The Major Lift. Rewrite one.

Revelations.

Aurora couldn't remember feeling worse in her life, thus far. 'How did I get here?' she asked herself as she sank into the scrunchy hospital pillow. 'A minute ago, I was on Gladstone Bridge...' She could hear Chris' footsteps disappearing down the hall as she tried to huddle in the bed against the cold. Her bones felt like old lead, her muscled ached and burned horribly and she shivered uncontrollably as though she were in a freezer. Her head and left arm throbbed rapidly, with each heartbeat and her mouth was both dry and thick with the taste of bile. And suddenly it was hot, too hot. She kicked off the paper-thin covers pitifully, using her good arm to pluck at her itchy gown where it clung to her bound chest. 'Can't thank them enough for not cutting the damn thing off' came the snide and sarcastic inner voice. She panted and heard the faint beeping from the machine to her right quicken slightly. Why was the room so hot? Why were the curtains closed around the bed from which she couldn't hope to get up? She opened her watering eyes and blinked up at the white ceiling, willing each of the dots on it to come into clearer focus, willing her breathing and heart rate to slow down, if just for a moment.

She had nowhere to go. She had nobody. What she'd allowed Chris to see her go through was far too ugly. She could never allow herself to be that vulnerable under anyones scrutiny, most especially Chris who genuinely did seem to like her, or at least to tolerate her. Chris, who had gone out of her way to prevent her from doing anything permanent to end the hurt she'd spent years trying to numb. It was a big deal, if only Aurora could comprehend why. She lost herself in a maelstrom of unanswerable questions as the beeping quickened still further and sweat beaded on her brow. Questions that she'll never be able to ask. The temperature in the room was still rising. The sweat was mingling with the tears falling from her eyes down the sides of her face.
There was a muffled ringing from somewhere off in the periphery of her senses. A ringing that should have alarmed Aurora but didn't. She could feel the air being punched from her lungs, her back arching horribly, painfully. The muscles of all her limbs including the bandaged, lacerated left arm contracted and flailed painfully. Before she really knew what was going on, a forth seizure took hold, her eyes rolled back and she lost consciousness.

When she came two, a familiar face stared at her from above, framed by a shock of blonde hair and plastered with a worried look that didn't help Auroras mood. She groaned in pain as the womans face relaxed a little.
"Aurora? You with us?" the woman with the blond hair asked, withdrawing from Auroras line of sight to adjust the line that fed medicine into her good arm. It stung horribly and was now bandaged as well. 'Damn it!'  She thought bitterly to herself, thinking that she likely pulled the canula while she was out.
"You've had another seizure, but your temperatures come down a little. If you keep stabilising, we'll take you up stairs and admit you, can you tell me how you're feeling?" the woman asked.
"Feel 'ick" Aurora croaked, swallowing thickly.
They went through the obligatory rigmarole of orientation questions. Person, place, time, what had happened? And when the women who Aurora knew was a nurse seemed satisfied, she took her temperature and blood pressure again and smiled a little.
"You're stabilising, you in pain? Can I sort you out any pain relief?" she asked, sweetly, rounding the bed and checking over Auroras other bandages which seemed to be intact,  Aurora thought about this, the prospect of taking anything for her pain seemed like a gamble beyond even her fortitude. Which battle would she pick? The one where she was numb once again with the added risk or the one where she kept Chris happy and remained lucid and inhibited? The nurse whose name tag read Andria was looking at her expectantly and Aurora mentally scrambled to find the right words to answer her question. The fog was returning to her head and she shook it in an effort to clear it, swallowing back the tears threatening to spill over once again hard.
"It's up to you, but the medical team have standings in place for increased pain and it's obvious that you're in pain" Andria persisted. Aurora gulped, not really sure whether Andria was referring to her messed up arm or other kinds of anguish that she would've needed a few stiff drinks to articulate. Her arm was throbbing, but the pain emanating from it was helping to keep her anxiety at bay. It was reminding her that she existed. While it was there, she could focus on that at the expense of anything else.

