"You're very lucky that your heart is on the other side, otherwise you'd be dead right now. Actually, I'm shocked that you're still kicking. You've lost a lot of blood and taken some heavy damage, but we should be able to patch you up."
The doctor's voice sounds far-off, like he's speaking to her from across the ship. Her eyes keep drifting away from him and she struggles to understand what he's telling her.
"Can you hear me, Storm? We're going to stitch the wound and bind it but you'll have to take it easy from now on, or else the stitches will come out. That means you're out of commission for a while."
Her eyes wander the room and she finally registers what's going on. "Raiden." she murmurs in a voice just barely above a whisper. The doctor hovering over her looks at someone who's out of her range of vision, and then looks back down at her "He's ok."
She thinks he's just saying it to get her to calm down--she saw his wounds--but at the moment she's too weak to argue. Her eyelids become heavy as a dark ring appears around her vision and her heart rate starts dropping dangerously low. "Storm, he's not lying. Raiden is going to be fine, they've already patched him up. Don't worry about him."
The other person is now hovering over her as well and after struggling a bit, she recognizes the person as Otacon. "He'll be here when you wake up. I promise, Storm." her heart beat stabilizes and she closes her eyes, letting sleep overcome her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She blinks and light filters in from her surroundings. Her vision is blurry, her head is killing her, her whole body hurts, and it's hard for her to breathe. The sound of slow but steady beeping resonates through the room. But her hearing picks up two sets instead of one. With not a small amount of effort, she turns her head and sees Raiden laying in the bed next to her.
His arms are gone and his torso is wrapped in bandages. He looks like he's been through hell, but at least he's alive. She looks down at herself and sees fresh bandages wrapped tightly around her chest, with only a small red spot on the left side.
Suddenly there's a faint knock on the door. She doesn't answer so the person just comes in. "Storm? Storm, are you in here?" a familiar voice asks quietly from behind the curtain. The person walks in front of her bed but she doesn't recognize their face. "Storm! How are you feeling?" he asks a bit louder than intended.
"Akiba?" she mumbles weakly "Yeah. It's me." the person answers. She labors to sit up and she rubs her eyes, getting rid of the blurriness. Once her vision clears up and she can see him properly, she becomes speechless. "Oh yeah, I know. I'm not wearing my baloclava." he says for her.
She stares, wide-eyed, at him in disbelief. He has neatly combed, golden blonde hair; beautiful, bright blue eyes; a light beard accenting his jaw line; and a perfect--in a dopey way--smile. "What is it?" he asks, getting a bit worried that she keeps staring at him without saying anything.
"You're....." she trails off, trying to find the proper way to describe him "I'm what?" he asks. "Pretty." It's his turn to be surprised "I'm pretty?" "You're a pretty-boy! This whole time I just assumed you'd look weird because that's your personality, but you're pretty." she exclaims, forgetting all about her pain.
"Well, uh....thanks!.....I guess..." he says, unsure of whether or not it's a compliment "But I don't see why you're so surprised. I mean, you saw me without my mask when we were in Europe." "...I was dying." ".....oh...yeah...." he looks over at Raiden laying in the bed next to her's, as if he just noticed him. "So is this the guy you were talking about? 'The metal man'?"
She gives a small nod and he mouths a silent "ohhhhh..." as he stands over the unconscious cyborg. Johnny studies him closely with curiosity "What are you doing?" she asks as he gently pulls at his blanket. "I've never seen a male cyborg before."
