Chapter Three:

Three Months Later

After three months of staying in the hospital, Maya was finally going to be released. She had lots of physical therapy to regain feeling in the wrist that had been broken and was fitted for a hearing aid until her hearing return, which they were confident that it may never.

She could hear just fine if it was her and another person one-on-one in a quiet place. But anywhere else and more than one, she struggled because it was hard for her to focus. That man had ruptured both eardrums, which resulted in a muffling of the world around her.

They also gave her glasses at this time. The right eye was perfectly fine, but the left had been incredibly impaired.

She had a lot of deficits nowadays. For example, that man had shattered her hip that night. It went unseen for a long time because she had felt immense pain everywhere and couldn't pinpoint the exact location of an affliction. They wondered how she even made it to the police station on foot with that hip. They speculated that it was all of the adrenaline coursing through her that night. Her hip replacement was a little over two months ago and now she had metal where bone used to be.

Of course, Maya being Maya tried to hide her obvious displeasure at the thought of having a hip replacement.

"On the bright side," she forced a small smile, "at least now I can park in the handicap spot."

The Matthews laughed without humour, trying to make her feel better when nothing but worriment was on their minds.

Now that she was working towards her new self, she decided reading wasn't so bad. Especially if brought in by Lucas.

She remembered how Lucas was there every day. Every day he brought with him a book for them to read together. He did this even when she was in coma for sixteen days.

It had been tough, a couple days after being admitted, Maya's heart stopped.

Luckily the doctors were on the ball, but for some reason she hadn't woken up. It remained this way until sixteen days later when her eyes fluttered open and the first thing she saw was Lucas asleep and resting his head on her legs.

She tried not to wake him, but being asleep for sixteen days made someone have to use the bathroom in an emergent state, even with the colostomy bag attached to her bladder. Of course, she hadn't known exactly how long she had been out; all she knew was she had to pee.

As she had slowly slid her legs out from under him, Lucas stirred and smiled groggily, "Hey, you're awake. Can I get you anything?"

"Yeah, Huckleberry, you can get off of my legs so I can use the bathroom," she teased. "But seriously, get off my legs."

A nurse wheeled her to the bathroom in the wheelchair beside the bed.

When she came out Lucas wasn't anywhere to be seen so she crawled back into bed and waited.

Lucas came back not to long after. "I got you a cup of water and I alerted the doctor that you're awake so he might come in here."

"Thanks, Lucas, you're the best."

Lucas only smiled and kissed her forehead gently, pausing when she winced. He took out a book and started silently reading. The silence was killing Maya.

"What are you reading?"

"The Body by Stephen King." He replied, only stopping to glance at her.

She twiddled her thumbs, "Will you read it out loud to me?"

Lucas put the book down and looked at her. The Maya he knew hated all books, but if this Maya wanted to read books, then so be it.

He shrugged and marked his page somewhere in the middle. Then he started from the beginning.

Lucas was there everyday to read a chapter of a book to Maya. Sometimes she'd read aloud, albeit he mainly did the narrating. Maya was enjoying his company and the comfort that came with reading the books. He brought her the sketch book she took everywhere with her, but she really didn't touch those.

She told him that she was no longer interested in art.

"But you love art," he argued.

"I don't care."

"Maya what's going on."

She turned her head to face away from him. Her blue eyes found the door handle and she stared at it. "That man took any creativity I had."

A/N: Sorry, this is more of a filler, but I have more on the way that I've been whipping up. ;)

And poor Maya, huh?