A/N: thanks to CharmingChix, line100, Svata2004, Piper+leo4eva (and for
reviewing Angels Fall without You There), and Cocoamo1223 for reviewing the
last chapter.
~*~Chapter 5~*~
They stood outside of the door that led into Piper's hospital room. A rectangular pane of glass allowed them a glimpse of what lay inside but nobody allowed their eyes to linger on it for long. They didn't want to see a fragment of Piper. They wanted to see all of her.
Phoebe put her hand on the handle of the door and pushed it open. She then walked into the small room followed by Leo and Paige. Darryl decided to wait outside of the room; he wanted to stop anyone who wasn't supposed to go in the room from entering and he also felt that he'd be intruding if he entered.
In the center of the room was a hospital bed, it looked harsh and metallic. And in the bed lay Piper. She looked small and pale. A bandage was wrapped around her head but her hair was still visible at the top and as it fell about her shoulders as it came out of the bottom of the white stretch of material. She was wearing a white hospital gown and was covered by a blue-grey blanket. One hand rested on top of the small rise in the blankets that indicated her pregnant stomach. This was, other than her head, the only part of Piper that was visible to her family.
It seemed to Leo that the entire world had been condensed down and put into this one room, this one bed. Nothing else mattered. All sound was an infinite sense of nothing and his mouth had dried up, relegating taste to a distant memory. Talking seemed impossible and breathing insanely hard. His chest and throat were too blocked by emotion to even consider taking in air. And all his heart wanted to do was ache.
The world stayed still, silent and compressed for what seemed like hours, days, even weeks for Leo. He'd lost all recognition or concept of tome. But finally he began to become grounded. Sound penetrated his world first, the beeping of the numerous monitors hooked up to Piper dragged him from his retreat and he began to breathe again. But no breath in the world could extinguish the pain in his heart at the moment. He began to walk over to Piper, oblivious to the silent tears making their way down his face because they didn't matter. He didn't matter, at least not without her. In one fluid moment, Leo picked up Piper's hand from her stomach and sat down in a chair by her bedside. And he held onto her hand, silently swearing to never let it go, never to let her go.
Phoebe was shocked at the calmness on her big sister's face. It looked exactly as though Piper was sleeping and Phoebe longed to go and tell her to wake up, but deep down, Phoebe knew it'd be pointless. Piper needed to 'sleep', at least for now. So instead Phoebe sat opposite Leo, on the other side of Piper, and stroked her sisters hair, that came out of the bandage, and talked to Piper.
"Piper, honey, it'll be okay now. We're here. Me, Paige and Leo. It'll be okay"
Paige was standing at the end of piper's bed. For a moment it seemed as though she had retreated into herself once more. But she didn't let her self. Not this time.
"Yeah Piper. We're all here and we'll never leave you here alone."
Just then the door opened, but no one turned to see who had entered the room. They were engrossed by Piper.
"I see you found Piper okay then"
Phoebe realized there was another person in the room at the sound of the doctor's voice.
"Doctor Miles." She said, simply in conformation that she'd heard the doctor enter.
"Hello," The three heads turned towards the doctor now and realized that Darryl had come into the room also. Doctor Miles continued, "Piper's operation went fine and quicker than we had anticipated. This means we have successfully reduced the swelling around Piper's brain so she should be fine there. When Piper was in the operation, we x-rayed her and the results of this showed that her lower right leg is broken in 3 places, so we set these in theatre. They also showed that she has a small fracture to her spine that can be easily fixed. We sorted this out in theater also. Now, before you panic, none of this has harmed the baby, we took special care of that, and the baby is doing fine, it's very resilient by the look of things. Okay, any questions?"
"Yes, will the swelling on her brain give any after effects?" Paige asked.
"You mean like paralysis?" Paige nodded in confirmation and Dr.Miles continued. "No, Piper was lucky in the respect that the swelling will, at the most, only affect her short term memory. So, for example, she may not remember what happened directly before the accident, but long term stuff .g. name, identity, family, will be fine. Any other questions?"
Paige looked relieved at the answer and Phoebe asked a question.
"How long will she stay like this, in a coma, unconscious. What ever it is?"
"for a patient with injuries like Piper's and who has had an operation like Piper's, the typical amount of time to stay in a coma is for any time between 3 days and 10 days, but don't be worried if its longer. The best you can do for her is talk to her, read to her or put on the television. Something that she can focus on if she can hear you. Any more?"
the doctor was met with shakes of the heads, indicating that no one had a question.
"okay. Now I asked inspector Morris to come in because there are a lot of people outside wanting to know more about what happened to Piper. I think you know what I mean- Press, TV cameras, spectators, that sort of ting. Now I have the hospital security on it and no one will get in, that I can assure you, but I think you need to talk to Inspector Morris here to consider your safety. This doesn't affect me, or how I will treat Piper so don't worry about that. My priority is looking after Piper and getting her better. I better be going, I'll be back to check on her in an hour or so."
"Okay, thank you doctor"
Paige said and Dr. Miles left the room.
"So what now?" Paige asked
"I don't know. Well I guess you can just orb in and out so people outside don't see you come or go. Maybe you should switch the TV on, so we can see how bad it is?" Darryl suggested.
"Okay" Phoebe said as Paige switched the small TV that was in the corner of the room on.
Images flooded into the small room and they were worse than anyone had imagined they could be. In a barely audible whisper, Leo vocalized what they were all feeling
"oh my god."
