The IBM

Chapter 8

The bright sunny rays landed on face through the glass window, making her open her eyes.

It took a moment for her vision to adjust to her surroundings.

The florescent light on the ceiling was blinking as if it would give out any second. She felt something heavy on her wrist as she heard a beep from the machine beside her.

She strangely felt dumb in the moment. There was no feeling she could feel. Everything was just calm.

"Do you want some water or something?"

Natalie sat up straight on the bed and realized she was in a hospital bed.

Right beside her sat Christopher Grayson still in his Acadmey uniform with the same worried look in his eyes.

Natalie shook her head and looked out the window to avoid his gaze. "How long was I out?"

"A few hours." He replied.

Natalie pulled up her hand to run it through her hair but there was something pulling it back down.

"Careful. You already lost a lot of blood." Chris spoke, taking her hand and setting it back down.

Natalie's eyes darted towards her wound on the wrist and her eyes widened. Her wound was as visible as the sky in the short sleeve hospital gown she wore. Not only that her arm had a tube going through it. A dark red tube that ended in the blood bottles that were settled on the floor.

She didn't look at him as she asked, "Did you tell anyone?"

Chris glanced at her. "Arnold called."

Natalie closed her eyes as a guilt formed in her throat. She knew Arnold was going to be worried sick and he would blame himself for not being there. Then would come the moral lecture.

"But I told him we went for lunch." Chris continued. "Which he didn't really buy so you should call him."

She let out a sigh of relief before looking up at him. "Thank you."

Chris held her gaze before his eyes traveled to the cut on her wrist. It was still pretty red but scar tissue was starting to form at it's edges.

"Does it hurt?" He asked, his eyes unwavering from her wrist.

Natalie nervously covered the cut with her other hand as embarrassment filled her core. "No."

Chris didn't say anything after but instead stood up and walked to the foot of the bed, picking up her file and reading it.

She was glad he didn't ask any more questions. It relieved her. She managaed a small smile."Thank you." She spoke. "You know, for bringing me here and not telling anyone."

"Don't take drugs after hurting yourself." He spoke as he put the file down and looked into her gray eyes. "You can't be high on pain and ecstasy at the same time."

Natalie blinked. He spoke like he had seen it before. "Are you my doctor now?"

Chris ignored her question. "I doubt they'll let you leave without a Psych evaluation."

"I'll take care of it." She spoke and reached for her phone on the side table. In doing so, a sharp pain shot up her arm when she realised that the needle had moved. Natalie winced.

Chris quickly went by her side again and took a hold of her arm and inserted the needle back in the right way. "Don't be stubborn. 30 more minutes and you can go back to killing yourself."

"Gee, thanks for the pep talk." Natalie rolled her eyes.

Chris ran a gentle thumb down the scar forming on her wrist.