The first sensation that returned was the sense of hearing. The heart monitor bleeped steadily and someone was talking softly… perhaps it was a radio. Next came smell… the horrible stench of hospital grade antiseptic and a vaguely faint smell of old urine that had no doubt been from the previous patient. Finally, an eye twitched and opened, sunlight coming in too strong and the eye shut itself firmly again.
Meekly, both eyes opened, adjusting to the light provided by one small window to the right of the bed. Head turned and looked over to see who was sitting in the chair beside the bed. It was a boy with long navy hair pulled back in a ponytail.
Sarah blinked again and muttered aloud, "Huh?!"
The sound of her voice surprised her immensely. Somehow her voice had deepened. She put it to the fact she hadn't had anything to drink for quite a while.
She wondered how she had gotten to the hospital. Struggling to remember, she recalled her dog, Maxie, and the truck. Her body unexpectedly hurt as if it only remembered what had happened when she had. Groaning, Sarah looked at the boy in the chair again. It seemed he was asleep as he had a slight bit of drool dribbling down his chin and she detected the faint sound of snoring.
"Hey… you!" she said loudly in the attempts of gaining his attention.
It worked, because he let out a snort and his head jerked upright. He peered at her with a dazed expression, until he awoke properly. He grinned at her.
"Great! You're awake!" he exclaimed, "Let me get the others!"
Sarah felt confused, "Others?" she wondered aloud.
The boy smirked and gently cuffed her over the ear, before saying, "Don't be silly. Like Max, Ray and Kenny wouldn't come see how you are!"
'I know Maxie, but who are Ray and Kenny?' she thought.
He turned to go but she sat up quickly to stop him. She instantly regretted it as her head pounded in pain. She grimaced and held her head and the boy hurried back over to the bed.
"You're not supposed to sit up or anything dude! I mean, if I fell down the stairs, I wouldn't be doing it!"
Sarah blinked again, more confused than before.
"Stairs?"
"Yeah… don't you remember? You fell down Mr. Dickinson's stairs."
"But… I got hit… by a truck."
Now it was the boy's turn to look confused.
"Huh? There was no truck dude! You fell down the stairs. Boy those are some stairs too. Maybe it felt like being hit by a truck…" he said more to answer himself than to help her.
Sarah bit her bottom lip, trying to figure out what happened. Maybe she'd only dreamt a truck hit her. Maybe she was asleep and was sleepwalking and then she fell down the stairs. No… that didn't make sense, because she didn't know who this Mr. Dickinson was… so why would she be falling down HIS stairs? Mid-thought her bladder interrupted her and she had the alarming need to use the toilet.
"Uh… where's the bathroom?" she asked the boy who was still trying to figure out why she told him she was hit by a truck.
"In there," he gestured towards the door that was next to the chair he'd been sitting on.
Looking at the machinery she was attached to, she sweatdropped and anxiously tried to gain the boy's attention again.
"Can you give me a hand here?" she asked, starting to get irritated.
The boy blinked, "Oops, babbling again huh? Gomen, here…"
He walked over to the bed and slipped one arm around her shoulders and the other around her waist and pulled forward gently as she stood. The blood rushed to her feet and she felt them be invaded by pins and needles. She wiggled them around in the attempts to make it go away and after a moment her feet returned to normal.
She raised an eyebrow at the boy and commented, "I can do the rest now. Unless you wanted to watch me or something?"
The boy blushed brightly at the suggestion and Sarah couldn't help but giggle at the priceless expression on his face. After she giggled his face looked even more shocked and he blinked at her with wide eyes. She stopped laughing.
"You'd think you've never seen anyone laugh before…" she gave him a look and dragged her drip towards the toilet door.
She opened the door and sort of stumbled in, taking the drip with her and turned back to look at the boy. He still was staring at her with his mouth open wide.
"Close your mouth, you're catching flies," Sarah giggled again and closed the door behind her.
She quickly surveyed the room and saw it contained a bath with handles on the sides, a toilet with a railing to one side and a sink with those push lever handles so water wouldn't be left on accidentally. Sarah dragged the tall metal pole of her drip over to the toilet and lifted the lid. Facing the other way, she pulled down her hospital issue underwear. Lifting the hem of her hospital, Sarah went to sit down when she noticed something odd… then she let out an ear-piercing scream.