15. Return to Ward
It took several hours for Atemu to finally be transferred back to the rehab ward and he found himself in another room. It was already late into the night when Atemu finally arrived and the nurse in charge of him wasn't in charge of Yami so she wouldn't tell him a thing about the other boy.
Atemu groaned as he sat up. He had been told off multiple times already for trying to leave the room to try and find Yami to see if he was alright. And he had only been back for about an hour. The nurse was always sitting with her computer just outside the door and she was getting more and more grouchy as the night went on.
'They have to be changing shifts soon,' Atemu though, glaring at the door where he could by just see the edge of her sleeve. 'I can't sleep until I know he's alright.'
"Don't even think about getting up, Atemu," the nurse scolded without taking her eyes off the bright screen. The good thing about hospital beds is that they're rather noisy when someone shifted. It had taken years, but she had learnt the difference between someone rolling over and someone sitting up. Especially since she was usually on the falls bay and had to be extra alert to someone already at risks of falling jumping out of bed.
"How do you know I don't need the bathroom?" Atemu growled in return, glare intensifying.
"You used that excuse to get up ten minutes ago. Either you're bluffing or you have a very small bladder," the nurse responded.
"Wow… Insulting someone's bladder as a nurse? Disgusting," a patient on the side of the room sneered. He was a take no shit man who had seen more than his fair share of people with bladder problems. One thing he hated was insensitive morons. Especially if that person worked in the health industry.
"I meant no disrespect," the nurse responded just as harshly as the old man.
"No, you want to berate a boy for being concerned about his new friend. The boy is obviously in the same ward. You'd save a lot of trouble if you just got off your fat as and walked over to the other boy to see how he is," the old man replied. "Or you can use that bright ass, eyes fucking computer to look the information up the lazy way. But apparently you're too lazy to do either."
Atemu smiled in amusement as the nurse growled in anger at his roommate's statement. 'Damn. I like the way he talks,' Atemu thought.
"How dare you talk to me like that?" the nurse snapped as she got to her feet and spun on the old man.
"You started it. Don't start what you can't finish," the old man responded.
"He's right though, your screen is too bright. I can't sleep with it on," a quiet young woman in the back corner said, lifting the pillow off her face so she could look at the nurse. "You're shining it straight into this room. Can't you go somewhere else or turn the light down?"
"Go to sleep," the nurse snapped at them all, taking her seat with a heavy plonk.
Atemu rolled his eyes at the woman who clearly didn't know any other way to respond to three people ganging up against her. 'I honestly expected her to go complaining to the shifty that we were ganging up against her,' Atemu thought as he laid back down and rolled so his back was to the door. 'I hope he is alright.'
Atemu frowned when he heard a commotion coming from down the hall. It sounded like a gaggle of nurses trying to talk someone back to their room, but the person didn't seem to be listening by the sounds of the commotion.
"What are you doing?! Go back to your room!" the nurse snapped as the gaggle got close to her door.
"Go fuck yourself, beached what," a familiar voice said in Meritan, causing Atemu to shoot upright in bed once again.
"Yami?" Atemu asked with wide eyes, seeing the boy round the corner and walk into the room. "What's wrong?" Atemu added when he noticed that Yami's eyes were glazed over and his face set in a cold, emotionless expression.
"Move over," Yami instructed, gesturing for the tanned man to move over.
Atemu did as he was told, a frown on his face as he saw Yami moving like he wasn't full of pins that had to be causing extreme pain. "What is going on here?" Atemu asked as he scootched over on his bed so that his back was against the only rail that was raised.
"I think he's sleep walking," Yami's nurse responded with a blush over her cheeks. As a new grad, she didn't like having all these nurses trying to help her control her own patient. On the other hand, she felt slightly better knowing that she wasn't the only one struggling to control this child. "What language is he speaking? I've never heard it. And the translator app doesn't recognise it."
"No, it wouldn't. It's a dead language," Atemu responded as Yami climbed into bed with him, a dark blush spreading across his cheeks as Yami snuggled into his side.
"He cannot stay here," the grouchy nurse growled.
"What are you going to do? Rip him out of bed?" the shifty responded with a frown. "He's clearly in an unresponsive state and no one here can understand him. Besides, it's a miracle that he was walking. We don't want him to hurt himself by making him walk that length again."
"What makes you think that he'll do it again?" the grouchy nurse asked.
"He's been trying all night," the grad nurse looking after Yami answered. "Ever since you received Mr Sennen."
"You've been that desperate to get to me?" Atemu asked in Ancient Egyptian, wrapping his arms around the cold boy so that he didn't fall out of bed.
"Safe here," Yami murmured softly against Atemu's chest, nuzzling Atemu's chest.
