Summary: What if, when Sam attacked Emily, she didn't wake up? The force of the blow to her head was extensive enough that when she went to the hospital, she never left. Stuck in a world of imagination and wonder, she finds an escape from the world she was forced to live in. A light hearted romance, adventure, and wonder.
Chapter 2
Day 2
"You look remarkably familiar." Emily commented, staring at the African-American man sitting before her.
The three of them were sitting in a small café. It was littered with tables, all busy with fast talkers sipping away at their coffee or quiet individuals typing away on their laptops.
The waitress brought them their coffee, winked at Emily, and then walked away.
"Well, I hope so." The man replied after thanking the woman for the coffee, and began sipping the hot beverage.
Emily, sitting straight and proper, looked down at her coffee. The brown and white liquid swirled in the cup, and although normally would stop, kept moving and getting faster and faster. "That's weird."
"The universe is full of strange and fascinating things. Why do you think that the coffee is moving like that?" The man asked, making the young woman look back up. A smile sprang to her face.
"You're the guy that hosts the space show."
"The name is Neil deGrasse Tyson, and yes. I do host that 'space show'." He said, and chuckled. Emily, embarrassed, looked back down at her cup.
"The liquid stopped moving."
"Are you sure?"
"… it looks like it stopped."
"How do you know it's not still moving beneath the surface?"
"… I don't. How would I find out if it is or not?"
"Well, let's go on the space ship of imagination to find out."
The Ringmaster snapped her fingers.
"Wow." Emily whispered, her eyes widening at her surroundings.
"How about we skip going into the coffee cup and explore the universe some?" The Ringmaster asked Tyson, watching contently as the young girl walked to the edge of the platform in awe and amazement at the stars.
"Do I have much of a choice?"
"Not really. Let's try going to Jupiter's moons. I want to see some ice volcanoes."
2.
"She should be dead right now. I have no idea what's keeping her alive." Carlisle admitted one day, looking back and forth between the charts in his hands and the girl on the bed. The nurse looked at him with a bored expression.
"Her vitals seem fine." She said matter-of-factly.
"But her brain… she was clinically dead for 20 minutes, and had severe lacerations that went so deep that they scratched her brain. It should be damaged beyond repair."
"But the scans show that she's dreaming."
"Yes… they do." He replied, his eyebrows knitted together in concentration. "In fact, the MRI showed that some of her neurons are repairing themselves. It appears that her brain is somehow healing itself."
"How is that possible?" The nurse asked as she stocked the towels.
"It's not." He replied, and crossed his arms as he kept staring at the unconscious girl. "She should be dead."
3.
"There's no way that there are whales in space."
"How do you know? Have you ever been in space before?" The Ringmaster retorted, watching in awe as the giant beast floated past them. "And it's not a whale, it's a shark. A Basking Shark, more specifically. They're surprisingly gentle, given their size and appearance."
"… and they swim around in space?"
"Hey, I don't create the rules of physics, I just manipulate them until they don't make sense anymore."
"You don't make any sense." Emily replied, and stuck her tongue out at her. "Hey Tyson, are there actually ice volcanoes in space?"
"Yes." He replied, walking over to the pair. "There's also entire moons composed of volcanoes that constantly recycle the crust. We know this because these planets have little to know evidence of asteroid craters." As he spoke, they all flew to one of Jupiter's moons, watching one of the volcanoes erupt before them.
"There's another planet that has an icy surface, but there's evidence that it has liquid water just beneath it. It has a lot of potential to hold life." The Ringmaster added.
"You mean a moon. It's called 'Europa', and it's just next door." Tyson corrected, and started guiding the ship towards the icy moon.
"What's so exciting about an 'ice moon'?" Emily asked. "It just looks like a giant hunk of rock."
"If you look closely, you can see stretch marks on it. We think that these marks were caused by the gravity forces of the planet, Jupiter, constantly stretching and pulling at it. The kinetic energy causes the center to warm up and essentially melt the ice."
"And you think that there's aliens living under the surface?"
"Why don't we find out?" The Ringmaster suggested.
The ship began descending, and everyone held onto the railing.
4.
"Mermaids? Really?" Emily asked, yet still watched in wonder as beautiful sea women swam around them. Their scales glittered beautifully against the light of the submerged ship, and hair swirled around their perfect faces like heavenly creatures.
The lights turned dark, and for a second, everything was black.
Then the sea-life around them lit up.
The mermaids' skin became translucent, and orbs began glowing within them. Exotic fish became apparent as they lit up in similar fashion, and in the distance, a massive dragon serpent lit up.
"Wow." Emily whispered, losing her breath as she slowly turned in her spot to look around at all the colors and lights.
The Ringmaster watched the dragon in the distance, watching as it dove into valleys and swirled around mountains. Eventually, it disappeared into the darkness.
"Can we stay here for a while?" She asked.
"Of course." The Ringmaster replied, and sat down to enjoy the view herself. "Popcorn?" She asked Tyson.
"Yes, please. Do you know the origin of popcorn?"