The Stars in Your Sky Aren't the Same Stars in My Sky

When I woke up, I was alone in a hospital bed with a tube down my throat. I started freaking out, causing my heart monitor to go crazy and the nurse to come in. She saw I was awake and immediately helped remove it. She started asking me questions and making sure I was coherent before grabbing a doctor.

"Ms.Delaney?" I nodded, my throat sore.

"You were brought into us last night. Your ribs broke and punctured your lung." I looked down at my chest under the hospital gown and saw the bandages.

"There was severe trauma and bleeding. We had to plate the rib and re inflate your lung. Are you currently experiencing any pain?" He came over with the stethoscope and started to listen to my breathing.

"It's a dull pain." I croaked before coughing. He also took a look at my ankle.

"You also have a sprained ankle." I sighed.

"And what can we do to fix this?"

"Well, there's not much we can do but continue to administer pain medication. We will keep you for a day or two more and then you are free to go." He smiled at me before leaving me alone in the room.

I looked around and saw the phone on the wall. I had no idea what time it was, where I was, or if the guys even knew what was going on. Carefully, being mindful of the numerous machines I was hooked up to, I got out of the bed and tried to get to the phone. My ankle screamed in pain. I couldn't make it and had to sit in the chair halfway between the bed and the phone.

"What are you doing?" I looked up and saw Real Bad walk in with flowers and a teddy bear.

"What are YOU doing?" I asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, people usually bring get well gifts to the person they thought was going to die in front of them." He put the items down at the foot of the bed before helping me back into the bed.

"I wasn't going to die...." He scoffed.

"Did they not tell you?" I gave him a questioning look.

"Dude you flat lined and seized...." I chuckled before seeing how serious he was.

"Oh..." He just nodded.

"They said it was because you weren't getting enough oxygen." I sighed. Maybe I needed a break, oh wait I can't afford to take one of those with the tour and-

"What time is it?" He pulled out his phone.

"Three, yes we're still in Adelaide. Mikey played for me and Michael, Tyler, and JJ covered for you."

"Why?" He looked flabbergasted.

"Jax," He got a little closer and looked me dead in the eyes," You. Almost. DIED." He emphasized each word.

"Why are you here?" I clarified. He took a step back.

"because I found you in a pool of your own blood on the dressing room floor...."

"It happens, I'm fine. I wasn't going to die and you should be in Melbourne...."

"I knew you were stubborn, but holy shit were they not kidding when they warned me...." He sat down in the chair.

"Can I use your phone? I have to call the guys" He tossed it up on the bed to me and I immediately dialed Mikey's number.

"Is she awake?" I scoffed.

"Of course I'm fucking awake! Why did you leave me with him? What is the plan and why did it take you so long to understand that I just want you to keep going?" He chuckled as I coughed after my gravelly sounding series of questions.

"Well good morning to you too sunshine. He was the one at the hospital and by the time someone told us where you were, we needed to get to the airport or risk not continuing the tour at all. JJ, Michael, and Tyler are covering for you. Make sure you thank them when you get back. You and Real Bad are flying to Sydney and meeting up with us as soon as you are discharged. Play nice, he's there to help you. Yes, we continued because we knew you would tell us to. That doesn't mean we weren't worried. Now, we are about to sound check. Are you ok?"

"Did he tell you what happened?"

"No, just that they said you were ok." I heard the guitars in the background as he answered.

"Well, my ribs snapped and punctured my lung. I had a seizure apparently from lack of oxygen" He told whoever was playing to shut up.

"Wait, are you going to be ok? Can you continue the tour?" I scoffed.

"Of course I can. I'm getting discharged tonight. Go do your sound check and I'll see you in Sydney, ok?" I could tell he wanted to ask more questions but he let it go anyways. The line went dead and I tossed Real Bad his phone.

"They said you were here for two more days...." He noticed my lie.

"Not a chance in hell," I hit the button for the nurse," Did you book flights already?" He shook his head as the nurse walked in.

"Is everything alright Ms. Delaney?" She asked as she checked over the machines I was hooked up to.

"I would like to be discharged."

"I'm sorry but we highly advise-"

"I understand the risks, however I have places to be and things to do. If the doctor wouldn't mind providing me with after care instructions and the discharge papers now?"The nurse nodded before leaving the room.

"Are you always a frigid bitch when you want or need something?" I glared at him.

"No, just when I'm in pain or dealing with your idiotic ass." He rolled his eyes.

"Ya know, I tried to help. You'd be dead if I didn't find you when I did. What the fuck were you even thinking not telling the guys that you were in that much pain?!" I rolled my eyes and tried to sit up again.

"No stop," He came over and gently pushed me down," You want out of here right?"

"I am getting out of here." He chuckled.

"You want out, we're doing it my way."

"No fucking way" I crossed my arms and stared at him.

"You really think you're gonna go back to the tour and the guys will let you just prance around? Princess, you can't even walk right now. How are you even going to finish the tour?" I chuckled.

"I did Warped with two broken wrists, a broken nose, and two fractured ribs. I can do it." I tried to get up and he stopped me again.

"Nope, you want up you agree to do this my way." I slammed my head back again the pillow with a groan.

"What the fuck do you want then?"

"Wheelchair, always unless going to bed." I shook my head.

"Not bringing a wheel chair on stage." He sat on the bed and looked at me.

