Critical

[Random NPC]

OOC: follows the events here which follow the events there

NPC status: Doctor Sterling

: Doctor Sterling strode from the operating room and headed for the waiting room. It had been a long day and now he had to bring news to the people waiting to hear how their friend was doing.

A six hour operation to repair all the damage from that fight - the stomach wound had been quite serious, and had taken the longest time to repair. Twice she nearly coded on the table and twice they managed to keep that from happening.

He glanced about the room and caught Sky's eye. 'Okay, time to break the news to her husband,' he thought, not knowing that the two weren't married. "I'm Doctor Sterling, the surgeon who operated on your wife. She's out of surgery, but her condition is still very critical. The wound to her stomach was quite severe. She'll require plenty of bed rest once she's released from the hospital."

OOC: tag Sky, Helia, Brandon, Riven, Flora, Stella, Layla, Rashiel, Tash (and Chris, duh)

[Layla]

Glancing around at the faces of her concerned friends, Layla wordlessly let herself fall into the backdrop as the others proceeded to bombard the doctor with questions about Christine's condition, feeling more than slightly out of place. It wasn't that she didn't care about the girl's well-being; it was just that her only connection to Christine was through Sky - a person who everyone knew she was not on close terms with. That definitely had the tendency of making things . . . awkward. Still, Layla was glad to be at the hospital and more than glad to offer up whatever comfort she could give to her other friends who were more deeply affected by Christine's injury. Like Riven, for instance. Sympathetically, Layla glanced over at the specialist, who, at the moment, was standing with his arms crossed tightly over his chest and his face tight with concern, and offered him what she hoped was a comforting smile.

[Random NPC]

: "She is allowed visitors, but one at a time," Doctor Sterling continued to tell Sky. "And allow her to rest a bit between visitors. She.. nearly died twice during the surgery, hence her still rather critical condition. If she can make it through the night without major complication, then she has a good shot of making it."

[Demeter]

Flora glanced over at Helia and gave him a brief hug, trying to comfort the artistic specialist. It had to be tough to be a hero and be unable to help one of your own. She tugged his hand. "C'mon, let's go get coffee and tea for the group," she said quietly. It was the only way she thought she could be helpful.

[Chris Strongheart]

~meanwhile in the hospital room~

Christine stirred and glanced about the room. The white walls alerted her to exactly where she was and she glanced up and over. Two IV bags, one with blood, the other with fluid, hung near by. Her left hand reached up and touched the tubing for the oxygen. She gave a soft groan, and hoped that the fluid in the bag was a very strong pain killer. She had a feeling she was going to need on when Sky actually entered the room. She just had this feeling that he was going to be more then a smidge angry with her for doing something he'd think as stupid - risk her life like that.

Maybe she'd be lucky and he'd just be grateful she was alive and not worry about the fact that she fought to protect him. At least Wolf was gone for now - having found that she wasn't going to give him the answer to his question. Sky was safe for now. She could sleep easy now. Worry about how Sky would react later, right now, sleep was important.

Her stomach didn't hurt as badly now, but there was still some tenderness there. She supposed she should be grateful that Wolf hadn't torn her stomach out like he had threatened during their fight. Still... she was sore and probably going to be that way for a while. Well, there was tons of bookwork to catch up on and she could have Sky tutor her when she recovered enough to actually attend the strenuous activities again - like dragon wrangling.

She closed her eyes partway before she heard someone enter the room. She opened her eyes again and licked her lips a bit, wetting them. "Hey," she whispered softly.

[Sky]

Standing in the doorway of Christine's hospital room, Sky remained silent for a moment as he absorbed the sight of her lying in the bed, with what seemed like a million tubes connected to her body. Guiltily, he knew that Christine had fought for him - and that because of it, this was the result. She was in bad shape, and it was all because of him. Closing his eyes briefly, Sky felt a wave of nausea overtake him; this should never have happened to her. If anyone should be in that hospital bed right now, it was him.

Opening his eyes, Sky slowly walked closer to Christine's bed. But he couldn't think of what ifs right now - right now he had to be strong. He couldn't let Christine know just how badly off she was; he couldn't let her see him worried or afraid. No. No, he had to be strong. For her.

