Kevin's POV
My nightmares were all the same. I would see her lying there, not breathing, not moving, and not responding. The red of her blood staining everything around her. My screams swirled around me making everything spin. But this one was different. This one started off black. There was nothing around, I was just a disembodied vision. I had no body and no mind but I could see and I knew of my mind. I could think but there was nothing behind my vision. Just black, just emptiness but then it began to change. Lights began to float in front of me. I started to wonder if this is how Harley saw her visions but I wouldn't know right now. This was my night mare. The lights grew and grew and they soon began to form pictures. Nothing that I remembered of recent months for weeks but from years back. I was younger and so was she. I wondered if she would ever remember the time we spent together before I found her.
The pictures began to flash around me. My vision flashed to every single image. I could feel my heart racing. The dream in front of me wasn't scary as such but it was the pace that scared me. Why would it act so fast? Why would it show it to me light this? Why wouldn't it show me at a slow pace so I could understand what I was seeing? The faster the images the faster my heart began to race.
I bolted up looking around me letting my brain work out where I was. The white walls around me we lit with a pale light. The white blinds were closed. The brown door to my right was closed. My eyes came back to what was in front of me. The beeping of the machine next to me brought my brain back to present day. I sighed and stroked my hands across the white linen of the bed in front of me. I sighed loudly and reached out for the hand that I kept near me at all times to hold to let me remind myself that everything in front of me was real, and that I wasn't dreaming.
I jumped slightly as the door behind me swung open with a young nurse entering. Her hair was pulled up into a pony tail and her blue uniform looked crumpled from a long shift. I smiled at her and she smiled back at me. Amber was her name. She was on this ward regularly and I had gotten to know her well over the months.
"Any changes?" She asked me as she took a vial of blood from the opposite arm. I shook my head.
"No." I whispered. She smiled apologetically.
"I'm sorry Kevin." I shook my head and shrugged.
"It's okay." I told her. She smiled and took the folder that hung at the bottom of the bed.
I guess after 6 month of Haley laying in this bed, with no changes would make anyone give up but everyone knew in this hospital that I wouldn't give up. After Harley had been taken to hospital, they had told us that she had died for at least 5 minutes while in surgery. My heart sank but then they assured me that she had been brought back after all the bullet wounds had been sewed up. The weeks that followed meant that they had kept her in an induced coma but once they had decided that she was out of the danger zone they tried to wake her up but nothing. Nothing happened. She just lay there, day after day, week after week and now almost 7months later she still lay there. The doctors had said that they was physically nothing wrong with her. I demanded that they find something but after so many tests and scans they confirmed that she was in perfect health. No could understand why she wasn't waking up.
I had decided to visit Lyle. In between all the excitement with Harley he had been arrested and convicted of all the crimes against him. Wrongful imprisonment, torture, that sort of thing. I told him what happened after she had arrived at hospital and he had confirmed that it would have to do with her visions and that she would eventually wake up, but when he didn't know. It was something new. And so without telling the doctors what was going on exactly I told them that it was just a waiting game. I had told them that I could. Take her home but they were very unsure and so we agreed that she would stay in hospital. Lyle had all his companies sold and all the money went to Harley who paid half of her medical bill. I knew she would be okay with this.
And so I was still waiting for her to wake up.
"Mr Scott will be visiting today, would you like me to warn you so you can leave during his visit time?" Amber asked. I looked at her quickly and shook my head.
"No, it is okay," I told her. She nodded placing the clipboard folder back on the end of the bed. She left leaving us in silence. I sighed heavily and sat back in my chair. This was my day, I spent all day every day waiting for Harley to wake up but nothing ever did happen. I didn't know when she would wake up if she ever would. I might still be here in 20 years' time and I might die here waiting for her. I am sure she would tell me that I should move on but she was the only person for me. I knew the minute I fell for her that I wouldn't love anyone else as much as I loved her and yet here I was without her.
Another nurse came around and placed a food tray at the end of the bed. I thanked the woman, someone I hadn't seen before so I assume she must be new. The hospital knew that Harley obviously wasn't eating anything solid but I was allowed to eat it. They didn't mind.
The hours passed, I held her hand stroked her cheek, laid next to her, felt her warmed, her breathing. When lunch rolled around there was a knock at the door and when I looked her I saw Lyle standing there with cuffs around his hands and a copper standing directly behind him, face hard.
Lyle Scott seemed to have hanged over the last few months. Every time I saw him he seemed to have crashed farther back to earth. This time he smiled at me softly, almost affectionately.
