Chapter 23 – Waiting
A/N: HAPPY DAY TODAY!! AND HERE'S A CHAPTER!! YAY!!! XD
"How is he?"
The doctor regarded her with a frown. She might not have been noticing she was drenched in human blood, but he sure did.
"Perhaps we should get you…"
"Enough with the formalities, doctor." She said. "I'm covered in my boyfriend's blood, I just spent a car ride with my ex-boyfriend, and I'm REALLY not in the mood to now to wait until I'm to your approval in looks to find out how Raven is."
"Miss, there's no need to…"
"Just tell me how he is." She insisted sharply, getting more agitated.
"Fine." The doctor agreed after a pause. "Your boyfriend is being treated for extensive blood loss. He's sustained a fractured rib and two other bruised ones. He has internal bleeding too, from where we're trying to find. I won't lie to you, he's in bad shape."
"Is he going to live, that's what I'm asking."
"I don't know, to tell you the truth. It'll all really up for grabs right now. It can go either way." The doctor explained, sounding sympathetic. "Please, try not to worry so much. We will tell you exactly what happens when it happens."
"When can I see him?"
"Listen, until he gets stable, the only thing that will help him right now is for you to calm down and wait patiently."
"Calm down?! CALM DOWN?!"
"Sam. SAM." Rob caught her arm just in time, as she looked ready to let a fist fly. His grip tightened a little when she tried to wrench it free, and stopped when she found she couldn't. "Let's sit down and let the nice doctor do his job, m'kay?"
Sam let out an annoyed huff. "You let him die and you're gonna wish you never came to work today."
She pulled Rob this time away, Rob mouthing an apology to the doctor as they went. He let go of her arm and she plopped into the worn looking waiting chair. She noticed people staring at them, and she gave them all a hard glare. Instantly their eyes went to other places of interest and she was left to only deal with Rob. He sat next to her quietly, trying not to piss her off since she was already about to go off at a moment's notice.
"Fucking medical system." She grumbled. Rob squirmed in his seat, feeling pain shoot up through his nose again when he tried to touch it.
"Listen, Sam, can I go get my nose checked up?" he asked.
"Why?" she questioned sharply, making him flinch.
"Um…well, see, you kind of punched it before and it's going numb. That's usually not a great sign."
Sam sighed loudly; she had forgotten about that. "Yeah, you better get it checked up."
"…You sure you're gonna be okay?"
"WHAT THE HELL DO I LOOK LIKE?! A PITY CASE!?" she asked loudly, gaining stares again. "What the hell are YOU people looking at?" Most of them looked startled and looked away, almost fearful.
Rob inched away from her. "Point taken, just calm down and relax. I'll make sure they fix it up quick." He offered.
"Whatever." She muttered, leaning more into the seat. Taking that as a signal to go, Rob turned and walked to the counter.
She looked at her red colored arms. Perhaps now she would allow herself to clean up. She got up, asking a random nurse where she could find a bathroom. She looked startled at the blood that was caking on her skin and clothing, but when she explained what had happened she sort of gave her a sympathetic look and pointed to a nearby bathroom. She decided to let the nurse slide for looking at her in the way she did. She didn't like being treated as if she was some poor soul needing comfort.
When she got into the single bathroom, she flicked on the light and went over to the faucets. She stared at herself first, noticing that her face was streaked with blood too, making her look like a deranged car crash victim or something. She cleaned her arms first, watching the blood go down the drain as the water sprayed on it and loosened it off her skin. After 3 minutes, she managed to get most of it off and her arms were back to their usual tanned-brown color. She nearly jumped when a knock sounded out.
"I'm busy in here." She called.
"Excuse me, Miss, but I thought you might need this…"
She recognized the voice as the nurse she had talked to earlier. She opened the door to find her holding a plain gray shirt. She held it out toward her.
"What's this?" she questioned.
"I remembered I had an extra shirt in my locker. I thought you might want to change out of your blood stained one." She explained. "I mean, you don't have to take it, but I thought it might be better to be in a clean shirt then what you have on now."
Sam couldn't help but smile, even though really all she was thinking about now was Raven. She accepted the offer, taking the shirt from her. "Thank you."
The nurse just smiled and nodded. "I hope that whatever reason you're in here for is solved."
And she left. Sam closed the door and instantly pulled the still wet shirt off her back. Upon inspection, she saw just how bad it was. Completely covered in blood. She could barely see any white on the front. She knew it wasn't any use to salvage, so she tossed it in the garbage. Her middle section was red too, and so were her pants – for obvious reasons. Her pants she could deal with, since they were black anyway. She just put water on them and scrubbed off as much she could. She did a quick job with her midsection too, trying to wipe off some of the color of red. She pulled on the shirt after a bit and decided to just ignore it. Finally she cleaned off her face and dried it.
She was actually glad she was rid of most of the blood. It reminded her too easily of the sight of him bleeding everywhere. An involuntary shudder passed up her frame and she turned to the door and left the bathroom, almost afraid of staring at her own face in the mirror. Once the blood was cleared off she realized just how depressed and worried she looked, and that made her remember that she felt the same way. It was making it harder to ignore it when she saw herself looking like that.
