Are You Afraid of Musicals?

Chapter 7.9: Truth

Dani's pov:

Being here now that I'm alone for the first time feels so weird.

Mrs. Lewis just left after spending practically the whole morning with me running some tests to check for any infection, cleaning the wound, changing the bandage and... checking the bullet, because apparently, the bullet is still in me.

During the tests Mrs. Lewis explained that taking it out was way more dangerous than leaving it where it is, that it was the most common way to proceed the cases similar to mine where the bullet was hard to access, but even as what she explained to me made sense and I knew it was probably for the best, the thought of the bullet still inside me made my stomach twist.

Mrs. Lewis noticed and as she kept running the tests she encouraged me to ask questions, showing herself open to all of them and explaining gently every single concern I had.

At first I thought that she was doing it to keep me talking, to distract me, but the more I learned, the more I started to relax until the thought of the bullet was just slightly uncomfortable and not the nerve-wrecking thought that it was when Mrs. Lewis first informed me of my situation.

It's still strange to think about it, my stomach still does a weird flip each time that thought comes to my mind, but now I'm... to be honest I don't know, I'm still trying to figure it out.

And well, that's how I spent my first morning without Gabby or Gina.

They'd been staying with me since I woke up, they basically moved to my hospital room for the weekend and we even had what Gina called a "hospital sleepover" on Saturday. We all agreed between laughter that we had to work on that name, but keeping the horrible naming situation aside, it was amazing.

They didn't let me be alone, not for a moment, and even though Mrs. Lewis came a couple of times into the room to check on me and make sure that I didn't need them to leave so I could properly rest, she very quickly understood that this; the three of us together laughing and pretending that everything was normal for a couple of hours, was something that the three of us needed.

Because after waking up on Friday (November 2025, I checked after not being able to answer Mrs. Lewis question), and the very embarrassing conversation I had with with her that I'm still trying not to think about, Gabby fell asleep next to me and she didn't wake up until way past lunch the next day, she was completely out, and that just confirmed my worries that she had been exhausted.

She didn't even wake up when Gina arrived early that morning, and we both took the opportunity to talk like we had the night before, whispering and being careful not to wake Gabby as we did.

She filled me in on everything she considered important that had happened while I was out, and I know that she probably didn't tell me everything, she definitely didn't, but I guess she was just trying not to overwhelm me with that much information all at once.

She did warn me about Gabby's nightmares though, that was the first thing she did, and I still remember how my stomach dropped when she told me even when it didn't come as a surprise to me.

I kind of had figured the night before, seeing her haunted expression, her puffy eyes, the way she carried herself fighting exhaustion and the way her body gave in next to mine... yeah, I just knew.

I had at least suspected that she hadn't been getting much sleep and as soon as the nightmares idea popped into my head I tried to discard it, find another explanation, but when Gina confirmed it the next morning it definitely didn't come as new information.

Luckily, she didn't have any during the weekend.

Gina told me more things about her, filling me in on almost everything, but once again, I know that she was leaving some things out, some things that she was giving Gabby the opportunity of telling me herself, and for that I didn't press and I let our conversation take a new path.