Falling

IV

A/N: *takes too long to write* *runs out of cave with finished chapter* *notices angry people with tomatoes* *avoids rotten tomatoes* *ends up getting hit anyways* *posts chapter* *hides in cave to repeat cycle*

Paul groaned miserably.

The pain shot through him in quick, fast waves, not giving him a proper moment to press a button to alert a nurse or anyone in the hallway. The most he could do was groan and allow his body to twitch around as the pain dictated. 

After a rather intense rush of pain, a throat-shredding yell left his mouth and tears began to flow down his face.

Footsteps started to his room started and were quick from the get-go.

He was faintly aware of the voices that were by him, vocal ranges and urgency changing at every moment but he couldn't hear a word. His pain wouldn't allow him to hear anything, words that were probably clear only muffled and annoying at best.

A hand came to touch him in a way to comfort him most likely but it was like fire to his skin and another yell left his throat. He was fairly sure that he was crying himself into a dehydrated state and he should have taken those stupid ice chips from Buddy. He didn't though, so now he was crying away the only liquid he had near him that wasn't in an IV.

The fire began to die down slowly, leaving his skin with invisible but harsh marks that threatened to engulf him again.

"Paulie, you okay?"

He wished that he could properly tell Buddy that he wasn't okay in any aspect. Mentally, physically, emotionally. But he couldn't move his mouth in fear that he'd yell once again and feel vulnerable to the people around him. He did, though, open his eyes and look over to his friend, who seemed to have a few unshed tears in his eyes. 

Nurses scrambled around the two of them, playing with the machines that were hooked up to Paul and writing down things. He wondered when the doctor was going to really talk to him.

"The nurses really do a lot here, huh?" Buddy asked, moving to get the tears out of his eyes with the back of his hand, only to smear them on his face. 

Paul would've said amen to that, if he was brave enough to open his mouth and if one of the nurses didn't walk up to the two of them at that moment. 

"It seems that someone turned off your IV drip, so we're slowly bringing it back up," he said softly. He showed him the remote, probably the one that caused all this and Paul raised an eyebrow slowly.

"But that's the TV remote, right, Buddy?" Paul said weakly, finally getting that courage. After hearing his own voice, it was possibly worse than when he first came into n the place.

"Uhm, actually no," the nurse said and handed him another remote, the absolute twin to the one the man was using to fix the IV. He was starting to wonder why they would allow that to happen but thankfully the nurse started to talk once Paul's thoughts took a wrong turn and got a bit wilder. "I guess you thought you were turning down the TV. No worries, good thing we found you when we did." 

Buddy hummed a quiet agreement, no words just a jumble of noises that meant something to everyone in the room but didn't really mean anything. 

A few of the nurses stayed to watch over him, see how he was doing and if he would even move, but Paul stayed in the exact position he was in since the pain ended. It may have been uncomfortable, but he was still afraid of something that may never happen in the end. He surely wasn't going to take any risks after the events of the past few hours. 

Or was it days? 

He didn't know anymore.

"Buddy? How long has it been?"