The Billionaire's Club

19. Tangible

24 hours - it took Selin a whole 24 hours to open her eyes again.  

As expected, Demir did not leave her bedside. He was afraid that even blinking would make him miss something. Nurses and doctors were coming and going every so often, making sure she was as pain free as possible and ensuring her feeding tube was intact. As all this occurred, Demir  was frightened that something would go wrong or she'd wake up and he'd miss it and so, he kept his eyes  wide open. 

However, his body was tired and feeling the impacts of the past day in full force. The bags under his eyes had become a reddish, brown colour and his skin had gone a ghastly colour, almost pasty. He hadn't eaten, hadn't slept, hadn't showered - he barley felt like he had time to breathe. But eventually, his natural instincts caved and his eyes closed with a heaviness that he had desperately been trying to fight. The monotonous beep of Selin's machines eventually turned into a lullaby and his eyes drifted off.

And because fate liked to toy with Selin and Demir, it was whilst Demir fell asleep that Selin woke up. 

At first, it had felt as if somebody had glued her eyes shut. Selin was beginning to feel restless and had spent what felt like days trying to peel her eyes open. As hard as she tried, it was virtually impossible for her to do so. Her eyelashes felt as if they were caked in a substance that was withholding her from the outside world. She could hear movement, hear breathing, hear beeping ... but as time passed, it grew increasingly frustrating when she couldn't see what was going on. 

She wanted to open her eyes, wanted to talk to Demir, wanted to question why he thought he was to blame for all of this ... more importantly, she wanted to ask the doctor's to take that damned needle out of her arm  ... 

Completely frustrated by her body's inability to open her eyes, Selin forced her eyes open with all the force she could muster. Startled when they actually did open, she was met with a bright white light that was blinding. 

At first, in her half delirious state, she thought she was dead. She thought she was seeing that light at the end of the tunnel. 

But then, her surroundings came into focus, slowly but surely. The pain began to resonate through her body and she let out a soft moan. 

After remembering what had happened, Selin found it all come rushing back to her. The fire, passing out - Demir. Selin felt the weight of him beside her before she saw him. Demir was hunched over in his chair, his hands resting on the bed and nestled under his head like a makeshift pillow. 

He was sound asleep. 

Although a large part of Selin had woken up wanting to question Demir about his series of apologies to her, she couldn't help but pity the sight of him. Within seconds, all those alarm bells in her head stopped ringing. This Demir didn't look like the Demir she was used to and her heart ached for him. Even though she had been unconscious for so long, she had felt him ... his presence, and she was grateful for him sticking by her side through this all. 

She had heard him in the ambulance, heard him arguing with a doctor as they wheeled her away from him. He'd been so supportive and all Selin wanted to do was comfort him as he had done with her. 

However, when she tried to reach for Demir, she realised she couldn't. Her drip-feed didn't give her enough room to move down to him. Looking between the needle in her arm and Demir, Selin closed her eyes before ripping the intravenous drip from her arm. Pain shot through her but was nowhere near comparable to the pain everywhere else. 

Still, she let out a little shriek. 

But unlike all her other pain points, this one, she could see. The sight of the needle made her queasy and she was certain if she hadn't been so desperate to wake herself up, she would have passed right back out again. A little stream of blood flowed down her hand and she wiped it away clumsily; using her clean fingers to stroke at Demir's head. Even in his sleep, he naturally titled his head into her hand, a light smile possessing his features.