Time Stopped for You

Survivor

When I finally come to I'm in a bed, I'm not on a hard table. That alone is enough to make me want to cry tears of joy, somebody finally came to get me! I lift my head up a little bit, it still hurts, but I must be on pain medication. It is no where near as painful as before, I'm bandaged up practically everywhere too.
A nurse walks in the room and stops dead when she sees me look at her, "you're awake!" She rushes over to me and checks my charts and things before running out the room yelling that I'm awake.
It takes only moments before a mass of doctors and nurses are streaming in the door, all of them followed by Mephisto. He stands in the corner of the room refusing to look in my direction while the doctors check over every inch of me from my heart rate to my eyes. The nurses insist I try to drink the juice they've brought me before the day is over. The doctors take a sample of my blood, apparently they've done so a lot from what I catch them saying. I can't bring myself to watch the needles they stick in me, I know I'm going to have nightmares about that forever.
Once the doctors are satisfied for now they talk with Mephisto briefly before all of them stream back out the door, leaving only us two in the room.
He walks up to my bed slowly and removes his hat, "Harlow, darling I must apologize endlessly for what you have gone through and I know that will never be enough."
I look at the cup of juice sitting in front of me, I don't know if I'm going to be able to talk at all, but I should at least hydrate a little before I try. I attempt to reach for it, but I fall short as pain shoots up my arm. Mephisto stops me and gets the cup for me, I take a little sip from it and he sets it back down. He looks even worse now that he is closer, I don't think he's gotten much sleep lately.
"I-it's okay," my voice is raspy barely above a whisper, but it's enough. "It wasn't...your fault."
He says nothing taking a seat at the very edge of my bed, for once in his life he has nothing to say, and quite honestly it freaks me out.
"How long?" I want him to look at me, I want to see in someone's eyes that I'm still a person. The doctors and nurses look at me like a victim, but I'm still a person too, I want someone to just look at me.
"Nearly a month," he still isn't looking at me, I almost want to cry. "Once we got news you were going to live, your family and friends flew in to see you. They're still here, but you're not allowed visitors for a couple more days."
"What about...you?" I cough and I feel it take a toll on me. I lay my head back on the pillow afterwards wheezing until my breath comes back. I can't believe my mom is here and Rex and Cara, but do they really have to see me like this? None of them are going to treat me normal, that's all I want right now, even if it seems impossible.
"They can not stop me from coming in when they work for me," he finally glances over at me with a small smile, "I wasn't aware your hair is naturally black."
I feel the tears well up in my eyes, I don't stop them from falling. He still sees me, I'm so glad someone sees me. It's been so long since someone looked at me like a real person.
He sits there in silence until I manage to stop crying, that alone is enough to exhaust me. I don't know how I'm going to sleep, and I'm terrified to be left alone, even if this is a real hospital. "Can you...can you stay?" I say it so quietly half because I physically can't be any louder and half out of embarrassment.
"Of course I can darling," he smiles like his usual self again, and for once I'm glad for it. The nurses come in for one more check up before it's nighttime, they said they'll come in once during the night but only to check that I'm still doing alright. It took Mephisto some time talking to them before they finally agreed he could stay with me, but he managed to do it.
In a puff of pink smoke Mephisto is a small terrier, I've never seen him do that trick before, but I have seen him walking around as a dog before now that I know what it looks like.
He carefully jumps up on the end of the bed and lays, "will you be able to sleep?"
"I don't know," I look around the room now that the lights are off and all I can picture is the room I was kept in.
Mephisto must realize I'm a little on edge I can feel him nuzzle his head under my hand, I have to admit it's a little creepy he can just be a dog. I guarantee he's used that to his advantage at some point.
I manage to doze off, but the nightmares start as soon as I do. I'm back on the metal table only instead of one IV I have five, blood pours from my arms and there's people just staring as the doctor mixes chemicals together and dumps them into syringes. The people keep muttering "the perfect vessel" over and over again.
I wake up in a cold sweat and I'm shaking, Mephisto isn't under my hand anymore, he's standing beside me back to normal. He's holding my hand gently and talking quickly with a nurse. I squeeze his hand as best as I can and he immediately turns his attention to me relief washing over his expression.
He bends down and pushes hair from my face with his free hand, he rests it on my cheek for the briefest or seconds, "darling you shouldn't scare me like that."
The nurse smiles though I'm not sure why, "I'll tell them to get you something to stop the dreams for a little while okay?"
"Okay.." I look up at Mephisto as he thanks the nurse, I didn't think he could be so nice.
He looks down at me rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb, he isn't wearing gloves for once.
"Can I get you anything darling?" He tilts his head a slight bit to the side, "anything at all?"
Only one thing comes to my mind mostly because I'm sick of hospital gowns, "c-can someone bring me....my damn pajamas."
Mephisto actually starts to chuckle at my request, "of course, I'll call someone to do that right now."
He lets go of my hand while he makes the phone call but as soon as he's off he pushes my hair back again and holds my hand. It's nice to feel someone's touch that isn't trying to nearly kill me, or I might be protesting. A small part of me thinks he's afraid someone is going to try to take me back there, or that I'm actually not going to recover, however if he does he keeps it to himself.
It doesn't take long for my pajamas to get delivered, a female nurse comes in to help me get changed. She brought me pills to help me sleep without dreaming as well. I hear Mephisto pacing outside the curtain the entire time until I'm settled back in.
He smiles at me then, "you already look more like you."
I feel ten times comfier to be in actual clothing, I take my pills with Mephisto giving me my drink and sink back down into my bed.
He got a chair though I'm not entirely sure from where, once he gets himself to be comfortable he takes my hand again. I'm starting to feel a little safer.
"Thank you," I mumble closing my eyes before I start thinking too much.