I just want to say one thing before the second chapter starts; Dr. Kelso is not based on any Scrubs character or anything related to Scrubs, it was a complete coincidence. I named him after one of my friends, sorry for the misunderstanding.


We all stood around the waiting room on the fifth floor, and by we I meant my parents, Kyle's parents, and Ike. It was, and I was just guessing, five in the morning on Saturday, day nine hundred and thirty. Dr. Kelso told us not to go in Kyle's room yet, he had yet to appear and give us the news on Kyle's status. My parents looked pretty normal, seeing as it wasn't their son who was in a coma, Mrs. Broflovski was pacing around nervously while her husband tried to calm her down, Ike was the one that scared me. He sat in his chair looking like everything was right in the world absorbed in his book that freaked me out even more; The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I saw that movie, and now was not a good time to take a stroll down memory lane, and especially not down that road.

Dr. Kelso took his time getting to us, but the second he reappeared out from behind Kyle's door, I cut him off before he could give us the scoop.

"Can I see him?" I blurted out.

Dr. Kelso nodded to me then went on to the adults and Ike who, fortunately, had put down the book. I ran over to the room, I'll hear the report later, and opened the door, expecting to see Kyle fully awake and well, but there he was. Like always, laid down flat on the bed with his head, neck, and arms the only things above the covers, still in a coma. I was very disappointed, but noticing his fingers twitch from across the room gave me hope. I hurried over and sat next to him taking hold of the same hand as yesterday and clutching it close to me.

"You're going to be all right, Kyle, you're going to wake up soon I hope." I whispered as the rest of them filed in the room.

"Yes, so Kyle might become conscious again within next week, it might take longer, but without a doubt he can probably hear us right now." Dr. Kelso said holding open the door, as Ike was the last one to enter.

I looked over at Kyle and his fiery red hair; he was going to be all right.

"How long before he's able to leave the hospital?" I heard Mrs. Broflovski ask.

"Depending on when he wakes up and his condition, it might be weeks, months, if it's really bad maybe years." He went over to his computer in the corner of the room. "But before he really wakes up, he'll go through phases between consciousness and unconsciousness."

"Stanley, Sharon and Randy," Mr. Broflovski spoke up, "would you mind if we spent some time with our son alone?"

"That's completely fine with us." Mom said speaking for all of us like she always did. "Stanley, why don't you go talk with Kenny?"

I looked back at Kyle, I really didn't want to leave him after just two minutes, but if his family wanted to be alone with him, I guess I can't really argue. Besides, if Kenny's being an ass, I could just go out and smoke. I slowly placed Kyle's hand down on his chest and walked out with my parents before going off on my own down the hall to see Kenny.

"Call my cell when they say it's okay to come back!" I yelled.

"Alright!"

I skipped merrily down the stairs, not caring who saw me; I didn't even care if Cartman was there to see me. Kyle was going to wake up and I was happy. I wonder what was the last thing we talked about was; it was two years ago just before Trent got out… I remember something about Butters, Wendy, and sexuality, but that was it. Then again, I also remember being an ass hole and screwing everything up. Then Kyle was in the hospital and I had a breakdown. The rest were just numbers; the numbers of the days going by.

I turned down the hallway on the third floor and flung Kenny's door open to step inside.

"Well, hiya, Stan!" Wow, I wasn't expecting Butters to be sitting next to Kenny on his bed.

"Hiya, Butters." I mumbled back.

"Stan!" Kenny called patting the spot on the other side of him telling me to sit down. "How's our favorite little red head?"

My smile immediately returns when I remembered why I came, "He's got a strong chance of pulling out within next week!" I scurried over and slid in next to him.

"Well, that's great, Stan!" Butters said smiling. "I-I bet everyone at school'll be real happy to see him again."

"Yeah, most everyone." Kenny obviously meant Cartman.

I laughed a little looking across the room at the door. It was still really dark in Kenny's room; just the light above the bed was on. I turned my head to see them looking at each other and whispering.

"So," I said getting their attentions, "Butters, you're here early."

Kenny looked back at Butters like he had no idea.

"Uh, well…" He trailed of. "If my parents found out I had gone out to see Kenny when I was grounded… they'd ground me again!"

I sighed, typical Butters.

