Sylvia Wayne
Gotham General Hospital
January 10, 2011
I was dancing with Wally at the Masquerade, bouncing around and twirling in my stilettos. I kept looking over at Artemis and her date. She had this suspicious look about her, as she barely took her eyes off Wally. I didn't know exactly what to do about it, but I kept dancing with him, feeling the fullness from the burger sliders disappear the more I moved.
"We haven't danced together like this in so long." He spoke loudly over the music. I simply nodded in response as I felt the euphoria of this moment.
"I can't believe we haven't just cut loose like this since before the Team. We need to do something like this with them." I shared my idea as I breathed heavily, dancing in close quarters with the red head.
"I was mainly talking about us but yeah, a group thing could be fun too." He smiled as the song changed. We kept going for quite a few songs, the melodic serenity washing over my mind like a wave. I just had to keep dancing. I never wanted to stop. Wally reached out to twirl me. As I moved, my black skater dress tightened into a white bodycon, the heels becoming white ballet flats. The scene melted away before me, Wally disappearing like ink in water. I exhaled deeply, rubbing my temples.
"Headache, my dear?" Vandal asked, putting a hand on my shoulder. His touch only infuriated the pain in my head. My vision flashed back and forth to a tank of water. For some reason, panic welled up in my chest, but I forced it back down and put on a smile. Eager to please.
"I'm fine." I lied, not wanting to bother them, but Savage snapped his fingers and a soldier returned with a box. Once opened, he pulled out a syringe.
"I do believe it's time for your daily dosage. We missed the timing by an hour." He said softly, looking over at the clock. I took a deep breath and held still and he pulled away the neck of my dress and injected the purple serum into my shoulder. The headache immediately disappeared, but there was a brief moment where the fog disappeared. "All better?"
"All better." I nodded.
"Good," Savage said as he morphed into Dick. "It's time to wake up, big sister." He smiled, his tone gentle and patient.
"But I don't need to wake up. I'm not even asleep yet." I replied, but his face just shifted to Alfred.
"Master Sylvia, I do wish you would wake up. You've been asleep for far too long." He tried to convince me, but I shook my head, angry at his words.
"I'm not asleep!" I screamed at him, but he shifted into a she. I was staring down my mother as she held my face in her slender hands. Her straight brown hair draped across her back and shoulders as I seethed with rage.
"But you are, kitten. They all need you to wake up." She seemed so sweet and kind, but it did nothing to quell my rage.
"Why should I listen to you? You're never around!" I shouted at her.
"You know that you'll see me very soon. Your father won't be able to stop me from coming home to my daughter." She kissed me on the forehead before shifting into my father. His face was harsh, his posture rigid, but his eyes were soft with dark circles. He was silent and he pulled me in for a gentle hug. Finally, he whispered in my ear.
"It's time to come back to us. To me. Please." His voice was sad, something I never heard often. The last time his voice sounded like this was the day he came to me in the hospital after I had escaped. I closed my eyes and embraced him.
I could feel the tube down my throat as I laid still, not wanting to move. Someone was holding my left hand and my ears were bothered by the sound of the monitor to my right. My chest was rising and falling awkwardly in sync with the low sound of the ventilator feeding air to my lungs through the painful tube. I could hear quiet talking, but my conscious was too fuzzy to pick out any of the details. But after a few moments, I figured out it was Alfred talking to my Father.
"I know you need to attend to League matters, Master Bruce. But, I really think you should stay. They took her out of the medically induced coma, and you should be here for when she wakes up." Alfred was trying to convince my father to stay.
"If she wakes up, Alfred. They may have put her in the coma, but they said there is always a chance that she could take longer coming out of it, or not come out of it at all based on the damage to her nervous and circulatory systems. If I can't help her, I sure as hell can help the League and Gotham." My father argued. I caught the sound of him getting up from a chair. I couldn't speak because of the tube, so I settled for letting out an annoyed groan.
