A/N: Here you have it; the next chapter of TSOT. Thanks for all of the hits and reviews so far! They really encourage you on, especially during times when you just want to give up and bang your head against a wall... Seriously, I do too much research for this story ^^'

Once again, a huge thank you to my wonderful betas! Hope you all like the chapter :)

chapter rating: K+
warnings: mild swearing


Chapter 2: Light

The smell of detergent was heavy in the air as she laid on something soft, her eyes closed, breathing in almost labored breaths. The sharpness of the cleaning solution made her airways burn in a most unpleasant way, and she briefly wondered why everything seemed to smell like that as she slowly shifted in the softness of what she assumed was her bed, trying to find anything she could block the nasty smell with. She tried to hang on to the last moment of sleep, feeling too tired to wake up yet, but the smell was too much and it overpowered her will to keep her eyes closed any longer.

She instinctively mumbled something under her breath, oddly enough not even knowing herself what she'd just said, before slowly cracking her heavy, tired eyelids open. She immediately regretted doing so, for the brightness of the room made her eyes water with irritation and she quickly shut them once more.

Damnit why was it so bright? Had she forgotten to close the curtains or something? What time was it anyway?

She tried to bring her right arm up to her eyes and rub the stinging sensation off, but noticed her arm wouldn't reach her face no matter how she tried. She felt something pull and prickle on the bend of her elbow and it made her whole arm ach. Wincing, she stopped trying to move the arm and gently let it fall back to her side, feeling something warm start to wrap around the bend of her elbow. The aching, though, had retreated slightly, to which she was relieved. Not wanting to risk paining herself more than she already had, she gently raised her left arm and tried to move it around a bit, and once realizing nothing held it back, she brought it slowly towards her face to rub her still stinging eyes.

After rubbing her eyes a few times with her upper arm she tried opening them once more to see just what was restricting the use of her right arm. After the painstakingly slow process of willing her eyes to open, she was once again greeted by the irritating brightness of the room. Still not fully used to the light, she squinted both her eyes and slowly shifted on the bed, rolling her head to her right side to look at her arm. What she discovered made her feel uneasy.

The bend of her elbow reminded her of a pincushion as she looked at the multiple needles sticking out of it. A few of the needles were attached to long narrow tubes that were connected somewhere beyond her field of vision and although she tried to turn her head to follow them her neck just wouldn't cooperate with her. Her eyes fell back onto the bend of her elbow and she watched in silence at the red liquid that was streaming down the side of her arm, creating crimson stains on the white covers she lay on.

Blood.

She didn't quite know how to react to the sight and it made her feel even more at unease. She tried to will her head to turn away but for some odd reason she just couldn't stop staring at her bloodied arm. She even found herself tugging on it just to see more of the scarlet substance pour out. A shiver ran through her body, though it went unknown to her what exactly caused it in the first place.

After what seemed like forever, she finally forced her gaze away from her arm and found herself staring at a stark white ceiling and the two rows of halogen lamps that hung from it. Her eyes were starting to hurt from the light but still she kept on staring straight into them anyway, her mind absently wondering how the lights seemed to keep growing larger by the minute.

Her ears registered a small clicking noise from somewhere around her and she slowly let her eyes wander around the rest of the stark white room, trying to find what had caused the sound. She heard a small gasp, as if surprised, and her eyes finally found the source of the sounds; a middle-aged woman. The woman's hand was resting on the doorknob of the room's door, still not fully closed, and she was carrying some sort of transparent bag with colorless liquid inside.

A moment of silence passed between them as they stared at one another. The woman blinked rapidly, as if snapping out of a deep thought, and was the first to speak.

"I see you're finally awake," she spoke in a calm, soft voice, her hazel brown eyes looking at her for a moment before yanking the door closed and starting to make her way towards the bed she laid on. The woman gave her a tender smile. "How are you feeling? Are you in any sort of pain?"

She stared at the woman for a moment, not quite making out her face, thanks to her lamp-starting a little moment ago. She thought about what the woman had asked her but before she could even consider answering anything the woman gasped loudly.

