AN:/ Enjoy~ Oh and there is a little more yaoi-ish type stuff in this chapter, just to warn… nothing major at all though.
When William opened his eyes all he could see was the white blur he assumed was the ceiling.
"Oh, he's waking up," came Grell's voice and Will saw the blur, which was Grell, standing over him.
Will shut his eyes again and rubbed them and realised he wasn't wearing his glasses, which explained the blurriness of everything. He groaned and moved to sit up when there was a slight pressure on his shoulders making him lie back down in the bed he was in.
"How are you feeling?" came the voice of Liam Thorpe.
"F-ine," Will's voice cracked as his throat burned out of want for something to drink.
"Do you need anything?" Liam asked.
"Water," William said, "and my glasses."
"Alright, I'll go get you a glass of water," Liam said, leaving the room.
Will's vision cleared up when he felt Grell slip his glasses onto his face, "When..did he," Will coughed only to regret it as his throat screamed in pain at him, "get here?"
"As soon as you passed out, I got you on the bed and ran to the Dispatch Society where through some
sort of miracle, I caught him leaving. He grabbed his medical stuff and came with me right away when I told him what had happened to you…. Once we got back you were pretty much out cold… Liam applied some antibiotics to the wound in your head to fight any infections that may come about. He said he'd perform a few different tests with you once you were conscious," Grell explained.
"I see," William said.
"He gave you an injection for killing pain as well as I told him you were having bad headaches," Grell said.
William glanced around at his surroundings, "So I'm still at your house?"
"Yes, that's correct," Grell said.
William nodded. He lifted a hand up slowly but stopped, thinking for a moment.
"What is it, William?" Grell asked, still leaning over Will slightly.
William stretched his hand back out again and grabbed a strand of Grell's hair, tugging down on it slightly.
"Hmm?" Grell leaned down closer to Will, whose hand Grell felt move to the back of his neck. Grell shivered slightly, but stayed as calm as he could.
"I…I'm sorry…for causing you all this trouble," William said quietly. Grell's jaw dropped a bit,
"William!" he said softly, "It's not your fault." He leaned down to touch his forehead gently to Will's and said, "Plus, I really don't mind helping you out while you're going through this. I wouldn't want to feel like I'm being a bad friend and not helping out at all."
As soon as Grell finished, there was a gentle 'Ahem' from behind them.
William's hand slid off of Grell's neck and he sat up as Grell stood up and both looked to see Liam.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I've got your water, William," the doctor said, holding up the glass.
"Oh," William said, feeling his face grow warm, "Thank you," he said hoarsely to Liam who came over and handed Will the water.
As William sipped it, Liam picked up his clipboard and looked through it until he reached a certain section of it, "So apparently your injuries are worse than it first appeared…" Liam said, "Your head isn't healing as quickly as it should… Have any of your other injuries been giving you trouble?"
"N-no," William said.
"Hmm… Your symptoms include headache, nausea, vomiting, memory loss…anything else?" He looked at William to Grell, seeing if either had an answer.
"He's been rather dizzy," Grell noted.
"Alright, dizziness…" Liam said, scribbling something down in his clipboard, "How is your eyesight?" he asked William.
"As it's always been," William said, "However, I think it's worse in this eye now," he said, pointing to his right eye, the same side of his head that was injured the worse.
Liam finished writing again and had Will do a few different tests to test his visual functions, response time, verbal capabilities-in other words, speaking, and hearing.
He did fine on the hearing test and though he passed it, didn't do the best on the visual test, but did the worst on the response time. His speaking test was a little better than his visual one, but not as bad as the response time.
Liam recorded these things and then said, "Well, I see it now- you've got severe traumatic brain injury… Unfortunately I've done pretty much all I can for you, Will. All I can tell you is take it easy, make sure you drink a lot of fluids to keep yourself hydrated, get enough rest at night and don't push yourself too hard to do any work. In fact, you're off work duty until I give you the 'OK'. The recovery might be tough…For both of you. I'm starting to think that this memory loss is definitely long term, though. But both of you stay strong. It won't be easy on either of you."
"Thank you for coming tonight, Liam," Grell said, frowning a bit.
"No problem," Liam said, "I've never seen a case like this in a Shinigami before. It's a challenge to tackle… I'm still working on researching more of these types of injuries in Shinigami since they're so much more complex than Humans. It's certain that if Will were a Human, that he would have been dead long before you found him, Grell. Shinigami are certainly tougher, but a Scythe to the head comes pretty close to humanizing a Grim Reaper. Take it easy and good luck. To both of you. Again, see me if you have any more problems. But I do expect to see you back here in a few days so I can check on you- unless you have issues before then. Grell, keep a close eye on him, don't leave him by himself for more than 24 hours in case there's some major issue. Monitor his condition throughout the day, keeping an eye out for sudden behavioural, physical, or mental changes."
