DISCLAIMER - I don't own Sarah or Jareth or the Labyrinth (unfortunately) they belong to Jim Henson & Co, and I'm definitely not making a profit from this.
All other NPC's are a figment of my own imagination.
It was like swimming through jelly trying to reach some unseen surface, and her lungs seemed to burn with lack of oxygen even though she knew she breathed. The blackness was as complete as before, but the absence of the electric blue lightning compounded the feeling of loneliness and desolation. Yet, even across the blackness she heard voices that were warm and familiar to her, in some distant place. She reached blindly for them, for the comfort and safety they seemed to exude in the dark. They weren't the voice she wanted to hear, but they were enough, for now.
The restless ticking annoyed her, it would jump occasionally, making the darkness vibrate in dissonance, breaking like white waves. It was different from the cold, sharp agony of the lightning and it took her some time to realise that the ticking reflected the distant thudding of what could only be her heart, its beat stuttering occasionally like it was tired. It frightened her, and the more the fear took over the more irregular and frantic the beat got, and the more the darkness and white waves pressed against her making her struggle to be released to find some sort of sanctuary. It grew unbearable, she could hear somebody gasping for breath and realised with astonishment it was herself. If she breathed, and her heart beat, she must be alive, and if she was truly alive then she should be able to wake up, to be free of the cold darkness.
A cacophony of voices suddenly surrounded her, she didn't recognise any of them but she forced herself forward, to find them, to wake. The urgency grew worse, the fear hounding her from the dark as she tried to escape its grasp forcing herself through the gelatinous barriers which made hearing clearer.
"I'm here!" She cried out pushing forward again. "Don't leave me, I'm here!"
"There there Sarah, you are here, its ok, just breathe, you are safe. You are in the hospital and you are safe." The doctor looked across at his nurses and sighed in relief as the girl woke, muttering about being "here". The machines around her whirred and clicked and recorded positive signs of consciousness. Far more than they had hoped for with the trauma the girl had suffered.
"Keep breathing Sarah, we are with you. You are safe now." He repeated as his nurses checked, replaced and changed things around them.
"Toby." She whispered tiredly though chapped lips.
"Your brother will be here shortly, don't worry, hes fine. Hes probably asleep since you chose to wake up at 3am in the morning." The doctor smiled, conscious thought and memory recall made for excellent chances of a complete recovery.
"We need to make you more comfortable Sarah, stay with us. Are you in any pain? Can you tell me where you hurt the most?" He watched her as her eyelids flickered.
"Can you open your eyes and tell me where you hurt?"
"S too bright."
"Ok let me turn the lights down a little then you can open your eyes, give them a moment to adjust. Lets try again."
He stood next to the bed and held her hand as she slowly opened her eyes, the right one still swollen. He regarded those forest green orbs in somewhat akin to wonder. Despite them being bloodshot her gaze on him seemed to root him to the spot and rob him of speech momentarily. How could he have imagined that she would not survive? How could he have asked her brother to sign away her precious life.
"There you are." He said finally mentally shaking himself. "I'm Doctor Collins, and you are Sarah, and now we are introduced, can you tell me where you hurt now?"
"vrywhere"
"Thats a little vague to be sure." He smiled at her and then frowned as she started slipping away again.
"You need to stay here now Sarah, no more sleeping, don't you want to see Toby?" The green eyes flickered back to life and a tear slid down the side of her face.
"I'm going to give you some gentle pain killers to help you ok?" He nodded across the bed to the nurse by the drip and she altered the flow of medication slightly.
"Its going to make you feel less pain, but you mustn't try to move for a while ok? Your body needs time to repair itself as well as your brain, you took quite a knock to your head."
"n't member"
"Thats ok, short term memory loss is usually a side effect, don't you worry about not remembering." He watched her, cautiously counting the minutes of wakefulness. "Are you still in a lot of pain?"
"bit"
"Those pain killers are going to carry on working now they are in your system, is there anywhere that hurts a lot or is it still just everywhere?" He waited and watched as she struggled to remain conscious but her vital signs were incredible for a patient who had been in a coma for 2 weeks and had suffered two heart attacks.
