Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima
ACT VI: Reverberation Time – Gathering what's left
Approximately X793
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
Chapter 39: Hello there
Lucy was sitting in the hospital's waiting room, with Happy sitting stiffly on her lap, the cat having an expression that looked sad, worried and somewhat tired since he hadn't gotten enough sleep ever since the war ended. The blonde girl was wearing the exact same expression as the cat, as they sat in silence. None of them said anything, so they just sat staring at nothing in particular.
While sitting there Lucy thought back to the most important events that had happened after the war, which was rather convenient for outsiders who wanted to know what happened afterwards...
Right after the roars of victory had died down, the remaining guild masters quickly met with each other to exchange a few words, before they gathered their members and went in different directions. All of them had been exhausted but also somewhat high on both adrenaline and the ecstatic feeling of being victorious. Which resulted in the majority was feeling somewhat beside themselves as they left the battlefield. For some the heavy reality of what was lost soon kicked in, leaving them with a sense of dread and melancholy, others chose to dodge that bullet and push those feelings aside for the moment.
But none of them could escape that feeling and the consequences of the war for long, not even the guild members of Fairy Tail. After they got back Laxus reluctantly took on the role as the next guild master, which he had been appointed to take before the war started in case Makarov died. With that in mind, it was no wonder the lightning mage had been outraged, when he had that small one on one conversation what felt like ages ago, because the previous master had given him such a grave piece of information before the war even started.
They didn't celebrate their new master when they got home, because Laxus didn't want his first actions to be something so insignificant. No, instead he quickly made arrangements for the funeral of the people they had lost, so they could be remembered in the future.
Cana, Gildarts, Makarov, Lisanna, Mest and Evergreen... they would all be remembered for paying the ultimate price in order for the world to gather peace.
A lot of people who had been involved with the fight was fortunate enough that they didn't receive grave injuries, so they could easily be handled by Wendy and Poly. Others weren't that lucky and was sent to the hospital, where the combined efforts of the staff there did everything they could to take care of them. One by one they all got better and left the facility, until there was only one remaining from their guild: Natsu Dragneel.
Because his injuries had been so severe, he was constantly being supervised by different machines and magical devices. In spite of that or well because of the Dragon Slayer wasn't concisions. Nope, he just laid there in a deep sleep like state, while his body tried to recover. Not that it mattered to Happy and Lucy if he was awake or not when they paid him a visit, all they wanted was to see their precious friend to show their support, even if he didn't know they were there.
So that was why the cat and blonde found themselves somewhat patiently waiting for their turn to pay Natsu a visit. To be clear the two of them weren't the only ones who wanted to see him, but after they had tried multiple times to stuff in a huge amount of members into the room, the staff demanded that they only came two at a time, because it caused to much of a commotion when too many people were there. At first the nurses had even tried to force Happy out, because he was a cat and animals wasn't a good thing to bring into a clinical area, but the celestial managed to convince them that he was an Exceed that wouldn't drop hairballs wherever he was.
Lucy sighed loudly as she stared up at the clock, the minute hand going ever so slowly before it was finally visiting hour. Well hour was a stretch since they always got half an hour before they got evicted.
Another sigh escaped the celestial mage as she started tapping with her feet in an uneven rhythm until it was finally time for them to go see their friend.
"You ready Happy?" she asked the cat who somewhat smiled at her as he nodded his big head.
"Good, let's go" her voice was filled with fake optimism as they strolled down the hallways, until they found themselves in front of the door to his room.
Standing there Lucy took a deep breath to calm her nerves, before she gently placed a somewhat shaking hand on the handle.
This is it... come on, you can do this! Who knows maybe he looks better than he did the last time? She encouraged herself inwardly, as an image of his state entered her mind, which caused an involuntary shiver to run down her spine.
"Lucy..." Happy said in a low voice as he nudged his head against her leg, showing with his gesture that he was there to support her.
"Yeah..." she smiled weakly at the cat, before opening the door. Almost everything in the room was white and had an aura that almost sparkled with cleanliness. Even the greyish machinery which was keeping their friend alive looked spotless as it stood working in complete silence.
None of them had any idea how the machine really functioned, other than it kept monitoring his pulse and heart rhythm, while providing him with stuff that would heal him but also give him substance. One of the things it did was regulate and support his lungs with air, through the mask that was placed on his face. Another thing it consisted of was different tubes, where one of them was attached to a syringe that was stuck into his right hand, which provided him with medicine. A thicker one was placed somewhere inside his stomach, which provided him with liquefied nourishment, that was enough for him to survive, but it was clearly not enough to keep his muscles from shrinking at a horrific pace. Other than that there was a tube inserted into his left land, that had a blue and glistening substance that entered his body really slowly. This was according to the doctors a magical substance, that would ensure that his own magical powers was supported so they could mend on their own over time.
