It turned out that there was no way to avoid talking to the police. They'd come and gone many times, asking him the same mind numbing questions, and he had to fight to answer through his throbbing headaches. Sollux, bless the lisping fuckers soul, eventually set the nursing staff upon them and effectively chased the boys in blue away. It wasn't terrible, he could admit silently to himself, but of fucking course he spent most of his time sleeping. Time didn't affect him the same way it affected the ones unfortunate enough to have to stay awake. If anyone asked he was solidly prepared to blame the narcotics.

"You'll have more Novocain then blood in your body if thith keepth up." Sollux told tell him, reaching over to gently mess with his hair. It was in those quiet, tender moments that Karkat found that no matter how tired, in pain, or drugged he was - he could still flip a deserving asshole the bird.

He had many visitors during his stay, some not so welcome as others. Most of them were earnest in their wishes for his recovery (or at least he fucking hoped) but a certain one of them thought that to aid him in this task he would share his words of wisdom, kindness, and condolences. Karkat was fairly certain that if his visitor didn't kill him, he would murder the other first.

"Honestly Karkat, one would think you incapable of living on your own, let alone even taking proper care of your health. You've always been so reckless and irresponsible, it's no wonder why you always get yourself into so much trouble. Honestly brother, one would think you care nothing about the hurt you cause others with your behavior. You are being very selfish and if father doesn't bring you home then I certainly will."

"I didn't do it on purpose you enormous arm-chair justice-jerking douche-canoe!"

"Yes, well, if you had already known the structure of the structure was so unstable why did you feel the need to tempt fate about it? I worry not only about your physical health, Karkat, but your mental health as well, as it seems to drive you to such incredibly stupid lengths."

Karkat's blood pressure had spiked so immediately and sharply that his heart monitor started screeching in response, prompting the nurses to race in only to find the cause of distress was a very antagonistic brotherly hug.

The staff quickly ushered Kankri out - though it looked more like being forced out than anything else - as one stay to tell him there was another man waiting to see him. Well, as he had long known, where Kankri was his father was rarely, if ever, far behind. The nurse stepped out as another person stepped in, proving Karkat right once again. He tried to give his father a small smile as he pulled a chair to the bed, but awkward silence quickly descended between them. How did he use to start conversations with the man, Karkat wished he knew. Over the last several years the process of familial communication had become an arduous, if not rare, occurrence.

"So, uh," Karkat began eloquently, "did mom come with you?"

"No," his dad attempted a smile at him, "when she knew one of her wayward babes was confined to the safety of a hospital room she went searching for the other recklessly endangered one."

"Nepeta fled the state, didn't she?"

"I won't tell your mother if you don't." His father replied, eyes moving quickly towards a shadow at the door. They both chuckled before the elders face turned serious. "Do you remember how you ended up in that pool?"

Karkat shook his head slightly, the small movement eliciting a small spike of pain to rip through his skull. His dads' hands found their way into his hair at the first sign of a flinch, and Karkat couldn't help how the once common form of affection made him automatically relax.

"No, and I don't really remember what lead up to it either. I felt, scared, I think? I'm not sure why, but I might have been experiencing the start of another anxiety attack or something."

His father sighed deeply, and Karkat couldn't help but notice how tired the other looked. There were deep bruises under his eyes, and a day old shadow beginning to grow in. Despite the flash of pity he felt towards the man, Karkat still allowed his irritation flow forward. He clenched his teeth and gave his words more bite then was necessary, and he knew he was being childish but he was so tired of being coddled.

"If you start sounding like Kankri I swear to have the mother of all aneurysms at both of your insistent babying because you think I'm not competent enough to handle myself! For fuck's sake dad I'm fine. It was only a freak accident, which isn't all that surprising considering how my house had just been subjected to the personal wrath of the king of fucking Atlantis. So what horrifying tragedy has occurred from this? Just a small bump on the head for my troubles, slight concussion, whoop de-fucking-do. Everybody is acting so irrationally distressed about such a minor injury despite the fact that this isn't actually the worst thing that's ever happened to me, by far, and you know it."

"Yes, I know that only too well!" His father replied sharply. "I've known it more times than any father should have to. I swear to God Karkat, I'm tempted to take you back home and lock you in your room if only to allow myself some peace of mind!"

"Nepeta subjects herself to dangerous situations more than I do! And for her it's on purpose! Why are you riding my ass about it?!"

