Thanks for reviews :P I like how you're all guessing if there's gonna be a twist or something ;) Lol, it might turn out to all have been a part of my dastardly plan to take over the world! Mwuhaha… Oooh, cheese Panini…
I just wanna say, that some of this may be crap, mostly because I just watched the conclusion to Anne Frank, so y'know... floods. It was horrifying, I cried more at that than I did at Titanic :0
Vince blinked his eyes open; annoyed that he had apparently nodded off, which meant that Howard had gone. He glanced around, seeing no one in the room. Shuffling down a few feet in his bed he sighed heavily, only half a minute out of sleep and already bored and lonely.
Thankfully, there was a window in the private room he was in. Unfortunately, it was to the side, so he had to twist around to look through it. Not that this was overly painful, but he was still getting used to moving again (Although in his mind he had been moving all the time) and he could just twist his head to look through. It was a cloudy, grey day and he felt like crying. Ok, he was ecstatic that he was back and engaged, but he felt so alone…
For no reason, he started to sob weakly into his hands, shaking as he tried to stop.
"Are you ok Vince?" Doctor Hunt entered the room, looking concerned as his patient continued to cry softly. Vince sniffed and wiped his eyes and nose with a tissue from the box on a side table. Nodding, he answered,
"I'm just…lonely, and it's really grey outside, and that's…that's not good" He finished lamely, not quite managing to articulate his sadness very well. The doctor appeared to scribble something on the chart that seemed to be permanantly glued to his hand. He was just about to say something when the door opened and Howard crept in, rather shyly.
"Howard!" Vince immediatley started grinning and forgetting the depression he had just been feeling. Howard grinned back and sped over to him, hugging him as hard as possible, but trying not to hurt the younger man,
"How are you?" He asked lovingly, pushing some of Vince's hair back from his face. Vince grinned cheerily and was about to answer, but the doctor stepped in,
"We're going to start him on physio in a short while, do you want to be here for it?" Already knowing the answer, he moved on, "Can I have a quick word outside?" He asked, making Howard glance back at Vince,
"Vince, I'm going to go outside for a minute, but Naboo and Bollo are here and want to say hi" Vince's face lit up, and he nodded, letting Howard pat his hand and go out with the doctor, sending the shaman and his familiar in, but warning them to be gentle.
"When I walked in this morning, to tell him you were here, he was crying. His reason was that he was lonely and that it's grey outside" He raised an eyebrow as he said this, "Normally I wouldn't be worried about this type of thing, some coma patients do experience a few periods of depression, but, and I know I've barely met him, but from what you've told me, he seems too happy. I know that sounds stupid, but..."
"That sounds fine," Howard said, "I think he was just lonely. And he does sometimes get quite miserable if the weather is. It's like he changes with it" THe doctor shrugged and said,
"Well, whatever, just tell me if anything else like this happens in the future, just to be on the safe side. Now, I'm going to get Doctor Cartwright, she'll be taking him for his physio" Howard nodded and went back into the private room. Vince was laughing as he talked to Naboo, whilst Bollo was stood over him, almost like a bouncer.
Howard walked over, and sat on the chair meant for visitors, stroking Vince's hand as he chatted excitedly to Naboo,
"...and we're going to get everyone in the family, and I'm gonna get the most genius suit, and the flowers'll be..."
"Vince, aren't we supposed to be planning this together?" Howard asked, more amused than annoyed. Vince rolled his eyes and said,
"C'mon Howard, I'm not having anything beige or jazz related at my wedding" Naboo chuckled, even smiling at Howard when he said, quite softly,
"I'm glad you're back Vince, you have no idea how ill Howard looked" As soon as he said that, Howard wished he hadn't. Vince's eyes dropped down to his lap and he was no longer grinning,
"M'sorry" He murmured. Howard gently turned Vince's head to face him, and whispered,
"Look at me" Vince slowly brought his eyes up and was almost crying as he thought of what his fiancee had been through. His thoughts were soon stopped however, as Howard suddenly brought their faces close together and kissed him, not extremely passionately, but enough to make Vince gasp for breath and cling on as though he never wanted to let go.
"Mr Noir?" They all looked up to see a woman with intelligent blue eyes and short, spiky blond hair smiling at them, "I'm Doctor Cartwright, you can call me June, I'm going to be your physiotherapist"
Vince nodded, ignoring the nausiating feeling building in his stomach at her name (Both names) and asked,
"What are you going to do?" He looked at her nervously as she grinned,
"It's my job to get you up and about again. The first thing we're going to do is get you out of your bed, into these shorts, and walking around. All in the space of an hour, hour and a half, max." He stared at her with wide eyes. His legs felt like jelly, how the heck was he going to manage that?