"Master Bruce…" Alfred was near silent as he whispered. The hand holding mine squeezed gently and I opened my eyes to a blurry ceiling. It took a few moments for my eyes to focus before I looked out of the corner of my eye to see Wally with his fiery red hair sticking out in all directions. I was happy when I saw him, but my memories flooded my mind without warning. I winced as everything was swirling about in my head.
"Nurse!" I heard Dick yell out the door. Within seconds, a woman came in, wearing a pair of light green scrubs. She stuck me with a needle, I assume a sedative.
"Hi, sweetheart." She spoke in a calm, soothing tone. "Let's not make this hurt any more than it has to. I'm going to remove this tube and switch you to a nasal cannula. I'm going to have to ask my friends here to hold you still." She gestured to the two male nurses behind her. "Blink twice if you're ready." She waited expectantly as I hesitated before blinking my eyes twice. The two male nurses came to either side of me, one holding down my shoulders and the other holding my head still. I held still the best I could as she pulled the tube out of my throat. I gasped for air as my esophagus was freed. As my breaths were heavy and labored, she placed the nasal cannula in my nose and set it to hold onto my ears.
"Wha…" I tried to speak, but nothing was coming out properly. There was a raspy tone that struggled to escape my lips. "What… ha…" I kept trying but, the nurse politely shooshed me. I nodded.
"I'm going to get the attending and they'll come and explain everything to you. Just give me a few moments." She smiled before walking out with the other two male nurses. I looked around the room, pain shooting through my spine as I craned my head. But Alfred rushed over to me and put my head straight. Tears escaped my eyes as I tried to hold them back. I may have had a high pain tolerance, but this was something I haven't felt in a long time.
"Master Sylvia, it would be best if you didn't move very much for a bit. You've been through quite a few surgeries since they put you under." He spoke calmly as I saw my father come over to my side in my peripherals. I moved my head despite the pain, just wanting to look at my father. But he put his burly but soft hands on my face and gently craned my head back to looking at the ceiling.
"Please, don't move." He whispered, leaning down to kiss me on the forehead before sitting down in a chair next to my bed. I sighed and started bunching up my blanket beneath my fingers. Before I knew it, the attending walked in with the female nurse from before.
"Hi, Sylvia." He said as he walked over and stepped right in front of Wally. He leaned forward slightly so I could see him better. "My name is Dr. Thompson." He introduces himself as he shined a light in my eyes to check dilation. He quickly rubbed my throat to check the muscles and such after intubation, forcing me to cough involuntarily. "That's a good sign. I want you to try to run through your vowels for me." He ordered, lightly placing his fingers on my throat.
"Ah…" I tried, but it wouldn't come out.
"That's okay. I wasn't expecting much, But we'll try again later." He smiled. "When you came in, you were suffering from multiple stab wounds to the torso. There were major tears to multiple vital organs, as well as your diaphragm. We patched and secured all of your injuries with your first surgery. Upon a second batch of testing, we found damage to your brain and spinal cord. We put you into a medically induced coma for your next three surgeries. In those, the chief of neurosurgery removed manmade masses from your spine in three increments. Some of the fluids coming through your IV should stimulate your spinal fluid to filter out foreign substances that may be left behind from the masses. Your brain damage, though, may improve with time, but for now, there should be some memory loss. But the worst case scenario is that you won't be able to find the right words for things for a few weeks. Best case scenario, anything you can't remember should come back within the next week or two." He finished. I put a thumbs up, not wanting to move my head.
"That's a good sign of motor functions." He smiled before removing the blanket from my thin legs. I reached up and touched my neck. "I'll have Nurse Lydia put a loose neck brace on to keep you still. You'll only need it for three to five days." I looked over to my father as the nurse put the brace on my neck. I flitted my eyes to the door and back to him.
"She would like to know when she'll be able to check out." He asked for me, knowing what I needed from him.