"Oh my dear girl, what've you done? Don't tell me you tried to remove those! Good grief, now you'll need another blood transfusion…" the woman pointed accusingly at her right arm and sighed tiredly. "Ugh, doc Harlow isn't going to be happy when he finds out about this…"

"Blood transfusion? What's she talking about?" she thought as she in turn looked at her bleeding arm.

She opened her mouth and attempted to ask what the woman meant, but she couldn't seem to make out a single word. She swallowed, her mouth feeling dry and raspy like sandpaper.

What was going on?

The woman seemed to notice her situation and had poured her a cup of some liquid during the time she was slowly starting to fall into a state of panic. The woman pushed her into a sitting position against the stark white wall and gave her the cup.

"Here, you must be thirsty. Don't worry, it's only water," she informed her and gave her a gentle but tired smile. "Take your time before you talk, and I'll tend to this hand of yours in the mean time."

With that, the woman pulled a chair to the right side of the bed and took her bloody arm for closer inspection.

She absently watched the woman in work, tentatively drinking from the cup, suddenly feeling very grateful for the water. It didn't take her long to drink it all, after which she felt somewhat better, deciding to stay quiet for a while longer before attempting to speak.

The woman cleaned her arm quickly and applied something on the wound. "There," she said and looked at her in the eyes. "That's all I can do with it since you're still on IVs, not to mention we'll have to do that transfusion sometime soon. Are you feeling any better?"

She stared into the woman's hazel eyes for a moment before nodding her head, the movement feeling slightly stiff. There was a long stretch of silence before she finally just couldn't take it anymore, starving for information on just what was happening to her. She opened her mouth and after a few failed attempts to voice out her thoughts, she managed to ask the question that had bothered her for the entire time she'd been awake.

"…What's going on?" she asked in a raspy voice, her left hand coming up to her throat, a little shocked of how her voice sounded like. It hadn't always been like that, had it?

The hazel-eyed woman gave her a slightly pitiful smile.

"My dear girl, you've been in an accident," the woman told her, placing a warm hand atop of her colder one. "Don't you remember?" she asked her calmly. It was apparent she was used to handling these sorts of things.

"An accident?" she repeated slowly and the woman nodded.

She tried to think back but couldn't remember anything about an accident. She shook her head slowly, confusion radiating from her being.

The woman sighed in disappointment, a glint of pity in her eyes as she watched the girl in front of her.

"So you don't remember… That's a shame, we were hoping you could tell us more about what happened to you…" she trailed off with a sad smile on her face.

The woman sat up from her chair and pulled it away from the bedside, after which she smoothed out the pale pink garment she was dressed in.

It finally accorded to her that the woman must've been a nurse, and that added with the horribly white room and scent of detergent could only mean one thing.

She swallowed hard upon her realization.

"Am I… hospitalized?" she mumbled in her unpleasant raspy voice. She felt thirsty all over again, though she couldn't say whether it was from all her talking or shock.

The woman looked at her for a moment before nodding once, a trained sympathetic smile plastered on her face.

"Yes, unfortunately you are dear. This is Cherrygrove Central Clinic, and you've been staying here with us for about a week now."

"A week, in Cherrygrove?" she was surprised but now that she thought about it she had been quite stiff, it must've been from all the resting. The name of the clinic wasn't familiar though. Where on earth was she?

The nurse simply nodded, luckily understanding her confusion and clarifying the situation.

"Yes, in Johto. A few trainers on their way to the next city brought you in. They claimed to have found you on route 30 and brought you back here because it was closer than Violet City."

Johto. That was the first thing that rang a bell in her mind. It was a region, wasn't it? Cherrygrove and Violet City had to be cities in Johto.

She felt her panic subside a bit as she finally began to remember something. She breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Johto…" she muttered, deep in thought, only vaguely aware of the nurse who had begun to change her nearly empty IV bag into the one she had brought with her.

What was she doing in Johto? Did she live here? Was she a traveling trainer like the ones whom had found her? And if so, where was she traveling? Did her family know what had happened? …Had she any family?

More and more questions buffeted her shocked mind as she desperately tried to remember anything to figure out what was going on. She suddenly felt very tired and her head began to spin as her mind continued to bombard her with questions. A growing sense of panic consumed her as she realized in horror that she couldn't remember what she was doing here or how she'd gotten there in the first place.

