Wild Wings

Rough Awakening

Rowan slowly opened her eyes to see she was staring at a white ceiling. She nearly shot all the way up if not for the pain in her side, making her hiss through her teeth. 

A woman came near the bed she was on and tried to get her to stay laying down. "Stay still, you could rip your stitches!" 

Out of fear, Rowan grabbed the woman's wrist and got a good look at her. The woman was Hispanic, with brown eyes and hair, her skin was a healthy but light tan. 

"Where am I?! Who are you?!" 

The woman tried to calm herself down as she placed a hand on the teen's hand. "It's okay, you're safe. My name's Aviva." 

Rowan looked at the woman up and down. The woman, or Aviva, was wearing a yellow jacket and blue jeans, with black and white converse. 

Aviva took out a stethoscope and gave the girl a checkup. Or tried to, Rowan kept trying to avoid the medical tool at all costs. Almost like she was deadly allergic to it. 

"Can you hold still? I need to make sure you're okay." Rowan glared and took a deep breath. "I'm not used to getting a checkup." 

Aviva seemed glad she stopped moving and checked the teen's heartbeat and breathing. 

"Well, as for your other question earlier, you're in the Tortuga. We're gonna drop you off at a hospital when we reach a city, they should-." 

Rowan sat up again with a glare on her face. "No! No hospital! You can't make me go!" 

Aviva placed her hands on Rowan's shoulders and tried to calm her down. "Ok, ok, we won't take you to a hospital. Any reason why you don't wanna go to a hospital?" 

The girl looked away and glared at the wall instead. "I don't trust doctors." 

The woman seemed to feel like that wasn't the full answer and nodded. "Alright, would you like anything to eat then?" 

Rowan nodded and kept staring at the wall. 

"If you need anything, just let me know." Aviva turned to leave when the teen said something. 

"Rowan." 

The woman looked back at Rowan. "What?" 

"My name. It's Rowan." The teen fidgeted with a lock of her red hair and softened her gaze at the wall. 

Aviva patted Rowan's shoulder, showing she heard her, and the woman then left to fill the crew in on their guest. 

Martin and Chris were the first to ask about her. "Is she doing, ok?" 

"Is she awake, at least?" Aviva nodded and grabbed some food and clean bandages. "She's awake and seems fine. But she doesn't want to go to a hospital."

Jimmy then came over. "Why wouldn't she want to go to a hospital? With what you guys filled me in on, she nearly died." 

Chris then took the bandages from Aviva. "I'll see if I can talk to her. Martin, wanna come with?" 

"I'm on board with it, let's just hope we can get her to talk." 

Aviva then told the brothers the teen's name before they left the main room. "She said her name is Rowan." 

Chris and Martin approached the girl as she was looking at a feather in her hand. A hawk's feather. Though, there weren't any birds in or out of the Tortuga at the moment. 

"Hi, I'm Chris, and this is my brother, Martin. Is it ok if I changed your bandages?" Rowan looked away from the feather and at the two males in the room. 

Chris had brown hair that spiked in the front, brown eyes and fair skin. He was wearing a pair of cargo shorts, a green jacket, and hiker boots. He was also shorter than his brother and was holding clean bandages. 

Martin seemed older than his brother. He had light blue eyes, blonde hair, and slightly tanner skin than Chris. He was also wearing cargo shorts, and brown hiker boots. His blue jacket though was zipped halfway up showing a white shirt. 

But they both looked friendly, and Chris asked if he could rebandage her injuries. 

"Ok." Rowan nodded and Chris unwrapped the bandages on her leg first. "Thanks for asking before touching me though. I don't like it when people touch me without asking first. Even those I'm close to." 

(A/n: This is an actual trait I have; I don't like being touched without someone asking first. Even if I'm really close to them, because I'm not used to being touched without my permission. I have a small anxiety spell if someone touches me unexpectedly or without asking.)

Martin sat on the edge of the bed. "Is that why we heard you yell at Aviva?" 

Rowan nodded as Chris finished carefully undoing her old bandages. But the wound was close to being completely healed. 

"This is impossible. We found you last night, this should've taken weeks to get like this How'd you heal so quickly?" 

The girl shrugged and sighed. "I'm a fast healer." 

Chris cleaned up what dried blood was on her calf and wrapped the new bandage on her leg. "Still, this is physically impossible." 

Rowan rolled her eyes.

Martin then changed the subject as Chris started on Rowan's stomach. Good thing she was wearing a sports bra. 

"So, that feather you were looking at. What kind of bird do you think it was from?" 

Rowan didn't hesitate in her answer. "Red shouldered hawk, a wing feather too." 

"That was a quick answer." Martin reached out his hand and hesitantly Rowan handed him the feather. It was pretty, a little bigger than a normal hawk's feather. 

Chris moved to Rowan's arm, which was bandaged for some reason. "Almost done, just have your arm to do." 

Rowan raised her brow at that, last, she remembered only her leg and stomach were hurt. "Why is my arm bandaged anyway? Last I remember it was only my stomach and leg that were injured." 

Chris answered as Aviva came in with two other people. "Aviva said she found something in your arm and had to remove it." 

Rowan observed the two people with Aviva. 

The first was another woman, except she was African American. She was wearing a red t-shirt, yellow jeans and some sneakers. Her curly hair was held by a yellow headband. 

The second was another guy. His hair went to chin length, and he had a small stubble on his chin, and his hair was a bright red. He was wearing a pair of blue cargo shorts, sneakers, and a grey sweater like shirt. 

"Hi, Rowan. This is Koki, she helped me treat your wounds last night." The dark-skinned woman waved. "Hi." 

The red-haired man then came closer, and Rowan noticed he was carrying a tray of food. "Name's Jimmy Z, heard you were hungry." 

Chris finished dressing Rowan's arm and she took the tray. It seemed to be beef vegetable stew, orange juice, and some garlic bread. 

"Thank you. Why are you all helping me?" Martin answered first. "We found you last night near a lake. You were bleeding pretty badly, and while I was carrying you, you called me 'Iggy'." 

Rowan then got some flashes from last night. "Sorry about that. My vision was blurry, and I thought you were my friend." 

"Your friend's name is Iggy?" 

Rowan nodded. "He's more like a brother to me than a friend." 

The girl ate a bit before turning onto her uninjured side and sighing. "I'm gonna get some sleep. I'm tired, and I have some things to think over." 

The crew all looked at each other before leaving Rowan to her own devices. 

Rowan teared up, before silently crying herself to sleep.