A Matter of Time

Gwen felt the bright fluorescent lights on her eyes. She was awake, but still lay there, with her eyes closed. She could hear the even beeping of a heart rate monitor and the steady breathing of someone near where she was laying. Where was she laying? She moved her hand  a bit to feel rough cotton, she was lying on something soft, it wasn't exactly comfortable, but a hell of alot better than some things she's lay on. She suspected she was in some sort of hospital ward. First things first, find the damage. She made a fist with both hands, flexing her arm muscles, a little pain in her palms, but nothing severe, so there was no break there. Wriggling her toes where no problem, but as she pointed them a sharp shooting pain went up her left leg. She shot up bolt right with a gasp. Opening her eyes, then quickly closing them in agony as she felt a gut wrenching pain in her right side. She grabbed her side and sat back down. Whoever was sitting on the chair beside her had fallen off. She must have woken them from a calm slumber. A freckly boy with longish straight dark hair popped his head up from the side of the bed. Gwen let out a small gasp upon seeing the stranger that she had seen on the street earlier.

"You're awake!" he said with wide eyes and hair messed up from his little fall. 

"Yes, I am.. Now where the hell am I?" she asked. She lifted the sheet a bit to see her left leg in an old fashioned plaster cast. Her body was covered with a thin white and blue gown, it covered her stomach where she lifted it and saw a bandage covering what she guessed was a gash. 

"You're at the hospital." the boy said, sitting back in the chair. His voice held a strange accent, like those from the north of England, only slightly different. 

"But, where am I?" She asked again, putting emphases on where.

"Bolton, Greater Manchester.... England." he spoke slowly.

Well she was right about the northern accent, but it was still different than a Bolton accent she was used to hearing. 

"What's the date?" She asked, it had to be sometime in the past. People where dressed so nicely and the hospital was big and clean. 

"June 21st." he answered plainly "You've been asleep for 5 days." 

She didn't want to have to ask the year. If this was the past, then no one should know about time travel. She  looked around the room taking every detail. The painting of a forest, full and green like it should be, not in flames and the fallen leavless trees. On the bedside table there was a button remote, an extremely old radio, a vas with flowers, and... Yes, what looked like to be an old fashioned news paper. She reached over to pick it up, but it hurt her side to stretch. She winced and held her side. The boy saw this and got the paper for her.

"Thanks." she said and took the paper in her hands. Her eyes roamed the page looking for a date. 2003, it was 2003.. 2003? She was 685 years in the past.  Six hundred... And eighty five years. 

"I think I'm going to be sick." she ripped the IV out of her arm and hopped on one foot over to a door which she hoped led to a toilet. She got there just in time to throw up into the toilet bowl. A little while latter, a woman wearing a blue scrub came in. She patted Gwen on the back softly and sat with her unitil she finished puking. When she had finished, the woman wiped her face with a damp cloth and helped her back up and back into bed. Gwen saw a name tag saying Stephanie. 

"You shouldn't have unplugged this." Stephanie said as she placed the IV back in my arm, making sure it started again. She bent over and shone a torch in Gwens eye. She checked her heart rate and then proceeded to ask "How are you feeling, you had a rough one there, the doctor will be in soon." then left the room. 

The boy sat back down on his chair. "Who are you?" Gwen asked him.

"My names Danny, Danny Jones." he said smiling. "You?"

"Gwen…Gwen Martin." she replied emotionless.

Then the a tall man with salt and pepper hair  walked in, he looked as though he was in his late 40's. "Look who's finally awake, my little mystery patient." he smiled. "Excuse me son," he spoke towards Danny. "do you mind giving us some doctor patient privacy."

Danny nodded then quickly got up to leave the room.

"And maybe you could get yourself a belt." the doctor added with a smile

Danny grumbled something incomprehensible and shimmied his denim trousers a little higher before turning the corner and closing the door with a soft click.

"Kids these days." The doctor said disappointedly. "Know, enough about that young lads trousers, let's get to you." He looked at Gwen intently. "My name is Doctor Simon, I'm the one who fixed you up a few days ago, not that you'd remember." he spoke with a voice that was soft a cheery. "Now, we need to know who you are. Young mr. Jones brought you in, said he found you on the street. Do you remember this?"

Gwen nodded, staring at the doctor a little frightened, she never did like doctors much.

"You where found with no identification so-"

"My name is Gwen Martin and I'm 15 years old, born in London, September 28th." Gwen gave out her credentials, cutting of Doctor Simon.

"Great." said the doctor as he wrote that all down on a sheet of paper attached to a clip board. "Now, London, that's quite far, there hasn't been any claims of a missing person fitting your profile, so assume you don't have a family, or do you?"

Gwen was trapped, she couldn't very well tell him about her family, or..... Could she? "No." not anymore "At least I don't think I do." she said under her breath, hoping that just maybe someone had survived that attack, the attack that didn't technically happen yet. But, the doctor heard.

"Ah, thatd be the amnesia." the doctor responded "You're head was hit pretty severely, now I have to ask what happened, you where pretty bloodied up."