"The doctors say I might be back in school on Monday." Kenny changed the subject.

"Yeah, that'd be nice." I sighed. "I actually had to sit with Cartman on Friday."

"You could have just sat with me—"

Kenny quickly interrupted Butters, "Woe, seriously?" I nodded. "Fucking weak, dude. Was Wendy with him?"

"When is she not?" I spat. "Can we not talk about her?"

Kenny sighed and turned back to Butters.

"Do you still like her, Stan?" Butters asked.

"What? Sorry, I was…" I looked up at him after I thought our conversation was over. "No, I don't… it's just, I mean—she really changed. Maybe it was school, or hormones, or something else… she kind of… lost it."

"You can say that again." Kenny groaned.

After Wendy broke up with me, she lost her "fight against breast cancer" and "anti-racism" mind. She went fucking ballistic and Cartman took advantage of her, then he decided somewhere along the line that dating her and telling her he loved her would have some kind of affect on me. Even after I stopped caring, he still went along with it. She even joined him on his cause of wiping out all the Jews. For Halloween she wasn't even Chubaka, she was a fucking Nazi. All her friends left her and she punched Clyde in the nose, and now all she has is that fat ass.

"So, how is Kyle again?" Kenny asked waking me up from my thoughts.

"Oh yeah, well, they say he could pull out sometime next week, but they're not really sure." I repeated from before.

Butters smiled, "When he does, you should get him to play his guitar for us, he's got a really great voice."

I nodded, "Alright."

"Wait, wait, hold the phone!" Kenny yelled. "He's in a coma, a fucking coma, people don't just go back to their normal lives like in movies."

"They don't?" Butters and I asked in unison.

"No, dumb ass movie directors don't know dick about comas. Shouldn't you know something about them?" He was asking me.

I paused trying to take it in, "Not really, I just thought…"

"Thought that everything would be the same? Dude, some people can't even move when they wake up. You need to get real. You're like the only kid at school who thought he was going to make it. This isn't a fucking game, Stan, Kyle's in a coma, and you know—actually, you don't know—how those work; either you wake up or you don't, but odds are, after two and a half fucking years, you won't." He yelled.

I stood slowly while shaking my head, "It's not about odds, it's about hope. No one thought he was going to live!"

"We were just being realistic—"

"You just don't care!" I screamed running from the room back to the hallway to lean up against the wall opposite of Kenny's door to calm down. I felt like bashing his already blown up head in, god dammit I need a smoke. I started down the stairs to the first story when I heard a voice calling from the hallway.

"Stan! Stan, wait!"

I turned back around reluctantly to see Butters standing at the top of the stairs.

"What do you want?" I asked a little more bitterly than I wanted to sound.

He walked down a few stairs to be next to me, "Kenny didn't mean what he said, h-he really does miss Kyle, honestly he does, i-it's just he doesn't really know what to say, you know? H-he said he did some reading on the… the Internet." He pronounced it without the 't' which kind of bothered me. "He just wanted to… to prepare you for what ya see when Kyle w-wakes up."

I sighed, I was still mad as hell, but the kid meant well, so I might as well meet him halfway.

"Well… I don't really know…" I sighed again. "I was just going out to smoke, so…"

"Kenny told me about… about that too." I nodded, just like Kenny. "C-can I come with?"

I kind of jumped when I heard him ask that, but then he continued.

"No-not to smoke or anything, just to… get out of this hospital for a minute." He assured me.

"Sure, no problem." I continued down the stairs leading the way.

A blast of cold air hit us when I opened the front door, and some people sitting in chairs near the door started shivering and huddling together so we made our way quickly out into the freezing cold morning. My hands immediately dug into my pockets for my pack and my dad's lighter I stole from his camping gear. He never even goes camping so he won't miss it.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you smoking was b-bad?" Butters asked shivering.

"Just about everyone." I said lighting the cigar.

"I-if I started smoking, my parents would ground me for sure!"

"Yeah, mine too." I agreed, laughing.

I looked over at him expecting him to laugh with me, but he looked worried.

"Hey what's up?" I asked trying to sound like I cared.

"You mean your parents don't know?"

"Pheh," I grunted, "no one knows."

