He was met with a visage of white, pearl white that echoed in his crusted, bleary eyes, blinking slowly, carefully as he gave the room around him a tired glance. Reggie groaned, heaving a strained breath despite having only just awakened, and even in his addled mind, he found himself still trying to make sense of where he was.
'W-where...where a-am...I' His mind croaked out, noting that his mouth felt too dry to even try to speak. Looking around again, there wasn't much to look at, save for the sterile, white wall that came to be a bit more in focus the longer he looked at it. On that same wall, he could see a television, turned on, playing the news, a char just beneath, too, but he didn't care too much about them. Instead, he wavered between the wall, to trying to turn his head, wincing at the stiffness that inhibited his ability to do so.
Why was he so...stiff? It was if his muscles had been turned to stone or something.
Disregarding the thought, his eyes caught sight of a monitor, its steady beeping an indicator of his stabilizing vital when slowly, the fog began to clear.
An ECG?
Why was there...an ECG?
Where...was he in the hospital?
Reggie watched the screen for a passing beat, his mind reeling from the realization of where he was. Just how had he gotten here? Why was here in the first place? What was going on?
'Something...happened...something...bad...' His mind was slow to ponder, as if he were trying to work through molasses to allow the thought to manifest, the man grunted with frustration as he struggled to do so. Even just the meager act of simply moving proved far more difficult than it should have. Still, he did his best to try and recall what may have landed him here, why he was in such a state. His gaze fell to the television, the weather station, reporting what the forecast should be for the remainder of the week. He watched it absently, taking notice of the wet weather they were sure to have as the days progressed.
Most of his memories felt hazy, cut and divided into so many segments that it was hard just trying to piece them together. Something about the weather, the...rain...there was something familiar about that, wasn't it? In the back of his mind, he could recall it being cold, wet...the rain.
It had been...raining, wasn't it? Before, whenever that was, when whatever happened...happened. Yeah, that was right...he was soaked, drenched as the downpour continued, pelting him like miniscule bullets as...as...he didn't know. Why was he wet?
Why was he in the rain?
What brought him out there?
He tried again, to force what he knew was missing to the forefront of his mind, but it wouldn't give. All he could recall was grey, slate, stone...concrete.
Reggie doubled back.
Concrete.
His monitor buzzed and beeped in tandem with his pattering heart, his vitals escalating in time.
He remembered it.
Cold, hard, and bare against his skin. It...hurt...why did it...why did it hurt? Why was he in pain?
The man squirmed the best way he could as the stress began to get to him, and just as quickly, people came, a few that rushed to his side and did their best to ease him. They were speaking to him, he understood that, but their words weren't making sense. What was happening? What were they...doing? He knew something was wrong, that something...bad happened, but...it was harder to recall anything when they swarmed him, taking his vitals as they spoke amongst themselves.
'Patient...awake...sir...hear us?' One of them asked, a light, airy voice that perked in his ears, but he was too disoriented to answer, perhaps too distracted as well. He couldn't even think to answer as he struggled in his place, but they made easy work of keeping his laid upon the bed, but all that did was agitate him more.
'Why won't they leave me alone? Why won't they just let...me leave? I have to...' He trailed off, and opening his mouth, his desperation was made apparent, tired, rasped mumblings clear to the people around him as they still made their best efforts to calm him down, realizing very quickly that he was becoming inconsolable.
"Where...brother? Where...where is...brother?" He asked tiredly, working himself to exhaustion as, in his ragged state, he found his energy waning just as quickly, and just as soon as he'd had it in his mind to leave, he was relaxed again, plastered upon his stark, white sheets and left without enough energy to even lift his arms again. But he didn't have to, not when just the word struck him.
Brother...his brother...Delsin.
Delsin.
Where was he? Where had he -
Above him, someone held him tight, iron-clad grip tired, but strong, as the cold, the rain, ate at them. But they didn't waver, only in the apparent agony that they'd subjected themselves to as they did their best to keep them above the freezing waters below, a single, measly ledge their only salvation. There was that look on their face again, that resolved glance that marked the end.
Reggie couldn't react fast enough, he couldn't stop them from shouting out a force beyond their view.
And it was those words that etched into solid rock their fates.
It was his brother that had did just that.
"D-Del...sin..." He rasped weakly, and it was only then that the nurses felt him stable enough to release, his frantic movement having ceased, not that he would have tried it again. He was caught in the visage of his memories, desperate to put it all back together again.
Delsin had...saved him. Somehow, he had, but something in Reggie told him that doing so...was the reason that something bad happened, wasn't it? It was something that Delsin did that...that...