"That all depends on you." Dr. Thompson addressed me. "You should physically be ready to leave in a week and a half. But that also depends on your mental capacity. We want to address the possible deficits before we sign off on you going back to school." He explained. I gave another thumbs up before sighing. "But right now, I'm going to check your reflexes. Standard protocol for spinal surgery." He pulled out a pen and ran the back of it across the bottom of my right foot, then my left foot, each time the corresponding toes wiggling. "Good, Now I'm going to run the pen on different spots on your legs, I want you to give me a thumbs up or down if you can feel the pen." He said before starting. Shins, thumbs up. Calves, thumbs up. Knees, thumbs up. Thighs, thumbs up. I kept holding a thumbs up until he stopped. "That is fantastic. Now that everything is explained and all of your vitals and sensed are checked, I'll have one of my residents check in with you in a couple of hours. Her name is Dr. Chase." He told us before walking out with the nurse. I coughed to clear my throat, looking at my dad.
"I… a-am re-really…" I managed to start before having to cough again, "... ti-tired. I'm re-really tired." I managed to tell him as my eyes grew heavy.
"And that's okay. We'll all be here when you wake up." Wally promised, squeezing my hand in reassurance.
"O-okay." I said before sputtering into a cough. When I finally got control of my breathing and the horrible tickle in my throat, my eyes fell shut. I couldn't hold onto consciousness. All I wanted to do was stay awake, but I was too weak.
"Who was that?" Selina asked, tucking a strand of her brown hair behind her ear. There was this interest twinkling behind her eyes. The sound of the coffee shot around us seemed to disappear as I became engrossed in my first ever outing with my mother.
"None of your business." I said quickly before taking another bite of my cinnamon roll. She just released a light chuckle.
"Oh come on, darling. I'm trying to be apart of your life and I can't if you shut me out." She started making this pouty face that was a bit awkward on a grown woman. I just gave in, feeling embarrassed to be associated with that face in public.
"Fine, it was the boy who is taking me to the homecoming dance tomorrow night." I let it slide as she grinned about that little detail. I couldn't help but smile with her.
"What's he like?" she questioned, genuinely interested in who I spend my time with.
"I mean, we're best friends." I sort of just shrugged it off, not necessarily wanting to talk about it to her. She just sat there with her mouth sarcastically agape.
"I want to know more about this best friend of yours that you think is worth enough to take you to homecoming." She just seemed to into this that it was throwing me off. She was so committed to staying out of my life before and now all she wants to do is be there.
"Well, he's always running his mouth, kind of like the class clown of our friend group." I began, slightly laughing. "He's a science genius while being super hyper most of the time so it's actually really fun when I hang out with him. There usually isn't a dull moment with him." I looked down at the cinnamon roll, not really knowing how I should be behaving right now, so I just took the last bite.
"That's adorable, and if you want another cinnamon roll, I'm thinking about getting one myself." She offered politely and I nodded. I couldn't stop thinking about Wally. So much that my mother became him, sitting on the sofa in the cave livingroom.
Wally was sitting on the couch, leaning back with his legs outstretched into the space ahead and his arms draped over the back of the couch. I sat, curled up in a ball with my back leaning against Wally, my fingers tracing the lines on his cast as I pulled my knees tighter into my chest. No one dared move, aside from M'gann, whom I assumed was to afraid to stop moving, to leave herself alone with her thoughts. She was the main point of our collective downfall. I understand that she had no control, but her sheer ability to maintain the belief that everything was real made me afraid for what would have happened if J'onn didn't stop her.
When Wally returned from his session with Canary, it seemed like he was a bit more at peace, but he was still getting in his own head. When he sat down, I was unexpectedly pulled across his lap, my legs draped across his while my head tucked into the crook of his neck. His arms were tight around me, his fingers interlaced so they'd stay together. It was like the redhead was refusing to let me go. But I didn't mind, as it seemed that the constant physical contact was keeping the dark thoughts in my mind at bay.
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