With a smile, Sky carefully masked his concern and said lightly, "You gave us a real scare there, Chris; I'm glad that you pulled through. Not that I didn't think you would - everyone knows that you're a fighter."

[Chris Strongheart]

Christine gave him a soft, tired smile. "I did good, huh, Sky? I kept him from finding you for a little while longer. Gave him a good fight." She reached up and took one of his hands. "Just promise me that you won't go after him." She squeezed it tightly. "Promise me. He's vicious."

[Sky]

Sky paused for a moment before he nodded hesitantly. "All right. I promise. But you had better promise that you won't go after him either. You don't have any business messing around with Wolf, you understand? I'm dead serious - don't you dare go near him again -" Hearing a noise at the door, Sky glanced over his shoulder and sighed when he saw Riven. Turning back to Christine, he smiled faintly as he said, "I think the others want to see you, but I'm guessing that the doctor only wants you to have one visitor at a time, so I'll go ahead and step outside and give everyone else their chance to see how you're doing." Giving Christine's hand a quick squeeze, Sky turned and walked back out into the hallway.

[Chris Strongheart]

Christine nodded to Sky and mouthed a silent "I promise". She gave Riven a soft smile. "Hey," she whispered quietly. "Sorry to have given you a scare."

[Riven]

As Sky exited into the hallway, Riven stepped inside the room, his hands shoved awkwardly into the front pockets of his pants. Not entirely certain what to say to Christine, Riven walked over to the window and glanced outside. Stalling for time, he said with a cough, "Uh . . . nice view you've got here." Realizing how stupid that sounded, he sighed heavily as he turned to look back at Christine. Deciding that it was best to not beat around the bush, Riven said bluntly, "Look, you and I both know that I'm not good at this kind of thing. I never know what to say, although I'm guessing it should be something sappy - which I don't do." Crossing the room, Riven lowered himself into the chair by Christine's bed and continued, "But I think you know by now that, you know, I care about you and all and that I'm glad that you didn't go and get yourself killed."

[Chris Strongheart]

Christine gave Riven a small smile. "sorry to have worried you like that," she said quietly. "But," she winced a bit. "Now you know that I'm not a weak fairy princess," she said lightly. She closed her eyes for a moment. "Of course, my fighting skills need a bit of work. Especially at close quarters like that."

Her blue eyes took on a serious glow. "Riven, I know Sky promised he wouldn't go after the man who did this to me. But, I want you to promise me that you'll make sure Sky keeps his word."

[Riven]

Riven gave a sharp laugh at this as he asked with raised brows, "You think the honorable Prince Sky would go back on his word?" Grinning, he added, "I don't blame you." As the smile faded from his face, Riven said in a more serious tone, "I really don't blame you - Sky . . . Sky can be stupid. When something like this happens to someone he cares about, he can lose his head and that's always dangerous. I don't doubt for a moment that he'll act without thinking about the consequences - which could be potentially disastrous in this case, I suppose." Giving Christine a thin smile, Riven nodded as he said, "But I'll make sure that he keeps his cool - I'll keep him out of trouble."

[Chris Strongheart]

She gave him a faint smile in return. "Thanks," she said quietly. "Wolf, the man who did this. He wants Sky. Said something about Sky having dues to pay to the pack. I don't know what that means, but from what I could tell, it's something serious." She shook her head.

"But enough about that. What am I missing in our classes? I'm falling so far behind.."

[Riven]

Riven waved his hand dismissively. "Nonsense. You're not falling behind at all - well, maybe by your standards you are, but in comparison to most of our fellow classmates, you're still way ahead of them in your studies. You've got nothing to worry about so relax already, okay?"

[Chris Strongheart]

Christine gave him a wry grin. "Okay, I'll relax, for a bit. But you know, the minute I get back to school, I'm going to ask for massive amounts of tutoring from you and Sky. Only because you two are some of the top students. Besides, there's no one better then you when it comes to dragon wrangling... which, quite frankly, is my weak point."

She started to laugh before wincing. "Okay, note to self. Don't laugh."