𝕓𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝕔𝕒𝕥 | 𝟲 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗚𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗

21 | Time For Paws

Everything felt heavy. Something was squeezing her finger. There was annoying beeping noise somewhere to her left.

She twitched her finger, trying to work out what was pinching it, and heard a startled gasp.

"Blake?"

She cracked oven her eyelids, but they were stuck together. She tried to move her hands to rub them; a sharp tug on her hands stopped her, and someone carefully guided her hands back to her sides.

A warm, damp cotton wool pad passed gently over her eyes, loosening then enough to let her open them. She squinted against the sunlight.

"Hi," someone said. Five's face swam into focus, and Blake stared at her a moment before trying to sit up.

Five pushed her back into the bed gently. "Take it easy. You lost a lot of blood."

Blake's eyes flittered around the room. There was a patient monitor to the side, and an IV line with some clear fluid stretching to her wrists. Scratch that - two lines, one to each hand. And a monitor on her index finger, too. The beeping noise got faster.

"You're safe. It's over," Five soothed.

Blake tried to swallow, but her throat was like sandpaper.

"How are you feeling?" Five asked.

"Like shit," Blake answered hoarsely.

"Any headaches, nausea or numbness?"

"Hea- headache."

"Alright. Good." Five nodded and stood. "I'll get you a drink of water."

Upon closer inspection, Blake found herself in a small room, which closely resembled a hospital room but was too expensive-looking to be in a public hospital.

Five came back with a glass and gave Blake the remote to tilt the upper part of the bed upright.

"Thanks," Blake said, taking the glass. The water was cool on her tongue, and she wanted very badly to drink it all at once, but she took Five's advice and sipped at it.

"We thought we'd lost you for a while there," Five commented.

Blake lowered the cup and glanced down at her wrist, which was bandaged heavily.

"You're likely to have a scar I'm afraid. You might want to hide it with bracelets."

Blake had a strong memory of holding her bleeding wrist to Four's neck. She cut her eyes to Five's sharply. "Four, where is he? Is he alright?"

"He's fine. Well on the road to a full recovery."

She let herself relax at Five's honest tone, taking another sip before she replied: "Good."

Five busied herself with retaking Blake's vitals, checking her temperature and cleaning a couple of small cuts, which were left uncovered to let her skin breathe. Blake winced as Five dabbed alcohol on the cuts on her face, particularly the one just under her eye.

"How did you get the blood in time?" Blake asked, watching Five as she adjusted the IV flow. "I thought I was dead."

"So did we. Your records from Cir-Tech had your blood type." Five said conversationally. She glanced over. "Two agreed to donate."

"She did?" Blake almost spat out her water. She carefully swallowed before speaking again. "I thought she hated me."

Five split a grin and say back down by the bed. "I wouldn't worry. She's like that when she meets new people. I think she admires you," she added.