Oscar slowly opened his eyes to the smell of antiseptic and something that reminded him of scotch tape.
He could hear the steady beeping of a heat monitor beside him and turned to see an IV in his wrist. He wasn't familiar with hospitals, so the sight of all the plastic, the needle in his vein, and the tape-like stuff covering it was a bit concerning.
He also noticed the pale blue robe he was wearing. It was comfortable, but the unfamiliar smell blended in with the rest of the air.
Living on a farm, somewhat isolated from society and only receiving minor injuries hadn't given him much experience or knowledge of medical stuff.
He heard a couple other machines outside his door, quietly producing their sounds. A few low, quiet voices talked in the other rooms and hallways and an occasional laugh sounded. Here and there, a voice would talk on a speaker outside, usually to call someone to a specific area of the hospital.
The gentle sound of a fan blowing caressed his ears and gave a pleasant atmosphere to the room. The cool breeze that came with it was also comforting.
"Wha..?" he asked, voice slurred, out loud. His mind was completely blank of the previous events and even to whatever it was he had been so desperately perusing.
His body felt so tired and weary. Laying there in the peaceful quietness with the calming noises around him was so nice; he didn't even try to remember why he was here or what was happening. He noticed that his leg was wrapped very tightly with bandages.
"Why am I here..?" he asked out loud to himself. He tried to think back to where he was and what had led to him being there.
I passed out from an injury...yes, my leg got hurt and it was bleeding a lot. Why was it bleeding so much? It was injured by something. Yes, a Grimm! That awful white Grimm. It hurt me when I was trying to...to...
His eyes widened and he snapped to the present, now fully aware of his situation.
"I was trying to save Ruby!" he exclaimed, "I got here with that guy so I could rescue her! I've gotta find her!"
He yanked the covers off and hurried out of his bed. His stiff leg ached painfully, but he ignored it in his desperation. He started for the door, only to feel an uncomfortable jerking at his wrist. The IV dripping tipped over, the thin plastic tube tearing out the needle and leaking fluid onto the floor.
He ignored that, too, and rushed through the hallway. Something skidded on wheels behind him, replaced its rhythmic beeping for a horrific screeching sound, and crashed into a wall or a door or something.
Alarmed doctors, nurses, visitors, and patients watched as he barreled through anything in his way. He shoved aside carts, dodged people, and sometimes miscalculated the distance between them and ended up roughly hitting the sides of their arms.
He didn't let himself be stopped, however, and he rushed as far as his legs would carry him.
The emergency room! he mentally informed himself, She's probably in there! If not the ICU...
He stopped for a moment, panting heavily, in front of a direction sign. He could hardly hear the frantic calls and hurried footsteps of people behind him, demanding for an explanation and wanting to help him.
It's directly in front, to the left, and then through a long hallway!
He began dashing again and rounded the corner to the left. His leg was starting to numb from the amount of strain and pain it was experiencing. The wound in it pulsed and throbbed, feeling warm and wet.
His eyes were locked on the emergency room sign mounted on the wall above some very large glass doors. He was about to shove himself through them when the worst thing that could possibly happen, happened.
A nurse with a big cart full of supplies came around the corner of a hallway that led into the hall he was in. He was unable to stop himself and instantly crashed into the cart.
Syringes, bottles, bandages, clothes, medications, and tools flew through the air and spilled all over the floor. The nurse yelped, jumping backwards, and stared with horrified eyes at the mess that had just been made.
Her eyes widened even further when she saw a patient sprawled out over the cart. The remaining IV was sticking half out of his wrist, dripping a little blood onto his sleeve.
"Oh my gosh!" she cried, "C-can I help you?!"
She hurried over to him and helped him off the cart, putting his arm around her shoulder for support. He groaned, eyes half open in response.
"What are you doing here?" she continued, "Where were you before? Are you alright?"
"Ruby..!" Oscar moaned painfully, "Ruuubbyyy!"
"Ruby?" she asked. She started leading him towards a chair that was set up near the entrance to the ER. He limped along with her and dumped himself into the chair.
"Ruby," he explained, "She's hurt and she needs me..! I have to...to...to save her..."
