At night everything is quiet, it's peaceful. But in a hospital, there is no day and night there is only time. Time and chaos.

"His pupils are blown and unresponsive to light." They were moving him quickly, they had to. Yuri's eyes were cracked open and he watched the fluorescent ceiling lights run past him down the hall. He watched them march rhythmically over his head. Vaguely, he wondered what they were running from. He blinked and he was strapped to a bed. He had needles in his arms and a tube down his throat. They bustled around him like ants; they were all moving, shouting, and dressed like they were walking into battle. A loud mechanical buzzing circled his head.

"Mr. Plisetsky," A woman shifted into his line of sight. "We have to relieve the pressure in your skull. You're going to hear the drill but it is extremely important that you do not move." Yuri blinked at her and then she was gone. He could feel them drilling the burr holes but because of the tube, he couldn't scream.

"There's too much blood."

"Get him to the OR now."

Yuri closed his eyes while they prepped him, stripping him of his warm clothes and replacing them with a paper gown. He didn't flinch as the razor passed over his scalp and his golden locks tumbled past his cheek onto the floor. They put the mask over his face and he could feel the world fading. A mechanical whirring got closer to his ears. Saw.

Wait! I'm still here. I'm still-

Yuri was dead to the world and the doctors in the room fought like hell to make sure they could bring him back after.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-..-..-..-..-..-

They sat in uncomfortable chairs in an empty lobby. Yakov was on his phone for hours. Victor picked up right away, the junior trainer responded to his voicemail, Mila was still up when he canceled their morning session, the only number he was still trying to reach was Daria Plisetsky. So far, no luck. When Victor and Yuuri arrived the atmosphere of the hospital changed. Victor was agitated. He paced around the small room and nothing Yuuri could say could calm him. When, finally, the surgeon arrived he was immediately pounced upon.
"Yuri had intracranial hemorrhaging, bleeding in the brain, caused by the impact of his fall. We managed to stop the bleed and relieve the pressure on his brain."

"How could you have missed it!" Victor growled. "He was here hours ago and you ran every test in the book."

"The bleeding wasn't visible on the initial MRI. Usually, with impact injuries, any bleeding will resolve itself in a few hours. We believe that because the pain medication can thin blood, the bleed became much worse," The doctor explained. Otabek felt ice run through his veins.

"I made him take it," he said. "He was in pain but he didn't want…" He took a shaky breath. "This is my fault." The doctor shook his head.

"Anything could have caused this bleeding, a change in blood pressure, physical activity, this is not your fault. There is no way you could have known."

"No, but you should have," Victor said under his breath.

"Is there going to be any lasting damage?" Yakov asked. The doctor turned to him.

"We caught the bleeding early but… there is a chance that we weren't early enough." Yakov sighed and crossed his arms over his chest.

"What's the worse case scenario?" The doctor shifted on his feet.

"Because of the location of the bleeding, there could be damage to his speech, hearing, motor skills, personality, impulse control, memory, There's no knowing the extent of the damage- if there is any- until he wakes up if he wakes up."

"If?" Lilia asked in a strangled voice.

"He's not out of the woods yet."

"Oh-" Lilia put a hand to her mouth and blinked rapidly.

"I am so sorry. This should have never happened." The surgeon looked over them, over the carnage, and left.

Yakov was stunned. Lilia was broken. Victor was in a rage. And Otabek couldn't breathe.

"His personality-everything could be different, he could be different," Otabek said, biting his lower lip, "he might not be my best friend anymore." Otabek inhaled deeply and turned on his heels to walk away. Before he had a chance to flee Victor stopped him with a firm,

"Altin." Otabek froze. He refused to turn to face them, his competition, he refused to let them see the way his lip quivered. "He needs you," Victor said. Otabek's eyes squeezed shut.

"No," he said. His voice was as steady as the legs of a newborn foal. "I can't be here when he wakes up and realizes he can't speak." Otabek fought to keep his eyes dry. " I can't be there when he wakes up as someone I don't recognize, or someone who doesn't recognize me." He looked back at them. "I'm sorry." Otabek took off down the hall. They let him go.

They walked down the hall like they were part of a parade. Yuri's was in the ICU, a place where numerous visitors weren't allowed yet no one dared to stop them. Lilia didn't walk in. She waved them in with one hand and covered her face with the other. Yakov touched her shoulder as they walked in. Victor had to close his eyes. Yuri hadn't looked so small in years. The teenager was hooked up to every machine in the room. His hair was shaved in a patch along the left side of his head and bandages hugged his skull. Yuuri looked at the two men standing frozen and as far from the bed as possible. He cleared his throat and elbowed Victor lightly. Victor didn't respond aside from shifting his weight onto the other foot. Yakov, too, had his feet rooted to the floor.
"Unbelievable," Yuuri mumbled. He pushed past them and sat in the chair close to Yuri's side. "Everyone's really worried you know," he said, taking Yuri's hand. "I was worried Victor was going to kill your doctor. He was being really rude you would have approved." Victor seemed to snap out of his trance and sat down next to Yuuri. They talked. Well, Yuuri talked. His words were directed at the sleeping teenager but they did more to comfort the other two, his words filled the silence.

Otabek paced outside the front doors. His mind was at war. Fight or flight. Stay or run.
"It's Yuri," he ground out under his breath. Go to him. Go. But he couldn't. Guilt slithered up his leg like a snake and burrowed its way into his chest.

