"
"Yes," she whispered. Then she cleared her throat. "I think so." Much better.
"Good. Now, what is your name?"
"I'm Mattie Eden. Marie-Thérèse Saint-Édain, really." She paused. "I'm a French-American national, enrolled at the university here." She looked around. "Assuming I'm still where I was."
The nurse squeezed her hand. "I'm afraid you're not. You were taken to the hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. Your local hospital was damaged too badly to take in new patients. When you stabilized, you were transferred again, and now you're in Portland."
She thought about it. "Wow. That's a bit of a roundabout trip."
"Yes. Now, do you remember what happened to you?"
Mattie shook her head. "No. I don't remember being hurt. How was I hurt?"
The nurse drew a breath. "That's a long story. The critical part is that a building came down and you were caught underneath it."
"I see. And my legs are broken." She looked down at them. "Are they very broken?"
Nurse Bethany smiled again. She seemed to do that a lot. "No, thankfully, the breaks are clean and healing nicely. We were more worried about the rest of you, you inhaled a lot of dust and smoke. You've been in an artificial coma for a while, to give your body time to heal. How do you feel?"
Mattie thought for a moment. "A bit confused. And disconnected, if you know what I mean. I mean, I know who I am, and now I know why I'm here, but I can't seem to react to it."
The nurse nodded. "That will come. A bit of it is the painkillers, a bit of it is that your head still isn't quite awake."
Sounds plausible.
"There is someone who's been waiting to see you, when you were awake," the nurse continued. "He's been calling a lot. A man named Cade Yeager. That familiar to you?"
Mattie shook her head. "Doesn't ring a bell. But he can probably come see me when you people say it's okay, I don't mind."
"I think he was part of the group that brought you in," the nurse said. "Him, and those Transformers of his."
Mattie stared. "You mean I was rescued by aliens?"
Bethany nodded and grinned.
"Wow." Mattie leaned back against her pillow. "Scratch that off my bucket list."
"I'll call him, then, let him know you're awake," the nurse said. "A doctor will be in to see you shortly."
Mattie nodded. Then the nurse left again.
Wow. Close encounter. Good thing I was unconscious.