He panted between words, pupils largely dilated. A few drops of sweat rolled down his exhausted face.
"Well, I can probably help you find her," the nurse said gently, "But first I'm going to need you to tell me where you were before, and if you can't remember, just please tell me your name."
"I-I'm Oscar," he panted, "Please...find Ruby..!"
His desperation was very clear, even through his weary state. Whoever this Ruby girl was, she must've been very, very important to him.
"What's your last name?" the nurse prompted further.
"Pine," he replied, "Please..!"
"Alright, thank you," she sighed, "I can find your name on the patient list and then I can find her name and her location here. Just please be patient."
"It's...it's in the t-title," Oscar said humorously. His humor didn't last long before he nearly passed out from exertion. The nurse hurried away to find a location computer.
Oscar thought for a moment through his fazed mind that she was Jaune or something. Her hair was blond and her eyes were a bright green. Despite the green eyes, her face really reminded him of Jaune.
"Alright, Mr. Pine," she said after she returned, helping him up, "Let's get you back to your room and after you rest and recover some, I'll let you visit Ruby."
"N-no!" Oscar cried, "Don't you see?! She needs me right now! I have to see to it that she's okay! I can't leave her behind without knowing where she is!"
His franticness was both admirable and annoying at this time. The nurse just wanted him to get back to his room so he could get better. The anxiousness and hurry in his voice was a little understandable and concerning, though.
"It's alright," she assured him, "She's in the ICU right now, as far as the computer has updated. They have some of the best doctors there, so I'm sure she'll be alright."
"No!" Oscar shouted, almost angrily, "I want to see her now!" He was getting so worked up, she might as well refuse until he passed out again so she could return him to his room.
But there wasn't much of a point to doing that. Technically, she could bring him there. She wasn't necessarily busy right now, except for the fact that there was a huge mess scattered on the floor. But the janitors could clean that up.
"Alright then," she sighed, "Let's go. Please let me know if you can't go on anymore. I just need to call the unit and request that we come in."
Oscar weakly nodded and waited as she left and then came back about 25 minutes later. He could feel his body shaking, sweating, aching, and warming up. His face felt like it was burning.
When she returned, she offered him a faint smile and helped him up.
The nurse led him down hallways, corridors, rooms, and elevators. It felt like an eternity to him, especially with his throbbing leg and head.
"I'm Sunny, by the way," the nurse said sometime through their walk. Oscar acknowledged it with a bleary nod and pressed on.
Finally, they reached a dim carpeted hallway with a few rooms to the left and right. A group of people were crowded in a corner, heads downcast.
Oscar looked into their darkened eyes and saw tears in some of them, while other either had shadows in them or tear stains on their cheeks. One of them looked as depressed as all get out.
"It's this kind of place..," Oscar murmured sadly out loud, "People die here."
Sunny slowly nodded. "Yup."
The Intensive Care Until, abbreviated as the ICU, was the more severe, prolonged version of the Emergency Room, abbreviated ER. Both titles could very appropriately fit, though. It was both for emergencies and intensive care. Emergencies tended to require intensive care.
When they finally arrived to the actual ICU itself, Oscar's eyes widened.
A large room with several different small areas was before then. Each "room" had no door, but a simple curtain that could be easily pushed aside. Medical equipment was everywhere, either in use or being wheeled into a room or taken away.
Doctors and nurses were everywhere, and despite their relatively calm and professional demeanor, Oscar could easily imagine that their hearts were racing and their minds were worried or frantic.
He marveled at how organized and yet chaotic it was. It was also terrifying because a lot of the patients he could see through the open curtains looked horrible.
"She's over here," Sunny notified him. She took him over to a curtained room to the left and gently knocked on the wall outside of it. When no one came out, she slowly peeled back the curtain and let Oscar hobble in.
She kept a firm hold on his arm in case his body decided to give out at any second.
Oscar felt tears rush to his eyes at the sight before him. The pain and fire he felt faded away as his emotions seized his body and made him want to weep. Relief was one of them, because he knew she was being cared for right now.