The nurse seemed to notice something was off as she turned her attention away from the IV bag and leaned in closer to her.

"What's wrong, you suddenly became very pale…" she inquired and stepped next to her bed. "You better lay down for a while, the doctor should be here in the next ten minutes so you'll have some time to rest if you're not feeling well," she continued as she gently set her on her back.

Lying down didn't help though, as she started feeling as though she was being suffocated. She desperately took in gasps of air but her efforts seemed to be no use as she started to hyperventilate, much to the nurse's shock. She couldn't make out what the woman was saying to her, the only sounds she heard being the rapid beeping of some machine and her own desperate gasps for air. Her heart felt like it was trying to force itself out of her chest as she lay on the white covers, shuddering violently every few seconds.

This was all happening too fast and to make matters even worse, she couldn't remember a thing! She knew something was very wrong and she just wanted to get away from the stark white room around her, to just run away and forget anything ever happened to her and continue with her life.

Her body began to feel heavy as darkness started to consume her, her mind shutting down and letting her fall into a blissful numbness. She fainted.

~.~.~.

She couldn't make out anything in the darkness around her, but she had the distinct feeling she was waiting for something, someone…

The smell of mild tobacco lingered in the air around her and for some reason it comforted her in the otherwise blacked surroundings, which had only a moment ago made her feel somewhat anxious. She couldn't hear anything, couldn't feel anything. She could only smell. She wondered how that was possible.

She vaguely noticed that she was sitting, her hands loosely wrapped around her knees as she kept on waiting for anything to happen. Nothing ever did.

After what seemed like forever she was still waiting, her body tense with anticipation, as if readying itself even though she had no idea what she was waiting for. She was starting to get a bit irritated and angry at the unknown thing or person she seemed to be waiting for.

Why wasn't anything happening?

Suddenly there was a flash of light in the otherwise endless field of darkness, the bright rays instantly catching her attention. At first she was surprised and was more than content in just viewing it from afar, wondering what it could be. She could tell this wasn't normal and for some odd reason it both scared and intrigued her. She was almost certain this was what she had been waiting for what seemed like an eternity, and before she could even register what was happening, she was already on her feet, running towards the glimmering light ahead.

She could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she got closer and closer to the source of the light, her feelings all over the place as she experienced a range of different emotions. She was excited, scared, curious, distrusting… It made no sense.

Suddenly, just before she reached the light, she came to a halt, not daring to take another step towards the unknown flashing light only a few dozen meters away. The light flashed and glimmered in front of her almost invitingly, yet she found herself paralyzed on spot.

This didn't feel right to her, like there was something wrong with the whole situation. It was just too different from the darkness she had grown used to.

She liked the darkness; it was vast and comforting like a huge blanket, and she felt uneasy leaving the safety of it. The darkness was safe and it didn't make her feel any of these strange, mixed up emotions, on the contrary, it made her feel apathetically numb.

Then another thought crossed her mind, something that she had failed to notice until now.

She could feel again, both psychically and emotionally. It was an odd feeling. A frightening feeling.

She hadn't felt anything while in the security of darkness, as if deprived of emotion. As if she were as numb as the darkness.

She really hadn't thought about the matter before, but the realization kicked in almost immediately.

She didn't like feeling numb.

Still paralyzed in place, she stared hesitantly at the unrecognizable glowing source of light, feeling an odd sensation of warmth radiating from within it, enjoying the feel of it against her skin. The thought terrified her.

Why should she want these feelings now after spending so long in numbing darkness? Hadn't she gotten along just fine up until now, wasn't she content having darkness as her blanket? And what about the smell of tobacco?

Why was this happening to her?

She was confused, scared even. She didn't know what to do.

She just stood there, midway between blinding brightness and smothering darkness; experiencing things she feared - but at the same time craved.

"I don't know what to do."

It was the first time she had heard her voice - no - heard anything while in the darkness. She desperately felt the need to hear something, anything And as if a record stuck on replay, she repeated her earlier words for what seemed like hours. Her voice was but a whisper, as if she were scared to raise it any louder.

The words began to echo around her in a most unusual manner, as they did not repeat what she'd just stated. She instantly shut up and merely listened.

"Such an odd thing to say," a voice echoed around her, sounding almost metallic. "It's the wrong answer. You lie."