"Sarah, any clear areas of pain now?" He called her wavering attention back to him and suffered the same shock as she looked right at him.
"Chest." She said clearly.
"OK, that helps me, good girl. You have broken ribs, so every time you breathe you nudge them a little, so no heavy breathing ok, lets practice those calming exercises my wife loves. In one elephant, out two elephants, in one elephant, out two elephants. Thats good, nice and calm. Thats going to help ease that pain in your chest. No more panicking ok?"
The nurse across the bed caught his eye indicating the heart monitor and he nodded again in relief watching the erratic pulses settle slowly.
"You're doing really well Sarah. Lets keep going with those breathing exercises, in one elephant, out two elephants. You gave us all quite a scare you know, but now you are awake you can tell me when you hurt so we can help ok?"
She blinked and watched him as he talked to her, the disjointed woozy feeling making it difficult to concentrate. She could feel the darkness just behind her, trying to pull her back down so she did as she was told and breathed in and out slowly chanting the rhyme in her head to herself, clutching tightly on to his hand. His brown eyes were kind, but they weren't the eyes she wanted to see, she tried to carry on breathing calmly but her emotions threatened to carry her away. There was something she needed to remember, something she was missing, something she was looking for.
"Sarah, Sarah I'm over here, come on, you are not doing the breathing exercises with me. Lets keep going until your brother gets here, in one elephant, out two elephants." The alarm in the chanting voice caught her by surprise so she opened her eyes again, watching the doctor as he smiled back at her.
"Theres time for tears later Sarah, right now we need to keep you here with us ok? Just keep on breathing with me." He said plucking a tissue out of the box on the side table and wiping away a small flood of tears. "You can tell me about why you are crying later ok? Hopefully its tears of joy at having me sitting here holding your hand."
She heard the nurse on the other side of her snort and smiled slightly, wincing as her lips cracked.
"Ahh, here lets help with that, your friend Anita quite told me off for not looking after you well enough when I refused to let her put lip balm on you. For now an ice cube will have to do." He said picking one out from a cup and running it slowly over her lips.
"Try drinking a little too if you can, lets get all those sore muscles working again. We'll be eating jelly and icecream in no time."
He carried on talking to her when she woke enough to open her eyes, letting the nurses get on with their jobs whilst he monitored her responses. Two hours after the alarms had first alerted them that she was coming round he stood from where he had been perching on the side of the bed automatically looking out of the window to see the cobalt blue sky slowly lightening towards dawn.
"I'm going to go call your brother Sarah, I'll be back in a moment." He tried to disengage his hand from hers but she refused to let go as she had a more lucid moment.
"Don't. Please don't."
"I will need to go eventually you know, but the nurses are here, Sister Clara will stay with you whilst I am gone."
"No. No Toby. Don't. Don't call him."
"You don't want me to call your brother?"
"no"
"We need to call somebody Sarah, your family needs to know you are awake."
"'nita. Call Anita."
"Ok, I will call Anita, Clara is here with you, so you aren't on your own." He exchanged placed with the staff nurse who took Sarahs hand into her own and gave it a small squeeze.
"I'm Clara, Sarah. I'm going to stay with you until Anita gets here ok?"
"kay"
"You just relax and let those pain killers help you. Nice slow breathing. Lets have a whole herd of Elephants in here by the time Anita arrives." She nodded to the Doctor as he stepped out of the room with the records. His team of consultants would be fascinated by this case. Through the window he watched the girl, no, woman lying on the bed in admiration and curiosity. Did she affect everyone around her with the same magnetic gase? He shook his head and went back to reading through the reports printed out and pinned to the clipboard marking the significant improvements, stopping by the main desk to retrieve Anita's phone number.
"Miss Jameson?"
"No, she ees sleeping, oo iss ett?"
"This is Doctor Collins, from the Hospital, its with regards to Sarah Williams,.."
"One moemento, I wake err!"
Doctor Collins sat in his office listening to a frantic barrage or Italian intermixed with some very sleep deprived American swear words and couldn't help smiling.
"Hello? Who is this? Whats wrong with Sarah?!"