Ruby was lying on a bed with wheels, clad in a loose hospital garb that appeared to be barely on her. An oxygen mask covered her face, her black and red hair brushing over its top. The wound, despite looking like the bleeding had possibly intensified at some point, looked much neater.
It had been cared for, indeed, but whatever had been performed on it had clearly been done with great haste. Bandages were wrapped around it, but they looked sort of makeshift. Like they would be removed later on.
Doctors surrounded her, carrying tools and all kinds of medical things. There was a lot of conversation happening between them all, but it was all so mixed up that Oscar couldn't decipher it. In fact, he couldn't really decipher anything around him. It was like everything had faded away except for his beloved Ruby on the bed there.
Her face looked troubled and pale. He just wanted to hold her in his arms and assured her, through her unconsciousness, that everything was going to be alright. That's what he was hoping over and over again in his mind.
He stared at her stomach, envisioning the child, or children, that were in there. Alive and well, hopefully. They'd better be alive and well with all the trouble Ruby was going through to ensure that.
He felt his legs threatening to give. When Sunny felt his grip on her and the weight he was pressing increase, she started to lead him out of the room again.
"W-wait..," he tried to argue, too weak to really express his eagerness, "I need to stay with her..."
But he didn't have enough in him to fight back. In some rational part of his mind he knew that attempting anything would send him on the floor and in more pain. Just more inconvenience for everyone around, including himself.
His mind faded in and out of consciousness as he dragged himself along with the nurse through where they'd come from before. Somewhere along the way, he noticed he wasn't limping anymore but sitting down and moving.
A distant thought about a wheelchair crossed his foggy mind and he finally faded away completely.
Oscar awoke to a harsh loud beeping sound originating directly next to his ear.
The IV machine had completed its transfusion, indicating this by its obnoxious beeps. It was a little too close to his bed, so the noise had been a lot louder to him than it normally would have been.
After a few minutes of lying there and trying to tolerate the abhorrent sounds, a pair of nurses entered the room. They apologized for the wait and quickly began switching out the bags. Oscar watched them with tired, unamused eyes.
He'd been lying in this bed for nearly a whole day now after seeing Ruby that first time. At first, he'd been extremely panicked and hurried and tried again to find her. But then he'd been temporarily restrained in bed, considered as a danger to his own health, until Sunny had managed to keep him at a sane level and assure him on the situation.
Now he just waited obediently in bed and did as told with the promise of Ruby's safety as a return.
At least the food's decent... He thought to himself. He'd heard numerous rumors on how bad hospital food was, but it was actually pretty good.
When the nurses had finished their task, they bid him farewell, wished him a speedy recovery, and left. Those two were always bumbling around in the hallway outside his room about their girly issues. It partially annoyed him, but he'd learned after a few hours to deal with it.
He sighed and lay back into his pillows. He felt more mentally exhausted than physically. Yes, his injured leg still felt stiff and achy, but his aura had flipped back on this morning and started working its magic.
The doctor informed him earlier that with the rate his aura was working at, he'd be in stable condition by that afternoon. That meant reasonably soon. To Oscar's relief, he was also notified by Sunny that Ruby wasn't doing worse and that she was stable to some degree.d
Oscar had been overjoyed, but now he wanted so badly just to see her. He wanted to hear her voice and to know she was fine. To see her smile, see her big, beautiful silver eyes...
A soft knocked sounded on his door. He looked up and saw Sunny, leaning up against the door frame. She wasn't wearing nurse scrubs anymore; instead she wore a casual blue shirt with a dark blue sweater over it and some skinny jeans.
Her hair wasn't tied back but was hanging loosely in her face and around her shoulders. It was kind of cute, but it had little notice from Oscar.
"Oh, hi," he greeted.
"Hey, lover boy," she grinned. She stepped in and sat herself down on a chair next to his bed. She crossed her legs and set her hands lightly in her lap. "How'er you doing?"
"Fine, thank you," Oscar answered, "What's up?"
"Oh, I needed to let you in on some information," she replied. She leaned forwards and rested her chin on her hand, which was leaned up on her jean-accented thigh.
"Oh? What's that?"
"I have more news from the ICU."
Oscar's eyes widened and his fingers gripped the sheets a little tighter.
