• A Blackbird's Serenade • (GxG)

"Easier Said Than Done"

Omniscient

Pain was inevitable. No amount of medication, warm wet towels, or thoughts of better days could suffice for the tormenting agony piercing at her right leg. Over, and over, and over again.

The best she could, Tiana tried to suppress her screams and cries.

She bit hard at her bottom lip, held tight onto her mother's hand, stared miserably at the ceiling, and attempted to turn the situation into one of mind over matter. Although it wasn't long before the doctor's kind words to soothe, and the nurses' encouragement that it'd be over soon, was simply nowhere near enough.

She could feel her skin tissue being removed and cut and needled. She could feel everything...

It was so tender there that a mere gust of wind might've caused her to whimper in pain. Every touch and tinker hurt beyond words, to where Tiana was sure she'd be screaming in her sleep if she passed out from the deep affliction.

"We're almost done, Tiana- just hang in there for me sweetheart, alright?" The male, brown skinned doctor cooed through a surgical mask. His words were only met by whimpered cries as everyone in the room looked on warily. Sympathy then filled his glance from Tiana to the nurse beside the tray. "Dr. Emmers, check her vitals for me, please. We can't have her coding right now."

With every aching wail that rasped from her blemished throat, the woman's bruised midsection paid the price also. And with that, the throb upon her head only grew worse, leaving a dangerous migraine to approach as the beat in her heart continued to speed up.

Sweat pricked her forehead, neck, and chest as she sniffled in failed attempts to reel in her tears. Though any time she proceeded even a single step forward in progress, the bone chilling pain would return. And just like that she was screaming again. Aching her ribs beyond description, and having her head pound so hard that if she opened her eyes for even a second, she felt she might go blind.

As a person with a relatively high pain tolerance, this was by far the worst Tiana had ever felt in her life.

"Oh my baby," Viola muttered with emotion, her gaze laced with distress as she watched her daughter's face contort in anguish. "It's gone be alright, Tee-"

"It hurts Mama..."

The scratched and fragile pitch of her daughter's voice- as Tiana's hand shook upon her squeezing tight onto her mother's- caused Viola's eyebrows to draw together as a tear fell from her eye.

Wiping it away before Tiana could see, Viola brought the young woman's hand gently to her lips, stroking the slicked baby hairs at her forehead with her other hand. "I know baby, I know..."

She was enraged at whoever had caused her daughter this kind of pain. At whoever was to blame for her being in this hospital bed, wailing until she no longer had a voice. It broke her heart into pieces, seeing and hearing Tiana this way.

But for her daughter, she also intended to be strong. She simply could fall apart about the cruel realities of the situation later.

While Franklin had gone to get Journee's change of clothes and small bag of necessities from the couple's apartment, Coco sat with the singer, hand in hand. Revealing the state of their inner thoughts, Journee's leg bounced uncontrollably and Coco could hardly get herself to quit gnawing at the inside of her cheek.

Neither had said a word, other than the exchange of merely a few, since entering the waiting room.

Each with a distinct worry of their own, a mixture of being different though the same, their shared silence was knowing in every sense. Both were ready for this horror of a night to finally come to an end.