Uncharted

Chewing. All I could hear was chewing. I opened my eyes slowly, surprised to find myself in an unfamiliar room. I instantly recognized it as a hospital room. I tried to remember why any event that would have caused me to wake up in a hospital room. I couldn’t remember anything. The last thing I could remember was driving home from work. Instantly, I began to panic thinking that I must have crashed my car and possibly injured someone else.

I sat up quickly, my head began to spin and I immediately regretted sitting up that quickly. I found the source of the chewing sound. Cooper was sitting in a chair next to my bed, his feet were propped up on the edge of the bed and he was eating a sandwich while studying from a text book that was resting on his legs. I watched Cooper for a few seconds before he must have felt my eyes on him and picked his head up to look at me, a grin instantly spread across his face when he looked at me.

“You’re awake!” I lowered his legs, and closed his book and focused his attention fully on me.

“Yeah…” I said slowly.

“How are you feeling?” Cooper asked.

“Like shit.” I said honestly. My head was throbbing with pain and my entire body was aching. I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. I was in so much pain that I wanted to cry.

“Do you remember what happened?” Cooper asked, smile suddenly dropping.

“Car accident?” I guessed.

“No.” he paused and looked at me curiously. I wanted to know what had happened to me but he was taking his grand old time coming out with it. “You fell.”

I groaned, of course I fell. I’m the clumsiest person on Earth. “I’m the worst.” I half laughed and rubbed my hands on my face, trying to hide my embarrassment.

“Ollie, look at me.” The sudden serious tone of Cooper’s voice worried me. I removed my hands from my face and looked at my friend. “You didn’t exactly fall. You were pushed.”

“What happened?” I asked, more confused than I’d ever been. I wanted to know the truth about what happened to me. Who would push me? Why did would someone push me?

Cooper took a deep breath. “Moira pushed you down the stairs, Ol.”

A million thoughts went firing through my head. Why would Moira push me down the stairs. Cute, adorable, innocent Moira would never push me down the stairs. The night I met her she was so bubbly and nice. I couldn’t imagine what I could have done to here that she would have pushed me down the stairs.

“Why?” the shock and confusion was very evident when I spoke. I almost wanted to cry. I felt like the rug had just ripped out from under my feet. I so confused, everything Cooper was telling didn’t seem real.

“Because she’s a head case, always has been.” Cooper said, hostile when he spoke about her.

“I just can’t do this. I’m so overwhelmed right now.” And before I knew what was happening there were tears spilling down my face. I was hoping this was all a bad dream that I would wake up from.

“I know that it’s hard to understand right now.” Cooper said softly “You hit your head really hard. You’re going to have a hard time remember things for a little while, but you’ll remember eventually. There’s no permanent damage, you’ll be okay.” Cooper reassured me.

I kept on crying. I don’t even know why I was crying at that point. I guess I didn’t know what else to do. I laid back down in my bed and continued to cry. “I don’t even know why I’m crying.” I whined through my tears.

“It’s common to become easily upset when recovering from minor brain injuries.” Cooper recited and I heard a quiet beeping that made my head pulsate with pain. “Well, I’ve gotta get back to my rounds. Des should be by shortly. I know you’re probably tired but he’s been a nervous wreck so if you could try to stay awake for him I’d surely appreciate it. He’s been pestering me about how much you’ve been sleeping, has himself convinced you were never going to wake up.” Cooper chuckled and then slipped out of my room.

How long had I been sleeping? I had no idea considering I had no idea about anything. I did, however, remember Desmond being royally pissed at me. I assumed he had gotten over that when his lunatic girlfriend shoved me down a flight of stairs. Then again, it was Des. He never failed to surprise me. I was almost expecting him to walk in with Moira in tow.

As exhausted as I felt, I battled with myself to stay awake. It was the least I could do for Cooper since he had been so patient with me. Plus, I was hoping that Des would provide me with more information than my short chat with Cooper had. Maybe he knew why his crazy ass girlfriend tried to kill me. Unfortunately for me, a nurse had stopped in my room and began to check all of my vital signs which made me really upset thanks to my fucked up brain. She also made sure to give me something for the pain that was radiating across my entire body. That made me even more tired.

By the time, Des finally appeared I was only half conscious. I was fighting with myself, trying my hardest to stay awake. My eyes were closed when I heard his footsteps and then the scrapping of the plastic chair against the tiled floor. I opened my eyes just enough so I could see him biting his thumb nail and staring at a distant all. His thoughts were obviously somewhere else because his eyes were glazed over and he was biting on his thumb nail so hard I was positive he was drawing blood.

“Hi.” I said weakly, immediately drawing him out of his trance.

“Good morning, have a good sleep?” Des asked quietly for which I was thankful. Everyone had been speaking so loudly that I was extremely gracious for his low volume.

“No. I’m tired.” I said, feeling myself smile goofily at him. The pain medication was to blame for that one.

“Tired?” Des smiled at me, the biggest smile I’d ever seen on his face. “You’ve just woke up from a two day nap. How are you still tired?”

“I dunno.” I mumbled.

“How do you feel?” Des asked.

“Everything fucking hurts.” I answered as I watched the smile slowly disappear from his face. “I’m so confused about everything. I don’t even know what happened to me.” I half laughed as the tears began to roll down my face. “and I can’t stop crying.” I said through a strained voiced as I tried to hold back the sobs that were threatening to rip through my body.

Somehow my hand and Desmond’s hand managed to get tangled together. He spoke softly to me, explaining that extent of my injuries. “You’ve got some stitches in the back of your head. Three of your ribs are fractured. You’ve got some pretty nasty bruises too.” Des explained quietly.

“Ouch.” I said quietly, trying to lighten the mood while drifting in and out of sleep.

“You scared me shitless when you passed out. I’ve never been so terrified in my life.” Des admitted openly which was strange to me. He never openly admitted anything.

“I’m sorry.” I managed to apologize to Des for having apparently scared him. As soon as I apologized I was out, falling into a dreamless sleep.