"G-good or bad?" he asked a bit fearfully. A smile spread across Sunny's face, spreading a warming relief through Oscar's heart.
"Good," she said. Oscar's grip on the sheets relaxed and he let out a slow, gentle breath.
"Thank goodness..."
"Well, she's still really hurt," Sunny added, "But she's at least out of the ICU now, which basically means she's not going to die at any second. Is she your wife or girlfriend or something?"
Oscar felt his cheeks warm and he wondered what he was supposed to say. Technically, they were going to get married in the future, so he could lie and probably get away with it. But maybe not, because neither of them had rings or legal records for it, obviously.
"She's my girlfriend, I guess," he finally answered. Sunny shrugged and stood back up again.
"I don't know what it is with young people nowadays," she said, "But I'm just glad to see that you two are going through with the whole baby situation or whatever."
Oscar chuckled and shook his head.
"Are you not working today or something?" he asked. Sunny nodded.
"Yup," she said, "I just keep getting notifications on my work scroll regarding the progression of the patient 'Ruby Rose', so that way I can keep ya posted."
Oscar nodded his head. "Thank you so, so much."
"Eh, it's not problem," she said, "Really."
Oscar smiled. Then he finally gathered enough courage through his mildly introverted self to ask her a question he'd been itching to ask her all day.
"Hey...uh, do you happen to know someone named Jaune Arc?" he asked tentatively. Sunny took on a quizzical, confused look. He couldn't tell if she was clueless or weirded out.
"How do you know my brother's name?" she demanded. Oscar's mouth dropped open.
"You're his sister?!" he gasped, "That's so cool!"
"What, you know him?" she said, "That's also cool. I haven't seen him in a while, though, so if he's around here somewhere, please let me know where I can find him."
Oscar grinned.
"Yeah, he's a good friend of Ruby's," he said, "He should be in that city that has a road leading from here to it..."
Sunny suddenly looked very excited.
"Oh really?" she said. Oscar nodded.
"If he did what he told me he would," he said, slightly more downcast. "It was a pretty bad blizzard out there...I hope they're all okay."
"Who's all okay?" Sunny asked, "What do you mean?"
"Nah, it's nothing," Oscar said, dismissing it, "It's complicated. Don't worry about it."
"Okay," Sunny said. She walked back towards the door and stopped to say goodbye quick.
"Gotta go get some lunch and head back home," she said, "It was nice to meet you, Mr. Pine!"
"I'm younger than you," he laughed back with a wave. Sunny shrugged, smiled one last time, and then left. Her heels clacked lightly on the white tile floor as she disappeared, slowly getting quieter the farther she went.
"I told one of your room nurses to update you on Ruby's situation!" she called before completely going away. Oscar smiled and then lay back in his bed. He stared at the white ceiling and then tried to fall asleep.
His body, not surprisingly enough, accepted the offer to sleep. He managed to get a few hours before he was awoken by the sounds of a doctor entering his room.
At first, he was worried it'd be bad news about Ruby or something, but then he found out that he was going to be allowed to leave his room if he wanted soon. They advised him to either take it easy or just stay a little longer. He quickly agreed to the latter option.
There was nowhere for him to stay in this big city and he didn't have any money with him. He also wasn't fully recovered and wanted to be around Ruby was much as possible as soon as possible.
The idea of hanging out in this hospital didn't seem very unappealing, either. He just hated the idea of lying idly in bed while Ruby wasn't well. He wanted to be with her so bad right now.
So after a little while longer of resting, he decided, with permission, to wander around a little. His leg was already feeling better from before he'd slept and his aura had made decent progress in his healing process.
He limped around the halls, testing the outcome of the amounts of weight he applied to his leg and seeing how much it took to really hurt it. To his delight, he could limp without much pain at all and still maintain pretty good balance.
After wandering through the floor he was on, he decided to explore the floor Ruby was on. That floor was for patients with a more complicated condition and was probably the quietest of them all. Hopefully he could even see her.
He got up to the seventh floor via the elevator and limped over to the desk placed in the center of a large hallway. The floors on this floor seemed particularly shiny compared to the one on his floor. The detail was irrelevant, but it still crossed his mind.
