Bright lights. A beeping heart monitor. Halls that weren't recognizable. Voices, distorted and overlapping. Two people yelling. A fight? Shattering glass...
Snow...
The voice was distorted and echoed, bouncing around inside his skull.
Snow...
He could almost touch the blurred face above him.
Snow... Hear me? Can you... Me? Snow...
Air rushed into his lungs and everything that was blurred came into sharp focus. He jerked upward and coughed, blood spraying from his lips and flowing down his chin. He gasped and looked around wildly.
"What..."
He wheezed, then heard Books' voice.
"Don't speak. Holy shit. Lay back."
Snow was obedient and his eyes found the brunet. He had blood splattered on his face and was wiping off his glasses with a towel. It wasn't until this moment that the pain also came into sharp focus. He let out a strangled sound that turned into a full out scream. His chest... His lungs... What happened?
He saw a flash of a needle, then his vision slowly darkened again.
When Snow next opened his eyes, he was sore but most of the pain was gone. His head lolled to the side and he saw Roderick sitting in a chair with his long legs pulled up to his chest and wrapped up in his arms. His chin rested on his knee, but he raised his head when he saw Snow move.
"Hey."
Snow raised a hand in greeting. There was a cannula in his nose and he didn't quite know if speaking was ok yet. Roderick didn't smile.
"We almost lost you..."
Snow nodded, then tilted his head in question. He decided to test his voice. He wheezed out one word, his voice barely recognizable to his own ears.
"Why?"
"I can't heal everything... Just what I see. I can't see internal bleeding or the broken ribs smashing into your lungs to cause it."
Snow touched his torso and his brows drew together. So that's what happened...
"The copy?"
He asked, looking back at Roderick.
"He got away, but not uninjured. Books threw some kind of... I forgot what he called it but it was essentially a boomerang with blades."
Snow smirked.
"Nice."
And then he started coughing and his body arched and went stiff with pain.
"Urgh!"
Roderick held his hand until he settled and went back to his low wheezes.
"They said it's good for you to cough a few times every hour..."
"Mm..."
Snow's brows drew together.
"That hurt..."
Roderick squeezed his hand.
"I'm sorry. You have to keep doing that... And I'm sorry we were not fast enough..."
"Shh..."
Snow closed his eyes and tilted his head back.
"Not your fault..."
Roderick and Snow fell into a comfortable silence until the door opened and Snow cracked open his eyes. Skins and Freak came in with activity books and markers.
