Chapter Seventeen – “It’s high time you woke up, don’t you think?”

Jamie felt like she couldn’t breathe as she watched Aaron flickering in front of her and then disappearing. Her hand reached out and met with air as Aaron completely disappeared from view. She heaved in a desperate shaky breath and got up to her feet, closing her eyes and imagining herself back in Kelechi’s house.

She appeared in the sitting room with the signature loud crack and Richard was instantly rushing to her and wrapping her in his arms, “Oh goddess, I was so worried!” he said softly, holding her tightly.

Jamie hugged him back even tighter, inhaling his scent, her heart racing in her chest.

I promise I’ll find you.

Aaron’s words echoed in her head but she didn’t let Richard go. She was scared. She couldn’t leave the man that had brought her up for the past five years. But the more she thought about home – her real home – the more clearly it seemed to come. She could hear her mother’s laughter, her dad’s jokes and her big brother being the over protective soul that he was.

She choked on a soft sob. She had a big brother.

She couldn’t help herself as more memories kept hitting her, the time Brandon broke his arm when he was eleven and she had to laugh because he was being funny about it, the time she fell off her bicycle when Brandon was teaching her how to ride when she was six – her mum getting promoted and them sharing a luxury by going out to dinner together, dad getting promoted so they were able to move from the slumps and into the city. The soft chorus of the happy birthday song in the wee hours of the morning as she, Brandon and her mum snuck into her dad’s room unsuspecting to surprise him – the handmade birthday cards, her drawings and passion to become a fashion designer just like her mother.

God, she missed them.

The only thing holding her back now was the fear. The accident with her mother was hazy in her mind but it was still real. There was no way her mother could have survived – it was a head on collision and besides, she’d heard the doctors.

But her dad, Brandon – they needed her back at home. Aaron was right, she was only dead if she disappeared from Aethereus – the fact that she was still here only meant that back on earth she was in a comatose state.

“Jamie,” Richard whispered.

The finality in his voice made her cringe and hold on to him tighter, burying her face in his neck.

“Aaron’s gone, isn’t he?” Nicholas asked softly from the other side of the room.

She nodded into Richard’s chest and finally, the tears burst free from the dam, soaking into Richard’s shirt.

Richard stroked her hair silently, “Jamie, it’s time.”

“No, I can’t –”

“This isn’t the Jamie I know. The Jamie I know has a motto. Do you want to know what her motto is?”

She sniffed, “what?”

“I can.”

“It’s high time you woke up, don’t you think?” Kelechi said with a soft chuckle and Jamie pulled back from her adopted father’s embrace, staring into his face. His ears twitched at her perusal and she couldn’t help a watery giggle.

“Nice ears,” she said but it came out on a sob.

Richard’s jaw clenched and Jamie knew he was trying to be strong for her and that just made everything better and worse at the same time.

He kissed her forehead and stroked his hands through her curls, “you’re strong Jamie and whoever is at home needs you. You know they do. I’m sure they miss you terribly.”

Jamie licked her lips, pulling one hand up to wipe the tears away from her eyes and cheeks, “Will you be okay?”

Richard looked up and Jamie saw that he was giving Nicholas a soft smile. The Fay smiled back, a soft blush tinting his cheeks.

“Yeah, I think I’ll be quite fine.”

Jamie grinned, “Than I think I’m ready.”

Richard nodded at her. She pulled away from him, gazing at each of them in turn. Her mind was stuck on Aaron, his voice, his promise echoing in her head. She looked at Richard, at the man she loved to the depths of her soul and told herself; he’ll be okay, Jamie.

That thought was enough for her and she finally let him go. The room blurred around the edges and began to glow, taking on a surreal quality. It suddenly felt like she’d just had the longest dream in her life.

The last thing she saw was Nicholas walking up to hug Richard from behind and Richard leaning up to plant a kiss on his lips.

That made her smile, content.

*

The Central Hospital,

Bridgeford,

England.

9:06 P.M.

-

“Just the noodle soup please,” Charlotte Nichols said to the Chinese man behind the counter. He nodded at her and gave her a ticket with her number order on it and then she walked into the restaurant and took a seat to wait for her order. Licking her lips, she brought out her phone and dialled her husband’s number.

“Sweetheart,” he answered on the second ring, “how are you?”

“I’m okay,” she replied softly, her eyes watching the random people going in and out of the restaurant, “I’m just ordering a takeaway at the little Chinese restaurant beside the hospital. How are the twins and Katherine? Have you guys had dinner?”

“They’re doing okay and yes, we’ve had dinner. I just forced Alex and Lizzy to bed though. Katherine’s on the phone with her boyfriend downstairs. I’m sure she’ll occupy herself with some TV when she’s done,” he managed a soft chuckle, “How about your side? Any news?”