There were also other tubes for... ahem... stuff that needed to be disposed off, but fortunately those functions weren't visible for guests.
"Hey there" Lucy started while rubbing her back sheepishly as she placed herself beside the bed.
"Eyy..." Happy said trying to sound eager but failing miserably, as he quickly jumped up on the bed table where he stood glaring down at his partner.
None of them said anything but just stood looking at the sickly pale Dragon Slayer, who looked so fragile especially because he had lost a lot of weight.
The sound of the door opening quietly did nothing about the silence, nor did the footsteps that approached them. They did however turn to look at an older man with thick slick black hair and a white coat. Seeing him the celestial mage didn't need to read his nameplate attached to his chest, she recognised him right away as the doctor called Astralis.
"How is he doing?" Lucy asked somewhat dreading the answer.
"He's getting there..." the doctor nodded as he scribbled something down on his papers.
"I know..." the girl took a deep breath and exhaled loudly "... but you can't tell when yet can you?" she said her voice filled with bitterness.
"Mmm?" Astralis raised an eyebrow as he stared at the two in turn "Well there hasn't been any major changes since he was admitted... what was that?" he asked no one in particular as he flipped through his papers "four months ago..."
"Figures..." Lucy said as she turned to exchange a look with Happy.
"That was until I made my rounds this morning" the black haired doctor smirked to himself as the two visitors seemed to stiffen for a moment.
"What... what does that mean?" the Exceed asked.
"This means that things have improved" he answered while nodding "This morning I noticed that the cells in his body has..."
Lucy and Happy stood glaring in confusion as the doctor went on a long rant, that none of them truly understood.
"I don't get it?" the blue cat wondered out loud, when the doctor finally finished his passionate speech.
"That his body has mended enough, that it's time we try taking him off the support system. It means that we'll wake him up from his slumber and hopefully he'll be ready to go home once the tranquilizer wears off"
"What?!" Lucy exclaimed loudly "Really?! You're not kidding are you?"
"I can assure you I don't joke, when it comes to the medical field" the doctor stated in a serious tone before continuing "I contacted your guild master an hour ago to get the permission, to try and get him out of the coma and he granted that wish. So if you don't mind, I'll do that right away"
"You... you'll wake him up?" Happy said, his eyes overflowing with tears of happiness.
"Yes that is what I'll do... now if you don't mind, I have to demand that you go take a seat in the waiting room, while I take care of things, okay? If things turn out well this shouldn't take long"
"Of course!" Lucy answered before bowing "Please take care of him"
"Aye!" Happy said while bowing his head too.
"There's no need to be so formal" Astralis blushed as he shook his hands in front of him "Just rest assured everything will be better soon"
"Well then, we'll leave this to you" Lucy said in an eager tone as she started strolling towards the door "Let's go Happy"
"Aye!" the cat smiled wholeheartedly as he followed the blonde out of the room, where they passed by a nurse called Virtus who went in to aid the doctor.
Feeling excited and positive for the first time in what felt like forever the two of them made their way to the waiting room, where they sat eagerly talking to each other. They sat like that exchanging stories trying to keep themselves busy, when they were approached by the same nurse they saw going into the room.
"Hey there" she started with a smile "As you might have guessed I assisted the doctor while... "
"So how is he?! I uhm... never mind" Lucy interrupted but quickly bit down her lips to wait for Virtus to finish her speech, causing the nurse to giggle warmly.
"It's okay, we managed to wake him up successfully and he's now breathing on his own, without having to be attached to the respirator" her smile broadened.
"Really?!" Happy said in excitement while clenching his tiny paws "Can we see him?!"
"If you want to I don't see why not?" the nurse raised a finger before continuing "But I must warn you, that it might not be a pleasant sight, after all he isn't himself at the moment. He's still affected by the tranquilizer, so he is far from in his right mind right now"
"I don't care about that, let's go! Please!" Lucy pleaded her eyes wide and glistening with unsheathed tears.
"Very well come with me then" Virtus walked ahead of them, with the two following close behind and before they knew it they were back in the patient room. What they saw in there was far from what they had imagined, since the doctor was sitting patiently beside the bed while the Dragon Slayer was clawing with his hands into thin air, like he was trying to scratch an invisible enemy, while muttering something inaudible.
