Text of Fate [Aqualad Social Media Fanfiction]

Thirty-One: FROM PHONES TO FACES

Okay, okay, I'd like to formally apologize for any agony these last few chapters may have put you through. I hope this chapter makes up for it.

However, this chapter does include some pain/hospital-related things that may be triggers for some, FYI.

The nurses were nice, as they'd always been.

The halls were clean, as they'd always been.

It was the same as it always had been the multitude of times that Eliza had been to the hospital, but this one was different.

Her lungs were still messed up, but at least it wasn't cancer, Doctor Ansel said.

She was lucky, the nurses said.

She didn't feel lucky.

"Is there anything we can do?" Her parents asked.

"Just leave me alone." She said.

Miraculously, they did.

Raquel was the only one who stayed.

"How much longer until I can take the meds again?" Eliza asked.

Raquel's eyes lifted ever so slightly from her laptop screen. "You know the morphine drip is right there, babe."

Eliza looked down at the needle that was currently staining her arm black and blue and bit her lip. Bracing herself, she pressed the red button that delivered the cool liquid to her bloodstream via the aforementioned needle.

"You okay?" Raquel whispered.

"No," Eliza squeaked through gritted teeth.

Raquel nodded. "Want to watch Ponyo?"

"No."

Raquel sighed.

"Why don't you take a nap?" She suggested.

"Gee, I don't know if you noticed, Raquel, but I've currently got a plastic tube that feels like more of a knife in my side that makes even lying down painful, so sleep is right next to impossible." Eliza snapped.

Nodding abruptly, Raquel turned back to her laptop, and Eliza left herself to stew in pain and the guilt of yelling at her best friend.

Her parents were in church at the moment, otherwise they'd be fluttering at her bedside too. Raquel volunteered to stay with Eliza for the day, and all but shoved the Garcias out the door, much to Eliza's relief.

"Alrighty Miss Eliza!" The nurse with the nametag "Peggy" sounded like she was about to burst into song every time she spoke. It was cute at first, but now it was starting to get annoying.

"Let's get you your medicine so we can get down to radiology and see if your lung's healing up!" She said, taking the bed off its breaks so she could steer it out the door.

Eliza glanced back at Raquel. "Will you still be here?" She asked.

Raquel nodded, smiling at her best friend. "Sure thing, babe."

The tile floor was freezing on Eliza's bare feet, and the thin hospital gown didn't do much againts the constant AC once the blankets were ripped away. Not to mention that every step twisted the tube in her side. Even painkillers didn't help the pain when she was moving.

Peggy and Doctor Ansel helped Eliza up to the screen to they could take x-rays, and she held back tears as she raised her arms above her head so that they could get a better view of her lungs.

"I'll take a look at them when they're developed, and let you know what I find out," Doctor Ansel promised with a pitying smile as Peggy helped Eliza back into the bed. Eliza nodded, not really paying attention as she held the blankets closer to her frigid body.