She couldn't tell him the truth this time, so she played along with this amnesia excuse. "I....I don't remember, except for waking up in an alley, making my way to the street, then...Danny," struggling to remember the boys name as she thought carefully of what she gave away. "He came up to me and asked if I was ok, then I.....fainted?"

The doctor just nodded and made some more notes, "Well, by your injuries you seem to have been in some sort of blast, but it's been pretty quiet lately, not even a fire. The burn marks on your hand where pretty new, and by the smoke that was in your lungs we know that what ever happened had something to with fire, we just can't figure out seeing as noting fits." the doctor paused and for a minute Gwen thought that he might be on to her, bit to her relief he started up again. "We're supposed to call for a police report if there's an attack, but there doesn't seem to be evidence on it so, unfortunately of it was an attack, the culprit isn't near being found."

Gwen almost burst saying it wasn't an attack, but stop herself, she wasn't supposed to remember.

"Now, I'd like to check on your wounds now. It shouldn't hurt too much, just lie down flat."

Gwen did as he was told and lay down. Doctor Simon started to unwrap a bandage on her head that she managed to not notice before. The doctor lightly brushed his hands over a cut about two inches long across her hair line. She winced a little, but the pain wasn't very extreme.

"This should be healed soon, it wasn't too deep, the stitches can come out in a few days." the doctor said as he took a cloth, damp with anti-septic and dabbed it on the cut. 
Throwing away the bandage from earlier the doctor moved his way down to the gash in Gwen's stomach. 

She watched has the bandage was pulled back and a gash sealed by three stitches was revealed. 

"This was pretty deep, might take a few weeks 'till I can take these stitches out." The doctor cleaned the wound and rubbed a cool creme around it before taping on some gauze. "There all done."

The doctor gave the motion that Gwen could sit up again, she started using her elbows to push up when the doctor silently pushed a button on the side of the bed, bending the top up so she needn't struggle. Doctor Simon made a few more notes before starting to speak again. "the burn wasn't to bad, but it will scar quite a bit, and the cast should be off in a week." With that he made his way to leave the room.

Gwen took the time to lift her hand and examine the thick red line that made it's was through her left palm. There was a bang and a grunt when the doctor opened the door that startled Gwen. She looked over and saw the doctor speaking firmly about listening in to conversations to a very annoyed Danny who was sitting on the floor rubbing his head. She ignored it and started examining her hand again. She lightly brushed her right hand over it whilst the door clicked shut again and Danny sat beside her again. A small tear escaped her eye as she thought about the attack and how these scars wouldn't let her forget it. Danny offered her a tissue from the box on the bedside table. She ignored the box and looked into the eyes of the boy. 

"Thank you." She said plainly and went back to examining her hand whilst letting a few tears silently role  down her cheeks. 

Danny, picking up on the fact that Gwen wasn't talking about the tissues, put them back on the table. "For what?"

"Brining me here." she stated plainly. "Everyone else on that street just ignored me." 

There was a short pause. 

"Why are you still here?" Gwen looked back at Danny. 

"I wanted to make sure you where ok," He answered "It seems strange to bring a stranger to a hospital, and not stay to see if they're alright."

Gwen nodded. And began examining the room again. There where flowers on the bedside table. They where dying, but thy where still beautiful. She had never seen real flowers before. There was no place for them to grow in the city. She had seen them in pictures in agriculture books, but never in person. They where orchids, dark brown and purple, limp and drooping down. They made her sad.

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Three days passed. Danny came and sat for an hour that was set aside for visiting. Nothing was ever said between the two of them, but they each enjoyed eachothers company. Doctor Simon came in every day at five to check on her wounds. She was rid of the stitches in her head, and everything was fine. The food wasn't amazing, but better than the bread, water and occasional bird she got at home.

 "They're so depressing." Gwen said out loud. One day. This was the first time she had spoken for the day she woke up.

This confused Danny. "Excuse me?" He said, looking up from a music magazine he was reading. 

"The flowers, I never really fancied orchids." She was more talking to herself, but it was nice to know that someone was listening. "I always liked sunflowers, the way the follow the redness of the sun."

With that, Danny left the room swiftly, with out a word. Gwen didn't exactly register this fact until he returned through the door with one hand behind his back. He went up to the side of the hospital bed, and held out a single sunflower. 

Gwen stared wide eyed at the flower then extended he arm, gently taking the flower in her own hands. She closed her eyes and breathed in. It smelled wonderful, like fresh air, instead of the medical smell of inside the hospital. She smiled to herself and looked up at Danny who had a mad grin on his face. "I want to go for a walk." she said moving the covers and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. Danny helped her  up and handed her a set of crutches. He took the sunflower and placed it behind her right ear. She smiled and they walked slowly to the small park behind the hospital. This was the first time that Gwen had been out side have that tiny little room. It was nice to be outside. It was different then at home. The grass was a deep green, there was dew on the tips of the thick ground.

"Why did you say the sun was red?" Danny asked. "It's yellow."

"Oh," Gwen noticed this a little shocked. "So it is" it wasn't at home, it was a scarlet red, it mist be the age.
The sky was blue, only a couple fluffy white clouds floating around peacefully, instead of the smoggy grey she was used to. Birds where singing, the air was fresh, and everything felt for the first time on a long time, safe.