We still don't own anything. On with the fic with four authors!
Red leaned his groggy head to the side, pulling half-heartedly at the thick, gauzy covering over his aching eyes. Florescent yellow light shone into his delicate orbs, made even more sensitive by the effort of recovery, and he whimpered like a sad smeet. He rolled slightly onto his side, dislodging the cold pack from his forehead. It fell to the cold ground with a dull slushy noise. The last few days had gone by in a parade of doctors, a haze of consciousness and blackness. Finally, after only Irk knew how long, he was beginning to come back into his senses.
A pretty young nurse with deep green eyes came in and picked up the fallen coldpack, studied a chart, and left again. Since he could see no clock, Red had been keeping time by the nurses that came in to study the readouts on the beeping, clicking, and humming machines hooked to his torso and arms. That made it five past the nurse, he thought with a short snicker. Well, five that he could remember. Sometimes they came in while he was asleep, which seemed to be more often than while he was awake.
His skin was a patchwork of grafts donated by hundreds of young Irkens. They'd rushed so quickly to the hospitals to donate after learning of the bombing that the hospitals, even those not serving the tallests directly, were swamped under. Moving sent shocks of pain through his spine and limbs, so he avoided doing it, but it was frankly boring to simply stare at the view screen. Especially since it was the shopping channel, and he had no remote.
He hadn't seen Purple in days. He hadn't seen anyone besides the parade of medical workers, most of which were frankly frosty towards him, since he'd begun to come back into awareness. At first, he could simply open his eyes. He was getting better now. He'd even managed to sit up without screaming in agony earlier that morning.
He wondered how Purple was doing. Poor little Purple, he thought as he shook his head. He doesn't handle pain as well as me. I hope he's okay. Red knew Purple was alive, at least, because he heard the doctors mention his name in whispers in the hallway. The things they said rarely made sense to Red, though, and that didn't sit well with the young tallest.
For some reason, though, everything in this hospital seemed to be covered in a shroud of mystery. Maybe it simply had to do with keeping reporters and other undesirables away from him and Purple as they healed, defenseless. He still remembered overhearing two older ruby-eyed doctors as they poured over his charts. "How are we going to explain it to him?" the heavier one had asked.
The slender one rubbed his eyes. It was obvious they didn't know that Red was watching them carefully from under his slightly parted eyelids. "We'll worry about it when the time comes. For now, they both simply need rest."
Explain what? Red finally felt well enough to summon a nurse to bring him a palmtop computer, on which he started up a game of computer solitaire. He was so engrossed in the game that he didn't hear a third doctor, a green-eyed female, enter the room. He didn't even acknowledge her presence when she came and sat on the end of his bed. Only when she finally reached out and touched his computer did he notice her. He set the game aside, trying to sit up straight in his bed. "Hello," he said.
"Greetings. I'm Doctor Ereen. I've been overseeing the surgeries on your fellow tallest," she said. Her voice was thick with an accent from the high areas of northern Irk. "I'm sure you've been wondering about how he's doing. He's up and moving around now."
"Great," Red said, flexing an arm. "So am I!" Red paused. "So… uh… where is he?" he asked, looking around the room as though there might be a flash of gray smoke followed by Purple magically appearing.
"He's over in Annex Five, to make it harder for tabloid reporters. They can't spy on both of you at once," she said, but her eyes were down and her voice muffled. That, Red had learned, was a hint that someone was lying. He narrowed a single bright eye at her. Annex Five… Red knew that section. That was where they kept the critical cases.
"Please don't lie to me," Red said sternly. "How bad is he?"
"He's actually ahead of you in getting back up and walking. He's moving around on his own, spends most of his time reading, is eating and sleeping fine. There's just one thing that you need to know. I…"
"Doctor Ereen!" a voice cried from the doorway. Both Irkens in the room jumped. It was the older doctor that Red has seen earlier, the one speaking in whispers that were nonetheless heard as clearly as if over a loudspeaker. "You're needed immediately!"
"But I… oh, all right. I'm coming. I'm sorry, my tallest. I'll be right back," she said, racing out of the room on the elder's heels. Needless to say, she didn't return, giving Red plenty of time to think. He wanted to know what she'd meant to tell him before being interrupted. He wanted to know why, if Purple was doing so much better than he was, Purple had yet to come and give him even so much as a quick, friendly visit. Heck, Red was so bored he'd even take a nano-second long and hostile visit. He knew he'd been in the hospital too long because he could no longer notice the smell of germ killer wafting in the air. As the staff would put it, it was the somewhat repulsive "stink of clean."
Unfortunately for all the hospital staff concerned, a bored Red is a creative Red. He was feeling well enough to sit up, but not enough to walk. Now, this would probably have kept any normal Irken in bed, but by no means will I venture to say that Red is a normal Irken. He somehow managed to unhook every last monitor from his body without setting off a single alarm, even the heart monitor, and that took considerable skill to do through the wall of pain that shocked through his body when he turned heels over head to reach where the plug connected in the wall. This might be a fitting punishment for the monsters who did this, he thought acidically as he fished for the plug.
