A Star for Baby (boyxboy)

Vela

There are some stretched medical scenarios in this chapter. Not everything would go exactly like this in this situation, but also, suspension of belief people. Love you all xx

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Baby could breathe.

That was the first thing he noticed. He inhaled deeply, not bothering to open his eyes. Wow, it tasted so good. Usually it felt like he was breathing through a coffee straw. He could never pull in enough oxygen, so this was a welcome blessing. Then when Baby opened his eyes, he winced at the brightness. White flooded his vision as he blinked slowly.

Oh fuck, he thought. I died.

"Baby? Are you awake?"

Oliver died too? That's weird.

It took a couple seconds, but Baby pried his eyes open again. This time, with his eyes more adjusted, he noticed that the bright white was a ceiling, and the lights were fluorescent. He shifted his body, groaning a little at the effort, and looked down. He was in a bed. A hospital bed, he realized. He had a couple IV's in, and three plastic bracelets on his wrist. He brought a shaky hand up to his face, where he felt a cannula in his nose. Well that explained the oxygen.

"Hey love."

Baby turned to his right, where Oliver's smiling face swam into his vision. Baby immediately relaxed. He hadn't even realized that he'd been tense.

"Hey," Baby croaked.

He coughed, feeling his chest contract with it. Oliver scooted his chair closer to the bed so he could brush his fingers down the side of Baby's face.

"How are you feeling?"

Baby took stock. He was sore, but that wasn't unusual. His stomach hurt, and he was exhausted. But he could fucking breathe.

"Actually pretty okay," Baby said. "This cannula is magic."

Oliver grinned at that. "Dr. Williams will be happy to hear it. He's the one who insisted you have it."

Baby turned his head to look out the window, which was shining with sunlight. He frowned. The last thing he remembered was going outside to get some air at the party. That had been like one in the morning.

"What happened?" Baby looked back at Oliver. "How long have I been here?"

"You just spent the night, it's about noon now," Oliver said. "You passed out and I called an ambulance. I've been in here with you all night. It took them a lot of convincing, apparently they didn't believe I was your husband at first."

"Yeah, nothing suspicious about a gay teenage married couple," Baby interjected.

Oliver rolled his eyes. "After Dr. Williams vouched for me, they told me that they had to drain some fluid from your lungs. They ran you through a CT scan while you were out, and they still haven't gotten the results back. Williams said they should be in with more information at like 12:30, which is in," Oliver checked his watch. "Fifteen minutes."

Baby blinked at the onslaught of information, resisting the urge to yawn. It wasn't that Oliver was boring, it was just that Baby felt like he had enough air right now to yawn, which was wild in and of itself.

"That's good, right?" Baby asked.

"Yeah," Oliver sighed. "It feels like I've been waiting forever."

Not for the first time, guilt crashed into Baby like a wave. He bit his lip, trying to keep the expression off his face. Having cancer was bad enough, but seeing what it was doing to Oliver was almost too much to bear. Baby knew it wasn't his own fault, but it sure fucking felt like it sometimes. Especially when Oliver stayed up with him, on his knees on the bathroom tile well into the wee hours of the morning. Especially when Oliver gave him that look in his eyes, the pity look. Baby hated it. It made his gut squirm and throat close up worse than usual.