"Well we will negotiate on stage time based on how you're feeling in a few days. Fair?" He was acting like I was a fucking child and it was starting to piss me off.

"Look, I don't know if someone else put you up to this, but I'm not-"

"No one put me up to this, have you ever considered how fucking traumatic it is to watch someone almost fucking die?!" I didn't notice until now but he looked awful.

His eyes were inset and red, his nose was red probably from being wiped too much, and he obviously was still in the same clothes he found me in. There was blood all down the front of his shirt, mixed into the tie dye pattern, and some on his pants. It was like he hadn't slept since I got here.

"How long have you been here?" He stood and before I could repeat the question the doctor came in.

"You were asking to be discharged Ms. Delaney?" I nodded to him slowly while staring at Real Bad.

"You do understand that you are seriously injured correct?" He asked as he started to check me over to be discharged.

"Yes, I understand."

"Well,I'm going to wrap your ankle. I recommend not putting pressure on it and ice and elevation a few times a day. As for your ribs, the plating on them will need to be checked every two weeks and you'll need a note to fly due to the metal. Will we need to provide that?"

I told him yes and allowed him to explain the rest of the instructions to me before he went to grab paper work. I turned back to Real Bad to ask him the question again, but he beat me to it.

"They kind of destroyed your clothes. The gift shop has some stuff or there's a store a few blocks down. I can go grab you some stuff if you need me to. Your shoes should still be good but they have blood on them."

"medium in everything?" He nodded and up to leave.

"I'll be back in a few minutes."

He left and I was there alone for ten minutes before the doctor came back with the papers. The nurse helped to disconnect me from the machines and get my pain meds filled. I sat on the hospital bed with the crutches she left for me and the meds waiting for Real Bad to come back. The crutches seemed useless due to the pain I would be in while using them, but I accepted it. When Real Bad came back, he handed me shorts and a shirt that were clearly from Ahren's clothing line.

"Where the fuck did you get these from?" He shoved a set of car keys into his pocket before putting the back pack he had down.

"JJ's house. Do you want me to leave or do you need help?"

"I can do it." He left the room and I quickly threw on the clothes, not caring about the lack of undergarments.

"Ready to go?" A nurse came back with my shoes and the wheelchair to get us outside.

Real Bad carried the crutches and the backpack with my items in it as the nurse escorted us outside to where Real Bad said our car was. It was a very nice Mercedes. They both helped me into the passenger seat before the nurse left and Real Bad got in the car. Our drive was extremely quiet until we pulled up to a house about ten minutes later.

"let me go put this stuff inside and I'll come back to help you." He left without letting me give an answer, but true to his word he quickly came back to help me inside. And by help I mean he carried me inside and immediately let me down on the couch.

"Are you hungry?" He walked into the kitchen and started rummaging through the fridge before sighing.

"A little. Why did you stay?" He didn't answer me. Instead he continued to look for food.

"I'll order a pizza, fucker actually cleaned out his fridge before he left for tour."

He called in for pizza and then went up stairs in search of something. I wasn't really sure what, but it seemed pretty important. He left me to sit there in silence until the pizza came and he brought it over to me. He was looking for a pillow apparently for my ankle.

"You don't have to do all this? We can literally get on a plane and meet up with them in the morning?" He shook his head and turned on the TV.

"They fly into Sydney tomorrow afternoon. We're staying the night here and leaving later tomorrow. They want to get situated before you get over there. Everyone's kind of freaking out." He put on a movie and I wasn't really paying attention.

"You still haven't answered me...." When he ignored me, I twisted my body to try and grab the remote from the other side of him. I only ended up hurting myself and him having to catch me so I didn't fall off the couch.

"We spent one night in the hospital already, please don't make it two."

"You were there the whole night?" He sighed and helped me get situated again.

"They wouldn't let me in the room with you, I spent the night in the waiting room. I was exploring the gift shop when you woke up and that's when I grabbed the bear and the roses."

"You didn't have to do that...." He sighed and turned to me.

"I didn't have to, but fuck I was scared...." He scratched the back of his neck.

"I don't know you that well, but when I first saw you, I thought you were going to die right then and there on the floor of the dressing room. JJ was with me and he almost got sick just looking at you. I told him to get a medic while I tried to help." He stopped and chuckled.

"You were cracking fucking jokes. Fucking psychopath." We both laughed.

"When you started to get incoherent while we were in the ambulance, part of me started to really flip shit. I thought for sure that that was really it," He stopped and took a deep breath," Then you flat lined." His eyes had tears in them and were wide from the memory. I felt so bad for causing him the pain that I had just caused.

"No one really knew where you went. JJ sat outside smoking all night because he was freaking out. I hadn't cleaned up all the blood so everyone thought you had been stabbed and kidnapped. Joel called me before their set asking if I had seen you and I had to tell him that you could possibly be dying right now..." He took another breath.

"That really fucks with people... that's why I wanted to stay in the hospital... you were really injured...." I opened my mouth to say something, but closed it immediately because I was at a loss for words.

He didn't have anything to say after that either. We had finished eating at that point and he cleaned it up and went upstairs, leaving me alone. The TV said it was 9 and I was still alone. I tried to get up and it didn't work. My crutches were so far away that I couldn't even try to get them. In defeat, I laid across the couch and propped my leg up on the arm. I was exhausted.