Ciel stirred and awakened in an empty room sometime around midnight, wondering where he was as he had been moved since he last saw Sebastian. He fumbled around his bed and found the remote connected to his bed. There was a large red button with a white outline of a female nurse's face, including the traditional hat with the red cross. He pressed it and waited patiently for someone to enter his room.
"How are you feeling, Ciel?" An older woman asked as she entered his room with a chart.
"I'm well. Where am I?" Ciel asked in his pathetic, hoarse voice.
"You have been moved to another floor of the same hospital, and your guardian has been notified of this. We have also ordered your round of antibiotics which should arrive at 6 o'clock this morning. Do you need anything else while I'm here?" She asked as she walked over and placed a hand on his head to check for a fever.
"What is the name put down as my guardian?" Ciel asked.
"Sebastian Michaelis. Anything else?" She smiled.
"Water and something to eat would be nice. Nothing major, just a snack if it's not too much trouble. I haven't eaten in…a while." He said without looking at her.
"I'll be back shortly." She said with a wink as she turned and left.
Ciel looked up at the ceiling as he was lying in his small hospital bed. He thought of his friends, Mae-Rin, Baldroy, Finnian, Alois…then he thought of Claude and how he promised him the world. He closed his eyes to keep them from filling with tears, then he balled up a fist in his right hand, but immediately released it as the pressure hurt his I.V. He opened his eyes thought about Sebastian and how he wanted to see him so much in this moment, but knew he was probably sound asleep in his house, on his plush bed, perhaps dreaming of him right now.
Ciel smiled and closed his eyes in comfort this time, he let out a short breath of air in a content sigh as he thought back to how he was saved in the shower, back to the elevator, the library, even before in biology. How could he have been so blind to Sebastian's gaze even then, and how Elizabeth always rushed to Paula before all others? He shrugged and licked his dry lips, longing for the promised glass of water almost more than anything else in the world.
He looked over at the window, which was closed and the blinds were pulled shut. He looked at the remote once more and thought about watching the television, but then he realized he never really watched television before other than to just get the news. He hesitated, but then turned the television to the local news channel because it was of no cost to him and he wanted some background noise. As usual, it was a commercial, so he kicked back and looked up at the ceiling, longing for his water.
He glanced over to the door just as the nurse was entering with his platter of food, but what stood out the most was a large container on the side that looked like a gallon jug.
"Is that for me?" He asked in a hoarse voice.
"You asked for water, didn't you?" She said politely as she handed him the jug.
Ciel examined it to simply admire its holding capacity before taking his first sip. He put the straw to his dry lips and found himself unable to stop drinking for what seemed like an hour.
The nurse looked at him with a nervous expression, "You were thirsty, huh? Do you want to try and tackle your food now or would you rather have a refill?"
Ciel stopped for a moment to see how much he had taken in, and because the measurements were off on the side it wasn't too difficult to see that he had nearly gone through half of the jug.
"I'll try my food, I suppose. Thank you so much." He tried to smile, but his lips hurt too much if he stretched them too far because they were dry for so long.
She smiled and nodded, "Call me if you need anything else. All your eating utensils are on your tray here," She wheeled a table over to hold his tray, "You can also change the channel there with your remote, but I take it you've figured that out already." She bowed and left the room, but shut the door softly behind her.
Ciel looked over his tray of food and his stomach began to quiver. He had a hot ham and cheese sandwich with mustard potato salad and steamed carrots for sides and a small container of peaches for dessert. All of which was soft enough that it didn't require much effort to chew and it would fill him up completely.
His small hand shook as he tried to open the plastic fork without it seeming like he was in a hurry, but he looked around quickly and noted no one was around, so he ripped the plastic cover to shreds and dove into his peaches first. As soon as the first touched his tongue, he barely had enough reaction time to chew before his body decided to swallow. It took some time before he could eat calmly, but he managed as he slowly worked on the carrots, then decided to start on the sandwich and alternate between that and the mustard potato salad.
As the potato salad fell apart on his tongue he thought of how easy it was to chew, and then he wondered if Mae-Rin was okay. He thought of her bright pink bubble gum and how her jaws must be tired after chewing for so long all day everyday, then his thoughts drifted to Baldroy and how he must be smoking in front of his television while sitting on his comfortable couch...he would probably be watching a cooking show. Then he thought of Finnian and how he would probably watch the outdoors channel while standing outside and looking through the window while weeding his windowsill plants.
He suddenly lost his appetite as he thought of how they basically abandoned him and practically forgot he existed. He leaned back onto the stack of pillows behind him and sighed hard, but then went to coughing from the strain. He let his head fall back and he looked up at the ceiling, slowly forgetting where he was. He closed his eyes and he suddenly felt Sebastian's warmth all around him. Ciel felt his strong arms move up around his waist and hug him, making him feel safe and loved. He heard a strange clanking sound so he stirred.
"Oh! Sorry Ciel, I just came in to get your tray and cover you up so you didn't freeze." The nurse said with an apologetic look.
Ciel looked over at the clock and an hour had passed, "Did I fall asleep?"
"I would have been surprised if you hadn't! All this food suddenly in your system coupled with the lack of sleep and the infection would be enough to put you down for days! Go back to sleep and rest yourself. Your antibiotics will be here in the morning and then you'll start feeling better." She smiled and gathered everything onto his tray.
She turned to leave but the television caught her eye, "Oh God!"
Ciel glanced over at the television and the news report was covering a story about a car wreck.
"One of the men has been rushed to the hospital, but the other didn't survive the crash. We found him pinned between the car and the tree..."
Ciel's ears started ringing when he saw the same black car he remembered Sebastian driving him in before. He shook his head and closed his eyes before whispering, "Don't be such an idiot. Sebastian is a very good driver and he's had plenty of time to get home from when he left. It's just a couple of reckless teens driving too fast in the rain is all. Sebastian is home asleep in his warm, plush bed."
He looked back up at the television and stared hard at the ambulance just on the edge of the screen to see if he could make out the person inside, but all he could see was a blur of red before the ambulance drove off screen. He panicked and took a deep breath before whispering, "Sebastian's alive! He has to be! There is no chance that was Grell in the ambulance...but if he was there and he did survive...then Sebastian..."
Ciel's eyes watered and his chest burned with a heated fury and sadness, "Will the survivor be sent here?" He asked the nurse.
She nodded, "If it's him I'll have him put in here...unless..." She quickly turned and left, not being able to finish.
Ciel didn't want to hear it either.