"W-what…?" she whispered in disbelief. "But I… I'm not lying, I really don't know what to do."

"Ignorant human. You refuse to acknowledge what you already know and thus you keep answering wrong."

"How can you know that? You're not me!" she shouted back, gasping at the loudness of her own voice.

"I know what you know and I feel what you feel, it's as simple as that," the voice replied in a matter-of-factly tone.

"How can that be? That just doesn't make any sense!"

"There are many things in this world that don't make sense, yet they still exist. We cannot control and understand everything, only accept the things that come by."

A moment of silence passed as she took in what the voice had said, still feeling very confused about their weird conversation. Everything had been so much easier while in the cover of darkness. She let out an un-amused huff and looked warily at the source of light in front of her.

"You keep stating you know what I have to do. Tell me. What is it, what should I do?"

"You really are ignorant. What use would it be answering a question you already have the answer for?" she heard the voice reply. "Wrong questions lead to wrong answers. Wrong answers lead to right questions. Right questions lead to right answers. That is all you need to know."

She kept on staring at the light in front of her, trying to understand the bizarre explanation she'd been given.

"So, you mean I've been asking the wrong question."

"Correct. Rights questions answer wrong questions."

"And now you're claiming right answers solve wrong questions? You're not making any sense!" she shouted in exasperation.

No answer.

"Can you at least give me the right question?" she sighed tiredly after a moment of cooling down. She wasn't used to this much emotion, and it was beginning to take its tow on her.

"Answer this; what is it you want?" the voice asked, leaving her somewhat confused.

"What I want…? But how'll that answer anything?"

"You already know; right questions answer wrong questions."

She thought about this for a minute. If right questions lead to right answers, and right question answered wrong questions, then right answers really did solve wrong questions. That meant all she had to do was what she wanted.

Just what did she want?

She could once again smell tobacco around her and she instantly felt calmer, though she hardly knew what for. It was as if she connected a certain… something or someone with the scent, something familiar. Her head seemed to grow clearer with every lungful of smoke she took. It made her feel numb.

Something had begun to twist itself around her upper body, and her breath hitched as she saw a dark shadow wrapped around her shoulders and waist.

"What you want is me," the shadow hissed in an almost reptilian-like voice and began to tug her backwards, slowly dragging her away from the light.

For a moment she couldn't do anything as she stared paralyzed at the shadows, vaguely sensing the warmth of the light growing more distant.

What was going on? What on earth was this thing?

All she knew was that this wasn't what she wanted. Or maybe it was. Hell, she didn't know! She needed more time.

She began struggling in the shadow's clasp, trying desperately to free herself from it.

"No! That's not what I want! I mean, I don't know what I want! Let me go, let me go!" she screamed but her pleas were ignored as the shadow pulled her farther away into the darkness. She thrashed in protest and watched in silent horror as the light ahead of her began to flicker away.

"No! Don't leave me! Wait! Please wait! I need more time!" she cried out but it seemed neither the shadow or light would listen to her.

"More time? Ignorant human, time is all you have," both of the voices suddenly stated in unison as she finally ran out of strength to fight back the shadow, letting it drag her farther into the darkness without much effort.

Her spirit seemed to get smothered with every tug and she soon realized she didn't care what she wanted anymore.

"It'd just be useless…" she whispered unconsciously, her words making the light up ahead flash violently one more time until it began to grow weaker.

Just like it had appeared, the light suddenly died out, leaving only darkness behind. The last thing she registered was the feeling of loss and emptiness.

~.~.~.

When she opened her eyes she was once again greeted with blinding brightness that caused her eyes to water and sting. She breathed out groggily and shifted in her cool, thin sheets.

"Finally awake, I see," an unknown male voice spoke from somewhere around her and she slowly opened her eyes to see just who it was.

Rolling her head from side to side, she finally spotted the man on the right side of her bed, browsing through a set of papers attached to a brown clipboard. He looked quite young, probably no more than thirty years old and had short blond hair, brown eyes and a fairly handsome face. He was wearing a long white lab coat atop a neutral colored, beige dress shirt and a pair of neat black pants. The pockets of his coat were bulging with various medical instruments and pens, a stethoscope hanging somewhat ominously around his neck.

