Hello, my lovely readers. We're finally going to find out what happens to Kol while furthering a couple of other plots bunnies. On with the show…
Chapter 3: On the Days When You Wake Up and Everything is Different
Bonnie
Sometimes Bonnie Bennett wondered why she got up in the morning. She went to work. She tried to make a difference in the world. Sometimes she did. And sometimes she felt like every little deal she made with her maker to ensure a good outcome for a patient was just in her head. Maybe no one was listening. Maybe she just liked to tell herself that there was a reason she went to med school and worked so damned hard to help people. Maybe it was just one cosmic joke.
Icy water dripped off the roof of her hospital and Bonnie sipped at a hot chocolate. It was cold out here. But she preferred to be out here than to be in there. In there, people kept talking about her ex, Kol Mikaelson's near-death, and the possibility that his near-death might turn into actual death-death.
Shaking her head, Bonnie tried not to shiver too much. Her coat simply did not make her warm enough right now.
"Avoiding the popular gossip for the day?" a voice startled her and Bonnie jumped, her hot cocoa trying to spill on her chilly fingers. Might be welcome given how she felt right now. A nice, little shock to the system to get the blood flowing.
Bonnie turned her head. "Good morning, Dr. Walters."
Philip Walters shot Bonnie one of those smiles that made so many women at the hospital go into a fit of giggles or made them gooey puddles on the floor. "I told you to call me: Phil, Bonnie. No need for courtesy with me. I'm not Mik."
"Mik?" Bonnie felt confused.
"Mikael," Phil looked amused as Bonnie remembered that Phil and Mikael were friends from their intern days.
"Oh, yes." Bonnie nodded. She looked at the hospital. "Did you go to see him yet?" She wanted news. She wanted someone else to say: "Yes. I went to see Kol. He's out of bed. Dancing down the hallways and making jokes and trying to get slapped with a harassment suit. Same old Kol."
"No." Philip shook his head. "Guess that Tiff… Tiffany Marshall. She went to see Kol. She and Essy—Esther Mikaelson. They used to be close. Tiff went in for moral support." His eyes went to his feet and Bonnie saw an unreadable expression pass over his feet before he brightened. "Glad to know I'm not the only one avoiding. Tell me, Bonnie, why are you?"
"Oh, well…" Bonnie shook her head. "I…"
"You have a passionate affair with my best friend's kid. Right?" Phil grinned at Bonnie who felt her cheeks flush. "Yup. I knew it. What went wrong?"
"I'd prefer not to talk about it." Bonnie shook her head and turned away to look up and into the glaring sunlight. What ended her relationship with Kol was Bonnie's finding out that she had a cancer which left her not knowing if she could have a child and facing the possibility that she might have a much more limited time on the planet than she'd planned for. If she could not handle the news, she'd hated the thought of how Kol might handle it; so she decided to explore the nuclear option and ended things before they went too far.
"Were you in love with him?" Phil asked. "Not that it's my business. Just making conversation."
"Yes." Bonnie nodded. A tear began to run down her cheek and she wiped it off with a quick brush of her hand. "I loved him. I will always love him. But I do not love him like that. Anymore."
"Ah." Phil nodded. "Since we're sharing, I might as well offer my own confession, you know, to even out the playing field." He paused and Bonnie glanced up at him. "Hayley Marshall and Davina Claire. They're my daughters. With Tiff…Tiffany. We had an affair. A long, long, long affair. And her husband didn't really like that. So he made her send our girls into the adoption system. She managed to pull Hayley out. But Davina… I suppose I could have stuck around and tried to bring my girl home. Make sure she had one of her parents. But I've always been a guy who picks up and goes. Not much of a life for a kid. Is it?" He glanced at Bonnie who continued to watch him. "Now, I have a lot of catching up to do. I have a lot of trying to make amends for being a terrible person and a terrible parent."
Still watching Phil, Bonnie did not speak. "Let's say we make a deal. If I'm willing to try to talk to my girls today, you'll pop in and check on Kol for both of us?" Phil held out a hand to Bonnie.
