Breathe Clear.."
Carmilla's POV:
"Mattie, somethings wrong." I say standing up with the phone close to my ear. I could hear Mark speaking to Laura.
"Laura! Laura please wake up!"
His muffled voice was cut off from the other side of the line. Fear was striking through me like a lightning bolt. I felt numb. The fear in his voice only meant something had gone terribly wrong. I had to get there and as soon as possible.
"Mattie I've got to teleport-"
"Don't." She shakes her head. "You know how much that drains you Mircalla we should never do that unless we absolutely have t-"
"This is an emergency Mattie! Laura could be hurt!" I grab a blood bag and place it in my jacket pocket.
"Mircalla please just driv-" before she could finish her sentence I had my eyes closed and was gone. The familiar needle-like feeling poking at every inch of my body brought a stinging pain to me, nothing I couldn't handle but gosh did it hurt like hell. I opened my eyes to find myself outside of Marks home. I collapse to my knees feeling light headed. Teleporting wasn't something we did easily and I was still trying to master it. The burning sensation stuck to my skin like a thousand nails poking every inch of me but I suffered through the pain remembering Laura needed me. Standing up I run as best I can to the door busting through it to find Laura in Marks arms. Her body was limp and her stomach was barley moving indicating her breathing was slow and labored. I froze at the sight.
Is she...
"Quick call the hospital, tell them we're on our way!" He yells at me snapping me out of my thoughts. My hands shook grabbing my phone and doing as he said. I run to her aid after calling ahead. Mark hands her to me and runs to open his police cruiser car door allowing me to carry her into the back seat. He helps me lay her to where her head was placed in my lap and body stretched across the seat. Turning on his lights he sped to the hospital.
I felt cold and frozen. The pain in my body from teleporting went numb at the sight of Laura. Her motionless body was in my hands. I wrapped my arms around her upper body cradling her head and holding her close to me.
Wake up Laura please. Please wake up.
I tried to hold back the tears in my eyes thinking about what Mattie said.
"Let me be your strength cupcake." I whisper with a shaky voice in her ear. I had to be strong for her. I had to have hope. Her stomach was visibly moving up and down still, showing me that she still was breathing but very faintly. Her shirt was was a little lifted and I could see a dark dark bruise starting to form on her side. I gently lower her shirt and look away.
"Hang on baby. We're almost there." I brush the hair out of her face and place a soft kiss against her forehead.
I didn't know what was wrong with her and it scared me. I wanted to take it away. I wanted her to open her eyes and smile at me letting me know that she's okay. She had to be okay..
When we reach the hospital everything's a blur. I remember handing her off to the nurse and the doctor I assumed to be Dr. Lafontaine. I whisper to her before they pry her from me and place her on a stretcher to wheel her into the emergency room.
Please be okay Laura.
- - - - - - -
Laura's POV:
I open my eyes to a hazy bright light. Everything around me was white. The bed sheets, the walls, the ceiling. If I didn't blink enough to clear up my vision I'd think I was floating in the clouds. I saw the monitors to my right and the familiar smells of the hospital. My hearing slowly came back as I heart the monitors beeping beside me.
What happened?..
I try to raise my hand to my face to touch the nasal cannula when I find my hand caught under Carmilla's hands. She sat beside my bed holding my hand with her forehead layed on the bed in front of our hands. She was asleep, or possibly playing pretend. I place my other hand on top of hers and she instantly wakes up looking at me with a mix of worry and relief.
"Laura" she whispers standing to wrap her arms around me in a very gentle hug. I wrap mine around her as best I can but every part of me felt tense and sore. The IV connected to my hand didn't allow me to move much either. I felt a sharp pain on my side and in the back of my head.
"W-What happened?" I ask rubbing the back of my head. It felt sore along with my side.
"You fainted Laura." Carmilla says squeezing my hand. "Dr. Lafontaine wanted to explain when you woke up."
"Well that explains the bruising feeling I feel behind my head and on my side." I let Carmilla's hand go and grip the bottom of the gown the hospital changed me into. I start to raise it to check my side.
"Laura I'm not sure you want to do tha-"
I raise it to find a huge dark bruise developed on my side. The sight left my heart hallow and my skin with goosebumps. Easy bruising was a symptom of the cancer but I had never caused such a bruise to myself. It was saddening. Carmilla places places her hand over mine starting to lower the gown. Before she does she looks at me then looks at the bruise. Without saying a word she places two light kisses on my side where the bruise is located. Her lips were gentle on my skin. I didn't feel pain from her touch. She lowers the gown and places her forehead against mine. I close my eyes letting a few tears fall from my closed eyes. I feel her cup my cheek and pull my face forward to kiss my forehead and wipe my tears.
"Hey" she whispers. I open my eyes to her placing her forehead gently agaisnt mine again.
"Y-yeah?" I say sniffling.
"You're so beautiful Laura." She places her other hand gently on my cheek and kisses my nose. "And so incredibly strong." Her thumb grazes my cheek bone and I couldn't help the small smile forming on my face.
"Thank you Carm." I place a soft and short kiss on her lips. It was needed. Her lips were soft and perfectly warm against mine. When we pull away she sits back down in the chair beside me resting her hand over mine. She suddenly let's go and places her hands on her lap.