"You knew he had a headache. You should have said something," the voice in his head hissed. "You could have saved him…. But now you've lost him." His guilt slithered down through his stomach and knotted in his gut. His fist collided forcibly with the building's brick walls, so hard that the skin split and his knuckled jammed. He grit his teeth against the numbing amounts of pain that spiraled up his arm but it at least silenced the voices in his head. He cradled his bloodied hand and paced outside the doors. People walked in past him, paramedics, doctors, family members, and each time he considered walking in with them; he would trace their footsteps with his all the way to the elevator, from there he would go to the ICU and he would sit, for however long it took Yuri to wake up, he would be there. But as the people came and went he remained rooted to the cement outside the sliding doors. Thunder boomed above him and with it came a downpour of freezing rain. He turned his face up towards the sky and let it wash over him. His temper was extinguished under the wash. Before he fully wiped the rain from his eyes, before he could see what he was doing, he walked up to the automatic doors and inside.

He walked numbly up to Yuri's door. Lilia was standing there. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she stared at the closed door in front of her with empty eyes. When Otabek stepped next to her, her gaze flickered in his direction for a fraction of a second.
"They're all inside. Sitting with him," her voice didn't sound like hers.

"Is he awake?" Otabek asked.

"Ah- no. Not yet." Otabek nodded once. "It's good you came back," Lilia said. "He'll be glad to see you when he wakes up." Otabek took in her words with no idea how to respond.

"What's on the other side of that door?" Otabek asked, trying to brace himself for whatever he was about to walk into.

"I don't know. I haven't…" Lilia trailed off. "But you should go see him, sit with him."

"Right. Of course," Otabek said. He didn't make a move to open the door. They stood like that, still and motionless, listening to the murmur of a voice inside. Nurses passed them and their eyes burned holes in their backs. Lilia looked at the young adult standing next to her.

"Together?"

The atmosphere in the dim hospital room was gloomy, to say the least. Yuuri had run out of energy and the only thing breaking the silence was the steady beep of the heart monitor. It was unnerving- the quiet. Otabek's eyes locked onto Yuri's face everything in him was begging the younger to wake up. A doctor entering broke the quiet.
"Hello everyone," she said. She walked over and opened Yuri's chart. Her eyes trailed first over the paper and then over the blank expressions around the room. "Well, everything looks good." She peeked under the bandages on Yuri's head. "His prep team tried to shave as little as possible," she commented. Otabek held back a chuckle. "Still it's a shame." At the doctor's words, Otabek broke out in full, face splitting laughter. He braced on his knees and tried to stop laughing. Everyone was looking at him like he belonged in the psych ward.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said, doing his best to collect himself. "It's just that out of all the things that could be wrong with him, all the horrible, terrible, life changing things that could be wrong, the thing he's going to be most upset about is the fact that they had to cut his hair." Next, to him, Yuuri chuckled under his breath.

"Um, there is no indication of any mental or physical deficits at this point," the doctor said. "We'll know more when he wakes up."

"I'd prepare yourself," Otabek said, "Once he sees what you've done to his precious golden locks you're in for a major verbal abuse."

"That is if he can," Victor said from the other side of the room. He too broke out in soft laughter with a finger resting on his upper lip. The room filled with out of place laughter.

"You shouldn't laugh," Lilia scolded, "his whole personality could be changed!"

"Wouldn't that be a shame?" Yakov grunted. "He's such a peach as is." At this even Lilia let out a strangled snort.

"This is extremely inappropriate," she muttered, wiping the laughter induced tears from her eyes. The young doctor was clearly flustered.

"His surgeon will be in shortly to evaluate his cognitive state. Ah- if he doesn't wake up within the hour the chances of comatose increase substantially."

"Yurio did always love to sleep in," Yuuri said. At this point, the doctor escaped gracefully.

"Oh course, he needs his beauty sleep," Victor said. A new wave of laughter floated about the room. Otabek felt something in his stomach shift.

"He's always up all night, some rest could do him well," Yakov added.

"He'd probably like it better if he didn't have to wake up anyway," Otabek's laughter became more bitter. His chest contracted. "It's quiet and no one would be there to annoy him." Otabek's eyes watered and a tear fell from his eye. Everyone's laughter ceased. Otabek turned to Yuri's sill form.
"Honestly Yura, what did you think was going to happen?" He took Yuri's hand in his. "You're an idiot. Really. Selfish, impulsive- do you even think about how your actions affect others? Do you care?!" He didn't realize how loud his voice had grown or how hard he was squeezing Yuri's hand until Victor's grip on his shoulder jarred him back to reality. "I didn't mean-"

"It's alright," Victor said. Otabek released Yuri's hand but didn't pull his away from the mattress. He could feel them staring at the bruised, swollen, mess resting next to Yuri's thin, pale hand. The atmosphere was more broken now. Otabek hung his head and wiped his eyes dry.

"You're an asshole," Yuri's rough voice said. Everyone's head snapped up.

"Yuri?" Otabek gasped. He stood and looked at Yuri's face. His eyes were only open half way but they were bright. They were awake and alive. "You know who I am?"

"Of course I do. What the hell did you do to your hand?" Yuri asked. Otabek ignored his question.

"I thought…" Otabek stopped and smiled. Yuri glared at his strange expression, at all of their strange expressions.

"Welcome back," Victor said with his usual chirpiness. Yuri rolled his eyes. Yakov pressed the call button to alert the doctors. Meanwhile, Yuri ran a hand over his head. He froze. His lip curled up in a snarl.

"What the fuck did they do to my hair?"