Nesia 001

Sight, sound and feeling were all muddled together.  She could hear light crack across her opening eyes, and she could feel muffled voices mixed with sanity-grating beeps.  Her return to the land of the living threw her senses into turmoil.  Up was down, right somehow became backwards, and there was a pressure in her throat that felt like it was constricting her breathing.

That was when panic set in.

“Doctor!”

“Hold her down.  We can’t let her rip it out.”

Her mind understood the words and most of the meaning.  She just could not get them to relate to her spinning, bright world.  All she knew for a fact was that gravity was preventing her spastically numb body from clearing her throat.

“You call yourself a doctor?  Take that out immediately.  I should bring you before the Interplanetary Board of Medicine for malpracticing on my patient.”

“Your patient?”

The several voices merged together, creating one loud, throbbing squeal; like a muffled fire alarm took up residence in her ears.  She tried to sigh as she gave up struggling, but only succeeded in making herself gag.  The pain, the noise, the confusion, and the room that would not stop spinning.  It was all more trouble than she wanted to deal with at once.

So she gave up.

The next time she opened her eyes, she could not decide if it was an improvement.  Everything was still bright, but at least it had stopped spinning.  She could  breathe freely now, but her throat felt so sore and swollen that she wanted to avoid doing that any more than necessary.  Her head felt like someone was running it through a blender, but at least it was a quiet blender.

She tried to sit up and instantly regretted it.  The only thing that kept her nausea to herself was the knowledge that it would have to pass through her throat.  The desire to avoid that potential pain overpowered her desire to hurl.

Once the feeling had passed she examined the room from where she lay.  It was a hospital room; which, judging how she felt, was a good thing.  Her right arm felt heavy and sore, so she fumbled around with her left until she found the bed controls.  She pushed random buttons until she found a comfortable sitting position.

A very boring white encased her right forearm, but it looked like she had once had a larger cast on earlier.  The plain cast was adorned with only one sloppily written note: Get Well Soon Kate.  She tried to remember who Kate was, but her pounding head would not even let her remember her own name.  Whenever she could think straight, she would have to remember to tease Kate about her doctor-signature worthy handwriting.

While it was unfortunate that she had a broken arm, at least she was not right handed.  Of course, the more she thought about it the more she was not sure if she was left handed either.  If you’re not right handed and you’re not left handed, does that make you under handed?  One of her friends had made that joke.  She just could not remember who.  She was pretty sure it was not Kate, though.

“Glad to see you’re awake,” a deep voice interrupted her blender-bit musings.

Her heart leapt into her throat, which changed her glare into a grimace of pain.  The grey haired doctor laughed and she relaxed.  He was friendly, familiar.  He quickly pulled up a screen of charts next to her bed and scowled a little as he looked at them.  The drip of her IV was changed and the blender in her head slowed down to a glorious relief.

“What do you think you’re doing with my patient?” a female doctor barked from the hallway.  “I have my responsibilities, Doctor Grainger.”

Doctor Grainger rolled his eyes before he plastered on a fake smile and faced the angry doctor.  “As do I, Ms. Harsten.  I told you before, Miss Katherine is my patient.”

Ms. Harsten fumed at the lack of title and respect she was so used to getting.  “I am responsible for the Asuraeson Family.”

“And once Miss Katherine is married, to the young Donavan,” Doctor Grainger interrupted, “then I’ll relent.  Until then, I have an obligation under contract to care for her.  I’m just glad I was in the same solar system giving a conference so I could save her from your ways of practicing medicine.”

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Ok faithful readers.  Time to vote in the comments what you think should happen next.  Should our hospital patient….

……1 – Push the nurse call button and get the noisy people kicked out of her room?

……2 – Ask the doctors “Isn’t it bad bedside manner to discuss patients like this?”

……3 – Demand information “Wait….Kate’s getting married?”

……4 – Demand identification “And who are you?”

……5 – Or, be polite “Nice to meet you both.  I’ll introduce myself as soon as I can think straight enough to remember my name.”

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