"Sir? Are you alright? For someone that had been out for so long, you sure do have a bit of fight in you, don't you? It's okay; one of the other nurses will be right back to help out if you're in pain. That way, we can help you settle in a bit. We didn't anticipate you waking up in such a state, so just hang tight." The kindly woman explained to him, patting his arm gently as she smiled down at him, but Reggie didn't give her much heed. He was far too caught in his own thoughts to do so.
He needed to know what happened to his brother.
Opening his mouth, he tried his best to speak, to force out anything that could give way to an answer he so desperately needed. Was he alive? Where had he gone? Why wasn't he here? What happened to him? Why in the world did he do...whatever he'd done, Reggie still unable to really pinpoint what had transpired.
All he knew...was that it was bad.
"Where is...D-Delsin? W-Where..." He started, applying as much volume as he could to get her attention, and the woman blinked softly, appearing surprised to hear him talking.
"And you're speaking so soon?! Our long-term patients that come in the way that you did usually don't do that, but don't strain yourself, alright? Now, you asked where...Delsin was?" She asked gently as she raised her walkie talkie, informing them that he speaking as well before turning back to meet his gaze.
"Where...my brother...not...h-here..." He managed to get out, and she shook her head.
"Oh, no, we haven't had a Delsin be admitted into the hospital, at least, not the ones in my care, but if he was anything like you, well, I imagine I would have heard about it. I'm sorry, I take it he's your...brother, right?" She asked gently, and though Reggie didn't answer, he nodded, slowly, though his mind was somewhere else.
Not here? So then...he was really gone.
But...where had he gone? Where did he -
There was so much happening, too much to make sense of, but despite his condition, Reggie tried to pull himself from the grips of the guards around him as he was loaded on a helicopter, his consciousness already beginning to wane as that same face, his brother...smiled.
He was smiling, even as...those grey, tearing hands crept along his body then...dark.
But beside him, there was a woman, clad in dark clothes that made her stand out amongst the craggily stones that quaked from her fingertips.
That woman.
She was...
"Augustine." That was right. How could he have forgotten that.
It was her.
She...she had him, didn't she?
She had his little brother. Oh God, she had Delsin.
No. No, this couldn't be real. This wasn't real, this -
He was roused from his thoughts when he felt someone's hand upon his arm, and he lurched back. The young woman raised her palm from his wrist where it had been laid, an apologetic expression upon her face.
"Hey! Sorry, I noticed you spaced out a bit there, . It's okay." The nurse pulled away, giving him a bit of space to collect himself, but really, that did nothing to clear the growing tension in his chest.
Augustine had Delsin.
Again and again, that mantra played in mind, and even when he noticed the second nurse come in, a young man, as far as he could tell, speaking quietly to the woman that had been at his side, he couldn't really make out what they were saying. Just a few words came to mind when he thought of where he had gone, Curdun Cay, he could recall, wasn't it?
He didn't know much about this place, not much more than what the news and media reported, and from them? The place where the bio-terrorists - conduits, he corrected himself - went...right? It shouldn't have scared him as much as it did, that if Delsin was safe anywhere, it was definitely where he could be watched and monitored by the very people housing people like...him. At least, that's what he wanted to believe, that's what he wanted so desperately to think, but he would have been a fool to think that were true.
That he was safe in any capacity with Augustine, much less in, from what he could understand, was a prison people just like her.
And to know that there was little, if anything, that he could do to change that fact...it made him sick. So horribly, terribly sick that he wanted to vomit right then and there.
'This is all my fault. I...I should have...n-never let him help that...that piece of shit, H-Hank...I should have never - ' Again, he was pulled from his thoughts, minding the opening of his IV as a syringe of what he figured was medication began to filter through, taking a long moment disperse into his drip and down the tube. It wasn't long until it reached his arm, and once the two of them noted his vitals, they turned back to him to check if he was doing okay.
"There. Now that should help with your discomfort. We're going to call in to have him look you over since we weren't really anticipating you waking up, at least, not yet. We've cleared your vitals, and apart from a bit of elevation, and agitation, for the most part, you look fine." It was in the midst of this that Reggie felt him self grow lighter, airy as the medication seemed to take an immediate effect. Whatever discomfort he'd been feeling from before appeared to melt away into the background of his mind, but it was replaced with another fear.
That he might fall asleep again.
Squirming, he tried to fight the heaviness of his eyelids, the sluggishness that made his movements slowed, eased in comparison to the frantic shifts that he'd pulled off earlier.
No, he couldn't fall...fall asleep. Not until...not until he could -
"Don't...no...s-sleeping..." Reggie whispered as he fought off the lull of relaxation, but the lady nurse, who he'd strangely had little idea what her name was, gave him a reassuring pat upon his arm, smiling gently.
