A/N MAY 10, 2016, Shout out to Galya for reviewing. You are amazing. Thanks for some of the minor SPaG errors.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

When his eyes opened, the first thing he noticed was the blinding white ceiling, the next thing was the burning sensation starting in his throat and leading down through his esophagus. The pain, which felt like the worst case of heartburn he had ever had, carried some odd familiarity to it. However, the fog, which permeated his brain, seemed to stop him from placing a finger on it. His limbs felt heavy, and moving his neck ever so slightly, exhausted him. The walls were so bright, and they hurt his eyes, causing him to squint as he tried to look at his surroundings.

Where was he, anyway? And why was it so bright?

His head was spinning, and he felt nauseous, but he tried to focus on where he was. He knew it certainly wasn't home.

He looked down at the bed he was sleeping on, unfamiliar and too soft for his liking. Not his bed. Clutching his chest tentatively, he felt the itchy cotton, mint green gown he was wearing. He definitely did not remember putting this on yesterday.

Yesterday. As Snake thought about it, yesterday did feel hazy.

He ran his fingers through his hair trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. As he was doing so, he felt something hard pressing against his scalp, and quickly pulled his hands out of his hair and examined them. There was a blue plastic clip on his index finger with a wire sticking out. His eyes followed the wire, which lead to a computer screen by his bedside. It took him a moment to register that it was his vital signs reading off the screen. He could see the waveform of his pulse zigzagging, and the number 67 reading in the bottom corner.

He was in the hospital?

Closing his eyes in frustration, he desperately tried to remember what had happened yesterday. The burning in his throat was beginning to bother him, and he wondered if a nurse would be stopping by his room so he could ask for a drink of water – and why he was here. As his mind began to clear, he could finally place why the burning felt familiar. It was like the first couple of days during the Snake Eater mission when he had just gotten out of the ICU. He had tubes stuck in him, and god knows what pumped into him for days, until they could get him walking again.

Snake shook his head in disbelief - tubes down his throat? What had happened to him yesterday?

He inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to stop himself from going into a panic. He lifted his arms examining them for any signs of damage, but found nothing out of the ordinary. He lifted the collar of his green gown and peeked underneath trying to see if there were any signs of what had happened on his chest – but there were also none. He threw his legs over the side of his bed, and sat up agitated.

"So, you're finally up?" A sullen voice called from the entrance of the room.

Snake turned his head to face the person who was talking to him, a tall man of probably fifty, with dark eyes and hair. As he walked over to his bedside, his lab coat trailed behind him. A clipboard was folded to his chest. "Do you know why you're here?"

"Well, if I knew why I was here, you wouldn't be asking me, would you, Doc?" Snake scoffed in annoyance.

"I'll take that as a 'no', then," the doctor replied monotonously.

Snake eyed the doctor impatiently, he wanted to know what happened to him, so he could get out of there. He hated hospitals. He hated how they smelled, the sterile air, and the hanging feeling of anxiety they gave him.

"You sir, ingested almost a one hundred and fifty milligrams of Diazepam and fainted in the street," the doctor stated coldly, "I'm surprised it hit you that hard, you're a big man. However, there were trace amounts of alcohol in your bloodstream so that might have increased the effects."

"That's not possible," Snake retorted, the anger rising in his voice, "I've been careful with my dosages and I only use that shit when I can't calm down on my own."

"Well, the fact still stands that we had to pump your stomach to get it out of your system, since you were out cold," the doctor replied, shrugging.

His eyes widened, and his mouth drooped open slightly. What the fuck had he done to himself?

"You're lucky, that girl," he stated, pointing to a sleeping Zahira curled up in a hard plastic chair, "called when she did. By the time you got here, we thought we'd have to bring the defibrillators out."

He almost died? What a joke. His lips scrunched into a sneer, almost snuffed out by a drug overdose. However, a part of him almost wished that was what had happened.

"You seem disappointed," the doctor noted.

"Maybe a little," Snake shrugged.

The doctor shook his head and began making his way out, however, Snake stopped him before he could leave. "So when am I getting out of here?"

"Not until we do a psychiatric evaluation, especially with that ans –"

Cutting him off angrily, he growled, "I don't need a god damn psych evaluation, alright?"

He scrunched the sheets of his bed between his fingers. "I'm not crazy, clearly it was an accident because I don't even remember taking that many."

Sighing loudly, the doctor scrunched his lips together in an effort to remain calm. "Listen to me, someone who's right in the head, doesn't accidentally take three times their regular dose and stumbles to work hardly presentable. You can fight me on this all you want, but you're not leaving here until you see a psychiatrist," he huffed before bustling out of the room.

Snake dropped his head back into his pillow exasperatedly. Well didn't he fucking regret not getting travellers' insurance. All he could think about were the bills this was going to rack up for him. And then he was going to have to get touchy, feely with a psych. Wasn't this a fan-fucking-tastic excursion? He felt like a caged animal.

Slamming his fist down angrily, he remembered that he had forgotten to ask the doctor for a glass of water for his throat.

"God damn it, I need a smoke," he muttered to himself.

There he was, trapped in his hospital bed. It had been five minutes and he could already feel himself dying of boredom. His gaze drifted to Zahira, he almost wanted to shout at her to wake her up, but thought better of it. He couldn't just jolt her awake because he was cranky and bored. Closing his eyes and sighing, his lips lifted into a small smile, she was something.

Opening his eyes again, his eyes darted about the room, before landing on Zahira again. It was funny, seeing her all curled up like that, her limbs awkwardly positioned in the chair, her head resting on the crook of her arm, propped up on her knee. Her thick hair fell across her shoulders and he could see a few stray strands flying in and out from her breath. In that moment, he supposed she was pretty in a way. She was naive and trusting – helping someone she hardly knew. He wished he still had that hopeful world-view, seeing the best in everyone. He was almost jealous of her.

It was a dangerous view though, he thought to himself as the guilt set in. She didn't even know his real name, and here she was helping him.

He shook his head, he needed to create distance between them. He was stupid for letting her get this close to begin with.

A/N: Okay so about how much Diazepam Snake took, I did a bunch of research and went on way too many forums to see how much he would have to take to actually OD, and it said that death happens in the 1000's of milligrams. Then I had to find what the average dosage he would take would be, and in adults it's around 10-20 mg if I recall correctly. So, I went with 20, and that would mean Snake ingested 120 mg of the drug - which is why I had the doctor say that he was surprised it hit him that hard. Alcohol and any benzodiazepine are a really, really bad combo because it can make you pass out, like Snake did. By the time he left Zahira's and went to bed it should have been fine for him to take his medicine without too much of a problem, but he took six pills, so it really messed with him.

Anyway I also chose Diazepam because researching what veterans were prescribed for PTSD in the Vietnam era is what it gave me. If anyone has any more info though, please PM me so I can make any adjustments! I tried my best to research all of this to make it plausible, but some info can be really hard to find ;_;