*~*~ A/N sorry if that was rubbish ending, thanks for reading and please please review!!!
~*~Chapter 5~*~
They stood outside of the door that led into Piper's hospital room. A rectangular pane of glass allowed them a glimpse of what lay inside but nobody allowed their eyes to linger on it for long. They didn't want to see a fragment of Piper. They wanted to see all of her.
Phoebe put her hand on the handle of the door and pushed it open. She then walked into the small room followed by Leo and Paige. Darryl decided to wait outside of the room; he wanted to stop anyone who wasn't supposed to go in the room from entering and he also felt that he'd be intruding if he entered.
In the center of the room was a hospital bed, it looked harsh and metallic. And in the bed lay Piper. She looked small and pale. A bandage was wrapped around her head but her hair was still visible at the top and as it fell about her shoulders as it came out of the bottom of the white stretch of material. She was wearing a white hospital gown and was covered by a blue-grey blanket. One hand rested on top of the small rise in the blankets that indicated her pregnant stomach. This was, other than her head, the only part of Piper that was visible to her family.
It seemed to Leo that the entire world had been condensed down and put into this one room, this one bed. Nothing else mattered. All sound was an infinite sense of nothing and his mouth had dried up, relegating taste to a distant memory. Talking seemed impossible and breathing insanely hard. His chest and throat were too blocked by emotion to even consider taking in air. And all his heart wanted to do was ache.
The world stayed still, silent and compressed for what seemed like hours, days, even weeks for Leo. He'd lost all recognition or concept of tome. But finally he began to become grounded. Sound penetrated his world first, the beeping of the numerous monitors hooked up to Piper dragged him from his retreat and he began to breathe again. But no breath in the world could extinguish the pain in his heart at the moment. He began to walk over to Piper, oblivious to the silent tears making their way down his face because they didn't matter. He didn't matter, at least not without her. In one fluid moment, Leo picked up Piper's hand from her stomach and sat down in a chair by her bedside. And he held onto her hand, silently swearing to never let it go, never to let her go.
Phoebe was shocked at the calmness on her big sister's face. It looked exactly as though Piper was sleeping and Phoebe longed to go and tell her to wake up, but deep down, Phoebe knew it'd be pointless. Piper needed to 'sleep', at least for now. So instead Phoebe sat opposite Leo, on the other side of Piper, and stroked her sisters hair, that came out of the bandage, and talked to Piper.
"Piper, honey, it'll be okay now. We're here. Me, Paige and Leo. It'll be okay"
Paige was standing at the end of piper's bed. For a moment it seemed as though she had retreated into herself once more. But she didn't let her self. Not this time.
"Yeah Piper. We're all here and we'll never leave you here alone."
Just then the door opened, but no one turned to see who had entered the room. They were engrossed by Piper.
"I see you found Piper okay then"
Phoebe realized there was another person in the room at the sound of the doctor's voice.
"Doctor Miles." She said, simply in conformation that she'd heard the doctor enter.
"Hello," The three heads turned towards the doctor now and realized that Darryl had come into the room also. Doctor Miles continued, "Piper's operation went fine and quicker than we had anticipated. This means we have successfully reduced the swelling around Piper's brain so she should be fine there. When Piper was in the operation, we x-rayed her and the results of this showed that her lower right leg is broken in 3 places, so we set these in theatre. They also showed that she has a small fracture to her spine that can be easily fixed. We sorted this out in theater also. Now, before you panic, none of this has harmed the baby, we took special care of that, and the baby is doing fine, it's very resilient by the look of things. Okay, any questions?"
"Yes, will the swelling on her brain give any after effects?" Paige asked.
"You mean like paralysis?" Paige nodded in confirmation and Dr.Miles continued. "No, Piper was lucky in the respect that the swelling will, at the most, only affect her short term memory. So, for example, she may not remember what happened directly before the accident, but long term stuff .g. name, identity, family, will be fine. Any other questions?"
Paige looked relieved at the answer and Phoebe asked a question.
"How long will she stay like this, in a coma, unconscious. What ever it is?"
"for a patient with injuries like Piper's and who has had an operation like Piper's, the typical amount of time to stay in a coma is for any time between 3 days and 10 days, but don't be worried if its longer. The best you can do for her is talk to her, read to her or put on the television. Something that she can focus on if she can hear you. Any more?"
the doctor was met with shakes of the heads, indicating that no one had a question.
"okay. Now I asked inspector Morris to come in because there are a lot of people outside wanting to know more about what happened to Piper. I think you know what I mean- Press, TV cameras, spectators, that sort of ting. Now I have the hospital security on it and no one will get in, that I can assure you, but I think you need to talk to Inspector Morris here to consider your safety. This doesn't affect me, or how I will treat Piper so don't worry about that. My priority is looking after Piper and getting her better. I better be going, I'll be back to check on her in an hour or so."
"Okay, thank you doctor"
Paige said and Dr. Miles left the room.
"So what now?" Paige asked
"I don't know. Well I guess you can just orb in and out so people outside don't see you come or go. Maybe you should switch the TV on, so we can see how bad it is?" Darryl suggested.
"Okay" Phoebe said as Paige switched the small TV that was in the corner of the room on.
Images flooded into the small room and they were worse than anyone had imagined they could be. In a barely audible whisper, Leo vocalized what they were all feeling
"oh my god."
*~*~ A/N sorry if that was rubbish ending, thanks for reading and please please review!!!