We were silent for a long time, I was kind of enjoying not talking and just thinking about the stuff I had wanted to do with Kyle ever since he went into a coma. Skate at Stark's Pond, pull pranks on Cartman, see movies, pull pranks on Cartman, watch Terrence and Phillip reruns, pull pranks on Cartman, pull pranks on Cartman, and pull pranks on Cartman. It seemed like after Kyle was out of his way, he grew more bitchy and sadistic. It would feel nice to get him back.

"W-we should get you some help." Butters said quietly. "You could get addicted and start to smell like cigarettes, then your parents would find out and they'd tell my parents and then I'd be grounded."

"Butters, shut the hell up." I said jokingly, but it was plainly obvious he had been thinking about it seriously, so I assured him. "I'm not addicted, I can stop when ever I want to."

"That's what they all say… If you can stop, then stop now."

I groaned, "I said I can if I want to, and right now, I don't really want to. I need something to help me cope with what Kyle's going through. It makes me feel better."

There was another silence.

"What will Kyle think when he wakes up and finds out?"

The question hit me like a pile of bricks; I never thought about what Kyle's reaction would be, and he defiantly won't like it.

"Oh god, I need to quit." I breathed.

I threw down my cigarette and stomped it out even though it still had a good few minutes left. I grabbed Butters and headed back inside and towards the stairs when my phone went off. I stopped suddenly to get it out and he accidentally ran into me, but I didn't care. I recognized my mom's number and flipped open the phone.

"Hi, Mom, what's going on?"

"Oh, nothing, the Broflovski's and us are going out for breakfast, did you want to come with us?" She asked on the other end of the line.

"Uh, no, thanks." I said looking around.

I could hear her say to them that I had reclined the offer.

"Well, alright, we'll bring you back something, okay? They say you can go see Kyle now."

"Oh, alright. I'll see you later then."

"Alright honey, bye-bye."

I quickly hung up the phone and started running for the stairs with Butters behind me trying to keep up.

"Uh, Stan, I'm going to go back to Kenny's room, okay? He gets lonely in there."

I stopped and turned around, "Don't you want to see Kyle? I'm sure Kenny can get a nurse to come in and keep him com—"

"I'll see Kyle later, I just want to see Kenny." He cut me off before dashing up the stairs in front of me.

"Alright." I groaned for the billionth time that morning.

I hurried up all the stairs past floor three where Kenny—and no doubt Butters—was and past the Broflovski's and my parents who were coming down. I ran down the hall to room 517 and seeing that Dr. Kelso was not in sight I let myself in.

No one but Kyle was in the room again, and like before; still zip, nada, nothing, fucking coma. I took my time getting to my regular seat next to his bed, not like I was in a hurry. The first thing I noticed was his hand was right were I left it, on top of his chest, so—like always—I took it and held it close like it was my lifeline between me and a fiery pit of lava, but, duh, I'm exaggerating. If it were really like that I would have probably crushed his hand with my grip, ha ha.

I always had a problem with talking out loud when I was in the hospital room with Kyle, of course now he can hear me, but it was a habit.

And old habits break hard… "Butters is with Kenny on the third floor, they've really grown inseparable ever since you were in a coma and I started spending all my time here. Also probably because Cartman began investing all his time into Wendy. She still hates me, but I don't give a shit, so…" I sighed. "Kenny is really scaring me with all the 'research' he's been doing on comas. He talks about people who wake up and can't move, like they're a vegetable or something…" I kind of laughed because I thought of a giant cucumber in a hospital bed being feed by a nurse. "I really hope you can wake up soon, I know you've probably heard me say that before and all—or maybe you haven't—but I really want you to get better and not be a fucking veggie."

After ending that sentence I found myself accidentally humming the Veggie Tales theme song to myself. I stopped when I felt his fingers twitch again. Maybe we could work out some Morris Code think while Kyle's in a coma, but that probably wouldn't work; how would he learn Morris Code? How would I? That didn't matter, he was going to wake up. He is going to wake up and be happy and well, and he won't be a vegetable. He couldn't be, we had to stay together forever. Super best friends. It's like the fucking law or something. I don't break laws—except for a little drinking and some stuff the guys and I did in the school bathroom back in middle school.

