Realising that Piper could see her, Alex jerked herself backwards, giving the blonde room to focus. "Hey you," she breathed, watching as Piper's pools of sapphire widened in recognition of her presence. Seconds passed without any reply. "Piper? Babe….?"
She's still the same person….isn't she? Can she understand what I'm saying? Does she even know what my words mean? Or who I am?
Still, there was no response.
Can she move? Is she in pain? Does she know how to speak?
Piper lay blinking up at her, her rosebud lips unmoving.
Alex's stomach lurched. To have Piper but not really have Piper completely would be worse than not having her at all. Tenderly, she placed her hand on top of Piper's pale fingers, which were as cool as porcelain on top of the woolen blanket that swaddled her to the mattress of the hospital bed.
"Pipes, stop pacing. Sit down."
Alex took a step closer to the frantic blonde, who was biting her nails and anxiously walking back and forth. Her long caramel hair had been pulled into a messy plait. Preoccupied with the previous evenings events, she had pulled on faded blue jeans, grass stained and streaked with mud from days before.
"If I stand still, I'm just going to panic even more. I can't deal with this right now." She raised her face towards the ceiling as she spoke, her feet insistent on taking steps.
"Listen." Alex stepped into her path and grabbed Piper's wrists, forcing her to stand still. "We can hear your phone ringing anywhere. We don't need to stand around waiting, Piper. It only makes things worse." As if to prove her point, she pulled her worried girlfriend down into the sofa behind them.
Once seated, Piper visibly began to crumble.
"I know. It's just…It feels wrong to carry on like nothing is different when he's in there. And it's a dangerous operation. Dad sounded really worried." Piper bowed her head, clasping her knees with her worried hands. "You know how much my Grandad means to me."
Alex looked at Piper fondly, her heart swelling as she caught a glance of the blonde's pouting bottom lip and her furrowed brow. As much as she loved the fiery side of Piper, her intellectualism and (she hated to admit it) her goddamn stubbornness, she also loved that inner softness; the goofy bashfulness and the innocent naivety.
"Hey.." she cooed, draping one arm around Piper's fragile shoulders. Piper turned her face towards her, her eyes spilling over with fat tears of concern. Alex loved that shade of blue. Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, when she broke from Piper's lips and looked down at her lying beneath her, she felt as if she could almost dive into those eyes. They seemed endless, like their love.
Piper's eyelids fluttered, her eyelashes moving like butterflies wings next to her pale skin. As if shocked by electricity, her hand twitched under Alex's grip and then, breaking the silence in the tiny sterile hospital room, she took a shaky breath.
"Alex?!..."
