Glowing Eyes || Adopted by Josh Dun

mending (volume II)

I remember the call. I remember it more vividly than anything in my life. I remembered what clothes I was wearing (pajama pants and Josh's NASA shirt), the time (1:37), the place (Tyler's couch)... everything. More importantly, though, I remember the call.

"Is this Lynn Dun?"

"Yes ma'am."

"I'm here calling about your father, he woke up from his coma an hour ago. The doctors have gotten him oriented enough and need you and a guardian to come and take him home since he's still not well enough to get there on his own."

I put my hand over my mouth, trying to hold in a scream as I jumped up and down, I said a hurried, "Okay, thanks," into the phone before running into Tyler and Jenna's room.

I screamed, "Tyler, Josh woke up! Josh is up!"

Tyler bolted up from bed, Jenna groggily rubbing her eyes next to him. "What? What do you mean?" he asked, stepping off of the bed towards me.

"Josh," I gasped, nearly in tears of pure joy, "he got out of his coma an hour ago. I just got a call."

"Oh my god," Tyler gasped, and hugged me quickly. I could feel the tension of his arms slowly releasing as the worry we would never see Josh awake again faded away into the air. He finally let go when his shoulders relaxed, "Come on, let's hurry."

We grabbed the closest shoes we could find and ran down the apartment complex stairs, getting in Tyler's car and driving to the hospital only a few miles away.

It felt like a dream as the nurse I met earlier (who I learned was named nurse Marlene) led Tyler and I up to Josh's room. It was a trip we'd made every day but somehow felt entirely different now - maybe simply because it wasn't visiting hours.

When we made it to the door, Marlene turned to us, "So, just so you know, he's still a little tight. He hasn't moved much at all for the past few weeks so it'll take him a while to go from sitting up to laying down and things like that. He just needs some stretching and a few days and he'll be back. Just be gentle with him."

And with that the door was open, and Josh was sitting there, on his bed, awake.

Josh's eyes turned to us and went wide, but before he could say anything Tyler and I ran to him and engulfed him in a hug, forgetting entirely about being gentle.

Josh laughed infectiously, a sound I missed but hadn't soon forgotten. "Well hey to you too," he smiled as we let go of him.

His yellow hair had faded a little, and he looked tense and uncomfortable, but his smile was exactly the same. "Hey, nice shirt," Josh laughed lightly, nodding to the shirt I was wearing (which was his).

I laughed a little, nearly in tears, "You, too." I nodded towards his hospital gown.

"Thanks," he smiled, then turned to Tyler. "God, you look dead. What happened to you?"

"What do you think?" Tyler laughed a little.

Josh shrugged, "That's fair." He laughed a little.

I looked down at Josh's leg, still completely casted. "How does your leg feel?" I was still breathless, but Josh didn't seem to be phased at all. I guess that was to be expected, though. To him, he just slept for a while. He had no concept that it was three, gut-wrenchingly uncertain weeks.

He looked down at it, moving it at the hip, "Like normal. The nurses said I slept through all of the surgeries and painful aftermath, so that's good. Well, except for that it feels kind of weird. They said that's expected though, they had to entirely reconstruct it," he laughed lightly.