Chapter 21: When Will I Hear Your Voice Again

(Author’s Note: Still in Vincent’s POV)

Cloud, Cid, and the others only stayed for about an hour. I told them all what happened, and what Kim was suffering from. They wouldn’t have left, but it was late and the doctor wanted everyone to clear out. I thanked them all dearly for coming, and then returned to Kim’s side. She lied perfectly still; with the machine helping her lungs pump in and out.

I sighed as I stared at the tubes running down her throat, and felt small tears well up on the sides of my eyes. Dr. Baron said she’d be out until about noon, but it still bothered me to see her like this; so helpless and so alone. The only thing I truly wanted was to hear her sweet voice again. Suddenly, her fingertips twitched on one hand. This allowed my mind to relax a little. She finally moved… Finally.

I fell asleep at the side of her bed; my hands resting on one of her arms. When I woke up, I realized she wasn’t as cold as she was before. Her skin color was almost that normal peach color I loved so much. She was becoming Kim again. Slowly… A few minutes later, Dr. Baron returned into the room. He saw me awake and smiled.
“We could bring in a bed for you if you’d like,” he was checking something off on Kim’s charts.
“Well… what time is it?” he looked at me funny. “Because if it’s anywhere near noon, I don’t want to fall asleep.”
He sighed slightly, sitting down in his swivel chair. “It’s one in the afternoon. I guess she was a lot more physically exhausted than I assumed…”
My heart sank a little. My hope seemed to disappear.
“How much longer does she need to stay in the hospital?” I stood up from where I sat, and leaned against the wall.
“I want her here until she wakes up, at least… If not longer,” Dr. Baron finished writing on the clipboard from the side of Kim’s bed.
“I think I’ll take you up on the offer of the extra bed, then,” I laughed subtly to myself as I peered out of the window. “Leaving her side isn’t an option.”
Dr. Baron smiled at me slightly, and turned out of the room and into the hallway. My attention returned to Kim lying silently on the bed only a few feet away. I noticed her breathing was normal, and her skin color was back to its healthy tone. I almost swore she was smiling in her sleep, but I was probably imagining things. Moments later, a man I didn’t recognize was rolling in the extra bed I agreed to use. He introduced himself as Kyle, and he was Kim’s main nurse. Quicker than he came, he was already gone and down the hallway. I fixed the distance between the two beds so that there was nothing separating them. I put down the railings so it was as if it were one bed. Straightening the sheets a bit, I crawled into my bed. Just as I went to lie my head down on the pillow, I felt a soft hand place itself upon my forearm. I jumped slightly, and turned my head to my left. To my utmost joy, there lied Kim staring at me with her glowing blue-grey eyes; “Is it morning?” were the first words she mustered, and I cried.