Comari Dawn

Part One: A Fresh Start - Chapter One

           

I slowly began to come to my senses and the first thing I became aware of was, I was definitely in a hospital. Anybody who's ever spent any amount of time in one of those institutions knows hospitals have a certain, rather unique, odour about them. A strange combination of the scents of illness, antiseptics, and clean linen which only seemed to live in hospitals and other institutions of medical care. While I understood the practical reason for myself being in a hospital I still didn't much like the implications it brought to my mind as I took stock of the situation which I found myself in.

The most interesting fact I quickly realized was for me though I could smell the other scents which indelibly identified where I was currently staying. However; the scent which jumped out at me the most was the scent of rubber as well as the cleaner the hospital staff had presumably used on the rubber.

Almost as soon as I began to stir, I quickly realized, for some reason I was restrained. My hands and feed were securely fastened to the sides of the bed which I was currently laying in and my almost instinctive reaction was to protest my treatment to whoever was within audible range of me. However; before I could begin to struggle even more and begin voicing my displeasure at my current circumstances a gentle, female sounding, voice interrupted my growing panic at the circumstance of my awakening.

"Mr. Hawke... please try and relax." As clear as I could guess the owner of this voice was probably close to my own age. I wondered to myself if she was available or interested in a person such as myself. She interrupted my musings softly by continuing, "We are trying to understand, what has happened to you and many others around the world." She paused and laid a gentle hand on my forehead before softly stroking backwards in a soft gesture which I hadn't experienced since I had been young when my parents were still alive. Interestingly the gesture did cause me to relax to a certain degree and I found myself rumbling softly deep in my chest making a sound not unlike the purr of a contented feline. "We also wanted to take some precautions since we weren't sure how much you remained yourself, which is why you're restrained for the time being."

I wanted to tell the person the furthest thing from my mind currently was causing anybody any kind of harm. Unfortunately, it appeared my mouth was currently also tied closed and the best I could manage was a sort of muffled moan. I was well aware, and have always been aware, moaning definitely doesn't cut it as far as imparting any kind of awareness or information, so I tried to relax while I heard the person move around the bed.

The person, who I figured was a nurse, moved to the other side of the room where I assumed she took a moment to talk to somebody on some kind of communications device before she returned and laid a firm, gentle hand on my shoulder. "Thank you for your patience, the doctor will be here shortly, and we can see about getting these restraints removed. I can assure you we're trying everything we can for you, but we really don't have much to go on about what has happened to you."

The last bit which she mentioned was less than completely reassuring and I felt myself growing slightly apprehensive as I wondered what in the hell had happened to me.

A few minutes later another person, a man from the sound of his voice, came into the room and asked, "So uh... Mr. Hawke is finally awake?" There was a distinct lack of surety in his voice and I deduced the doctor was slightly confused on what to call me, which was more than a little disconcerting.

"Yes, Doctor Singh, he started to wake up within the last half an hour, and I've been doing my best to keep him calm... Can I return to my normal ward now?"

"Stay Nurse Sanders, I still need you here for a few more minutes, I don't think Ms. Cooper will be quite ready to wake up yet." He said smoothly before carrying on. "We need to be sure Mr. Hawke's personality has survived what has happened to him, intact and unmodified."