A doctor. Perhaps he was the one the nurse had mentioned before. What was his name again?

He turned his gaze back to her and gave her a look that seemed like a mixture of boredom and annoyance, an ugly look in contrast with his face.

"How're you feeling? Not too great, I'd imagine," he asked rather uninterestedly and continued to flip through a few more pages on the chart before he set it down on a small nightstand beside her bed. "One of the nurses told me you fainted from blood loss not even ten minutes after coming to the first time. Nearly pulled out all of your needles as well, I'm rather shocked to tell you the truth," he continued in a monotonous voice, not even bothering to hide his sarcasm.

"What's this guy's problem?" she thought in slight irritation as she stared at him rather dumbfounded.

"I… I'm fine, just peachy," she replied similarly, frowning when she noticed her voice was just as raspy as before. "Can I have something to drink? My throat feels horrible…"

"Yeah sure thing. Just sit back and relax as good ol' Dr. Harlow here pours you a cup of the cleanest water you'll come across for miles," he replied, voice heavy with bitter sarcasm as he grabbed a cup from the nightstand and reached for a small pitcher just next to it. "Well, now that we've wasted all of this month's anesthetics to keep you asleep I'll probably have to prescribe something for your pain. Your patient file completely neglects to mention whether you're allergic to anything. I would've put you on something strong long ago but the senior physician thought it was 'too risky'," he went on, poorly imitating an older man. "So, remember being allergic to any common anodynes?" Dr. Harlow, as he so subtly introduced himself as, inquired as he poured her a cup of water.

"…Not that I know of," she replied warily and gratefully took the cup when he offered it to her.

What was it again that the nurse had worried about, Dr. Harlow not being happy? What an understatement, the man didn't really seem to care much for his patient. Did he even know what manners were?

"Maybe he's just having a bad day," she thought as she took a sip from her cup of water.

"Hmm, I see," the young doctor replied as he scribbled something into a piece of paper he'd taken from her patient file. He turned his attention back to her when he'd clipped the lone piece of paper back onto the board. "Well, it's not like anyone can blame me if you suddenly have an allergic reaction and die... That in mind, if you're feeling too pained just say my name and I'll prescribe you something that'll paralyze even your heart," he told her casually, though the look in his eyes strongly led her to believe he wasn't kidding. "Should take the pain away, wouldn't you agree?"

She felt the urge to swallow. Just what kind of doctor was this guy? And how on earth was he still employed? Either he actually would do all the things he said or this was a case of some really sick, twisted humor. By the look of things, she was beginning to side with her first guess.

"Now, I'm sure you have a lot of questions but before I answer anything I'll need to check that your wounds are healing according to plan, especially after your earlier incident," he spoke very slowly to her and wrote something on the clipboard, surprisingly resuming a more professional state of mind.

She absently nodded in reply, her thoughts still a little fuzzy, before she realized what he'd said.

Wounds? What wounds? What healing?

The doctor made his way to the other side of her bed and tentatively took hold of her left arm, not bothering to give her even a glance as he focused on it. Her eyes followed his to see almost half of her arm wrapped in white wrappings, almost as if they'd tried to mummify her but ran out of supplies. The young doctor skillfully unwrapped the bindings and examined her arm, the sight shocking her. Her arm was covered in small but deep looking puncture wounds, now beginning to close up. The surrounding skin hade an ugly yellowish tint to it, the bruising skin indicating the wound was days old.

She heard the doctor start to hum a tune she didn't recognize as he turned her wrist around, revealing similar wounds on the other side of her arm. The small red wounds formed a half circle that started from her wrist and ended just midway of her forearm.

What on earth had caused that and how hadn't she noticed the bandaging earlier?

She frowned. It looked like her arm had been bitten by something very big.

The doctor noticed her confusion as he looked up to see how she was taking things, her troubled greyish blue eyes staring at her injured arm. He stopped his humming as he resumed to his work, deciding to start up a conversation with her to prevent her from going into shock like she'd done only an hour earlier.

"It'd just mean more work. Stupid nurses, can't do anything right these days," he thought as he eyed the small wounds.

