Breathing

Breakthrough

"Athos, it's been almost two weeks. You need to wake up, now! No more sleeping, you have had enough time to rest. This isn't acceptable anymore, do you hear me?" Aramis takes the unconscious man by the shoulders and gently shakes him. Athos's head rolls limply back and forth on the pillow.

"I am not playing around; I am through being patient with you. What do I have to do to break through that fog in there?" Aramis began tapping the cheeks of his still-sleeping friend.

"Wake up, dammit!" Aramis shook Athos by the shoulders, rougher this time.

Porthos and d'Artagnan were on their feet, rushing to remove Aramis from Athos's bedside.

"What are you doing, 'Mis?" Porthos yelled as he pulled Aramis away.

"What is the matter with you?" d'Artagnan asked, shocked that Aramis would behave in such a way.

"Athos is in there. . . he is in there somewhere and maybe he can hear us. If he can hear us, then he needs to know that we want him back!" Aramis yelled toward the bed.

"'Mis, I have never seen you act like this wit' a patient before." Porthos was breathing hard after wrestling with Aramis. "Wha' has gotten into you?"

"He needs to fight his way back to us rather than settling in the darkness where it's more comfortable, Porthos. He needs to be the fighter that Iknow Athos is! He has to fight this coma holding him hostage."

"Aramis, the doctor said there is nothing we can do to wake him but that he will wake up in his own time." d'Artagnan retorted.

"Time is exactly what Athos does not have anymore, d'Artagnan. The longer he is unconscious, the more the coma wins and we may never get Athos back."

*****

The Next Morning:

"You pull another stunt like you did yesterday, 'Mis," Porthos threatened. "You won' like it."

"No, you see, I disagree with you, Porthos." Aramis protested. "I think what Athos has been missing is rough tactile stimulation."

"What?" Porthos's brow crinkled in confusion.

"Tactile stimulation—touch!" Aramis took Porthos's hand and smacked it hard. Porthos pulled away his hand with a deep growl. "You felt that, right? I got a reaction from you—it made you angry."

"Yeah, and if you hit me again. . ." Porthos let the tone of his voice convey a threat.

"We have each, at times past, been injured badly enough that we have welcomed unconsciousness, am I right?" Aramis waited, hoping his brothers would be honest.

"Yes." Porthos and d'Artagnan answered together.

"Good, because I know I have." Aramis nodded to his friends. "Why do we do this, you ask? Because we feel no pain; the darkness is a retreat, it's comfortable and safe. Athos feels safe where he is. His body was in so much pain that it simply shut down. He needed to rest—I understand that—but the longer his body remains in a state of rest, the harder it will be for him to come out of it."

"But what about what Doctor Molyneux said, that there was no way to wake him up?" d'Artagnan asked.

"I know Molyneux is right, in most cases, but not this time. When we sit by Athos's bedside talking to him and holding his hand, he feels comfortable—he expects it. What he won't expect is us getting rough with him, just enough to shock him a little, and just enough to get him to walk away from the edge and come back to us. If we do nothing, Athos may go over that edge—and we've lost him for good."