"As I said, if this trend continues then well take you upstairs and schedule your procedure for tomorrow at some point. If you need anything, you can press the green button on the siderail. I'll be back in a bit, hopefully to take you up to the ward" Andria said in a sweet but clinical tone. Aurora nodded silently and Andria left, scrutinising the piece of paper she'd torn from the machine beside her. Aurora did feel a little more normal, maybe the paracetamol they'd insisted on starting was working as intended.
She focused on the pain as the near silence pressed on her ears. The throbbing in her arm and head a constant resounding reminder that she had failed in ending her own life by giving into Chris and her unrelenting kindness. She suddenly felt sick, reaching for the plastic bag sitting on the side table with her good arm, she lurched forward and heaved into it. She heard running footsteps entering the double room but couldn't see through watering eyes. She felt Andrias hand on her back, rubbing small, soothing circles. The other person, she'd assumed was Redding was examining her intravenous lines. Through the ringing in her ears she heard them exchange words.
"Aurora, we've got something to control your nausea if you want it. It's called Maxalon and it's just a small wafer that goes under your tongue. Dissolves right away" Andria suggested once her stomach had stopped flipping. She held the bag up in front of Aurora, steadying it in her shaking hands. She handed her a cup of water and instructed her to rinse her mouth out, which she did and Redding stood at the foot of the bed with a dish containing what she assumed was the drug Andria had just been talking about. She sighed, resigning to agree to take it.
"Will it knock me out?" She asked, giving the now half full bag to Andria who tied it off and threw it into a nearby bin.
"It might, it's been known to make people drowsy. If it does, please don't worry. It's a common side effect. Least it should take away the nausea. We were just coming to bring you upstairs anyway. Here it is, just under your tongue" Redding said, advancing with a tiny white round object in his gloved hand. Aurora took it and slipped it under her tongue as instructed. It was bitter and Aurora closed her eyes tight, curling her toes in an effort not to vomit again. But before it had passed, the wafer was gone.
"Here, sip this" Andria ordered, handing her the cup of water. Aurora sipped, washing away the fowl taste. Then Andria took the water and put it on the side table.
"Okay, That will be it orally for now. We've scheduled your surgery. And now were going to take you up to the ward. How do you feel apart from ... that?" Asked Redding, back in his brisk but caring clinical tone of voice.
Andria kicked the breaks off the bed and began to guide it toward the door. If she were honest, she did not care for the sensation of lying on a moving transverse surface. She and Redding walked her to the lift and up to the forth floor where another nurse stood ready to greet them. He was short, sturdily built with dark curling hair and dark circles under his eyes."
"Aurora, we need to hand you over, just some talking about you for a bit. Hi, this is Aurora, she's twenty years old and presented to E.D. with a high fever, a lacerated and badly infected left forearm which has been cleaned and dressed, and having had one seizure which was followed up by three more. They're being controlled by antipyretics and she's been started on a course of board spectrum antibiotics. Her friends say she was found on Gladstone overpass. They also say the laceration was sustained some days previously" Andria spoke as they walked her into a room and breaked the wheels. Aurora had stopped listening as soon as Gladstone overpass was mentioned, letting their voices fall to the side-lines of her senses. The medicine was taking effect fast. She felt her eyes close and her senses dull. It was a blissful sensation and she tried to savour it for as long as she remained aware of it. As she faded away, she heard the voices of the three clinicians talking, exchanging notes and documents and double checking orders. She heard Chris' name mentioned and her attention was pulled to it.
"Chris gave her number as a contact. We'll need to give her a call in the morning and after the procedure. She won't be under a general though, not until we manage the fever and the seizures at any rate. Will you make a note for the morning shift please, Harry?" Andria asked. Harry wasn't heard saying much.
"She'll need to be monitored throughout the night, closely. We didn't have telem but it might be helpful here" Redding was saying, but Auroras attention was fading, as were their voices. She couldn't fight the urge to sleep. Vaguely, she wondered if she should take off her binder before going to sleep, but couldn't hope to before she was out once again.