Sabrina was in hell. The pain was incessant and her mind was a foggy mess. Every time she tried to open her eyes, pain started reverberating through her skull. Every breath she took was like fire; but, when she tried to hold it to stop the pain, she was unable. Something was stuck in her throat, but she couldn't move her arms to get rid of it. When she tried to move her legs, only one would move. The other was weighted down. She heard beeping in the distance, as well as voices encouraging her to come back. (Had she gone somewhere?) When she tried to rage against the bindings, liquid calm would overtake her. Eventually, she stopped fighting and gave in to the painless bliss.
Patrick thought he knew what it was like to live a nighmare, but he was wrong. He'd believed that the worst thing he would ever experience in his life was Robin's death and its aftermath. This, however, was far worse than that. Sabrina's injuries, though treatable, were painful. She moaned in pain with practically every breath the ventilator made her take and, the few times she woke up, she became agitated by the tube in her mouth and her inability to move her limbs, so she had to be heavily sedated. Although the doctors believed that the knock on her head hadn't caused any damage to her brain, they (and he) were concerned to keep her sedated because it resulted in her being largely unresponsive to commands. Every second that Sabrina languished in the ICU was a second that Patrick felt helpless. He tried to reassure her that everything would be OK, as did Felix, Elizabeth and even Carlos, who Patrick had reluctantly called. (The guy was an ass, but he deserved to know about Sabrina's condition.) He knew that Sabrina could hear him, so he tried his hardest to keep the fear out of his voice when he spoke to her and pleaded with her to come back to him so that he could make things right. Inwardly, however, he was scared to death that she would backslide and there was nothing he could do about it.
Sabrina spent a week in the ICU at Mercy. He had tried to get her transferred to GH, but the doctors convinced him that doing so would cause her undue pain and stress, even as heavily sedated as she was. However, after her lung was on the mend and she had the necessary surgery to reset her leg, he put his foot down and had her transported. He knew that she would want to be at GH and believed that being cared for by the people who loved her would provide comfort that no sedative could.
After her transfer, Sabrina was settled in a private room. Within a few days, her lung was on the mend enough that she could be weaned off the ventilator. Once she was breathing on her own, the doctors lowered the sedation and pulled out the tube. Sabrina was able to answer the questions they asked her about her name and birth date as well as respond to requests to describe the items in pictures she was shown. Although she was no longer sedated, she was on heavy painkillers and slept a lot.
Patrick continued to spend nearly all of his time at GH with Sabrina. Robin had moved into the house temporarily to take care of Emma in his absence. Emma had been by to visit Sabrina a few times, but only stayed a few minutes due to Sabrina being so out of it thanks to the medication. The visits, though short, warmed Patrick's heart because he could tell that Emma's presence comforted Sabrina in a way that no one else's had. About a week after her transfer, Patrick was sitting vigil by Sabrina's bedside as Elizabeth and Felix checked on her when Carlos came in. After getting an update from Patrick, Carlos stood by the other side of the bed speaking to her in Spanish when she suddenly opened her eyes and looked around the room for a few seconds until her eyes settled on Carlos. Sabrina, smiling a small smile, waved him down toward her where she whispered something in his ear that made him jerk back, slightly in surprise and look up at Patrick, Felix and Elizabeth.
"What did she say to you?" Patrick whispered to Carlos, curiously.
Carlos hesitated a moment and then said, "She asked me who all the strangers in her room are."