self_composed | unconsciousness would be an undesirable outcome

On Sunday, Bella drives to the movie theater with Angela in tow, and her car breaks on the way home from Angela's house. She calls a tow truck, and calls her dad, and she goes home in the cop car and her station wagon goes on vacation to the mechanic.

On Monday, Charlie drives Bella to school.

As she's been discharged from the car and Charlie pulls away, a van driven by a panicking teenager screams out of nowhere towards Bella.

Making wishes is easy.

It is not automatic. It is not instantaneous.

The van creams Bella, good and proper.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

edgeofyourseat

...well, fuck it.

He follows them there, too.

From:

self_composed

They go up two floors and down a hall, and then the doctor notices Alice, lagging behind.

She asks Charlie, "Is he a relative?"

Charlie looks at Alice, puzzled, and shakes his head.

Edited Date: 2012-09-21 08:27 pm (UTC)

From:

edgeofyourseat

"...Are you goin' to see her, sir?" he asks. He didn't expect his voice to come out so rough, although he should have, because the last thing he did with it was cry.

From:

self_composed

"Are you a friend of Bella's?" asks Charlie quietly.

"No friends," says the doctor, not unkindly. "Only immediate relatives."

From:

edgeofyourseat

"Yeah," he says.

From:

self_composed

"No friends," repeats the doctor. "Please go sit in the waiting room."

Charlie doesn't look liable to contradict her.

From:

edgeofyourseat

Quietly, to Charlie: "Can—can you tell me how she is?"

Edited Date: 2012-09-21 08:40 pm (UTC)

From:

self_composed

"On my way out, if you're there," Charlie says, looking away.

From:

edgeofyourseat

"Okay," he says, and flees back down the stairs.

From:

self_composed

Four hours later, Charlie plods back down the stairs.

He pauses in the waiting room.

"She's unconscious. They don't know how long it'll take her to wake up. Stable, though."

And he leaves.

From:

edgeofyourseat

Okay.

In that case... in that case, what the hell, he goes back out to the place with the unhelpful receptionist.

From:

self_composed

The receptionist eyes him but doesn't say anything.

From:

edgeofyourseat

"They letting her friends see her now?"

From:

self_composed

"Yes, visitors' hours began a few minutes ago, but please be quiet and don't disturb anyone," says the receptionist. "Miss Swan is in room 306."

From:

edgeofyourseat

"Thanks."

Up he goes.

From:

self_composed

Bella is indeed in 306, a private room in which she's being administered an IV by a nurse. He glances at Alice and says, "Her left hand's basically okay. You can hold it if you want, but don't jostle her or put any pressure on her."

From:

edgeofyourseat

"What-all's wrong with her?" he asks, unable to keep his eyes off the still figure on the bed.

From:

self_composed

"Coma, various injuries," says the nurse. "I got other patients to get to." He hangs up the IV and departs.

From:

edgeofyourseat

Okay. So.

What's that thing Bella said once? What does he want, and what does he have?

He wants a lot of things. Bella better, for one. That's easiest, but it's not going to happen without some things he doesn't have.

When she put that whole treasure chest's worth of coins on her necklace, she only used up one square to do it, right? He takes one of the sparkly squares out of his pocket, sits beside her bed, and wishes for: all the stars, hexes and pentagons on her necklace, off her necklace and visible and touchable and in his hands.

From:

self_composed

Poof.

He has the fifteen pentagons and the one star in Elias's opal-hematite pattern.

And one glowy, red hex.

From:

edgeofyourseat

He piles the rest in his lap, picks up the hex, closes his hand around it, and wishes himself wish powers.

Just to see, he bites the inside of his cheek. Moving the pain from left to right makes perfect sense, and then there is a square in his hand, made of something like black glass that seems to suck in all the light it touches and give it back only grudgingly, in tiny glimmers.

"Fuck," he mutters, and uses it to wish the star back onto Bella's necklace.

He still doesn't know what's wrong with her, besides 'wrecked to hell'. Well, what does he have? Sixteen pentagons. And what can pentagons do? They can make you good at things.

He picks one up, and makes a wish.

From:

self_composed

Bella's chart says that she is 17 years old and female and named Isabella Marie Swan.

Also, in fancy medical language, it says she was hit by a fucking van.

Head trauma. Skull fracture possible; they're waiting for the radiologist to have a second look at the X-rays, and apparently Forks hospital only has a radiologist part-time. Certainly a break in the upper left and lower right arms and a few fingers. Left leg and foot shattered all to hell, one clean break in the right femur. At least three vertebral fractures, several broken ribs, dislocated shoulder. Oh, and she's in a coma.

Edited Date: 2012-09-21 09:29 pm (UTC)

From:

edgeofyourseat

...heh. Left foot smashed up, huh? Now that's funny.

With the medical knowledge he wished himself, he now has a very complete picture of what it's like in there. Better to try too much first than too little, because the worst it can do is just quietly not work: he picks up a pentagon and wishes her fixed.