CHAPTER 8

“Liam, go home. You need to get some rest,” Owen McCord said.

“No. I’m not leaving,” Liam replied stubbornly.

The voices were muted, they seemed nearby, but perhaps behind a wall or outside a door somewhere. Dawn wondered how long she would exist here, in this in between place that wasn’t quite life and wasn’t quite death. For a while, there had been nothing at all, and now there were voices again. What was happening. What did it mean?

There was another voice now. She didn’t recognize it, but she could hear him speaking, possibly to Liam and her father. What was he saying? She couldn’t quite make it out. Struggling to pull herself up from this place she had fallen into, she tried to really listen to what was being said. He was closer now. It took a moment to realize he was now speaking to her.

“Dawn? Are you awake? Can you hear me? Squeeze my hand if you can hear me.”

She tried to focus, to will her body to do as he asked. She imagined herself squeezing his hand with hers though she couldn’t feel it. Both hands tightened around the imagined appendages her mind conjured. She heard a loud gasp and quiet sobbing. Her mother. That was her mother. What was this?

“Good girl. Listen to me, Dawn. You have had a little bit of a problem, but we have fixed it. Your head is wrapped, and you have some tubes and needles poking about. You should be coming around once the anesthesia finishes wearing off, so I don’t want you to be alarmed by any of this. It will all come out once you are awake and doing things on your own.”

“What happened to me?” her mind screamed, but there was no response. “Liam? Liam?”

No answer. Dawn was afraid. Perhaps the only thing worse than being dead was being normal. She couldn’t communicate with her mind. She couldn’t read anyone’s thoughts. What else couldn’t she do?

“Thank you, doctor,” her father was saying.

“I’d like to have a few words with you and your wife outside,” the doctor told him.

There was the sound of a door opening and footsteps, followed by the door closing behind them. Dawn lay in her darkness, feeling lost and afraid. She had never been afraid of anything, but now fear was the only thing she could feel. Her head was hurting again, not as bad as before, but hurting still. It lasted for a few minutes, and then a warmth seemed to wash over her, sending her spiraling down into the darkness again.

“Dawn? Are you awake?”

The words barely registered. It felt as if she was climbing through mud that had fallen on top of her, pushing her downward into this horrible place. She tried to swim through it, struggling to rise toward the sound of his voice. Liam. It was Liam. His voice grew clearer as she pushed the sludge aside bit by bit until she seemed to be able to breathe above it.

“Dawn? Please wake up. I miss you. I need you to come back to me,” Liam was saying.

Slowly, she realized that she wasn’t hearing the words with her ears. She could feel him again. Her mind could reach out to him again. Her heart raced in her chest. Now, she could hear sounds, this time with her ears. There were beeping noises around her. They increased with her excitement. Machines. There were machines attached to her.

“Liam? Liam? Can you hear me? Liam?”

“Yes! I hear you!” his mind responded.

“Liam, I’m scared. What is wrong with me? Where am I?”

“You are my house. Well, in the hospital beneath the council floors. You are hooked up to some machines, but you are doing better and the doctor says they will take them off once you are in the clear.”

“In the clear from what? What happened to me?”

“You had some sort of brain hemorrhage. Blood was leaking into your brain from a ruptured vein.”

Dawn was quiet for a moment, absorbing this. How could that have happened? She had been fine. She had felt fine. Then, she was like this.

“Will I be okay now?”

“Yes. You will be perfect.”

Dawn felt her entire body relax. She felt so relieved, even more by the fact that she could actually feel her body now. Her head still ached a bit and she felt stiff, but that was probably from just being stuck here in bed and whatever operation they had done to fix her head. A horrible thought struck her.

“No, Dawn. You look just fine. You do not look like a monster. I’ve been brushing your hair for you so it wouldn’t be messy.”

“You brushed my hair?” she said, feeling overwhelmed with emotion suddenly.

“Of course I did. I love you, Dawn. I have always loved you, and I always will. I was so afraid I would lose you.”

Dawn could feel his angst, his pain at the thought of being separated from her. She could feel his fear. It was heartbreaking.

“I love you, too.”

“I know. Now, get better so that we can get out of here. This place is depressing.”

Dawn felt happy. She wasn’t dead, and Liam loved her. Perhaps she had always known that, but she had never been sure that he had.

“You are a ridiculous turd.”

That was her. Liam’s ridiculous turd. It wasn’t exactly a romantic notion, but it was good enough for her.