Bonnie looked down at the extended hand. Her heart banged around in her chest before her own hand rose and she took his. The handshake lasted a little longer than it needed to. Their eyes locked and Bonnie felt the desire to throw her arms around Phil's neck and to kiss him. But he was her boss. She did not do that kind of thing, even if half the hospital did.
"Alright." Phil turned toward the hospital. "On three. One. Two."
"Three." Bonnie took a step forward and she looked to Phil who took a step toward the hospital, too. It felt so much better not to be alone anymore.
Phil opened the door and Bonnie stepped inside. She forced herself to go to the bank of elevators while Phil headed for the staircase. She forced herself to take a deep breath as the doors swooshed open for her. Entering the for-once-empty-elevator, Bonnie wanted to jump back out but she hit the button for the floor where recovery wing lay.
Number five lit up before the doors slid open. A group of people waited for Bonnie to exit the elevator. She sighed and continued toward the room number she'd heard on so many of her co-workers lips: 5030. Peering through the small window, Bonnie saw no one else there and felt a kind of relief fill her. Good. She could do this and go.
Entering the room, Bonnie moved to stand over Kol. She'd mused over a scene like this before. Only in the old scenarios she lifted a pillow and smothered Kol for being a jackass. However, seeing the man who used to brim with life attached to all these monitors and who was sleeping so peacefully, Bonnie felt her eyes fill up. Fingers going to clutch Kol's Bonnie took a seat on the chair next to his bedside.
"Hi," Bonnie said quietly. "I'm sorry it took me so long to show up at your party. But I'm here now." She wiped away a fat tear and squeezed his hand. "No one hosts a party like Kol Mikaelson." She laughed and glanced at his unmoving face. "Come on, man? What are you waiting for? You're wasting time. Get up!"
Kol did not respond. "Kol, we miss you…" Bonnie laid her head on his chest and closed her eyes, wishing he'd make a stupid joke so she could smack him and they could go back to being friends. She really missed her friend and if he just woke up, she might even tell him so.
Josh
On the first day after the surgery that kept Kol Mikaelson alive, Josh Rouza came back to his hospital to a hero's welcome. "There he is!" Klaus came down the stairs with a wide smile on his face. He caught Josh by the shoulders. "Good morning, Dr. Rouza!"
Josh had blinked. During his intern year Klaus kind of made Josh's life a living hell. Well, Klaus made all the interns' lives a living hell, but he took a special delight in torturing Caroline and Josh. He also picked on Rebekah, but she was Klaus' sister; everyone expected that. Tyler got his fair share of the Niklaus Mikaelson temper tantrum experience. Jack took it all in stride. And Hayley would blow off steam by…spending "quality time" with Elijah—but no one was supposed to know about it.
Klaus' sudden kindness toward Josh made Josh feel happy and scared shitless. What if something happened to Kol and Klaus blamed Josh for it? What if Kol woke up but he wasn't his old Kol self and Klaus blamed him for it? What if Kol woke up and told everyone that Josh had done a horrible job because Kol could hear Josh's teeth chattering as he tried to work through how to go about removing bits of tree and not ending this surgery with Kol on the transplant list?
"Josh!" Caroline appeared at Josh's other side.
Josh wondered how Caroline had gotten there. "Got you a muffin and a latte," Caroline said, laying her head on Josh's shoulder. "You have a big day ahead of you."
"I do?" Josh gulped. "Why? What did I do?"
"You're the new Hot Doc here," Klaus replied as he moved toward the stairs and Caroline hooked an arm through Josh's propelling him toward the staircase. Josh did not want to go up the stairs. He was afraid of where the stairs might lead him.
They stopped on the second floor. Klaus led the way down the hall to a group of attendees. "Right. Which of you would like him on your service today?"
"I called dibs!" Freya held up a hand. She offered Josh a kind smile. "Don't worry. It's a simple appendectomy today."
"Really?" Josh felt relieved. He'd been half worried that Marcel would have won out. He'd ask Josh to perform a double heart transplant on a pair of Siamese twins. Or Elijah would have a brain tumor covering half a patient's brain that he wanted Josh to help him remove. Worse yet, Elijah wanted Josh to remove the tumor all by himself.