"At least Nepeta it's clear with the risks she takes, I know that I may get a call at anytime, that the danger is a part of her job. At least with her we know! With you, though? I never know! Every day I wake up and think that this could be the day when something finally catches up to you. There is nothing, nothing, that scares me more than receiving the phone call that tells me you're gone, that my youngest son is dead and I won't ever get to know why, just that however it was it was fucking pointless!"

The elder Vantas stopped there, breathing raggedly and trying to reign in his temper. Karkat felt black guilt gurgle up into his stomach, climbing until it wrapped its slimy tendrils around his heart, strangling it. His dad was folded over himself, elbows in his knees, head dropped, hands running through his own hair. Karkat wanted desperately to say something, anything that would help his father and calm his worries. He knew though, he knew he couldn't make any promises, that whatever words he spoke would only be empty promises. Out of all the dumb fuckers in the universe that it could have decided to shit on, it absolutely just had to be him.

Karkat jumped when a pair of large, warm hands engulfed one of his own, knowing he must of zoned out to justify the pain and obvious concern in his fathers' eyes. He shook his head minutely for assurance, and he was graced with a small quirk of the lips in return.

"Karkat," his father started, voice strained so he cleared his throat, "We moved you all the way out here, away from us, away from home, because it was supposed to be safe. They wouldn't be able to find you while you were so far away. How can I hold to this agreement, to justify it, if I can't even have the luxury of knowing you'll be alright?"

"It was an accident!" Karkat half yelled, voice thin and almost reedy from his pent-up emotions.

"You could have drowned!"

The roar seemed to surprise his father just as it surprised him, and they both fell back from each other as silence wrapped around them again.

"I remember when you never raised your voice," Karkat muttered to his sheets.

"Karkat." His father tried, after a minute had passed. "Son."

He took all the mental strength he could muster and forced himself to look back up at his dad.

"You are very... very precious to me. You're my son, my Karkat." The elders face looked so earnest, so pained and pleading for Karkat to understand that he reached out to squeeze the others hand. "I've, I have tried to lead you and your brother through life safely and happily, and I know in that I have failed, at least for you. I have tried to impart on you the courage and the wisdom to face whatever life throws your way, but I was not prepared to teach you how to overcome so much. I'm not exactly sure what happened with your brother, but you have managed to somehow take that knowledge and push through things I cannot even fathom."

He couldn't stop the sudden bark of laughter, and his father grinned unrepentantly at the teasing of his older son.

"You've faced more hardship than anyone deserves," his voice grew somber again, "and I know that of all the things you value, independence is at the top of the list. I tried to restrict it once before and you were nearly broken because of it, so I guarantee I will not force you now or ever to come back home with me. In return you need to promise me, promise this one thing. If you find yourself in any need of help, or if you feel unsafe, or Sollux gets too annoying," Karkat snorted again, "that you will call me first. I honestly do not think my old heart can go through another one of those calls like the one I got yesterday morning."

Karkat took a moment to find the words to respond, but before he could formulate any a nurse bustled his way inside holding a syringe with clear liquid inside.

"Mister Vantas, I am sorry to tell you but I think it best if you let your some get some rest." As he spoke the nurse injected the liquid into the IV drip. "You are more than welcome to come and visit tomorrow, but for the rest of the day I insist the young man needs some peace."

"Of course, yes, I understand." The older Vantas muttered, rising from his chair. He reached for his sons hand, giving it a light squeeze before moving to comb his fingers through Karkat's tousled locks. Karkat could already feel his eyelids growing heavy, and with the combination of the drugs and the comforting gesture he could feel himself already dropping off. "Promise me."

Karkat couldn't respond.

Two days passed before the doctors allowed Karkat to leave. To say he had grown cantankerous while confined to his bed was putting it mildly, and even as the nurses said their goodbyes he could swear he heard sighs of relief as well. Sollux left him in a wheelchair by the front doors so he could bring his car up, and Karkat cursed the contraption because he walk on his own, thank you very fucking much.

"It's hospital policy," was the response Karkat had received after vehemently protesting with many unkind words.

When Sollux finally appeared in his jeep Karkat made it a point of standing himself, using enough force to push off the hands intending to help and sending the chair skittering backwards. Sollux regarded him with a raised eyebrow as he very pointedly stomped to his friends car, taking extra care to exaggerate each foot fall on the way. His point was made and quickly ruined when he reached the vehicles door puffing for breath, feeling so incredibly light headed and woozy he needed to hold to it to stay standing.

