Coming back felt a bit like leaving. Muffled voices were the first thing I could sense and while I could not see, I was not alarmed; I was too tired to be.
"All her vitals-" I heard someone say before the rest was muffled out. But slowly, after who knows how long, I could hear. Something beeped, something else hissed softly and some crowd laughed in a TV at something no one actually laughed at in their seat at home. Or hospital judging by the clinical scent. Hospital!
I heard the beeping increase in tempo temporarily before it settled. Was I- The crash! This barely registered before I heard familiar voices.
"Do you think she'll be awake?" Tulip whispered loudly as she came in. "I checked her charts. She should've surfaced by now."
"Probably decided to take a nap once she did. A concussion is not something you want to be conscious for," Xav replied. "Here, check the corridor for me and I'll check up on things and heal a little."
"Not too much," Tulip warned. "The charts know she broke two ribs and her left arm."
"I know," He hissed. "But off pain killers this is going to hurt like fuck. Will finish the concussion and the bruisings anyway."
Slowly I could feel the dull throbbing in parts ease. My muscles relaxed and I let out a slight sigh, the stiff hospital sheets rubbing un-comfortably against my skin. The sterile yet sick scent of what can only be described as "hospital" was in the air combined with someone's perfume. It was nauseating and my eyes snapped open as a roll of nausea hit. White light seared my eyes, temporarily blinding me.
"Willow! Oh my… I am so glad to see you awake! Like I checked your charts and it was like, yeah she will be fine, but still you never know. I could have missed something or something wasn't visible yet or a sudden very bad internal-"
"Tulip!" Phee snapped, the slap of her shoes coming closer to my bed. As my eyesight adjusted she came into focus. Her brown hair was tossed up in a messy bun and dark circles stained under her eyes. She gave me a tired smile. "Good to see ya up."
"Good to be." I replied frowning. I glanced around, quickly memorising the room. Pale lime green walls, narrow wardrobe to my left and a similarly narrow cabinet with three dog eared magazines on top of it to my right. A paper thin curtain gave relative privacy but to my left there were nearly wall length windows spanning the width of the room to the opposite row of beds. At that moment I heard someone retch to my far right where I presumed the door was.
Phee grimaced at the sound. "So, how do you feel?" she asked. Tulip leaned forward, ears perked.
"Em, ok but my head feels like lead," I answered. I shifted in my bed and each limb groaned in reply. "And I have a feeling moving will not help." Despite this I attempted to push myself up further. I cried out in pain as my left arm was having none of it.
"Easy Willow," Xav said seriously. "You were still awake when they managed to set it but I would not test it like that."
I panted for a split second before my ribs screamed to stop. Tulip reached toward me, her fingers twitching helplessly. "What else?" I spit through gritted teeth, trying to take the shallowest breaths possible. "What else is wrong with me?"
"Well you met the ribs and arm." Xav said dryly. "Move anymore and a concussion will holler for your attention. Your ankle was starting to swell but Xav took care of that." he said proudly. A nurse passing with a tray gave him a confused look he missed but I saw her shake her head slightly, smiling to herself. She turned to a patient across from me without a word.
"And, em, unless Xav sorts ya out I would say sleeping on your left side will be off limits. The car caught that side bad." Tulip said. She sounded so apologetic you would swear she had been the car.
"The car… Will!" I half sat up before Mr. Concussion greeted me. Combine that with everything I lost my sight for a second to the searing pain.
"God Willow stay down or I will freaking strap you down!"
"How is Will?" I snarled furiously in a burst of energy, the anger surprising them only as half as much as it surprised me. Weakened, I slumped back into my thin pillows, limp.
"Calm down!" Crystal said. She came into my curtained area. She looked between me glaring at the ceiling and Phee and Xav standing there, mouths agape. "Go keep Will company for a while and give him an update."
Once they had left I turned my head immediately to ask her but she beat me to it. "Will is fine. Just cuts, a sprained ankle and a few lacerations, I think. They barely got you awake to be X-Rayed but Will was only knocked out from the impact. They gave him some mighty fine painkillers to calm him down though." She chuckled. "Still half cuckoo if you know what I mean." And she full out laughed, Tulip joining in. I gave her a sour look as though they had collectively given me a carton of milk for Christmas.
But when the overhead lights starting flickering, their laughter cut off abruptly. "I need to see him." Instead of immediately asking the nurse for help or just grabbing a wheelchair for me they gave each other nervous looks. I managed to stop disrupting the lights but they were well aware I could blow all the monitors and lights if they did not tread carefully. But they were saved a response when the nurse came in, pushing the curtain aside with a noisy rustle.
"Awake are we? Good to see, very good. You gave all your friends quite a scare. And your family were just about stopped from coming over on the first flight they could get!"
"You told my family!" I cried at Tulip. "They would freak out, especially if I couldn't even talk to them! For Heaven's sake Tulip!" Tulip, for once, actually looked fearful of me. It was the nurse, Amy her nametag said, who answered.
"Now, now. You're going to tire yourself out. How about we give you a little painkiller to help you take a pleasant nap, hmm?"
Good manners forced to calm down marginally to be civil with the kind nurse. While I was itching practically to see was Will ok with my own eyes I damn well knew I was not going to be let budge. Just to avoid being irritated further I gave the nurse a sweet smile. "Sure, give me whatever. Conk me out until visiting hours are over."