Charlotte sighed tiredly, rubbing the bridge of her nose, “No,” she heaved in a sigh, “no news. He hasn’t changed at all. He shows all good, healthy signs, no signs of diseases or anything – he’s just…yeah.”

There was a brief silence and the sound of Edward moving around in the house, “Are you sure you want to spend the night there again? It’s been nearly two weeks, honey.”

“I’m going to stay for as long as I have to,” Charlotte replied.

She knew her staying here was causing a strain on the family but she couldn’t leave Aaron alone. She didn’t want him to be alone and confused when he woke up. She wanted to be there for her baby boy. Charlotte was taking advantage of the fact that her twenty-three year old daughter was at home or this would never have worked – she had two five year olds to take care of. She was also grateful that it was the holidays and she only wished that Aaron would soon snap out of his comatose state.

Edward sighed again, “Well, I’ll be retiring now, okay? Call me if anything changes.”

“I will.”

The call ended with a click and she sat back against her chair, watching the people dining in the restaurant, wondering how many of them came from the hospital like her, waiting for their loved ones in a surgery or something.

“Number 35!”

Charlotte glanced at her ticket and saw that it was her order. She got up and thanked the man, holding the chicken noodle soup close to her chest as she left the place. She was already a regular customer at the little restaurant because she hadn’t left the hospital.

The night was cold and she hugged her scarf to her chest, cradling the soup for warmth. The doctors at first had refused to let her stay beyond visiting hours but one of the nurses had informed her of a new overnight policy the hospital was practicing. She only had to register with the counter if she was staying the night and they would give her a badge and registration number. The hospital was locked tight at night. Of course, this only applied if a member of your family was critically ill.

Charlotte knew she couldn’t keep doing this forever but she wasn’t ready to let go – not yet. She couldn’t bear that thought that Aaron would never wake up again.

That’s what the doctors had said. She didn’t tell Edward because he was stressed enough at work and with the family as it already was. The doctors had said because Aaron’s condition was a rarity, they couldn’t predict anything about the future. He could wake up any minute or remain like that for another month or even years. In a desperate attempt to console herself, she’d had to research on how long people stay in comas and was rewarded with a search that said the longest coma was a man and it was for nineteen years.  The man went comatose when he was twenty-one and woke up when he was forty-two.

She didn’t know if she was supposed to be glad about that or terrified.

When she reached the reception, the nurse that had helped her spotted her and smiled softly, “the hospital will be closing in about forty minutes but if you want to just take a peep at him, that would be fine.”

“I’d like that, thank you.”

The woman beamed at her and led her to Aaron’s room since Charlotte had already registered for the night, her badge pinned to her blouse. Although some visitors were allowed to stay overnight, they weren’t allowed to stay with the patients. They either spent the night in spare rooms or the waiting room.

When she got to the room, the lights were off as usual, the only source of lights coming from the opened curtains outside. The doctors didn’t want too much radiation affecting his body so his lights were left off most of the time.

He was still in the bed, breathing softly, a few tubes attached to his arm which were feeding him liquefied nutrients to keep him healthy.

“I’ll be a minute,” Charlotte said to the nurse and she nodded before leaving the room. Charlotte walked into the room and sat on the bed next to Aaron’s, watching him sleeping so peacefully and just waiting for him to wake up.

And of course he didn’t. She decided to finish up her meal here and then she was going to turn in for the night.

“The twins are the only positive ones here,” she began talking to him like she’d done for the past two weeks as she popped open the small plastic bowl of soup, “they see you sleeping and they say you’re going to wake up and damn, Lord knows do I fucking need their enthusiasm.”

A soft cracked laugh reached her ears and Charlotte froze for a second before looking up, nearly dropping the bowl of soup as pale green eyes met with hers.

“It’s really unlike you to curse in front of your children,” Aaron mumbled, his voice scratchy and Charlotte was instantly in his bed, crushing him in a hug, her soup carelessly planted on the bedside table.

Aaron felt his eyes get hot and he clenched them tightly shut to keep the tears from spilling as his mother hugged the life out of him.

“Oh my God,” she whispered into his neck, “Oh my God.”

Aaron couldn’t even respond, burying his face in his mother’s neck and inhaling the familiar scent of her lilac perfume. God, he’d missed her.

“I-I need to call the nurse,” she was saying but she started crying so hard that Aaron couldn’t hold his own tears back.

“Mum, please stop crying,” he sobbed, managing to lift his arms and wrap them around her, hugging her as tightly as his weak muscles could let him. His body felt heavy and weak, probably from him being inactive for a long time.