The nurses seeing him off rolled their eyes at the pathetic display while Sollux didn't even bother trying to muffle his giggles, and Karkat scowled as he dragged himself into the passenger's seat.

"Thanks for the help you two-toned ink stain." Karkat grumbled as he buckled his seat belt.

"Charming ath ever, I thee." Sollux replied, putting the car into gear and pulling out towards traffic. "Mutht not be doing too badly if you're already putting up thith muth futh."

"Oh I'm peachy, certainly right as rain! Just had the best five-day vacation one could hope for in my white-washed sterilized hell." Karkat sneered, but there was no energy behind it and Sollux grinned broadly at him.

"Well at leatht there theemth to be no lathting damage, as you are ath unpleathant ath alwayth, but you weren't there for five dayth KK. You were there for over a week. Did no one tell you that you were unconthiouth for theveral dayth?"

"Over a week?" Karkat mouthed to himself, and suddenly his fathers' level of concern made much more sense. "They... they might have tried but I wasn't really allowing them the opportunity to say anything."

"What? With your childith temper tantrumth and general pith poor attitude? Nah I'm thure they had a wonderful time taking care of you."

"I should write an apology letter, shouldn't I?" Karkat groaned into his hands.

"Thend them a fruit bathket. No, I think I wath the tough one they had to deal with. Did you know I got tothed out of the building, twithe? Onthe in the firtht twenty-four hourth, even."

"How did you manage that? How did you even know where I was?"

"I had pothibly lotht thome of my compothure after dragging my unconthiouth betht friend in there after dithcovering him thoaking wet and bleeding from hith by hith pool." Sollux's knuckles were turning white on the steering wheel. "It wouldn't be out of plathe to thay that my thit had been thoroughly flipped."

"Oh." Karkat responded intelligently. "Sorry."

Sollux turned his jeep down the last three-mile stretch of road to his house. The city had worked quickly, he saw. If he hadn't seen the storm that landed just (days?) recently, he wouldn't have suspected it at all.

"Thome thingth might be a bit different when we get back to your houthe." Sollux declared, breaking the silence. Karkat shot him a wary glance as his friend pulled into the gas station near his home. "Oh don't look at me like that, it'th nothing you'll be too upthet about, well at leatht I hope but you can be thuch a drama baby thometimeth, I thwear."

"Pot-kettle Sollux." Karkat bit out, and his friend threw back his head and laughed.

"Jutht thit here a wait a little bit, I need to grab thome thingth. You'll be pleathed when you thee it, I promithe."

Karkat eyed Sollux dubiously as his friend left the jeep, swaggering into the store. He was tempted to hoof it back to his house on foot, it was only a mile, but he knew he wouldn't get far before Sollux caught up with him so he dismissed the thought. He settled back into his seat with a sigh, maneuvering in an attempt to make himself more comfortable. He was grateful to his friend, he really was, if Sollux was the one to find him he must have been the one to pull him from the water. Without Sollux getting there to help, he would have died.

That single revelation sent a chill darting down his spine, the cold spreading to his limbs and settling deeply within his bones. He had already had too many near-death experiences in his life, way more than any one person could deserve. Personally he wasn't particularly keen on seeing that list grow any longer.

He certainly hoped it didn't, and if he could deal with whatever was in his pool quietly then perhaps he could stops its progress. He had lied when he said he remembered nothing about what lead up to the accident, though he didn't know how he got from the water - and more than likely under the ruins of his once deck - and back to dry ground. He absolutely didn't tell his story to any of the doctors that had been lurking about, asking him how felt about this and that experience. If he had mentioned it he was certain there would have been some persuasive - possibly forcibly - insistence that he stayed at the hospital longer. Something had dragged him into the water that day, and he wasn't entirely certain that a shark with enough power to fling him head over heels was small enough to survive undiscovered in his pool.

Panic had driven him to climb the structurally unsound deck, and panic could be blamed for warping whatever he thought he saw underneath the waves, but he was thinking clearly now. He would confront the creature when he got home, but as Sollux reappeared from the depths of the store, arms laden with plastic bags, he had to acknowledge that everything hadn't gone wrong. He was alive still, despite fate's best attempts, and that had to count for something, didn't it?