(Pain. Ahhhhh god help it's here, help hurt everywhere. Why can't I see? Can't see can't see, can't move. Can't MOVE. MOVE. It hurts help hurt MOVE! Singing? Sing Mary sing. Falling honey. Gold. Slip and slide. Ahhhhh. Who? Who are you blue eyes? Don't leave, stay, please stay. You're so warm. Gorgeous. Slipping. Beautiful. Going, going. Beautiful. Breathe. Gone.)
(Oh thank Christ, it doesn't hurt. 3 out of 10 on the happy cup of pain. I can breathe, but I'm so stiff. Owww, fuck. Yeah, that'll feel great when it stops hurting. How long have I been sleeping? Jesus, I'm tired, my eyes won't even open. Was someone singing? Someone was here, right? She was here. It's ok. It's ok. I'm going back to sleep.)
(Ok, where the fuck am I? Some serious shit must have gone down for me to be hooked up like this, I feel like Robocop. I finally got my eyes open, it *looks* like a hospital room but way nicer. Umm, not moving so well though. What the hell? Why can't I move? I'm like a fucking twitcher, nothing is working right! Aren't there supposed to be nurses and shit in hospitals? Jesus, I'm fucking…um, I'm…who am I? Oh Jesus Christ, who the fuck am I? What happened? Why can't I remember who I am? Who's yelling? Oh God, what's going on?)
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"She's freaking out, you'd better get in there." The Head Nurse from her observation point into the screaming conversation going on in the hallway. There was the Head of the Ward, the Hospital Administrator, the Patient Rights Liaison, Security, the Imprint Co-coordinator and the Imprint herself. She couldn't remember when there had been a clusterfuck this bad before. Dealing with coma patients wasn't an exact science, but the one concrete rule was that whoever the first person they saw when, or if, they ever woke up, would be the same one there when they woke again. The Imprint would be present from through the recovery process until the patient walked out of the hospital. Something about the brain imprinting on that person, and classifying them as, "safe". And if exit coma patients needed anything, they needed that consistency. The nurse grimaced, so many had died before they understood the "First Visual Link" rule. If the Imprint wasn't the next person they saw, they just went back to sleep and never woke again. Ever.
(They came all the way through the coma and died from our stupidity)
Usually it wasn't a problem, as the only people that were consistently on this floor were nurses who worked here anyway. If they were the Imprint, it was just a schedule change. One time it had been an oxygen delivery man that they'd had to hire for 9 months after a patient woke up while he'd been changing the tank. But this…this was new. Everyone knew the story of this doctor, what had happened with her partner. But no one ever thought the patient would actually wake up, god the damage had been so severe. She'd never seen anything like it, and she'd been an ER nurse for 4 years before rotating to the coma ward. Whispers about this doctor had been commonplace, that it was just cruel for her to hold on this long. That she was slowly losing her grip on sanity.
But surprise surprise, the patient had woken up. Woken up while only the doctor had been in the room on her nightly vigil. And just to put the cherry on top, the patient had actually grabbed the doctor's hand, which was amazing in itself. Tactile contact only strengthened the imprint. Apparently, she hadn't been awake for more than a few seconds, but it was long enough.
Rubbing the bridge of her nose, the nurse tried to block out the tableau in front of her. The conflicts of this were enormous. For the patient's health, they couldn't just bar the doctor/Imprint from this patient. Nor could they even have another doctor or nurse in the room since the Imprint had also been tactile. Not to mention it would take God and his angels to keep the Imprint out of that room permanently, Security had already had to restrain her once. Shit. However, there was also a very good reason doctors never treated family members, or were intimately involved in treatment.
Suddenly, the Head Nurse heard faint screams coming from inside the patient's room. The Imprint heard it as well, and spun towards the door. Quickly grasping the handle, the Imprint evaded Security's grasp, flew through the door, closing it with a slam. As Security went to open the door, the nurse found herself throwing herself in his way. "If you go in there, that patient will die" she stated flatly. "And that will be on YOUR head." Addressing the shocked group, she continued, "I will not have some political bullshit like this kill one of my patients. Now then." Fixing them all with a steely glare, she said,"you all will take this to the Lounge down the hall. I will join you presently, but I will not have you upsetting my patients any further. NOW!" Cowed, the muttering group moved down the hall.
Leaning with her back against the door, she heard faint conversation from within the room.
(I'll be paying for that for a couple of years. God, I'm not even halfway through this shift.)
Resigning herself to a long night, she made her way to the Lounge.