The ride to the hospital was straight-up horrible. I felt as if we were driving for hours, even though in reality, it couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes. I drove to the hospital in the police car with Stone and Noah because Ethan and Tim went via the ambulance and there was only so much space in it. Besides, there were a few of the paramedics driving with them as well and they all had to sit somewhere too. The police car I was in was right behind the ambulance and Stone was driving as fast as he could and yet I still felt as if it was taking an eternity to get there.
As soon as we got to the hospital, they took Tim to the emergency room and then showed me and Ethan the way to the rooms that we would be in while the doctors did some check-ups on us. I didn't know what was happening around me. Everyone was talking loudly, running towards or away from us, the doctors were asking us questions and I just felt like I was in a bubble that didn't let any noise come through. When the bubble broke, I was sitting on the bed in a hospital room. I didn't know or remember how I got there. I slowly looked around myself. The walls were painted a baby blue colour and it had animals and rainbows drawn on them. I remembered that I was after all still a child and was therefore probably on the paediatric floor. The room had two beds, but the other one was unoccupied. Next to the second bed was a window that was overlooking a big park that stretched out under the hospital. In front of a window was wooden desk with two green plastic chairs with iron legs. I was only here once before and that was because I had pneumonia when I was around nine years old.
I didn't feel like getting up from the bed I was sitting on and honestly, I wasn't even sure I could if I tried. I was tired but I knew that if I tried to sleep, I would soon wake up screaming, with the memories of Eztli and the mine still haunting my mind. But more than anything, I was worried for Tim. I wanted to know if the doctors got him at least a little bit healed up or if he was doing better. He had to be doing better! I mean we were in the mine before where the conditions were everything but good. Noah said that they'll tell me as soon as I'll be able to go see him but in the meantime, the doctors still had to check me to see if everything was okay, if I wasn't hurt too badly or dehydrated like Ethan. Speaking of, they put Ethan in a room across from mine and I heard that he was doing better than before, and he wasn't dehydrated anymore either.
My mind started to wander but before I could get too far with my thoughts the doors opened and in stepped a doctor and a nurse. The doctor took a chair from the desk and the nurse sat down next to me on the bed. They introduced themselves and then started the check-up. They asked me a few questions first, when was the last time I drank or ate anything, what did I eat and drink while kidnapped, was I tortured in the mine… Then I had to lift up my shirt and only then did I notice the huge bruises I had on my stomach and ribs. They must have formed when Eztli beat me up. They hurt a lot and the nurse put on some cream on it and then wrapped it up with elastic bandages so it wouldn't hurt more than it already did. She then brought me a glass of water that I drank as fast as I could and then when she filled it up again she put a few pills that would help with the pain, if it got too much. After that they measured my heart rate and took my blood to test it if case if I came in contact with any viruses while in the mine. After they left my room Stone and Noah entered it and sat down in the chairs.
'How are you feeling?' Noah asked me, looking worried. 'I've been better. How are Ethan and Tim doing?' I asked. I saw Noah opening his mouth to answer me, but before he could, Stone interrupted him and told me instead. 'Ethan is fine for now. He's in his room, the doctors unhooked him from the saline solution, so he's getting better, not dehydrated anymore. As for Tim however…' I looked over at Noah again who sighed and started to talk. 'The doctors did all they could, they hooked him up to newer and better breathing machines, connected him to some saline solution and because he lost a lot of blood, they even transfused some donor blood to him. The problem is, neither the doctors, nor us, know for how long he was in those conditions for or what kind of operation tools were used on him. That is a problem, because Tim is currently in a coma and we don't know when he is going to wake up. It could take a few days, weeks or even months. We simply can't tell. I know you'll probably never going to forget this Juliet, but you have to remember the fact that he was literally cut open and had one of his livers taken from him without any anaesthetics or anything else that would even slightly dull his pain. He is now under constant observation and the doctors are checking up on him every 10-20 minutes to see if everything is going ok. The only good news is that his condition is now stable, and he is now longer in a life or death situation. I'm sorry Juliet, I really am, but right now all we can do is hope that he'll wake up soon and be alright.' He lightly squeezed my hand, but I didn't even notice that.
I could only hear the words he was saying. Tim was in a coma and we didn't know when he was going to wake up. And when he will, is he going to remember everything that happened to him? Is he going to remember what we went through together? A part of me almost wished he wouldn't. Yes, I would miss him terribly, but we could always get to know each other again. But those memories? The things that happened in the mine? They were nightmares. They were the reason for me waking up screaming every night, even when I was still in the mine. My memories were bad enough already, but I couldn't even imagine what Tim's memories of the mine were like. He was tortured, so much worse than I was, and then brutally cut open. Those would be the memories that he would have to carry with him for ever day of his life. The thing that wouldn't let him sleep and that would haunt him every time he closed his eyes. I do realize that the past and the pain makes us stronger but sometimes, well, maybe sometimes we survive by forgetting.
