*Sorry for the extremely long update! I had exams and papers and then vacation! But no excuses, I'm sorry and I hope this satisfies you!! Please let me know how you think about it! Enjoy! And I can't believe Jen lost!!! She should have won and did you see the preview at the end of Cipher? Can't wait for next week!! Anyway here it is the long awaited update! Again, sorry!
Chapter 8- Awake
Flicking my eyes open, a bright light shines all around me. For a second I think I have succeeded but alas I see the IV needles sticking in my frail arm and sink back into the stiff bed hoping that no one is here to see me or talk to me. Still alive, still alone and still in pain. Moving around in the tightly drawn up white sheets, my muscles begin to ache and every bone in my body seems to be broken. Tears begin to cascade down my face, salty and bitter, and I wish I would have crashed harder. Now I have to deal with questions and an endless stream of people always checking up on my every move.
I hate hospitals; always have ever since I was little. I can still remember that night when I was woken up from the comfort of my pink sheets and thrown into another life full of fear, the one I still live in. I went to bed that night thinking of nothing except wishing the babysitter that was tucking me was my mother. With my teddy bear night light glowing in the corner of my room and the identical stuffed version which my mother had just bought me that day tucked gently under my tiny arms, I fell asleep listening to the soft plinks of the rain hitting the panels on our house. Two hours later, Emma, my babysitter, burst through the half open door allowing cruel light to pour into my room, tears glistening in her eyes.
"Sydney, get up. We have to go somewhere. Sydney? Are you awake?" She ran to my bed, her footsteps loud and careless. I felt a slight nudging of my shoulder.
"Mommy?" My eyes thick with the memory of sleep didn't recognize the person kneeling before me. Blinking my eyes several times, I realized it was her again and then I saw her tears.
"No, Sydney, it's me, Emma. Now come on, we have to go. Quickly find a pair of shoes that are easy to slip on." Her words that are usually soft and comforting are now monotone and almost automatic, trying to hold back her real emotions, something that I will adopt and regrettably cherish.
"Why?" Being the curious child I was and still am, I sat up but didn't get off the bed, still gripping tightly onto my teddy. She stood there for a second, her eyes darting around the room while a tear silently slid down her face. A chill was sent spinning down through my spine, scaring me. She knew something and wasn't telling me. I always hated it when grown-ups hid things from you and acted like you were clueless, that you weren't capable of understanding.
"Um, because I .. I , uh, something happened and … and we need to go …go quickly." She still didn't look at me, her eyes glazy and far-off into a trance, but pulled my warm covers off of my body.
"Wha _" The way she talked, raspy and uncertain and how her hands shook as they helped me up and out of my bed evoked fear and I re-tightened my grip on my teddy bear.
"Don't ask me what me what, just please get your shoes on quickly!" She yelled at me and I ran over to my closet and hurriedly opened the door, without looking at her. I began to cry, but hid the salty tears well, only letting out a stifled sniffle here and there.
Reaching into my small closet, I grabbed my pair of pink sneakers with white Velcro straps that were decorated with pink flowers and bluebirds. They reminded me of my favorite time of the year, spring, when my parents would take me to the lake and all day I would swim and smell the sweet scent of lilacs and other flowers whose names I couldn't pronounce at the time.
I hastily shoved them onto my cold bare feet and felt the rough insides scrap against my skin. I looked up at Emma, she was holding my winter coat in one hand and her keys in the other, both vividly shaking. Her blue eyes holding such pain and anguish and I didn't know what to think. What had happened? Why was I being rushed around and yelled at? I didn't ask knowing that that would only create more yelling and frustrations. I picked up my teddy bear, still faintly crying to myself and followed Emma out the door.
After running into her car, dodging the increasing fall of rain splattering down on us, she rapidly buckled me, her hands slipping several times as she struggled to get the belt to latch. She drove in silence and I was too afraid to ask where she was driving to, so I stayed silent as well. I bit my lip to stop the tears of confusion and fear and as we drove past the stoplight flashing green, I tasted blood.
The drive to the hospital, which I realized we were going to as soon as I saw it come into view, was a blur of silence and hushed tears, by both of us. I could feel Emma's eyes every so often glance over at me wondering if she should tell me what was burning away at the tip of her tongue.
Once she parked the car and ran over to my side, the rain still making everything hazy, she helped me unbuckle the seatbelt. Her eyes distant and tempted to look at mine, they didn't. She didn't talk, nor did I. Walking hand in hand, my other hand clutching my bear, we approached the front sliding doors and I could feel a prickling feeling race through my body almost causing me to drop my bear. I increased my sweaty grip on the bear held in my tiny hands. Emma didn't look at me as we walked through the doors and into the waiting room filled with people filling out forms and waiting patiently while trying to cover the hurt and pain in their eyes and holding their wounds close to their bodies.