"Miss Jameson?"
"Yes, yes, please tell me whats wrong."
"Nothing is wrong Miss Jameson, I am Doctor Collins, head of the ICU, I am very pleased and relieved to tell you that Sarah has regained a level of conciousness. I am very very pleased with her cognative capabilities right now which is an excellent prognosis for complete recovery. Can you come to the hospital? She has asked for you…"
"She spoke to you? Holy Mary, have you told Toby?"
"No, I was asked to call you first."
"Good, good. Thats good."
The line crackled for a moment interspersed with the sound of Anita crying her eyes out.
"Miss Jameson, are you able to make it to the hospital? Immediate care and support are vital to good recovery right now."
"Yes, yes I will be there as soon as I can, thank you. Thank you so much!"
The line went dead before he had a chance to respond. One of the better phone calls he had to make as he noted down the time of the call on Sarah's records.
20 minutes later a very pale Anita arrived still in her PJ's and dressing gown, complete with bunny slippers arrived with a very pale but immaculately dressed Chris. They were ushered into Doctor Collin's office first rather than into Sarah's room which made Chris grouchy and Anita more anxious.
"Please don't worry, this is just a quick chat with you so you understand exactly whats happening right now. Please sit down."
Anita sank into the chair as if she was being deflated as Chris ignored the offer and hovered.
"So,.."
"So shes awake?"
"No. Well, not in the same way we consider people being awake in the usual sense." Doctor Collins said looking over at Chris who didn't much care that he had interrupted him.
"She is lucid for several minutes at a time, then returns to being only semi conscious of her surroundings. Frankly I am impressed with how many lucid moments shes having, I would not have expected this at all given how severe her head injury was plus the additional trauma of the heart attack."
"Thats Sarah all over. Doing things differently."
"I must warn you, that her speech is slurred and she is not focusing very well right now. Olfactory senses tend to get muddled. So what I am trying to say to you is that you must be patient. More patient than you already have been. The hardest part is her recovery now shes coming out of the coma. We've started reducing the medication and we are monitoring her pain levels, however at this point we rely a lot on the family members to be with the patient for as long as possible which gives us the best chance of noticing small improvements or issues before they develop into problems. Coma patients often feel frightened or alone when they come out of the coma because of how lengthy the process of recuperation can be."
"Does this mean we will be able to stay with her outside of visiting hours?" Anita asked after a moment of silence.
"Yes, she will be moved to a more specialist ward once we are satisfied her vital signs are stable enough to cope with less intensive care than she is currently receiving."
"Good, Toby will like that."
"May I ask why it is Sarah was so agitated about her brother?"
"She… she probably just doesn't want him to see her like she is. Toby is a sensitive lad, and they've had to pretty much look after each other growing up."
"I see. Perhaps her recuperation will be good for both of them. I will walk over to Sarahs room with you both." Doctor Collins said standing up and nodding towards his door indicating the conversation was over.
The Doctor ushered the nurse out as Anita took her place, eager to get an update but Anita and Chris were oblivious to their conversation in the doorway as they both went over to each side of the bed.
"She already looks better." Chris whispered.
"Not as pale anyhow." Anita sat down and took hold of Sarah's hand, brushing back stray locks of hair from around her face.
"Sarah, wake up, I bought Chris with me to keep you entertained for a while. Hes had no coffee yet." Anita said squeezing her friends hand gently. She couldn't help but grin as Sarah's eyes flickered open as if she was searching for the owner of the voice.
"Over here petal. Anita has had no coffee either." Chris said touching her cheek gently.
"Crs"
"I'm here honey. We are so glad you decided to come back to us. We missed you." He said happily as she blinked and tried to focus on him.
"Nita, don't tell Tobe."
"Sarah why not? Hes been spending every evening with you."
"Don't see me like this." Sarah barely whispered as she slipped away again. Anita gasped and held Sarahs hand to her face as she wept.
"Don't leave us again, you have to stay here." She said through the tears as Chris walked around the bed and hugged Anita.
"Shes going to be ok. We're going to make sure shes ok, you hear?!" Chris told her, as much to reassure himself as it was to reassure Anita.