"Got it," Grell nodded.
"Thank you," William said.
Liam smiled, "Like I said, it's no problem." He started to walk out the door when he stopped and said, closing his eyes and smiling, "Oh right, one more thing Will- no strenuous physical activity. 'Kay?"
"Uh.. no problem," William said.
"See you later," Liam said before continuing on walking.
"Does he talk too much in your opinion?" Grell asked.
"He's a doctor, I suppose it's his job.." Will shrugged, "I noticed earlier while coming in your house that it is a good sized house. Surly there's another bedroom besides this one?"
"Well, yes, there is. But one, I never really had a reason to put a bed in there, and two, even if there were, and you were to use it, I have orders keep an eye on you," Grell said.
"You just received those 'orders' now though," Will noted, "You wouldn't have known to do so before."
"That is somewhat true, but with how you were acting, I wasn't going to leave you unmonitored for too long. I admit, I was rather scared for you…" Grell said, sitting down on the edge of Will's bed.
"I'm going to be fine," William said, looking down at his hands folded in his lap.
Grell frowned a bit and said,
"He is right though when he says this won't be the easiest to get through… You whom I've known for so, so long, I've gotten used to your attitude towards me…. You'd kick me and tell me to go away, but I would just disregard that and think of how someday I may just get the chance to win over your affections and attention… Well, I already had your attention, but I wanted more positive attention… Before I thought that maybe if I could make you jealous enough you'd come to realise how I hoped you felt about me… You used to hate Demons-"
"I still do," Will cut in.
"Alright, you hate Demons, so I used that against you and when I found Sebastian, a butler to the noble family the Phantomhives, I found him perfect. Not only in his looks, as I do admit, he is a very handsome man, but a perfect Demon I could obsess over and gush about when I was with you, miss work over and spend time with him… even though he often wanted to hurt me…." Grell shut one eye in a cringe as he remembered the pain Sebastian had dealt to him before, "Anyway, you often did come to find me to bring me back to work when I was out fooling around and spending time with Sebas-chan. Your jealousy was building up and it was obvious you hate that certain Demon more than the others. I figured it was only a matter of time before you snapped, William. But then you lost your memories. And now things are and will be different, won't they?"
"Perhaps… but to think you'd go through all that just to try to make me jealous? Were you that desperate, Grell Sutcliffe?" William asked. Grell looked at him in surprise. It was a thing that sounded like the 'old' Will would say, as William hadn't used Grell's full name like that since he lost his memories.
"What is it?" Will asked, seeing Grell's expression.
"N-nothing," Grell said with a small smile, "It was just how you said that… It reminded me a lot of you before you lost your memories. How you said it- it was very…. cold.." Though Grell didn't say that like it was a bad thing, there was a slight tremor to his voice and he blushed a bit, "Perhaps you may readopt your old attitude back in time.."
"But is that a good thing?" William asked.
"What?"
"Is it a good thing that I may become how I was? From what you've told me, I sounded rather cold-hearted and mean…" William said.
"Maybe you were…" Grell said, "but I did grow to love you how you were. Not that I don't like you now, it's just…taking time to get used to. The thought of you not rolling your eyes in annoyance or not hitting me when I screw something up is an odd thought…."
"The hardest thing for me will be getting re know everyone again. Not necessarily you anymore, though I'm still getting to know you, but everyone else at the Dispatch Society… considering I am the Manager of the Dispatch Division, according to what you told me…" William said.
"Yes, that's true.." Grell said before pausing a moment. He looked down at his lap briefly before looking up at Will, "Don't worry though, William. I'll help you get through this. You can count on that."
"Th-thank you," William said quietly.
Grell giggled, "That'll be another thing to get used to."
"What?" William asked, looking at Grell.
"You saying thank you. You never thanked anyone for anything before," Grell said.
"I didn't sound like the best person before…" William said.
"Like I said, I loved you how you were though," Grell said, "But…"
"But you were the only one who cared for how I acted before," William said.
"Maybe, but like I was saying over dinner, I think that you acted like that, particularly around me or when I was brought up in the subject, because of your self-consciousness and shyness," Grell noted.
"I honestly don't know," William said, "I don't remember how I acted before." William sighed, closed his eyes and lied back in the bed.
"Are you ready to sleep?" Grell asked.
"I believe so," William said, not opening his eyes.
"Hmm….alright then," Grell sighed, sliding off of the bed. He walked over to the lights and switched them off before heading over to the couch in the master bedroom he had set up for himself to sleep on.
He lied down in it and after pulling on his covers, said quietly, "Good-night…William."