"No, you're not going to sleep, but you are going to relax a bit. We just want to make sure that you don't pose a risk to yourself trying to stand up too soon. You don't want to agitate your injuries, even with all the time you've had to recuperate., okay? So this is just to ease your pain and your nerves as we get you prepped for so extra testing to make sure everything is cleared up, so just relax for right now. You're safe. Whatever bio-terrorist attacked you won't reach you anymore." The woman assured him, and the term, for the first time...felt gross to hear.
Maybe it was different that his brother and his friends were just that...the supposed bio-terrorists that had "attacked" him, right? Even through his hazy mind, he could smell Augustine's DUP bullshit all over this, and that just made him angrier.
Angrier more since it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that all his brother had done was help people, give to those that needed it, used his powers selflessly, and what did he receive?
A life behind the steely bars of Curdun Cay and people that, though they might mean well, that drag the names of every Conduit into the dirt.
Just...as he had done, not knowing that the story was just a tad bit more complicated than that.
But that just brought it to mind.
Where were Eugene and Fetch?
At this point, the drugs had made their way into his system, and coupled with the fact that he struggled to even string words together earlier, he wasn't sure if he had the capacity to speak much more, but he had to know. He could recall catching just a glimpse of them in the chaos, and it was bad.
Really bad.
Though he hadn't had the chance to really get to know them, they...were just as much a victim as he was in all of this. It wouldn't sit right with him not knowing where they were, at the very least, so he had to know.
That would be a start.
Opening his mouth, he made a sound effort to try to speak, to do his best to pronounce his thoughts however he could.
"W-where...friends...my...friends..." He muttered sloppily, hoping that perhaps he was able to get the message across enough that they would be able to at least piece together what he'd said. For a moment, there seemed to be sort of collective confusion as the two tried to decipher what he'd said, It was nearly long enough that Reggie thought maybe they missed what he attempted to get out, but this time, the male nurse seemed to understand, at least, enough to pick up where he'd left off.
"Your friends? You're asking about your friends?" He asked, and Reggie nodded as well as he could, his muscles slack, but still functional enough for him move just a bit. At his gesture, the young man seemed to ponder this for a moment,.
"I mean, you were brought in with two other people, wasn't he, Allison?" The man wondered, and Allison responded in kind.
"Ah, yeah, now that I think about it. It was...Eugene and Abigail, I think? It's been a while since they were discharged, but yeah, I think that's it." She explained carefully, but all that did was make his growing anxiety worse.
Discharged.
How could they be...how long has it been since -
Suddenly, their walkie talkies go off, and in each answering the call, the two stand up, giving him a careful look as they begin to depart from the room. Reggie blanches, sputtering as the question lingers on his tongue.
"Yeah, okay, we're on our way. Yep...yep, got it." Before the two of them could leave though, they rushed back to his bedside to check his vitals once more, agreeing amongst themselves that he looked alright for the time being. Hinging on his arm, the young man gave him a reassuring nod before going to speak.
" should be here any minute to speak with you, okay? Just hang tight." He explained, and with a nod, he made his way to the door, and out into the halls of the hospital, far out of sight. It was just he and Allison now, but knowing that she was due to leave soon, too, without giving him an inkling of an answer to what he felt was something he needed to know. He wasn't sure if he could muster it again, the capacity to speak, not when he'd already expended so...much...energy. But if Eugene and Fetch were out there, that had to mean that...they were okay. That they managed to pull through okay, right?
Why else would they have been discharged if they...they make it out alright?
But that didn't change the perversion of the question that dotted him dry lips, the one thing that he absolutely had to know.
Pulling on her sleeve just before Allison managed to leave his side, Reggie gaped a bit, straining his vocal muscles just once more to force the question out.
"How...long...I...here?" He managed just above a whisper. The young woman turned her head curiously, then, in a turn of expression, she seemed to understand.
"Oh, how long have you been here? I...well, , it's been two months since you were admitted." She answered gently, and Reggie felt his breath hitch, a violent uptake of air that he couldn't afford to expend as he was sent into a fit of coughs.
No.
No, that...that couldn't be -
"But don't worry, the staff are ready and able to work with you as we get you rehabilitated, so just relax, and the he'll be right with you. I would love to wait with you, but I was called to another room, so I'll see you really soon, okay?" Allison did her best to assure him, and with a calm pat of his arm, she left his side, leaving to mull over the truth.
Two...two months.
He'd been out...for two...months.
And more than that?
Delsin had been gone just...as...long.