A simple appy. Cool. That made Josh grin in relief. He took the coffee from Caroline. "Do I have time for a quick breakfast?"
"Of course," Freya said. "I was planning on grabbing something from the vending machine."
"You can have half my muffin," Josh offered. He took the muffin from Caroline. "It's…" He peered at the muffin and tried to figure out which kind she'd gotten him.
"Bran," Caroline said.
"Yup. Love you, Care. See you later." Josh happily followed Freya down the hall.
~0~
During lunch, Josh could not believe how well his day was going. "Baby, I'm telling you, you would not believe how easy surgery felt today. I was in the zone."
Aiden's wide eyes trailed over Josh's face. A little smile played at the corners of his lips as he held Josh's hand on top of the table. "So, it looks like being thrown into the deep end of the pool helped you gain your confidence."
"Looks that way." Josh could not feel happier in that moment.
"No! I do not want to go to the Father-Daughter dance!" Hayley shouted from the other side of the cafeteria, shaking her yogurt at her Father who looked a little dismayed. "Leave me alone!"
Hayley shook her head and then spotted Josh and Aiden. She stomped over to their table and plopped down. "He is unbelievable." She sighed. "So, how is your day going?"
"Josh is a mega-star," Aiden replied, placing his head on Josh's shoulder.
Hayley grinned. "That's good." Then she opened her yogurt. "Has anyone seen Bekah today?"
"No. Why?" Josh asked, frowning.
Hayley paused. "I called her. Texted. Nothing. Dead silence. I asked Elijah if he'd heard from her since yesterday. Nothing. Looks like she walked out of the hospital and hasn't been back since your finished Kol's surgery."
Feeling all of his happiness dissolving, Josh pulled out his phone and dialed Rebekah's number. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. "Hello. This is Rebekah Mikaelson."
"Bekah. It's Josh—"
"I'm currently in the process of saving lives or taking a well-deserved nap." Rebekah's answering machine stated in a robotic tone.
Rolling his eyes, Josh looked at Hayley. "She's still not answering."
"I'm going home after work and if she won't answer her door, I will use the screwdriver to take a door off," Hayley announced before plunging a spoon into the bottom of her cup and then took a big bite of yogurt.
And the day had begun so well.
Kol
Never had Kol Mikaelson ever foreseen himself as a patient in his own hospital. He'd seen so many people come and go. He'd seen smiles on the faces of those he'd been able to help. He'd seen wailing family members after poor Klaus had to work on their tiny babies. He'd seen Elijah blood spattered and defeated. He'd seen Sage knock so many dislocated shoulders back into sockets. Seen Finn do whatever it was Finn did all day. And Freya figure out how to mend the un-mendable.
So many little triumphs. Now, Kol laid in a hospital bed. He could not open his eyes to stare at the people who drifted in and out of his room. He could not open his mouth to speak to them. He could not hold his own mother's hand as she cried into his shoulder.
Never. Never had Kol Mikaelson ever felt so utterly useless and powerless. It was a terrible feeling. He found himself with newfound respect for his poor patients.
"Kol?" Davina's voice. "Kol. I hope you can hear me." He felt her hand slide into his. "I wanted to come by and to see how you are." A pause. "They say there haven't been any changes. But I don't think that's true. I think maybe you're going to open your eyes today. Just a little wink…"
Kol willed himself to open his eyes. "Open! Open! Open, damn you!" he shouted at himself. "Blasted hell!"
"Come on, Kol! We're all waiting for you to wake up!" Davina cried. He could hear the smile in her voice. Every part of him wished for nothing more than to be able to reach out and to cup her face. He promised himself that once he could speak again, and not sound like a bloody idiot, that he would tell this girl that he was madly in love with her.
"Kol, your family misses you." Davina said quietly. He felt her fingers stroke his hair. "I miss you."
"I miss you, too!" Davina whispered in his ear. Kol felt his heart begin to pound. The sound of his heart rate monitor picked up. Oh, yes, darling. Yes, you are correct. There are changes. Just yesterday I was sleeping so soundly. Now, I can hear all of you. I can feel you. I can wish myself out of this blasted bed.