"Where's-" before I could say anything my father walks in with Dr. Laf beside him. They were in conversation when they notice I'm awake.
"Laura!" He practically shouts causing Laf to jump a little. "You're awake!" He walks towards me opening his arms and wrapping them around me tightly.
"Easy there dad" I laugh patting his back. "Still very weak and sore."
"Right!" He pulls back and steps back a bit giving me room.
"I'm in pain not contagious" I laugh causing him to laugh. He grabs my hand and kisses the back of it. Carmilla had let go of my other hand a few seconds before they walked in. She must have heard them when they got close to my room.
"How are you feeling Laura?" Laf says with their clipboard and pen in hand.
"Better surprisingly. Care to explain what happened?" I say still trying to wrap my head around what happened.
"Well as you can see you've lost a lot of weight meaning your eating habits aren't well." They sigh, "which is to be expected.. those pills I gave you will only hold it down for so long." They frown at me as I nod encouraging them to continue. "A very unbalanced apetite and fatigue don't exactly mix well" Laf says writing something on their board. "Everything else seems to be the same since your last session so we can only assume fatigue and a weak diet caused you to black out."
I sigh looking down at my hands. Carmilla places her hand firmly around the bed rail squeezing it while looking at me then my hands then back at me. I knew she wanted to hold my hand but respected that I hadn't told my dad about us just yet.
"I'm okay." I mouth to her so only she sees. She nods and looks back at Laf.
"Will she be able to go home?" Carmilla asks firmly.
"I'm afraid not tonight. We took a few blood samples from Laura and tested them. One out of three came out positive for anemia."
I could see Carmilla's grip tighten around the bar so I place my hand over hers to try and relax her. Laf and my father are too busy looking at each other to notice at this moment.
"So we'd like to test her again but taking this amount of blood from her could cause dizziness so we'd like to keep a close eye on her for the night."
I nod and gulp at the thought of me possibly being anemic. It meant more problems. More pills. More to worry about.. My father's police radio goes off.
"Sheriff, we've got a slight problem we'd like you to look into on Highway 68, over."
My father grabs his radio and is about to speak when I interrupt him.
"Dad go. I'll be okay." His eyes look pained and tired. He looked at me for a bit then Laf then Carmilla.
"I'll watch after her sir. I promise she's in good hands." Carmilla says rising from her seat. He looks at our hands now noticing them on top of each other then he smiles slightly at me. I nod agreeing with Carmilla.
"I'm sure she is." He says nodding to Carmilla and places a kiss on my forehead. "I'll be back when my shift is over."
"Be safe," I say as he walks out.
"See you later Mark." Laf says helping him with the door. When he's gone Carmilla sits back beside me holding my hand gently.
"Ready for those tests Laura?" Laf says clicking their pen closed and placing it behind their ear.
"I suppose so." I gulp and carmilla runs her thumb over my knuckle softly in a comforting way.
What's a few more needles to my skin?
- - - - - -
I'd be lying if I said it wasn't rough, but Carmilla was beside me the whole time. Her presence brought nothing but comfort. Laf and her seemed to hit it off as well. She wasn't a very friendly person to most strangers but I guess she figured since Laf's trying to help me get better they were alright in her books. I'm sure by now Laf caught on to Carmilla and I being together since she held my hand multiple times in the process of it all and didn't leave my side. They didn't mind of course, they were encouraging me to live a full life after all.
I sighed leaning back in the bed. It was raised in a sitting position hurting my back a little so I used the remote to lower it it to a 35° angle.
"Tired cupcake?" Carmilla says with a sad tone in her voice.
"Mhm" I say being honest with her. I saw no reason to play off being energized. The day was filled with fainting, falling, bruises and tests. It wasn't exactly a relaxed day and I'm sure she knew this.
"Get some rest. I'll be right here." She says kissing the back of my hand while holding it in hers. I nod closing my eyes. I hadn't stayed in the hospital since maybe a year ago so the bed was very discomforting. I missed my worn out yellow pillow honestly. I turn to my right side letting Carmilla's hand go and facing my back towards the chair she sat in. It was the side I didn't bruise so it was less painful to lay on.
"Carm" I say still facing the monitors.
"Yes Laur?" She replies. I could hear her rise from her seat from behind me but she doesn't move.
"Can you lay with me?"
I hear her taking her boots off and I instantly smile. I feel the weight in the hospital bed shift a little and feel her snake her arms around me, pulling me gently into her so my back was against her chest. Since my bed was still tilted up a little she was laying slightly higher than I was. She kisses the back of my head gently being careful about my injury.
"This okay?" She asks quietly from behind me.
"Perfect" I smile although she can't see me. I hear her breath change for a second indicating she smiled as well. Laf said they wouldn't be back with results until morning and carmilla had the best hearing to know when they were coming. Although, I knew Laf wouldn't mind at all.
"Sleep baby. You need your rest."
I yawn and feel her arms shift from around me to my side gently stroking it up and down. She her touch stayed light over my bruise making sure not to hurt me. It was the perfect touch to fall asleep to. I turn around towards her and place my head against her chest as she continues stroking my side. I close my eyes slowly drifting off. I imagined we were lying in my bed. My yellow pillow placed under us both. Her scent made me feel at home.
She was starting to feel like home..