"Good afternoon Kevin" He said. I nodded my head at him in acknowledgment. Lyle walked in and sat in the chair that was next to me like he always did. He waved away the copper guy who looked at Kevin with a hard stare and I thought that maybe Lyle was going to say something to make him go away but he didn't and the coper nodded and turned and I saw out the corner of my eye that he stood by the doo with another guy who I assume was his partner.
"Any changes this week" Lyle asked. I shook my head.
"Nope." I told him. My mind flicked back to my nightmare and I thought about saying something to him but I didn't even know if it meant anything. He made a sound and looked at Harley. Her chest rose softly and evenly.
"Do you think she will ever wake up?" he asked me softly. I looked at him a little startled.
"I have hope that she will, sure." I told him. "Maybe she will soon. I had the weirdest dream last night." I blurted. I glanced at him and tried not to stare at him while I waited for his reaction. He didn't say anything at first but then he made a small sound that sounded like a laughed and a huff all at the same time.
"You sound like Harley." He said. This made me smile.
"Yeah, I guess I do." I muttered.
"Tell me what it was about." He said to me without looking at me. It was now that I noticed that he very rarely looked at me or even made eye contact with me.
"Well, at first it started off black and then I saw lights and they swirled around me like fire flies I guess. Then they began to grow in size and as they grew pictures of before I was in prison started to play out. It was all the times that I saw Harley when I was working for you. But then it changed and the image began to fly around me. The span and flew faster and faster. I could feel my heart racing and I guess I started to panic and then I woke up. I remember thinking that I thought this is what must be what Harley thought when she had a vision." I fell silent and Lyle didn't say anything at first and then he took a deep breath in.
"I think Harley is trying to show you what she is seeing" He told me. This startled me a little. I wanted to believe that this was true but I also knew that it couldn't be true.
"I don't see how." I muttered.
"I have always known her gift is something you couldn't bottle but in trying to understand it better I lost track of what I initially set out to do. When her mother died, she told me to look after her, to protect her and help her live her life to the fullest without being scared of it. I tried my best to do this and for the most part, I succeeded but one day, she said to me, and I doubt she remembers it but she told me that she told her friend that should could see things, even though she promised us she would never do that nd she said to me. 'Daddy, why am I such a freak, why do I see things that others don't?' she must have been at least seven and it broke my heart that she asked me this and so in the beginning I wanted to know what it was all about to see if I could help her but then things changed and she took control of her life, I had become redundant I guess." He told me. I listened intently taking in everything that he told me.
"That is no excuse." I replied.
"I know but I feel like I have to tell you why I did what I did and why I did it. I need you to know that I had honourable intentions, at the beginning at least." He said.
"You could have told me thing months ago, so why now?" I asked. Lyle was silent for a few minutes and then he looked at me and actually smiled at me.
"Because you needed to know that she can handle herself and that she has more control over her gift than she knows. You saw what you saw for a reason. She is still in this state for a reason and she will wake up in her own time. You just need patience." I held Lyle's gaze and I heard the constant beeping change as if agreeing with him, it almost stuttered before returning to its steady tune.
I didn't say anything after that but after an hour of silence Lyle touch my shoulder and I startled.
"She will wake up. If you can't trust me, trust that she is doing everything in her power to come back to you." he walked out the room and I watched him walked between the two coppers. I turned back to Harley and I took hold of her hand bringing it to my lips.
"Wake up Kitten. I need you." I whispered.
Harley's POV
My knees pulled against my chest and my arms pulled as close to me as I could. I looked around me. Again there was nothing but the white room. There was no doors. No windows. No voices. Just relentless white. It was the same every time I was conscious. I would wake up in the foetal position, gear myself up to fight the state that was obviously brought on by my own mind, and then the bombardment of images would come at me and then I would black out. I had lost count of how many times I had suffered the same scenario over and over again. It was now that I just lay there, letting the void fill me, taking every ounce of fight I had left and washed it away.
Wake up Kitten. I need you.
The words floated around me but I let them drift away. There were no words here. It was just emptiness that surrounded me. I would remain here for the rest of time.
I need you
The words swirled around me again. I scrunched my eyes closed and tried to let the words drift off but again they moved around me and I pulled myself tighter into a ball.
I wouldn't allow this room to tease me. I am destined to be here.
Wake up
I held back a shout. It was pointless. Why fight something that is inevitable?
