Raining Droplets.

It always felt odd when you drift awake almost the same way as you went to sleep. Your mind starts to wake up first and you can feel how relaxed, calm and warm your body is, but at the same time it felt like you were drifting on water weighing almost nothing.

Right now I have no idea where I am. Everything is fuzzy, but I could feel the warmth coming from someone, wrapping around me like the softest blanket I have ever touched. I could feel it all the way to my bones and it was...too good to describe. I just want to drift back to sleep again and never move from this place.

“Chance...”

I made a face hearing the voice calling my name and moved curling into the warmth more, not wanting to leave it. Everything was calm, peaceful and why would I want to wake up from that?

“Babe, wake up.”

Grunting, I started struggling trying to keep close to the heat but away from the voice. I heard what sounded like a groan and a light chuckle, but ignored them. Feeling a hand on my stomach I calmed down and sighed softly as it slid under my clothes letting their fingertips run across the skin over my hip.

I relaxed back to how I was before slowly. After a moment everything started fading out as I began drifting off again. Only to have that shattered by someone calling my name, this time louder than before.

I gasped shocked and almost jumped out of my skin. I pulled my head back from whatever it was resting on and fluttered my eyes open, hissing at the bright lights that hurt a little. Everything was fuzzy and I honestly have no clue where I was, but the first thing I noticed were Brayden’s lovely bright blue eyes staring at me.

“I didn’t want to wake you up, but I promised I would when Kellen was.”

I looked at him confused, words not sinking in. He chuckled lightly and quickly leant down to peck my lips. I winced as it stung a little and lifted my hand up to touch the area, though it hurt on the inside.

“You’re so cute when you’re dopy.”
“What?” I croaked.

I heard light laughing from other people in the room and ignored it still not looking away from Brayden. He smiled and I just shook my head giving up on trying to understand anything while still half asleep. I reached my arms up around his neck and pressed my face into his chest taking a deep breath. His hand that was on my hip slid around, still under my shirt to my back and started rubbing my skin in small circles.

I let my eyes close on me and focused on his hand on my back. In a way it made me more awake, more alert, but more sleepy in another. It still felt like my body was asleep while my mind was somewhat alert though really fuzzy. I yawned muffled by his chest and winced when my lip protested at the stretch.

“Maybe you should let him sleep longer.” Kellen said voice a little rough. “He looks exhausted...over stressed.”

Hearing his voice my eyes snapped open and I pulled away from Brayden spinning my body around to look at the hospital bed shocked. Kellen was lying there much like he was before; he hadn’t moved much but had a worried frown pulling at his lips and eyes matching what his frown showed. I blinked surprised and I could almost hear the ‘click’ in my head.

“You’re awake.” I whispered.
“He’s not the only one.” Brayden chuckled kissing my cheek.

Kellen smiled softly and I slid out of Brayden’s lap standing on shaky knees with my hands still on Brayden’s shoulders for balance until I was sure my knees were going to hold me. I stood up straight and shuffled my feet the two or so steps to Kellen’s bedside. I could feel the blanket of Brayden’s warmth that was wrapped around me slowly fade and I shivered slightly feeling the cold air of the room.

Kellen lifted his arms up and pulled me down onto him in a squished hug. Though I was twisted really awkward, I didn’t pull away and rested the best I could against him.

“How are you feeling?” I asked muffled slightly by his hoodie.
“Tried, very sore, a slight headache but other than that I’m fine.” He said softly squeezing me a little.

I bit back a groan as my stomach was squashed a little bit too much. I didn’t feel sick but being that my stomach was empty wasn’t a nice feeling at all. I didn’t want to but I had to pull away just in case. Still a little shaky I sat down on the edge of the bed and picked up his hand holding it between both of mine gently.

His hand was still cool to the touch; he really should have the blanket fully covering him. The room wasn’t that warm. The heater should be going.

“How are you?” Kellen asked and I could feel his eyes on my face.
“Alright, I guess.” I shrugged not looking at him.
“Honestly?”
“Yeah.” I half lied still not looking up.
“Look at me.” He whispered softly.

