"...Aiden?"
"Kylie?"
What? This wasn't real...It couldn't have been. I saw it happen right in front my eyes. She had been hit by that car and it drove off. If that was the case, then why had she been standing in front of me? Why had she looked so different, more beautiful than she had before? I so badly wanted to reach out, but what if this was all an illusion? What if this was all a dream and I was never going to see her again after this? Why was this happening? Who was this woman before me?
Kylie had looked just as shocked, taking leery steps forward as she came towards me with her hand almost seeming to be subconsciously extend itself. Within that same moment, her hand touched mine and had confirmed that his had, indeed, been reality. As though a jolt of lightning had been shot through me when she touched my hand, I had found enough energy to throw myself forward into her. It had been her, there hadn't been any doubt. This kind of warmth only came from her.
"I can't believe it...." I felt a droplet hit my forehead. "I'm sorry for everything, I thought I was never see you talk again. . .I need to go get the doctor, I'll be right back."
She couldn't believe what? Never see me talk again? Where was I, anyways? Even if I'd been awestruck by Kylie and had known that she was alive, right in front me, I still hadn't had a clue of what was going on or what had happened. What happened to Ava, and Ashlynn? Were they real, and this was fake, or had they been fake and this was real? If someone's head were to ever explode, it would have been my own at that moment. It had been like I was lost in the middle of the Sahara Desert with no map or compass. I was lost, and beyond the point of finding help on my own.
As I painfully played with my joints, Kylie had come back with the doctor - who, while less so, also seemed to be surprised. Closing the door behind them, the doctor had come forward with his stethoscope.and checked in multiple areas before writing something down. Exhaling a large breath and setting his notebook down, he looked to me and then Kylie. She remained seated, dead silent and her face covered slightly by her hair. Kylie had clearly been crying even then, yet had been trying so hard to hide it.
"Okay, Aiden. My name is Dr. Nathan Zeller and you are in the National Health Technology and Studies Institute. So, first we'll start with what happened, okay? Please stay as calm as possible." he informed. "A little under a year and a half ago, you were hit by a speeding car after pushing Kylie away from it. You saved her life, but risked yours. You are very lucky to be sitting up and talking right now - especially where you were hit. Do you have any questions so far, Aiden?"
"You said I was in that coma for a year and a half, right? I lived three years of my life in that 'coma'. Kylie was the one who got hit...and I met all these people. I don't even know if they exist now." I more stated than anything else, still in a large degree of shock.
"That's not a rare occurrence. I've had one patient say he lived into his forties with a family and children when he was in a coma for only about three months." the doctor explained. "Your brain was keeping itself active for you by recreating a new reality with the lasting things it remembered. When you pushed Kylie out of the way, your brain hadn't registered that and thought she had gotten hit instead of you. I think that is the most realistic reasoning to follow here. Some people are fully aware, and never come back, while some are just completely gone and come back like a long sleep. It changes for everyone."
The doctor walked over to Kylie and rested his hand on her shoulder. As though he had been proud of her, he smiled and walked over to a desk where he pulled out what appeared to be a very thick textbook. Opening it, he turned a few hundred pages in and showed me a full page dedicated to her studies and findings on the comatose mind and how to go about attempting to heal it. Had I guessed right in saying that she had done all of that for me? Had she gone that far to try and help me.
"Kylie here dedicated herself to the study of the human brain for you. She may have even found a cure, which could be the reason for you waking up today. We'll be doing tests when you are in a more stable condition." he continued. "You should also know that she was here every single day stretching out your limbs and joints, so they wouldn't need as much help through rehab or surgery. You should be pro-"
"...You don't even know, old man." I smirked. "She's always been like this. She doesn't know when to give up. Especially on me."
It was true. She had always been like that, at least for as long as I had known her. It could have been big or small and she would have carried through with it - even if it meant more work than it had been worth. Once she had set her mind to doing something, she was going to do it. There had been several occasions between us where I had just wanted to stop doing something and she had insisted that I finish it - and she hadn't stopped persisting until I had done it. Sure, it was annoying sometimes, but it had likely been thanks to her that we had been able to fight through her dad in the first place.
How much of a help had I been at all? None, really. She'd been the one that took the first step forward on everything and had waited for me to catch up. She had been the adventurous puppy while I had been the stray cat, sketchy of everything in front of him while she would have dove into anything head first. That was just how I had been. I was never able to trust at first sight like her - that was, except for her.
Doc had continued to speak, going over a few topics that had covered everything from rehab to checkups and tests. He had then went over timelines and when certain things could be possible, if at all. I wouldn't have been allowed to leave until I had showed that I had regained the muscle I had needed and carried before, along with showing that my motor skills had been active enough for daily life. After that, it had been more of being stable. They would keep doing tests and checkups until I had proved my stability, my ability to live a normal life, and the strength to carry my own weight along with the other essential life skills.