I didn't even realize that lieutenant Stone left the room when Noah started talking before. He walked in, with his phone in his hand and looked at me. 'We called your parents. The first time we did, when we arrived at the mine, nobody was at home to answer it, but now they were. They are going to be here in half an hour. Tim's parents were on a vacation when he went missing, so nobody told them about it, because he was home alone. His parents are going to be back in a day or two.' He sat back down in the chair. 'Some other officers are going to come here because they want to question you and mister Castro again.' 'Mister Castro? You mean Ethan?' I asked him. 'Yes, Ethan, he is almost 18 years old after all, might as well refer to him as an adult.' He answered and shot a quick glare at Noah which he didn't see but I definitely did. Only then the words truly sunk in. 'I would have to tell the whole story again?' I glanced at Noah. 'I'm really sorry Juliet, I know this must be really hard for you, if you need some time to relax, we can do this another day, I understand that it all must still be so fresh and-' 'Sergeant Cohen, need I remind you, who is in charge here? Not only me, but also the DA. And just like you have said, the memories are still fresh. If she goes to sleep, she is going to forget things and she is going to mix her dreams with reality and not now what is real anymore. I don't think we can afford that, now can we?' Noah hung his head and when he slightly lifted it up, he gasped once he saw my face. I looked past him to the bedside mirror and saw that my face had gone completely white, my eyes were wide with horror and my lips were just a thin red line. I snaked my arms around myself and started rocking back and forth on the bed. I felt as if though I was going to be sick, but at the same time, I felt like all the air was sucked out of my lungs and I began gasping. I felt trapped and I couldn't get any air. I felt like I was going to pass out every time I took a breath. I was back in the mine, in the cell, bound to the wall, Eztli was beating me up again and I felt completely broken. I wanted to make the pain stop, yet I didn't know how. I started grasping at the sheets of my beds, to feel something, anything. Then I felt Noah's arms around my shoulders, and he was whispering into my ear 'Hey, breath with me Juliet, ok? Breath with me. We're going to count to ten and we're going to breathe very slowly ok? Can you do that for me Juliet?' than he started counting to ten and taking a deep breath with every number. By five I was still shaking slightly, but it was getting better. From then on, I silently counted with him and took deep breaths, when he did. When we were done, I still hung on to him for a few seconds and then let go and slowly sat back on the bed the way I was sitting before. I looked at Noah, who was still looking at me with worried eyes 'What happened?' I asked, 'you had an anxiety attack. Probably triggered by thinking you would have to relive your memories of the mine. Are you feeling a little better now?' 'Yeah, I'm ok. But, if my attack was that bad, I felt like I was back in the mine, Eztli was there… I mean, it was terrible, but Tim, he had it even worse. Not to even mention Ethan, he was in that mine for a year.' I looked at Noah again who blushed at the mention of Ethan's name but nodded, nevertheless. 'Yes, Juliet you're right. I don't know what we're going to do. I mean, Ethan had a similar attack as you did before, just longer. I really don't know. I know there are therapies and even medicine for these kinds of things, so I do believe it's all going to work out in the end, we just don't know how far the end is from this moment. Look, I'm going to go and talk to the lieutenant again and try to talk him into moving this conversation with the other officers and the DA to some other time ok? He's out in the hall right now, talking to the doctors. But in the meantime, do you want to go get something to eat? Or go see Tim or Ethan? You think that would help? Your parents are going to be here in about 20 minutes anyways, but until then, you can't just sit on the bed, unless you want to maybe take a nap or something.'
But I knew that if I tried to take a nap, I would only find myself in the mine again and wake up screaming. 'I want to go see Tim for a bit and then Ethan if I can. I'm going to eat at home anyways.' Even though I felt really hungry right now, I knew that anything I would try to eat, I would throw up again, so it would be of no use anyways. I looked up at Noah who stood up already and nodded with a small smile. I tried to smile back weakly, and slowly got up from my bed. My stomach and ribs still ached, but not as much as they did before. We slowly walked out of the room and towards the elevators. Ethan and I were currently put on a different floor than Tim was so if we wanted to get there, we had to use the elevator, since Tim was on the first floor, where the operation rooms and the people under constant care were, and we were on the eight floor and we really didn't feel like walking that far. We walked into the elevator and Noah pushed the big iron button with a flashing number one in the middle, and we could feel the elevator start to descend. We arrived at the first floor and with a ding the elevator doors opened. I stepped out with Noah in tow and hugged my jacket tighter around my body, even though it was May and the hospital was not that cold. I felt chills go up and down my body the closer we got to Tim's room. I couldn't imagine seeing him lying in bed, when the last time I saw him, he still had blood dripping off of him. We walked towards the information desk where Noah showed the nurse his badge and she directed us towards Tim's room. When we got there, I stopped in front of the door for a second and looked at Noah. 'Do you want me to go in with you, or wait out here?' 'I'll go in by myself, I shouldn't be in there for long, my parents are going to be here soon anyways.' Noah nodded and walked to the opposite side of the room where some chairs were and sat down. I slowly opened the door and walked in.