Charlotte pulled back and stared at him, her light blue eyes wide with disbelief, like Aaron really wasn’t awake and in her arms right now.

“No, you’re not dreaming,” he whispered but God, he felt so dizzy and weak and just wanted to lie back down on the bed.

Just then, the nurse returned, “Mrs Nichols? Oh, oh…” and then she was rushing into the room and yelling for the doctor.

“Don’t go back to sleep,” Charlotte whispered desperately as the several nurses rushed in and forced her out of the room.

I won’t, he mouthed back at her and she took peace in his response, moving to the waiting area to pace. She waited for the doctor’s verdict and that happened a good while later, when she’d nearly run a track into the floor with her pacing.

The doctor came up to her with a smile on his face, flipping through papers on his clipboard.

“Well?” she asked impatiently.

“Well,” the doctor beamed, “he’s fully awake and functional. His vitals are good, nothing’s damaged. It’s just like he’s been asleep for the past two weeks. And I know this is sort of a contradiction, but he needs his rest, real rest now. He’ll be awake and refreshed tomorrow morning and then you can talk to him. We’ll still need to keep him for until at least the afternoon to make sure it’s all okay before he can go home.”

“Oh thank you,” Charlotte replied, biting her lip to stop from crying with relief, “oh God, thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome, Mrs Nichols. You have a good night.”

The man nodded at her, smiling before another nurse was rushing up to him and he was called off for another emergency. Charlotte was tempted to go to Aaron’s room but she knew she had to go by the doctor’s orders. She didn’t want to stress her son any more than he already was.

When she got to the waiting room, she called Edward to tell him the good news.

*

St. Bane’s Teaching Hospital,

California,

United States.

4:26 P.M.

-

Magdalene Nathan was reclined in the hospital bed beside her daughter’s, reading a novel and humming under her breath. It was a hot late afternoon and the windows were open. The doctors had said they didn’t want to interfere with whatever was going on with Jamie, so they didn’t let her bring in a portable fan or switch on the A.C.

Basically, they didn’t want to interfere with her condition at all, so the noise was kept to a minimum and visits were kept short.

Magdalene was the only one the doctors allowed to stay over time and even if they had told her to leave, she wouldn’t have budged. Her daughter had very nearly died according to the reports. It was strange, they’d said, she’d seemed okay, just a few scratches from the car accident but the doctors had said her heart had picked up speed and then suddenly slowed down so fast but at the moment they thought she was going to give up, the steady beat remained – still slow but it was there and that was all Magdalene needed to stay in the hospital.

Magdalene shook her head to clear the thoughts – a lot had happened in the five years that Jamie had been in a coma. The first year was absolutely horrid but after that, the family had learned to cope with things. Jamie’s condition was stable – she wasn’t unhealthy or sick, she wasn’t lacking blood and her brain wasn’t fried – the doctors said it was as if she was merely asleep.

Magdalene was sure the doctors themselves were asleep or at least on some sort of drug because the girl lying peacefully in the bed next to hers with tubes attached to her body was not asleep. How could someone sleep for five years? She was convinced that maybe Jamie hit her head or something during the accident and the stupid doctors didn’t spot it and that was why she was presently in a coma.

“Hey mum.”

She looked up from her book and noticed her eldest child, Brandon coming into the hospital with several balloons.

“How on earth did you even sneak those in here?” she giggled as she got up from the bed she was in, limping just a bit on her prosthetic legs as she made her way to help Brandon with the balloons.

They did this every year on Jamie’s birthday and even though she couldn’t hear them or was even aware of what was going on, it was a tradition and they weren’t going to stop it.

“Where’s your father?”

“He actually got Jamie a laptop and a cake this time, mum, I swear he’s going to buy a house next,” Brandon mumbled with a roll of his eyes and Magdalene laughed, reaching up a hand to tap him playfully on the shoulder.

“Don’t mock your father, young man.”

“Yes, don’t mock me,” George Nathan said as he entered the room, holding the presents to his chest.

The first few times they had done this, the doctors had been unwilling to let them in, saying it might affect Jamie’s condition but Magdalene wouldn’t budge so they let them do it as long as they caused as little disturbance as possible.

As usual, Brandon let the balloons float randomly around the room, while they gathered at the foot of Jamie’s bed. George quickly placed the presents on the spare bed in the room before joining his family.

They prayed first and then began to softly sing happy birthday so as not to disturb Jamie.

It was that moment that Jamie woke up. She blinked a bit, the room white and hazy before it all suddenly became clear. The first things to meet her sight were the numerous colourful balloons floating against the ceiling of the room, most of them having words like ‘birthday girl’ and ‘happy birthday’ and ‘seventeen.’