"So if your friends could leave while we do this?" She asked politely, looking pointedly at Naboo and Bollo. Both nodded in response and Naboo muttered to Howard on his way out,
"Tell me how it went after, I need to smoke" Howard rolled his eyes but nodded, and smiled wanly at Vince waving feebly before facing the physiotherapist and looking as though he was about to be executed.
--
However, it wasn't as bad as expected. She had ordered Howard to be gently guide the younger man out of the bed, while she gave Vince instructions of how to actually do it.
"Come on Vince, you can do this" Howard murmured, so that only his fiancee could hear it. Vince nodded, not looking up from the ground as he put all of his yearning into standing up from where he was leant on his bed. Finally, he was stood, breathing quite heavily and with a small amount of perspiration on his forehead.
He looked up at June and asked pathetically,
"That's enough right?" His face drooped as she said,
"Nope, we need you in these shorts, rather than a hospital gown, and a tee-shirt of your own to start you with various exercises" He looked at Howard, pouting, hoping he'd argue. But the older man shook his head, an amused smile on his face,
"Sorry sweetheart, but you need to do this" Vince harrumphed but nodded begrudgingly and allowed Howard to carefully help him into his shorts (Horrible things they were as well, a boring grey colour) and let Vince put his own top on. He started shaking at Vince's small frame, thin before the accident, positivelyskeletal now. However, that could wait until they got home, a place Howard hadn't been for 2 months. He shook his head and concentrated on Vince being told to lie on the floor, with an inflatable ball on his stomach and do 5 sit ups.
Vince struggled for 10 minutes, each sit up agony, sweat dripping of his face, falling down like it was coming from a water faucet. Finally, after doing them, he was instructed to lay still dor a sceond while June went out the room.
"She's a bloody devil that woman" Vince groaned, massaging his stomach, getting terrible cramps.
"You're being so brave" Howard said, hoping that words like this would help Vince. He leant down to kiss him, which Vince hastily tried to sit up to, making June laugh as she came back in,
"Well that's one way to get him up," She said, winking at them, "Ok Vince, lets try walking, it'll be a snap, just get up, like we practised and I'll put Howard at the other side of the room" She laughed. Vince gritted his teeth and slowly moved in the way she had taught him, carefully rolling over so he was on all fours, and gently easing himself up on his arms, which were quite strong and didn't need the same attention as his legs. He finally got to standing, without anyone's help.
Standing there, swaying slightly, he bit his lip. He was incredibly tired, and didn't think he'd make one step, let alone all the way over to Howard. He squeezed his eyes shut before opening them again and bringing one leg forward slowly, he managed to take a few steps, nearly half-way over, before shaking his head and said,
"Sorry, can we try tomorrow? Please, I just...I just can't. Not today, I'm too tired" His voice didn't sound whiny when he said this, more tired, regretful, apologising. Howard glanced at June, who gave Vince the benefit of the doubt and said,
"Ok, same time tomorrow kid" She had gotten this horrible habit of calling him 'kid', even though Vince was sure he was older than her. She waited until Howard had gotten him back over to the bed and in his hospital gown until she swept out, saying over her shoulder,
"I'll just let the doc know we've finished" Howard nodded, helping Vince back into bed. He looked so miserable that Howard got on the bed with him, and gave him a long cuddle, stroking his hair and occasionaly kissing him on the head. Neither of them were talking, but Vince liked it that. The silence helped him think.
How would he tell Howard all of what happened? Could he just tell him, and hope his fiancee wouldn't just laugh, or say it was just his mind trying to make stuff up from where he was? He wasn't stupid, he got the connection between his doctor's names, and even the ward he was in, which Howard told him was the 'Hyde ward'. Sighing, he decided to just come out with it,
"Howard..." He began, but didn't get much further than that, because Doctor Hunt came in and grinned,
"Had fun?" Ignoring Vince's sour expression he said, "We need to get that CT scan now, see what's what" Howard patted his hand as he got off the bed and told him he needed to go find Naboo, to tell him how it went. Vince nodded sadly and let them wheel him down to radiology.
I don't know whether or not coma patients of only 2 months need physio, but I guess they must, seeing as they haven't used their legs in... well, 2 months. Review please?? x Hope you enjoyed the fluff, I can't write fluff lol ;P