Fight this Chicken
My head shot up in recognition. No! I mentally shouted. You can't do this to me. I told the room. You can't fool me. Kevin isn't here. I shuffled to my feet and stood looking around. I jumped and pulled my hand towards me. Looking at my hand I realised there was nothing there but then the touch was so real. It felt like the touch of a thumb rubbing over my palm.
"What do you want from me?" I screamed to the room. "For me to give up? Because I have." I told it. The room didn't respond. I screamed and ran to a wall and wacked it a few times screaming as I did. I left my mind drift to everything the room had wanted me to see. The times in the past. The times Kevin and I had sent together before I forgot. It still repulsed me that I was weak enough to let this get to me and to let my mind build a barrier against it.
Fight….
I looked behind me. The voice so clear it was almost behind me. I startled and images flooded my mind. I blinked and stumbled against the wall. I leant there and held my head stabling myself. I took a few deep breaths and looked up. Opposite me there was a door. It was new. I blinked in surprise. Was I fooling myself when I told myself that the voice was in my head? Was it really? Was Kevin calling me? I took a small step forward, keeping my hands on the wall. Could I trust my mind, could I trust this room to lead me the right way?
Please baby, wake up.
Before I knew it my feet were carrying across the room, which must have grown. I had walked this room a million times before and it had only taken 10 steps to get across, I was now running full speed to the get to the other side. I reached my arm out and I crashed through the door before my mind had time to process it.
Kevin's POV
The room was dark and the constant bleeping sounded like normal. My hand intertwined with Harley's was warm and comfortable. My arms were crossed and my head lay on top of my arms. I sighed as I watched her chest rise and fall gently.
I had fallen into this habit where every day I would talk to her, try and get through to her, plead with her to wake up. I didn't even know if she could hear me but I tried every night.
The hospital was quiet and the nurses had already been around for last checks before all was shut down for the night.
I could feel sleep pulling me under. My eyes drifted shut but my mind was very aware of what was going on around me. I resisted the pulled darkness I didn't need another dream they had haunted me every night since Lyle had last come. It was almost a week since he had last visited and every night I would get images of images in a dark room or a light room I still didn't know what it meant and I still know what to do about it.
The steady beeping drifted away and became quiet.
"Please babe, come back to me." I pleaded softly before I let sleep take over me. Darkness surrounded my almost instantly and I knew I wasn't dreaming yet. I think I was to tired to even think about dreaming.
I noticed the sound almost instantly. It was like the beeping in the room and I almost thought that I spent way too much time sat next to her but I ignored it until it was loud enough to shock me awake. I looked around bleary eyed and still a little slow. I looked at the monitor and blinked a few times. My brain took its time to register how fast the bleeping was going. I looked at the Heart Rate count. It read 140 and rising. Was she running? No she couldn't be. And then the bleeping changed it beeped irrationally. There was no pattern or normality to it and I tried not to panic as I got to my feet and leaned on the bed. I eyes Harley carefully as her breathing became erratic and raggedly quick
"Fight baby" I urged hoping it would help. Her heart rate reached 150, overly dangerous levels for being laid her for such a long time I reached out for the help button but just as I looked away something grabbed my arm.
I looked behind me startled. Harley's hand was wrapped around my arm that was closest her. My eyes slowly travelled up her arm daring to tempt fate that she might be awake. I stopped breathing when I saw her my mind stopped and geared into over drive as it recognised the amazing green orbs that stared back at me. I collapsed back in to my chair and just stared at her. I took everything her eyes were willing to give. Relief flooded through me but I couldn't work out how to kick my brain into gear to say anything. She just stared at me and I stared back.
"Kitten…" I started. She smiles and shook her head letting me know I didn't have to say anything. She opened her mouth to say something but it came out a ragged whisper and it was more like a jumble of sounds the actual words. I grabbed her hand and shook my head. "Don't speak." I told her. "You are awake. That is all that matters" She nodded and she tugged at my Armand began sitting up as I moved to wards her. Our lips collided in a mess of hot passion and need and want. There were no words to describe how amazing it felt and how I felt that she was awake. I was complete. We were finally free. We would be happy. I would make sure if it.
The End
AN And so that is the end. I am contemplating an epilogue I feel like I have at least a Shirley epilogue in me but I don't know... what do you think? Let me know.
i am sorry for any mistakes you might find I half write this on my phone which I hate doing and my laptop is not behaving. I will sort it when I sort my laptop out
enjoy in in the mean time