Nova's Dawning
Chapter 24

For all of us the seconds felt like hours, and after Sam had returned with breakfast burritos, we all were trying to stay awake through the morning. Time felt like a burden, as if every second was being wasted. A doctor came out at one point and let us know Selene had been moved from one surgery straight into another, and Thea was beginning to regain consciousness. He informed us that by the afternoon we would be able to visit her. Sam went out again a little after that to get us snacks and coffee.

“Thea is going to want something when they let us see her, I’m sure she’ll like the snacks.” Sam said, holding on to the last bit of hope she had. The sun was getting higher and higher by the time she returned, Osiris decided to take me home to shower. I was beyond exhausted, and I could tell everyone else was as well. When we got back to his place it was dark and the quiet complex felt eerie. I didn’t know if it was exhaustion, or if it was my gift, but my head was pounding. I tried to wash off everything I was feeling from the last few hours, but no matter how hard I tried, the image of the horizon on fire, was burned into the back of my eye lids. When we got back there still weren’t any updates, and a couple of us had fallen asleep. Sam was the only one still awake.

I smiled at her half-heartedly, trying not to give into the fear we were all feeling. My phone was long dead, and I couldn’t replace a clock anywhere, but the sun wasn’t even up yet, so I figured it would be a good time to try and get some rest.

Osiris kissed the top of my head as I leaned into him, and almost instantly I fell asleep.

I dreamt of the ocean that night, on a warm sandy beach, with a purple sky in the distance. The wind was strong as it threatened to knock me over, but I couldn’t help but laugh. I could smell the salt to the point of almost being able to taste it on my lips. My friends were there lined up next to me. Our feet buried into the sand and our voices traveling over the waves.

“Throw out a message like in a bottle. So that no matter what you’ll always remember us.” Mowgli said.

“We’ll always be there for you.” Thea said with tears in her eyes.

“And we’ll video chat often.” Sam said with confidence.

I nodded, feeling an overwhelming sadness, but as I looked out to the purple sky I felt peace, and contentment.

Whatever I was doing at that moment in that dream, was the right thing, and I needed to remember that.

“You’re doing the right thing.” they all said, and they hugged me, making me feel safe.

“But I don’t want to leave you guys.” I said to them, but when I tried to get closer they got further and further away from me until I was the only one left on the beach, the sun almost completely gone by then.

When I woke up the sun was high in the sky and shinning right in my face, making my face hot. The rest of my friends were groggy, but mostly awake. We sat there for a minute, unsure of what to do.

“Anyone know the time?” Jack asked, not really looking at anyone. Osiris pulled out his phone and checked.

“It’s a little past one. We should probably go out on another food run, if you’re down.” He asked looking at me.

I nodded, not trying to be in the hospital for much longer, but just then Bee came out to see us. She was in scrubs and had on a face mask.

“Hey.” she said.

“Any updates?!” Sam asked eagerly.

She nodded, removing her mask. “Thea is officially out of critical condition. She’s going to be moved to another room where you guys can visit her, we expect that to be available in another hour or so...” She paused, trying to replace the words, “Selene is still in critical condition. We’re thinking of putting her through a third surgery, which will hopefully fix the last major issues...”

“You don’t sound too happy about that.” I said to her, noticing her sunken demeanor.

She was having a hard time looking at me. “If we were to have complications of any sort it is very likely she won’t make it... So, we’re going to allow everyone, including Thea, to visit her before she goes in. She’s in and out of consciousness, so after you’ve visited Thea, we’ll all go see her together.”

We all nodded, even though what I really wanted to do was scream. We were getting good news, yet it seemed like things weren’t actually going well at all. I took a deep breath and I gave Bee a hug. It surprised her for a minute, but what she was doing was amazing, not just for us but for everyone she was helping.

“Don’t give up, okay?” I whispered to her, fighting back the tears that were on the brink of overflowing.

She nodded ever so slightly and backed away from us, and went through the double doors labelled, ‘Staff Only’.

I wanted to sit back down, but I was determined to stay on track with the food run. The last thing we needed was to starve in the hospital.

“We’ll probably just grab something small, since we’ll be able to see Thea soon.” I said to my friends. “Any suggestions?”

“Maybe just some tacos. They’re cheap and there’s that place nearby.” Mo suggested, no one said anything against it so we took their orders and headed to the taco joint.

Now that it was day I could see that the hospital was located fairly close to the frozen ocean. There weren’t many beaches there, not like the one in my dreams. It was mostly rocks, but sometimes sand, and in this particular area, there was a nice amount of sand. As we were leaving I saw several people that looked like patients on the beach, enjoying the afternoon sun.

“That’s probably really good for them, the sun, I mean.”

I nodded, watching an elderly couple build a sand castle.

“I don’t really like hospitals, but this one is really nice. I could die here.”

The words escaped my mouth before I could really think about what I was saying, I meant like when I was old, but I remembered that fate had me set to die there sooner rather than later. Osiris’s knuckled whitened as they gripped the steering wheel and I could tell that he was gritting his teeth.

