Clean Slate #Wattys2019

Chapter Six

On the fifth day of her coma and the Thursday after prom, I was sitting next to her bed, holding her hand when I heard the slightest of grunts.

It was all so sudden and such a pleasant surprise that my entire body felt like it was in overdrive as I frantically searched for the button to call the nurse. My hands were shaking and I couldn't seem to get them under control enough to make myself useful until I gave my hand a violent shake as if to fling off the nerves from holding on to my skin.

After finally successfully hitting the button, I returned my focus back to Natalie whose hand was moving ever so slightly. I grabbed her hand as gently as I could and brushed her hair back with my hand. "Nat? Nat, I'm here. Can you hear me?"

I didn't have time to say much else to her before the nurse came in to ask what had happened.

"She made a noise and then she was moving her hands, I think she's waking up." I explained faster than I had planned to.

"Alright, hon. I'm going to run a few tests to see if she's made any progress or to find out any changes. Have a seat." She gestured kindly for me to let go of my sister's hand, possibly out of fear that I would squeeze it until she popped because I really was that excited.

I sat and watched intently as she had more tests run on her. Over the last few days she has had more tests run on her than I ever even thought possible. I always wanted to know if people who were in a coma felt any pain or if they heard anything. In my free time I'd had a lot of time to read different debates and I still hadn't come to a final answer and I read so much that I'm not even sure what I believed in my own head.

Almost as if she'd heard me, Natalie's eyes shot open wide. The nurse must've seen my excitement because she looked at me sadly and said "No, honey, she's not awake. She's still in her coma. Some people open their eyes as a response to pain. Remind me to give you one of the Glasgow Coma Scale sheets so that you can look it over." She offered an apologetic smile that, truthfully, didn't help me feel any better at all.

The nurse finally turned to me after what felt like forever. "Well, I have some good news and some not-so-good news. The good news is that there are differences in her test results that suggest that she might be waking up, but, and this is the bad news, we can't be sure if she really is going to wake up and even if we could be sure of that, we couldn't possibly know how long this process could take. She could fully wake up the second that I walk out of this room or she can wake up very slowly in bits and pieces which can take a long time. I know this can be very exciting, overwhelming and nerve wracking, but please, try to be careful with her and let her relax as much as possible. Don't try to force her to wake up or rush the process, her body needs to take its own desired amount of time to do this." She gave me a stern, very mother-like look that warned me that there will be consequences if she catches wind that I didn't listen.

"Understood, thank you so much." I offered a sheepish smile, feeling very much like a child after that little speech.

"You're welcome, hon. You let me know if anything changes, my name's Denise. I'll be around." She nodded at me and handed me a sheet that talked about the Glasgow Coma Scale and then proceeded to leave the room.

As soon as she closed the door behind her, I carefully read over the sheet to see where Natalie was generally in her coma. According to the Glasgow Coma Scale, she's at a 1 in the eye response category since she hasn't opened them yet, a 1 in the voluntary movements category because she hasn't spoken, but she is a 2 in the voluntary movements in response to a command category because when we ask her to move a finger, there's a slight twitch. I stood and paced closer to the door where I pulled out my phone and called Kathryn immediately.

She didn't answer, so I left a message. "Hey Kathryn, it's me. I just wanted to let you know that Natalie moved before and she grunted so I called the nurse in and she ran some tests and said that she can't be sure but this could be signs of her about to wake up. We're supposed to let her rest but the way that I've been staring at her, it'll probably wake her up on its own. Anyway, hurry back, I don't want you to miss it if she wakes up! Call me when you get this, I'll talk to you soon." I raked a hand through my hair in disbelief, this was incredible news. I was shocked that Kathryn wasn't answering her phone, she usually has it glued to her hand, but I knew that she'd get the message eventually.

A few hours and a couple of more of Natalie's movements later, I got a call back from Kathryn.

"Please tell me I didn't miss anything! I'm so sorry, I'm on my way now, I just fell asleep when I got home but I woke up, I showered and now I'm on my way back. Have there been any changes?" She was talking so fast that she was practically panting afterwards and I could've sworn that I heard her running.

Finally getting the chance to talk now that she was done, I told her that there were a couple more movements but so far she still hasn't woken up. We hung up shortly after so that she could drive over to the hospital and she said she'd text me when she got there.

"Dyl- Dylan?" I heard a dry, raspy voice call me and my head shot up towards Natalie.

Author's Note: The last chapter was mildly slow so I'm posting a shorter second chapter today! What do you think is going to happen next?