I had been waiting at the hospital for hours. But each minute felt like a day. My Johnny had been shot for crying out loud! It had taken some time for that to set in, too. In fact, I was still trying to grasp it when Ghost grabbed my shoulders.
"Max! Come on! I've been saying your name for the past 18 minutes! Sit down!"
"A-A-Ah'm s-standing?" my voice squeaked.
"Pacing, actually. You're still trying to now..."
I looked down and sure enough my feet were moving. "O-oh..."
"Just... Come sit down, okay? Try to relax." As he led me to the chair, I felt like the floor was seeping in like quicksand, trying to pull me down and swallow me. I was still staring at the ground when Ghost gently pushed my me to the back of the chair. Apparently I was sitting. He sighed. "Look, you haven't eaten dinner yet, you want me to get you something?"
I wanted to say yes but my throat felt like it was lined with sandpaper. I could barely nod despite my head feeling like it was made of nails.
He pat my shoulder. "Okay. I'll be right back, alright?"
I just looked at him, not really knowing what he had just said. The words just didn't mean anything to my traumatized brain. He sighed and walked off in response.
Glancing down at my hands, I noticed that they were shaking. Ghost had brought me another jacket so I pulled its sleeves over my palms. That moment flashed behind my eyes, promising it wouldn't leave my brain anytime soon. I gripped my arms and ducked my head. The tear-jerking moment physically hurt.
When my eyes opened, I was looking at the front of my shirt. But instead of Mickey giving Minnie an adorable peck on the cheek, I saw blood. Johnny's blood.
I tried my hardest to keep myself from crying. I thought I was doing a great job at it, too until a woman was hugging me.
"It's okay," she whispered soothingly, "It's going to be okay."
Surprisingly, I found myself hugging back. I was crying into her shoulder and I didn't even know who she was. But the voice was familiar. When the woman let go, I opened my eyes.
She smiled back at me and wiped away my tears like my mom should have if she had been there. She was a mom, don't get me wrong. But not mine. She was the mom of a good friend of mine.
"K-Kat?"
Kat nodded and sat next to me in the chair. She was wearing her multi-colored scrubs. That's when I realized how late it was. Kat worked as a third shift nurse at that hospital. "It's gonna be okay, Max, alright? I'll make sure he'll be okay when he comes out of surgery."
"Paging Nurse Griffith to the ER."
"Gotta go, sweetie." She stood and I tried to grab her hand like a child. She shook her head. "I'll be back, okay? Really soon."
I tried to nod as Ghost came back and Kat walked away. "Hey, Max, I got some tuna sandwiches from the cafeteria. You like those, right?" I took one from him and fumbled with the plastic wrap. Sighing, he took it back and unwrapped it. "Should I feed it to you, too?" Instantly, he realized what he'd said, "Oh, geez, I'm sorry. It's just..." He sighed and plopped down in the seat next to me. "I..."
He looked me in the eyes and his own got wider. "I..." His face getting red, he quickly turned away. "I went into a coma a while back... Something happened on a mission and I was out for months. During it, I thought I was just going on more jobs an' stuff. It all seemed so real that I didn't even know I was out! When I finally woke up, Toast was the only one there. Well, he's the only one I really knew before meeting you but you get it. He had stayed there for me and payed the medical bills for my treatment! And now..." He glanced from his sandwich to the doors into the ER. "He's not even out of surgery..."
I didn't know what to say. I'd never heard about him ever being in a coma before. I didn't know how to form words at that point so I simply leaned over and hugged him. To be honest, it was mostly for myself.
He looked around for a second. But only for a second. Then he hugged back hard. Looks like he needed it as much as me. He cleared his throat and let go, "Thanks, Max..."
"I-is it okay if Ah leaned on ya, Ghost?" It felt weird saying that to him. I actually had to add his name to make sure I really was talking to him and not my Johnny.
He nodded, not looking at me, and pulled me over, "Yeah. Don't worry. I get where you're coming from."
By the time I had let myself except that it really was Ghost comforting me, a doctor came over to us, "Max Temporal and Johnathan Ghost?"
I sat up and nodded. "Is Johnny okay?!"
"Well..."