I immediately drew myself closer into Emma's body and as soon as I did, she placed a comforting arm over my shoulder as she guided me over to the desk. As soon as I saw the hospital, I had an idea why we were going here. My horrifying suspicions were true when our turn was up at the front desk and she spoke.
"Can you please tell me where Mr. Jack Bristow is being held or how he is doing?" She spoke quickly and softly, probably not wanting me to hear. But I did. I heard every word and my bear dropped from hands and landed on the floor with a loud thud. Emma didn't notice my tears becoming thicker and faster and louder.
"Only family is allowed to see him." The lady didn't look up from her computer as she typed furiously with her thin fingernails.
"I'm the babysitter; I have his daughter with me. Can you please tell me where he is?" Her tone of voice sharpening and she leaned in closer to the desk. I stayed put, not thinking of anything but my daddy and why was he in the hospital. I turned out the rest of the conversation, terrified of what I might hear, and looked outside the transparent glass doors. The rain was falling harder as if sensing my fear and pain while ambulances flew by flashing their red lights over the front waiting room.
Without even noticing it, my little feet were being pulled down the hall by my hand that was latched into Emma's hand. In her other hand was my teddy bear which I forgot about. Another ten seconds later, I was in an elevator listening to Emma's rough voice trying to tell me what happened before I saw my dad lying in a hospital bed and why I wouldn't see my mother ever again. Her words circled around me and the unwelcoming smell of medicine and death swarmed my senses. I took the bear from her arms and held it tightly in my arms. I kept shaking my head as my bear became wet with my tears.
A faint sound of a creaking chair brought me back to my just as cruel reality. Bringing my limp fingers to my red face, I try to wipe away the bitter tears that have begun to dry and stiffen. Slowly turning my neck to side to side, I see the clean hallway to my left through the clear glass separating me and the world of the living. Outside my room, I can see a man with brown hair sitting in a chair and leaning his head onto the cold glass. His breath fogging up a section of the glass where his face was more turned. He moves again causing another creak of his plastic chair.
Raising my hand, pale and thin, transparent through the bright lights, I try to get his attention. It couldn't be him, could it? Shocks of pain begins to run up and down my arm and then notice the damage I have done, everything else gets hazy and I lose the focus on the man waiting for me to wake up. I examine it, noticing tiny cuts all over, red and dried up. Running along the inner of my arm, a long white scar emerges through the coarse skin. A soft tear falls on it, splashing it with relief.
Immediately I hear soft clicks of shoes entering my room and see the man's head turn sideways trying to figure out who was entering my room, just like me. I quickly close my eyes and pull my hand back down to my side, but not in time, the nurse sees me and I can see the excitement in her eyes that her patient is awake.
The lady is holding a tray adorned with a glass full of ice water, pills of every color, and needles holding some type of a clear fluid. "Finally awake? How are you feeling?" After setting down her tray on the formica table next to me, she begins to fluff the flat pillows against my back, still throbbing from pain.
"Uh.. a little sore," the words breathy and strained. Slight movement from outside the window catches my attention and the man is gone.
"Well, that is expected. You know you have been unconscious for days now." Wiping away strands of her blonde hair from her face, she stands in front of me with an honest expression.
"How many days?" I try to breathe in a deep breath but it makes my chest hurt even more and forces tears out.
"Today will be six. You have had many visitors in here. There was this one man who seemed incredibly distraught, in fact he was here just moments ago. Do you want me to go get him or to just let you rest awhile?"
"Do you know what his name is?" Immediately I thought of him and who he might be, but then I remembered that he was in a grave, where I should be. I forget about how I was out of it for six days and inquire about my hopeful theory.
"No, I don't, do you want me to go get him or ask him who he is?" She started to hand me the glass of water and a handful of pills. My head still spinning and clouded from just waking up and my heart aches from forgetting that he was gone.
"You can get him, please." She gave me ten pills and handed me the glass of water that shook in my unstable hands. She leaves as soon as she sees that I have them, not noticing my inability to raise the glass of water or even hold it correctly. Within seconds, I hear her sneakers coming through the hall and see her stare at me. Behind her, I see the man that was sitting in front of my room. His eyes watching my eyes that are filled with tears and distress. My hand holding the pills flips over and the ten colorful capsules bounce and dance onto the hard floor.
"Are you okay? I'll get it don't you worry." The lady simply walks over and rushes to pick them up allowing the man to appear in full view. I don't even move an inch or a muscle. My gaze locked on him as the corners of his eyes begin to well up with tears. I can't believe he would care this much about me. I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out, just a sudden gasping for fresh air.
"Sydney," his voice full of longing and compassion that I never seem to have noticed.
I flutter my eyes from the oncoming flood of tears and I no longer wish I would have died.
*So, what do you think? Good? Bad? Curious as to who it is? Tell me what you think and your predictions! It will help me write faster and believe me this update will be ten times faster than the last one! Also check out my other fics, I will be updating them all in the next few days. Thanks and again don't hate me for the wait!