I slowly trailed my eyes up to his and forced myself not to look away. I just wanted to run out of the room right now because I know him seeing me like this is just making him more worried about me. I’ll be fine eventually and I know he knows that, but he will still worry. I probably look like a mess.
Hopefully no one has said anything about my reaction when he was being wheeled out of the house and my little bathroom trip earlier.

Kellen sighed and squeezed my hand probably to make me feel better but all it did was hurt. I gasped and ripped my hands out of his and cradled them to my chest wincing. They hurt so much more that before, now that he squeezed them they feel like they’re on fire.

I felt Brayden moved besides me and gently grasped my wrists to pull my hands out so he could see them. He gently stretched my fingers out checking them over. The joints were bright red but only slightly swollen, like before. Considering how hard Kellen smashed his head on them it’s amazing they weren’t worse...or broken.

“What happen to your hands?” Kellen asked stretching his neck to get a better view.
“You kind of squished them into the floor with your head.” I said softly. “I had to stop you from cracking your head open somehow.”
“Oh.” He sighed and took my other hand. “You should get some ice for that...sorry.”
“It was out of your control.” Brayden pointed out. “Think of them as battle wounds.”
“You hip looks worse than a battle wound.” I muttered under my breath.

Brayden nudged me gently, but more in a fun than in an annoyed way. I looked at him from my hands and showed a very small smile, showing that I meant no harm by what I said, though he didn’t take it that way anyway.

“What?”
“Nothing.” Brayden and I said quickly at the same time.

Kellen raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by footsteps entering the room. We all turned out attention to the door where Carol was standing with a small trolley besides her. She smiled at us and ever more so when she noticed that Kellen was awake.

Brayden let my hand go and moved back to the seat. I did the same to make room and sat on his lap gently.

“Nice to see you awake, how are you feeling Kellen?” Carol asked walking over in front of us with the trolley.
“Tired and sore, like usual afterwards.”

Carol nodded. She messed around with her trolley for a moment then tested Kellen’s blood pressure, before taking his temperature and shinning a light into his eyes. She wrote all that down in his file and gripped his hands in hers asking to squeeze. Then she moved to his feet where he had to push back against her hands.

I don’t know much of what they need to look for while doing that other than any weakness, but from where I’m sitting it looked fine. His hand grip defiantly was. My fingers are throbbing.

“Everything looks fine.” Carol smiled placing his file at the end of the bed. “We had you on 15 minute obs, but now that you’re awake we’ll put it back to half an hour. Is there anything that hurts or are you just sore overall?”
“Overall mainly, I think I pulled a few muscles. I have a slight headache.”
“I’ll get you some painkillers for that, do you need anything else?”

Kellen shook his head and relaxed back into the mattress. I sighed lightly relieved that his observations were fine, they normally always are afterwards. But it’s still a worry that one time they won’t for whatever reason. I think the one that would scare me the most right now would be the strength one, what if he was to loss strength on one side or something?

I don’t even want to think about that right now.

“Hey Carol,” Brayden called out before she could leave the room. “Do you think you could get something for Chance’s hands?”
“Why, what happened?” She asked walking back over to us.
“They got squashed accidently.” I explained.

She took my hands and had a quick look checking to make sure they could all bend alright. I tried not to wince or jerk away as she did so.

“There nothing much you can do about that other than put ice on it, I’ll get you some.”

She placed my hands on my lap, grabbed the trolley and walked out the room quickly. I leant back against Brayden and looked over to Kellen. Our eyes locked and he smiled sadly before rolling to his side facing us while pulling the blanket over him. His eyes dropped a little but stayed open.

After about five minutes Carol walked back into the room with two small icepacks for me and tablets for Kellen. I held onto the packs gently but tight enough to feel the coolness of them across my hands. I shivered lightly which made me sink into Brayden more. He must have noticed that I was getting cold because he wrapped his arms around my waist rubbing my sides a little.

“What about your hip?” I whispered.
“There’s nothing much anyone can do about it.” He whispered back. “I’ll put moisturiser on it when we get home to help the bruising.”

I glanced at him from the corner of my eye and shook my head. I stood up out of his lap and gestured for him to do the same. Once he was up I sat back down and let him sit down on me this time. I smiled and wrapped my arms around him making sure to place one hand over his sore hip, so the icepack was over where he got hurt.