"Can I help you, sir?" a man asked. He suspiciously eyed the hospital robe Oscar was dressed in.
"Yes, uh, there's Ruby Rose on this floor, right?" Oscar answered. He started to feel anticipation and excitement welling up in his heart.
"Yes, there is," the man replied, "She was just transferred here this morning. The sight was enough to remember for me, so I'm able to just tell you without looking through our patient records of today." He ended with a small chuckle.
"Oh, good," Oscar said eagerly, "What's the room number?"
"That, I'll have to look up," the man said. He typed some things up on his computer, clicked a few times, and finally looked up again.
"567," he said, "If the door's open a crack, there's probably a nurse in there. You can knock and ask to go in. Otherwise, you may not be able to visit at this time."
Oscar nodded excitedly. "Thanks!"
"Are you a patient here, sir?" the man asked before Oscar left. Oscar nodded again.
"Yeah," he said, "I was on the fourth floor and the doctor said I could wander around."
"Which doctor?" the man said.
"I think his last name was Blonde?"
"Mh hm...let me call him."
Oscar tapped his good foot impatiently on the floor as he waited for the man to finish contacting the doctor. As he had guessed, the doctor's last name was Blonde. Dr. Blonde. Not a bad name, really.
The humorous part about it was that his hair was black.
"Okay, I just spoke with him," the man said, "You can go. I'll be sure to inform anyone who asks about you, because that'll probably happen."
Oscar shrugged. "Thanks."
Then he hurried to find the door numbered 567. It was further than he had expected, but he found it in decent time. The door was not open a crack, to his disappointment.
"Aw man..," he mumbled. Just then, he heard noises inside. He pressed his ear up to the door and managed to make out a few words. There were voices, female voices, discussing something about babies.
One of the voices was unmistakably Ruby's.
She's awake! She's awake! Oscar mentally rejoiced, Oh, yes yes yes yes...I have to see her!
He softly knocked on the door, restraining his urge to open it and run in. The voices stopped and he heard some kind of excited noise squeak out in Ruby's voice. His heart leapt at the sound.
"Who's there?" an unfamiliar voice demanded.
"A visitor," Oscar answered back. He wondered if she'd even heard him through the somewhat thick wood of the door. After he had finished saying his answer, he heard some kind of excited noise squeak out in Ruby's voice. His heart leapt at the sound.
He heard some very fast chatter arise from Ruby and some other sounds from the other person in the room.
Probably explaining who I am or something.
He was surprised when the door handle suddenly went down and the door opened. A large nurse with a short, thin ponytail and some wrinkles on her face stood in the entrance. She offered him a large wrinkly smile as she stared at him.
"Well, hello there, sir," she greeted, "Ms. Rose is very excited to see you."
Her voice had that elderly deepness to it that a lot of generic, cliché older people had in shows and movies. It could either pass as a welcoming voice or a scary one.
"T-thanks," Oscar said, "Can I...see her..?" Although he didn't look it, his heart was racing and his insides were dancing about. It took everything he had to keep from outwardly dancing like that, too.
"Yes, yes you may," the nurse said. Her name badge identified her as 'Mable'. Oscar couldn't decide if it was fitting or very non-fitting. That detail was also irrelevant, but crossed his mind amidst the millions of other thoughts flurrying around.
Overflowing with excitement, Oscar walked passed Mable and into the main part of the hospital room.
And WALLAH! Oscar and Ruby's situations seem like their quickly improving! Perhaps that'll change, but you don't know. I hope y'all haven't minded all the hospital-ness this chapter has abundantly brought you.
It's kinda a weird place to end this chapter, but it's getting long. This chapter is just me remember what hospitals are like and enjoying the sounds of hospital ambience to enhance the writing atmosphere. :P
Oh, and surprise. Meet Sunny Arc. I named all of Jaune's siblings whose names are unmentioned (other than Saphron) in one of my chapters of "Family". Just read that part to see all of the names.
Another gracious circumstance was provided to let me post this while the normal device is getting fixed. Hurrah!
Thanks for reading and tune in for more chapters!