It was her birthday? She felt like crying. She never celebrated her birthday with Richard before – they’d just placed it on the first day of the winter solstice because Jamie loved the snow so it felt more like a holiday than a birthday. She hadn’t really cared then but now, the sight of the balloons made her throat feel clogged.

The sound of the birthday song reached her ears and she managed to glance down at the foot of her bed where the noise was coming from. Her eyes grew impossibly wide.

“Mum?” she slurred, her voice coming out heavy because her tongue felt like lead.

The birthday song immediately stopped half-way and Magdalene looked like she’d just seen a ghost.

“Brandon get the doctor!” George hissed, rushing quickly to his daughter’s side, “Jamie, sweetheart, oh…oh God. Oh thank you Jesus. Oh Lord. This is amazing.”

Magdalene was still standing stock still at the foot of the bed, staring at her daughter with blurry eyes.

Everything happened in a rush after that. The doctor and nurses piled into the room and the family was forced out while they took a look at Jamie. The three members of the family sat in the waiting room, clutching their hands tightly together and praying silently that Jamie was okay.

The second the doctor reappeared, they were on their feet, eyeing him expectantly.

“I have to say that this is the strangest incident we have ever seen.”

“What exactly does that mean?” George began, just a touch of harshness to his voice.

Magdalene gently rubbed his arm and said in a stern tone, “George.”

The doctor smiled despite this, “she’s showing positive signs – her vitals are good, her heart rate is steady and all in all, I’ll say she’s more than ready to leave. It’s like she’s only been asleep for the past five years. We’ll still need to keep her for a while though just to keep an eye on things and make sure she’s really okay before giving you the O.K. to take her home.”

Magdalene suddenly lost the weight in her legs and George and Brandon had to catch her or she would have fallen to the floor in a dead faint.

“Can we see her?” George asked carefully.

“I’m afraid not,” the doctor replied apologetically, “It’s hard to believe but even though she’s just waking up, her body is still lethargic and she’s really tired. She’ll be more than refreshed in a few hours. You can stay the night if you need to and be here in the morning when she wakes up. Is that okay?”

“Are you sure she’s going to be okay tomorrow?” Magdalene asked, sounding only just a little bit worried.

“She’ll be fine,” the doctor reassured her, “you get some rest now.”

The doctor left them and George and Brandon led Magdalene to a couch to sit.

“Oh my God, I can’t believe this is happening,” Magdalene whispered, “five years we’ve waited and it’s finally happened and I can’t even handle it.”

They all laughed, huddling close together and silently thanking whatever deity that was up there that brought their daughter back to them.

*

Aaron couldn’t believe that he was back home on earth.

Being in the hospital felt really weird and strange and he didn’t like the feeling. He hated the smell of the medicine and the sound of the heater as it worked in his room. He was glad for it though, because he was warm at least. The lights were off and he breathed calmly, staring out of the window at the dark sky, unable to hear the sounds of the night because his window was shut. The tubes attached to his arm were gone but the heart monitor was still connected and he was given an alarm in case he had any difficulties during the night.

The doctors had told him that his mother would be in the waiting room and his family would be in to see him first thing in the morning after a small check-up. He was anxious to see them as soon as possible. He’d missed them all so much. He was supposed to be sleeping but the excitement and anxiousness of being back on earth kept him wide awake – there was also the lingering fear that if he went to sleep he was going to be back in Aethereus and it was going to be a huge mess.

As time passed though, Aethereus felt like more and more of a dream, the sense of reality that came with it quickly fading. He wondered if it was all a big dream and if Aethereus even existed in the first place.  

Something throbbed on his ring finger and he clenched his fist, rubbing his thumb over the spot. His thumb met with something rough and he brought his hand up, eyes widening and heartbeat quickening at the sight of the ring made out of entwined leaves, still on his ring finger.

The presence of the ring told him all he needed to know; Aethereus was real and so was his adventure there. Now that his life wasn’t in danger anymore, he could truly appreciate the time he’d had there.

His heart sort of squeezed in his chest as he thought about Jamie, wondering where she was. He should have asked her where on earth she lived before disappearing but it was too late now. She could be anywhere on the surface of the earth, so just how on earth was he going to find her? 

But he’d promised to find her and he didn't know how he was going to do that exactly, but find her he will.

*~*~*

A/N: One more chapter left  

P.S. With 80,580 words as of this chapter, I've met and beat my 80,000 word goal for NaNoWriMo T_T *pops champagne* To the few of you who encouraged me, thank you so very much. I really truly appreciate it and it's been a truly wonderful ride. 

The last chapter will be up in a couple hours! <3