I don't know what I was expecting, to be honest. Tim was lying in bed, covered with tubes and wires, like you see in the movies, but you never imagine it happening to you or someone you know. He had a bandage around his head and arms, and I knew that his stomach had to covered with them as well. Beside the bed there were a few beeping machines, and a few that were not beeping. There was a machine that was measuring his heart rate and pressure, there was a machine that was feeding him saline solution and one that was connected to his arm that had blood flowing down its tubes. The whole scene looked like a photograph, not something you would really see. I sat on a chair next to Tim's bed and took his hand in mine. At first, I didn't really know what to say. I mean what are you supposed to say in a situation like this? Hi, how are you? It just didn't feel right in some way. But I had nothing else to start with. 'Hi Tim, it's me, Juliet. I don't know if you can hear me, but I read somewhere one time, that people in a come can hear other people talking to them and might even wake up sooner. So… I don't know what to say Tim, I really don't. I wish I did, but I don't. I wish I had some heartfelt speech like people in movies and books always have, but I don't have one, so instead I'm going to talk to you about…. recent events. How about that? So, it's currently pretty humid outside, maybe it's going to rain later? I'm kidding. Look Tim, I miss you, I really do. I wish you were here with me right now, helping me get through this, but you can't. I'm also very sorry for dragging you into this whole mess in the first place. If we hadn't become friends that day in the skate park, you wouldn't go looking for me when I disappeared, you wouldn't get kidnapped and you wouldn't get tortured by Eztli. I know that if you were here you would say that you would find some other messes to get into and that it isn't my fault that all of this happened, but you know what I'm like. Still, I wish you were here. I don't know if you know or not, but they still haven't caught that doctor that did this to you. She escaped. They did manage to catch Eztli though. And I know you don't know this, but Eztli has this brother, Ethan, that I met in the mine. He's really nice, not like Eztli at all, you know? But that's all I can think of. A lot more happened, but I'm going to tell you about that, when you wake up. Because you are going to wake up soon, ok Tim? Please, you have to wake up! Please, we all miss you, please come back to us. And no, I'm not going to say come back to me, because if you heard that, you would say that that's really cheesy and since you're lactose intolerant, you would die because of all this cheese laying around here. See Tim? We need you. So, you can make us all laugh again. Please, wake up soon Tim, I miss you.' With that, I leaned down and softly kissed his hand, the dry skin rasped against my cracked lips. before standing up and silently leaving the room. As I closed the door, I saw Noah get up from his chair. He looked at me as if to check if I was alright and once I nodded he smiled slightly, and we went back to the elevator.
'You know, a musician I listen to, Conor Oberst said something once, that I think would fit really nicely into this situation.' Noah said, once we began nearing the information desk on our way back to the elevator. 'Yeah, really? What?' 'Well he said, and I quote: 'In a coma, you don't dream, you just hope that someone sits with you.'. I think that that's what Tim needs right now. He needs someone to sit with him.' I nodded thoughtfully. 'I just hope that you really can't dream in a coma, otherwise Tim must be in a nightmare world right now.' I answered. We were nearing the elevators, when a woman walked past us. I looked at her face and saw recognition flash in her eyes along with something between worry and fear. She looked familiar to me from somewhere, but I just couldn't really put my finger on it… I closed my eyes and shook my head to get rid of the thought when I suddenly got a flashback. I saw a woman, a slim woman with black hair and angry blue eyes, she was wearing a green shirt with a black skull, camo pants and black leather jacket. The woman's arms and parts of neck were covered with tattoos of fire breathing dragons and white skulls with fiery red eyes. I opened my eyes and looked around me again, but the woman was gone. Noah looked at me questionably, but I shook my head. 'I must have imagined it.' I said, 'But for a moment there, I thought I saw… never mind, it doesn't matter.' 'No, Juliet who did you see?' 'I told you I'm not sure if I really saw her, but I thought I saw…'
'Who?'
'Doctor Rachel Davis.'