Lost and Found

Chapter Sixty-Three

Nick's POV

After about two weeks, the doctors started reducing the amount of medication they were giving Trubel in hopes of waking her up slowly. It took a while for her to actually open her eyes, and even then, she wasn't really present. It was a lot off touch and go for a while getting her to wake up and understand what was going on. But even so, it eventually got to the point where the doctors could remove her ventilator or respirator or whatever it's called. From there, Trubel was normal-ish somedays, and off the walls other days probably from the remaining medications that were still lingering in her system; apparently, it was normal for people in her condition to be confused or aggressive. However, they worried about my safety when she got worked up which apparently wasn't normal.

One time, one of the doctors came out of her room, holding an ice pack to his eye. He had complained, "With how hard that girl punches, no one would believe that she's been in a coma for two and a half weeks."

I remembered when the day came that she finally knew what was going on for real. I had expected it to be another off and on kind of day when I walked into her room and she had a weak grin on her face.

"Nick?" she asked me like she was surprised to see me. Her voice was quiet. It seemed like her lungs and the rest of her body was weak from being out of operation for two weeks.

"Hey," I greeted. "How're you feeling?" I asked.

Trubel thought for a minute, and I felt bad for giving her a hard question. Eventually, she spoke up. "I'm confused."

That was strange. The other days when she had been confused, she didn't seem like she knew it. In fact, she sounded like she was sure of what she was saying which was weird considering what she had been saying. I had heard all kinds of crazy stories about her being trapped in a mental facility or that the doctor was evil or that people had visited her when they actually hadn't.

It was funny she was saying she was confused because she already seemed like she was the most aware she had been since waking up.

"Okay, ask me anything," I offered her.

"Were you really here earlier, or was I making that up?" she asked.

"I was here a lot. And I'm here now, so you're not hallucinating," I told her with a grin.

"That's good," she said. She paused for a minute before admitting, "I'm really sorry. I don't really remember anything else, except random stuff that I can't quite make sense of. None of that it is probably real, anyway..."

"Well, you don't have to be sorry. No one would blame you for any of that," I told her.

I heard a knock on the door when suddenly a doctor walked in. It was the same doctor that Trubel had punched in her drug-induced mania.

"How are we?" the doctor asked, looking between Trubel and me.

Trubel looked horrified.

"What's wrong?" I asked her quietly.

She stared at the doctor. "Did I do that to your face?" she suddenly asked him, noticing the dark bruise around his eye.

"Yes," he told her, watching her carefully to see her response.

"Guess that wasn't a dream," she mumbled to herself. "You wouldn't happen to be evil, would you?" she asked.

I laughed, and the doctor said, "Not that I know of."

Trubel looked embarrassed and said, "I should probably apologize for that..."