I'm already back^^. Guess now that I really like my plot, it's way easier to write, so I was faster then usual…Right, so, I think this chapter is a BIT boring, but it is necessary, so please, bear with me.
As always, a huge 'thank you' goes to Avecia for her great beta work, and also to my readers and reviewer – you are AMAZING guys.
Now, I (still) don't own anything about VD. Just having fun messing with them^^.
On with it!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
As he opened his eyes again, everything was way too bright, and the sounds around him, though muffled so he couldn't understand a single word, were so loud in his ears that it hurt.
He was no longer on the ground – his surroundings were too warm for that, plus, he could feel the softness of some sort of bed or couch under him.
But, for the hell of him, he had no idea where exactly he was.
Then a dark head was in front of the insufferable garish light above him.
Chocolate skin, dark eyes and hair… he knew this girl… woman?... but he couldn't put a name to her.
She was speaking now and looked slightly worried.
That was the first thing that clued him in that something was not right – at all.
For even if he couldn't remember anything (not even his own name, at the moment) he knew that this woman would never be concerned about him.
As his brain started working at a faster pace than a damn slug – finally – he realized that this unusual feeling towards him wasn't the only thing out of place.
He felt incredibly weak, couldn't even lift his hand up as he tried. His head was still pounding in this heartbeat-like rhythm and there was something stuck in his throat.
The woman was still talking to him, babbling nonsense about a spell gone wrong and being sorry about him being… human?
And then, suddenly, it all came back.
Katherine, kissing him on Elena's porch, Elena disappearing. This incredibly frustrating paper hunt through the night.
Elena, lying on the ground with unseeing eyes. Elena, not breathing. Elena dead.
Her funeral, and then a few black days he spent drinking and drowning in this whole nightmare and then… Bonnie.
Right by Elena's grave, sitting and chanting and being an all-round general nuisance.
A blast of wind that knocked him from his feet and… his heart, beating again. Beating after 146 years of lying forgotten in his chest.
He began to panic, then.
His eyes wide, he tried to sit up, but couldn't, because damn, he was still weak.
To top it all off, he was choking on this thing in his throat, and some machine or another was making one hell of a ruckus somewhere near him.
The dark head – Bonnie, he remembered now – was gone, replaced by that of a balding man, saying something about relaxing and don't panicking.
But it didn't matter anyway, because the next thing he new, blackness drew him in again, pulled him under, and he embraced the chance to flee this surreal moment.
Xoxoxoxoxoxox
The next time he woke up he wasn't nearly as confused. He knew he was in a hospital, knew that the witch somehow had made him human again.
Luckily, this time there was nothing choking him, and the lights weren't all that bright either.
To his left was a window, and the darkness with the moon told him it was in the middle of the night.
He sighed, already tired of this new, sick twist of fate.
Trying to sit up proved to be more fruitful this time around, and soon he had his back against the headpiece of the bed, checking out his surroundings more thoroughly.
It was a plain and simple hospital room – beige walls, linoleum floor. Beside the window were a table and a few chairs, and across from him was a tiny TV mounted on a frame.
It was showing some gardening show or the other, the sound on mute.
He was hooked up to a few machines, telling him that, yes, his heart really was beating.
Well, damn.
He was tempted to rip the sensors for the machines – and the IV in his left arm – out, but thought it wasn't worth the trouble it would bring.
Instead, he tried to figure out what exactly the witch had done to him.
There was the beating heart, and the fact he had to breath (he tested that theory, and not breathing just made him dizzy, and his entire chest hurt).
But he also was able to hear snippets of conversations outside of his room, and he was fairly certain he hadn't heard this good the last time he was human.
The antiseptic smell that clung everywhere stung in his nose, but not quite as much as it did only a few weeks back
The colors around him were duller than he was used to, but he still could make out everything perfectly fine – again, something he wasn't able to do 150 year ago.
He nearly stood up to test speed and strength, then, but remembered the damn machines.
Silently grumbling, he contemplated what to do next, as the door was pushed open – and in came Bonnie and Stefan.
They walked slowly, each a cup of… something… in their hands, talking and not even looking his way.