"My tallest?" a confused voice asked. He hit his head on the nightstand as he tried to sit up quickly. He hoped silently to the Irken gods that the back of his hospital gown hadn't been open. Judging from the red look on the girl Irken's normally green face, he guessed that it had. "You have a visitor," she said quietly.
Red's smile grew three sizes when he saw Purple quietly slink into the room. His antennae and throat were heavily bandaged, only slightly more so than his arms. He was wearing a different hospital gown than Red, one that pulled around the body twice and fastened in the front. I'll have to remember to get one of those, Red thought bitterly as Purple looked at him, his head cocked to the side.
"How are you doing?" Red asked, speaking first.
"Okay," Purple whispered. His voice sounded hoarse and raspy, like he was speaking through a nail file. "I just came to see you because… well… I'm having another surgery tomorrow, and I was worried…" he said quietly, resting his slender frame on Red's bed.
[Here we are, safe at last. We can breath a sigh, it seems the storm as passed. Through it all, no one knew, that all the tears in heaven, would bring me back to you.]
Red lightly touched his associate ruler's arm. "Hey, I'm sure everything's going to be okay. You've made it this far, right? You're even in better shape than me.
[Oh, no one I know imagined we would make it, but it only matters that we both believe.]
Purple studied his folded hands. "The doctors kept telling me that you weren't going to make it. I almost cried myself to sleep every night. It got so horribly lonely, I didn't think I could make it if you couldn't."
"But now I'm safe, and we're going to get those bastards that did this. Together," Red said energetically, waving a fist in the air. Purple seemed to perk up.
[Oh, you and me, we're a miracle. Meant to be and nothing can change it. Mountains move and oceans part when they are standing in our way. You and me, we're a miracle. Angels stand watching over us. And heaven shines upon us every day.]
"I can't imagine life without you, actually," Purple said. "We've been together since school. No one ever imagined there could be two tallests before we came along. They couldn't find even the tiniest of a unit difference between us."
"That," Red said as the nurses began to hook back up everything he had pulled off, "is fate, my dear Purple."
[Every time I felt near defeat, you were there for me, by my side completely. You give me strength; you set me free.
"I waited for news that you'd get better," Purple said brightly. "They kept telling me it was hopeless, but then, I cheered when they told me you might be ready for visiting today. I even had them postpone the surgery. They wanted to do it today, but I said no, because I wanted a chance to talk to you."
"Hey, don't freak out!" Red cried, laughing as he waved Purple off. "Neither of us is going anywhere."
[Because of you, I'm more than I can be. When I'm with you, the world is ours to reach for. Together there is nothing we can't do. You and me, we're a miracle. Meant to be and nothing can chance it. Mountains move and oceans part when they are standing in our way. You and me, we're a miracle. Angels stand watching over us, and heaven shines upon us every day.]
"This is my last surgery," Purple smiled, bouncing a little on the end of Red's bed. "They just need to pull some debris out of my neck, as you can see by the bandages. It's not really even dangerous. You're right, I was a fool to be so worried. That's why I need you. I'd have worried myself into an early grave without you."
The chance was so unlikely, that we would ever be, two stars among the heavens, destiny brought you to me. You and me, we're a miracle. Meant to be and nothing can change it. Mountains move and oceans part when they are standing in our way. You and me, we're a miracle. Angels stand watching over us, and heaven shines upon us every day.
"Who would have imagined that we'd be in this situation today? But frankly… I'm glad I don't have to face it alone," Red said, fluffing up his pillow while Purple sprawled across the foot of his bed.
Purple looked at the clock. "Hey, I gotta go now, but I'll see you tomorrow," he said, standing up and straightening the hospital robe before following his attendant nurse out of the room.
[You and me, we're a miracle. You and me, we're a miracle.]
Two tallests was indeed a miracle. Having both tallests survive a bombing that killed nearly everyone else who had been in the room was nothing less than a miracle as well. There was no other way to explain it, other than the match between them had been arranged by a force higher than Irken or human can yet, or probably ever will, understand. As Purple left the room, Red couldn't help but wonder how much longer the miracle would hold out.
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WOOO! CONTEST!
First person/Irken/whatever to review with the movie soundtrack that song is from gets to be in this fic! And it doesn't count if you do a google search, foos! I know I can't stop you from doing it, but please don't. Unless nobody gets it… though I'm sure SOMEONE has to.
Here is a hint for you: the movie involved psychic cat thingies.
A public service announcement, not from me, since I hate review begging, but certain *coughs loudly* people don't. Nobody reviewed our tallests vs george bush fic… *sniffles* well, cept a few nice people.