"He cannot stay here! He has to be in his own bed!" the grouchy nurse snapped, opening her mouth to continue her rant. Her voice died in her throat with a single twitch of Yami's index finger though. Even though her voice was gone, the nurse kept ranting like everyone else could hear her.
"What the hell?!" the grad squeaked. "What just happened? Why can't we hear her?"
"What did you do?" Atemu asked with wide eyes as he watched the nurses starting to panic at the grouchy nurse's sudden inability to speak. Not that she seemed to notice that no one else could hear her. Atemu watched as the two other people in the room sat up with a frown on their faces, the fourth one fast asleep in the corner.
"She's an annoying whale so I shut her up. No one will miss her ranting nonsense," Yami responded in Ancient Egyptian with a yawn. "Be thankful I didn't smite the cunt."
"I didn't know such language existed in your time," Atemu responded with the slightest hint of a smile. As sadistic as it is, he had to admit that it was kinda amusing to see the gaggle of nurses freaking out over a completely unaware nurse suddenly becoming a mute.
"This time has no idea what hardship is. You have far less need for rude words than we do. Trust me, Pharaoh," Yami responded, tiredly rubbing his eyes. "Her muteness will wear off when she pisses off."
"Go on break!" the shifty finally snapped to the grouchy nurse, rubbing her temple as a pounding headache made itself known. The last thing she needed was a mute nurse. Even if she had wished multiple times that night alone for the woman to lose her ability to speak. It's still not ideal for a nurse to have no voice. What would happen if shit was to hit the fan and she wasn't able to communicate that there was an issue.
The grouchy nurse tried to protest but got shouted at by all the nurses in the gaggle to go on break. Crossing her arms, the nurse stormed off with extremely heavy footsteps that rattled the equipment as she walked by.
"Terry, you have this bay too until Mary returns," the shifty said to the grad nurse, cutting in before she could speak. "This isn't open for debate. Let the kid stay there and I'll see what we can do. I don't want him sleepwalking down the halls when he's not cleared to walk at all without a physio being present."
"Yes, Ma'am," the grad responded shyly, clearly uncomfortable with the situation.
"Don't worry, Terry. It'll be alright. Just come and get us if you need anything," one of the other nurses said with a smile, giving her a gentle pat on the back.
Atemu looked down when he heard a soft snore, a soft smile forming on his face when he found Yami fast asleep against his chest. "Sweet dreams, little Sadist," Atemu whispered in Yami's ear, gently pulling the covers over the pale boy. He couldn't help but start to frown when he noticed that Yami's skin was rather cold against his touch.
Yami mumbled something back in response, snuggling closer to Atemu as the grad nurse walked over to pull the rail up behind the pale boy. "Sorry to trap you in bed, but I don't want him to fall out. That beds not exactly made for two people."
"It's quite alright. Thank you," Atemu responded with a smile. "Can you tell me what happened to Yami after the attack?"
"Um… I got told the police were called back and they did a rape kit on him. Apparently, a psych came to see him too to see how he was after the incident, but he refused to speak to any of them in English. Can he speak English?" the grad nurse asked.
"He's still learning it. I guess it depends how tired he is," Atemu answered with a frown. 'Or when the dragon is sleeping. She seems to be the reason why he can fluently speak English,' Atemu mentally added.
"Oh… What language does he speak? He was speaking a different language with you than he was when walking over here," the grad nurse enquired with a curious tilt of her head.
"He speaks Ancient Egyptian and a dead language known as Meritan," Atemu responded.
"Can you two shut the fuck up already," the old man across from them growled. "It's late and I want to sleep."
"Sorry," the grad squeaked with a dark blush.
"Ignore him, Hun," the woman butted in. "He wanted the grouchy one to fill the kid in on, I assume, this boy. I think he just likes being grouchy."
"Grouchy with cause," the old man returned with a smirk, unable to see the woman roll her eyes at him.
"I'll buzz if we need anything," Atemu promised with a smile, keeping his voice soft so he didn't disturb anyone else in the four-bed bay. He was starting to miss his two-bed bay. Then it was peace and quiet and he didn't have to worry about disturbing so many people. Very rarely had he had a grouch while in the other room.
"Thank you," the grad nurse whispered with an appreciative smile, leaving the room so that she could get handover on her new patients from the shifty. She didn't feel comfortable looking after four extra patients without first knowing something about them. She didn't even think about the possibility of have seven extra patients lumped onto her with the absence of the grouchy nurse.
Atemu smiled down at the sleeping teen once the nurse had left the room, his own eyelids feeling heavy know that he knew what had happened to the boy. Having the boy in his arms also felt comforting. And he had a feeling it wasn't just because he knew the boy was safe.