"What..." Lucy sank feeling perplexed but also scared for some reason "What's going on?"
"... aye..." Happy said portraying the same emotions.
"He's hallucinating" Astralis answered them truthfully "It happens when people get out of a coma, but he'll fall back to sleep again soon"
"Uhm..." Lucy sank as she slowly walked over to Natsu "... it's good to see you... awake?"
He didn't answer her but kept clawing with his hands, while staring with huge frightened eyes into thin space, seeing something that wasn't there.
"It's okay, there's no need to fight any more" she tried saying in a confident tone while placing herself on the bed, which he didn't register at all.
"It's time to rest" Lucy smirked sadly while placing her shaky hands on his, thereby stopping his rather weak actions "There's nothing here to be afraid of"
Not hearing her words the Dragon Slayer's breathing became more shallow to the brink of him hyperventilating, as he started thrashing his body on the bed like he was trying to escape.
"Please!" she appealed before his body shot up into a sitting position, where she quickly used the opportunity to wrap her arms around his torso "Relax..."
His body was completely still all of a sudden, his breathing still being uneven and shaking.
The room was filled with silence, as the two of them sat there, Lucy's hands slightly shaking from withheld emotions and drenched with sweat, that was pouring down Natsu's skinny body.
"Ah... hah..." the Dragon Slayer huffed his eyes squinting and looking a bit more focused as he looked at Lucy.
"It's okay" she smiled widely, tears freely streaming down her cheeks "You're doing great"
"Lu...?" he managed to whisper before his eyes rolled back into his skull, his body slumping forwards leaning with all its weight against Lucy.
"Natsu?" she asked feeling rather perplexed, before the nurse came to her aid and gentle removed the now sleeping Dragon Slayer on the bed.
"It's okay, it's all part of the process" Virtus assured them as she took in the worried faces of both Happy and Lucy.
"He won't be waking up again for a while, but when he does the sedatives that kept him in a coma should be out of his system" Astralis said while making a few notes in his block.
"Which means he shouldn't be hallucinating but back to himself" the nurse continued "All though he might still be slightly beside himself because of the sedatives we'll be giving him for the pain"
"When is that?" the cat demanded to know.
"We can't say for sure..." the doctor started, but was quickly interrupted.
"Then we'll stay here until he does, no matter how long it takes!" Lucy said her voice filled with determination.
"You sure about that?" Astralis enquired all though it was pretty evident that it was useless to ask them a second time.
"Aye!" Happy shouted with a clenched paw raised into the air.
"Yes!" Lucy nodded eagerly.
"Suit yourselves" the doctor smiled warmly as he finished scribbling some more into his papers before continuing his speech "Nurse, since these people might be the correct medicine for our patient, especially considered his heightened senses, I sincerely think it might be the best approach if we used some unorthodox methods to wake him up... so I'm gonna leave this room and if someone took advantage of the extra space in here, then I have nothing to do with it..."
"I see" the nurse winked towards the doctor "I assure you that nothing will happen once you're gone"
"Make sure of that nurse" the doctor winked back, while both Happy and Lucy looked dumbfounded since they didn't catch what was going on, as Virtus left the room.
"Uhm..." the celestial mage raised her hand, as the nurse quickly started finding what looked like cloth from a cupboard.
"It's okay" Virtus handed the items to the perplexed girl, before heading to the door "I'm gonna go fetch a bed so you can stay in here until he wakes up, but you're not gonna say this to anyone, since this is kind of a forbidden way to handle our patients. You see usually they wake up in a secure environment, only with a nurse present but since it might be better for his recovery, we're gonna make an exception"
"I..." Lucy started but was interrupted when the nurse made a hushing sound.
"It's our little secret okay, so just stay here I'll be back in a few minutes"
As she left the two mages they quickly exchanged a look, both of them feeling gratitude towards the staff especially because it didn't take long before they were well adjusted with a soft bed that had fresh sheets on it.
They didn't leave the room other than going for the toilet when they needed that and kept themselves occupied with random games in low voices, until night suddenly fell. Once it did Lucy stripped down to her underwear and took on a huge t-shirt the nurse had provided her with. After that they went to say goodnight to their guild mate before they both got comfortable in their bed, where they soon snored peacefully waiting for their friend to wake up.
