She opened her eyes blearily and blinked a few times to clear the fog from her brain. She couldn't figure out where she was, but everything was bright and white and made her head hurt. As she pulled her consciousness back into grasp, she realized that everything hurt. Her head, her arms, her leg, her chest. It was hard to breathe, and there was something plasticky on her nose. She tried to take a breath and felt a sharp, searing pain shoot through her ribs. A strangled, wounded sound clawed its way out of her throat, and hot tears burned in the corners of her eyes. What was going on? Why did everything hurt so much?
The noise that had escaped her caught the attention of someone who was in the room with her, someone she hadn't noticed until now. The woman was wearing soft-looking scrubs, and the word "nurse" sluggishly floated to the top of her torpid brain. There was a nurse and she was hurt, so maybe she was in…
"Barbara, honey, try not to move. You're in the hospital with some pretty serious injuries." The hospital. She was in the hospital. Why was she in the hospital?
The nurse spoke again, and it took all of her concentration to process what the nurse was saying. "I'm Monica, I'm one of the nurses here. We're going to take good care of you, okay, so just try to relax." Relax. She didn't feel relaxed, she felt hurt and scared. Why was she scared? Why was her heart racing so fast? How did she get here? She tried to raise her head to get a better look around, but it felt like her bones had been turned to lead, and she couldn't find the strength to move. She tried to open her mouth to speak and felt a soreness in her jaw and another flash of pain in her ribs. A gurgling whine of pain was all she could get out. The corners of the nurse's mouth turned down. Was she sad?
"Barbara, I'm going to need you to stay calm. Try to stay still, and take shallow breaths. A couple of your ribs are cracked, and one punctured your lung. The doctors operated on it, and you're going to be okay, but you need to take it easy." She felt so confused. Nothing was making any sense.
"Wha-aa-ah ha-aa-app-en?" she managed to choke out. Her mouth felt like it was full of sand and her tongue felt three times too big. Every sound she made caused another flash of pain to flick through her chest.
"Just rest, honey. Just stay still and rest. Everything is going to be fine." Fine. Fine. Fine. A buzzing noise was building in her head, like a swarm of bees. She felt so tired. Everything is going to be fine. She closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep.
Did you guess who it was? Hopefully everything will be okay for her, and hopefully we'll see how she connects with the other story soon :)