Following his wordy speech and explanations, he had left the room, leaving Kylie and I alone together once more - though, had it mattered? She had, in essence and spirit, disappeared. Kylie hadn't said a word to me since she went to go get the doctor, nor had she even looked at me, like the floor was her new best friend. Well, in the year and a half i was out cold, I must have done something to piss her off. Though, I suppose not talking to your girlfriend for over a year will do that to some girls.
"I'm scared." Kylie said, slicing through the silence as she still looked at the floor.
"Of what? There isn't-"
"I'm scared of breaking you if I touch you. I'm scared of letting you fall asleep, because you might not wake up again. I'm scared of holding your hand because you might not want me anymore." Kylie refused to look up. "I'm scared of everything...I don't know what to do or how I should feel right now."
Maybe she was right, but she probably wasn't. If she had put so much work into helping me get to this point, then what was the point in feeling this way? Of course I wanted her, and I always would. While it'd been obvious, she clearly hadn't seen it in the same way. She had been overwhelmed to a breaking point, and that was likely because she had put in all of that work. She hadn't wanted to lose it all.
It was like an authors computer breaking down with their nearly finished book on it. It may possibly have crushed them to the point of never wanting to write again. Obviously, a book and human life had majorly different values, but the analogy still applied. Following her logic, what if I had fallen back into a coma? How would she have reacted, thinking all of her work had finally achieved something, only to see it end just as quickly? That would have crushed anyone.
Pushing myself to the edge of the bed, I had known full well that I was probably going to fall flat on my face, but I had to show Kylie something - because there was nothing I could say to her to make her feel better. As my right heel hit the ground, I had already been able to feel the slight shock running throughout my lower leg. If I felt that much from so little, I probably wasn't going to be walking very far with all of my weight on them.
"Kylie." I dropped my other foot and began to feel the same shocking pulse through my leg. "I don't know what's going to happen from here, but I can say one thing. I'll be doing my damnedest to get better and stay around, just like you did."
As I used the frame of the bed for support, I slid off of it. Even I had been surprised I didn't come falling down as soon I had stood straight up. With the movement of every joint, I had felt like I was getting stabbed at every point. Each stride, each movement had given a little pain with it, yet I moved forward - because Kylie was worth that effort, and worth that pain. Even if I had to feel this pain for the rest of my life, I would have done just that for her.
"This is al-" Kyle paused as she looked up, and then stood herself. Running up to me like the Flash, she lightly guided me back down onto the bed. What came next was an expression that had quite seamlessly mixed anger, sadness, and shock. "What are you doing? Why are you trying to hurt yourself?"
"Dunno." I grinned, cocking my heavy head. "Maybe it was because you wouldn't have stopped talking like that until I showed you that I'll be fine."
Kylie sat next to me this time, her jean-clad thigh against my hand. "How do you know that? I want you to leave this place with me. I want to keep going with what we started, you know? If I hadn't run into the middle of the street without looking like an idiot, none of this would have ever happened. I jumped the gun and almost killed you."
Kylie had been right and wrong. While she had jumped the gun and childishly ran into the street without looking, none of this may have happened, but the reality was that I was just as much at fault as she was. Either way, it happened - and it was over a year and a half ago. I was okay now, or so it appeared, and it was time to move on from it. I wanted to do everything she did, and I was going to do my best to make that a reality as quickly as possible.
The same, however, could have been said with me. I had practically lived another life for three years with different people that I had grown attached to and known - people that may have not even existed in the real world. Ashlynn was gone, as was Ava. Neither had ever actually been in my life, and may have not existed at all. What had I been able to do besides move on? Dwell on them and try to find them in a world with seven billion people? That was like trying to find teeth in a rednecks mouth.
Ever so slowly, Kylie's face had begun to clear up of redness and question. What had replaced it was the small smile I had known so well, joined with the return of those large, round brown eyes of hers. As I studied her, the first thing I had caught was her hair, which had fallen to nearly the same length as mine - the middle of her back. She had never grown it past her shoulders, telling me that it was too much work to maintain. It looked good on her, just like I always thought it would.
Aside from getting a littler taller and a little fuller, for lack of better word, she hadn't really changed that much - at least on the outside - and in a sense, that had given me a little more comfort, knowing that things hadn't changed as much as I thought they would have with her. As long as she hadn't changed, I would be fine, and I would have been able to take anything she had thrown at me.
"Tell me about everything." Kylie softly stated. "Who you Coma-cheated with, what you did...I want to hear everything you went through. Is that okay?"
"If you tell me about what I've missed here, sure."
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