I felt him flinch so I moved my hand slightly so it wasn’t putting so much pressure on the area.

“That alright?”
“Yeah.” He nodded resting against my chest.

I smiled softly and rested my chin on his shoulder looking over at Kellen. He was looking at us curious, but shrugged smiling and curled back up underneath the blankets.

+.+.+

“Ok, time to go home Chance.”

I snapped out of my dozing and looked up noticing that Brayden was already out of my lap and standing in front of me. I blinked confused but let him pull me up as I yawned, wincing once again as my lip stretched.

“I can’t carry you out of here like this, so we better go now, ok?” He said softly.
“I think visiting hours are almost up.” Kellen stated lightly.

I nodded and rubbed my eyes trying not to yawn again. Shuffling over to Kellen I leant down to give him a hug, which he sleepily returned chuckling. He kissed my cheek and I smiled kissing his forehead before pulling away gently. I watched as Brayden lent down and gave him a hug as well.

“Good night.” I smiled softly. “Sleep well...well as much as you can here...” I trailed off.
“I’ll try, you two make sure you get some sleep too.”

I nodded and Brayden walked over to me. We waved to Kellen and slowly headed out of the room. I waved once again just before I couldn’t see him anymore, but I saw him wave back.

The second we were walking down the hall I felt that split feeling I always get here; where half of me wants to stay and the other wants to run as fast as I can back to my bed to hide under the blankets. I hated feeling that because it made me feel worse than I did already when I have to leave my uncle here, alone, at the hospital of all places.

It’s unavoidable, but I still didn’t like it. I wish he didn’t have to stay the night.

We made our way out of the building, getting hit by the fucking vent of air again and out into the cold. I shuddered at the temperature difference. The hospital room wasn’t warm, but being outside make that room feel warm. I reached out for Brayden’s arm and held him close as we walked to the car huddled.

Once the doors were unlocked I all but jumped into the car, but managed to wait for Brayden to gently slide in and turn the car on. It took a moment but once the car heated up a little he pulled out and headed back for home. I bit back another yawn and looked out the window at the street lights silently.

The roads weren’t that busy being a week day so it only too around ten minutes to get home luckily. Brayden pulled the car into the driveway and turned the engine off. I unclasped my seatbelt and turned to open the door but noticed that Brayden wasn’t making a move to get out.

I turned to him and tilted my head to the side confused.

“What’s wrong?”
“How do you really feel?” He asked looking at me eyes wide in worry. “Like what you really feel, you haven’t given a real answer all day and it has me worried.”

I felt my heart clinch a little at that. He’s be so worried about me all day but waited until now to say something because it was finally us two. I hate making him worry and stress just as much as I make Kellen worry and stress. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the reason why there is so much of it.

“I...” I trailed off unsure.

What did I really feel now anyway?

“I don’t know, I honestly have no idea right now how I feel.” I whispered looking away from him and down at my lap. “I-I just don’t know.”
“Today really knocked you around didn’t it?” He said more than asked softly.

I felt my eyes well up and I forced the waterworks back. Fingertips grazed along my cheek bone, down to my chin and lifted my head up. Brayden undone his seatbelt and leaned over to my seat wrapping his arms around me. I closed my eyes and held him back tightly as I felt myself start to shake.

“While fitting he reached out and grabbed me. He r-reached out and g-grabbed me because he was so fucking scared, B-brayden.” I whimpered. “Y-you could see it in his eyes, h-h was so fucking s-scared and I couldn’t h-help h-h-him.”

A sob bubbled up from my throat and I could feel the tears streaking down my cheeks. My body shook against his as I clutched to him almost afraid that if I let go he would disappear.

He held me close trying to clam me down but didn’t say anything, I didn’t expect him to and I don’t think there is anything that could be said to that. He started running his hand though my hair as the other moved down my back. I shuddered and pressed my face to his neck sobbing lightly.

The only think I want right now is to fall asleep in Brayden’s arms with a blanket of his warmth keeping me safe.

I want out of this fucked up reality, even for only a while.