“I’m sorry, I... I didn’t mean it like that.” We arrived at the taco place and the drive thru line was long so we just pulled up and waited. He took a deep breath and then looked at me.

“I’m sorry Star... I want to protect you and I just... I’m never going to stop trying to protect you. Try and remember that, okay?”

I nodded putting my hand onto his. “I really do appreciate everything you’ve done for me and are currently doing for me. You’re so wonderful to me, and I wish that I could do more for you in return...”

We got up to the window and ordered. paid, and then were told to pull off to the side to wait for our order, which was quite big.

“You do plenty for me. I hope you know that. I... I just want both of our friends to make it. I want to go back to smash and smash and make sure everyone gets into bed okay... I...” He put his head onto the steering wheel, not wanting me to see his evident tears.

I rubbed his back knowing that he was hurting much more than I could imagine. While I wasn’t going to go down without a fight, I did know that my death couldn’t be stopped, or else it would result in the death of someone else, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself that way.

They brought us our food out and we headed back, listening to an array of the Beatles. We all ate quietly in the waiting room, waiting for something and anything.

After an hour and a half of waiting for Bee she finally returned to us, wearing a different pair of scrubs. “Bring all of your stuff and follow me.” We followed her through the “staff only” double doors and we went through hallway after hallway and down one flight through the elevator. We came across a room with no windows labeled ‘RECOVERY’ and entered.

Thea’s pink was faded at this point, and I could sense a slight tinge of the darkness around her.

“Guys.” she said, a faint smile on her face. Sam rushed to sit in the seat next to her and Jack took the seat on the other side. The rest of us stood, not really sure what to say. She was only hooked up to one IV, versus the million I had been picturing, and her arms were bandaged, with a cast on the left one. Her face was bruised in a couple places, but other than that she seemed physically okay.

“Sorry we scared you guys...” she said, breaking our mountain of silence. “The rundown for the show was in the podium on stage, and she wouldn’t turn back. It’s funny...” she said, turning her head to the side, “when we first got there, she told me to just let it go, that we couldn’t save anything, but when I started crying she burst through those doors and started pulling stuff out, well stuff that wasn’t on fire. I ... I was so impressed and I remembered the rundown. I told her I was going to get it, but she said, ‘We can do this together.’ I...” The tears were overflowing and Sam put her hand on Thea’s shoulder. “I thought we would be fine, but I guess I doubted the structure of the actual stage, and it collapsed under our combined weight, the last thing I remember was her pulling me out and I watched as something fell on her. You guys were running after us by then, but...”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Jack started, “She’s not gone yet. You’ve gotta have more faith in her. She’s a strong and resilient woman.”

“Love conquers all.” I said, smiling at her from the door.

She nodded, wiping away her tears. Bee checked her watch and headed over to Thea, to help her get out of the bed. “Time to go see Selene guys.” she said.

We all made sure Thea was good to make it and then we headed onto another journey through the hospital, this time with one more of our friends. It felt better that way.

This time we went back to the floor we had been on and into a hallway labelled ‘Surgery Prep’. The doctor was in the room also, just to jot a few things down onto her chart, but when he left, we could see that the damage was much worse than we had been anticipating. She had a cast on one arm and one leg, her head had bandages around it, and her torso was wrapped in bandages that she was bleeding straight through.

Thea limped to her side, and the tears returned to her eyes.

“I don’t understand... I thought she was better off than this. Didn’t you heal her at all?!” she turned to Bee, glaring at her.

“I’ve been trying to heal her all night, but the wounds keep opening up. We’ve done two surgeries already, she’s doing better than when we brought her in. I’m not a miracle worker. I can barely heal broken bones properly. If I keep trying to heal her, I could rupture something. That’s why the surgery is the best bet. ”

Thea turned back to Selene, her face unmoving. She must have sensed her distress, because her eyes fluttered open. Thea smiled through her tears and put her small hand against her girlfriend’s face. Selene’s hands were quite large, and she raised one to Thea’s small face. We all laughed at how it swallowed her, but it was a short-lived moment.

“Why did you have to protect me?” She asked, holding her hand to her face.

“The spirits told me to.”

We were quiet, as her raspy words sank in. It was easy to forget that they both could see and speak to the dead, because they had both been so happy together.

She had three IV’s in her arm, and soon had to lay it back down.

“It was my decision, because I love you.” It was hard to watch their conversation, partly because she looked like she was in so much pain, and the other part because Thea felt powerless, and I knew exactly how that felt. Bee blanched with her words, as if they caused her pain.

She fell back asleep, and Thea kissed her forehead. She was headed off to surgery then as a team came in and wheeled her out, the doctor looked at Bee. “Meet us in room S1.” She nodded and then had us follow her out into a new waiting room, as a nurse took Thea back to her room. I was getting more and more exhausted, so I barely paid attention to what it looked like.

“I’ll be back when the surgery is over to let you guys know how it went, okay?” We all nodded, and I leaned against Osiris, falling asleep quickly.