I woke up in a daze; the world around me blurry and monochrome. Three shadows stood in the room, two looming over me, and one in a corner, twirling a knife or switchblade in his hands, with an unsatisfying noise each turn. One if the shadows started to become clear, and I realized it was Professor Ridgeway, with a pocket-sized flashlight moving back and forth between each of my eyes. I turned my attention to the corner and waited for that one to brighten as well. I hit myself mentally when Sarges' (apparently handsome) face came into my view. Of course, it was him; he always twirled his switchblade when nervous or anxious. But that single shadow, with more of a voluptuous shape, still evaded my sight. I saw flashes now and then; ginger hair, turquoise eyes, freckled arms..But nothing more for what seemed to be an eternity. I heard noises now and then, possibly voices, possibly something else. I wasn't quite able to distinguish the differences at that time. I tried to focus my mind, to see if the colour could return to the rest of the world, but my train of thought was so skewed, I was not able to.
Slowly and surely, however, my world returned to it's sub-par normality, and I was finally able to take in the appearance of the third shadow as it appeared as a whole. She had a taller stature than most of the women I knew. She had a soft and subtle curves, nothing compared to Elanja, but it was still quite flattering. I had been correct about the ginger hair, which now fell in loose curls, the turquoise eyes and the freckles which not only speckled her arms, but her face, chest and any other visible area of skin. My hearing was still avoiding me, but I could see her lips form the same word repeatedly.
"Nico? Nico?" And then different shapes came into play, but my eyes could only catch two syllables. "Abbie." Abbie..perhaps that was her name..Surely, it was not mine. I studied her one last time, and saw that one of her dainty hands was clutched in Professor Rideway's...with a diamond ring perched on the ring finger. So that's who she was. She stepped closer, putting a hand on my arm. Suddenly, my hearing cleared, and I was finally able to interpret what she was saying.
"Nico..Nicholai? My name is Abbie...Can you hear me? Can you talk? Nico..Come on..one word?" Her voice became desperate, as did the facial expressions of the two men. I tried to clear my throat, and succeeded after a couple of tries. I took a deep breath, and uttered out my first word since I blacked out.
"Uh...Hi." Smooth, Nico. Really smooth. Meet a gorgeous (although engaged...) woman and the only thing you can say is hi? You're doomed to be a bachelor forever.
Needless to say, I didn't think I impressed anyone, but apparently, being lame in medical minds is the best possible result. Abbie's eyes had tears welling up, and Sarge had his signature "smirk smile" plastered onto his face. Professor Ridgeway just kept continuing with his normal duties..Although..He never really cared much when it came to extreme cases, I'd learned this more than one time in my many adventures to his medical cabin.
Before anyone could utter another word, Abbie took charge. She pushed herself in front of the men and cleared her voice.
"Any loss of breath? Pain in your chest? Your head? Jugular area?" I was a bit overwhelmed by her rapid-fire questions, but I answered, in attempt to make up for my (still) lame response earlier.
"A bit, the inhales are a bit painful." First answer...not too bad. "No pain in my chest, none at all." Not shabby, Nico. "I have a wicked headache..." Watch your terms, Warrior. No one uses wicked anymore. "And..yeah. A lot of pain there. Kind of a..stabbing kind of pain." There. That sounded relatively professional.Should make up for that...or at least make her forget it a bit.
"That's pretty normal." She nodded, poking and prodding my neck with gloved hands, causing me to wince harshly. "Hmm...a bit too sensitive for my likings. Maybe I'll get James to run into town and pick up a medication for swelling." She smiled warmly at me, taking off her gloves with a loud SNAP. Gods, Professor Ridgeway was one lucky man. I'd give anything for a woman like that.
