Disclaimer: I don't own any Sly Cooper characters; they belong to Sucker Punch Productions.
Claimer: I own all of my original characters.
And I'm sorry for this long update period, but I finally got this chapter finished and decided to post it while I still could. A friend of mine let me use their computer to post this since my laptop has a virus (sad face). So, in order to fix my computer, I have to send my laptop halfway across the state and I won't get it back for…a week or two…maybe? So this will be the last update for a long time but I promise I will post more often once my computer is fixed and I can get everything straightened out. But until then, please read and review and let me know what you think of this chapter and any suggestions and review if you want. (: I'm also in the process of thinking up a possible oneshot somehow based on The Phantom of the Opera. I've always loved that piece of work and I started getting ideas while typing this and listening to the soundtrack. So if you have any suggestions for that, please let me know and I'll credit you if I use them!
Chapter 8: A Closer Bond
The feeling of warmth and security surrounded me as I started to come out of my haze and back into reality. My eyes slowly fluttered open but I still saw darkness, only it was softer. Small beeps filled my ears and I felt the steady stream of oxygen enter my nostrils through a tube. My chest had a dull ache along with my teeth, jaw, and sides. My eyes finally adjusted and I knew I had to be in a hospital room when I started putting things together. Both of my paws had an IV shoved in them and I could tell one was pumping blood to me and I guessed the other one was either a pain reliever or an antibiotic. I was lying on my back in a hospital bed, covered in blankets, and alive. After I pulled my hospital gown down slightly, I glanced briefly to my chest and noticed a large bandage was over my wound and a red stain rested in the center of the cloth. I replaced the gown when I realized there was someone in the room with me. Whoever it was, was sitting in the chair a few feet from my bed and was letting out soft snores. I turned on my side to see who it was but was quickly returned to my original position when a burst of pain shot through my chest. I let out a loud gasp and groan and my breathing became labored due to the pain and I decided that moving wasn't the best idea. I realized my outcry of pain had caused the other person in the room to come to when the snoring stopped.
"Looks like you finally decided to join the living." I heard Sly's exhausted voice to my right and was put at ease.
"I don't feel like it, I can tell you that." I muttered to the raccoon. My chest was throbbing with pain and I placed my paw over the bandage and felt for my pulse, "Did they get the bullet out?" I questioned when I fully remembered why I was here in the first place.
"Sure did, hold on just a second," he stood up from his chair and stretched towards the table at the foot of the bed. He pulled out a folder and some sort of box. He flopped back down in the chair and shuffled through the folder and eventually pulled out a sheet. After placing the sheet on the box-looking device, he flicked a switch on the side and I recognized it as a portable x-ray light. He handed me the device after pulling his chair closer to my bed while I held the x-ray into my lap.
"That little speck, right there," he placed a finger on the screen, "is the bullet. And you see how it's between those two little tube looking things? One of those is the aorta and I can never remember what the other one's called, but that's the other major blood vessel. But it missed any critical vessels but it did hit a medium sized one to the right of the heart and that's what caused the profuse bleeding. The doctor said that you lost somewhere around…five pints, maybe? And if I remember correctly," he paused briefly before yawning, "Women your size only have about nine pints of blood total so you lost over half of what you have in your body. The doctor had to pump two pints into you before he could take out the bullet so you've been out for, like, twenty hours, if I'm doing my math right." He yawned again before talking some more, "They've got you hooked up to your fourth pint now and they said you should be alright after the fifth one. Speaking of which are you feeling alright?"
"About as alright as I can, given the circumstances." I snorted before flicking the light off, "Do you think tonight could have gone any worse? I almost drown and then shot by my own mother, what's next? What possibly could happen next that would just frost the cake?" he moved the x-ray from my lap and grabbed my paw while resting his elbows on the side bars of the bed.
"You heal, you get out of the hospital, you get to go home, everything will smooth out, and you live happily ever after." I sighed and wished things could be that simple and I was that lucky.
"What happened Sitka and Charlotte?" I asked after realizing I hadn't seen them since I had left for the job.
"At the Police station somewhere in the country with Carmelita. They worked out a deal with your sister that they wouldn't be arrested, you included, if they could shed some light on your shooting. They've got your mother in custody and stacked a bucked load of charges against her." He felt my fingers against his lips before glancing to the bags connected to the tubes. I glanced to his face after feeling a lump beneath my fingers. I shifted my paw away from his face a frown when I noticed he had a busted lip and a blackened eye.
"Please don't tell me you got that in all the commotion." I almost wined when I remembered he had been fighting off random guards while I was dealing with my mom.
"I have these more than you'd think; it's not that big of a deal." I grunted and shivered when fluid started pumping in through the IV in my left paw. Whatever was in the bag, was really cold and was really strong.
"What's in this thing anyway?" I mumbled after realizing it was some sort of pain killer and I was already getting stupid. Besides many other things I couldn't stand or handle, it was definitely medicines. Even if I took something as simple as cold medicine, I was rolling on the floor in a random laughing fit and there was no telling what this stuff would do.
"Morphine, I think." Morphine was one of the strongest pain killers out there and I knew that there was no way this would end smoothly. I stared silently until enough morphine was in my system and I started laughing and snorting. I had rolled onto my side and my laughing was muffled, but was still a little loud. Sly chuckled as well before scooting his chair closer.
"You're one of this funny drunks and medicine takers, aren't you?" I nodded as best as I could before my laughing stopped and I started to get tired and ready to go to sleep. My vision started to get blurry again and my eyelids started getting heavy just after one of us had pulled up the blankets; I was in too much of a haze to remember completely which one of us moved the blankets. My eyes closed when I felt him press his lips against my forehead and his paws wrap around one of mine before the medicine finally took full effect and I drifted off into a dreamful sleep.