"It seems you were bitten by some large Pokémon, though I'm sorry to say we haven't found out what species exactly. Nothing from this region at least. What I can tell you is that you were very lucky to be brought in when you were; the wounds were starting to get infected and the bacteria was quite aggressive. We were able to kill off most of the bacteria and clean your wounds but we still have to monitor the situation. Blood poisoning isn't exactly a thing kids should be dying from. You might also have some nerve and muscle damage, to what extent we don't know yet," he told her as he inspected the wounds. "Flex your fingers for me."

Well, he sure wasn't going to sugarcoat anything.

She slowly started to move her fingers around, the slender digits responding to what she was told to do, though quite stiffly. She watched the doctor nod his head once.

"Good, that's enough. Now try rolling your wrist around but by no means force it if it doesn't work normally. You've been unconscious for a long time and your joints are stiff from the lack of use," the doctor explained.

She made to roll her wrist around but not even half way into the circle a jolt of pain stabbed her arm and she winced loudly, letting her arm fall limb into the doctor's waiting hands. He took a closer look of her wrist.

"Hmm, as I expected. No serious nerve damage but there's obviously some muscle loss. Probably eaten by the bacteria… Nothing a little physiotherapy can't fix, though."

Muscle loss? It felt like her wrist had been crushed into tiny pieces!

"And how long's that going to take?" she found herself asking, pleased to hear her voice wasn't nearly as raspy as before. "The healing I mean."

The doctor gave her a quick glance before setting her arm back down beside her and moving to the end of her bed. "I'd say you'll be able to use your arm somewhat normally by the time you get released," he replied. "Assuming you aren't left-handed that is," he mumbled quickly after.

"And when's that? Tomorrow?" she asked hopefully, choosing to neglect his last comment.

She didn't know why but she had the instinctive feeling she wasn't suppose to be lying in a hospital. She remembered her earlier thoughts about escape, and the thought of her staying here made her strangely uneasy. She really didn't like hospitals, not one bit.

The doctor gave her an incredulous look. "Tomorrow? Sorry to burst your bubble kid, but even though you've been lucky so far, I doubt you'd get that lucky," he responded, and without another word he reached for her covers and flicked them aside, revealing her legs.

Her plastered legs. Wrapped in bright pink bandaging.

She stared at the sight before her in shock. What was this? Were her legs broken? Her arm aside, how had she managed to not notice the state of her legs?

In spite of all the questions she could think about, there was only one she managed to voice out.

"…Why is it pink?" she asked, her voice sounding close to horrified.

The young doctor shook his head. "Yeah, sure, completely disregard what happened to you and concentrate on pointless details…" he sighed in disbelief. "Honestly kid, where's your sense of prioritization? Are you seriously worried about what color your casts are when you might not walk for weeks?"

"Wh- what?" she managed to breath out as she kept on gaping in shock.

The doctor rolled his eyes as he moved to the right side of her bed and started to examine her legs.

"Sure, now she worries," he mused before looking back at her, the expression on his face turning to a more professional one as he started explaining the situation to her.

"Now listen closely kid; you haven't broken anything but you do have multiple hairline fractures on both of your ankles. You can't put any weight on them for at least another week, and they won't heal completely until another month after. Time is the only cure for your injuries, so you better get used to resting."

She nodded slowly, letting out a breath of air she'd been unconsciously holding in. She felt relieved to hear her legs weren't broken but the thought of having to stay here made her very displeased.

"How long before I can walk again? And when can I leave? I've got… things to do, places to be."

The blond haired man looked at her for a moment as if debating to himself whether to be honest or not, though what she could tell he'd been nothing but frank with her throughout their little chat. Finally, he spoke.

"Like I said, fractures take time to heal. If you want to be able to use your legs normally you simply can't put weight on them during the first few weeks after the injury, let alone walk or run. Usually I wouldn't even suggest walking before a month of rest but since you're decades younger than most of my patients you can probably consider it next week. Your body is young and has the ability to heal faster, but don't misunderstand me; even it needs time to do so."

She let the information sink in. Two weeks of doing nothing but resting. Hadn't she already been here a week? That meant she'd be out of here by the end of the week and with luck her ankles would also heal relatively quickly. She let out a relieved sigh; it wasn't as bad as she'd thought.

A sudden thought crossed her mind.

"What day is it?"

