Fix You

CHAPTER 4: "Life Without You"

The next morning they were allowed to see him, finally. Dembe and Liz went to the hospital together, they were both nervous to what he'll possible look like. Liz felt like her throat's being crushed taking away all the air and making it hard to breathe. They went inside the ICU, it felt so cold, and distant. It wasn't welcoming at all, the sterile smell chilled her spine, to her it almost smelled fairly of death.

Red was lying on a hospital bed, hooked up countless tubes and monitors. A nurse was on the opposite side end of the room, writing on his chart. "What's wrong? What happened?" Dembe manage to ask, but Liz stayed still, her feet stopped her from moving towards him, her eyes were stinging from u shed tears, and she felt an ache inside her chest. She felt so...broken. The nurse's head snapped up "good morning, I believe you are Liz and Dembe?" Lizzie finally found her voice; "you know me?" The nurse gave them a compassionate smile. "We all sort of do. You were both given to us by a file from the FBI, Director Cooper in fact; he said besides FBI, you, Mr.Zuma and one named Kate Kaplan were the on,t allowed visitors to come and should anything medical ever arise for Mr. Reddington we should call on you. We didn't do any researches don't worry, we're just on strict orders from the FBI."

"I'm not going to sugar coat things for you dear, he's in a coma and had been since we were alerted that he needed medical care. I believe it was from a car accident, the severe concussion that cracked his skull and caused so,eh infernal bleeding a too, his laceration is deep, but not fatal anymore, but the brain is swelling severely. There's no telling when, or if he'll ever wake or regain consciousness. We're doing our best a everything that we can do to the best of our medical facilities and technology to us. I guess we all just have to play the waiting game.

There were unchecked tears running down her face and Dembe looked as if someone had struck him. She reached out and held his hand, not knowing who needed support, was it her or him? They moved forward to see a better view. Red looked so different. His head was wrapped in heavy bandages and was his chest. There was a massive bruise on his left eye and cheek that was ugly purple. A few lacerations to the nose, and eyebrows, cracked lip, and another bruise just below his right eye. There were stumbles starting to show, he had never looked so vulnerable. She squeezed Dembe's hand so tight that was most probably numb. She looked up into his face; "I know you hate seeing him like that, and I am so sorry."

Whispers and brief flashes of light were all what Red experienced. He wasn't sure how long he had been like this; in fact he didn't even know where "this" was. Sometimes he felt like a physical being, yet sometimes he simply he was disembodied conscience doomed to float around the never-ending forever. Occasionally, when he really strained himself, Red cod discern multiple voices reaching out to him through the fog. The most prominent of these voices was from a woman. When she spoke, it was the only time that he could actually understand coherent sentences. When another voice joins in, Red could only pick up on syllables and sometimes words.

What was strange is that all of these voices never reach him properly and the only one that appeared properly was the woman's voice reaching out to him in a very soothing gone. Why was this woman so important to him? Why was he important to her? Did he know before slipping into this real of darkness and fog? Desperately, he tired to search for answers. And yet, no matter how hard he tried he never could fine one. As soon as he came close to an answer, it was taken away from him. It was like trying to catch smoke with his bare hands.

No time seemed to pass; and yet Red was sure that he had been here for a while. Before long, the woman's voice became the only thing he cared for. He long for her angelic tomes. He didn't know why, but he cared for her. This woman kept him fighting a battle that he didn't complete understand. All he knew was that he had to win; he had to fight for this woman. And so he tried
Red had been in a coma for 2 weeks now. Everyday Liz was by his side, sometimes speaking and sometimes just sitting. Cooper allowed her to stay which was a bliss and she was eternally grateful. Liz knew that Ressler indeed cared for Red but if he did, he didn't show it openly. The only time she had left his side was to use the bathroom. During the first few days, the kind members of the staff tried to convince her to go home, even Dembe did. They had tried to reason that it wasn't good for her to sleep on a plastic chair everyday, but seeing that she wasn't going anywhere they left her alone. Dembe took night shift with her. A very kind nurse even brought in a spare pillow for the both of them.