Love's Eternal Song: Tygra's Story

Chapter 4: The Beginning of Something Interesting

     Tim slowly came awake to the sound of voices.  He soon realized that he was in the Med-bay, but he didn't remember how he got there. 

"Good, you're awake," a woman in a white coat said, coming over and standing at the side of his bed.

"What happened?" Tim asked, trying to sit up.

"Easy, Sargent Larson.  From what Lt. Denver told me, you fell out of your chair at dinner and passed out," the woman explained as she helped him sit up.

"Oh yeah, I remember falling out of my chair," Tim said, leaning back on the pillows that were behind him.

"Can you tell me anything else?" the woman asked, pulling a pen and notepad out of the breast pocket of her coat and held them at the ready.

"Just that I haven't been sleeping well," Tim confessed, looking away from the woman's piercing gaze.

"That may be the cause of this.  Why haven't you been sleeping well?" the woman asked, writing all this down in her notepad.

"I don't know, Major Redfeather," Tim lied, still not looking at her.  The Major gave him a look that said she didn't believe him, but she wouldn't pry.

"Can I go now?" Tim asked after an uncomfortable silence.

"Of course you can," the Major replied, unhooking the IV from his arm.

"Thanks, Doc," Tim answered, getting up from the bed and walking to the doors.

"Mmhmmm," the Major said as she returned to her desk to go over the information that Tim had given her.

        Tim breathed a sigh of relief as he pushed the Med-bay doors open and that was before he was bombarded by a lot of worried people standing outside the doors.

"Are you alright, Tim?" David asked, getting up out of the chair that he was sitting in.

"Yep, I'm fine," Tim answered, stepping forward just enough to close the Med-bay doors.

"What happened?" Nathan asked from where he was standing against the left wall of the hallway.

"Doc said the reason I passed out was from not getting enough sleep at night," Tim explained, trying not to fidget under his older brothers' gazes.

"Why haven't you been sleeping well?" David asked in concern.

"Nightmares mostly," Tim mumbled, crossing his arms over his chest in a defensive position.

"Are they really that bad?" Matt asked, getting up off the floor.

"Will, you be alright, Tim?" Tygra asked from where he was standing against the right wall of the hallway.

"Yes, I'll be fine.  What's a few nights without sleep going to hurt?" Tim asked, laughing weakly.

"They could end up hurting you," Tygra replied quietly.  Tim didn't answer, he just looked away from those concerned hazel eyes and down at his feet.

"Tygra's right, they could hurt you," David said, coming to stand in front of
Tim.  Tim remained silent, refusing to look at his older brother.

"I agree with those two," Nate replied, gesturing to David and Tygra.

   Tim clenched his hands into fists as he fought the sudden surge of anger that made his blood boil.  The rational part of his mind was telling him that they were only concerned for his well-being, but the helplessness that he'd been feeling for the past two weeks was starting to slip passed his self-control.