Aria woke slowly, like her body wasn't entirely sure it wanted to yet.
At first there was only brightness.
A harsh white light pressing against her eyelids.
Then sound followed — soft beeping, footsteps, a low murmur of voices nearby. Nothing urgent. Nothing chaotic. Just the strange, muffled rhythm of a hospital room moving around her.
Hospital.
The thought came sluggishly.
Her eyes opened a fraction.
Everything was blurred.
White ceiling. Pale walls. A curtain half drawn. Movement somewhere to her left.
She tried to take a deeper breath and pain tore through her chest so sharply that a low groan escaped before she could stop it.
That hurt.
Not the cold, distant hurt of the woods.
Not the numb, pushed-aside hurt that adrenaline had let her ignore.
This was different.
Heavy. deep. unavoidable.
Her shoulder throbbed in a way that made her stomach turn, and every breath scraped across her ribs like something cracked and wrong inside her.
"Dr. Grey?"
The voice was close now. Calm. measured.
Aria blinked hard, trying to force the room into focus.
A doctor stepped into view beside the bed, middle-aged, steady-faced, wearing Boise Memorial ID clipped to her scrub top.
"You're awake," she said gently.
Aria swallowed, immediately regretting it when even that seemed to hurt.
Her mouth was dry. Her tongue felt thick.
She shifted slightly, trying to orient herself, and another sharp wave of pain pulled a wince across her face.
"Don't move too quickly," the doctor said. "Your clavicle is fractured, and you've got at least two broken ribs on the left side. Your body's been through a lot."
Aria closed her eyes briefly.
The plane.
The woods.
The cold.
Lexie.
The memory flickered through her mind in broken pieces, but even that was too much to sit with properly. Her brain reached for it and then recoiled.
"How long?" she asked, her voice rough and thin.
"You were found this morning," the doctor said. "You've been drifting in and out, but this is the first time you've really come around."
Morning.
Aria turned her head slightly, fighting through the fog.
Her arm was strapped securely against her chest, immobilized tight enough that she couldn't test it even if she wanted to. There was an IV line in her hand. Monitors beside her bed. Her whole body felt drained, hollowed out.
Not sedated.
Just empty.
Like the crash and the woods had taken everything useful and left pain behind.
The doctor glanced toward the end of the bed, then back at her.
"You're dehydrated. Severely. Your blood pressure's low, and you're still exhausted. We've got fluids running, and we're arranging pain medication now that you're awake enough for us to assess you properly."
YOU ARE READING
Shooting Stars
Fanfiction"But he's Evil Spawn." "Don't you think I know that. I didn't wake up one day and suddenly decide I was going to be in love with Alex Karev." Being the daughter of a world renowned surgeon was never destined to be easy. The first born of the Grey tw...
