Spades and Angels

Stay Please

Lolita

Next Morning

TW: Trauma and mentions Miscarriage 

The next morning I woke up with an odd feeling. I remembered the crash but not a lot after that. Just that I had the results of the...of the tests and needed to see Mads. I decided to come clean when I opened them. To tell him when I knew for sure.

Blinking awake to clear the grogginess in my head I sit up a little, spying an IV tube in my left elbow. Filled with something I can't make out but makes me feel good. Probably the pain meds the hospital would have prescribed given the severity of my accident. Keeping quiet I almost jump out of my skin when I notice someone next to me. That is until their identity crystalises.

Mads.

Frowning I spy a clock on the far wall, face illuminated by the moonlight and showing that it's around two in the freaking morning. How the hell he managed to pull strings to stay I don't want to know. Just happy he's here. With me. So I'm not alone since I don't recognise the hospital I'm in. Then again I'd been in Ayrith when I crashed so would have been put in a hospital there, rather than being driven to Mountain View.

Sighing I sit up a little more but keep my eyes on Mads. I noticed how he'd been sitting next to me, hand in mine where our fingers were still curled around each other loosely enough that it wouldn't hurt. A smile crosses my face when his comes into view once a cloud moves, showing where he was lying on the bed just a little, an expression oddly peaceful yet sad. Heartbreakingly so.

Reaching a hand his way I don't manage to move very far before a twitching pain in my shoulder has me tense my arm, causing my fingers to tighten around his. Wincing when the action causes both more pain to me and him to look like he's waking up. A flash of shame hits me when his eyes open and finds mine.

"Hey," I whisper, mindful of the early hours. "Sorry I...I didn't mean to wake you I just...." I give up then and sigh again, not sure how to figure out the expression in his eyes. "Are...are you ok? Did something happen to the others?" Instantly alert I sit up more but Mads just sighs, shaking his head and I relax a little. Wincing when the loss of the tense posture had me tensing back again in pain. "Fuck that hurts."

"It would," Mad's voice sounds husky with a mix of sleep and scratchiness that I've only ever heard from someone who's been crying. "At least I think it would, given how serious your crash was...Lo what-what happened?"

If I'm not mistaken Mad's eyes shine with tears then. Making the aquamarine colours pull together like a whirlpool. Tugging at me from behind the sadness he seems afraid. Afraid of something he'd been told when I was out of it. But before I can find the words I notice someone else with him. A girl, maybe fourteen with her head and back against the wall, knees drawn up.

Riv.

"Is..is she ok out here like this?" I whisper, seeing Mads give me a look before I gesture to Riv. "Is she safe exposed like this?" This time I know he gets what I mean when Mads sighs. Shrugging.

"Safe enough. That and she refused to leave. Threatened to threaten - and or harass - anyone who said we had to leave. That she wouldn't leave you." He sighs and spares her a look too. "She's a smart kid. Brave to but with a bit of a....how to do I put it. Martyr complex I think the word is."

"Always wanting to save everyone, even at the cost of herself," I mumble in a sad tone. Heartbroken that what she's suffered pushed her to that. To try to save everyone even when it's people like us having to shield her. Keep her safe. Protected from those who would make an example of her if they found her. Just as they would me for a similar infraction. String her up and make an example for anyone else. "I hope she'll be ok."