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
It was dark, like to brink of it being pitch black when Natsu slowly opened his heavy eyelids. Which was a good thing, since the light might have blinded him, considering he hadn't used his eyes for a while. Not that he knew this, but he could still feel how the small amount of light that came from the window made his eyeballs prickle in a weird way.
Feeling confused and super drowsy, like he was still more asleep than awake he laid staring into thin air, not thinking about anything. It was all just a blur which made sense since he was still heavily sedated, but again he wasn't really aware of what was going on. Actually not only his mind but also his body was being affected, making it feel like all of him had been beat back to level one.
As Natsu laid there doing nothing he heard the sound of a door opening. Still not thinking straight or even worrying about the situation he was in, the Dragon Slayer suddenly spotted what looked like a woman hovering above him all dressed in white.
"Shhh, it's okay just relax" she encouraging him to be silent before continuing "I know this might seem weird, but rest assured that everything is alright, you're safe here"
"Wh..." a squeaking sound escaped Natsu mouth, his throat hurting instantaneously from the effort.
"Don't speak, you might hurt your vocal cords" the woman said in a low and gentle voice "I'm a nurse that works at the hospital you're admitted to"
The Dragon Slayer knew he should feel confused and wonder why he was there, but he just felt so good damn drowsy and sleepy that he just laid there with a weird expression on his face.
"A doctor will come in and give you the details tomorrow, but for now you need to sleep, kay?"
Sleep... yes... that was an excellent idea... he narrowed his eyes and was on the brink of falling asleep again when a small scent reached his nose. Considering the amount of medicine in the room and his state it took a while for him to recognise it, but surely there it was.
"I know you can smell them and don't worry they'll be here when you wake up" the nurse said in a warm voice "Now go to sleep, you need more rest before you can greet your friends"
That made sense... he guessed... well Natsu didn't question it and the second his eyelids slipped down, he fell back into a deep slumber.
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
The next time the Dragon Slayer gained consciousness he heard the sound of someone whispering not that far away from him. At first he couldn't hear what was being said, it was all just so muffled and hard to interpretive. Heck, he couldn't even hear how many people was there or if it belonged to a specific gender.
"Mmm..." groaning Natsu carefully opened his eyes, which hurt momentarily but fortunately the light was rather dim since the curtains were keeping the sunlight out.
"Did you hear that?" a voice asked.
"What?"
"I'm sure I heard him make a sound"
"Really?!"
"Aye!
The sound of footsteps quickly approached his bed, where he laid squinting with his eyes, to stare at two silhouettes, one who seemed to belong to a girl while the other one seemed to be a cat that was sitting on her shoulder.
Before the Dragon Slayer got a chance to really see who it was or act on their scents, both of them rocketed in his direction. The female quickly but very gently embraced his torso where she started crying, while the cat choose his face to hug, with his blue furry body.
It was actually kinda hard to breathe, but he tried ignoring that fact and just laid still listening to the two of them as they silently crying against him.
Feeling confused and still awfully weak, Natsu just laid perfectly still as he took in the scent of Lucy and Happy, which made the situation a lot more comfortable, since he knew who the culprits were. And heck, if it was them he didn't mind getting hugged, even if he felt slightly weirded out and confused about their actions.
"Ahem! a fake cough, made the hugging people flinch in surprise before removing themselves from the embrace.
"Doctor Astralis" Lucy stuttered as she got into a standing position where she motioned for Happy to join her.
"It's alright, there's no reason to get so flustered" he chuckled and brought forth some papers "Now I'll just do a quick routine check and then I'll inform you of what's been going on. I could imagine you have a lot of questions. Ahhh Natsu I much demand that you refrain yourself from speaking, since your throat is quite fragile at the moment"
"Should... should we leave?" Lucy asked in a nervous sounding voice, which cause the doctor to shrug.
"Only if the patient doesn't want you to stay..." he answered earning a small nod from Natsu who didn't know what else to do in the situation.
"Very well, let's get this over with then" Astralis answered in a serious tune before he started checking the Dragon Slayer's vital signs, while scribbling something occasionally into his notes. While he did this Natsu couldn't prevent himself from drifting off to the brink of him being more asleep than awake. But heck, he just felt so freakishly exhausted.
After a while the doctor eventually finished his tasks, before he carefully slid a hand through his slick black hair while sighing loudly.
"Now this might take a while to explain Natsu, but nonetheless I'm gonna take you through what we've done to you here and try to explain why your body is acting the way it does"
And so Astralis went on to explain how the dragon Slayer got to the hospital and continued to talk stuff about his DNA, reconstruction, healing process, muscles being numbed, his stay that had lasted for four months... basically it was a lot of yada-yada, which he didn't really understand, especially because he was still feeling so super tired.
