Forever By Your Side

35. Finally out

"We worked out our schedule a week after the incident happened. Yoongi started working in the morning and I worked in the evening. While one of us worked, the other stayed in the hospital with Tae. We only used to come home to sleep" Namjoon said.

.......................

March 15, 2017.......

Yoongi was in a deep sleep after an exhausting and emotional day at work and the hospital. It had almost been four months since the incident and Taehyung was still in coma with no traces of ever coming out of it. 

His phone rang loudly, breaking the silence of the house, but he was too tired to answer it. "Yoongi, check it" Namjoon grumbled from his bed that was in the opposite side of the room, but only received a grunt from him. 

"Yoongggsssss" Namjoon whined as the phone rang again. He got up when he realized that Yoongi was too tired to acknowledge his phone, and walked to Yoongi's bed. 

"YOONGS!! WAKE UP!! WAKE THE FUCK UP!!" Namjoon shook Yoongi violently, trying to wake him up. The caller was Dr. Hyungsik and he knew that the doctor wouldn't call on ungodly hours if it wasn't urgent.

"What the fuck? Are you fucking insa-" "It's the doctor" Namjoon waved the phone in front of Yoongi's sleepy face as the phone started ringing again. 

"Answer it, then. Why are you wakin- WHAT?? WHY IS HE CALLING AT THIS TIME?" Yoongi asked as he shot up and yanked the phone from Namjoon, putting it on speaker.

"Hello?"
"Took you long enough" Hyungsik chuckled.
"Sorry. We were sleeping" Yoongi said. 

"Yeah! I am sorry for calling at this hour, but I am not sorry for disturbing you" Hyungsik said. 
"Huh?" Yoongi and Namjoon exchanged confused looks.

"Taehyung woke up an hour ago. They are performing different tests on him right now. He has been unresponsive to all of them so far, but hey! He at least woke up!....Yoongi?"
"Yeah, yeah! We are on our way. We'll be there in ten minutes" Yoongi said and hung up.

They really were on their way. The second they heard that Taehyung woke up, they dashed to dress up and ran out, locking the flat behind them and getting into the car.

They had to wait outside the room for another two hours, but they didn't mind it as long as Taehyung woke up. Hyungsik came and sat beside them. He had casual clothes on. 

"You aren't on duty, right? Why are you here?" Namjoon asked. "I told you he is my personal case! The nurse called to tell me that he woke up, so I came. I called you right after I got here. They said he didn't respond to any of the tests yet" Hyungsik said. 

"Ohh! Now what?" Yoongi asked. "Let's just wait and see. It must be some temporary reaction or something" Namjoon said, patting his back to comfort him.

"You can go in now" one of the nurses came out and told them. They didn't even let her finish her sentence before they ran into the room. "Tae!" Namjoon and Yoongi burst into the room while Hyungsik stayed outside to give them some time and space.

Taehyung didn't react. He didn't show any sign of recognizing their voices. He kept staring, his eyes unseeing, at the wall in front of him. Even though they knew that he had been unresponsive, it hurt to see him that way. Yoongi burst into tears. 

"Taehyungie.... Tae!!" Namjoon called, slightly shaking his arm, being delicate in fear of meddling with the machines. Again, Taehyung didn't so much as blink an eye. 

"This is too much" Yoongi sobbed. "Shhhh, it will be okay. It will be fine soon. He just woke up. Let's give him some time" Namjoon hugged Yoongi as they comforted each other.

It continued for a week before they decided to take him home and offer medical help personally.

"You sure you can do it yourselves?" Hyungsik asked for the last time before signing the papers. "Yeah. We can't keep paying for the hospital bills anyway, so it is better this way" Namjoon said while Yoongi handled the discharge papers. 

They took a week away from work to get used to the changes. But they continued doing shifts just as before. One worked while the other took care of him. 

They sold all of the beds in the house and bought a big, king size bed so that the three of them could sleep together, with Taehyung in the middle of them. They removed all the pictures and things that could remind Taehyung of his brother. 

It had become a routine. Wake him up, make him sit for a while before he could go back to sleep again, and then wake him up again and take him to the living room for a while. He never responded to anything. 

Or that was what they thought before realizing that he had triggers. Even though he wasn't responsive, he did react under extreme conditions when he got triggered by a few things. 

Every time he got triggered, they tried to analyze what the trigger might have been and avoided them completely.

The doctor had already warned them to use sleeping medicines and sedatives for the nights so that he could sleep peacefully. They would inject the medicine before he slept. 

It was one such routine day after almost two months of no response when Namjoon brought Taehyung into the living room and decided to eat an orange. He sat Taehyung down on the couch and turned on the television before bringing an orange. 

After sitting down, he realized that he forgot to bring a knife to cut the orange, but he felt too lazy to get up and get the it from the kitchen. So he reached out to the small desk beside the couch where there was a pocket knife in one of the drawers.

He almost brought the knife near the orange when he felt movement right beside him. He could hear the sudden heavy breathes of the younger. 

He looked at Taehyung uncertainly. He was starting at the pocket knife with wide, terrified eyes. His eyes were soo wide that Namjoon almost thought he was possessed. 

He quickly realized that pocket knife might have triggered him, and put it away. But it was too late. Taehyung started screaming. 

But this time, he started screaming for help. He started screaming for someone to save them. He started screaming at someone to spare 'him'. Though Namjoon didn't exactly understand what Taehyung meant, he realized that the 'him' might have been either Jin or his father.

He tried his best to calm him down, but nothing worked. Taehyung was getting more and more terrified with every passing second. Namjoon almost ran inside to get a shot of sedative when he suddenly fainted from the exertion. 

Namjoon picked him up gently and put him on the bed, tucking him in. He had four more hours for his shift and he had no idea what to do. 

Not long after tucking him in, he heard the younger call for him. The sound was very week. If he hadn't been sitting on the couch silently, thinking about stuff, he wouldn't have heard it. 

He dashed into the bedroom to find Taehyung sitting up, supporting himself by placing both of his hands behind him on the bed and looking at Namjoon with teary eyes. 

Namjoon's legs almost gave out with joy. This was officially the first thing Taehyung had ever done on his own after coming out of coma. 

He immediately ran to Taehyung and wrapped his arms around him. "Oh my god, Taehyung" he said, burying Taehyung's head into his shoulder as tears ran down his own face uncontrollably. 

"Hyung....hyung...hyung.....hyung" Taehyung kept muttering as he wet Namjoon's shirt with his tears. 

"Give me a minute, okay? I'll call Yoongi" Namjoon said, running to the living room and bringing his phone back to the room. He cuddled up with Taehyung, who still kept calling for him. He placed a gentle kiss on the crown of Taehyung's head before calling Yoongi.