"You know, if you just came in to ignore me, I can go and leave you two to…"
Stefan let go of his cup and had him in a hug even before it landed on the floor, spilling its contents on the previously shining floor.
And he just sat there, back straight and arms by his side, not knowing what to do.
Because, seriously? He was beginning to think that the witch hadn't made him human, but simply stored him away in another reality.
"Whoa, yeah… easy there. Stefan? Stefan! You can let go. Like, now!"
His brother straightened up again, looking slightly embarrassed, but not really as if he regretted anything.
"Sorry. I just… wasn't counting on seeing you awake anytime soon… I guess."
He was betting that Stefan would closely resemble a tomato by now – if he could blush, that is.
But as it was, he simply scratched the back of his head, and gave a crooked smile.
Not waking up anytime soon?
"About that… how long exactly was I out of it? I remember waking up for a few minutes but…"
And if he sounded not all like himself at the moment? He could always pretend it was the magic still messing with his mind.
By now both Bonnie and Stefan looked a bit unsure. It wasn't a look destined to not worry him.
"Yeah well, there was… I mean you…"
It had been awhile since he heard his brother stutter. And in front of him, no less. They always avoided sounding weak, or vulnerable in front of the other.
So he gritted his teeth, narrowed his eyes, and asked again.
"How. Long?"
Taking a deep breath Bonnie pulled Stefan aside, standing in his place and looked him directly in the eyes.
"Two and a half months… Ten weeks and three days, to be exactly."
That was unexpected. He thought it might've been a few days – maximum.
But ten weeks?
The shock must've registered on his face, because Bonnie sat down on his bed and took his hand in hers.
He blinked at this, not knowing how to react in this weird twilight zone that this was turning out to be.
He didn't try to loose her grip, more curious about what would happen next.
"What's the last thing you really remember?"
Well, that was an easy question.
"You, going all 'Willow Rosenberg', trying to raise the dead. What the hell did you think you were doing?"
He hadn't planned on lashing out right at that moment, but it… seemed the thing to do.
He did pretty good at pretending that she wasn't gone… right until the point were he had to think about it.
Taking a deep breath he tried to get his emotions back in check – this was way easier as he still had that nifty little button.
"Okay. Don't answer that question. Not really necessary, anyway. Just... tell me how the hell I managed to sleep for ten fucking weeks."
Bonnie nodded slowly and seemed to bring her thoughts into order before she answered him.
"So, okay. You did wake up before now. And that was right after we arrived here.
You weren't breathing on you own – guess your body was used to not needing the oxygen – so they put a tube down your throat. You were awake for only a few minutes, and you were pretty out of it the whole time.
From then on everything went kind of… downhill, I guess.
You had all kinds of nasty reactions to the medication they gave you, and your immune system well… it checked out on you.
Pretty normal when you think about it – I mean, you never had to get used to modern medication. Or bacteria and diseases, as it is. The staff here had no idea what was wrong.
The first three weeks they – and we – thought you wouldn't make it.
But you're nothing if not stubborn so… you started breathing on your own again, the fever you were running constantly broke… but you just wouldn't wake up.
Story in a nutshell? You were in a coma for ten weeks, and we nearly lost all hope by now."
And was it only him, or had she sounded guilty at that?
He was about to answer… or ask another question (he wasn't really sure which one) as he had to yawn.
Only now he realized how... exhausted he was. Despite sleeping for an insane amount of time.
As he was done, Bonnie was standing already.
"Right. You have to be tired. We'll… just go now, let you sleep. It is in the middle of the night, after all."
Before he could protest (damn it, just because he was human again, didn't mean he was a weakling all of a sudden) Stefan gave him another hug (irritating, strange, confusing…), picked up the fallen Styrofoam cup and said his goodbyes, taking Bonnie with him.
After a few minutes he laid back down again – there was nothing he could do at the moment.
And that he closed his eyes wasn't because he was tired.
I'm just bored, damn it.
He was asleep in less then two minutes, never once noticing the sad eyes watching him from a tree outside of his window.
Xoxoxox
So, finished – for today, at least^^. Can you guess who is outside, lurking in the shadows?
Click on the little button below and let me know what you think!
So long,
Zora