But still, what if Kyle isn't okay? What if he is a vegetable? I could hear Kenny's words repeat in my mind, "This isn't a fucking game, Stan, Kyle's in a coma", "You need to get real", "You're like the only kid at school who thought he was going to make it". That last one really got to me for some reason. It's not about the likely hood of surviving, I said it before, and I'll say it again; it's about hope.

This is crazy, I just have to stay positive, he'll be all right, and it'll be like old times—almost. I wonder how he's going to react when he sees how muck things have changed, and in some cases, how much some stuff has stayed the same. He'd probably go ape shit when he heard about Cartman and Wendy, but whatever; we could laugh at them together.

I found myself running my left hand through his hair a minute later; I did that sometimes too. It was like a security thing; like in books or whatever they always say stuff like 'and their body was so cold'. Kyle wasn't cold. He felt… normal? But it was always reassuring to just brush my hand against his forehead and check.

I kind of felt lazy just letting my arm go limp and putting all it's weight resting on him, but I don't think he'd mind. I just leaned in closer to get a better look at his face kind of twitch, but it made me feel like the fucking prince from Sleeping Beauty or something. If kissing someone were enough to wake them up from a coma… it wouldn't be day nine hundred thirty. More like two point five seconds. Or something…

But what the hell am I talking about, this might be South Park, as in crazy, talking taco shitting ice cream South Park, but that was really pushing the limits.

I could actually hear him take in a deeper breath than usual and hold it in like he knew something was going on. I sat back up straight in my chair and just watched him breath in and out, let me tell you, it would have been easier to see if he didn't have those stupid tubes up his nose and just about everything else. I looked down at his right hand and fiddled with the hospital bracelet that had never came off. It had just his name, a bar code, and a date from two and a half years ago.

I sighed and turned back to look at his face that—even under those annoying florescent lights—looked totally flawless. God, this was like some faggy Telenovela where Kyle and I are just actors and we're both demanding lattes in our minds and are coated with makeup. Shit, even that sounds better than the situation I'm in now. But none the less, even after what had to be, at lease two and a half years without a shower, he looked amazing, as in 'glowing with health', but if I said that I'd be totally off.

I was kind of upset when I felt my phone go off from my pocket, I pulled it out quickly to see it was Butters.

'How's Kyle?'

The way he texted so formally was somewhat soothing and annoying at the same time, but that doesn't matter so I just replied.

'Hes fine'

I turned back to Kyle, "I'm talking to Butters, he asked if you were alright."

His eyes clenched tightly for a second like he was just closing his eye tighter, but my gaze was torn from him back to my phone to read Butters' message.

'I wanna see him take a pic with your phone and send it to us'

'No way assholes come up here and see him urself' I punched out, but taking a photo wouldn't hurt.

I scooted from the chair to sitting on the edge of Kyle's bed then laid down next to him, letting our arms and hair touch a little, then I made the saddest face I could and snapped a picture while holding my phone high above us. I decided after a while it was worth sending, so I did.

And, inevitably, Butters had to text me back after a few minute, 'Sad. We're trying to get Kenny to get out of bed. He's so stubborn'

I laughed a little before turning my head left. I couldn't laugh when I looked at Kyle; he was just so… damn depressing. Two inches from his face and I could see in his expression he was sad… or maybe that was just my imagination. I cleared my throat before replying to Butters message as if to try to clear the air of the sudden awkwardness that was me still laying next to him.

'Does that mean he can come up here and c us?' I asked as I got up from the bed and sat down in my chair.

'I don't think so' His reply finally came.

I sighed and looked back at Kyle, "It'll be alright. I won't leave 'til you wake up."

I could see in his expression he looked almost at peace, or maybe that was just me again? Didn't really matter. I deleted the message and put my phone away into my pocket to give my full attention to Kyle again.

"I know your going to throw a fit when you wake up and find out I've started smoking again, so I'm going to quit before you wake up. I'm going to change, so please don't be too harsh." I kind of half-laughed. "I want to stop, even though I just decided today, but I want you to be as comfortable as you can when you come back. I really want you to know how much we—I—missed you."

I found myself clasping his hand in my own again in the middle of one of my sentence, I'd probably never grown out of that habit by now; two and a half years of repetition will do that to you. I also found myself leaning forward again slightly looking at his eyes twitch a little.