She went back into the waiting room, sitting in the same seat. There were still a couple of the people she remembered seeing there from the beginning, and a lot of newer people too. A woman was crying in one corner. A little girl played near Sam's foot while what she guessed was her mother sat and watched her, looking as though she was fighting tears herself. All around her, people were depressed or upset or crying. She was understandably getting annoyed by it so she decided to just close her eyes and not think about it.
And all the stress must have gotten to her, because she found herself falling into a semi-deep sleep.
She dreamed of the last time she was in a waiting room. She was so little then, the tender age of ten, and it was about a week after her mother and father had died. They found their bodies in the ocean; they pretty well intact for two that had been in such a horrible tragedy. The hospital wanted them to identify the bodies. Kurt and she didn't have any place to be taken to, so they were really forced to bring them along. A nurse had sat with them as her realities did what they had to do.
"How are you?" the nurse had asked her, quietly. She didn't speak, instead looking at her feet dangling off the chair, staying more near Kurt's side then the nurse's. "I'm sorry your mommy and daddy died."
She felt tears spring to her eyes at the mere mention, and a few rolled down her small cheeks. She sniffled lightly, wiping her nose with her hand. She didn't like the nurse talking to her. She kept asking her questions and reminding her. Kurt had to have noticed the deteriorating of her mood.
"Why don't you leave her alone?" Kurt asked quietly. The woman looked a bit shocked at his outburst.
"I didn't…"
"I can watch her, why don't you just leave. You're making her cry." He pointed out, sounding annoyed. Sam looked at her older cousin and bit her lip, surprised that he was actually daring to defy an adult.
And the nurse did leave, because she hadn't been made to stay there. Her aunt and uncle didn't ask her to sit there; she did it on will. Sam was glad to see her go. She had started really crying by then, though, obviously reminded of the fact she wasn't going to see her parents again. Kurt put an arm around his younger cousin, trying to calm her crying.
"It'll be okay, Sam." He promised her. "Don't cry." He let go of her a moment, hopping off the seat to get a few tissues. She handed them over to her with a small frown.
She wiped her eyes and blew her nose, calming down finally. "They died 'cuzza me."
Kurt frowned, kneeling in front of her. He knew he enough not to use the conventional way of comforting her. "They died because of you, huh? So you made that storm?"
Sam looked down. "Well, no…"
"Mmhmm. Well, then you must have been the one that made the plane fall?"
"…No."
"Well, I don't think, then, you did it." He concluded. "I think it's safe to say you'll be free of all charges, wouldn't you say?"
Sam stared at Kurt with a quirked brow. "…But…"
"So you're not allowed to blame yourself anymore." He scolded lightly. "Not at all. And I'm pretty sure your mommy and daddy don't blame you either."
Sam looked at him with a deadpan expression. "I wouldn't either if I was dead."
"I heard this from a reliable source…come closer, this is a secret."
Intrigued as any 10 year old might be, she leaned forward to listen to her cousin's words.
"I heard that when people get hurt and die to you know, people like us, they go up into the big light in the sky…"
"The sun?" she blinked.
"The sun…? Oh, no no. Not THAT light. It's something only people who pass on can see. Well, they go into it and they go to a place where they can still watch you. And I don't think they'd be very happy to see you moping around."
"…They wouldn't?"
"Nope! I've known them longer then you, you know. I should know these things. So what I'm gonna do, since they'll be watching me too I bet, is try to go back to as normal as possible." He explained.
"…They're watching me?" She asked, obviously not believing him.
"Yep."
"Then why can't I see them?"
"Because then they'd scare the pants off your aunt and uncle. Your mom knows about my mom's heart condition." He grinned.
"Oh." She answered, then blinked. "…Okay."
"You all better now?"
"…Guess so." She scratched the back of her head.
"I'm glad." He stood, ruffling her hair. "You want some candy?"
"Auntie said that to me an' Uncle said I was being paid off." Sam informed him. "Whatever that means…"
"That means I'm giving you free food." he offered. She gave a half-smile, sliding off the chair and grabbing his hand.
"'Tay." She agreed. "I wanna be paid off more often, then."
~~
"Sam, wake up."
Rob had been attempting to wake her up for the last half hour. She kept talking about free food and something about her cousin. It was like a conflicting nightmare-dream. Any dream with Kurt had to be bad, but free food was always a plus. Either way, the girl had lapsed into a deep sleep – or a coma, perhaps. He shook her once last time, saw she still didn't wake up, and finally sat down and gave up.
His nose wasn't broken. Bruised, but not broken. He didn't really mind that she had done it. He understood how it had looked. He would never hurt anyone like Raven was hurt though. That was just vicious. Cruel. He could be dying and the two obviously didn't even care when they left him lying there. In fact, if he hadn't even noticed them running, Raven might still be in the room, or even dead right now.
And Sam…
He looked over at her lying there, seeming to finally have found calmness in her sleep. He almost felt bad that he had to wake her up soon. The doctor had already come over and told Rob that he would know enough about Raven's condition soon enough.
Rob just hoped, for Sam's sake, that he wouldn't die. She already lost her parents, and then Rob himself by reasons outside his control, and now if Raven died on her…
He didn't even want to think about it.