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Prologue
"Did you see that, Pete? I swear her eyes jus' twitched!"
"I didn't see anythin' love, jus' like I've not seen anythin' like the last time. You're seein' things, Jacks."
"Peter Tyler, don't you dare insinuate tha' I am bloody crazy, 'cause I'm not." Jackie jumped again. "Oh my God, she jus' squeezed my hand. C'mon sweetheart, wake up. Open your eyes, please."
"Jacks, tha's enough now. You'll get thrown out of the room again."
"Hold her hand for Christ' sake, an' then tell me I'm loosin' my mind."
A different hand held hers, and involuntarily, she squeezed it.
"Oh my God, she jus' did it to me! I'll go an' get the Doctor."
Jackie watched with close anticipation, waiting for any more movement from her daughter. She swore she could see her daughter's eyes roll under her lids. Was she really going to wake up, after all this time?
"C'mon sweetheart, you can do it." Jackie sat on the side of the bed, holding Rose's hand in hers and gently stroked it. "I know it's hard, you've not done it for so long, but all you need to do is open your eyes."
Rose could hear her mother's voice, but it sounded like it was far away. She felt lost, wandering in a dark tunnel? It seemed like a tunnel. Ahead of her was a bright light. Was she dead? If she was dead, how could she hear her mother's voice? Jackie wasn't dead. Rose continued to wander down the tunnel, the bright light getter brighter the closer she got.
"You can do it, love. Open your eyes."
This time, Jackie's voice sounded less echoey. Determined, Rose walked along further, and the bright light only got brighter, practically blinding her at one moment. The light made Rose feel safe, it was comforting, and she wanted to be wherever her mother was. All of a sudden, she was enveloped by the light, and then …
She couldn't move. Her entire body was rigid, but she could just about move her hand and fingers ever so slightly. At first, Rose panicked, had she been paralysed? Had there been some sort of horrible accident? Where was the Doctor? Where was Jack?
Wearily, Rose opened her eyes, blinking under the harsh, white light above her. Jackie hovered over her, her own eyes wide with relief and a hint of fear.
"Rose? Can you hear me?" Rose tried to speak, but something was obstructing her mouth, preventing her from doing so. There was a rapid beeping beside her. "Sweetheart, jus' calm down alright? You need to relax. I know this is all very scary, but you need to calm down." The machine next to her slowed its beeping, and Rose realised that it was a heart rate monitor. She was in a hospital. But why? "The Doctor's on his way, yeah? Your Dad's gone to fetch him."
Rose frowned. Had she heard her mother correctly? Her Dad was here? That couldn't be right. Was she in an alternate universe? Her father should be dead.
There was a knock at the door, and Jackie went to answer it, exclaiming in excitement. "She's awake! I told you she was!"
She could move her head ever so slightly, and when Jackie opened the door wider, a man she didn't recognise, and what looked like a nurse – wearing a lab coat – entered the room, followed by her father. Pete Tyler was really there, which meant that wherever Rose was, it wasn't good.
The nurse with grey hair and strange, lavender eyes approached Rose by the bed, giving her a comforting smile. "It's nice to see you finally awake, Miss Tyler," she greeted her warmly. "You can call me the Matron, that's what everybody else calls me. I'm just going to remove this tube from your mouth, it's what's been helping you breathe whilst you've been unconscious. I'd like you to keep still, this may feel a little uncomfortable."
It wasn't as though Rose could move much anyway, and she could only lay there as the Matron gently tugged the tube from out of her throat. The Matron was right, it was uncomfortable. She nearly gagged. Once Rose could taste the inside of her mouth, it was terrible dry and her lips were almost crispy from lack of moisture. The Matron then offered her a cup of water with a straw, and Rose greedily drank some sips.
"Easy now, you don't want to choke." The Matron warned her kindly. "Her readings look fine, Doctor Sanchez, and I'm sure after plenty of rest and some proper food Miss Tyler will be up and about in no time. I'll come back later to check on her."
"Thank you, Matron." This came from the Doctor – Rose assumed he was – who wore the lab coat. When the Matron left the small room, the medical professional stepped forwards, picking the clipboard up from the foot of her bed. "Good evening, Miss Tyler. My name is Doctor Sanchez, and I have been your primary caretaker since you've been in hospital. On a scale of one to ten, if you can speak, how much pain are you in? Ten being the highest. If you can't speak, then use your fingers."
Rose tried to speak, clearing her dried throat, but all that came out was a hoarse whisper. Instead, she held up eight fingers.
Doctor Sanchez nodded, writing it down on his clipboard. "Good, that's to be expected, considering. I suspect you're wondering how you came to be here?"
Rose nodded, eager to know what'd happened.
"You might find this hard to believe, Miss Tyler, but you have just woken from a coma. You were on your way to work like any other day, and there was a car. It hit you, rather severely on impact your entire body flipped over three times. As a result, you landed on your head, and after some critical head injury, you were rendered unconscious and went into a coma."
"How – how long for?" Her voice was awfully raspy, but it was there.
"I don't mean to alarm you when I say this, Miss Tyler, but you've been in a coma for five and a half months."
Author's Note
So yeah, here is the prologue. Depending on the response I get, I may post a part two? ;)