"Is everything alright, doctor?" a nurse's voice called.
"Yes. He's fine. But his heart rate picked up. That's a good sign. It means he'd listening to me." Again, Kol heard a smile in Davina's voice as her hand slipped out of his. He wished she would stay where she was. His blasted fingers would not grasp her hand and keep her near.
Groaning internally, Kol stared at the inside of his eyelids. No, he glared at the inside of his eyelids. If he worked up enough energy, perhaps he could manage a scream.
Then Davina's hand slid back into Kol's and sweet relief poured through him. "Okay, Kol. Can you raise your heart rate for me, again?" Davina asked him.
Kol thought about that. It would not take much. Just the fantasy of her body pressed to his. Their lips crushed together. His fingers sliding through her long, dark locks. She was far too good for him but he did not care. He loved her. He loved her and right now it hurt. The very thought of never being able to tell her or to kiss her…
"Wake up, Kol!" Davina called. Her lips brushed his ear. Yes. She actually did that. "Wake up, please! For me!" Her hand went to his chest. It stopped over his heart. "I know you're in love with me. So, please, just wake up and tell me. I want to hear you say the words…"
Inhaling, Kol willed his eyes open. He willed his fingers to rise. Just a fraction. Show some bloody life, will you? Nothing. A whole world of nothing that left Kol wanting to pick up the first thing he could take hold of and toss it across the room. However, he could not pick anything up which meant his desires were futile.
Davina squeezed Kol's hand. "You can hear me, Kol. I know you can hear me. I know you know I'm here. Just show me. Show me you're with us." Another squeeze.
Kol remembered Davina's sparkling eyes. Her sweet laugh. Her fiery defiance when Hayley froze her out upon their first meeting. The way she stretched her short stature during rounds and how her hand would stay so straight as she waited for a resident or attendee to pay attention to her question or answers. Her kindness. Her devotion to her friends.
There were so many tiny things that Kol wanted to tell Davina Claire that he had noticed about her. So many times he'd watched her curl over a textbook. A pen tapping on a notebook. Her ponytail would bob as she worked through the materials. When her eyes glowed above her mask in the OR. Her chest rising and falling as she dreamed in the on-call room. Perhaps he should skip telling her he used to pop in to watch her sleep. That could come later. Perhaps after their fifth wedding anniversary. Or after children…
None of that would happen if he did not open his eyes. Kol felt his frustration mounting. Why wouldn't his body follow his commands? Did Josh screw up in the OR? Freya should have done the surgery. Bloody resident.
Feeling the desire to roll his eyes; Kol felt something. Such a small tick. No one would notice. However, Kol noted it. Kol noted the feeling of his eyes ticking just the tiniest bit upward. Had he gone mad? Did it really happen? Willing all of his energy into the motion, Kol waited and felt his eyes tick upward once again. He thought he would smirk if he could use the same will to force his lips to do the same thing.
"Dr. Claire. I'm sorry to bother you. But Dr. Walters is requesting your service," the nurse from before called.
What? No! Not bloody Not-His-Biological-Uncle, Uncle Phil. What did he want? Other than his daughter's attention. Could he wait until Kol woke up?
"You would have to discuss the matter with him." The nurse did not add anything else.
"Okay." Davina groaned. "Kol, I'll be back soon." She pressed a kiss to Kol's cheek.
Feeling Davina's hand move from his, Kol felt the desire to scream, again. He could hear the nurse beginning to check his vitals and to change his IV drip. Using all of his frustration, Kol let out a long sigh and a light suddenly flooded his field of vision. He let out another groan and his eyes went to his hand. Lifting it the tiniest bit, he banged on the side of the bed.
"Dr. Mikaelson!" the nurse cried, whirling around. "You're awake?"
Kol pulled off the oxygen mask and crooked a finger at the woman. She leaned over him and he whispered. "Get her back here! Right bloody now!" Then he sent all of his anger into his eyes and the nurse straightened up. "And ice chips," he croaked out.
The nurse hurried out of the room and Kol felt his lips lift in a smirk, although it did take a lot of effort.
Thank you for reading, favong, following and reviewing.
Peace,
-J