"The 26th of September; a Wednesday," the doctor casually replied as he carefully held up her right leg. "Can you move your toes for me?"

Her relief was replaced with a sudden sinking feeling. It was only Wednesday? That meant she's be stuck here for at least four more days, five if she was unlucky. A frown formed on her face as she did what the doctor instructed, repeating the test with her left foot, both feet moving stiffly but without too much difficulty.

"Well," the brown-eyed doctor said as he was done with her feet, setting them back down and covering them with her white bed covers, "looks like everything's healing normally. With any luck you'll be out of my hair before I know it," he continued as he once again grabbed the clipboard to write something on the papers. "Now that that's out of the way, the police requested that we ask you a few questions. You up for it?" he asked her as he took a seat in the chair stationed next to her bed, pulling out an envelope from the contents of his coat pocket, muttering something about how lazy the local police were when they made him do their job.

"It doesn't look like he's giving me any choice, is he?" she thought as she pulled herself into a sitting position, leaning her back against the white wall. "What happened to him answering my questions?"

"Yeah, I guess…" she replied feeling a little irritated and then turned to face him, looking at him a little anxiously. "Why are the police involved anyway?"

"Why wouldn't they be? You were found injured in the middle of nowhere, kid. I've seen a lot of things during my career and you're definitely a classic case; there has to be some sort of crime behind it," he replied as he began to open the envelope and pull out some documents.

"Seriously, did she get brain damage as well or was she always this dense?" he thought and checked her medical chart to look at her EEG results. Straightening out the documents in his hands, he eyed the list of questions given to him by the police officers a few days earlier. "Hmph, a few questions my ass…"

"Keep in mind this is part of an investigation so answer truthfully. First things first; state your name, social security number and birthday before we really get started."

A long moment of silence passed between them before he looked up from his work, still lacking a reply from her. His brown eyes met a pair of confused greyish blue ones. "Hey, kid, the sooner you answer these the better."

She blinked slowly as she kept staring at him. "So… You don't know who I am…?"

"What, you a rock star or something?" he mused dryly and rolled his eyes.

"Well obviously, otherwise I wouldn't have asked it in the first place. We here at the clinic need this information as much as the police in order to make treating you easier. Up until now we've known you as patient 199 and your patient file doesn't have that much lifesaving information either," he replied bluntly and rearranged the documents in front of him, the pen he was holding tapping impatiently at the first few rows of text. He gave her a waiting look before concentrating back on the documents. "I haven't got all day you know. "

"I…I don- I don't…" she mumbled and the doctor raised his gaze to look at her. "I don't know," she finally managed to voice out, causing the doctor to roll his eyes again.

"Save the cheekiness for later and just answer the question. What's your name?" he stubbornly pressed on.

She shook her head vigorously. "I just… I can't remember. I can't remember anything!" she exclaimed. "I don't even know my name! Why can't I remember?"

The documents in the doctor's hands almost slid through his fingers as he watched the scene in front of him. He stared at the bewildered girl in front of him who was now concentrating on crying her eyes out, taking in what she had just said.

She couldn't remember? That wasn't good, she must've hit her head far worse than he'd first suspected. This had to be the result of either a serious concussion or experiencing massive trauma. The mind often shut down as a way to protect itself and he'd seen it a few times during his career, mostly with rape victims.

He checked her chart for what seemed to be the hundredth time during her stay at the clinic, suddenly feeling the need to read through the information once more. He quickly found a summery of all her known information.

"Patient 199, room 207.
Admitted 19th of September at 11.37am.
Unknown Caucasian female, estimated age 15 to 20.
Physical trauma to left arm and head. X-ray pictures confirm trauma to both ankles.
Patient unconscious.
Allergies unknown.
All narcotics tests negative.
No signs of sexual assault."

The information on the last row of text both relieved and displeased him.

"Damn, so it's probably not a case of post-traumatic amnesia," he cursed mentally as he raked his mind for any other possible explanations for the girl's sudden memory loss. "I'll have to conduct more tests. Jeez, why couldn't this be another boring case?" he thought as he tried to get the girl to calm down and prevent her from causing more harm to herself.

"Such an unlucky kid," he mentally sighed as he pressed a button to call for a nurse to aid him with the struggling girl.