She twisted her lips at this while Tulip seemed to be debating between looking angry or offended. As Amy administered the drug Tulip left but Crystal held my hand. "Look, we knew you would wake up but at the same time it's scary seeing someone out cold like that. I will get your families number to update them anyway. And judging by the look of ya," Crystal said raising her eyebrows. "I would probably want some of that hardcore stuff too.
I think I laughed or tried to respond but it came out garbled and a little slurred. Crystal simply patted my hand. "See you soon Willow."
I felt myself stirring to the most irritating ticking noise. Tick-Tock-Tick-Tock. As I slowly resurfaced I grew to detest the loud stilted sound it made. Tick-Tock-Tick-Tock. I felt my nose scrunch a little irritation.
"Yeah, it's annoying the shit out of me too. Tick-Tock-Tick-Piss off." An all too familiar voice said nonchalantly. My eyes flew open and only an odd thick, foggy feeling in my head kept me from jumping up. In the darkness, illuminated only by a few monitors and the moonlight, someone leaned in behind me to help prop up my pillows. Will. "You got a lot of texts by the way," He added, waving my phone around. "Tulip left your phone here and it looks like someone is Ms. Popular." the corners of his mouth tilting upwards into a smile before he even finished.
"Oh sure, my many adoring fans must be missing me already." I replied. I blushed at my own comment, internally cringing. Will really brought out a side rarely frequented, more sarcastic and acerbic than I thought inner me was. I quickly take my phone as an excuse to bend down, hiding my face in a blonde curtain of hair. Lucian, Sherry, Lucian, Cam and a number of people I did not even consider friends. I was not the slightest bit surprised they had found out but I knew who would be getting called back later. Right now my head throbbed a little too much to be listening to tinny cell phone voices, high and squeaky with concern. Even thinking about it made my head hurt causing Will to lean forward and gently smooth out my wrinkled forehead.
"No need to worry about them. My beautiful soulfinder needs her rest." He said leaning back into his chair, the leathery cover squeaking as his weight shifted. It was a nice momentary distraction from that ever ominous Tick-Tock… And also something which temporarily distracted me enough from the full impact of his words.
"Hold on, we cannot really be…" my heartbeat increased tenfold, my only small relief the fact that I was not hooked up to a heart monitor. Small blessings. My hands came together clenching each other. I needed to stay in reality.
"We are. And you know it," Will said looking straight at me. "I can see it in those lovely, soulful eyes of yours."
I grimaced, my long fingers kneading my knuckles. I watched the skin whiten with the pressure and return to normal in the silvery cast from the moon. "I can't be with you Will." I whispered, hoping the volume would take the blow out of the words. I peeked up in that second to see a moment that made my chest clench painfully tight.
It looked like I had given him a metaphorical kick in the teeth. And that was putting it mildly. He took in a breath that shook considerably before he locked his jaw. "I do not believe you," he said dully, his eyes not focusing on anything. He seemed to stare straight through nothing.
I leaned forward, my stiff sides aching in protest. I looked at him levelly as I rested my chin on my clenched hands. "Believe it. Meeting," I grimaced over the next words. "… My soulfinder changes nothing. Absolutely nothing."
"How? How can you say that!?" he said, his frustration creating a dangerous undercurrent to each word. His eyes glistened, their colour managing to shine through the greyness of the night. "Like," he said. "Soulfinders are put together for a reason and one is the strength we have in unity." He finished and shuffled his chair forward, its legs screeching against the linoleum floors. The sound cut through the tension only for him to take my hand raking it up again.
I was frustrated by the countless aches in my body that warned me not to budge. No dramatically flouncing out of the room like Tulip would. Or yanking my hand out of his grasp apparently as I gasped with the pain of doing so, tears pricking in my eyes as they waited for the perfect moment to drop. But the wail of pure agony was not only physical. This one movement hurt us both deeply. While logic dictated my decision, my body had not caught up with the rationale behind it. It felt the depth of Will's loss despite the fact he was only a child's breath away.
I shivered as I tried to deal with the conflicting pains. As the physical ebbed away into the background, I risked a glance at Will and immediately wished I had stayed looking at my starchy bedsheets. Because nothing hurt more deeply than the hollow look on his face. My own body screaming at me that this was wrong and my heart cried out. It was getting a beating tonight.
"Willow-" he croaked.
"Go," I choked, my voice guttural. "Stay. Away. From. Me."
My body was already wrapped in too many agonies so shoving myself under the sheets barely registered as painful. Do you really have enough reason for this my body wailed. Logic flashed thousands of pictures of that haunted look my father had for months after my mother's death. And how my presence elicited it still on the occasions I saw him.
It is for the better I scolded myself. And for him too I added, despite the feeling his eyes left on my skin hours after he left. It was only then I heard the Tick-Tock again.
Author person here,
Hit the target reviews Tuesday night! Woohoo! So Friday night update as promised as a token of my gratitude.
Hint for the next chapter... Fast forward to the start of October (currently mid-late August in the story). Also something Rydian said becomes relevant...
And thanks to the reviewers Littlelonelywallflower, JustAnotherFanGirlingBookworm (that was probably one of the nicest reviews I have ever gotten. Honestly!), FindingSkyFan3, Mrsbenedict96 (Always love your reviews! You did not disappoint), Soph (Your review is Hilarious!), Anonymous, Lisa (Your review was pretty damn funny too!), Tahira (Nice to see a new reader!), AllArtAnimeLover, Guest and Lauren! 14 reviews in total. Thanks so much! Virtual hugs for all :D