timeless | sequel | d.w

2

   Waking up had never seemed more unpleasant, with a stinging feeling in my head and a disgusting taste of metal in my mouth. I didn't open my eyes, but I could hear movement in the room, like steps pacing back and forth, and the sound was nerve wrecking.

First now I acknowledged the beeping noise coming from somewhere around me. The beeps came in even waves and was rather slow, or maybe it was just my mind registering them as slow. Either way, they were annoying.

I finally decided to open my eyes, hoping to escape the annoying beeps as if they were some sort of illusion. My eyes were heavy and it took a lot of strength for me to get them to open. With a blurry sight, I tried to get a look around the room I was in.

It was bright, and I guessed colored in white. I turned my head to my left, and could see a rather short, dark shadow moving around. I guessed that whoever it was, was the one causing the pacing back and forth steps.

My sight slowly became clearer, and I brought my hand up to hold my head as I decided to sit up. A gasp, or maybe a sigh of relief, escaped from the dark shadow standing a few feet away from me, but who now slowly approached me.

I soon enough registered the person as Raúl and tried to squeeze a smile onto my lips, but it didn't go as planned. My muscles didn't seem to cooperate with my brain at the moment.

"Gabrielle," he breathed out and I could feel his hand grazing my own very carefully, as if I was made out of porcelain and were to break otherwise.

"Raúl.." I said, my voice dry and husky. "Where are we?"

I noticed a small smile in the corner of his lips, but rather a smile of happiness, it was a smile of worry and fright. I'd seen it before. "At the hospital."

I almost laughed. "What are we doing here?" I wondered, my memory a mess. I couldn't seem to understand why I was here.

I could sense the tension in his body just by hearing his voice. "Y-you don't remember?"

I slowly shook my head. "Remember what?"

Raúl got up again, continuing to pace back and forth. I watched him for a while, thinking he'd stop. He didn't. His hands were running through his hair, nervously tugging at it as he seemed to be caught up in a conversation in his head.

"Raúl." I tried to snap at him, but my voice weren't strong enough.

"The doctor said you'd suffer from a mild memory loss but..."

"You need to calm down and tell me what happened." I told him, and his gaze finally met mine. "Come on." I weakly stretched my hand out for him. He walked over and sat, holding my hand in between both of his. They were warm and I leaned into the touch.

"What do you remember?" He asked after a moment of silence, running his thumb across my knuckles.

I thought for a while. "We.. we were at our house, getting ready to go somewhere.." I began, and memory flashes soon popped into my head. "We were going to see that band!"

Raúl nodded. "Yes. Do you remember what band?" He asked, his voice still shaky.

"Panic at the disco." I said and I remembered how he'd corrected me the first time I said it- he didn't this time.

Raúl didn't say anything else for the moment, just grazed my hand with his fingers and staring blankly at his feet. I didn't know what to do, but it hurt to see him that way. I attempted to lean forward, but he stopped me.

"You need to rest." He told me, but his voice was hesitant.

"But I also need to make sure my boyfriend isn't wasting all his energy on worrying over me," I said as I sat more properly, pulling him into my arms. He carefully wrapped his arms around my waist, and a relieved sigh escaped his lips. "I'm okay."

"I was scared to death when you passed out..." He said, and that was another part that I didn't remember. But it made sense.

"I passed out?" I asked, as if he hadn't made that clear already.

"You did. The lights flashed on, the music was loud.. maybe it was something in your drink.. I knew I should've kept a better eye on that bartender!" Raúl was getting mad, at himself and probably at the innocent bartender. But I remembered why I had passed out and it wasn't because of something in my drink.

"Raúl." I said, gripping his arm. "It wasn't the bartender."

He looked at me with gritted teeth. "Then who was it?"

"The bassist."