Then, without warning, the twitching stopped and I saw his eyelids lightly slide half open, revealing two sleepy, grey-green eyes that seemed to stare off into space. I was so in the moment I forgot to go insane. He slowly moved his eyes to the right to look at me, and I could see his lips move to form one word before his eyes slowly closed again delivering him back to his un-wake-able sleep.

'Stan.' He had mouthed.

Like I said before, I was too surprised and excited to go insane, and I still was.

"Kyle?" I stood and shook him. "Kyle! Kyle, wake up!" It was like he had fallen into a coma all over again, I think I remember saying the exact same things when I first walked into this hospital room nine hundred thirty days ago.

When I gave up and went with the idea that this was what Dr. Kelso had meant when he said "phases between consciousness and unconsciousness", that's when I went crazy.

"KYLE WOKE UP!" I yelled running out the door down the hall. "HE LOOKED AT ME!"

I ran down the stares landing on every second step until the third floor, then went bursting through Kenny's door.

"Hey Stan, what's up? Sounded like you were on a rampage the way you went thundering down the hall, we could hear you from all the way in here." Kenny said looking up from his piece of paper.

No doubt the whole "try to get Kenny out of bed" plan failed; it looked like they were playing soduko or something.

Shaking that thought out of my head I dashed up to his side and ripped the paper out of his hand and tossed it to the side.

"W-well, jeez Stan, that wasn't very nice…" Butters spoke up.

"THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT, BUTTERS!" I screamed.

"Fuck, someone's got their nuts in a knot." Kenny sighed shaking his head that was still smothered in bandages, but it was nice to see that they had been changed from the bloody ones to clean new ones.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I asked referring to what Kenny said.

He smiled, "It's my version of Cartman's favorite fraise; 'There's sand in your vagina'."

"Beside the point—"

"You were the one who asked." Kenny shrugged.

I gave him the best glare I could manage at the moment, but he did just as good ignoring me and went back to Butters as they talked about some stupid commercial on TV.

"Kyle woke up, guys." I said almost to myself while the blabbered one aimlessly, but my words made it across somewhere seeing as they both fell silent and Kenny asked me to repeat myself. "I said Kyle woke up."

"What?" Kenny asked like I had just said he was finally going to stop dying.

"You heard me."

They looked at each other with wide eyes like they were trying to send each other telepathic messages or something. Then Kenny turned back to me.

"Then why are you down here?"

I stood kind of still for a moment letting what he said sink in, "Fuck, you're right!"

I bolted out the door to find Dr. Kelso, dashing back up the stairs skipping to every third stair. I found him strolling down the hall of the fifth floor, no doubt to Kyle's room, but I stopped him before he could get any closer.

"DR. KELSO!" I screamed nearly crashing into him.

"Stanley? What's wrong?"

"Come on! Come on! You have to see!" I yelled pulling him down the hall to Kyle's room, and then I flung the door open wildly. "He opened his eyes! He looked at me!"

Dr. Kelso stayed by the door as I ran over to Kyle's side to get a good look at him.

"You mean he woke up?" He asked finally coming over to the other side of the bed.

"Kind of," I let my eyes skim all over Kyle's face searching for a sign he had waken up, "he did for a few seconds then fell back asleep."

I looked up at Dr. Kelso who was frozen again, then ran around to grab a clipboard and a pen on the counter against the wall behind him.

"You said he woke up and looked at you?" He asked with the pen hovering above the paper ready to write. "Is that all?"

"No, no." I sat down to catch my breath. "He also said my name."

"…He said your name?"

I shook my head, "No, actually he didn't say it, he just formed my name with his lips, like he mouthed it."

I sat looking at Kyle's emotionless face waiting for a reply from Dr. Kelso; unfortunately, his reply was the one I hoped he wouldn't say.

"Stanley, I'm going to need to run some more tests, so if you could leave for a while, it would be very appreciated." I nodded; anything to help Kyle. "But," Now he was scaring me, "I don't think you should come see him again until he's fully awake, alright? It would just make things easier for us—for Kyle."

I sighed, "How long do you think it might be…?"

"Maybe a week, maybe less, maybe more, it depends."

I knew even if I said no it wouldn't matter, so I might as well not fight it.

"Alright…"