Well not that the details mattered to him. Naaw the important thing he got out of it was his body was weak for some weird reason and that he needed time before he could get back on his feet.
Which honestly sounded like it could easily become a huge pain in the ass, especially because he just wanted to get the hell outta there as soon as possible...
"Wh..." his voice cracked painfully making him cough loudly to ease his prickling throat.
"So when will he be discharged?" Lucy asked for him, which made him smirk ever so slightly.
That's my girl! Natsu thought, his smile increasing in volume. Well that was until he noticed how fatigued the girl looked, which caused him to narrow his eyes suspiciously as he looked more thoroughly at her.
Lucy looked more pale than she used to and she had clearly lost some weight. How much he couldn't know for sure, but it was noticeable even for someone like him, who didn't particularly notice stuff like that.
Also it was like her eyes seemed dull and lifeless, which wasn't improved by the dark circles that was surrounding her eyes, that clearly proved she hadn't been sleeping properly for a long period of time.
Mmm... growling in his mind, Natsu turned his eyes to look at Happy who looked like he was in a similar state, which didn't improve his mood at all. Well to be fair he wasn't feeling angry towards them, he was more mad about the fact he couldn't prevent them from ending up like that. Or was he worried? He honestly couldn't tell because the drugs was messing with his mind, making him feel utterly sleepy again.
"But that's good new!" Lucy beamed as she responded to the conversation, she was having with the doctor which the Dragon Slayer had turned off.
"Aye!" Happy agreed with a nod.
"Don't you think so?" she asked him directly, making him wonder what on earth he had missed. So not knowing what else to do Natsu just stared back at her with a confused expression on his face.
"If things go according to plan, you might get discharged tomorrow" Astralis interrupted with a playful grin on his face "Now get some rest, I'll get back later to make some more tests"
With that said the doctor left the room. Once he was completely gone, Lucy and Happy couldn't prevent themselves from cheering loudly while hugging each other.
"This is great!" the Exceed quickly wiped a few tears away, before he quickly and very cat-like scooted underneath Natsu's left arm, earning a squeak of surprise from the Dragon Slayer, as the cat nuzzled himself into the small place between his arm and torso.
"Ahhh... I've missed this" the cat sighed in comfort "Lucy you should try this it's really comfortable!"
"Uhm... I..." she blushed fiercely while averting her eyes from looking at him for some reason "... would... would that be okay..."
"Come on! I dare you!"
Yeah dare her! Natsu thought and the moment his eyes locked with Lucy's, he smiled widely to assure her it was okay with him too.
"Ohh kay then" Lucy smiled weakly before she trotted over to the bed and very gently placed herself next to him.
"No, no, no!" Happy shook his head.
"No?" Lucy wondered out loud.
"Get underneath his arm and rest your head on his torso, like this!" the cat demonstrated "And be careful not to rip out the tube thing from his hand"
"Ohh..." she seemed perplexed for a second, but after a few seconds of silence Lucy very carefully raised Natsu's arm in order to scoot under it, before she placed it above her waist, where it was hanging loosely.
Once that was over with she very gently placed her head on his chest so she was head to head with Happy.
This is great! Good work there buddy, I gotta catch some nice fish for you when I get home... heck Lucy could get some fish too if she wanted it...
Having their warm bodies pressed against his like that, while their scents filled his nostrils made him feel utterly comfortable and soon he started drifting off again and before any of them knew it all three of them was snoring peacefully on the bed. For Happy and Lucy it was the best sleep they had gotten in what felt like ages, while Natsu just passed out like he usually did. Or well he was a lot more comfortable than he cared to admit out loud, but for him it was great!
A/N: Ahhh so much explaining in this chapter, don't you just love it, *lol* XD So Astralis is a Danish group that was in the CS world tournament, I watched while typing this. Virtus Pro is a group from Poland and one I rooted for.
So there you have the origins for the doctor and nurse's names – original, no? ;)
Uhm... other than that nothing much is happening or note worthy for me to tell you about. So...
Ohh yeah I might not be a doctor or anything, but I have seen someone getting out of a coma, who acted like Natsu did. It was fucking and uncomfortable... especially when the doctor told me: "she's just hallucinating stuff, she isn't acting on her own free will"
Scary... seriously that image will forever haunt me...
Anyhow, have a great weekend and have fun!
/H
